ABSTRACT
Philander C. Knox, who had served as Attorney General for McKinley and Roosevelt and Secretary of State for Taft, was now senator from Pennsylvania. William C. Sproul was governor of Pennsylvania. Irvine L. Lenroot was senator from Wisconsin. James W. Wadsworth was senator from New York. It was true that it mattered a great deal what was decided and who was chosen at Chicago. But a more compelling fact is that Chicago was too hot, the Coliseum too crowded, the hotel lobbies too nerve wracking, and the prices too high, for an enduring interest either in the future of the world or even in the assured victory of the Republican party. What was going on at Chicago was politics for politicians' reasons to politicians' ends. The only fact about Mr. Hoover that at any time could have interested the politicians was that the Hoover vote really mattered in the election.
