Man hadnt democrats. I cant shake the feeling that some people here are pulling for me. [applause] im delighted to see her tonight hillary. I feel right at home here because it is often said i share the politics of alfred e. Smith and the ears of alfred newman. It is an honor to be here with al smith. I never knew your greatgrandfather. Everything senator mccain told me, the two of them had a great time before prohibition. [laughter] of course im delighted to testify on the 18th amendment. I felt all along that this matter was the rank and file about people they would readily see that it had no place in our constitution. It would be very difficult if not impossible to come to this country for the coming generations to make it their business to see that no such matter is this is ever again made the subject to federal constitutional law. And youve been listening to the 2008 president ial nominees talking at that years ill smith dinner. Followed by al smith himself talking about prohibition in 1933. Hello, and welcome to cspan the Contender Series we come to you tonight from the Senate Chamber new york albumy or ill smith sir for 12 years before becoming the democratic nominee for president. Our guests for the next two hours and the life and career of al smith, john evers. , he is the former historian for the new York State Assembly. And he is a ph. D. Candidate and albany and hes doing his dissertation on all. Smith were also joined by beverly gauge of Yale University. She is also the history the author of the day the wall street excrete exploded. Shes also a history professor if he can set the scene for us to begin in 1928 in the United States. What was going on in this country . What are some of the issues we will be discussing . The 1928 election is one of the most interesting and also what of the most vicious elections in american history. We have two candidates who i think really embodied two different americas that are coming into conflict in the election. We have all smith, whos the subject tonight. While smith is urban, hes from new york city. Hes an irishman, he is catholic and he represents a kind of immigrants urban america that has come of age in the last 30 years. On the other side as a republican candidate in 1928, we have Herbert Hoover who in many ways could hardly be more difficult different than else. Myth is from the midwest is from iowa, is very straight laced. He is distinctly non urban. He is pious, he wears starchy collars. These two men and 1928 as they go for the president ial election really encapsulates some of the most important cultural and political clashes of that moment. Clashes over prohibition, to some degree clashes over the economy. But in many ways, this turns in out to be a cultural election that hinges on which of these two americas is the america that will be voted into office. It was said that the three peace influenced this election, prohibition, prejudice and prosperity. Right i think those three peas really do capture. It on probation we have all smith as one of the nations most outspoken opponents a prohibition. Its been in effect for almost a decade at that point. It has been a real problem for most of that time and threw out ill smith like many urban politicians has said it is a bad idea not only because it infringes on americans freedom, but because its causing a Law Enforcement crisis. And there are many people who are quite concerned about this by 1928. So what is going to happen to prohibition is one of the Great Questions that confronts Herbert Hoover on the other side. In terms of prosperity, both of their are running and favor prosperity. Problem for all smith is yet a rules of republican rule. And then followed by calvin coolidge. So the republicans have a leg up on the prosperity front. You had a 1920s. It is been a boom decade certainly for a walk deck wall street, for large segments of the economy, although less for farmers and agriculture at that point, so thats our second be. I think the darkest part of this election and the reason i said its one of the most vicious elections in american history, is our third p the question of prejudice. Ill smith, i think most today s are probably more familiar familiar with john kennedy as a catholic candidate. And even in the 19 sixties that caused a stir, a set of questions about the presidency but ill smith raised all of those questions much earlier in 1928. It is already been a decade that had been seized with a lot of questions about immigration, Immigration Reform, the rise of the clucks klan. Those all come in a. Play neithers the role of convalescent play out in this campaign. It was a vicious campaign. Smith was not new to him, this is not new to him. When he ran in new york state to be governor, he faced it them then. Fact martin glen who would faced anti catholic prejudice. It showed up in the 1915 constitutional conflict convention as a little bit of a whispering campaign. Smith went into this, in advance of the election knowing that this would be an issue. In fact, he address this issue in 1927 and it is replied to the atlantic monthly, discussing why a catholic could not be president , and it was a good statement, all that was intellectual. And when everybodys over everybody says and it didnt help his campaign. As we mentioned earlier, we are in the new York State Assembly temporary chamber of albany, new york and the new york state Capital Building finished in 1894. We are also pleased to have joined us a studio audience of albany area residents. On some College Students and historians and some people also interested in all small smith. They will have a chance to ask some questions about al smith in the 1928 election. Well put some phone calls up in the screens he can start to dial into. This is the sixth in our 14week series the contenders. Focus 1928 election and ill smith. Joining me is what kind of candidate was all smith 1920 . Eight while he was a fighter. If you look at him and you see the short stature his tenacious in this is gravelly voice comes out across america. This is one of the first campaigns were radio played all role. He campaigns from the back of trains which was very common. But he goes after tries to engage americans an issues that are important to americans. And prosperity was there, so we couldnt talk about a candidate for prosperity. That was a republican issue. You want to talk about water power, we wanted to talk about prohibition which was just unheard of. But he came out is a fighter, on, paper he was a fantastic candidate. But he was swimming uphill all the time. Beverley gauge, electoral vote count at the end of 1920. Eight 444 four Herbert Hoover, 87 for all smith. Which states did he win and why . Well, it was definitely a blowout election. I think, that in some ways that maybe he should thank his lucky stars that he in fact did not win the 1920 election and that Herbert Hoover we might remember ills misname a little more but what would we remember him for . And was really one of these blowout elections, and i think it was really heartbreaking for smith and his supporters in part because it had been such a nasty campaign. One of the Big Questions of the election ultimately became was a prosperity, or was it simply the fact that republicans could take credit for the boom decade and therefore smith never really had a chance . Or was it a rejection of all the things itself smith really felt deeply and what he stood for. Thinks smith really took that to heart. He was very concerned about that and the real nastiness of that campaign so we had some support, but not a whole lot. There is a fourth piece that i would like to talk about, thats progresses it progressivism. He was known as a progressive during his time in the legislature that plane issued . All well when you think about it when you think about progressivism is a historical phenomenon. Really begins around 1900s with satiety ridden roosevelt is our pioneer progressive. What it means by the 1920s is that its very hard to define in many ways. There were people who call themselves progressives, and who were very impassioned about it. There were people who were called themselves progresses and were opposed to prohibition like al smith. But the basic idea of progressivism, is that al smith really dad did stand for knee could use government and proactive ways that some of the really pressing and industrial conditions that americans faced back in the early part of the 20th century. Al smith as governor and running for president really tried to make that case. He changes his mind a little bit later when the new deal comes along. We will get to that. That was really the basic idea of progressivism with the idea that you could use federal power in some significant way to really change peoples lives for the better. I think that is a key point. We talk about the new deal today. We talk about the programs a Social Security issue is never thing that fdr brought in. When smith ran for president , he had experimented with these things into york state. He was a champion of the labor issue. He was a champion of parks and recreation. He was a champion of hydroelectric power. He was wanting to spend money for the social programs of new york state. There were all four runners to the new deal. But when he ran in 1928, people did not want to hear that issue. It was overclouded by prosperity. It was whispering campaign about his religion. It was his unknown new york politician with a thick accent that came out a foreign country. Even when smith when he campaigned he had a very funny story. He was driving on a train from wyoming and they were about an hour out and he sees a horse out in the field. He says the pham somebody says we must be getting close to civilization and somebody said no thats a wild horse we got about an hour to go. He showed how much smith was out of his element. He was used the new york. I think the country was used to somebody other than a new yorker. They were used to calvin coolidge. For consideration of the National Stage . Absolutely. Al smith was nominated it was always the favorite son candidacies. When the first balloting happened in 1920 they nominated al smith for governor for president. 1920. I went one round and then they drop the votes. But in 1924 it was before that is cox from ohio. In 1928 he was the nomination. They had a compromise candidate was also a new yorker. But all through history, the new york governor and this is even in modern history, the new york governor is automatically considered president ial material. And if you look at people of run and one, as opposed to those who run lost, see new yorkers throughout history. I was just where to jump in there. I think new york was very incredibly important. New york was one and ohio was the other. When it just kept as producing president after president. I dont think we have anything like that anymore. Maybe we could look at Something Like texas. But its not just in the Democratic Party. When you look at the Republican Party, all of these figures coming out of republican candidates. When you look at the Democratic Party, you see Franklin Roosevelt. So new york as a state has two machines really going. As a pretty Significant National effect. Two machines . The most famous machine is the tammy machines that the republicans had what is tammy. Machine so tammany hall is technically just the new york citys Democratic Party. The manhattan Democratic Party. Tammany hall from the mid19th century was best known as the machine of machines in urban america. It was identified as a primarily irish machine. A machine in new york that really depended on the neighborhood power, word power, and that was as much about taking care of your neighborhood and the coming up through the neighborhood as much as it was anything really about national politics. Tammany hall is the most powerful force in new york City Politics at that moment. John fevers how did tammy hold fit into the 1928 election . That was the brush that painted smith into a corner. Unidentified speaker we talk about the religion issue. This started at the convention in 1928. Tammany hall would go to the conventions and they would always have the work was a key state. They would nominate the democratic candidates. In fact many candidates we had both a democrat and republican candidates from new york like Teddy Roosevelt ran against sultan brooks parker. One was a republican one was a democrat. But tammy hall was always seen outside of new york state and sometimes in new york state is a crop machine. People like William Jennings brian would rant and rave about tammy. But he wanted their votes, but he did not want to tammy man there. Eventually, smith is a tammy man and a candidate. And it shocked many people within the democrat democratic. Party all smith lost new york in the 1928 election. He did. He had the sad fate of losing the race for president of the United States and seeing his handpicked successor win. And as weve already discussed, fdr winds. It flips the dynamic of Smith Roosevelt dynamic forever and ultimately roosevelt ends up were smith wanted to be and sniff ends up in retirement. We will get into. That 1928 election, when you mentioned was the role of the media in 1928. I think particularly for ole smith, he had come to age as a media battler. They were after him and after him, one of the most powerful newspaper tycoons in the country. Smith had a certain amount of confidence by 1928 that he knew how to fend off these kinds of press attacks. Ultimately in the election, one of the interesting things about the catholic issue is that we now understand it to have been absolutely crucial to this election. Smith openly acknowledged it. But a lot of it was done and talked about through a in un though john mentioned it before earlier about a whispering campaign. It was not something that would be said in the press, but the press would feed into these images. I think smith, from my reading of it, he was behind from the press in part because there was so much coded language being used and in part because the press had this feisty personality that likes to write about it but were often quite contemptuous of it and really fed a public narrative that did not afford him the respect he deserves. I think one of the things that is interesting about smith in the press is that he loved the press. He used to hold press conferences here in albany, the press corps got to be very close to him. He had a great relationship of what was on and off the record. Except for the battles with hearst and his newspapers in new york state. He really enjoyed that. When he left the safe confines of york state and the whispering Campaign Came out. There were papers that were not friendly to him. It would not cover the issues that were important, smith was hurt by that. He wasnt used to that. He was also not used to the media of the day. The pie plate. He used to call the microphone that you speak and to write. Right in this very room he accepted the nomination for the president of the United States. He would speak to the microphone. He did not like to read prepared speeches. He would take out of this coat pocket and an envelope. He wrote everything and on envelopes. He would say these are the points are gonna make at all address the nation on. These things i will speak from the heart. With the campaign became more of a prepared speech, he was not used to that. He was used to the old tammany hall way. Just to jump in, you mentioned the rise of radio. I think that made a huge difference in how americans were able to perceive smith. Because he is this new york guy. I will not intent to do an el smith impersonation. The fact the people could not only read about him but i actually could hear him, he sounded foreign. He didnt sound like he came from in another country body sounded different from them not became another big issue. So this was the First Time Ever the people were able to hear mass media, their candidates correct . Oh yes, as radio started to get bigger, and the media started to circulate, certainly tv came much later, people would hear the campaigns from their political machines, they read it in the paper. They didnt see the candidates, let alone hear candidates. And when you have a candidate that pronounces radio radio, people would say is this guy and american . And that added to that whispering campaign. Again we are live from new York State Assembly chamber in albany new york. The contenders, ill smith. This is our sixth week looking at some of nelson, former governor of new york, president ial nominee for democrats. Now throughout this two hours would talk about a, smith will be coming back to the election of 1928 often with our colors. But we want to learn a little bit about where and when ill smith came from. Heres a little bit of aisle smith talking about. I was born down and a 174th. A little house right under the brooklyn bridge. You know the bridge was erected when i was a small boy. My father was at the Opening Ceremony and when hes came home he said alfred, i just witnessed a great spectacle. But at the same time, it was a very bitter disappointment. What did he mean . Here is the story as he told it to me. He said something, this bridge has kept thousands of men working for years. The steel cables, the concrete, the wiring, the machinery, it costs millions of dollars. Today was the opening. Bands were playing. Flags were waving. They cut the tape and finally it happened. What happens . They found out that all you could do is go to brooklyn this was the neighborhood were all smith grew up. Down by the fulton fish market. He raised his children here. He went to school right around the block. His father died, and he had to go off to work in support his mother and sister. This is the