Evening star., 1926-04-10

! if either of them is eleted to the SEN
ate this Fall? Either one of them
might, with considerable justification
! point to the fact that he had defeated
/ Mr.. Brennan. who made his race on
I a wet platform, as a reason for
continuing to vote dry in the Senate.
! OutWardly, at least. the Republican
/ leaders are not taking Mr.. Brennan
and his wet candidacy seriously at this
! stage of the game. First, because of
! the Overwhelming Republican major
! ity in the State, and secondly, be
! cause they insist Mr.. Brennan is
! not the ideal man to carry the wet
/ standard in such a fight. To bolster
up their second reason for not regard
| ing the Brennan candidacy seriously.
| they say, that Brennan is too OBJ,
viously a wet" the type of politi-
clan who. in pre- prohibition days used
| the saloon to control politics. Further
more. they say that Mr.. Brennan does
! not look like a Senator" 1t is not
quite clear, however, just what a Sena-
| tor should look like. Little regard, ap-
! parently. has been paid to the looks
of m~n who have been elected in the
past to the Senate.
| Mr.. Brennan is a successful business
man. He has made very consider
! able sum of money in the insura nee
| business. He is the Democratic boss
of Chicago, stepping quietly into that
/ strategic position when Roger Sulli.
van died a number of years ago. Be
/ fore becoming boss he had been Mr.
Sullivan's lieutenant for Il long time.
MIR. Brennan realizes that if he is TO
win the Senate race he must have
Republican votes, and large numbers
of them. Already he has begun to seek
bipartisan support and boasts of it,.
He has indicated that if elected he
will so along with President Coolidge
in many OF his policies. There is no
secret that a bipartisan combination
has been in operation in Chicago for
several years to elect county officers
and judges. The charge is made by
the Deneen Republican faction that
the Grove Barrett Republican faction
has hooked up with Mr.. Brennan ana
his Democratic associates in the man
aGement of the politics of Chicago and
Cook County. Mr.. Brennans hope is
that this bipartisan combination may
help 10 elect him to the Senate. That
he will carry Chicago is the prediction
Of number of observers here.
Many of Own Party DRY"
on the other hand, Mr. Brennan
must face the fact that many of the
down ESTATE" Democrats are dry"
and also that q number of them do not
Ike him. lie may lose. therefore,
some Of his own party strength in his
campaign on the wet" platform he
has announced.
In Chicago, ii is estimated that
tWothirds of the population is either
foreign born or the sons and daugh'
ters of foreign-born parents. This adds
considerably to the strength of the
sentiment here for light wines and
beer. though there are plenty of
ChicagoanS of American extraction
that would be glad to see a modifica-
tion OF tEe liquor laws. When John
w. Davis. Democratic candidate for
President in 1924. spoke to a huge
crowd in the stock yards Coliseum he
stirred it to enthusiasm far greater
than at any other point in his speech
when he discussed personal liberty"
Personal liberty had just one meaning
to the crowd-''beer." There is very
large German-American vote in the
State, and it is eager for a modifica-
ton of the polstead act.
With beer and wine" as the issue
in the senatorial campaign, will dyed
in-the-Wool Republicans cast aside
their old affiliations to support Mr..
Brennan in large numbers merely for
ent bone-dry law? The Republican
leaders emphatically say they will not;
that many other matters will be con-
sidered necessarily in this fight.
among them whether it is better for
business to have a Republican or q
Democrat for Senator: that they de-
sire to support President Coolidge,
whose popularity in Illinois is as great
as ever, and who must have a Repub-
lican Senate to make his adminlStra-
ton effective.
Religion May BE Factor.
In the thick of the senatorial cam
Daign the religious issue may crop up,
it is said here. Mr.. Brennan, as
Catholic. may be the subject of just
such opposition as was responsible for
the Democratic debacle in Madison
Square Garden two years ago. The
klu kluX Khan is not as strong in
Illinois as in a number of the other
Middle-West States. but it has it's or
eanization. though. and the Kan has
been dry es well as anti-Catholic.
The ti.Saloon League is keeping
up its fight against certain members
of the State Legislature of Illinois
whom it read out of its ranks follow
ing the defeat last year OF its bill to
create a state prohibition commits
soner with S250.000 to spend in help
ing to enforce the dry" laws. The
league has indorsed so far only nine
candidates in Cook County for State
representatives and State senatorial
candidates in only four districts. For
congress the Anti-Saloon League has
indorsed only one Representative from
Cook County-Representa r.. w.
Sproul The league has also indorsed
two Representatives at large from ILL
rois-Richard Yates of Springfield and
Henry r. Rathbone Of Kenilworth. 1t
states that the position of both Re
publican candidates for the United
States Senate is satisfactory.
Brennan Foes Are Weak.
While Mr.. Brennan is regarded as
a sure winner in the Democratic
prinaries for the senatorial nomina-
tion, he has two candidates running
against him. One is James I. Nc
Dermott. former member of Congress
from the stock yards district, and the
other is James o. Monroe. Neither
is regarded as at all formidable.
Mr. Brennan has. too. the opposl-
ton of a number of prominent Demo-
Gratis, among them former Gov. Ed
ward +. Dunno, whose son is candl-
date for the board Of review. In
speech here Mr. Dunno denounced
the Brennan organization and Bren-
nan on account of the participation
by them in ''bi-partisan rule" urging
that the Democrats "go back to cleo
tions based on party principles; it is
up to the Democratic voters to say
whether they have had enough Of
Brennan But there is very little
likelihood of the Democrats saying
anything of the kind at this stage of