National Affairs: The Great Abstraction

To the arch-Republican New York Herald Tribune went last week a letter from Ellery Sedgwick, distinguished editor of the Atlantic Monthly. Excerpts:

“Why is Mr. Hoover, whose philosophy proclaims him an individualist of individualists, suffering the campaign so utterly to eclipse his personality? At the close of the War he was a figure for legend. . . . Now when the supreme opportunity opens before him he is become the Great American Abstraction. . . .

“Listen to him on the radio. The flat, even intonation goes on and on. There is no passion and no human warmth. It is Duty speaking at great length. There is more personality in the angle of Mr. Coolidge’s cigar than in the whole utterance of Herbert Hoover. . . .

“It really is odd, this one-legged campaign. There is but a single figure [Smith] in it. You may hate him or you may love him, but it is because of Smith that you vote at all. A few thousands will vote for Hoover. Millions will vote against Smith. Millions will vote for Smith, too, but nobody is going to vote against Hoover. . . . During the whole campaign he [Hoover] has said nothing to hurt feelings and he has done nothing at all.”

The phrase “The Great Abstraction” seemed destined to stick to Hoover, win or lose.