PHILADELPHIA, 1948

From mid-June to mid-July the political solar plexus of the U.S. will be Philadelphia. There, in drafty, flag-draped Convention Hall, a thousand-odd sweating delegates from both major parties* will meet to choose their candidates for the presidency. Millions of U.S. citizens will follow every play in the press, over the radio and on their television screens. Few will understand exactly what is going on. What is the convention system and how does it operate?

The road to the White House has not always led through the convention hall. In the first days of the Republic, Presidents were picked directly from the ranks of leading citizens by the vote of state electors (themselves usually elected by their state legislatures). Even after the two-party system began to develop, candidates of both parties were simply named by the members of Congress, meeting in party caucus. But in 1812 the Federalists summoned party delegates to a New York City convention and nominated De Witt Clinton (defeated in the election by the Democratic-Republicans' James Madison). By 1832 the revolution against King Caucus was complete. Meeting in Baltimore, Democratic and National Republican conventions nominated Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay. The convention system was here to stay.

Delegates & Bosses. By last week the preliminaries for this year's conventions were almost over. The National Committees had picked the place and the date (Republicans, who traditionally meet first, on June 21; Democrats on July 12), had apportioned convention delegates among the states. The rule of thumb: each state sends two delegates for each Representative and each Senator in Congress./- Republicans give a bonus of three delegates to those states which voted Republican in 1944 or 1946; Democrats give a bonus of four. The District of Columbia, territories and possessions get two to six delegates each. Total delegates: Republican, 1094; Democrats, 1234. (Some states split their Democratic delegates into one-half votes, thus increasing the actual number of people entitled to vote.)

Election of delegates is almost completed. In the 14 states which give the voter any chance to express his opinions, the primaries are over. In the rest, Republican delegates have been picked by state conventions or state committees in all but Indiana; Democratic delegates are still to be chosen in only ten states, Hawaii and the Canal Zone. The delegates represent a fair cross-section of the U.S. electorate--a little weighted on the side of age, prosperity and political experience.

But, as always, the men who will do the real work in the convention are the professional politicos : national committeemen, congressional bigshots, state and city bosses. The ordinary delegate will have little to do but enjoy himself, politick like mad--and vote as he's told. For the first two days he will hear hours of party-line oratory, approve committee reports and the party platform, wander wearily off for a drink.

"That Great American . . ." Then come the nominations. Each state, called on in alphabetical order, has the right to nominate a candidate. Those without a candidate either pass or yield their place to another state (as Arizona permitted Kansas to nominate Alf Landon in 1936). Nominating speeches are traditionally delivered in whooping rhetoric, almost never disclose the name of the candidate until the very last sentence. (Some famous examples: Robert Ingersoll's nomination in 1876 of James G. Elaine, "The Plumed Knight" of Maine; F.D.R.'s "Happy Warrior" speech for Al Smith in 1924.)

The balloting, like the nominations, is by alphabetical roll call of the states. No Republican state delegation need vote as a unit for one man, but can split its vote among several candidates. Democrats can be bound to vote as a unit if their state convention orders it. Any delegate has the right to have his delegation polled, man by man ("stand up and be counted"). For the first ballot at least, delegates who have been elected in primaries because of their support for a specific candidate are morally bound to stick by their man. After that, they can vote as they choose. More than half of all U.S. presidential nominations have been made on the first ballot. But when competition is hot, the voting goes anywhere from five to 50 ballots. (The record: the 1924 Democratic Convention at which John W. Davis was nominated after nine days of voting and 103 ballots.)

After the first ballot, heavy politicking begins in earnest. Uncommitted delegations and favorite-son backers who know they have no chance caucus endlessly, listening for the first rumble of a bandwagon. Campaign managers of the leaders have favors to offer: appointments, local patronage, the prestige of being on the winning side. By the end of the third ballot, the favorite sons begin to drop out.

". . . and Next Pres-i-dent." The big deals are made when the leaders are deadlocked. Waverers watch for one sure sign: a candidate who loses ground on successive ballots almost never comes back to win. If the deadlock holds, the dark horses begin to pick up hope, party bigwigs start looking for a compromise candidate. Famed example: Warren G. Harding, who stood sixth on the first ballot in 1920, was nominated on the tenth, after a meeting of Republican President-makers in the smoke-filled suite 404-405-406 of Chicago's Blackstone Hotel.

To prevent a dark-horse victory, the leaders dicker among themselves. Ordinarily it takes a switch in only one key state to break a deadlock. In 1932 it was California, which swung behind Franklin D. Roosevelt on orders of William Randolph Hearst and started the avalanche. The quid pro quo: a promise to nominate John Nance Garner for Vice President. As soon as any candidate polls a majority, the convention usually makes the nomination unanimous (though one MacArthur delegate held out against Dewey in 1944).

After that, picking a Vice President is usually a perfunctory job. (One major exception: the nomination of Vice President Harry Truman in 1944.) Delegates, tired and anxious to go home, almost always settle on the first ballot for the presidential candidate's choice. For the average delegate, the convention begins and ends when his delegation chairman votes his state on the winning ballot.

* Henry Wallace's still nameless third party will also meet there to formalize Henry's nomination.

/- Republicans give one seat per Representative only if his district polled at least 1,000 G.O.P. votes in the last election, another if it topped 10,000. Reason: to reduce the convention strength of Southern delegations, which have axes to grind but few votes to deliver.

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