Historical Context | December 2001 Web Exclusive

Web Exclusive: Historical Context

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Through the years, the NAIFA convention has been disrupted
by several national events.

By George Norris

This year's convention was not the first to be disrupted or curtailed by national events. The nation was in a state of shock on the morning of Sept. 11, 1901, when the delegates convened in Portland, Maine.

Referring to the tragic news from Buffalo that President McKinley had been shot, I. Layton Register of Philadelphia, the association's president, told the delegates immediately after calling the first session to order, "We meet today under the depressing shadow of a national calamity. The dreadful news came like an electric shock into every home, into every heart. Our natural grief for our beloved President is only equaled by a deep execration for the heinous crime."

The nation was in a state of shock on the morning of Sept. 11, 1901, when the delegates convened in Portland, Maine.

The first motion was for a resolution expressing sympathy for the president's family and a recommendation for the enactment of "a federal law declaring an assault or attempt on the life of a chief executive as treason, punishable by death." One Buffalo delegate proposed amending the resolution with a call for the suppression of groups advocating violence. In view of the prevailing mood, it was decided to cancel the banquet planned for the close of the convention. The President died at 2:15 the next morning.

During World War I, when John Newton Russell was president of NALU, attendance at the 1917 convention in New Orleans was a disappointing 584, despite repeated assurances from the government that the movement of troops would not hamper rail service.

During World War II, NALU whittled down its conventions to strictly business meetings and had to cancel the 1945 convention. "The board felt that, even if the European phase of the war were successfully completed by the fall, the passage of troops and materiel across the continent on their way to the Pacific area would greatly overburden railroad facilities," Life Association News explained.

When the 3,200 registrants converged upon the Leamington Hotel on Sept. 13, 1970, Minneapolis, like a number of other cities in the Midwest, was experiencing a few bombings and numerous bomb scares in public places, owing to opposition to the United States policy in Vietnam. Disruptions were minor during the meeting, but tension and apprehension pervaded every gathering.

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