Wet and Wetter

It was a warm week in New York State. At the end of it, Nominee Smith motored down Long Island to Hampton Bays, where stands Canoe Place Inn, oldtime roadhouse patronized in summer by Tammany politicians and Southampton society folk, in winter by hungry & thirsty duck-hunters. Surrounded by friends, family and the ears and eyes of the public press, he plumped into the salt water in a white-striped bathing suit with a gold religious medal hung around his neck. He rolled like a porpoise, spouted like a whale, chortled like a boy. The cooling off had been made doubly welcome by a series of political backfires during the week--the Owen "bolt," the Simmons resignation (see p. 11), the digging up of some anti-cigaret legislation which the Nominee had introduced under pressure as a young legislator, and the republication of that same legislator's entire voting record on legislation touching public morals. The latter "expose" was the work of Willian Allen White, the round-faced, good-humored, politically astute editor of the Emporia, Kan., Gazette, stout friend of Nominee Curtis. Earlier in the month Editor White had sketched the Smith record in an editorial and Nominee Smith had answered sketchily. He had accused Editor White of giving currency to inaccuracies broadcast by a New York clergyman-propagandist (TIME, July 23). Editor White had engaged two investigators to scour the New York Assembly's Journal. Last week, armed with a mass of documents including photostats, he spoke forth again. He said: "Governor Smith has been a busy man, a fine, useful American citizen since he left the New York Assembly [in 1915]. But, in his many activities, he has forgotten much of his Assembly record. . . . "He, with all his intelligence, with all his honesty, with all his courage--seems to have left his high qualities in escrow with Charles Murphy [oldtime Tammany Boss] when he went to Albany and there made a Tammany record on the saloon, the gambler and the prostitute. "No Klansman in a boob legislature, cringing before a Kleagle or a Wizard, was more subservient to the crack of the whip than was Al Smith--ambitious and effective and smart as chain lightning--in the Legislature when it came to a vote to protect the saloon, to shield the tout and to help the scarlet woman of Babylon, whose tolls in those years always clinked regularly in the Tammany till. . . . "I am throwing no mud at Governor Smith. He is honest, he is brave, he is intelligent. I don't question his motives. To get where he is with the crowd he had to do what he did and from his standpoint it was probably worth the price. But the real point of interest in that record for the American people now, if Governor Smith will defend it, is the picture of Tammany putting pressure on fine, aspiring young men like Al Smith . . . how it overlays his conscience with Tammany psychology. . . . "I make no claim here that Smith is a Tammany plug-ugly. I honor him for having risen from the debasing subserviency. . . . This record is, of course, the old record of a young man. But the young man rose on this record. . . . The Tammany system goes on today as it went on 100 years ago and, indeed, as it will go on in our American cities unless Governor Smith and the sinister forces behind him are overthrown." Editor White, who was in Manhattan on his way to Europe, proposed to publish the Smith voting record the day he sailed. The New York Evening Post (Republican) anticipated him. It, too, had exhumed the record.. While awaiting Nominee Smith's reply to the subtlest, heaviest attack he had yet suffered in his greatest campaign, voters had an opportunity to scrutinize the subject-matter of the controversy. Sample items of Assemblyman Smith's record of votes (1903-15) are as follows: Liquor A vote (1904) to except hotels from the provisions of a local option bill. A vote (1905) to except New York City from the places affected by a bill giving local option to districts where 40% of the voters might petition for it. Also, three votes against this whole bill at various stages of its passage. A vote (1906) against a bill providing local option by petition of a simple majority of the voters of a district. Votes (1914, 1915) against bills providing for the creation, by popular vote, of anti-saloon territory, and enforcement of prohibition within such territory. Votes (1915) to stifle in committee bills providing for a state referendum on prohibition. Votes (1907-11) to provide exceptions to the laws prohibiting sale of liquor within 200 feet of a church or school. A vote (1911) for extending the hours when liquor might be sold.

Gambling

Votes (1908) both for and against bills providing prison sentences for racetrack gamblers. Votes (1910) against two bills tightening the gambling laws.

Sunday Laws

Votes (1907, 1910, 1911, 1915) to legalize Sunday baseball. A vote (1909) against Sunday theatre performances. A vote (1910) in favor of letting Jews keep their stores open on Sunday. When Editor White said that Assemblyman Smith had voted for "The Scarlet Woman of Babylon," he was stretching a point. But he had some basis of fact to go on. There used to be a fine distinction between hotels and saloons. Half-saloon, half-hotel were the assignation houses which evaded the intent of an act known as the Raines law, by renting regularly a specified number of bedrooms and handing out sandwiches or "free lunch" with drinks in lieu of serving meals. The Smith record included votes to enable such establishments to continue in business. At no time, of course, did he vote for organized bawdy houses of the white slave trade. . . . Still awaiting the Smith reply, voters were reminded that Editor White in a magazine piece which he sold two years ago said: "Smith has exactly the same faults and virtues as marked Jackson and Lincoln. . . . Because Cleveland, Mc-Kinley, Roosevelt and Coolidge knew the game--the dirty game if you will--they avoided many pitfalls and were able to walk with the children of light much further than they would have walked had they not learned much from the angels of darkness. . .." "Smith took orders from Tammany until he was able to give orders . . . and when he went to the New York State Constitutional Convention he was fairly free."