Life — July 19, 1928 — page 5: what you’re looking at

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

DL Or Ee Mmm a OTT | y UE TUS ies Ue Leis Es REO Bt) este acerca We VASSAR A|, [F 7% LIFE THE BOOTLEGGERS w. AL SMITH Tex Rickard Never Promoted a Bigger Fight Than That Tex Rickarp was one of the Famous Fifteen citizens who came out strong against Bunk and asked me to run for President on an Anti-Bunk ticket. Now I guess he’s sorry he did it. The way things are looking with the seat sale for this Tunney-Heeney “fight” as Tex calls it, Tex is wishing he'd never got himself mixed up with a gang that’s trying to eliminate Bunk from public life. Take Bunk away, and where is Tex going to get his customers from? He's got to pay Tunney a “Cool Million,” and to raise that amount of jack he’s got to ct the public's interest up to “Fever Feat." Now you can’t get the public hot about anything unless you feed "em some Bunk. A lot of the smartest men that ever lived, including Tex himself, learned that in infancy. When they first started thinking up Alabis to tell Teacher the day they dident do their home-work they were mastering the elementary grades of Bunk. So I'm afraid our party will have to get along without any more support from Tex Rickard. He’s walking out on us “T cant see the ring!” In the Tunney-Dempsey fights, it was the “Ringside” seat-holder who needed a tele- scope. by WILL ROGERS because he never did belong in a party that is for. the benefit of those that want NOTHING and have a reasonable ex- pectation of getting it. eee Anyway, the Biggest Fight this summer isn’t being promoted by Tex Rickard, which is proved by the fact that seats for this fight are free. The real battle is between Al Smith and the Bootleggers. Al is trying to ruin their business. Now a lot of the Bootleggers were friendly to Al because he advertised their product by talking about it. They dident vote for him but they liked him. But now Al is getting himself in wrong with the Moneyed Element by actually coming out against Prohibition and talking as though he'd step in and do something about it if elected. Among the many letters that have come in to my Campaign Headquarters is one called “An Open Letter to Al Smith.” It reads as follows: “Hon. Acrrep E, (‘A’) Ssurn, “Str: “Tt is with a sense of alarm ap- proaching consternation that the large grou, of represenaaive business men for which I have the honor to speak officially has noted the widespread, indeed nation- wide, publicity which has been given by may I be permitted frankly but with the utmost friendliness to point out to you and to those who are ready and eager to adopt the pronouncements of a statesman of your recognized sagacity, what may be the results of following the course to which you have inclined your spoken approval? “It should be unnecessary to state that no other industry is so essential to the continued health and well-being of every man, woman and child in the country as that of the surreptitious supply of alco- holic stimulant, or as it is more pop- ularly known, of bootlegging. “To the amazing rapidity, fungols in its swiftness, of the growth of bootlegging, at once our youngest and largest indus- try, every American citizen may point with pride. Barely ten years old, it sup- plies every American home, with the ex- ception of a few isolated Kansas settle- ments, with the chief necessary of mod- ern life. In its brief but spectacular career it has enlisted the services of the workers of every known trade and pro- fession. Iron and steel workers erect its the press to your publicly expressed views respecting rmodifcaticn 3 the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution. “Far less acute students of political economy than yourself are aware that modification is the first step toward re- peal, and repeal in this case cannot fail to react unfavorably upon the moral, phys- ical and economic welfare of the nation to the last degree. “As the humble spokesman for the business group of and for which I speak, “I can't see the customers!” In the Tunney-Heeney fight, Tex Rickard is the one who seems to be having trouble with his vision. comicbooks.com