Books: Politics and Sprigs

UP TO Now—Alfred Emanuel Smith—Viking ($5).

Marketable commodities are the private opinions, the private reminiscences of public men. Alfred Emanuel Smith, office holder for more than 30 years, never forgets the voting, book-buying public’s predilection for personal revelations. In his newly-published autobiography he garnishes the heavy fare of his legislative and executive doings with inviting sprigs of intimacy.

Boyhood in Manhattan. “I remember as a small boy going with my father to the Atlantic Garden and listening to the lady musicians. . . . My sister and I were given chocolate to drink, and huge slices of cake, while the elders drank their beer. . . . When I was ten years old, I became an altar boy. … I practically lived in the fire engine house, . . . rode on the hose cart. . . . Gifted with a good loud voice, I was paid to read off the ticker tape on the night of the Sullivan-Corbett fight. . . . We used the bowsprit and rigging of ships as a gymnasium . . . learned to swim in the fish cars. . . . For a time I had a West Indian goat, four dogs, a parrot and a monkey, all living in peace and harmony in the garret. … I went to the Dime Museum so often that I could have taken the place of the announcer as he described the India-rubber man; Jojo. the dog-faced boy; Professor Coffey, the skeleton dude. . . .”

Katie. “No one could have been more unselfish, more devoted. … In the early years she took care of the children herself and did all her own washing, ironing and cooking. . . . She has always been head of the household and was christened by one of the children Chairman of the House Committee. . . . When I rose to speak, after I had her located, I felt I was all right. . . . She has openly proclaimed that she thinks I am the greatest man in the world.”

At Albany. “I was unable to escape the fear of fire in the hotel on my first night away from home in five years. I persuaded Tom Caughlan to stay up playing pinochle with me until five o’clock in the morning, when we took turns at sleep for an hour or so up to breakfast time. … In my first three terms in the assembly I knew nothing about lobbying, or anything els? that was going on, for that matter. . . . The newspapers often referred to Al Smith’s Gang during my years in the legislature. That meant all my children, my wife, some of my sister’s children, and, on some occasions, my mother.”

Actor Smith. “As late as 1916, when I was sheriff of New York, the parish needed funds, so we produced Boucicault’s The Shaughraun in the basement of the church. I played Corry Kinchela. the villain. . . . The hero was played by James J. Walker, now Mayor of the City of New York. … I have often said that my prominence in them [amateur theatricals] played no small part in bringing me to the attention of the people of my neighborhood, which, unquestionably, in time to come, had something to do with my elections.”

Menagerie. “Throughout my four terms in Albany one of the attractions of the Executive Mansion was animals. In my first term I confined the menagerie to ponies, dogs, birds . . . later I had at various times raccoons, bears, elk. deer, monkeys, rabbits, pheasants, a red fox, barn owls, and for awhile a goat named Heliotrope. . . .”

Tammany. “After all, Tammany Hall for a century has been the dominating political party in the city of New York. . . . Had I accepted advice, I would not have spoken in Tammany Hall just one week after my nomination for the Presidency. But I had my strongest inclination to speak in Tammany Hall at just that very time. I had been identified with Tammany Hall for a quarter of a century. I always had its full and loyal support. I felt that in my hour of great success my place was among my friends.”

Speeches. “I was never able to deliver a set speech; never able to write it, and never able to read it. In all of my debates and speeches, I used only a single envelope or two with just the headings jotted down. . . .”

Campaigning. “I have probably heard The Sidewalks of New York one million times, all over the Atlantic seaboard, through the South, the Middle West and in Butte, Montana. … I spoke at Oklahoma City on religious tolerance. Listeners in on the radio were particularly disturbed because of the noises in the hall which they believed were disorder. The fact is that a large part of the noise was created by an individual about halfway down the hall who continuously shouted: ‘Pour it on ’em, Al, pour it on ’em. . . .’ When I spoke in Louisville the heat in the meeting hall was noticeable to everyone. We afterwards learned that somebody had deliberately turned on the steam heat. A member of the local police notified the newspapermen that I was intoxicated. . . . Half a dozen different stories were carried back to me and each time my supposed degree of intoxication was so great that it required two men to hold me up. … To my way of thinking, neither the tariff nor the farm problem were important factors in the determination of the election. In its broad aspects the campaign appeared to me to be one of Smith or anti-Smith. . . .”

Senator-at-large. “A man who receives 15 million votes but not enough to be elected automatically retires to private life and leaves the 15 million unrepresented except in so far as their senators and their congressmen are concerned. As a remedy, I suggest that we can amend our constitution to provide that the candidate for the presidency who receives the second highest number of votes should be entitled to a seat in the United States Senate as a senator-at-large during the term of his successful opponent. … He would naturally become the leader of the minority party and a good, forceful, vigorous minority is the people’s own check on the possible tyranny of a majority.”

Philosophy. “When all is said and done, it seems impossible to divorce the personal equation from politics.”