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Show UPHAWl DIRECTS-1! i 0. PJEETING 1 Arrangements for Chicago Convention Give Huge Task to Volunteer CHICAGO, May 13. Tho directing genius of four Republican conventions in the past, Fred W. Upham, Republican Republi-can national treasurer, this year has planned his fifth and greatest one. Mr. Upham has been chairman of the Chicago convention committee for sixteen years and in that time probably prob-ably has promoted more national political po-litical gatherings than any man living. He has organized and financed the local lo-cal arrangements for the Republican gatherings since 1904. Every four years the planning of the big gathering has become a more complex com-plex and more costly affair. In 1904, the first year the Republicans met at the Chicago coliseum, tho convention arrangements cost $70,000. In 1916 the expenses had increased to $110,000 and this year the sum will exceed $150,000. Has Big Ta3k. To raise this money, contract for building alterations, extra seats, decorations, deco-rations, tickets, badges and all the other oth-er myriad details of staking big quadrennial quad-rennial spectacle, in which more than 13,00,0 delegates and spectators will this year participate, is Upham's task. Cost of altering tho coliseum and Hrnnratlmr it will nlnno r.nsf. morn than $50,000 this year. The task of obtain-; lng and then safeguarding the tickets, is a problem In itself. The admission cards are printed on safety paper, in special Inks, and then locked in vaults . until the Thursday before the conven-J tlon. None aro sent by mall, all be-, lng distributed here. In spite of these precautions, many fall into the hands of speculators, who retail them at anywhere any-where from $60 to $100 each; and even counterfeiting of the cards is not un- t la Veteran In Game. Mr. Upham, who has been treasurer of tho national committee since February, Feb-ruary, 1918, has been associated with national politics for 28 years. In 1892 he was a delegate to the national convention con-vention from the Eighth Wisconsin district. dis-trict. He represented a Chicago district dis-trict in 1912 and 1916 and ran on Governor Gov-ernor Frank O. Lowden's slate for election elec-tion as a delegate-at-large from Illinois Illi-nois this year. He was western treasurer of tho national na-tional committee in the first Taft campaign cam-paign in 1908 and again in the Hughes campaign of 1916. The only elective offices he has ever held were alderman alder-man In Chicago in 1896 and member of tho Cooke county board of tax review re-view for fourteen years. He is president presi-dent of a large coal company. |