The Happy Warrior: Alfred E. Smith

It is difficult, in the tumult of a political
campaign, to set forth facts without bias,
but I have tried, in the first part of this little
book, to analyze fairly some of the causes
that make Alfred E. Smith one of the most
interesting Americans of this generation.
In no way is this written as a partisan plea.
The excuse lies in the deluge of letters coming to me from men and women in every circumstance of life, and from every part of the
United States, asking еvery conceivable kind
of quеstion about him.

Legend is already forming, and many
people are being swayed by the usual inventions of friend and foe which unfortunately
accompany our Presidential contests. There
are, nevertheless, many others who are wise
enough to disregard the frothy antagonisms
and to seek honest information on which to
formulate honest opinion.

In the second part is included the address
placing Governor Smith in nomination be-
fore the Democratic National Convention at
Houston, Texas, in June, 1928.

WHEN the mental growth of a man
in public life ceases, he ought,
for the sake of the community, to retire.
Most of our mediocre or unsuccessful Pres-
idents were slipping downhill mentally be-
fore they took office. Lincoln, Cleveland,
Roosevelt, Wilson, and Coolidge broadened
and strengthened as the years went by*

By the same token, some men, unused
to politics, become mere politicians when
elevated to high office, while other men,
brought up in the game of politics, rise superior to their environment.

When I first knew Alfred E. Smith, he
was a politician. Early in January, 1911, a
small group of Senators and Assemblymen
met in Albany to oppose the election by the
Legislature of the Tammany candidate for
the United States Senator ship. We believed
that we had the unmistakable backing of our
respective districts, but we were nearly all
serving our first term, and knew little of
procedure. A party caucus had been called.
We expected to be defeated on the vote, and
had been told that a caucus was in theory
binding on those who took part in it. Some
one said, ' Ask Assemblyman Smith, the majority leader; he never tries to fool anybody
So we went to the leader of the forces op-
posed to us and got this answer, 'Boys, I
want you to go into the caucus, and if you
go in, you're bound by the action of the
majority. That's party law. But if you're
serious about this fight, keep your hands
clean and stay out. Then you're free agents.'
We stayed out, and won the fight; and incidentally we won, also, the definite knowledge that Smith would play square with
friend and foe alike.

That legislative session started Smith up
the ladder. In his previous years in the Assembly, as a member of the minority party,
he had shown little inclination to independent action; but while constructive thought
was at a discount he had, as was disclosed
later, been giving deep study to the laws and
government of his State.

When, in 1911, the Legislature became
Democratic for the first time in many years,
with young men from Tammany Hall largely
in control, the State was treated to the surprise of a large number of progressive measures of legislation. Mixed up with the usual
run of wholly partisan measures were proposals for sound steps in social reform
factory laws, workmen's compensation, the
protection of women and children in industry. Responsibility for the enactment of
these and similar laws devolved upon Smith
as majority leader, and then as Speaker of
the Assembly.

It was during this period that a Republican, the head of one of the great non-partisan
organizations devoted to social and govern-
mental reform, said to me : 'That man Smith
and the younger crowd with him represent
a new spirit in Tammany Hall. They are
organization followers, of course, but they
seem to have discovered that there is some-
thing more important than ward picnics and
balls.'

Smith was lucky, and not for the first or
the last time. Instead of having to revert to
a post in the minority, under four years of
Republican control, he was sent as a dele-
gate to the Constitutional Convention of
1915. The great approval which he there
won from such men as Root, Wickersham,
and Stimson demonstrated that he was not
only still growing mentally, but that during
the years of legislative politics, he had
grasped the theories and fundamentals of
constitutional and administrative law. This
was followed by a useful practical experience
of three years, in administering the offices
of Sheriff and of President of the Board of
Aldermen in New York City.

The Smith of 1918 was very different from
the Smith of 1905. This might be called the
first formative period of his growth.

Those times were significant of a vast
change in American political thought. They
were the days of reform, of muckraking, of
the advancement of new ideas, like woman's
suffrage, recall of judges, prohibition, initiative and referendum, old-age pensions, and
labor legislation. They brought bitter party
splits and party alignments which were by
no means clear or permanent.

Through them Smith emerged with what
Woodrow Wilson would have called ' liberal
thought/ He was on the side of the progressives in the fields of legislation and of constitutional law, but he made it clear that he
based action on fundamentals and not on
temporary expediency. He knew enough of
the practical side of life to waste little time
in seeking the impossible, or in scattering
his energies in behalf of causes in which
general public interest could not be aroused.

Utterly different in so many ways, yet
there is between Theodore Roosevelt and
Alfred E. Smith an extraordinary similarity
of political method. To get what one can,
fight for it, but not jeopardize it by asking
for the moon, brought concrete results to
both of them. This similarity accounts, per-
haps, for the same type of blind devotion ac-
corded them by many of their friends.

In June, 1918, President Wilson asked
me whether I would accede to the request of
a number of New York City organization
leaders to be the candidate for the Governor-
ship. As my departure for European waters
on Navy business was imminent, I could
not run, and the President discussed with
me the names of other candidates who had
been suggested. At the end of the conversation, Wilson said, in substance what he
later wrote: 'I should be entirely satisfied
with the nomination of Smith. He seems
to me to be a man who has responded in an
extraordinary manner to the awakening
forces of a new day, and the compulsion of
changing circumstances. He seems to have
noteworthy support from organizations and
individuals of both parties who are working
in one way or another for the improvement
of government.' That was a Republican
year, and most of us expected the defeat of
Alfred E. Smith, candidate for Governor.
Many of the old-time leaders were certain
that no Catholic could be elected. In view
of some of the events of 1928, it is interesting
to look back to that summer and autumn of
1918. With two million young Americans
of every creed taking part in the final struggle in Europe, religious prejudice remained
very much under cover; Smith was elected
Governor. Four times since then he has
been a candidate for the same office, and
that first example of keeping religion out of
politics has, thank God, been followed in
every succeeding campaign in his own
State.

It is an exceedingly easy thing for a Governor or a President to go along with the
drift of the tide, to veto vicious legislation,
to give honest administration, to lead a perfectly peaceful life, and to avoid criticism or
attack. Of such are the hundreds of for-
gotten Governors and the dozens of Presidents whom we have to look up in a history
book.

I am not one of those who subscribe to the
thought that elections are carried by the
voters who are voting against something.
Smith's elections as Governor refute that
old belief. In every year he has appealed
to the electorate, not as an opponent of
measures, but as a proponent of a constructive programme. It was historically
an almost impossible task to pass a constitutional amendment or a bond issue in
New York State by popular vote. Smith
has come forward, in election after election
during the past ten years, to ask approval
of new measures of this kind. In almost
every instance he has been beaten at the
start, and, frankly, I have personally felt,
on several occasions, that he would go down
to inevitable defeat.

To ask people to approve a fifty-million-
dollar bond issue for State parks is daring;
to follow it up with a request for a hundred
million to eliminate grade crossings, and
then for another hundred million for public
buildings, prisons, and hospitals might be
called foolhardy.

Probably the Smith of the early days in
the Assembly would have viewed the short
ballot amendment with fear, and would have
thought of the loss of many fat jobs which
would result from the amendment providing
for the consolidation of one hundred and
sixty-five State Departments into eighteen.
However, the Smith as Governor has kept
on growing, and with that growth has come
that faith in him and his proposals which has
made popular ratification of all these measures so overwhelming.

Sometimes a man makes a reputation,
deserved or otherwise, by a single action.
It is rare for any public servant to fight
against odds in behalf of constructive proposals, and to win in literally dozens of
instances. The relationship between an
executive and a legislature is, in many
ways, the criterion of success, whether it
be in the Governorship or the Presidency.
That is where personality means much to
the progress of the State or the Nation.
Theodore Roosevelt, especially during his
earlier years as President, succeeded in
passing great constructive measures, often
against the personal desires of an unsympathetic Congress. President Taft did not
have the temperament either to dominate
or to work with his Congress. The first six
years of President Wilson brought out again
the qualities of constructive leadership. It
is difficult to characterize the administrations of President Harding and President
Coolidge in the same way.

I do not think that I am letting myself be
influenced by partisanship when I express
the feeling that since the war national politics in this country has been on a level
'almost incredibly low. We have, as a nation, the cynical attitude of being willing
to let almost any individual or group run
our National Government so long as they
do not interfere with our pastime or our
prosperity.

If New York State had been run that way since 1918, we never should have heard of Governor Smith, nor would that State be,
as it is to-day, a model constantly copied by
other States, because of its progressive
legislation and administration.

But people ask me, 'what has the ability of Smith as Governor to do with his avail-
ability for the Presidency?'

The answer is twofold. First, most of our
successful Presidents of the past have had
little or no experience as office-holders under
the Federal Government. In other words,
success in the Presidency has not been predicated on previous national service. Secondly, Governor Smith has a far greater
understanding of national and international
problems than even most of his friends
imagine. One is apt to forget that during a
constant personal contact with public affairs
during twenty-three years, it is inevitable
that he has acquired a large fund of know-
ledge of governmental problems outside of
the confines of his own State. This has been
proved by a dozen instances of men who,
during the past few months, have journeyed
to discuss national problems with him and
have come back and said to me, *He knew
just as much and more about the problem
than I did.'

So, also, with the relationship between the
United States and foreign nations. I re-
member well that, before undertaking an
active part in the 1924 pre-convention campaign, I had a long talk with the Governor
in regard to foreign policy. The question of
American membership in the League of Nations was not then an active one, but the
Governor displayed both a great familiarity
with the practical humanitarian accomplishments of the League, and also a good under-
standing of how the United States could help
in a practical way in the further development of these humanitarian and peace-
making activities without involving us in
purely European political problems.

Again Governor Smith reminds me of
Theodore Roosevelt in his instinctive method of stripping the shell of verbiage and
extraneous matter from any problem and of
then presenting it as a definite programme
which any one can understand. When the
country had been engaged for years in a
wordy controversy as to whether an inter-
oceanic canal should be built at Nicaragua
or Panama, President Roosevelt said to
Congress and the Nation: 'We all need and
want a canal. Here are the engineering re-
ports. Now go ahead and build one/ I have
been reminded of that episode by the para-
graph in the Governor's speech of acceptance which deals with the problem of a ship
canal from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic.
He says: 'As Governor of New York, I have
heretofore expressed a preference for the all-American route, basing my view on engineers' reports made to me. The correctness
of these reports and also of those favoring the
St. Lawrence route has been challenged. As
President of the United States, therefore, it
would be my clear duty to restudy this question impartially upon engineers* reports the
accuracy of which must be above question.
When the results of such a study are given
to Congress, I am entirely willing to abide
by the decision of Congress

It is the memory of dozens of cases where
the Governor has sought a concrete accomplishment, and obtained it, that makes many
believe that the same qualities would prove
effective in the give-and-take of Washington
life, and the fact that he has had long years
of legislative experience makes it probable
that he would work with Congress instead of
trying to browbeat Congress or drift into a
hopeless deadlock.

At the same time, when cooperation with
the legislative branch of the Government has
failed, he has used the weapon of popular
appeal so effectively that he has attained his
end. I like a paragraph in one of his recent
speeches: *0f all men I have reason to believe that the people can and do grasp the
problems of the Government. Against the
opposition of the self-seeker and the partisan, again and again, I have seen legislation
won by the pressure of popular demand,
exerted after the people had had an honest,
frank, and complete explanation of the is-
sues. That direct contact with the people I
propose to continue in this campaign, and,
if I am elected, in the conduct of the Nation's
affairs/ Any one who knows Governor
Smith will recognize that this is no empty
boast.

These are some of the reasons that give
me the feeling that Governor Smith has
passed, successfully, through what might be
termed the second period of preparation.
He has now been active in the larger field of
public service for ten years, with the result
that he is everywhere recognized as belonging in the top rank of the practical experts
in Government service.

Two more personal qualities are worth
considering. First, in the matter of his appointments to public office, it would have
been an easy matter to have followed the
usual rule of filling the executive offices
around him in accordance with the machine-
made recommendations of the local political
leaders of his own party. From his first inauguration as Governor his appointees have
been chosen for their ability to get things
done right. They have come from Republican as well as Democratic sources, and they
have made good.

A few years ago a local political leader
came to the Governor to complain most bitterly because the head of one of the technical
State departments had discharged a supernumerary watchman on the canal. The Governor made it so clear that he would support
the interest of the State rather than that of

the political machine that this leader said to
me later: 'What's the use? You can't fool
Al; he has the facts, and even though he
made all my boys back home sore, we've got
to admit he's right, and for every vote he
loses by being stiff-necked he'll pick up five
votes from people who never supported a
Democrat in all their lives.'

Finally, there is the man himself the
man in his home when the work of the day
is done. Perhaps my personal regard for
him is based on an inborn feeling for those
grown-ups who have not wholly grown up,
for the spirit of fun and of play that we see
in a very few of our older friends. It would
be hard to find a happier type of American
family life than that of the Governor; it is
the kind that is stimulating to all who have
seen it, for it combines straight living and
family affection with jest and play and song.
High official position calls for dignity and
simplicity, and these qualities are present in
the Governor's public and private life.

When the book of this generation is closed,
it will record the very definite influence of
that distinctively American product, Alfred
E. Smith. It has been, and is, an influence
against sham and fraud and intolerance and
selfish apathy. He has stimulated thousands
by his own example of high-minded service
and by a personality which has compelled
attention. He has continued to grow. He
has proved that government is best con-
ducted by a human being and not by a
machine.

I COME for the third time to urge upon a
convention of my party, the nomination
of the Governor of the State of New York.
The faith which I held I still hold. It has
been justified in the achievement. The
whole country now has learned the measure
of his greatness.

During another four years his every act
has been under the searchlight of friend and
foe, and he has not been found wanting.
Slowly, surely, the proper understanding of
this man has spread from coast to coast,
from North to South. Most noteworthy is
this fact, that the understanding of his
stature has been spread by no paid propaganda, by no effort on his part to do other
than devote his time, his head, and his heart
to the duties of his high office and the welfare of the State. His most uncompromising
opponent will not deny that he has achieved
an unprecedented popularity among the
people of this country. He is well called ' the
Pathfinder to the open road for all true lovers of Humanity

It is, however, not my belief that I should
urge popularity as the criterion in making
our choice. A higher obligation falls upon
us. We must, first of all, make sure that our
nominee possesses the unusual qualifications
called for by the high office of President of
these United States. Mere party expediency
must be subservient to national good. We
are Americans even before we are Democrats.

What sort of President do we need to-day?
A man, I take it, who has four great characteristics, every one of them an essential to
the office. First of all, leadership articu-
late, virile willing to bear responsibility,
needing no official spokesman to interpret
the oracle. Next, experience, that does not
guess, but knows from long practice the
science of governing, which is a very differ-
ent thing from mere technical bureau organ-
izing. Then honesty the honesty that
hates hypocrisy and cannot live with concealment and deceit.

Last, and, in this time, most vital, that
rare ability to make popular government
function as it was intended to by the
Fathers, to reverse the present trend toward
apathy and arouse in the citizenship an active interest a willingness to reassume
its share of responsibility for the Nation's
progress. So only can we have once more a
government, not just for the people, but by
the people also.

History gives us confident assurance that
a man who has displayed these qualities as
a great Governor of a State, has invariably
carried them with him to become a great
President. Look back over our list of Presi-
dents since the war between the States,
when our rapid growth made our Nation's
business an expert's task. Who stand out
as our great Presidents? New York gave to
us Grover Cleveland teaching in Albany
that public office is a public trust; Theodore
Roosevelt preaching the doctrine of the
square deal for all; Virginia and New Jersey
gave to us that pioneer of fellowship be-
tween nations, our great leader, Woodrow
Wilson.

Let us measure our present Governor by
those standards. Personal leadership is a
fundamental of successful government. I do
not mean the leadership of the band of good
fellows and good schemers who followed
President Harding, nor the purely perfunctory party loyalty which has part of the
time in part of the country sustained the
present Chief Executive. I mean that
leadership which, by sheer force of mind, by
chain of unanswerable logic, has brought
friends and foes alike to enact vitally needed
measures of government reform.

His staunchest political adversaries con-
cede the Governor's unique and unparalleled record of constructive achievement in
the total reorganization of the machinery of
government, in the business-like management of State finance, in the enactment of a
legislative programme for the protection of
men, women, and children engaged in industry, in the improvement of the public
health, and in the attainment of the finest
standard of public service in the interest of
humanity. This he has accomplished by a
personality of vibrant, many-sided appeal,
which has swept along with it a legislature
of a different political faith.

During the past month alone, the Re-
publican-controlled Congress of the United
States repeatedly passed important
over the veto of a Republican President.
During eight years at Albany the wisdom
of every veto by a Democratic Governor has
been sustained by a Republican Legislature.
In the same way the fitness of his appointments has been recognized and confirmed
without exception by a hostile Republican
State Senate, whereas a friendly Federal
Senate has on occasion after occasion rejected the nominations sent in by its titular
party leader.

The second great need is experience. By
this I refer not merely to length of time in
office I mean that practical understanding which conies from the long and thoughtful study of, and daily dealings with, the
basic principles involved in the science of
taxation, of social welfare, of industrial legislation, of governmental budgets and ad-
ministration, of penology, of legislative procedure and practice, of constitutional law.

In all these matters the Governor of New
York has developed himself into an expert,
recognized and consulted by men and wo-
men of all parties. In any conference of
scholars on these subjects he takes his place
naturally as a trained and efficient specialist.
He also possesses that most unusual quality
of selecting appointees, not only skilled in
the theoretical side of their work, but able
to give the highest administrative success to
their task. The high standard of the appointees of the Governor, their integrity,
their ability, has made strong appeal to the
'Citizens of his State, urban and rural, regard-
less of party. I add 'rural' advisedly, for
each succeeding gubernatorial election has
shown for him even greater proportional
gains in the agricultural sections than in the
large communities.

As one who served his State in the Legislature of which this Governor was then also
a member, and who later for nearly eight
years held an administrative post under
President Wilson at Washington, I can bear
witness that the problems which confront
the Governor of New York and those national problems which confront the President at Washington differ chiefly in geo-
graphic extent and not in the fundamentals
of political principle. The Governor's study
of the needs of his own State has given him*
deep insight into similar problems of other
States and also of their application to the
machinery and the needs of the Federal
Government. In the last analysis a matter
of administrative reform, of industrial betterment, of the regulation of public carriers,
of the development of natural resources, of
the retention of the ownership of primary
water-power in the people, of the improvement of the lot of the farmer, differs little,
whether the problem occur in Albany, in
Spokane, in Atlanta, or in Washington.
How well the people of his State have
understood and approved the wise solution
of these questions is best shown by the fact
that he has been elected and reflected, and
reflected, and again elected Governor by
huge majorities in the hundreds of thou-
sands in a normally Republican State.

Now, as to the requisite of honesty. I do
not mean an honesty that merely keeps a
man out of jail, or an honesty that, while
avoiding personal smirch, hides the corruption of others. I speak of that honesty that
lets a man sleep well of nights, fearing no
Senatorial investigation, that honesty that
demands faithfulness to the public trust in
every public servant, that honesty which
takes immediate action to correct abuse.

The whole story of his constant and persistent efforts to insure the practice of the spirit as well as the letter of official and
private probity in public places is so well
understood by the voters of his State that
more and more Republicans vote for him every time he is attacked. This is a topic which need riot be enlarged upon. The voting public of the Nation is fully wise enough to compare the ethical standards of official Albany with those of official Washington.

And now, last of all, and where the Governor excels over all the political leaders of
this day, comes the ability to interest the
people in the mechanics of their govern-
mental machinery, to take the engine apart
and show the function of each wheel.

Power to impart knowledge of, and create
interest in government is the crying need of
our time. The soul of our country, lulled
by mere material prosperity, has passed
through eight gray years.

Our people must not acquiesce in the easy
thought of being mere passengers so long as
the drivers and mechanics do not disturb
our comfort. We must be concerned over
our destination, not merely satisfied that the
passing scenery is pleasant to the eye. We
must be interested in whether that national
destination be heaven or hell and not con-
tent that the man at the wheel has assured
us that we shall there find a full bank ac-
count and a soft bed.

In an era of the ready-made we must not
accept ready-made government; in a day of
high-powered advertising we must not fall
for the false statements of the most highly
organized propaganda ever developed by the
owners of the Republican Party. We do not
want to change these United Sovereign
States of America into the * United States,
Incorporated/ with a limited and self-
perpetuating board of directors and no voting power in the common stockholders.

This is a time of national danger unless
America can be roused again to wakefulness.
I say this in no spirit of the demagogue, in
no wish to attack the legitimate course of
the life or business of our citizens. I see only
one hope of a return to that participation
by the people in their government which
hitherto marked us out as the great out-standing success among democratic republics.

That hope lies in the personality of the
new man at the wheel, and especially in his
purpose to arouse the spirit of interest and
the desire to participate.

The Governor of the State of New York
stands out to-day as having that purpose, as
having proved during these same eight
years not only his desire, but his power to
make the people as interested in their government as he is himself.

I have described, so far, qualities entirely
of the mind the mental and moral equip-
ment without which no President can suc-
cessfully meet the administrative and ma-
terial problems of his office. It is possible
with only these qualities for a man to be a
reasonably efficient President, but there is
one thing more needed to make him a great
President. It is that quality of soul which
makes a man loved by little , children, by
dumb animals, that quality of soul which
makes him a strong help to all those in sorrow or in trouble, that quality which makes
him not merely admired, but loved by all
the people the quality of sympathetic
understanding of the human heart, of real
interest in one's fellow men. Instinctively
he senses the popular need because he him-
self has lived through the hardship, the
labor, and the sacrifice which must be endured by every man of heroic mould who
struggles up to eminence from obscurity and
low estate. Between him and the people is
that subtle bond which makes him their
champion and makes them enthusiastically
trust him with their loyalty and their love.
Our two greatest Presidents of modern
times possessed this quality to an unusual
degree. It was, indeed, what above all made
them great. It was Lincoln's human heart, and Woodrow Wilson's passionate desire to bring about the happiness of the whole world
which will be the best remembered by the
historians of a hundred years from now. It
is what is so conspicuously lacking in our
present administration, a lack which has
been at the bottom of the growing dislike
and even hatred of the other nations toward
us. For without this love and understanding
of his fellow men, no Chief Executive can
win for his land that international friendship
which is alone the sure foundation of lasting
peace.

Because of his power of leadership, be-
cause of his unequaled knowledge of the
science of government, because of his un-
compromising honesty, because of his ability
to bring the government home to the peo-
ple, there is no doubt that our Governor will
make an efficient President, but it is because
he also possesses, to a superlative degree,
this rare faculty of sympathetic understanding, I prophesy that he will also make a great President, and because of this I further
prophesy that he will again place us among
the nations of the world as a country which
values its ideals as much as its material
prosperity a land that has no selfish de-
signs on any weaker power, a land the ideal
and inspiration of all those who dream a
kinder, happier civilization in the days to
come.

If the vision of real world peace, of the
abolishment of war, ever comes true, it will
not be through the mere mathematical calculations of a reduction of armament programme nor the platitudes of multilateral
treaties piously deprecating armed conflict.
It will be because this Nation will select as
its head a leader who understands the human
side of life, who has the force of character
and the keenness of brain to take, instinctively, the right course and the real course
toward a prosperity that will be more than material, a leader also who grasps and understands not only large affairs of business and
government, but in an equal degree the
aspirations and the needs of the individual,
the farmer, the wage-earner the great
mass of average citizens who make up the
backbone of our Nation.

America needs not only an administrator,
but a leader a pathfinder, a blazer of the
trail to the high road that will avoid the bottomless morass of crass materialism that has
engulfed so many of the great civilizations of
the past. It is the privilege of Democracy
not only to offer such a man, but to offer
him as the surest leader to victory. To stand
upon the ramparts and die for our principles
is heroic. To sally forth to battle and win for
our principles is something more than heroic.
We offer one who has the will to win who
not only deserves success, but commands it.
Victory is his habit the happy warrior
Alfred E. Smith.