The Smith Week

Speech. Just prior to moving from its oldtime site downtown to a temporary site at 2 Park Avenue (directly opposite the Prohibition Administrator's headquarters), Tammany Hall heard an address from its most distinguished son. The country heard it, too. The son was quite brazen about it and said:

"I have listened to a great deal of public and very caustic criticism of Tammany, and I asked myself the question: How can anything live in this country 139 years that is not all right? . . . Worthy Grand Sachem, I could speak on this platform for an hour and a half on the record and history of the Tammany Society as dedicated to the principles set forth in the Constitution of this Government. ... I will conclude with a congratulation and thanks to the society of which I am proud to be a member and an officer. . . ."

Plans. While in Manhattan, Nominee Smith talked with potent Democrats from far and near. It appeared that the chief campaign wizard of the Brown Derby would be the nominee himself. A speaking tour of East Coast, West Coast, all around the land was in the mapping.

Raskob. Potent in the Smith background, financially, psychologically, is John Jacob Raskob, vice president of the E. I. du Pont de Nemours Co., chairman of the finance committee of the General Motors Corp., "biggest U. S. business man." Mr. Raskob was one of Mrs. Smith's escort home from Houston. Last week Mr. Raskob's son, William F. Raskob II, was killed in a motor smash. Nominee Smith made straight for Centerville, Md., and attended the funeral at the Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church. Beside Nominee Smith walked Mr. & Mrs. Pierre du Pont.

"Yeah?" Returning to Albany, the Smith train paused at Kingston, N. Y. In shirt sleeves, the Nominee grinned from the back platform.

A workman: "Hey there, Al, I voted for you three times the other day!"

Al: "Yeah? Don't get caught at it."

Summons. "Now that the storm of battle is clearing away, I hope I can prevail upon you to spend a night in Albany . . . and confer with me on the conduct and issues of the campaign in which we are all engaged together . . . soon."--Alfred E. Smith, last week, to Missouri's white-crested, Republican-flaying Senator James A. Reed. Senator Reed telephoned from St. Louis that he would go East directly.

Mate. Nominee Robinson appeared in Albany, accompanied by the Jesse Holman Jones convention "Angel." Farm matters were discussed.