The direct wire between the Sea Girt cottage and the Wilson headquarters
at Baltimore was kept busy from early morning until late at night. The
telephone exchange in the cottage was so arranged that a branch telephone
was kept in the little room under the stairway, which constituted a sort
of listening post, which permitted me, in accordance with the suggestion
of the Governor himself, to listen in on conversations, not by way of
eavesdropping, but in order that we might intelligently confer after each
conversation on the various matters that might have to be decided upon
with reference to the organization of the convention. Many of the
momentous questions having to do with the conduct of the Convention were
discussed and settled over this 'phone. The most frequent users of the
'phone during these days were Colonel Bryan and Mr. McCombs, our campaign
manager. During the opening days of the Convention I made it my business
to keep in close touch with Baltimore both by conversations over the
'phone with the active managers of the Wilson boom and by carefully
reading each morning the news items appearing in the New York _Times_, New
York _World_, and the Baltimore _Sun_, this last-named paper being one of
the leading advocates of the Wilson candidacy in the country.

I was personally, and in some cases intimately, acquainted with the
special writers on these great journals and knew from previous contact
with them that they were on the "inside" of the situation at Baltimore,
and in this way much information was gleaned which proved helpful in
keeping us in touch with the many happenings at the Convention.

Having successfully passed through the Bryan-Parker crisis, we decided
upon a kind of strategy that would win to our side the various progressive
elements in the Convention. In line with this idea, we suggested to our
managers at Baltimore the advisability of putting forward the name of
Ollie M. James of Kentucky for permanent chairman of the Convention. While