European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 29, 1948, Darmstadt, Hesse Will we have a dark horse president. Continued Pom Page 5 ,. In. Force for. Democratic convention until Franklin Roosevelt forced it out in 1936. Cass was second and Johnson third. The convention remained knotted up until the party leaders settled on Polk. Polk had been a member of the House of representatives then speaker of the House and finally governor of Tennessee. He had hoped to get the vice presidential nomination. But once he had been singled put As Compromise candidate the whole convention wheeled into line and his nomination was went on to win the election and although his name is not on school children s lips he was one of the strongest presidents in history and the Only one who Ever. Achieved All his goals while in the White House. A party s selection of a dark horse bears All the. Signs of a Choice dictated by spontaneous popular demand. Oil the surface Wendell Willkie s nomination in 1940came straight from the e grass roots of the convention. There Are still plenty of people who remember the rhythmic stamping of the feet and the steady chant from the galleries of want will Kiel and the voice from the radio puerto re eco. Eight votes for Wendell we Ellie " in truth Willkie s Nomina Tion was planned months ahead by Ama. Tours who turned out to be a lot shrewder than the professionals. It was they who planned the spontaneous shouts of we want Willkie in much the same Way that press agents planted squealing girls in Sinatra audiences. Willkie s Campaign was directed Bya Small group of left Wing republicans who. Felt that another old school re publican of the Cut of Alf Landon would mean another certain and crush ing defeat for their party. Willkie was unenlightened capitalist an idealist a warm and open handed person and a Small town boy who made Good in the big City in the. Finest american tradition. He was the Only one in sight who could give Roosevelt a run for. His Money. When the first ballots we retaken the expected deadlock developed. Between the favourites a couple names Dewey and Taft. Will Kie s managers who had waited for this moment for months gave the sign. To the plaque in the galleries and before anyone quite knew what had happened Willkie had the democratic convention of 1896, however did see a genuinely spontaneous Stampede to the popular favorite William Jennings Bryan. This was the year when Silver coinage was the Issue before the electorate and when the convention opened in Chicago it seemed that senator Richard Bland of Colorado had the nomination sewed up. Bland better known As Silver Dick hadf6ught hard for the. Free coinage of Silver and the present Silver bloc i Congress Are his Lineal descendants. The other two contenders were governor Robert Pattison of Pennsylvania and Horace Boies senator from issues at stake turned on whether. The party would repudiate the financial program of the democratic president Cleveland. Bland and Pattison were oath anti Cleveland ites and when the convention went All out against Clevelan the two started to kill each other off. No one had paid much attention to Heyoung Man they called the boy Ora Tor of the no one that is until Bryan split the convention wide open with the oration that was to be known forever As the Cross of Gold the biblical Windup you shall not crucify Mankind upon a Cross of Gold sent the convention into frenzy even though Bryan had used the figure frequently enough the first few ballots Bland and Pat Tison led but Bryan Riding the Crest of the delegates enthusiasm was swept into the nomination. The institution of the party Conven a Tion was not always with us. Before 1840 each presidential elector had a certain amount of free will in voting for an member of his party he chose. The first presidential nominating convention was held by the whig party in 1840, at which time they managed to come up with a dark horse William Henry har Rison. And the party Bosses picked him for a highly remarkable reason be cause he was mediocre. To go into the background a Little the whigs who were formerly the. 18 federalists and Are now the republicans had not sent a Man to the White House since John Adams in 1797. The had just suffered through twelve years of Strong democratic Rule under Andre Jackson and Martin Van Buren. They were 12 years that might aptly be termed the new Deal of the 19th Cen Tury and the whigs looked upon thai period with As much distaste As re publicans of today think and talk about the years of Franklin Roosevelt. The whigs determined that the Van Buren s re election was to break completely with their past aristocratic tradition and offer a demo cratic candidate. They wanted a Man who relatively speaking knew nothing and who would say nothing. For that reason the two leading whigs Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were pass Dover and Harrison was nominated. ". How Harrison should act if nominated is Best described in the words 06 Nicholas Biddle a whig bigwig. Let him wrote Biddle to the party leaders. Say not one single word about his principles of his Creed let him say nothing Promise nothing. Let no cont Mittee no convention no town meeting Ever extract from him a single word about what he thinks now or will do Here after. Let the use of the pea be whollyforbidden.". With Harrison s nomination some thing of a tradition was established in Republican candidates. He was the first of a Long line of Nomi nees who were men of the Harrison was touted As having come from a log Cabin actually he never did and the fashion of the log Cabin remained the hallmark of Republican candidates. One Republican aspirant Daniel Webster roared in the Senate on one occasion i did not have the Good Fortune to be born in a log Cabin. But anyone who denies that my sister was born in a log Cabin that Man sir is a liar by Mckinley s time the log Cabin had become the front porch. The fashion died out temporarily but was revived. By. Harding and again when Wendell Willkie went to his Home town of Elwood Indiana for his acceptance speech thereby focusing attention on his Humble origins. For the next couple of after 1840campaigns both parties worked Assid. Sously to nominate colourless and pliable men. They succeeded so admirably that even those who won the Nomi nation have All but disappeared from the pages of history. Most of the me nominated Between Harrison and Buchanan were dark horses. The whigs sticking to the formula that worked so Well in 1840, when their nominee Harri son was elected president in 1844 Clay the party head was nominated and Lostin the Campaign circumvented both Clay and Webster in 1848. A Bland an ineffectual Man general Zachary Tay Lor was tapped and the party rank and file nominated him enthusiastically. The democrats not to be outdone nominated in 1852 Franklin Pierce. The convention was knotted and countless ballots had been distributed among Lewis Cass Stephen Douglas and Jame Buchanan. The democratic party by that time controlled by Southern Plant ers things were moving toward the civil War remember saw the political Wisdom in nominating Pierce a new Hampshire lawyer. Through the efforts of Jefferson Davis the convention swung Over to Pierce and another dark horse spurted to Victory. One dark horse who did t spurt to Victory when he might have killed his chances by talking a Little too much thereby violating the first Rule of con duct for an aspiring dark horse. Theman was Admiral George Dewey. When the republicans seemed sure to re elect Mckinley in 1900, the democrats looked wildly about for a Man whose popular Appeal might match. Mckinley is. The Admiral fresh from his victories in the Spanish american War seemed to be their Man. Dewey however disqualified himself at the starting Gate. When asked what he thought about running for , he said he thought the of fice was an easy one to a state ment which in View of some of the men who had held the Job might not have been totally inaccurate. A Standard ingredient of every convention is the favorite son the Man for whom his Home state delegation casts a Token ballot or two before settling Down to the serious business of deciding on those who Are seriously in the running. This year the Massachusetts. Continued on Page 22 a Quick change wardrobe designed to meet an ambitious Politico s election year needs by Don Sheppard the Man. No matter what you think he is human. Yet he s aware that even neanderthals were known for their attire. Naturally he s gone pm one better in assembling a Ward Robe that even a Hollywood extra would be proud to own. Elder statesman. His cutaway not Only charms the june Bride and Rolls Royce Salesman but can do double duty As a scarecrow for gentleman Farmers or even be rented to running mates. Weekend May is ims ,
