National Affairs: Worker Willebrandt

Washington waited to see what Hoover headquarters would do about one of Hooverism’s most tireless workers, Mrs. Mabel Walker Willebrandt, Assistant Attorney General of the U. S. Already accused of using her Federal office for political ends, she went into Ohio last fortnight and persuaded a Methodist convention at Springfield to abandon Methodism’s traditional nonpartisanship and resolve against Nominee Smith, for Nominee Hoover.

“Take to your pulpits!” was her cry. “Preach that message! Rouse your communities! The issue is bigger than party lines!”

A storm of censure had arisen on both sides of the party lines. The Republican New York Evening Post had said: “When she is permitted to make a stump speech . . . she strikes deeply at respect for impartiality of law.” Methodists in other States had flayed their Ohio brethren for being swept off their feet.

Prohibition, which it is Mrs. Willebrandt’s sworn duty and, intellectual passion to help enforce, was of course the sole burden of the Willebrandt oration to the Methodists. But she had laid herself open to Democratic charges of religious incendiarism. What would Hooverism have said if a Smith supporter, let alone a public official, should cry out for an anti-Hoover uprising of Roman Catholics?

Mrs. Willebrandt’s Ohio speech was handed out for circulation at the national Hoover headquarters with the explanation that Hooverism was not officially responsible for anything Mrs. Willebrandt might say. Senator Borah, one of Hooverism’s biggest voices, was invited to address a Methodist gathering at Peoria, Ill. He declined. Mrs. Willebrandt’s name was left off Hooverism’s official list of campaign speeches for the near future and it was stated that the next Willebrandt speech would not be distributed from official headquarters.

But there was no official repudiation of “Take to your pulpits!,” a cry which may well become an historic feature of the Presidential campaign of 1928. And there was no visible squelching of Worker Willebrandt. She promised to appear and speak again in Ohio, on Sept. 23 at Lorain. Clear-eyed, evangelical, she said: “I shall continue … as my conscience dictates!”

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A few days after the Ohio Methodists were Willebrandtized. the Northern Baptist Convention (representing about 1,250,000 souls) was told by its officials that all good Baptists are expected to vote against Smith, for Hoover.