• U.S.

National Affairs: Smith to the U. S.

8 minute read
TIME

Last week, virtually certain of the Democratic nomination to be President of the U. S., Governor Alfred Emanuel Smith of New York became 54 years old and, with family & friends about him, stood up at his dinner table to carve a 100-lb., electric-lighted replica of the White House, fashioned in cake for the occasion by Ryoochi Hida, his chef.

Five days later, without for a moment stepping out of his role as Governor, Alfred Emanuel Smith addressed the U. S. electorate. Formally, he was addressing only the New York Legislature. But he well knew others were listening. He called his speech “the eighth and last annual message I shall present to your Honorable , Bodies.” He made it a history of government in New York State since he first governed there.*

The message took more than four hours to read aloud. So soon as they could obtain the text in print, politicians perused it closely. It is just possible that an issue between Republicans and Democrats can be found before next November. But, issue or none, the Smith record must be the Democratic answer to the record of the Coolidge Administration. In his historical message last week, Governor Smith, using remarkably few phrases such as “all along I have stood for . . . etc.” and “as far back as 1920 I appointed . . . etc.,” outlined his record as follows:

Chaos. “At the beginning of this decade the Government of the State was more or less in chaos”—owing to martial preoccupations.

Reconstruction. In 1919, Governor Smith appointed a Reconstruction Commission of private citizens from many a profession and rank of life. This Commission helped the Governor demobilize the state and deal with War-neglected problems, such as unemployment, housing, public health, transportation, food distribution, business and industrial unrest. The Commission also suggested that the government needed reorganization. The Commission perfected a plan, based on recommendations of a constitutional convention which had been held in 1915. The plan was adopted in 1925 by constitutional amendment. It did away with conflicting boards and bureaus; distributed all state functions among 18 departments, of which the heads were responsible directly to the Governor. “I deem it significant to mention,” said Governor Smith, “that at the first meeting of the Governor’s Cabinet it was necessary to introduce some of the department heads to one another who had never met before, although all were engaged in a common effort. . . .

“It is already conceded that the reorganization is the most progressive and thorough reform in the structure of State government undertaken by any State in the Union.”

Budget. Fiscal reform accompanied administrative under the Smith regime. Governor Smith was presently to submit to the Legislature his state’s first Executive Budget, certifying the state’s needs “in the order of their importance” as determined by a special bureau. The Legislature had power to reduce, but not increase items, and to add items subject to the Governor’s veto.

Business in Government. Governor Smith enunciated his belief that business principles should be applied to State Government, and cited examples of how this had been done: a) by building public works with bond issues instead of out of current revenues; b) by forming public corporations to finance self-sustaining projects like ports and bridges.

Water Power. “New York State is probably the richest State in the Union in natural power sources. . . . If private enterprise, as has been suggested, can borrow the money to develop these great resources, what is there to prevent a public corporation from doing the same thing?” Governor Smith recalled that since 1919 he had been fighting to carry out the state-control water power policy first enunciated (in 1907) by Governor Charles Evans Hughes.

Taxation. Describing the changes wrought in his time upon the 18 branches of New York’s government, Governor Smith began with the Tax Department. A major political charge against him had been “the increased burden of taxation.” He stated the decade’s tax history as follows: a) an income tax was the only new tax imposed, to replace the excise tax killed by Prohibition; b) the income tax was now so reduced that a man who paid $26 on $5,000 in 1919, paid $7 on $5,000 in 1927; c) revenue from automobile taxes had swelled from some six millions in 1919 to some 34 millions in 1927, not because of any heavier levy but because the number of automobiles in New York had more than tripled; d) “We have not increased the burden on the individual taxpayer. We have more taxpayers. . . .”

Roads. “Just the increase in mileage and the total appropriations tell the story.”

Public Utilities. During the Miller interim (1921-1923) in the Smith regime, New York State took away from its municipalities their control over public utility contracts. Said Governor Smith: “All along I have stood for the right of a locality to regulate a public utility operating wholly within its borders. . . .”

Education, Crime Commission, Labor and Housing Laws—these were other headings in the Smith record to which, without elaboration by him, his friends could point with pride. Within a decade, New York had stepped up her education appropriations from 83 to 290 millions per annum. Her new penal code, drawn by a Smith-suggested crime commission under State Senator Caleb H. Baumes, had become the model for many another state.

In addition to the foregoing, Governor Smith touched upon two topics of state interest with such emphasis that his national views on the same topics were made clear. To the U. S. electorate, these were the outstanding points in the “eighth and last” message of the Governor who wants to be President.

“Agriculture,” he said, “is the basic industry of the State. It is not only fundamental to all other industries, but it is a big and important industry in itself.” He called attention to the fact that New York, though twentieth among the states in farming area, stands eight in total farm production. In potatoes, hay and sweet corn it leads; in dairy products, apples, grapes and total value of vegetables it stands second.

What did New York’s Governor think about agriculture? He said: ” . . . The promotion of the interests of those who till the soil is certainly of vital concern. . . . Both national and state policies should be moulded to insure equality of opportunity and reward between those groups which produce the food and those which consume it.”

What had New York’s Governor done for agriculture? He had, in 1920, appointed a commissioner to investigate an appendage of the Legislature which was supposed to be helping farmers. As a result, the appendage was overhauled. So were the co-operative marketing laws. Co-operative marketing associations multiplied during the decade from 17 to 1,100.

Prohibition. New York’s Legislature ratified the 18th Amendment in 1919. In 1926, the people of New York modified the sustaining act. Governor Smith flayed those politicians who had prevented a referendum on the Amendment in the first place. Of the future he said: “Under our form of government and guided by the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States [declaring national Prohibition binding upon States], the question . . . is removed from the States and is focused upon the national legislature at Washington. Gradually our people are beginning to realize that there and only there can any change in the present status be made.”

Of enforcement, he said. “I speak only the truth when I say that the people of any locality get the degree of law enforcement upon which they insist and for which they are willing to pay. . . .” He said he was and would be willing to “remove from office upon proper proof being presented, any public official charged with laxity in enforcement of the law.” But he repeated: “Law enforcement must of necessity begin with arrest. Too many misinformed people look for detailed enforcement from the head rather than from the root of police power.”

During the week, Governor Smith had occasion, to express himself on one more topic. Some Ku Klux Klansmen in Queens, N. Y., asked him to punish their municipal authorities for breaking up a Klan parade. Governor Smith answered that he could not act but that he hoped justice would be done. He also said: “I regard the purposes of your organization with abhorrence. . . .”

Klansmen stirred angrily and talked of getting behind loud-voiced Senator Heflin of Alabama (who mortally hates and fears the Roman Pope) on a “third ticket.” Senator Heflin expressed surprise, but said: “I have been urged by any number of people to run for President.”

During the week, Governor Smith was called “outstanding Democrat of his day” by Roland Sletor Morris, Wilsonian ambassador to Japan (1917-21), and controller of at least half of Pennsylvania’s 76 nominating votes at the Democratic convention.

* Governor Smith was inaugurated for the first of his four two-year terms in 1919; for the second, in 1923, after an intervening term for Nathan L. Miller (Republican).

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