BITTER CAMPAIGN.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 261, 3 November 1928, Page 13

BITTER CAMPAIGN.

AMERICAN PRESIDENCY.

"RELIGION, RACE AND RUM."

ISSUES WILL SWAY THOUSANDS

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SAX FRANCISCO, October 3

The closing stages of the Presidential election campaign were marked by further personalities, liung with happy abandon by both major parties in one of the bitterest campaigns chronicled in American annals. Mcst of the bickering and vituperative exchanges revolved around religion and prohibition, Governor Alfred .Smith, of New York, the Democratic standardbearer, being attacked because he is a Roman Catholic, which he resolutely declares has nothing to do with politics. His stalwart support of a change in the liquor laws of the United States has won him thousands of supporters, but also proved a stumblingblock at some of his campaign meetings, where hecklers had a rough time, being unceremoniously ejected when propounding questions on this thorny subject. Closing a fortnight of dynamic campaigning. Governor Smith has returned to Xew York after a series of speeches in which he charged the Republicans with lack of leadership as he set forth i his own and his party's pledges as to i farm relief, water power, immigration and waterways development, along with considerable discussion of prohibition. Wherever his eleven-car train has moved, Smith has been cheered to the echo, and that was of particular satisfaction to the Governor, because he has devoted all of his time to the States he most earnestly desires to wrest from normal Republicanism. Defections from Hoover Party. One of the most disturbing features to Hoover has been the continued defections from the Republican ranks, although much has been done to belittle this factor. Senator Blaine, of Wisconsin, added something to the preparations for Smith's Milwaukee reception by announcing that he could not vote for Hoover because they did not think alike. It was some time ago that Blaine declared he had no doubt that many of his friends would vote for Smith. Another Republican independent of the North-west, Senator George Norris, of Nebraska, has taken a definite stand by twice asserting that Smith's western speeches on farm relief seemed to him to constitute all that could be desired by friends of the McXary-Haugen plan and that his discussion of water powei is eminently satisfactory. The Wisconsin Republican, who demanded that Mrs Willebrandt be kept at home, also informed Chicago headquarters that anj impartial observer would now give Wisconsin to Smith.

Republican leaders are well aware of the disturbed conditions of their usual strongholds, but they continue to express confidence that everything will be all right on election day.

Hoover has not deviated from his accustomed course of not speaking for his party and his own candidacy. When Senator Bruce, of Maryland, publicly recited reports that Hoover is a drinking man, Hoover left the matter of a

reply to a secretary, who denied that the nominee had taken a drink since he became a Government officer. Similar charges were made against Senator Curtis, and the Vice-Presidential candidate promptly called the whole business a falsehood.

Democratic headquarters got into the Hoover-Bruce episode when Chairman Raskob, of the Democratic National Committee, voiced his knowledge that Hoover does not serve liquor in his house, and added that he admired him for it.

The last few weeks of the campaign c will be crowded with speeches by all c the candidates. Hoover is to start his j westward and final drive late in October. He has moved up from October 10 to October 13 his New York address, and is to deliver another in Boston shortly afterwards. Four days after Hoover's New York appearance Governor Smith will speak in Chicago. With all the change from old-time to modern campaign methods, some of the candidates have found out that the heckler, counterpart of every former political drive, still is with them, although occasionally he or she has been ejected by police. Particularly have Senators Curtis and Robinson had to deal with objectors in their .audiences. Hoover and Smith have thus far escaped the loudly inquiring voice that suddenly rises from the aisles, but just before the Governor arrived at Billings, Montana, a cross was burned on an adjacent hilltop. Unofficial opinion was that the Ku Klux Klan, whose symbol is the fiery cross, was not responsible. Smith on the Volstead Law. Undoubtedly one of the greatest speeches he delivered during his campaign was that given by Governor Smith at Milwaukee, when he was cheered as he levelled an attack on prohibition, and called for "sane and honest" handling of the problem and advocated sale of liquor under restrictions in States where the plan met with the approval of a majority of the voters. Outlining his programme in this city, once famous around the world as a brewing centre, the Democratic nominee emphasised that the plan he sponsors would protect "all of the rights of the dry States to the last degree," and would throw around them "all the safeguards" of the Eighteenth Amendment and the Volstead Law. "The dry States should be reasonable about it," Smith told the crowd that packed into the big auditorium in the State and those who were listening to him by radio. "They should listen to the State that is not in accord with their opinion. What would the dry States of this country say if the wet States proposed an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting them from passing any dry law ?" j Following the lines of his acceptance speech in the remedy he proposed, except that he made no reference to the Canadian system of dealing with the liquor problem, Governor Smith reiterated that he was opposed to the return of the saloon, "despised, as of right, bv the American people," and stirred up a rousing round of cheers when he promised, if elected, to enforce the law. He was greeted with another noisy outburst when he declared as President he would regard it his duty to recommend to Congress both modification of the Volstead law and the prohibition amendment. H assailed the Republicans for the way they have been enforcing prohibition, asserting they had permitted patronage considerations to guide them and corruption to creep into enforcement. He also insisted that millions of Americans did not agree with Hoover in his declara 1 tion that prohibition was a noble experi-

Dient, and asserted that prohibition plank iu the Republican party meant nothing. Republican Chances Favoured. Xornian Thomas, Socialist candidate for the Presidency of the United States, returned to New York from a threeweeks tour of the West, saying he expected to see Herbert Hoover win in the coining election, because the Republicans had a superior organisation. After speaking in fifteen States he said: •'There is no faith at all in the Republican and Democratic parties as parties. There is a growing interest in the campaign, but not on the real issues so far as the old parties are concerned. On both sides, openly and secretly, there is great and unhealthy bigotry. The three R's —religion, race and rum—in the order named, will sway thousands upon thousands of voters. Nevertheless organisation is very important and I look to see the Republicans win. because of their superior organisation, if for no other reason."