AL. SMITH

Hokitika Guardian, 30 June 1928, Page 4

AL. SMITH

THE DEMOCRATIC,**’ HOPE

The name of Smith has figured prominently in American newspapers for a year; during the last few months the cables have carried it to the ends of all the earth, for Smith has been daily growing in importance as his prospects of receiving the Democrat nomination for President increase.

Al springs from the people. His people were poor. They christened hint Alfred Emanuel, but from the Atlantic to the Pacific be is “Al,” He began life by selling newspapers like many a good man. and by dint of strenuous attendance at night schools and by perseverance in study when the Bovs of the Bowery were at gun-play he managed to acquire sufficont educational attainments to become a clerk in the .Jurors’ Office in New York. Here lie remained eight years, steadily absorbing an immense knowledge of municipal government and affairs. Then, smitten with the ambition to escape from the clerical groove, he stood as a candidate for New York Assembly, was elected and soon registered bis mark on that August body. In another eight years he bad risen to be the Democrat leader, and in J 913 lie became Speaker. This was a rapid rise, but “Al ’ shot up higher in successive jumps. He became in succession, sherrilf. president of the Board of Aldermen, and in 1919 be was elected Governor of New York State. COSMOPOLIS. New York State lias n population of 12.0t:0,0fi9, probably the most polyglot in the world, for every Jew in Palestine there are 15 in New York, and there are more Italians than in Borne. Over this enormous Cosmopolis, Governor Al Smith reigns as chief executive officer. He is immensly popular; ho has been re-elected time and again since 1919; he is a “regular” American ; he has already stood as a Democratic- candidate for the Presidency, and he intends to stand again. Competent observers consider bis chances against Coolidge to be good, il the convention nominates him. He is a “regular” American oT Irish ancestry. He is n good hater and a good lover, with extraordinary courage. They saw lie will put up such a fight, if nominated, as America lias never seen in all her Presidential elections. l!e cocks bis bat on the side of bis | bend, be talks out of the corner of bis i month; be does not observe all the ; rules of grammar, be is a bote noire to ! flic snobs and the intellectuals, and lie i is a “wet” in a land nominally ruled

I 1 by “dr.vs.” Recently Al’s reputation was enhanced by the manner in which be emerged from a “test,” to which lie was Kiibiei ted. THE {.REA I' TEST CA>E I 'i’llis “lest" toe!-: ‘be form of no ! “Open Letter to Governor fmith ’’ ' which appeared in the April issue «1 j a widely read magazine, the “Amcri- : ian Monthly.” In this letter, which jv a- written by a l.nvyo l ".. tin? G-'vem- ; (•- in;, askr-d lo state definitely and exi plbiiv, hvf.are offering himself as a I I-..’ didate for I!. ■ Pn *uh " . lint he : would not allow hi-, allegiance to the 1 Roman Catholic Church to interfere jv.-iih bis loyalty to the Hiate The j urncr if the letter tiled quotations from recc-nt net unnuts of the Vatican j that the Raman Catholic Clnireh claimed in tb-- .-vent of (-oniiict. the supor- ] iorily of Catholic ecclesiastical to pol- • ideal authority. He asked Governor j Al whether, as president, be would act I on that theory. j Doubtless Al’s c-ncmio' thought that the letter would place him in a dilemma and imperil his chances of success as a Presidentnl candidate. The “Open Loiter” received c-nor-j mou.s publicity. It was quoted in every newspaper throughout the country. Everybody read it, it was eagerly discussed. What would VI reply-—or would bo reply ? All America leaned back, waiting for Al. It was generally thought that lie would find it impossible to make a sat- * isfnetory reply. As a loyal Catholic he was bound by the Papal exposition of the canon laws. Pope Pius IX. had laid, it down: “To sav in the ease of conflicting laws enacted by Church and State that the civil law prevails is error.?’ Would the Governor unequivocally repudiate that doctrine? The nation waited for liis reply with an interest sharpened by events in Mexico. CHURCH AND STATE. The Mexican Government had recently been outlawed by the Catholic Church, and American Catholics had rallied fierely to the support of their Church. As a possible, if not probable. President next year, what was Al’s attitude towards event’s in Mexico? He did not burke the issue. “Admirable in its frankness and courage,” cabled the “Times” correspondent, “the publication of the letter takes the Governor of New York at one stride to the stage of national polities.” The pith of the letter is contained in the Governor’s summary of his creed as an American Catholic, with its affirmation of freedom of conscience and separation of Churc-li and State He began his reply by avowing himself n devout Catholic and declaring that ho recognised “no power in the institution of mv Church to interfere with operations of the Constitution of the United States nr the enforcement of the law of the land.” He denied that “any tribunal of any Church has any power to make any decree of any force in the law of tho land other than to establish the status of its own communicants within its own Church.” Then ho entered a majestic rebuke. “You have,” he says, “no more right to ask mo to defend as part of my faith every statement coming from a prelate than 1 have to ask you to accept as an article of your religious faith every statement of an episcopal bishop, or of your political faith every statement of a President of the United States.” He ended with a creed, and this creed with a “fervent prayer that never again in this land will any pulilie servant ho challenged because of the faith in which he has tried to j walk humbly wth his God.” The general opinion is that the Governor came well nut of the test. As the time approaches when the selection for a Democratic candidate must be made, interest in Al Smith rises.