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> Rhode Island Republicans, convening at storm-battered Providence, nominated for Governor the bearer of a name famed in many things save politics—William Henry Vanderbilt, 36, son of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt who went down with the Lüsitania. Scion Vanderbilt has dabbled in Rhode Island politics since he became a State Senator ten years ago. His mother, Mrs. Paul FitzSimmons of Newport, is Republican National Committeewoman. Accepting the nomination, Politician Vanderbilt promised he would seek neither higher office nor a second term. His opponents: Democratic Governor Robert E. ("Fighting Bob") Quinn; Walter E. O'Hara, operator of Narragansett Park race track (which Governor Quinn closed last year), running on a "Square Deal" ticket.
> Nominated by petition to run as an independent for Governor of Nebraska was the skull-capped oldster who has held that office thrice: Charles Wayland Bryan, 71, brother of the late William Jennings Bryan. One of his platform planks: the Townsend Plan.
> It was reported last month that the Department of Justice would not go to bat for Socialist Norman Thomas in his complaint under the Lindbergh Law (on kidnapping) against Boss Hague and the police of Jersey City who bum's-rushed him aboard a Manhattan-bound ferryboat when he tried to speak for civil liberties last spring. Such a storm of indignation rose from Liberals that the Department quickly disclaimed the report, said it was still studying the Thomas case. Last week Attorney General Cummings announced that evidence collected by G-Men would be placed before the Federal Grand Jury at Newark next fortnight—but the New Deal would not name its potent Jersey City ally. Boss Hague, in the proceedings; indictments would be sought only against two policemen.
> Senator Edward R. Burke, Nebraska's loud non-New Deal Democrat, returned from a trip abroad with plenty to say. Sample: "In the things Hitler actually is doing to bring about the well-being of the entire German people, I think that he is greater than Bismarck. He already has done more than Bismarck did for the masses of people."
> Also returning from Europe, Lawyer Benjamin Cohen of the White House Janizariat was besieged by newshawks, insisted he had had nothing but vacation. When the newshawks eyed his bulging briefcase he declared its contents: not State papers, but the Cohen pajamas and toothbrush.
> In Farmer "Bot" Smith's hilltop field at Fort Fairfield, Aroostook County, Maine, with a crowd of 4.000 standing around in the rain to watch, long-armed Republican Governor Lewis O. Barrows of Maine peeled off his coat to engage short-armed Democratic Governor Barzilla W. Clark of Idaho in a five-minute contest at picking potatoes—a prime product of both their States. Governor Clark pitched his spuds forward into his basket; Governor Barrows scrabbled backwards into a basket between his long, straddled legs (see cut). The winner: Maine's Barrows, 201 lbs. to 197 lbs. He apologized :"I probably had a four-pound rock in there." Idaho's Clark explained: "Your potatoes are smaller and more slippery than ours."