NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

NOVEMBER, 1927

WHY DEMOCRATS FAVOR SMITH

I

ON RECORD AND PRINCIPLE

BY THE HON. ATLEE POMERENE

As the National Democratic Convention approaches, a very solemn duty devolves upon the followers of Jefferson, and Jackson, and Cleveland, and Wilson.

What is here written must not be construed as a commitment for or against any candidate. We have many leaders who are capable and worthy. The time is not ripe for Democrats to commit themselves unequivocally, either for or against any individual whose name may be presented to the Convention. Candidates are often made or unmade within a few months. As the time for the Convention approaches, our vision should be clearer than now. Of this I am certain: The nominee should be a Democrat, and his platform should be Democratic. No one should be nominated because he is a one idea man. We should take stock of his views and his record as a whole. A many sided man was never more needed than now.

I

Among those uppermost in the thoughts of Democrats throughout the land is Governor Alfred E. Smith, of New York. His friends are legion. They are full of hope and enthusiasm. On

Copyright, 1927, by North American Review Corporation. All rights reserved.

the other hand, in various sections of the country, there is opposition, bitter, intense, unyielding. Every Democrat owes it to himself, his party, and his country, not to be guided blindly by the friends of any candidate, nor to permit himself to be controlled by the bias and prejudice of his foes.

What manner of man is Alfred E. Smith? Nineteen times he has been a candidate of his party for various offices, and only once did he go down in defeat, in 1920, when the Republican National ticket carried New York by more than a million, while Governor Smith was defeated by only seventy-four thousand. Four times he has been elected Governor, and with each recurring term the voters' confidence in his manhood and statemanship has increased, until his name has become a household word in the Empire State. To them he is to the "manor born". He can "walk with kings nor lose the common touch".

The great German philosopher, Immanuel Kant, said: “The most uncommon of all the senses is common sense". Governor Smith is endowed with a full measure of common sense. His official life has not been a bed of roses. At all times during

the years that he has occupied the Governor's office the majority of the Legislature has been Republican. I am sorry to say it, but repeatedly the Republican General Assembly has sought to embarrass him, and I fear because it was seeking party advantage, and not the good of the Commonwealth. But he pursued the even tenor of his way, unafraid, confident of the rightness of his cause, and with an abounding faith that the adverse majority against him would be compelled by the force of public opinion to carry through his legislative programme.

The people of New York who know him best love him most. We have forty-eight States, with forty-eight Governors, many of them able men, but in service to his State Governor Smith leads them all. Four times as Governor he has sworn to support the Constitution of the United States, and of the State of New York, and no one is able truthfully to charge that he has not kept the faith. His has been a record of achievement. He has a genius for statecraft. Among the great Democrats who have been elected Governors of New York since the Civil War, three outstanding men come to our minds: Samuel J. Tilden, Grover

Cleveland, and David B. Hill. But great as these men were, Governor Smith, in purpose and achievement, is the equal of any of them. He is not a prophet without honor in his own country. When the New York Constitutional Convention met in 1915, New York's greatest lawyer and stateman, Elihu Root, was the presiding officer. He said of Governor Smith, then a delegate: "Of all the men in the Convention, Alfred E. Smith is the best informed man on the business of the State of New York." And former Attorney-General George W. Wickersham said Smith was "the most useful man in the Convention".

No one is more responsible than he for the adoption of the Merit system in appointments to public office. He was the chief spirit in the establishment of the Budget system. He was first and foremost in having laws passed for the protection of the life and health of women and children. He succeeded in pensioning widowed mothers. He secured State aid for the promotion of the health of rural communities. He brought about the enactment of the Workmen's Compensation Law. He established labor boards to mediate disputes between employer and employe. He advanced coöperative marketing, largely extended the State highways, took special pains to extend the educational system of the State, and, because of his efficiency in the administrative departments of the government, reduced the income tax of the State by twenty-five per cent. and the direct tax on land values throughout the State by another twenty-five per cent. Many of these reforms were brought about in spite of the initial opposition of the Republican majority in the General Assembly.

With these achievements to his credit, why should his friends not consider him in connection with higher honors?

II

It is well known that Governor Smith favors the modification of the Volstead Law. In 1926 New York, by a majority of 1,164,586, voted for its modification. This is a mooted question and deserves serious consideration.

Notwithstanding his personal views and this vote, he recognizes so fully the obligation of his oath to enforce the law that he said in