Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-04
FRIENDS OF SMITH
DECRY EARLY BOOM
HilIeS BelittIes Governors
vote-getting Power, While
White Praises Him.

By the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, January 4.--Presider
tial politics continued today to create
somewhat of q stir.
Reports that some supporters of
Al Smith were making an active
drive for delegates to the Democratic
convention were followed by a Rcpub-
lican spokesman's statement helittling
Smiths power as n vote getter. This
statement came from Charles ID.
Hilles, Republican State chairman
and national vice chairman.
The New York World. ardent sup.
porter OF Gov. Smith. said that the
governors closest friends were frowu
ing upon efforts TO get his boom of
to an early start, regarding such steps
as ill-advised and likely 20 hurt his
chances
William Allen White Of Emporia.
Smith and Coolidge
The Kansas editor was asked during
an address before the forum Of tn"
Jewish Center In Brooklyn whether
il AL Smith went down to Washing
ton, there would have to he a change
in the attitude Of the Government
toward big business.
Warmly Praises Smith.
"You have the cart before the
horse" Mr.. White answered. There
will have to be Il change in the
attitude toward big business before
AL Smith can ever go to Washington.
Personally, 1 consider that AL Smith
represents the biggest, best, keenest
and cleanest brain in American pub
lie life today-and I am a RepuS-
lean"
Mr.. White spoke on Coolidge and
the Changing Times" He declared
President Coolidge to be ''as much Of
a mystic as any other New Englander
ever has been, even Emerson, and his
mysticism is that he believes that,
given prosperity, Justice will come as
by-product.'
He said that he thought the Presi-
dent to be the typical political leader
of the new era, in which prosperity IS
the chief end of mankind.
"I think Calvin Coolidge represents
the very best that can be said OF this
new commercial era in its political
phase" he continued. He IS q typi"
cal politician Of the better sort under
the new order He is educated as
New Englanders and Americans go,
but he has nothing of the erudition
that Roosevelt or Wilson had and
nothing of the broad interests in life
that any one of a dozen of the elder
statesmen had; he got on the political
escalator and went right up; he iS'
thoroughly regular in his party; he
has never led q lone cause. never had
a political fight in his life in the sense
Of going out and cleaning up the gang
in his ward. his district or his State.
Mr., Hilles, in a statement, said that
Gov. Smith carried the State by 100
900 less votes last November than III
1923, the last off year. and predicted
a Republican sweep in New York and
the Nation in 1928.
Holds Governor Expensive.
while I appreciate the personal
popularity of Gov. Smith, he said,
land while 1 admit that he has. as
head of his ticket, carried two United
States Senators with him, it is indis-
putably true that his majority is less
than it was and that he was unable
in the last election to carry either
branch of the Legislature of the entire
State ticket.
EVERY one seems TO have under
stood that he would not have accepted
the governorship except to utilize II
as a stepping stone.
Asserting that Smith has been an
EXPENSIVE governor and for that rea-
son alone many would not support
him for the presidency, Mr.. Hilles
drew an analogy between the popu-
laritv OF Gov. Smith and that OF the
late Gov. David b. Hill.
I'm 1890" ne said. Gov. David y.
Hill was hardly less the idol of the
Democratic party in the state ana
scarcely less popular generally than
Al Smith. He seemed a presidential
probability. But two years latef
Grover Cleveland was nominated IN
-
SERIOUS differences within the Demo
cratic party on fundamental problems
might cause the nomination OF third
Ga ndidate even IL Gov. Smith were the
standard bearer, said Mr.. Hilles. lie
would like to hear the governor e&-
nress his stand on the League OF Ma
fionS and the tariff.