Show ASHINGTON the po lotical activities of the american people are practically ceaseless national state and lo 10 cal elections follow one another in en round it Is held seemingly that in short terms of office lies the greater safety for free alons it has been asserted and argued to the limit of patience and endur ance in washington and elsewhere that the campaigning times with heir attendant excitement coning as they do cwi wwi barely a space be tween tend ts the breaking of the health of the business life pros however has been so gen brally a part of the country s his tory that little heed is given to the complaining cry the fear of a pos sible instability of institutions that might follow a change has out weighed the tear of a possible but temporary commercial instability in massachusetts where because of the supposed effect of the traditional habit of thought the people might be expected to look with favor on a long tenure of public office the governor of the state is elected yearly the mayor of the city of boston also holds office only for a twelvemonth massachusetts and bos ton are no weaklings commercially there has been however a tei dency in the stites of the union to length en the terms of the chief executives that which seems wise today would have been deemed folly half a cen tury ago the people have found that they can trust themselves to keep away from the pit of apathy tor three or four years and that all men are not possessed of dangerous ambitions the recurring talk of a term of six years for the president and the talk of senators for life terms is ably but talk tor talk s sake anything that has politics for a basis Is of interest to the live american and in the and each can back the name given with reasons that for which the advancer coulden couldn t get a vote not even his own american politics deal largely in futures the nam ing of presidents is done so many thousands of times before the convention days that figures cannot keep the int tl e question of the multitude that witnesses the oath taking of a president on the platform east of the capitol is ho will take the oath four years from to daya there are some thousands of individual mem bers of the multitude who will be quick to give answer and each can back the given name with reasons that be believes all convincing it is a great game and it makes for safety there never has been a time since washington was inaugurated in the city of new york that the concerns of legislation no matter how vital to the country have been strong enough to keep politics and the matter of the presidential succession of the people s minds the american thrives on po tics proof enough per baas that it a healthy food there has been the ever ready sneer at american methods of naming a president men who think none too well of popular government have said until by re iteration they have come to believe their own words that the politicians and the office holders also poll ticiano tic ians do the president naming for the people it is a statement that bears no test when mr roosevelt began the outlining of his policies there was hardly a politician in the land who approved the members of congress who were friendly to the president s course could be counted with no kno of counting meas ures went through congress that the congressmen who voted aye loathed in their souls what was the reason of it alla the people them selves were voting using unwilling but finally politically wise agents to do the voting for them the man who wants to succeed himself in office has an ee and ear for his constituents if he wants to commit political suicide he becomes temporarily blind and deaf the force of public opinion was never more sharply shown than in the united states senate winter before last when senator after senator voted for measures that three years ago they would openly have declared to be iniquitous because they might disturb business inter ests business interests being the interests of corpora alons which some people say sow little and reap clente bously As for the house of representatives the men who stood aga ast the presidential policies still clinging to the belief that the majority of the people was not in sympathy with the administration found out their mis take at the convention or later at the polls all this was a part and parcel of the plan of dent naming by the people it is as certain as mundane things can be certain that if the pol ticiano of either party and their allies succeed in thwarting the will of the voters at a lat lonal convention there is always the it was 35 years ago that the ghost of walked abroad in america it walked again recently and there was just as much substance of the spirit as there was when august belmont in the democratic con bention at balta more saw it sand ing through the convention hall in his speech at that democratic convention mr belmont said that grant aided by a corrupt congress a congress from which all love of liberty had depart ed was assuming all the functions of government of whatever kind and that the bayonets of the military aes already were flashing in the sun the new yorker declared that and cent raUza alon were under mining the very foundations of our federal system and sweeping away all constitutional bulwarks the republic however still lived and last year dem and many republicans 35 years after were crying and centralization ari fn the same that they have the same d of freedom that was the joyful possession of their forefathers one of the arguments that was used against the nomination of theodore roosevelt for another term was that he had gathered unto himself most of the forces of government and that he had ab sobbed almost w lolly the larger part of the functions of the legislative branch it was a common enough thing in washington last year and the 3 ear before to hear the words in abai t one man power and the lie s rapid road to despotism somehow or other there seemed to be a feeling that this was utterly new talk and that the supposed danger existed for the first time in the history of the country two years ago a new york paper with an eye on roosevelt opened its columns to a discussion of cae sanam the same new york paper years ago saw daily and nightly for wear some month after wearisome the ghost of there is nothing new under the sun even in the matter of ghosts hen the democrats of the country got together in convention in baltimore in tl year 18 2 Caes ansin and stalked hourly through the hall arm in arm before the eyes of the affrighted ce legates the liberal rep had held a co menton in cincin nati and had nominated horace greeley and gratz brown for president and a president the democrats had assembled at baltimore to indorse the liberal re publicans ticket and to say things in their platform about general grant and the republican party generally so one probably will deny today that there were a aundre 1 and one things in grant s administration bad enoich to have had some words not of praise said about them but instead of actually specifying this thing or that thing the speakers of the democratic convention were so carried away by the fear that the republic was to go the way ind that an empire was to come into its own that they lost track of legislative matters that might e been criticized criticised and held up to mal e the voters arrild the crowned wraith of breath that all the constitutional bulwark were being swept away wl en the ads of those who see things got and normal ind the eyesight became clear down the wind tar centralization were found somewhere found to be as and tl e cor bulwarks were strong ribbed ind as iron bound as ever the country always goes to the devil in a thousand different ways just before the delegates to the great national conven eions are gathered together in the liberal republican convention of 1872 held in the city of cincinnati there were things said about general grant wh h roade the things said in the haiti more convention a 1 atle later seem tame when grant s convention the first time name wa mentioned in the every man hi sed and kept on hissing for the period usually allotted to the applause following the mention of ome favored oe it was only seven years before this that grant had received the surrender of lee at appon attix and yet here in a northern convention of men re ariy riy every one of whom had been a republican Ke the name of the great soldier was greeted with the hisses noi only of contempt but of hatred in tl e year 1899 the democratic convention was held in a building erected for the purpose on the lake front in chicago any man who attended this democratic gathering will remember the building the wigwam as it was called the roof of the wigwam leaked the smalle t 1 ole in it was the skylight it was at the wig warn co mention that grover cleveland was nominated for the third time for the office of president in the ho aels for t vo or three days before the convention there were scores of men who were given over to the task of tell ng everybody who would listen that it the con bention were to caminit the unpardonable offense of nomi natii g groi er cleveland defeat awaited the demo cratic party and it by any chance defeat were averted the election of cleveland would bring disaster to the country the new york delegation 72 men in number was as a unit for the nomination of david bennett hill th things that these new yorkers said about grover cleve lai d a citizen of their own state would have been little less than astounding to some foreigners who did not understand the ways and byways of american politics there was no crime which mr cleveland had not corn even if the crimes could not be proved against him there was not one chance in a universe of chances that he would carry new york state it he were nomi bated new york would have none of him no person from good ground on the atlantic to buffalo on lake erie it was eaid had any liking in his heart for the only man who had led the democratic hosts to victory since before the days of the civil war the new yorkers went into the convention hall and voted for hill and with them in the voting were some forty odd democrats mr cleve land received votes and his nomination immediately Immedi atly was made unanimous tl e new york delegation went home it forgot all the bad things it had said about mr cleveland and it anybody was unkind enough to bring them to kemem brai ce the answer was it was all in the game and we wanted hill the democrats from good ground to buffalo and all worked tor the election of grover cleveland and elected he was if you hear anything about a candidate in a national convention from a delegate who opposes his nomination don t believe it after the convention is over the delegate him self will tell you he lied early in the winter preceding the national conven eions tl e members of the national committees of both great political parties meet to decide in which of the great cities this convention shall be held both corn cittee meetings are called for the city of washington tor the greater convenience of the members many of whom have official positions with the scene of their in the capital city in the ears gone by the choice of the convention city was to some extent governed by political considerations there was a set belief on the part of many of the corn that party advantage was to be gained by the naming of this city or that city as the place tor the great gathering gath pring such thoughts largely have passed and the national committees nowadays are more anxious to have a convention held in a city which has a hall properly arranged big enough for the delegates and for a horde of spectators and safeguarded in every way against fire and other dangers of course miney enters into the matter as it enters into most matters of life the national committeemen expect the city that is honored to bear the actual ex benses of holding the convention just how much the business of a great town is benefited by the political gathering it Is hard to state of course the hotels reap plenteously but the great gain to a community comes from the example which the political convention sets for the delegates of other con antion holding bodies to follow from the moment that the lawmakers get together in washington after a presidential election the next cam laign is on in the winter next preceding a convention there Is more politics in the national city than there is legislation the effect of washington politics Is felt all over the union and it Is in the capital city largely that poll cles are framed and plans are laid against the day of the next national convention already the discussion in the capital is turning to the s abject of the nominees tor the next great national contest |