(8 of 10)
"And we all united in it and at the close Mr. Bryan lifted up his voice [great applause]—Mr. Bryan lifted up his voice in an invocation for guidance and for divine help in this hour of stress. I do not know that I ought to say these things, but they did occur and so I have come to report to you exactly what happened in that Committee."
Congressman Upshaw remarked to Will Rogers (according to Will) as the audience dispersed: "Why did they wait till this late in the Convention to pray?"
The afternoon session opened promptly one hour and twelve minutes late. Mr. Cummings was again introduced and read the platform or rather he began to read it, was relieved by Senator Key Pittman of Nevada, who in turn was relieved by a reading clerk.
Next, Newton D. Baker rose and offered an amendment to the League of Nations plank, which proposed immediate entry into the League without a referendum, as proposed in the majority report.
W. R. Pattangall of Maine proposed an amendment to the Ku Klux Klan plank, specifically naming and denouncing the Klan. At the reading of this plank, the Convention began to get excited. The Anti-Klan group cheered loudly. A parade almost started, but Chairman Walsh discouraged it by rapping vigorously for order.
Delegate Alfred Lucking of Michigan, a lawyer of Henry Ford, came forward to argue for the majority League plank, saying: "If we provide for this referendum and lift the question out of politics, we will get 80% of the vote." Senator Jones of New Mexico spoke in the same tenor as the hall gradually emptied. The Senator's time ran out and he was stopped, the crowd applauding.
Once more Mr. Baker took the floor to speak for the ideals of Wilson. He had enthusiasm and force, and with real oratory swayed the Convention: "There is no subject on this earth, apart from my relations to my God and my duty to my family, which compares even remotely (with me) with the League of Nations."
