The sun., 1919-10-20
COY. SMITH WAITS
REPLY OF HEARST
Friends in Tammany Assure
Use of Carnegie Hall for
Expected Debate.
EDITOR is STILL SILENT
Fight Expected to Centre First
in City Hall in Struggle
Over the Budget.

Carnegie Han is at the disposal or
Gov. Smith any time this week to con-
tinpe his description of the public ana
private character of William Randolph
Hearst If the Governor will accept IT,
A group of men and women In all
walks OF life united yesterday In urg-
ing the Governor to renew his attack on
Mr.. Hearst and the Hearst newspapers
irrespective of whether Mr.. Hearst ac-
cepts the Governors offer to debate
their personal and official characters
The Governor is reported as anxious
TO await Mr. Hearsts acceptance or re-
fusal of his offer to debate. His friends
ere enthusiastically urging him to go
on any way.
This movement was the most tangible
contribution In a flood of approval
which reached the Governor at the
Bitmore yesterday from persons VINO
had read his speech of Saturday decry-
ing his chief abuser as "a man VINO
could not be loyal to anything"
1t became plain during the day that
whether or not Charles F. Murphy ana
his advisers in Tammany Hail were
lriyy to the Governors determination
to attack Mr.. Hearst or whether or not
they approved or dsapproved II in ad-
vance, they are with the Governor 10
the hilt In what has plainly become
war to the knife Important persons
in Tamrnany Hall are involved In the
offer of Carnegie Hail. Others fiocked
TO the Biltmore yesterday and last eve
ming to pat al" on the back me
Governor himself spent the day after
church at golf on Long Island. IL
could not be learned who were his OPP
ponents and partners on the links.
Fight WIN Centre Here.
The political turn which the Governor
response to the attacks upon him has
taken makes it certain that the Incident
will now go far beyond debates. 1t Will
go far beyond an exchange OF epithets
with the experts of the Hearst cartoon
and editorial forces on one side ana the
best two listed debater that the bear pit
of the Assembly Chamber in Albany ever
saw break a legislative head with an
epigram from Fulton fish market. For
the present fight promises to centre In
the City Hall. New York.
There, at the moment. lies pending
the tentative city budget. In this tenta-
tive budget flows the life blood OF the
Hearst Hylan political combination Still
amalgamated with this strain hows
healthy tide of Tammany sustenance,
put there when these three good fairies
united at the birth of the present Al
ministration. The Hearst-Hylan comoi-
nation at the present time has the votes
in the budget committee and the Board
of Estimate to fire the first shots-and
to fire the first victims from the payroll.
But within the last forty eight hours II
has become increasingly evident that the
Hylan Administration is going to need
a lot of legislation at Albany II 1t Is to
keep the city clear of confscatory taxes
and itself clear of complete shipwreck.
Such legislation has to be approved by
the Governor. The Governor also Is not
without power over certain distinguished
heads in the State Government which
survived the original break of William
Randolph Hearst from the ranks OF the
Governors supporters.
May Harm Men on Ticket.
Thus the three wings ofthe Democracy
in this city will finish their municipal
campaign with the bitterest kind OF
guerilla warfare going on within the
ranks. Democrats themselves were will
ing TO admit that the result might be
fatal to the Judiciary candidates If not
to the chances of men like James A
Foley, who has been SO far little wor-
ried over his chance Of election as Sur
rogate.
In connection with Gov. Smiths out
burst against Mr.. Hearst and his news
papers at the luncheon of the Womens
Democratic Club at the Hotel Astor
Saturday, an interesting story was told
yesterday among his intimates. The
Hearst papers have been hammering
the Governor hardest on the accusation
that he was responsible for the high
price of milk. They have depicted him
in all the horrible attitudes of tram
pling on starving children.
Now the Governor has big family
OF his own-five. He has an even larger
flock of little nephews and nieces who
live in his old home in the Second AS
sembly district and with his mother IN
Brooklyn. The Governor Is devoted to
them all. They have been the pride
of their neighborhood for years because
their uncle was great man. But the
neighborhood Juveniles read the Hearst
cartoons. The Smith children fell moi
only from glory but into torment
When they saw their uncle they poured
their woes into his ears That, accord
ing to the gossip, is what made the
Governor decide to break his silence.
the Governor and Mr.. Hearst goes much
further back than that. however. II
dates in the first place from the nomina'
ton of Mayor Hylan. Al Smith otter
has told his friends that he considered
the New York Mayoralty a bigger jot
than the 9Governorshlp, He felt at tbs
time that Hylan was nominated that q
world from Hearst would have swung
the nomination Lis way.
When the Breach Began.
The Hearst papers supported him II
the campaign for the Governorship and
were with him during the first part OF
his administration. The first rumble OF
trouble came when Senator James ]
Walker, personally intimate with Gov
Smith for many years and a stanci
Tammany man. introduced the bills IT
the Legislature which would have taker
certain political advertising from tn,
Hearst papers and thrown II into tn,
hands Of the agency of Phil Donahue OF
Tammany Hall. The bills were no
passed under a storm of disapproval
Later the word circulated in Albany
that the Governor did not agree with
Hearst on the famous Carson Martin
bills eimed TO permit street railways tc
increase their fares. The bills never
came TO the Governor, but his attltud,
toward them is reported TO have annoyed
Mr. Hearst.
The final split came over the nomina.
ton Of Robert J. Luce to the Supreme
Court Mr.. Hearst openly attacked tn.
appointment by the Governor and Their
continued the attacks with the ugl,
series OF articles and cartoons chargine
mat Gov Smiths complacence toward
GNnN ~.