The Democratic National Convention, Denver 1908: Heightened Security in 1908 Equaled Sixteen Extra Officers (and Some Help from Tammany)

In Charlotte, NC, they are taking security for the 2012 convention very seriously, adding heavily to the police force and working closely with the Secret Service and the FBI.  A look back at security for 1908 is illuminating: The Denver Police hired sixteen additional officers to help out at the DNC in Denver that year. But perhaps they could do with less staff because because in 1908, it was not uncommon for men to take security issues into their own hands. The Denver Post (July 7, 1908) reported that the Tammany delegation, traveling by rail from New York to Denver, was angered by a pickpocket who lifted from one of their men a wallet containing $500 and train tickets. Once the theft was realized, an alert was sent out, and all passengers and crew on the train were searched. The wallet was recovered, and the owner received the return of his $500 and the train tickets as well as $8.35 in silver, a Waterbury watch, and the gold fillings in the thief’s teeth.

The train was passing through Ohio when the transgression occurred, so the Tammany fellows held on to the crook until the train had reached a point in the wilderness about eighty miles from anywhere and then they threw him into a river. The Denver Post reporter concludes: The next time that a pickpocket starts out to rob a delegation of prominent Democrats he will skip the men from Tammany Hall.

Tonight Michelle Obama will give her speech in Charlotte, N.C. and the President will watch the event on television from the White House.  While Barack Obama will join Democrats at the  Convention tomorrow, it was once customary that candidates did not attend the nominating conventions.  This is a look back at the Democratic Convention of 1908 when it was in Denver:

As was customary in 1908, the candidates themselves did not attend the nominating conventions (the first president to attend a convention was FDR in 1932 who appeared to accept the nomination to dispel rumors about his health).

However, just as in 2012, whenever there is no candidate present, there are representatives to do his bidding. In 1908, Charles Bryan, came to represent his brother, William Jennings Bryan, who was expected to be the Democratic nominee: On July 6, 2008, The Denver Post reporter, Samuel G. Blythe, writes: “Charles Bryan’s vocabulary seems to be comprised of the phrase: Bill says to do this, which he repeats to the men who think they are running this convention with monotonous regularity. At that, other words could seem to be superfluous, for what Charles says Bill says to do is generally done and forthwith.”

During the convention, William Jennings Bryan stayed on his farm, Fairview, near Lincoln, Nebraska. During the day he cut some alfalfa, and area farmers dropped by to visit with him. That night he sat with his family and one or two close friends to listen by telephone to the convention. (Organizers had rigged a megaphone to a telephone in the convention hall, and this was connected to a long-distance telephone line.) In this way Bryan heard the roaring of the delegates, when his nomination was made official at about 3:40 the next morning. For the third time, the Democrats turned to the popular candidate from Nebraska, and John W. Kern of Indiana was selected as his running mate.

• Overcame major obstacles in order to practice medicine
• Only female doctor in Denver for at least the first three decades of the 20^th century

Justina Ford was born in Knoxville, Illinois in 1871. Her mother was a nurse and helped people in their neighborhood, and Ford often accompanied her. As Justina got older, she wanted to be a doctor. Her family helped save the money for her to attend the Hering Medical College in Chicago; it was a new school with a homeopathic philosophy, which may partly explain why they accepted an African-American woman.

In Chicago, Justina married the Rev. Dr. John Elijah Ford in 1892 and graduated from medical school in 1899. She began practicing medicine there but in 1900 her husband was assigned to the Zion Baptist Church in Denver. In 1902 Justina was able to follow him.

When she applied for her Colorado medical license, she was initially turned down. The examiner said: “You have two strikes against you. First of all, you’re a lady, and second, you’re colored.” She eventually got her license, but there were still obstacles. Denver General Hospital had a policy against treating black patients and did not permit black physicians to base themselves there.  Dr. Ford, who specialized in pediatrics, gynecology, and obstetrics, set up a practice in her home.

As it happened, the “Lady Doctor,” as she was known, filled a huge need.  Immigrants and the poor were often turned away from the hospital, but Ford accepted all who came to her. The majority of patients came to her for checkups, minor illness, and obstetrical care. By the time she retired, Ford estimated she had delivered some 7,000 babies.

She learned to speak several languages, and if a patient had no money, she accepted what they could offer in trade.  Often patients had nothing at all, and Ford sent them home with food, blankets, or coal.

After 33 years in Denver, she was invited to join the faculty at Denver General Hospital. She continued to be denied membership in the Denver Medical Society, the Colorado Medical Society, and the American Medical Association. Two years before her death, in 1952, Ford was finally granted admission to the local Medical Association and honored for her service to Denver’s working class communities.

Her home was slated for destruction but was saved and relocated.  It now houses Denver’s Black American West Museum.

Just before she died, Ford summed up her life’s work: “…When all the fears, hate, and even some death is over, we will really be brothers as God intended us to be in this land. This I believe. For this I have worked all my life.”

***

You might also enjoy reading about Bessie Blount Griffin who invented a device to help soldiers who returned from World War I and needed help eating.

The Democratic National Convention, Denver 1908: The New York Delegation Arrives

Like other travelers, I often try to identify those traveling with me who are returning home and those who are visiting for pleasure or business. My fellow New Yorkers are usually “road warriors,” so they tend to gravitate to the front of the plane boarding lines, and the stereotype of New York women primarily wearing black generally holds true for plane travel; the men, whether wearing sweats or suits, are recognizable for a pulled-together look (without the coiffed “do’s” of Dallas businessmen.)

New Yorkers of 1908 – and to be fair, the Chicagoans’ were also recognizable by their “look.” A New York Times reporter describes these urban dwellers as “..noticeably better dressed than the average. … The delegates from the larger cities, easily distinguishable because of their clothes, are apparently held in some awe by the multitude.” Most of them don’t seem to like the distinction. They travel in groups of three and four, and if left alone for a few minutes are obviously ill at ease. And the arrival of the men from Tammany Hall was a much-anticipated event. The Rocky Mountain News said: “œFive trains bulging with 600 Tammanyites shed their enthusiastic cargoes in the morning…” Another newspaper, The Denver Republican, wrote: “With a rumbling purr that was distinctly heard out by City Park, the Tiger, the Tammany Tiger, whose switching tail has lashed the voters of so many historic elections into line, stuck his head out of the Union Depot yesterday morning, shot a rapid fire of penetrating glances to right and left, and finding the place to his liking, moved majestically up the street.”

The article went on to describe them as the men with the “œmolting bank rolls.”

After the convention, The Denver Republican reported that 50 Tammany Tigers took the Union Pacific to Yellowstone “œfor the purpose of verifying the report that up there one can see things that spout more persistently than a bunch of Democratic spellbinders seconding presidential nominations at 3 o”™clock in the morning.”

The Democratic National Convention, Denver 1908: The More Things Change…

In the “more things change, the more they stay the same” department, The Denver Post of July 6, 1908, wrote: “If a man intends to get to Denver from any point in the near West he looks over the time table and then allows twenty-four hours for luck.” Train travel was obviously no more dependable than today’s airline schedules.

With a population of 200,000, Denver was the commercial center of the Rocky Mountain region, and the city wanted to put itself on the map so that more commercial enterprises would come their way. The newly built convention hall was part of what landed Denver the Democratic commitment, and both the press and the delegates admired it for its cool, spacious interior and formal exterior. Built at a cost of $550,000, the auditorium seated 12,000 people. Denver’s government had also had built a “Welcome” arch to greet the delegates as they emerged from Union Station. It was made of bronze-coated steel that illuminated by hundreds of lights, and The landmark stood at the foot of Seventeenth Street for 23 years until it was torn down in 1931.

But 24 hours before the convention was to start, The Denver Post noted problems: “It is almost impossible to get a telephone connection within twenty minutes. The food supply ran out at about 9 o’clock this morning, and all this afternoon they have been diluting coffee and handling dried peaches to people who wanted cantaloupe or grape fruit.”

Denver’s DNC Past

The Democratic National Convention, Denver 1908: White vs. Green Conventions

As the Democrats of 2008 prepare for the “greenest” (most environmentally conscious) convention ever, people might like to know that in 1908 the goal of the convention organizers, with access to Rocky Mountain snow in July, was to make it the “whitest” convention. The citizens of Denver had great masses of snow brought in by rail and piled in ten-foot mounds near the brand new civic auditorium where the convention was to be held. The snow was under police guard, and while natives were to leave it untouched, out-of-state visitors, many wearing white suits and Panama hats, plunged their arms in the cool white pile, rolled snowballs, washed each other’s faces with it and “rolled it into small marble-sized balls in order to suck the coolness.”

Workmen had been busy all weekend to decorate Sixteenth and Seventeenth Streets with buntings and flags, and the stores in the surrounding area featured political themes in their display windows. As the delegates arrived, each group was met by a marching band that escorted them to their assigned hotel, and everywhere there were city residents sporting, “Ask Me” buttons.

From the moment the delegates arrived, the city offered plenty to amuse them. Bands played at various locations throughout the downtown area, and stump speakers addressed whoever would listen. Gilpin County arranged for sightseeing trains to visit the mine around Central City and Black Hawk. Denver had also arranged for a flatbed car with a band of forty real Indians. The red men gave war dances and all sorts of other dances, intermingled with war whoops that struck momentary terror to the hearts of Easterners. (The Denver Post, July 8, 1908.)

The delegates themselves did not come empty-handed. Most arrived with promotional items from their home states. It was particularly noted that the California delegation gave away small packages of California prunes wrapped in the American flag.