National Affairs: The Brown Derby

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In 1922 he was advised by Tammany that he was to lead a ticket upon which William Randolph Hearst would run for U. S. Senator. Ensuing events at the Onondaga Hotel in Syracuse, where the convention was held, wrought one of those changes which no man could have planned yet which might have been brought off by any man possessed of native intelligence, self-respect and courage. Alfred Emanuel Smith had learned to despise William Randolph Hearst. In 1919, after Smith had striven to better New York City's milk supply and been balked by a Republican legislature, Hearst's press had viciously accused Smith of being in league with the milk trust, of starving New York's babies. Smith had answered, defied, publicly tongue-lashed Hearst, with Irish violence. Now, Hearst had forgotten, but Smith had not forgotten. To Tammany's coalition proposal, Smith said: "The answer is, No!"

Boss Murphy and his henchmen were aghast. Without Hearst many a job might be lost. Perhaps Smith would have to go overboard. They tried to reason with him. He stayed in his room chewing his cigars, spitting, scowling, swearing. "No, no, NO!" he roared.

In the end it was Hearst who had to back down. From then on, Smith knew he was bigger than Tammany. In 1924, Boss Murphy died and his successor, George Olvany, has never pretended to be Smith's peer.

After the Syracuse episode, Smith could and did begin to think of himself as a free agent. In 1920 he had been put forward as a perfunctory Favorite Son for the Presidential nomination, to block McAdoo. In 1924, he was a real Favorite Son, a serious contender, though the convention's fear of the Klan made him once more only an obstructionist.

Now there is no Klan, except for extraordinary Senator Heflin, and no McAdoo, except as represented by polite Candidate Walsh. There are large obstacles between Alfred Emanuel Smith and election, but so far as the nomination goes, last week, in Smith Week, there was even talk of an acclamation.

Retinue. Persons who consider Candidate Smith unfit for the Presidency on the ground that his entourage would disgrace the White House are mostly persons unacquainted with what a White House entourage is like or with those whom Candidate Smith would take with him. Persons familiar with his presidential frame of mind predict that he would content himself with no small-calibre men, certainly no Tammany favorites, for Cabinet positions. Of his oldtime personal retainers, only three seem indispensable: