PRESIDENCY BATTLE

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 431, 13 August 1928, Page 9

PRESIDENCY BATTLE

HOOVER OPENS CAMPAIGN SMITH SCORES POINTS (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) NEW YORK, Saturday. The first speech of Mr. Herbert C. Hoover, Republican candidate for the Presidency, was delivered at the Leland Stanford University Stadium, California. It was the official opening of his Presidential campaign. There were 65,000 people in the stadium and millions of invisible auditors listened by wireless. Editorial comment from every section of the country is evenly divided on partisan lines, but praise is unanimous for the high and dignified basis on which Mr. Hoover dealt with the present issues of the campaign. There is, however, some question about Mr. Hoover’s attitude on Prohibition. Many things so far have combined to assist Governor Smith’s candidature for the Presidency, without effort on his part. The irony of fate, or the stupidity of his opponents, has brought him a succession of advantages. Recently several representatives" of big business interests have declared for him, so that a Republican victory in November is far from certain. An able orator, he handles the twoedged sword of politics well, and he has scored heavily from the faulty tactics of some who have tried to attack him, gaining attention throughout the country. He reproached a clergyman who said he was the best friend of reaction, immorality, vice and crime in the land, saying: “I do not feel I should charge you with making -this statement for any political purpose, as it was made in a church devoted to the teachings of Christ. “One of those teachings is: ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.’ ” SMITH’S KNOCKOUTS Attacks on Mr. Smith have largely comprised aspersions on his moral standing, but so far these have rather reacted against his opponents. Senator Owen, who for a long time has been a Democrat, has announced that he will support Mr. Hoover because “Mr. Smith’s connection with the reprehensible Tammany organisation must make him persona non grata with all right-thinking people.” In a brief rejoinder Mr. Smith says he regrets the loss of Mr. Owen’s support. He says that in 1924 the latter begged him to obtain support for the Tammany delegates so that Mr/ Owen could secure the Democrat Presidential nomination. A Republican editor, Mr. White, of Kansas, alleged that Mr. Smith’s conduct early in his legislative career was such as to render him morally unfit to be President. Before Mr. Smith could act on Mr. White’s invitation to refute the statements the latter recanted abjectly. The Republicans regret that Mr. Smith is having these chances to answer his critics, and is so gaining attention throughout the country. He is an able orator and handles the twoedged sword of politics well. Now he will score votes out of his detractors’ faulty tactics.