REPUBLICANS: Finale

(TIME, November 12, 1928) -- They were a strangely assorted collection of campaigners, supporters and voting notables who worked, spoke, contributed and gestured for a common end. It should be remembered as perhaps the greatest coalition campaign in U.S. history, beginning with the revolutionary Hoover nomination. Unaided if not opposed by the leaders in the powerful States -- Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas and most of the farm States -- the nomination virtually tore the G.O.P. apart and put it together again with new adjustments, relations and elements. Without a very genuine popular demand it could not have been done. The same factor was, ultimately, the fundamental strength of the Hoover campaign. The unity within the G.O.P. at the campaign's end was undoubtedly the result of circum- stances rather than management. Besides Hoover's popular strength, which won him the party's recognition, there was a formidable opponent, which stirred up party feeling as of old. Then there was the Prosperity slogan. That fitted party tongues of all sizes, shapes, colors. Third, deny it or not, strong instincts were in play to make for consolidation, instincts impolitely known as Snobbery, Bigotry and toward the end of the race, Conservatism.

Spokesmen Hughes and Borah were somewhat impeded in the East, towards the finish, by the popular impetus of Governor Smith's homeland campaigning and by the alertness of the Brown Derby's ablest assistant, the New York World. Editorial Writer Walter Lippmann and Governor Smith managed to draw both the Messrs. Hughes and Borah into side-arguments and self- explanations. Mr. Hughes was nettled to such an extent that he talked about "mudslingers," "wisecrack artists" and "calumny."

The Billy Sunday speeches through the South were paid for by Anti-Salooners, eight speeches at $200 per speech, including a revival in the church which President Coolidge attends (First Congregational, Washington). This attack was broadcast by the Fellowship Forum, national Klan-paper.

Senator Heflin's flat anti-Smith declaration was saved up until last week at Dothan, Ala., a town with a newspaper (the Eagle) which has said: "Oh Heflin. . . Oh Hell!" Cried the Senator, "I will vote against Al Smith, so help me God!" and exhausted most of his time with his well-known Anti-CAtholic tirade.

"Surprise." A Republican ace-up-the-sleeve was rumored Monday. After Governor Smith's final play that evening, the radio speeches, announced late as a "surprise," by Mrs. Christine Bradley South of Kentucky, James Francis Burke of Pittsburgh, Charles Evans Hughes of New York. The first was a prayerful appeal to U.S. womanhood. The second was an awesome exegesis of the Coolidge message. The third was a smashing summary designed to picture Republicans on a peak of noble humanitarianism, the Democrats in a morass of "clamor," "clap trap" and "calumny" engaged in a "shindig."

"My Own Main Street"

His heart warmed by a Presidential farewell, and perhaps stimulated by foreknowledge of a Presidential blessing he was to receive en route, Herbert Hoover set out from Washington to Palo Alto, to vote for himself and be voted for. At Cumberland, Md., he paused and spoke again about Prosperity. One aside in this speech revealed the political flair which he had seldom been suspected of having. Spying some of the train crew in the crowd he said: "I think I ought to tell them I am grateful to them. . . .roads across the middle of America as my own Main Street, on which I make my journeys from my office to my own front gate. . . ."

His own Main Street took him to Louisville, Ky. It rained, confetti as well as water. He proclaimed Prosperity once more.

Having recited in Manhattan what he thought Government should not do in business, he recited in the Coliseum at St. Louis what he thought it should do. It was a generalized speech on waterways, "adequate" Road control, an "adequate" tariff, and "understanding" Federal farm board. It was loudly cheered.

Proceeding to Pueblo, Colo., the Hoover Special deposited National Chairman Dr. Work, with thanks and praise from the Nominee for his campaign assistance. Experts had credited Dr. Work with more blunders than brilliance, but 10,000 of his fellow Coloradans heard Dr. Work briefly exonerated.

Through the western desert stretches of his own Main Street, Mr. Hoover rested, read books, beamed confidently from the platform. He entered California with the dawn before election. Palo Alto made holiday. To throngs he said, and repeated that evening over the radio: "This enormously enlarged interest is evidence of the great depth of conviction and even anxiety of our people. . . . Whatever the conscience of America determines, that will be right. . . ." Everywhere he made special reference to women. Before noon of election day friends were generally addressing him as "Mr. President."

This election, he said, "should hearten the confidence of every believer in government by the people."

"Red Hot Stuff"

Prejudice is a slippery thing and politics a more slippery. Every one knew that degenerate anti-Smith appeals were being made and that they greatly helped Hooverism. But Democratic Chairman Raskob was hard put to it to expose any Republican officials actually abetting them.

He thought he had what he wanted when he laid hands on a letter from Senator Moses, sharp-spoken, rough-and-ready Hooverizer of the East, to one Zeb Vance Walser. Mr. Walser is a G.O.P. worker in Lexington, N.C. The letter got misdirected to Lexington, Ky. In it, Senator Moses said he was enclosing an article by a South Carolina journalist in New York. "It is red hot stuff," said Senator Moses, "and I wish you could get it put into some North Carolina papers."

Chairman Raskob had some photostats made. He obtained affidavits for people in Mississippi, Kentucky, Kansas and Tennessee who described instances where Republican officials, State and national, had engaged in whipping up anti-Catholic animus. The most common offense seemed to be handing out The Fellowship Forum, nauseous, rabid Klanpaper. Two of the owners of this sheet, Mr. Raskob noted, were Republican State Chairman R.H. Angell of Virginia and William G. Conley, Republican nominee for Governor of West Virginia.

Mr. Raskob wrote a long letter about it all to Dr. Work, the Republican National Chairman. To make sure Dr. Work got the letter, Mr. Raskob sent it by two members of his staff from Manhattan to Washington. They called on Dr. Work in person, presented it, asked if there was an answer.

Dr. Work pitched the letter over his shoulder onto a mail- littered table. "Oh, I'll look that over later," he said. Mr. Raskob's emissaries bore another envelope, addressed to Herbert Hoover. At the latter's campaign house, they were received by Bradley D. Nash, the number-two secretary, a cheerful young gentleman (Harvard) with nice manners. Mr. Nash was embarrassed and courteous but, of course, Mr. Raskob's emissaries left without any answer from Mr. Nash's chief.

What the "red hot stuff" was, the press was most anxious to find, out. But Mr. Raskob would not release it until Dr. Work had had fair opportunity to reply.

Dr. Work did not reply. Instead, he approved an outburst by his publicity chief, onetime (1919-23) Governor Henry J. Allen of Kansas. The latter referred to the Raskob letter as "another screed expressing . . . mock indignation"; accused Mr. Raskob of "deliberately dragging in the issues of religious intolerance."

"The Tammany campaign, in its closing hours, has sunk from the sidewalks to the sewers of New York," said Hooverism's chief publicist. (This innuendo seemed to have reference to recent sewer-pipe scandals in the Borough of Queens. If so, it was either an ill-informed or a knavish innuendo. The Queens sewer- pipe grafting was effected by a Democratic ring to which Tammany was opposed, and which Governor Smith had specially and successfully prosecuted.)

Senator Moses came out, too, with some unpleasantries. He was vague about the "red hot stuff" he had sent to Zeb Vance Walser. First he said he had sent out "so much material" he really could not recall which was which. Then he said it might have been anti-Tammany or anti-saloon material. (Senator Moses is personally and politically a Wet.) He did not deny that it was "viciously anti-Catholic," as Mr. Raskob said it was. But he roared: "Who is this John J. Raskob that seems so agitated because a Southern Democrat has written something which I thought to be 'hot stuff'? He is the chairman . . . whose St. Louis headquarters have been busy for weeks flooding certain sections of the country with vicious attacks on Mr. Hoover's religious faith! . . .

"If Mr. Raskob's ethical sense is so fine and his general sensibilities so readily aroused, it might be worth while to ask how it happens that he has my mail. Did he himself rifle the mails or did some of his Tammany stool-pigeons do it for him?"

Mr. Raskob replied by releasing the "red hot stuff." He put on display in Manhattan a collection of anti-Catholic propaganda, including a quotation from Republican Governor Flem D. Sampson of Kentucky that Smith would "destroy the churches and schools."

The "red hot stuff" article proved to be a long rambling piece with passages oddly reminiscent of Senator Moses' own forceful style. Excerpts:

"Governor Smith belongs to a church which holds adulterous every wedlock not favored by its Pope; which brands as bastardy every birth not blessed by its book; which denies sanctuary even in man's last, long home, the grave, save it be hallowed in the dead language of Rome."

Senator Moses viewed the Raskob document and said: "I have no recollection of ever having seen any manuscript of that character. I might add, however, that I believe any person who would resort to rifling the mails would not hesitate to commit a forgery."

Other of Dr. Work's subordinates said that all of Mr. Raskob's evidence was "framed up." Democrats were indignant and the episode was one of the bitterest in a bitter campaign. Said the Republican Chicago Tribune (echoed by its pro-Smith Manhattan satellite, The Daily News):

"Governor Smith's denunciation of certain influences working in or for the election of the Republican Party was a true statement of facts. It is accepted as such by many Republicans.

"The Klan and the Anti-Saloon League are twin calamities working for the election of the Republican national ticket. Their practices are intolerable. Their intolerance is disgraceful. They have exhibited some of the meanest motives which ever had a place in American politics. What they offer as patriotism and public morality has protected or promoted some of the worst corruption.

"The Republican Party has these two allies and its campaign with them is sufficiently apparent to expose it to the properly indignant language of Governor Smith. The Tribune feels precisely as he does in the matter."

DEMOCRATS "A Long, Hard Job"

A fighting speech in Baltimore, a fighting speech in Newark, a fighting speech in Brooklyn -- and then it was old home week-end in Manhattan for Governor Smith. It was the twenty-first time he had run for office. This was his greatest aspiration of all and a crucial factor was whether or not his own townsmen would give him enough votes to complete the foundation of his chance for the Presidency.

It misted, drizzled and poured, but the Brown Derby waved from the Battery to Central Park at cheering, milling millions. In the evening, Madison Square Garden was a tornado of noisy, militant affection. Unlike his opponent under similar circumstances, Governor Smith was at ease. He let his people exult, exulted with them. When he was ready, he hushed them. When he was through speaking he stayed among them, shaking his own hands to them all, hailing individuals, happy in tumult.

On Monday, as a surprise stroke, the Smith voice addressed the farmers of the U.S. one last time. He repeated: "I want you to judge the future by the past." The radio studio was crowded with office girls. He was still smiling, but he looked tired.

To the press he said: "Well, it has been a long, hard job. . . . I feel satisfied with the campaign I have made."

Surrounded by intimates in the chamber music room of Carnegie Hall, Governor Smith waited for the last (as he had thought) Hoover hour to pass. Then he spoke his final words to "my radio audience." It was perhaps the best speech of his whole campaign; a review of his own executive record, a call to civic duty, and thanks to all who had helped him in his "long, hard job." His final attack was: "The American people will never stand for a dictator any more than they are today satisfied with a policy of silence." His final appeal was: "At no time . . . did I ever trade a promise for a vote."

Finale

National figures were few in the closing days of the Democratic campaign. John William Davis kept at it over the radio. James Middleton Cox strove along the Border. George Herman ("Babe") Ruth, famed baseballer, repeatedly told Midwesterners to disregard the Wall Street odds. "Don't forget Wall Street bet 3 to 1 against the Yankees in the World Series. Wall Street will be wrong again."

Newton Kiehl Baker, a different type of speaker, was the man upon whom the Democrats had originally counted to persuade Missouri. But Mr. Baker, on his way to St. Louis three weeks ago, was stricken with acute neuritis and nervous fatigue. He had to get off his train, at midnight, and return to Cleveland where, last week, he was still a-bed.

Water power, plus farm relief, minus Volstead modification, was the pro-Smith formula of Senator Norris of Nebraska. He followed through with it strongly last week throughout the Northwest. He converted his Dry wife but earned the pious fury of the Anti-Saloon League.

The other Smith Progressive Senator, John James Blaine of Wisconsin, added his voice to the confused excitement in Chicago. He accused the Republicans of "whispering their anthem of 'Rum, Rags and Romanism.'"

In New York, chief campaigners were Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Mayor James John Walker. The latter fropped in at a hotel where Mrs. Smith was being given a banquet and a diamond- studded vanity cast by 1,000 civic-minded women. Mayor Walker kissed Mrs. Smith twice and before hurrying away, cried out: "I leave behind my congratulations for this recognition of the most beautiful flower in this garden of womanhood, Mrs. Alfred E. Smith."

The Walker campaign technique was to assail the Whispering Campaign and to make insinuations about the Hoover "Britishness." He referred to Hoover's not voting in the U.S. until after he was 40. "They talk about me being late. Well, there's one thing, anyway, I wasn't late at," said Mayor Walker.

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