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As a roving longshoreman, gold miner and fisherman in British Columbia and Alaska, Governor Olson had studied law by correspondence, returned to Minneapolis in 1915 to be admitted to the bar, to marry and to become county attorney. In 1927 his drive against city graft won him fame. A forceful speaker. Governor Olson today plays golf in the 80s, drives a Chrysler. With small personal means, he is said to be still trying to raise the last payment on his campaign expenses.
Cigaret Democrat. Jubilant Democracy, back in office for the first time in 16 years, swarmed up Boston's Beacon Hill, packed themselves in under the great gilded dome of the State House to watch Joseph Buell Ely become Governor. Out on the Common guns boomed. Governor Ely's inaugural address recommended: 1) a $20,000,000 bond issue to help unemployment; 2) legislative action to memorialize Congress to modify the Volstead Act; 3) a curb on labor injunctions; 4) investigation to regain for New England full control of the Boston & Maine R. R. and the New York, New Haven & Hartford. Mrs. Ely, wearing orchids, beamed on her husband.
That evening, at a military ball Mrs. Ely got 150 talisman roses, and the Governor danced about briskly with officers' wives.
Fifty next Washington's Birthday, Governor Ely, able lawyer of Westfield. bears a strange resemblance to the State's last Democratic Governor — that great vote-getter, big-faced, handsome David Ignatius Walsh, now U. S. Senator. Of middling height and weight, Governor Ely violates all rules of Massachusetts Democracy by smoking cigarets instead of rancid cigars. A quick, flashy smile has rendered him immensely popular. As Governor, he transferred from his own Chrysler to the Chrysler sedan furnished by the State but kept his private chauffeur. At the State House he received, among many another, a great floral tribute from Motorman Walter Percy Chrysler.
Brother Charlie. When Charles Wayland ("Brother Charlie") Bryan, brother of the late Great Commoner, was Mayor of Lincoln (1915-17), conservative citizens thought that he, with his municipal coal yards and employment agencies, was pretty progressive. When as Governor (1923-25) he began the direct sale of gasoline in competition with private companies, the same people were sure he was a radical. When last week he delivered his inaugural address as Governor for the second time, they were convinced that he was downright revolutionary. Were he as able as his late Brother William he would be to these people infinitely more dangerous.
Now 63, still tall and strong, balder and homelier than ever, with snapping blue eyes and a white mustache more bristly than ever, Governor Bryan frankly avows a purpose to drive out "monopolistic business." Into the discard has gone his black skull cap which made him a marked figure at the 1924 Democratic National Convention and helped win him the vice presidential nomination on the Davis ticket. Though a Democrat, his chief political support is a large bloc of independent voters who also insure the regular re-election of Republican Senator George William Norris.