"HOLY WAR."

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 261, 3 November 1928, Page 9

"HOLY WAR."

INTENSE BIGOTRY.

"Passion And Prejudice" In U.S. Presidential Fight.

ISSUES FORGOTTEN.

(Australian and N.Z. Press Association.)

(Received 10 a.m.)

NEW YORK, November 2,

As was expected the re-entry of the religious issue has resulted in exceptional bitterness in the political campaign.

In a statement repulsing charges of bigotry the Republican National Committee has declared that "the vituperative outcry of the Tammany slander mongers is the most despicable exhibition that this country has ever witnessed of bigotry that knows no decency."

The final sentence in the same statement is probably one of the strongest bearing the official stamp of an American political party. It is that "the campaign has descended from the sidewalks of New York to the gutters of New York." The reference here is to a popular song about the footpaths of New York, which has been adopted by the Democrats as descriptive of Mr. Al. Smith's rise to fame as a city-bred man.

The Democratic National Committee has forwarded to Mr. Hubert Work, Secretary of the Interior, a number of legal documents to prove that the Republicans are distributing literature asking for Opposition to Mr. Smith because he is a Catholic and demanding that it be stopped.

Senator Moses, one of Mr. Hoover's campaign managers, was charged with responsibility for this. He has replied that ho cannot remember whether any literature sent out contained religious matter, and added: "Raskob and his Presidential candidate in the closing days of the campaign are like Mohammedans, proclaiming a holy war. The St. Louis headquarters of the Democratic National Committee have been busy for weeks flooding certain sections of the country with vicious attacks upon Mr. Hoover's religious faith."

The Republican National Committee declared that "under the mockery of denouncing it, the Democrats have introduced the religious issue until it is now apparent that this shameful subterfuge has been artfully employed "to. substitute passion and prejudice for serious consideration of issues."

Whether this new emphasis upon the religious issue will change the popular trend, which is still unmistakably for Hoover, it is difficult to say. It is clear, however, that Smith's managers . are now ready to employ every device known to political artifice to command popula' attention and support. It is avowed that New York State is a doubtful ground and that thera are no clear indications how the voting will go there, but for a variety of reasons it i clear that Smith cannot lose New York State and yet win the election, although the same is not true for Hoover.

New York City is staunchly Democratic in the sense that it has always supported Smith as Governor. His campaign managers have therefore decided upon a monster parade through the city streets led hy Smith himself and, with admitted showmanship, it is conceded that they will so manage the demonstration as to produce popular enthusiasm even exceeding the reception to Lindbergh.

Proof that such a demonstration may have a political effect is even seen in the fact that Wall Street betting commissioners declare that it will probably have a decided effect on the betting odds. The campaign has entered the phaso of so-called crowd manoeuvring.