"There's a line of stars down those lists that would puzzle the man who
invented political astronomy," he told his intimates. "But I don't dare
to go looking for the trouble right now. It'll be like a man looking for
measles in his family of thirteen; it'll break out if it's there--he
won't have to hunt for it."
The Republican State Convention was called for late June. The party
managers believed that it would clarify the situation somewhat; "it
would afford an opportunity for conference and free debate on the big
questions where division of opinion existed," so the party organs
assured their readers day by day. Chairman Presson asked them to drum
this idea into the heads of the people.
But what he told himself and the secret council was that there needed to
be a round-up where some of the wild steers could be thrown and branded
before they should succeed in stampeding the main herd. It was a
situation that called for one of the good, old-fashioned "nights
before." For a practical politician knows that speeches and band music
do not make a convention; they merely ratify the real convention; the
real convention is held "the night before," behind closed doors at the
headquarters hotel.
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