Bob Hall wanted to become active in his political party.
He volunteered his services to Harry Scott, the precinct leader in his neighborhood. Scott was cordial but gave Hall no encouragement. Hall even got the impression that Scott was trying to talk him out of his interest.
Hall then went to party headquarters. After being passed from one person to another, he was finally asked to “fill out a card” and told that the party would get in touch with him when he was needed.
No word ever came from headquarters.
It seemed to Hall that the people in politics were actually discouraging interested individuals like himself.
Some of his friends, who were also interested in politics, felt so, too. Together, they decided the only way left for them to become active in politics was to join a political club. Since there were no political clubs in town, Hall and his five friends started one of their own.
A year later Hall was president. By this time the club had 50 members.
The party leader in the town, Andrew Jeffries, gave no indication of interest in Hall and his club. Hall made no effort to contact the party leader, or work with him.
Later, events actually brought them into contention. The club felt that the man the party wanted to nominate for councilman in the upcoming election wasn’t a good choice. Hall organized the club for action and backed Clarence Jones for the nomination in the party primary election.
Jones was a wealthy civic leader who had retired from business at the age of fifty and felt he could make a contribution to the community as a councilman. Fortunately, he could carry most of the burden of campaign finances himself. The job for Hall and his club, as they saw it, was mainly that of getting out enough votes to get Jones nominated. Once nominated, Jones could ride to victory in the general election on the party ticket because the party was dominant in the town.
The club worked hard. Jones won the primary against Jeffries’ councilman
candidate.
Later, Jeffries was said to have resented this victory by a group he called “insurgents.”
In the general election campaign the club admittedly slacked off a little in their work. They assumed that Jones would ride along with other candidates on the party ticket
Jones was the only man on the ticket to lose the election.