The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-06-29
NEA Service Writer

!
 Chicago - Al Smith of New York
 | Roaring, victorious, irresistible lion?
 Sacrificial lamb?
 Dog in the manager? Those are the respective atti. tudes of Al and his friends. of the favOrite sons who owe their small ! the followers of Governor Frank sewed up the invention weeks ago had Smith not stepped out in opposition.
 Take any viewpoint you likc-- and still Al smith Is the big show nt this color.ul national Demo- cratic convention. The convcD ton began when Al reached Chi cago and 1t isn't over until he has said his last word.
 Still a Happy Warrior. in the face of odds. Still the antithesis of q puYsyfooter, sitting gaily and confidently before 75 10 100 news papermen, snapping off fast an. swers to their fire or questions. Bringing laugh after laugh in which his broad grin joins every time.
 Perfectly self-assured but z. not belligerent, he sits behind table at the end of ballroom, legs crossed and puffing away at . cigar. His unbuttoncd vest ts held together only by q watch- chain. His necktie, q stickpin iiI 1t, floats outside despite Q gen cral immaculatcness. Red-fGced and slightly graycr than four years ago, he Is q handsoner man than the caricatures would have you believe.
 Enjoying the Show
 Al. whether or not he believes he can stampede the conven- ti0n. seems to be enjoying this show more than anybody. He en- tered the picture in manner which Indicated full awnreness that everything prior to his entry pie of hundred newspapermen testified to the same opinion when they piled in on his first press conference. Subsequently they de- mandcd two conferences a day. al though Al gave them only one. Next day there were meetings of the resolutions and credentials committees in progress ,simultane ously, but all the star reporters here were assigned to Al's con- ference.
 His famous wisecracks seem to come more swiftly and effectively than ever. Each time he grins as if to say: How do ya like that one? Ask me anotherY"
 He answers. usually, directly and with force as well as wit An swers almost anything. in fact. cx- cept as to promising to support the nominee of the convention.
 What about stopping Roose welt? "I'm out to beat the ''stop Smith campaign that began year and q half ago"
 Seen Jim Tarle!y, Roosevcit's manager? "Yeah. going up in the elevator"
 Seen the Roosevelt map of Roosevelt strength? "Yeah, what do they represent--acres or peo- pie? see they've got Minnesota coiorcd for Roosevelt. There's, Il contest up there. There ought to be q stop-iight on that!"
 And occaslonallyA q sharp, in- cisive No" or "Yes!" which somehow seems to imply far more than the mere word. That East Side accent of Aps often lends it. self to infinite tonAl sarcasm or even to fcrvent sincerity.
 Contrast With Hoover
 Anyway, he has been Gods gift to correspondents since that dispiriting republican con- vcntion and you automatically contrast him to Herbert Hoover with reference to the presidents $ press conference manner.
 Hoover 1s quiet, dignified and heavy. His humor, always far from spontaneous. is iab0red and hardly ever keen. He appears un- easy oftener than he seems self assured and he Is more petuiant than forceful.
 Half the, time. Hoover calls off the press conferences altogether. When he does have them the ques- tions must be submitted before hand and he answers whatever he chooses, discarding the rest. He Issues some prepared paragraphs for quotation and says other things, seldom exciting, which must not bd attributed. to him. You can't fire questions at him. He sometimes beams, but he never seems to have any fun.
 The contrast partly explains why most newspapermen are So much ionder of Al why they made 70 much of him after he came. Al Is copy. He is warm and human. whether he would have made n better president is something else again and no concern of q mere writer of feature stories.
 Which means that we can now turn to another contrast and take