|
THE MAKING OF A NATION - January 10, 2002: Election of 1928
By David Jarmul
VOICE 1:
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.
(Theme)
The presidential election of nineteen-twenty-eight gave American voters a clear choice between two different
kinds of candidates and political parties. The Democratic Party nominated Al Smith, the popular governor of the
state of New York. The Republican Party chose Herbert Hoover, an engineer and businessman who served as
secretary of commerce for presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge.
VOICE 2:
Governor Alfred Smith of New York had campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in nineteen-
twenty-four. But he was defeated at the party convention by a compromise candidate, John Davis.
Four years later, however, Smith could not be stopped. He had a strong record as governor
of the nation's most heavily-populated state. He campaigned for the presidency on a policy
of building new electric power stations under public control.
Smith knew that many conservative Americans might be worried by his new ideas and his
belief in strong government. So he chose as his campaign manager a Republican industrial
leader who had worked with General Motors, DuPont, and other major companies.
Smith hoped this would prove his faith in the American private business system.
VOICE 1:
Al Smith was a strong political leader and an effective governor. But he frightened many Americans, especially
conservative citizens living in rural areas.
They lived on farms or in small towns. Al Smith was from the city. And not just from any city, but New York
City, a place that seemed big and dirty and filled with foreign people and strange traditions. Al Smith's parents
came from Ireland. He grew up in New York and worked as a salesman at the Fulton Fish Market.
Smith was an honest man. But many rural Americans simply did not trust people from big cities. Al Smith
seemed to them to represent everything that was new, different, and dangerous about American life.
But being from New York City was not Al Smith's only problem. He also opposed the new national laws that
made it illegal to buy or produce alcoholic drinks. And he had political ties to the New York political machine.
But worst of all, in the eyes of many Americans, Al Smith was a Roman Catholic.
VOICE 2:
From George Washington through Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and up to Calvin Coolidge, every
American president had been male, white, and a Protestant Christian. Of course, there was no law requiring a
candidate to be Protestant. But millions of traditional Americans just were not ready to give their vote to a
Roman Catholic.
Opponents of the Smith campaign generally did not speak openly about his religion. But many of them were
afraid that Smith would take his orders from the Vatican in Rome, instead of working with the Congress in
Washington.
As captured by artist
Miguel Covarrubias
Al Smith fought back. He told the country, "I am unable to understand how anything I was taught to believe as a
Catholic could possibly be in conflict with what is good citizenship. My faith," he said, "is built upon the laws of
God. There can be no conflict between them. "
VOICE 1:
But many Protestant Americans thought there was a conflict. And they looked to the Republican Party to supply a
strong candidate to oppose Smith and the Democrats.
The Republicans did just that. They nominated former secretary of commerce Herbert Hoover, one of the
country's most popular men. Hoover was well-known to Americans. People trusted him. And they liked the way
he had gained great personal success from poor beginnings.
In fact, Hoover's life story would have pleased Abraham Lincoln, another American who rose
from a poor family to fame.
Hoover was born in the farm state of Iowa in eighteen-seventy-four. His father was a poor
metal worker who kept moving his family from state to state.
Herbert Hoover's father died when the boy was just six years old. His mother died four years
later. Young Herbert had to move to the western state of Oregon to live with his mother's
brother.
Herbert's uncle was luckier in life than Herbert's parents. He had made money in the land business. And he
helped the boy gain admission to Stanford University in California. At the university, Herbert showed great skill
in mathematics. And he decided to go into business as a geologist studying the science of the earth.
VOICE 2:
After college, Herbert Hoover got a job as a mine worker. During the next several years, Hoover spent most of
his time working as an engineer in foreign countries. And he succeeded beyond his greatest dreams. By the time
he was forty years old, he had earned more than one-million dollars.
After World War One, he organized the effort to provide food for starving people in Europe. He did an excellent
job, winning praise from people in Europe and the United States alike. Next, Hoover joined the administration of
President Warren Harding, serving as the secretary of commerce. Again, he did a very good job.
Hoover left the cabinet in nineteen-twenty-five. But two years later, he organized efforts to provide relief for
victims of a flood in the southern state of Mississippi. And again, Americans all around the country took note of
this quiet, serious man who did such effective work in so many different kinds of situations.
Some Americans, however, did not like Hoover, including some people who usually supported Republicans.
For example, many professional Republican politicians did not trust him, because he had spent most of his life in
business, not politics. Some stock market traders thought Hoover might change the rules on the New York Stock
Exchange. And many farmers believed hoover had no new ideas about how to solve their growing economic
problems.
VOICE 1:
This, then, was the choice Americans faced in nineteen-twenty-eight. On the one hand, Al Smith. A Democrat. A
Roman Catholic. A politician from the city. A man wanting some social change. And on the other hand, Herbert
Hoover. A Republican. A businessman who had proven the dream that even a poor boy could become great in
America. A man who seemed to succeed with every effort he touched.
The main issue in the campaign was not economics or religion, but the new national laws banning alcoholic
drinks. Hoover was for the laws; Smith against them. The two candidates also argued about how to provide aid to
struggling farmers, and how to increase electricity and water supplies.
VOICE 2:
Herbert Hoover won the election of nineteen-twenty-eight. It was one of the greatest victories in presidential
history. Hoover won fifty-eight percent of the votes. Smith got just forty percent. And Hoover captured four-
hundred forty-four electoral votes to Smith's eighty-seven.
And so it was that the engineer and businessman Herbert Hoover entered the White House in nineteen-twentynine.
There was some trouble the day he moved in. Outgoing President Coolidge was a man who watched every
dollar he owned. And he accused some White House workers of stealing his shoes on the day of the inauguration.
But -- finally -- safe, conservative, business-like Herbert Hoover was leading the country.
VOICE 1:
The nation's stock market reacted by pushing stock prices to record high levels. Everyone expected that economic
growth would continue and expand. But the happy times were just a dream. Within one year, the stock market
collapsed. Millions of people lost their jobs. The nation fell into the worst economic crisis it had ever faced.
Herbert Hoover was not personally responsible for the crisis. In many ways, it was his own bad luck to be elected
just before the disaster struck. But it was his job to guide the nation through its troubled waters. And he would
prove to be the wrong person to give such leadership.
His four years in office would be one of the most difficult periods in the nation's history. We will look at
President Hoover's administration in our next program.
(Theme)
VOICE 2:
You have been listening to THE MAKING OF A NATION, a program in Special English on the Voice of
America. Your narrators have been Harry Monroe and Rich Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by David
Jarmul.
Email this article to a friend
Printer Friendly Version
|