AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20318, 28 January 1928, Page 11

AMERICAN PRESIDENCY

PARTY NOMINATIONS. RELIGIOUS ISSUE LOOMING UP, (Pr«e> Association—By Telegraph—Copyright) NEW YORK, January 26. (Received Jan. 27, at 5.5 p.m.) Probably one of the most unusual and important aspects' of the Presidential cam- - paign has just been disclosed in a San Francisco despatch to the New York Sun f stating that Mr Hoover and Mrs Hoover ; were married at Monterey, 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 A 1 Smith’s Catholicism and the fact that Mr Hoover has become a most prominent aspirant for - Republican honours, promises to make ' both the Republican and the Democratic . conventions next June centres of the 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 be elminated at the conventions, because it is an inherent tendency for .. American partisan politics always to . choose a neutral figure for Presidential nomination. But. above all, it is now very clear that the religious issue will b® a dominant and possibly a very disturbing factor in the ensuing campaign.—A. and N.Z. Cable. MR HOOVER’S MARRIAGE. CONFLICTING REPORTS. NEW YORK, January 26. (Received /Jan. 27, at 10 p.m.) Mr Hoover is a Quaker and Mrs Hoover was an Episcopalian, but is now of the same faith as her husband. One report states that the priest was a close per- . sonal friend of Mrs Hoover, while an- / other has it that Mr Hoover was on the point of sailing for China, and the only ’ official in the neighbourhood capable of performing the marriage ceremony was a Roman Catholic priest, Who officiated in a manner similar to a justice of the peace.