U.S. PRESIDENCY.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19220, 28 January 1928, Page 15

U.S. PRESIDENCY.

RELIGIOUS ISSUE. AN UNUSUAL DISCLOSURE.. (BT CABLE —PRESS ASSOCIATION'— COrIRIOHT.) ■(AUSTRALIAN AND N.B. CABLE ASSOCIATION.) NEW YORK, January 26. Probably one of the most unusual and important aspects of the Presidential campaign has just been disclosed in a San Francisco dispatch to the New York "Sun," stating that Mv H. S. Hoover secretary for Commerce and Mrs Hoover, were married at Monteney, California, by a Catholic priest, after receiving special permission from the Bishop of that diocese. This disclosure, in view of the intense feeling over Governor Smith's Catholicism, and the fact that Mr Hoover has become the most prominent aspirant for Republican honours, prom iscs to make both the Republican and Democratic conventions, next June, the centres of a most intense dispute. Moreover, for several months now there has been an underground current within Republican circles themselves against Mr Hoover's candidacy. Governor Smith and Mr Hoover are unquestionably the strongest figures in both parties, but for that very reason they may well bo eliminated at the conven tioiis, because it. is the inherent tendency iu American partisan politics always to choose a neutral figure for the Presidential candidacy. Above all, it is now very clear that the religious issuo will be the dominant, and possibly a very disturbing factor in the ensuing campaign. MR HOOVER'S MARRIAGE. (AUSTRALIAN AND K.B. CABLI ASSOCIATION.) (Received January 27th, 7.T p.m.) NEW YORK, January 26. Mr Hoover is a Quaker and Mrs Hoover was an Episcopalian, but is novr of the same faith as her husband. One roport states that a priest was a close personal friend of Mrs Hoover, while another has it that Mr Hoover was on the point of sailing for China and tho only official in tho neighbourhood capable of performing the marriage ceremony was a Roman Catholic priest, who officiated in a manner similar to a Ju3 tice of the Peace.