Landon & Liquor

An ornament of Old Guard New York Republicanism is jowly, convivial Albert Ottinger. He was an Assistant U. S. Attorney General in the Harding Administration, was twice (1924 & 1926) elected Republican Attorney General of New York despite landslides for Democratic Governor Alfred E. Smith. In 1928 Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated him for Governor. After that "General" Ottinger, who enjoys a tall weak highball, spent his time propagandizing for Repeal. Keeping a finger in national politics, he organized a Landon-for-President movement in Manhattan long before the conventions, visited Alf M. Landon in Topeka before his nomination. Unimpressed by the Ottinger "Landon Clubs" John Hamilton pointedly neglected them when he organized the Landon pre-convention campaign in New York.

Still nursing that grievance was "General" Ottinger when he turned up one night last week to speak at the Republican Club of Astoria. L. I. Presumably repeating a conversation with the nominee, he croaked: "Governor Landon believes prohibition is a State and not a National issue. Alf M. Landon may not take a drink in a Dry State but he will in a Wet State."

Pained by the irregularity with which the question of Nominee Landon's drinking habits had been brought into the open, Republican spokesmen in Topeka let it be known that Alf M. Landon 1) "drank" as a young man; 2) now drinks only an occasional beer; 3) keeps neither beer nor liquor in the icebox or pantry of the Executive Mansion of Dry Kansas; 4) might possibly take a highball in a Wet State although he has often refused one; 5) regards drinking "tolerantly."

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