OCR Text |
Show V. Z --7- I CAMPAIGN TECHNIQUES JN Mark Harma's day the methods used in conducting a presidential presiden-tial campaign were simple compared com-pared to the complexities of present campaigns. To put McKinley in the White House was but a part-time part-time job for that master of politics. He could, and did, buy votes with promises. That the promises were conflicting made no difference because be-cause those made to one group or class were not known to the other class. When the time came to make good on these conflicting con-flicting promises the successful candidate can-didate was safely established in the presidential m a n- sion and the voters had four years 1 in which to forget. In those Mark Hanna days there were few different speeches, but many copies of each. Each spellbinder spell-binder was provided with a half dozen, to be delivered to the type of audience they would fit. The promises of farm commodity increases in-creases would be delivered to a arm audience; a wage increase promise to a group of workers. The audiences were small and only those immediately in front of the ..speaker knew what he said. The same speech could be delivered at the next stop. Hanna placed his Republican candidate on the front porch of the McKinley home at Canton, Ohio, armed him with a half dozen speeches which would fit any group that called, and invited all Ameri-:a Ameri-:a to visit the great man. Many called. As each group approached the front gate the appropriate speech of welcome was laid out. It contained the candidate's promises prom-ises for their class. He talked only to the little group in front of him. Others of their class would hear the same speech, be thrilled by the same promises, but no group of any other class would hear that Speech or know of the promises made to the other class. In Mark H anna's day it was all as simple as that. But they did not know the political campaigning cam-paigning advantages or disadvantages disad-vantages of radio as a medium for the distribution of campaign material. Today the candidate must have a different speech for each occasion; today he cannot buy votes by offering conflicting promises; today radio carries everything the candidate says to the people of every class and to every point in the nation. He talks to many millions rather than a few hundreds. And radio has added millions of dollars to j the cost of conducting a cam paign. ' j Radio has done one other thing to political campaigns. With the possibilities of buying votes with conflicting promises eliminated, the j candidate and his oratorical sup- I porters have little of a really defi nite nature to offer. Until election day we must listen to banal double-talk, double-talk, generalities that mean nothing j and to vituperative denunciations I of the other fellow, neither of which will change many votes. Radio may have helped to make political parties honest but it has taken much of the joy out of political campaigns. ... Party Changer Col. William Lightfoot Visscher was born a Kentuckian before Civil war days. For several years ! he was employed as an amanuensis ( by Henry Watterson, and by choice and by precept, followed Marse Henry in his political affiliations. He voted the straight Democratic ticket. Through several political campaigns in the early part of the sentury Colonel Visscher's services as an oratorical spellbinder were Dn the market to the party that would pay the highest price. The Republicans, with more dollars tc spend, were the successful bidders. It worked satisfactorily until the 1912 campaign when the colonel was sent to Kentucky. ' That assignment proved disastrous, disas-trous, both to Visscher and to the Republican party. Marse Henry, his old revered employer, turned on him and editorially ridiculed him as a Democratic Judas. Watterson Wat-terson was powerful in Kentucky. That ridicule cost Visscher his standing as a Kentuckian, of which he was especially proud, and the Republicans lost the state which they had hopes of carrying. carry-ing. ... j Start figuring election returns bj i counting several million votes cas' j by federal government payrollers ... The real friend does not keep honks. He does not attempt to strike a periodic balance between kindnesses bestowed and those received. But accepting all and returning nothing can put heavy strain on friendship. ... The discourteous clerk la a erl ous liability to any business. |