"Mail Order" Magill

Out in Illinois where prairie winds whistle around the silos, where Chicago sprawls its boulevarded length along Lake Michigan, where gangsters play with guns and bootleg in Cicero and East St. Louis, there are now three candidates for U. S. Senator:

1) George E. ("Boss") Brennan, Democrat, a chubby Irishman of the back room political school, who is backed by the Wets. He is now in the hospital with his one good leg in a cast, but he has an able wife who makes campaign speeches for him.

2) Frank L. ("Insullated") Smith, Republican, whose candidacy was aided financially and hindered ethically by some $100,000 worth of Samuel Insull's public utility slush. Mr. Smith is a Dry.

3) Hugh S. ("Mail Order") Magill, independent Republican Dry, who is backed by Julius Rosenwald in "a revolt of good citizenship" against the two other "slush" candidates. In August, Mr. Rosenwald, head of the mail order house of Sears, Roebuck & Co., visited President Coolidge, is believed to have told him about the grimy political situation in Illinois. Mr. Rosenwald says that he, himself, is "a dub in politics" but that he is firmly convinced of the worthiness of Mr. Magill. Mr. Magill's name will be put on the November ballot as the result of a petition filed last week and signed by 10,000 citizens.

The new candidate is not a politician, but a onetime school teacher from downstate and a general secretary of the International Council of Religious Education. He believes in God, Abraham Lincoln (whom his father knew well), Calvin Coolidge, and the 18th Amendment.

"Boss" Brennan and the Democrats are jubilant over Mr. Magill's candidacy. They expect him to poll about 200,000 votes and cut heavily into Mr. Smith's downstate Dry strength. Thus, with the Republican Drys split and with Mr. Brennan looming in the Wet districts of Cook County (Chicago), East St. Louis, and Peoria, the Democratic camp has reached a peak of hopefulness.