Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-14
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

Instead of being known as the
Hoover-Smith campaign, it begins to
look as if 1928 might go down in his
tory as 1.-THE whispering campaign"
Gov. Smiths frontal attack on the
charge that he is drunkard is notice
to all concerned that he does not in
tend to let such ISLANDERS remain I'M
challenged. The Democratic nominee
follows the lead of Theodore Roosevelt,
persons who similarly libeled him. Her.
bert Hoover appears to be thicker
skinned than Gov. Smith about the
whispering campaign. The G. 0. P.
standard bearer finds solace In the fact
that such campaigns are as old as the
Republic ITSELF George washington
faced them continually, and, at the
hands of certain modern historians,
faces them still. Andrew JackSon's enc
mics did their dirtiest to whisper him
into political ruin. Abraham Lincoln
was seldom immune from the tongue OF
innuendo. Grover Cleveland weathered
cruel blasts of whispering chatter, in
GLIDING the drunkenness accusation.
Woodrow Wilson was not spared py
traducers, even when he lay broken.
The present occupant of the White
House himself, especially during the
past year, has not escaped the poisoned
darts with which whispering campaigns
are fought.
X X X
His alleged inebriety is only one OF
the morSels with which the whisper
ing campaigners are operating against
Smith, Of even greater persistence ana
venom is their exploitation OF the re.
ligious issue. BY word OF mouth ana
by the printed page the governors
antagonists are warning the country OF
the terrible fate that will overtake IT II
the flag of Rome is allowed to sup
plant the Stars and Stripes atop the
White House. The Southern mails for
weeks have been loaded with carl
catures of Smith doing pres1dential
obeisance to the Pope. The Democratic
candidate is slammed by the soto voce
brigade because he is OF Immigrant
stock. His inability to maintain tne
dignity" of the executive Office Is one
of their favorite asides. His "lack OF
polish" is another; and, of course, MS
East Side accent and occasional hpef-
/ ties with grammar are always stressed
Mrs. Smiths style of talking and dress
ing-even her figures adduced as
reason why her husband should not be
President or she the First Lady OF the
Land. AS one of the governors Chief
supporters has just put it. the. com.
bined forces of "bigotry and snobbery'
are engaged in a systematic attempt to
| whisper ZAP into defeat.
X X X
Herbert Hoover has been the target
of undercover attack from the moment
he became public figure IA years ago.
when he undertook the Belgian relief
task. There were BritisherS who did
not shrink from backStairS talk that
| Hoover was not only feeding the Ger
man Army in Belgium, but personally
profiting from the purchase of food sup
plies. At the Kansas City convention
in June the town was flooded with q
four-sheet rag of newspaper size, spon-
sored by the illinois Republican Coun-
Gill;" emblazoned with page-wide head
line reading, who Is Herbert Hoover?"
and bringing a variety of charges de-
signed to depict the Californian as
| utterly unfit to hold the Nations high
est office Here's a sample paragraph:
Mr.. Hoover, were you not as
sailed on the floor of Congress as
being food gambler? And were
you not charged with being a repre-
sentative of the packing interests?
| Did you not arrange to sell meats
for the packers to Europe? Did you
not fail to appear in response to a
subpoena before senatorial investi-
eating committee investigating the
sugar situation In 1917? Were you
not charged on the floor Of Con-