Hoover by Kenneth Whyte

Author:Kenneth Whyte
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2017-10-10T04:00:00+00:00

This statement was consistent with Hoover’s oft-repeated message on equality of opportunity as the foundation of American life and “the right of every American—rich or poor, foreign or native-born, irrespective of faith or color.” He presented himself to voters as the beneficiary of this same right: “In no other land, could a boy from a country village, without inheritance or influential friends, look forward with un-bounded hope.”39

Hoover and his official campaign team were reasonably successful in avoiding religion throughout the contest of 1928. Inevitably, given the virulence of anti-Catholic sentiment, not all in his party followed his example. Pockets of Republican activists, including at least one attached to the national committee, were caught in the act of papal scaremongering. The flow of anti-Catholic literature increased markedly throughout the country as the race intensified. Shown evidence of a Virginia campaign manager prophesying Rum and Romanism in America if Smith was elected, Hoover publicly denounced the speaker, and toward the end of the campaign he reiterated his call for tolerance.40

As far as Smith and the Democrats were concerned, Hoover’s response to the prejudice unleashed in his service was wanting. In an emotional address in Oklahoma City on September 20, Smith accused “Republicans high in the councils of the party” of having countenanced bigotry. They may not have actively promoted it, he said, but “a sin of omission is some times as grievous as a sin of commission.”41

Hoover believed he had said his piece at the start of the campaign, and as a practical matter, he had nothing to gain by addressing religion and authenticating Smith’s victimhood. Republicans were campaigning on prosperity, and it was a winning issue. Intolerance was a Democratic theme, used by Smith to raise money and rally his vote. The Democrat nevertheless had a point about sins of omission. Hoover, despite his calls for religious tolerance, told reporters that Smith’s Oklahoma speech would only fan the flames of intolerance and that reticence was the best policy. The notion that Hoover might have been inclined to take his points in the Electoral College instead of heaven would have offended his followers, but his contempt for political opportunism was not absolute. He knew where his interest lay in the campaign against Smith. The acerbic journalist Oswald Garrison Villard was correct in saying that Hoover had all the qualities one required of a presidential candidate: “the ability to play politics, to compromise, at times to deceive oneself and the general public…to defend the Golden Rule and the Commandments against all comers…and then to keep silent in the presence of national sin.”42

The oddest aspect of Hoover’s response to the religious issue was his conviction that he suffered as much as, if not more than, Smith from mudslinging. He was heard to give slur-by-slur accounts of all the malicious rumors and personal attacks aimed at him during the campaign: that he had been a war profiteer, that he was implicated in the Harding scandals, that he was racist, or too friendly with African Americans.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.