New Britain herald., 1929-09-26
COL, HORACE MANN
 REMAINS MYSTERY
Return to Power Indicates Hoover Hopes to Hold South

months after he was commonly sup senkt
 Colonel Mann is the big mystery man who is given a great deal of the credit for helping break up the Solid South last fall on behalf of Mir. Hoover By the time Mir. Hoo- yer was inaugurated it began to look as if Colonel Manns only re- ward would be something less than q few kind words accompanied by a gentle shove back into the com parative obscurity from whence he came.
 But it was Claudius Huston who brought Mann into the presidential campaign and now Huston is chair man of the Republican national committee and it is understood that Mann will be given the pcacetime equivalent of his former job as southern campaign manager, which means that he will have a place be- hind the patronage pie counter in the south.
 He Has Hot Temper
 Mann is a Tennessee lawyer who has specialized here on tax cases, with a large practice before the bureau of internal revenue. He is somewhere around 50 years old, tall and heavy and pleasant in manner. Not a great deal else is known about him here, else he wouldn't qualify as a mystery man." At work. he is something of a driver and is apt to lose his tenn per. He can be thick skinned and hard boiled, as he proved in the campaign.
 It was Mann who sold the idea 10 Muston and Hoover that the re- publican ticket could pick up a few states in the south as the result Of widespread hatred of Governor Al Smkh. Until election night, most political Xports-including many epublCans-though the idea was a joke. But, meanwhile, Mann had been given some money and told to go ahead.
 Mann recognized the extent of the potential southern revolt against smith. But he realized that little or nothing could be done to capitalize it if national headquarters depended upon their so-calIed republican or ganizations in the south. The com ploXions of these organizations were often altogether too black and their methods altogether too nnsaNory to attract support from any consider able number of Smith demo- crats,
 So Mann proposed to aid and encourage the anti-Smith demo- crats to organize by themselves. It is not known just how or when he sold the plan to Hoover, but it was definitely sold because Mann was taken in from outside the party or ganization and appeared to be re- sponsihle to no one but Hoover himself Dr. Hubert Work, the ma tional chairman. seemed to think very little of the idea and he and Mann worked quite separately.
 The colonel parked himself in an incOnspicuous office in the Munsey building, far away from the na- tional headquarters. He had few scouts and agents who worked for him in the south and he himself re- ceived the visiting Hoovercrats as they came to Washington for money CT other aid. One young woman, working for a democratic newspaper. went to Mann's office and reported that she had been sent along to the ku kluN Alan newspaper here 10 gather ammuni- tion for the good work, but Mann denied it.
 He worked in the dark. No news issued forth from his office. His was the gumshoe office of the cam paign. He sent money and barrages of literature where he liked. with out regard to the G. o. P. organiZa- ton here or in the southern states. The inference was that Mann also made quite a few promises about the future to active democratic workers in the Hoover vineyard. He appears 10 have been in close touch with Senator Simmons of North Carolina just before that aged demo- crat bolted the Smith ticket, and he distributed thousands of copies of the senator's first anti-Smith speech some days before it was known that he would make such speech.
 Thanks to Mann. the Hoovercrat organizations were able to work lican organizations, though botf worked to the same end. It may be that as many southern states would have gone for Hoover anyway, but Mann had much more to do witf the winning of them than any other single person.
 After election it appeared tha the colonel would be the big re. publican patronage boss in tht south. His activities went far tt support that idea for a while. Ther he began to clash with some of the other boys. He wasn', permitted te work independently any more Finally there came what seemed to be an open break between Manr and most of the republican organi zation, resulting from row as tt whether Mann's friends should b, recognized. Mr. Mann went out O. the picture. Shortly before the in. auguration he was understood t have had a violent disagreement with Huston because the latte would not support his demands fo cabinet post for southerner.
 Three Men Get the Job
 The patronage problem was sub s2qucntly turned over to a trium virate consisting of Postmaste General Walter Brown, Whit House Secretary Walter Newton an National Committee Counsel Jame Francis Burke Just what has bee