Nice at a Price

Harry Hines Woodring of Topeka, Kans. is a man who loves nice things. As a private citizen, he likes tatting, antiques, and the view from his front porch, with its pleasant shrubbery and small lake. As a politician, he doesn't care to associate with the hoarse, beefy men of the smoke-filled hotel rooms.

Maybe rough-&-tough Charles Rooney should have known this. When Rooney, a red-faced, burly Irishman, returned from the Army to his Topeka law practice last spring, he thought he heard a call to arms. Harry Woodring was running for the Democratic nomination for Governor and was making a vigorous attack on Kansas' much-flouted dry law (TIME, Sept. 9). Rooney put up some campaign money ("If my wife knew how much, she'd file lunacy proceedings"), tapped his friends for more, and became Woodring's primary campaign manager.

But after Woodring won the nomination, Rooney found himself shoved into the kitchen while Woodring staged a one-man show in the parlor. Woodring scarcely mentioned the slate of World War II veterans Rooney had carefully put together; he ignored Rooney's advice, and overlooked him when state and county chairmen were picked. But what really burned up Rooney, who had contributed "rather handsomely," was Woodring's ungrateful statement that he had had no expenses in the campaign. That did it.

Last week a deed was filed in Topeka, giving title to a piece of land 454 ft. wide and 180 ft. deep. The property ran almost up to the Woodring front porch and bisected the small lake. The buyer: Charles Rooney.

Rooney announced that he would build a row of "cheap but durable" houses on the land. The Woodring porch would command a view of their back yards, and little else.

Rooney had no intention of being unreasonable. He let it be known that if he were offered what he could make on the houses, he "might be tempted" to sell. Said Rooney blandly: "As long as the campaign didn't cost Woodring anything, I thought I'd like to wind up the same way."

It looked as if Harry Woodring, if he wanted to keep things nice, would have some campaign expenses after all.

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