DEMOCRATS: Congress Hotel Deal

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1000% for the Rules. Before the Convention began, it took a telegram from Governor Roosevelt to halt his partisans from abrogating the venerable party rule requiring a two-thirds majority to nominate. Even then a Roosevelt minority of the Rules Committee wanted a nomination by a simple majority if six ballots produced a deadlock. Manager Farley, fuzzy with fatigue, bustled around to head off this demand. The Rules Committee was hastily assembled in the lunchroom in the Stadium basement. There Manager Farley boomed: "Look here, just so there won't be any misunderstanding, I want to tell you what our position is. We're for the rules as they now stand 1000%—the two-thirds rule all the way through."

The Convention adopted the 1928 rules with a whoop, the only concession to the little hands that tried to snatch the Roosevelt leadership being a proposal that the 1936 Convention consider changing the requirements to nominate. This complete retreat saved Manager Farley from what would have otherwise been a bad beating on the floor.

Smith's Moment. Alfred Emanuel Smith, darling of the galleries, took no direct part in Convention proceedings until the Platform Committee reported for Repeal of the 18th Amendment. Then for a brief ten minutes he held the rostrum spotlight and microphones, fighting for a cause already won. It was his big moment—but it had nothing to do with his real purpose of blocking a Roosevelt nomination.

A minority plank calling for Resubmission had been offered by Dry Senator Hull of Tennessee who had argued that Repeal sentiment had been manifest only in the last few days and that even the party nominee four years ago had been satisfied with Resubmission. Leaving the Tammany weed patch on the floor, Delegate-at-Large Smith climbed up the back stairs to the speakers' platform to answer the Hull argument. His plastered-down hair was greyer, his face more wrinkled, his waistline plumper than four years ago. He took the public's cheers sidewise. His Adam's apple bobbed up & down, as if with emotion at the thunderous ovation. Discerning ears could tell that the uproar was not for Smith the Wet, Smith the Candidate, or even Smith the Democrat, but for Smith the Man.

Four Years. "Of course," Mr. Smith began, in a rasping voice that stabbed the microphone, "the fact that Senator Hull found out only in the last three days that there was sentiment in the country for Repeal is—just too bad. . . . Since when has it become any violation of fundamental Democratic party creed to declare emphatically in favor of the rights of the States? The Senator quoted from my acceptance speech. That was four years ago. Did the Senator agree with me four years ago? He did NOT. And because I happened to be four years ahead of my time just look what happened to me! . . .

"If there's anything in the world today the American public dislikes, it's a dodger. The time has passed when you can be Wet among Wets and Dry among Drys. . . .

"I promised myself to listen in on the raddio* on the Republican Convention. I couldn't stand anything beyond the speech of the temporary chairman. . . . The Administration in Washington finds itself in the awkward position of attempting to straddle the question. . . ."

934-to-213. It was after midnight before all speeches were finished. Patrick J. Haltigan, reading clerk of the House of Representatives, moved to the microphone and began the momentous roll call. Roosevelt delegates had been publicly freed to vote their convictions. Managers Farley and Hague, united on this issue, kept hands off.

Dry Roosevelt States joined Wet Smith States in demanding Repeal—South Carolina and New York, Michigan and Massachusetts. The tide against Prohibition swept delegation after delegation away from its old moorings. At every Dry vote the galleries groaned—Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Virginia, West Virginia. The party went soaking, sopping, dripping Wet by a vote of 934-to-213.

"The Man Who. . . ." The convention next spent ten lusty hours putting eight candidates in nomination for the Presidency. Nominators stinted no oratorical superlative to glorify their candidates. Well might the country marvel at such an agglomeration of political paragons presented by the Democracy. Excerpts :

John E. Mack: He comes to this convention with the greatest number of States behind him in the history of the Democratic Party. . . . He has that rare gift for making and holding friends. . . . His priceless gift of sympathetic understanding. . . . His splendid record . . . his ability to get things done. . . . He fills the crying need for a practical American. . . . Country born and country loving, this man's whole political life is an open book. . . . FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT.

Senator Tom Connolly: Reared in humble surroundings, he has risen to a place of power. . . . His grasp is not surpassed by any man. . . . He is still of the plain people . . . has never lost the common touch. . . . He knows America as no other public figure. . . . His mind and patriotism live in every section of the Republic. . . . He is a sturdy, stouthearted, clear-headed American . . . the Field Marshal of the Armies of Democracy. . . . JOHN NANCE GARNER.

Governor Joseph Buell Ely: Shall we admit that education and prosperity have softened our muscles, drained our vitality and left us only speculating, doubting, equivocating and polite gentlemen? Thank God, no! There is a man who sits among us who is a modern Andrew Jackson. . . . The savior of his nation, this positive, virile, straight-speaking, plain-thinking statesman. . . . ALFRED E. SMITH.

Clocked Clamor. After each nominating speech pledged delegations demonstrated for their candidate—went shouting, shoving, sweating around the aisles while the Press clocked their competitive enthusiasms. Duration of demonstrations:

Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 min.

Ritchie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 min.

Roosevelt . . . . . . . . . . . 43 min.

Garner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 min.

Byrd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 min.

Traylor . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 min.

Murray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 min.

Reed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 min.

White . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 min.

Vote No. 1, Just as dawn was paling the Stadium's high windows, Reading Clerk Patrick J. Haltigan, whose whacking big voice is matched only by that of John Crockett in the Senate, stepped to the microphone. "Alabama?" he cried.

It was the moment for which millions of radio listeners, to whom he had become the convention's stentor, had stayed up all night. The time was 4:45 a. m. C. D. S. T.

"Twenty-four votes for Roosevelt," answered William Woodward Brandon who had voted his delegation so long and so loyally for Oscar W. Underwood in 1924.

As the first ballot on the nomination started, Manager Farley twitched with excitement. He had predicted victory on the initial roll call. Would he get it? When New York was reached, Boss Curry of Tammany Hall dramatically announced that the delegation would have to be polled individually. Result: Smith, 65; Roosevelt, 28. Mayor Walker, arriving late, publicly cast his vote for Smith. The Stadium buzzed. Obviously the Mayor of New York would not toady to the Governor of New York regardless of the Seabury charges (TIME, June 13) which might cost him his job.

Final vote: Roosevelt, 666; Smith, 201; Garner, 90; others scattering.

Votes Nos. 2 & 3. The sun was well up when the second ballot started without any important shifts. On the third ballot Roosevelt rose to 682, Smith fell to 190. The convention deadlocked. After a continuous twelve-hour session which had emptied the galleries and sprawled delegates out with bleary fatigue an adjournment was taken until evening.

Shifter Hearst. It was during this interval that Manager Farley secured the withdrawal of Speaker Garner and induced Mr. McAdoo to lead the swing to Roosevelt. A prime agent in the shift was Publisher William Randolph Hearst, listening to the convention from his California home. Mr. Hearst was largely responsible for the Garner candidacy. When it fizzled, Mr. Hearst was informed that, if the deadlock persisted, a break to Newton Diehl Baker would follow. Because he regarded Mr. Baker as a dangerous Internationalist, a friend of the "power trust," and "the least fit of any candidate" for the nomination—also perhaps because the bloods of Mr. Hearst and Al Smith never did mix—Mr. Hearst urged Messrs. Garner & McAdoo to toss their votes to Roosevelt.

The night session of the convention was a perfunctory ratification of the Congress Hotel Deal. During the fourth ballot Mr. McAdoo arose to announce:

"California came here to nominate a President. When any man comes into this convention with popular will behind him to the extent of almost 700 votes. . . ."

Suddenly the rabble in the galleries sensed what was coming. They hooted, hissed, booed. Mr. McAdoo knew that mob cry of old. It was the same one that Tammany hoodlums gave him at Madison Square Garden in 1924. His dark face flushed darker with rage. Governor Roosevelt had been called a demagog by Mr. Smith because he appealed to the "forgotten man." But the forgotten men in the Stadium gallery were heart, soul, throat and hands for Al Smith.

"This convention wants to know," shrilled Mr. McAdoo above the din, "if this is the kind of hospitality Chicago accords its guests. I intend to say what I propose to say here tonight without regard to what the galleries or anybody else thinks. . . . California casts 44 votes for Franklin D. Roosevelt."

Vote No. 4. This McAdoodling brought other States running hen-like to the winner—Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Oklahoma, Virginia. The Roosevelt vote mounted to 945. Manager Farley was almost delirious. "What did I tell you! What did I tell you!" he kept babbling.

But Nominee Roosevelt was not the unanimous choice of the convention. A grim loyalty to Alfred Emanuel Smith in the New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Jersey delegations prevented that. To a bitter, impractical end the Brown Derby irreconcilables cast their 190 votes for their own candidate. In his hotel room Mr. Smith snapped off his radio, began packing up to leave town. Defeat went hard with him.

"Put It There." Next day Manager Farley executed his end of the "deal" when he secured Speaker Garner's nomination of the Vice Presidency by acclamation. Then from the Stadium he sped to the Chicago airport where Nominee Roosevelt was arriving from Albany. When the plane settled to the ground, Jim Farley, his broad red face redder than ever with excitement, jostled through the packed crowd to be the first to greet the Governor. Mr. Roosevelt, all smiles, put his left hand on Farley's shoulder to steady his own shaky legs, and stuck out his right hand saying:

"Jim, old pal—put it right there—you did great work!"

* Their names were withheld by Mr. Howe as "another story.''

* PurposeIy so pronounced. The galleries guffawed.

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