Solos & Ducts

Last week's developments in the presidential campaign headlined the following names for the subjoined reasons:

Hiram Johnson, rambunctiously independent Republican Senator from California, met newshawks in Chicago on his way to Washington. Pressed for a statement, he seized a piece of copy paper and scribbled: "The decision of Mr. Coolidge not to become a candidate next year entitles him to the highest praise of the American people. If Mr. Hoover were to make a like decision, he would have the undying gratitude of the rank and file of the Republican party." Asked if he himself would be a candidate. Senator Johnson snapped: "Quit kidding me! When I'm a candidate you'll know about it. I don't see why certain people have to be so coy about other people's political hopes. Is it any matter for kidding if a man has a desire to gratify his political ambitions?"

Charles Curtis, Vice President of the U. S., returned to Washington from Los Angeles to decide whether to seek renomination or run for the Senate in Kansas. Asked if he had made up his mind, he roared: "No! And nobody is making this decision but me-Charlie Curtis and when I make a statement, I will make it. . . . Everywhere through the West I was greeted by big crowds-from 200 to 1.500 persons at each station. No, I didn't make speeches, just shook hands. At a couple of places they held the train 15 minutes and even at that I couldn't begin to shake hands with everybody. Really, it was amazing!"

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Governor of New York, had Alfred Emanuel Smith to lunch at his Manhattan home. Because of Mr. Smith's apparent reluctance to endorse the Roosevelt candidacy, because of their quarrel over reforestation in the last election (TIME. Nov. 16), Democratic observers thought they saw large political significance in this first meeting in four months between the two men. Mr. Smith, wearing his Brown Derby, shouldered his way through a thronging Press in the Roosevelt library. "Hello, Governor, how are you?" he galled out .cordially. "Hello, Al, I'm mighty glad to see you," replied Governor Roosevelt. Then the library doors were closed on the newshawks. "You know," explained the Governor, "Al's voice and mine are both penetrating." Two hours later Mr. Smith emerged to remark:

"I had a good meal."

"What did you talk about?"

"We talked State finances. That makes four words, don't it?"

"No talk of politics?"

"Not a word. Politics went out the window."

Later Governor Roosevelt reported: "We ate, and discussed the financial affairs of the State."

"No politics?"

"State finances. I said. You know what State finances are."

Few New Yorkers believed that Messrs. Roosevelt & Smith were telling the whole truth about their luncheon.

William Henry ("Cocklebur Bill") Murray, Governor of Oklahoma, went to Des Moines, addressed the national convention of the Farmers' Union in the manner and speech of a presidential candidate.* Waitresses at the Shrine Tempie wore in their caps badges marked: ALFALFA BILL MURRAY FOR PRESIDENT.

Farmers lustily sang:

He'll be the next President He'll be the next President He'll be the next President. He's with us tonight. Waving a copy of the U. S. Constitution Governor Murray declared: "The next President must not be reared in the shadow of Wall Street. Such a man has no more conception of the Mississippi Valley than Satan has of the Kingdom of Heaven. . . . We've got to quit voting for lodges and churches and the geography that runs along the Harlem River and has a connection with Europe. . . . The common people are like a mule, young and vigorous but chained to a post so tight it can't move. I'm for breaking that chain. . . . The zero hour of hard times will come in the winter of 1933-1934.

* Not all Oklahoma favors a Murray candidacy. This month the Tulsa World said of its Governor: "He has a tricky mind and a cunning appeal. Like a jackass braying into an empty rain barrel, he mistakes the sound and fury for wisdom and profundity. He encourages and agitates unrest and class hatred. We apologize for having supported him. To go with him further is like walking through a slaughter house to an open grave."

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