The Brown Derby

N. C. Tossing upon the tide of convulsive charges against Candidate Smith by Senator J. Thomas ("Tom Tom") Heflin, who mortally hates and fears the Roman Pope, was an allegation that scads of money had been spent for the Brown Derby in North Carolina. The Senate's campaign funds investigating committee went to Raleigh, N. C., and asked people-in-a-position-to-know. The total of Smith money exposed was $3,590.

Up in the Senate stood Alabama's Heflin to defend his allegations. "I have not any proof," he said, "but every citizen of North Carolina that I have talked to has said that we can prove it."

Lee S. Overman, North Carolina's junior Senator, protested. "The men who testified were responsible and high-toned," he said. But Senator Heflin, who yields to no man for responsibility or "high tone," roared on.

Then a little parched figure arose, on the Senate aisle, hard behind the seat of Democratic-Leader Robinson, whose lieutenant the little man is. It was 74-year-old Furnifold McLendel Simmons, Senator from North Carolina these 27 years, political uncle of Josephus Daniels and William Gibbs McAdoo, unchallenged boss Democrat of his State--until after the Brown Derby's visit to Biltmore, N. C., in April. During that visit, younger men in the State took a look at a man who seemed to promise a supremacy greater than that of little old Senator Simmons. Editorials appeared. Letters went around. Finally, the Senate investigators turned up, instead of a lot of Smith money, a lot of rebellious sentiment against the Simmons rule. Therefore, last week, in a whispery voice, Senator Simmons began a long, long speech which was as much the last stand of a local patriarch as it was the last stand of Tradition v. Tammany.

"Grateful as I am," said the whispery voice, "to the people of North Carolina, for the honors that they have conferred upon me, for the past 40 years. . . . I would rather be stripped of them all, stripped of all my earthly possessions, if they will just leave me in the home in which I was born and which has been the home of my ancestors since the Revolutionary War, than to see this man [Smith] nominated."

Senator Simmons would not accuse the Raleigh witnesses of lying. He did not grow noisy about it like Senator Heflin. But he was convinced that North Carolina was convinced that the Brown Derby was corruptive. Moreover, he said, Smith would be defeated in North Carolina "four or five to one." He paused for breath and then reiterated, that Candidate Smith's "derelictions" would be exposed, by the Republicans if not by him.

A few days later, delegates to North Carolina's state convention were elected in North Carolina's 100 counties. Returns were confused but the Brown Derby was clearly defeated. Senator Simmons was content. He still commanded his state. "They considered me the leader in the South against Smith's candidacy," he said.

Texas. Neutrality in Texas comes hard. At the Texas state convention last week, Governor Dan Moody declared himself "crucified" trying to mediate between his Klan friends and the friends of Candidate Smith. Some observers said they saw tears in the ordinarily cheerful Moody eyes as the red-headed young Governor, after siding with the Smith men to prevent instruction of the delegation against Smith, swung the convention to instruction-by-committee, which meant a loss of votes by Smith districts of the State. Governor Moody was heckled, called "double-crosser" by two factions. James E. Ferguson, discredited onetime (1915-17) Texas Governor, stood up and said that the Texas delegation's vote would make no difference in the nomination. Out of the confusion, finally, emerged Jesse Holman Jones, outstanding current "angel" of the Democracy, who financed its 1924 deficit and who obtained this year's convention for Houston, his home town. The munificent Mr. Jones was named Favorite Son by the "neutral" committee.

It was well-known, from his own utterance and statements in his newspaper (the Houston Chronicle) that Candidate Jones inclined to the Brown Derby. Last week his Manhattan office was jubilating over the fact that, one way or another, Candidate Jones had managed to defeat such omnipotent Manhattanites as J. P. Morgan, George F. Baker Sr. & Jr., Louise Tiffany and the Murray Hill Association, in getting the New York Board of Estimate to alter a long-standing zoning ordinance on Madison Avenue, between 38th and 39th Streets, which Mr. Morgan and the others wanted to keep residential. In one week, Jesse Holman Jones appeared to have received a double wage of distinction and commercial advantage for his political politeness.