McAdooian Wives

More than half a century ago, a man-child was born near Marietta, Ga. Two years later, his mother presented him with a little brother. They were not long in becoming rough kids, always fighting together against outsiders, always scrapping each other. In after years, the younger brother wrote TIME the first letter which it ever published, saying that he always used to lick his big brother (TIME, Sept. 29, 1924). These fisticuffing lads were the McAdoo brothers: William Gibbs, elder; Malcolm Ross, younger.

The boys grew older. Destiny, famed goddess, began to play her tricks. Little Malcolm became a civil engineer. In 1924 he horrified good Democrats, supported the Presidential campaign of Robert M. LaFollette the Elder. Last week, at the ripe age of 61, he married Miss Mildred M. Traut, daughter of a Portsmouth, Va. lumber merchant, The wedding ceremony was performed by a Manhattan city clerk in the chapel of the Municipal Building.

Not so, big brother William; he had set out in life to be a bigwig, to be President. He achieved the bigwig part and got near enough to the White House in 1914 to marry a President's daughter, Miss Eleanor Wilson. He married her in the White House. William was not content with being Secretary of the Treasury, or even a cinema potentate; he wants to sit at a certain mahogany desk in the White House. Fortunately, he is blessed with a good wife. She shares his Presidential aspirations. She, too, would like to be back in the White House.

Now, out in California, the McAdoos are fighting for the nomination of one John B. Elliott for Senator. If they are successful, then Democrats throughout the land might sit up and say: "Ah, William Gibbs still has political potency; he runs things in his own state." Mrs. McAdoo took an active part in the primary campaign when she wrote a letter to Mr. Elliott last week:

"I want to tell you how very much interested I am in your campaign for United States Senator; my father had such confidence in your progressive Democracy and appreciated so highly your strong and loyal support of him in his two campaigns for the Presidency that I would be immensely gratified to see you nominated and elected Senator from California.

"We shall be in Santa Barbara for another month, but I shall, of course, make a special trip to Los Angeles on Aug. 31 to vote for you." The California Primaries are just about the best political sideshow now on view in the Republic. Presidential hopefuls and other bigwigs, unheard-ofs and the ghosts of bygone statesmen crowd the stage. Local feuds, Hearstling newspapers, religion, and the World Court make good scenery.

In the Democratic wing, John B. Elliott, McAdoo man, onetime Washington newspaper correspondent, opposes one Isidore B. Dockweiler for the Senate nomination.

Mr. Dockweiler, a Catholic, was endorsed by the Democratic convention at Fresno, whereupon the McAdoo delegates bolted and put forth Mr. Elliott in a little convention of their own. Somebody had said that

Mr. Dockweiler was for Alfred E. Smith for President, that he was trying to "deliver the state to Tammany Hall." At this point, a ghostly name entered. William Jennings Bryan Jr., piped up, said that he would back Mr. Dockweiler against the field. Mr. Elliott also is having trouble with the numerous feuds of his archangel, Mr. McAdoo. The old Democratic leaders in California want to get rid of Mr. McAdoo, the Edward L. Doheny oil gang would like to knife him politically and economically, a local faction in Los Angeles has found him troublesome. They say: "He's an Indian"--a rank outsider who tries to rule. All of which miscellany means simply that, if Mr. Elliott wins. Governor Smith will not get California delegates in 1928. In the Republican wing, "Dog-in-the-manger" Hiram Johnson is the feature of the show. He is trying to make another comeback, to put one of his friends in the governor's chair and one in the Senate, so that he can be the big boss of California when 1928 comes around. In the Senate campaign Hiram's man, Judge Robert M. Clarke, opposes the present Senator Samuel M. Shortridge, staunch Coolidge-ite. Hiram has taken the stump and is yelping wildly that Senator Shortridge has betrayed his country by voting for the World Court. Four Hearstling newspapers with fat circulations re-echo the mighty Hiram. The only trouble with their battle cry is that Judge Clarke himself was once a World Court advocate.