National Affairs: Unbefuddled

Since Alfred Emanuel Smith became the Democracy’s sheet anchor, many a Dry Democrat has “swallowed the anchor” with many a different kind of grin and grimace. Charles Wayland Bryan, brother and manager of the late William Jennings (“grape juice”) Bryan whose opposition to a Smith nomination in 1924 was second only to the McAdoo bitterness, is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Nebraska this year. His method of anchor-swallowing last week, was to announce that he would support the Democratic ticket from the president down, for the following reason: “The Prohibition issue which I have objected to having injected into national campaigns was brought to the fore by the Republican party, in order to befuddle the public and lead them away from the real issue of the campaign, an economic issue . . . specifically, farm relief.”