New Britain herald., 1928-10-19
RI7CHIE DECLARES
 SMITH IS CLEAN

km0Cr1nC ClDdldltt VYn 4lS ta, Maryland Governor Asserts
 Stamford, Oct. Ex-Governor AL fred E. Smiths Tammany record has been an open book for 50 years and for the past IS years especially thousands of his political enemies have turned their microscopes upon 1t but have been unable to find q haw. Governor Albert c. Ritchie. of Maryland stated at a democratic mass meeting here last night. He spoke on the subject, Governor Smith and Tammany Hall"
 Every time any investigation has been started, Governor Ritchie said Smith has come clean. 'Tammany Hall no more dominates him than I do," he declared. If there is any dominating. Smith dominates Tam many. He and his colleagues have made Tammany an agency for good government in New York city and he has | right to be proud of that. The Smith anti-Tammany crusade is just as unjust to him as is the anti Catholic bunk. Smith is his own master"
 Governor Ritchie spoke as fol- lows:
 II am told that. like Rev. John Roach straton, who perhaps loves the Lord almost as much as he loves publicity. there are many who pro- feses to think that Smith, as pro- duct of Tammany Hall. doesn't re- fleet | sufficiently uplifting force. and is not good enough or great enough to be president
 Well. goodness and greatness are almost as difficult to define as they are to achieve. The Bible says, by their fruits ye shall know them, and If that be true then I need not stopto prove that Governor Smith is blessed with goodness and has achieved greatness, even If he never reaches tho presidency. His record A open and clear and clean. The voters of New York year after year and the keenest minds of tho nation regardless of politics, have endors- cd 1t.
 "One of the things that renews our faith in democracy and in the ability of our fellow men to do jus tics, is tho way everybody who knows gives Smith this high praise and comedies his superior qualities of head and heart. Read what men like Charles Evans Hughes, Elihu Root, Nicholas Murray Butler. all republican, say about him. Note how most of our independent, non- partisan writers and intellectuals bear similar testimony. They recog- nise that in this son of the East Side of New York the common peo- pie have once more cast up . great man and . great leader. just as they did in the case of Jackson and Lin- coln and Cleveland. There is noth- ing artificial or manufactured about Smith. Perhaps that's why some people can't compass him. just as at first they couldn't compass Lincoln or Jackson. or Jefferson. or even Washington.
 You can, of course, reject Smith, if you are built that way; because Of his humble origin: or for speak ing the truth as he sees 1t on ques- tions like prohibition: or because you don't agree with him that the nation must come to the relief of the farmer: or because you don't share his faith in the right and ability of the people to govern themselves: but you can't reject him for lack of ability or for want of real greatness and goodness. Neither if you arc true American. can you reject him because he is . Catholic. And. If you are fair. you can't re- ject him either because he belongs to the local democratic party organ nation of Manhattan, known as Tammany.
 Ponts at Republican Machines
 'Lst mo analyze this anti Tam many stuff. I could. of course. dis pose of 1t for any fair minded man by pointing out the hypocrisy and the efYrontery of any attack of any kind on Tammany as democratic organixtion by . party which relies for its life and sustenance on the Ware machine in Philadelphia. the Mellon Magee machine in Pitts burgh, the Crowe- thompson ma- chino in Chicago. the old Cox ma chine in Cincinnati. the Watson state machine in Indiana and the small state machine in Illinois. Be- sides tho corruption, the blackjack ing and the other sins and deviltries of these republican machines, with the penitentiary often and rightly following in the wake. the Tammany of today Is. to say the least. very ld-mannered proposition.
 And in truth criticism of Tam many or of anything else comes with mighty poor grace and with anything, but clean hands from the party which gave us Fall and Daugherty. which pillaged and vast Cd the 1undS tne people nau ueul- cated to the disabled soldiers, and which burglarized our naval oil re- serves
 just told me what you had planned
 But I wish rather to answer this Tammany talk with a few matter of fact observations.
 Nothing 50 well illustrates our American habit of being influenced and befud fled in politics by . name ot . whisper as this absurd conten- ton that Smith would make bad president because all his life he has been a member of Tammany Hall. That Is equivalent almost to saying that no democrat from the City Of New York is eligible for president,