The Daily Alaska empire., 1944-10-04
Happy Warrior," Gov. Al Smith, Who Made Brown Derby Famous, Dies Today

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 ,Continued from Page One) He had little or no formal educa- tion, having to earn his way or the streets of New York from tht age of l2 when his father, dray- man on the lower East Side, died
 But in the work and subject tC which Smith devoted the greater part of his life-the science o1 government-none in his own state was better versed, and few states men in the country had finel grasp of national problems.
 Smith was born under Brooklyn Bridge on Manhattans East Side December 30, 1873. When his father died, he was forced to contribute to the family purse, which at first was bolstered meagerly from the income of a basement candy shop run by his mother.
 At first Smith peddled news papers, then became truck l chaser" on the cobbled streets fronting the East River. He ad- vanced to the position of a ship ping clerk in an oil firm, then as an assistant in a Fulton Market fish house, and finally-in early manhood-to the post of shipping clerk for a Brooklyn manufacture ing company.
 It was at 22-in 1895-that he Stumbled into politics through ap- pointment as a clerk and subpoena server for the commissioner of jurors. A popular young man in his neighborhood-the old first as- sembly district-Smith caught the eye of Tom Foley, Tammany leader, and there began a friendship that was to carry Smith far and to last until Foley died i'll 1924.
 Assembly His College"
 In 1903, at Foley's desire, Smith was nominated as assemblyman from his district. He served 12 years in the lower house of the state legislature at Albany, be- coming Democratic leader in 1911 and speaker in 1913. In later life he characterized his years in the assembly as my high school and my college"
 He was one of the outstanding figures in the state constitutional convention in 1915, and the same year was elected sheriff of New York county.
 Ineligible by law to succeed him. self as sheriff, Tammany Hall put him forth as candidate for presi- dent of the board of aldermen Smiths first political venture be- yond Manhattan. He polled tre- mendous vote in the city-wide elec- tions in all the five boroughs of Greater New York.
 Tammany, recognizing his great vote-getting power, ran him for governor in 1918. Smith defeated Governor Charles s. Whitman with the same ease with which he gar- nered the vote of his old first dis trict for the assembly.
 Smiths first political defeat fol- lowed two years later, when Na- than L. Miller was carried into office as governor on the Harding landslide after eight years of na- tional Democratic administration.
 Retires
 Announcing his retirement from public life after this setback Smith became chairman of the board of directors of the United States Trucking Corporation. In the en- suing two years, however, he was drawn again into politics when William Randolph Hearst began exerting a powerful influence over New York state Democracy and an- nounced his intention of being candidate for governor.
 By 1922 party leaders were ready to patch up their differences with Hearst, but Smith would have none of it. Spurning offers to run with Hearst as the Democratic candi- date for the United States Senate or to let Hearst have the senate and he run for governor-Smith announced himself a candidate for governor and opposed Hearst for any place at all on the ticket.
 Second Retirement In 1928
 Smith dominated the state Demo- cratic conve ntion and when Hearst's candidacy collapsed, he dominated the nominations, too. He compromised ot the extent of agreeing upon one of Hearst's lieu tenants, Dr. Royal s. Copeland, health commissioner of New York City, as the candidate for the fed eral senate.
 In the election, Smith turned the tables on Governor Miller. He and Copeland were given office by sev- eral hundred thousand majority.
 Smiths other gubernatorial vic- toriac xuara Mon 0uer ThandOre