Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 33, Number 120, 14 June 1908 — Page 5

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AT SUX-TELEGRAM, SUXDAY, JUNE 14, 190S.

PAGE FIVE.

Chicago Prepared to Entertain Greatest Convention Ever Held in That "City of Conventions" This W eek

Twelve Thousand Persons Will Be Seated in the-Great Coliseum, Which Was Formerly Libby Prison, When Senator Burrows Wields the Gavel to Call the Seventeenth Republican National Session to Order-Many Notable Political Battles Have Been Fought in Biggest City of the West

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Chicago, June 13. When Senator Julius Cesar Burrows of Michigan, wieUs the gavel to call to order the delegates to the Republican National Convention, Tuesday, June 16, the sevath session of the party in Chicago nill haxe begun. It wiil be the eleventh gathering of representatives of the big parties in Chicago to nominate a president, for the democrats iiae held fonr of their conventions in this eitr. Chicago, therefore, thinks itself Justly -entitled to the appellation "ConTfntJoTi City," a, name not more deserved because of its central location than becanse of the size and importance of Che city among the municipalities of the nation. Each day the interest is growing keener in the big event to be held in the building in Wabash avenue between Fourteenth and Sixteenth streets, and dally the amount of business transacted by Chairman Harry New and his confreres on the subcommittee on arrangements is increasing. The Coliseum walls are those which surrounded Libby Prison when that noted war reHc, which had been a tobacco warehouse , was transplanted bodily as a war museum in Chicago. When the museum was dismantled and old Libby scattered to the four winds with the exception of come few precious parts which have been treasured by Charles F. Gunther for his great collection of war curios, steel girders and arches and brick walls replaced it, and the Coliseum rose in its stead. Completed in 1900. the Coliseum was opened for the National G. A. It. Encampment before the finishing touches were added. The building cost $500,000. plus $50,000 for its complete electric lighting plant ln its construction, 6teel arches fell, sacrificing the lives of some of the workmen. The building is four blocks from the

lake. Only Filled Twice. The Coliseum has twice been filled capacity, holding 12.000 persons on each occasion, these events being the days upon- which Mr. Roosevelt spoke during the campaign of lf00 and when Bourke Cochrcn. spoke in the interests of Mr. Bryan. For the prccent convention there will be just 11,167 seats, making no allowance for standing room. The acoustics are good and there are 12 large exits, consisting of double doors. Six of these exits open upon a paved alley on the east side and six open upon Wabash avenue. The main body of the delegates, JXSO strong, will hive chairs stretching from the platform out to a line bisects ing the main floor, east and west, and bafk of this line, filling the space on th.e main floor, will be the seats ior

the alternates. Visitors will have seatsin the rising banks of chairs at the north, east and west edges of the main arena. The seating capacity is materially larger than in lffc'M. when there were but 8,000 chairs, although there was considerable standing room. Decorations of the convention hall, consisting of flags and bunting, have been- pleasingly disposed around the galleries and in the arches and gorders. Pictures of candidates, past and prospective, have been barred. One of the biggest, if not the biggest, problems which has engaged the energies of Chairman New and his associates has been the apportionment of tickets for seats. Such a demand never before confronted a national committee and were the seating capacity of the

Coliseum six times as large as it is a !

ticket for every seat at every session ! could have been allotted. Senators j and representatives have written on behalf of their constituents, and thousands will have to be disappointed. And still the mails received in the attractive little "Convention Postoffice," in the Coliseum Annex, continue to bring requests for more seats. "Why, from Indiana alone, I have received 6,000 requests," said Mr. New the other day, as he mopped Mb brow in good natured despair. "But my state will have to be content with its due proportion along with the rest." . Officials Working. With Mr. New on the subcommittee of the National Committee are Senator N. B. Scott, of West Virginia; Charles F. Brooker, of Connecticut; Powell Clayton, of Arkansas; David W. Mulvane of Kansas; Ernest E. Hart of Iowa, and Secretary Elmer Dover of Ohio. Colonel William F. Stone oi Maryland, the sergeant-at-arms, has been tremendously busy with the practical details of the seating arrange

ments. "Fred W. Upham. as chairman of the Chicago committee on arrangements, has received $!.000 for convention expenses, and says his committee's preliminary work is all done. He will have in all about 2.200 tickets to distribute each day of the convention, and has made a more or less consistent rule of allotting a ticket for each $100 contributed to his expense fund. He thinks there will be a percentage left to be returned to the subscribers. Mr. Upham will have a ' private box in which he will care for 5S guests. The other day Fernando Jones, Chicago's eighty-nine-year-old oldest settler, called and asked Mr. Upham for a ticket. "I haven't missed a convention of the party held here since 1S34," he explained, "and I think I'm about good for two more. Are you going to give me a ticket?" "Surer said Mr. Upham. "You'll

have one of the best seats In the house," and Fernando left with a broad smile. Secretary Elmer Dover has issued this list of officers of the convention: General Secretary, John R. Malloy, Columbus, Ohio; Assistant Secretary, Lafayette B. Gleason, New York, N. Y.; Sergeant-at-Arms, William F. Stone, Baltimore, Md.; Chief Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms, Edward P. Thayer, Greenfield, Ind.; Parliamentarian, Asher C. Hinds, Washington, D. C; "Official Reporter, M. W. Blumenberg, Washington, D. C; Chief of Doorkeepers, Stephen R. Mason, Baltimore, Md.; Chaplains, Bishop P. J. Muldoon, Chicago, 111.; Rev. William O. Waters, Chicago, 111.; Rev. John Wesley Hill, New York, N. Y., and Rev. Lorenzo B. Case, Chicago. Assistant Secretaries, Charles Brooks

Smith, Parkersburg, W. Va.; Ernest Walker Smith, Hartford, Conn.; Philip M. Hoefele, St. Louis, Mo.; M. J. Tobin, Vinton, Iowa; Charles M. Harger, Abilene, Kan., and Allen Hollis, Concord, N. H. Reading Clerks, Thomas W. Williamson, Edwardsville, 111.; Albert Berg. Beaudette, Minn.; George A. Wilson, Des Moines, Iowa, and W. J. Seitz, West Liberty, Ky. Tally Clerks, Roy M. W'atkins, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Clyde W. Miller, Osage City, Kan.; Frank R. Bentley, Baraboo, Wis., and W. A. Steele, Van Buren, Ark. Messenger to the Chairman, Empsirdell Stone, Indianapolis, Ind., and Messenger to the Secretary, John H. Jackson, Cincinnati, Ohio. Are Used to It. Many of the foregoing have served in similar capacity in previous conventions. In all there will be nearly

TAFT AS HE APPEARED WHEN SERVING AS JUDGE.

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The judicial caree of Wm..H. Taft was one marked by glory. He was considered one of the best posted men on the law there was in the country during his active connection with the courts, and-his opinions were noted for their -wisdom &ad square dejkliaf,

3,000 employes for the convention, each provided with a distinctive badge. Mr. Stephen R. Mason, of Baltimore, the Chief of Doorkeepers, is a warm personal and political friend of Sergeant-at-Arms Stone, and he will have the responsibility of looking after 200 assistants. Not a single doorkeeper

will be from the commonwealth of Illinois and when Mr. Upham was asked why this is so, replied: "It's this way. The subcommittee doesn't dare ever to appoint residents of the state which has the convention, for fear the 'doorkeepers would be running in all their friends, tickets or no tickets." Sound reasoning, apparently, Missouri, as the "show me" state, might logically have the call when it comes to doortenders. Mr. Mason's 200 assistants will each receive $3 a day, and will be selected and organized with great care, instructed not to allow any confusion or overcrowding. There will be 2,000 Assistant Ser-geants-at-Arms, 500 ushers and 200 pages, all of whom will be drilled and be equipped with special insignia. Eating and Sleeping Problem. Chicago's hotels, restaurants and places of merchandising have been preparing for the reception of the large crowds of convention week for many months. They have figured that thousands will come and bring their families, and the visitors who cannot be accommodated in the hotels will abide with friends or in private boarding houses.

"Can we get a place to eat and sleep?" will be the absorbing question the visitors will be asking as they near the convention city, coming in on crowded trains. "Let 'em all come," say the bonifaces, high and low, managers of hotels big and little, great and small, pretentious and modest. And "we want a chance to feed the crowds," say the restaurant keepers, also of varying pretensions. Rooms have been engaged by the thousand, but still the hotel keepers say they can accommodate the hosts. According to Manager Shafer, of the Auditorium, the first-class hotels in the "loop district," Chicago's downtown section, can accommodate 20,000 visitors. While this estimate seems a little large, it is figured that, taking in the best hotels of the North and South Sides, as well as those of the "loop," 23,000, with a little squeezing, can be accommodated. In order to do this, cots and all extra beds will have to be requisitioned. Each delegate and visitor will have to put up an average of $5 a day If he stays at a first-class hotel, and those who put up at the leading hotels are expected to pay this sum without complaint, mindful of the rates some

j hotels might charge and get The

Great Northern and Sherman House ' expect that each room will accommodate four or five persons. Mr. O'Brien, chief clerk of the Great Northern, thinks each of his rooms will earn $10 a day. Rates at the Sherman House for persons who bunk four or five in a room will be $2 a day. The Auditorium, Auditorium Annex, Palmer House, and Grand Pacific all have scores of "regulars," many of whom will keep their rooms; but in addition to these, many of whom live in the hotels the year round, the managers are preparing to care for hundreds of the delegates and visitors. The Auditorium Hotel will take care of 70 visitors, and the Annex as many more. Chief Clerk Rottman. of the Palmer House, says that hotel can take care of 1,400 visitors. The Nebraska and Wisconsin delegations are to be quartered in the Palmer House and the delegates are expected to "double up." The Grand Pacific will have 2"0 rooms filled with delegates and visitors. . Should Secretary Taft decide to come he will be a visitor at the Annex where the Ohio delegation has reserved quarters. New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Montana also will be at the Auditorium and Annex. Manager Kennedy of the Annex, says the crowd brought to Chicago by the con

vention doubtless will be much larger

than that of four years ago, but adds that Chicago's hotel facilities since

that time have increased more than

proportionately. First Day's Program.

The official program of the first day of the convention as issued by Secre

tary Dover is as follows: Call to order by Chairman. Harry S. New at noon. Prayer by Bishop P. J. Muldoon. Presentation of gavel to Chairman of the national committee. Reading of the call by Secretary Dover. Introduction by temporary chairman Senator Julius Caesar Burrows of Michigan. Address by the temporary chairman. Election of temporary officers. Selections of committees on permanent organization, rules and order of business, credentials and resolutions. This will be the fourteenth national convention of the republican party, the first having been held in Philadelphia in 1S.VJ. The republican nominees for president and vice president have teen: 1856, at Philadelphia John C. Fremont, California and William L. Dayton. New Jersey. Defeated. lSeO, at Chicago Abraham Lincoln, Illinois, and Hannibal Hamlin, Maine. Elected. 1S6-L at Baltimore -Abraham Lin

coln, Illinois, and Andrew Johnson,

Tennessee. Elected.

Illinois,- and Schuyler Colfax, Indiana. Elected. 1872, at Philadelphia Ulysses S. Grant, Illinois, and Henry Wilson, Massachusetts. Elected.

1S7, at Cincinnati Rutherford B. Hayes, Ohio, and William A. Wheeler of New York. Elected. 180, at Chicago James A. Garfield, Ohio, and Chester A. Arthur, New Vork. Elected. 1S84, at Chicago James G. Blaine, Maine, and John A. Logan, Illinoia. Defeated. 1SSH, at Chicago Ben Jamltt Harrison, Indiana, and Levi P. Morton, New York. Elected. 102, at Minneapolis Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, and Whitelaw Held, New York. Defeated. 1SW, at St. Louis William, McKlnley, Ohio, and Garrett A. Hobart, Ntw Jersey. Elected. inoo, at Philadelphia William McKinley, Ohio, and Theodore Roosevelt New York. Elected. 1!04, at Chicago Theodore Roosevelt, New York and Charles W. Fairbanks, Indiana. Elected. Of the six men nominated in Chicago by the republicans, James G. Bltine was the only man to meet defeat. And it was in Chicago, by the way, in. 1884 and 18&2. that G rover Cleveland received the two nominations by the democratic party which led to his election the whole presidential successes of that party since the Civil War. Scenes of Olden Times.

Scenes stirring and epochal hare marked republican conventions held hi Chicago. Especially notable were ths nominations of Lincoln and Garfield. Bryan's ovation and nomination- by the democrats In 1890, following his famous speech, also was a notableevent. It was in the old "Wigwam." a twostory frame structure at Lake ard Market streets, that Lincoln was named by the republicans May 16, 1900 Chicago was then a city of 100,000 people, and 40,000 Tisltors from the West and Northwest thronged here for the big gathering. There were rumors of war In the air, and it was felt that much depended upon the choice of the republican party. William H. Seward, of Hew Yorfc, led the candidates, so far as preliminary prognostications went, and he seemed to hare so many delegates for him that Horace Greeley telegraphed the New York Tribune that Seward could not lose. William I Dayton, of New Jersey; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania; Salmon P. Chase of Ohio; Edward Bates, of Missouri, and John McLean, of Ohio, all bad their supporters, and Abraham