Judge — May 16, 1925 — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Editor, Norman Actbony. .tassiate Editors, Williaa Mortis U- V HorvER would understand the Hindenburg victory in Germany should see “The Last Laugh.” te Here is a movie made in Germany which dramatizes for all time the German respect for brass buttons. * ey sa ae An old man, the doorman of a hotel, with whiskers and a uniform that would make von Tirpitz look Ii bellhop, becomes too old to shoulder the trunks of arriving guests. The hotel management finds bim an easier job, that of attendant in the men’s lavatory. “4a oe But he has to swap his uniform for a white jacket, and the difference to him measures the distance between heaven and hell—the heaven of admiration and honor and deference from all his neighbors, and the hell of con- tempt and repudiation even in his own family. sa eee “The Last Laugh" is one of the best movies ever produced. If you haven't seen it already, go to see it, and then if the Kaiser comes back you will know why. The Sinner and the Evangelist T must hurt a lot of people—Mr. Bryan, for instance: to think w un extraordinary record as Governor and political leader Al Smith has been making these past months. It must hurt Mr. Bryan doubly when he compares his own record in the interim with Al Smith's. Briefly, Al, at) great financial sacrifice, has been serving for a meager salary his third term as Governor of New York. He was the only member of his party to be elected to State offiee in the Republican landslide of last fall, and was surrounded, therefore, by politically hostile colleagues in executive jobs and faced by a politically hostile Legislature. The opposition gloated loudly and publicly over what they were going to do to the Governor and his program. It looked like a long, hard, thankless Albany winter for Al. It was; much longer and harder and more thankless than a Miami winter. But Al stuck—we can't remember that he spent a day of it in Florida—and scrimped along on his measly salary and fought all the rest of official Albany for his program. And won, single-handed, as probably no other Governor, as no President, has ever won against similar odds. He won a reduction for the people in their State income tax, after his opponents had laughed at the idea of passing it. He got his legislation through to eliminate grade-crossings. He compelled other concessions, and when the boastful legislators had crept home to nurse their licking he calmly vetoed their pet grabs. His t for a slight ting Ape complexion. ample and methods are said to accor of green lately noticeable in the Cool sae ae Wist was Bill Bryan up to all this time—Bill who has done and will continue to do all in his power to pro- tect the country from the contamination of Al Smith? Bill prefers to pass his winters in Florida, and last winter he capitalized his piety and patriotism by selling Miami real estate. Every day, except Sunday, durin the season the Great Commoner used his best Prince- Peace technique to boost speculation in the lots of the Coral Gables Miami Riviera Company. Shortly before noon he would arrive on the platform at the eastern end of the company's Venetian pool and from twelve to one he would picture, as only | the thousand or more gilt-edged prospects > can, to sembled there, the great advantage one might gain in buying Coral Gables lots and selling them later to others at a huge profit. Wehave not learned whether these mec! were opened and closed with prayer, but, at any rate, in return for his services Bill received a salary which, to quote a Mr. Hay of the company's promoti might well inspire envy in a President of the United States. (Another, but a less plausible, explanation of that tinge of green, aforesaid.) We Bill is the man whom the Democrats have nominated for President three times. He is the man who probably still wields more influence in the Democratic Party than any other—much more than Al Smith. You see, Al comes of immigrant stock. He was brought up in a big city where ther He is a wet; he is a Catholic. In a country which boasts of religious freedom and equality of opportunity there is really nothing he can do to o He may be the best Go 1 department, 42s © saloons. srcome these handicaps. rnor New York ever hnew, as conscientious as he is ab shrewd as he is human, as independent as he is bi rted, but still the Democrats will refuse to nominate him for President once, let alone three times. They prefer an evangelist who sells lots. It may be asked why Juvcr, a Republican, should concern himself over Democratic ndidates. ‘The answer is simply that as a good American he would like to see even the Democratic Party show more interest in men than in—well, what? taste in ¢ WMH comicbooks.com