Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-08-21

| By the Associated rtcS>,
ALBANY. N, Y. August II Follow
| ing is the text at Gov Alfred E. Smiths
| reply 70 the charges filed against his
/ legislative record by William Allen
/ White, Kansas editor
| For some reason best known to him.
j self, Mr William Allen White of Kan
SAS IN an interview made slanderous
| statements about me and my legislative
| record. After those statements had re-
ceived Nationwide publicity, and on
July 81 Mr. White said; The
Sovernor IN casting those votes against
those reform bills might honestly have
felt that the bills were unconstitutional.
or were not enforceable, or infringed
upon personal liberty or encouraged
police h,aCSmail.
But c.. Smith certainly is entitled
To fair treatment. l always have tried
Ia fight fair | have never consciously
on STONED any mans motives and SO
this morning before the morning papers
h>"a come and before ! know what. II
ny, reply Gov Smith has made to my
statement of yesterday. desire to with
draw the charges formally. insofar as
they affect his votes on gambling and
prostitution. but not his position as TO
the saloon.
so the ten or dozen votes on
gambling and prostitution come out Of
the record. hope now American news
papers. and particularly Republican
newspapers. will give the same consid-
Grafton 10 this statement that they gave
to my statement yesterday"
Hits G. 0. r. Committee.
At the beginning of this statement,
r Go <IAN - nat e
known only TO Mr.. White. However
the appearance of the Republican ma
ticnal commit tee in the controversy in
dicateS that il was a political attack
probably inspired by that committee,
because the Republican national COM
mittee this week issued an official re-
case to the newspapers in which MFR,
White retracts his retraction.
Here we have an unmiStakable evil
dence of the Republican national COM
mittee openly aSSociating itself with
this personal attack. Lacking the
courage 10 stand by its own completely
in the attack. the Republican director
of publicity the next day stated that
he withdraws his issuance of Mr.
Whites withdrawal of his withdrawal,
/ am glad to have this matter taken
out of the whispering stage and put into
the open. once and for all. I shall
meet it now. / regard 1t as purely
political and when the campaign begins
do not propose to have the issues Of
that campaign befogged by controversy
over irrelevant things, such as the dis
cusSion of my votes as legislator some
20 or more years ago.
My record as an opponent of immor-
atty is fixed and secure publicly and
f,xs iANf S,, 40
late Rev. Canon John P. Peters, when
chairman of the Committee of Four
teen, the leading anti-vice society of
New York, repeatedly thanked me for
my cooperation with that organization.
Is Called Cowardly.
No one in all of the Is years of my
public life has ever dared to make the
vile suggestions which emanated from
Mr. White, with the approval of Henry
j. Allen publicity director of the Re-
publican national committee. What a
cowardiy course the Republican ma
tional committee pursued! 1t issued
Slanderous statement through
its official publicity bureau and then
after its general publication in the press
attempted to evade responsibility by the
childish claim that 1t had been given
out by accident That is not fair play
I am confident in the belief that the
people of the State of New York APP
proved of my legislative record other
wise, they would not have thereafter
elected me to the highest Office within
their gift--the governorship of New
York-for four terms
I cannot, however. let go unchal-
lenged the political attempt to tear
down my character and reputation by
seeking to align me on the side of
opposition to the regulation of the liquor
traffic and in favor of gambling and
prostitution.
Quotes From Report,
Ny critics seem to take the position
that every amendment TO the former
New York excise law, which apparently
made it stricter was good bill II they
had studied the question. they would
have come to the same conclusion which
the Committee of Fourteen expressed