The South Reads Mr. Smith
Reid, Richard
THE South awoke Easter Monday morning to find dominating the front pages of its press more Catholic apologetics than it had ever seen anywhere in its papers, even in a month of Mondays...
...The Times-Dispatch further characterizes the Governor's letter as something of a "lay American encyclical on the subject of the involvement of Church and state as understood by modem Roman Catholicism...
...Thus is Mr...
...The silence of so many editorial columns on the reply to Marshall is not without significance...
...but papers like the Columbus (Georgia) Enquirer-Sun recall that the South supported President Wilson who vetoed the Volstead Act, and the Greenville (South Carolina) News refers to the support It gave Governor Cox in 1920 despite his views on prohibition...
...The Montgomery Advertiser, published in the capital city of Senator Heflin's state, asserts that the Governor's "discussion of his position under the American Constitution and under the Church of Rome should be satisfactory to all citizens except the irreconcilables...
...In our day...
...The News and Observer says further: "There ought to be no religious test applied to men for public office...
...No one could make a fairer statement of the religious attitude which any citizen should take than this by the Catholic Governor of New York," it says...
...The southern press asserts its belief that the questions raised by the Marshall letter have been settled by Governor Smith's reply...
...It is to the credit of Alfred E. Smith that he answered the questions item by item without evasion...
...It adds: "Any citizen who could inject religion into the appraisal of one's fitness and qualifications for public office is not only intolerant, but contradicts the tenets of faith upon which our government is founded...
...A survey of editorial opinion on the possible candidacy of Governor Smith as it has been discussed In the southern press, not only during the past week, but for the past few years, should convince a reasonable man that friends of the Governor who insist the South Is opposing him only because of his religion are doing him poor service...
...yet he has another and possibly a more vexatious issue to contend with, and that is his stand on the prohibition law...
...Smith is ineligible for this country's chief magistracy," continues the News, "but his religious faith . . . is not one of these, after the effective fashion in which he has answered his critics...
...this paper refers to the letter as a "complete answer and powerful statement," and continues: "In so far as a statement by one man can settle a much-vexed problem of American life, especially American public life, Governor Smith's statement has settled the problem which has existed in millions of minds as to the alleged primary allegiance of American Roman Catholics to the Roman Catholic Church and their subordinated allegiance to the United States itself...
...Smith Is today a bigger man than he was a week ago...
...A Georgia weekly, an ardent advocate of prohibition, asserts that it would not support the New York Governor "even though he were to withdraw from the Catholic Church and unite with every Protestant church in America...
...No Catholic ought to support Governor Smith for the Presidency because they belong to the same faith, and no Protestant ought to oppose Governor Smith because he belongs to the Roman Catholic faith...
...In North Carolina, Josephus Daniels's Raleigh News and Observer recalls the Marshall letter, Governor Smith's reply and the Marshall rejoinder, and then remarks that it is the Governor's next move, a conclusion with which the Governor evidently does not agree...
...Despite the fact that much of the opposition to Al Smith in the South has been based ostensibly upon his views as to prohibition, it can hardly be doubted that, after all, the opposition is mainly founded upon the fact that Smith is a Catholic...
...Failure to make It was apparently...
...There are other weeklies, more than those outside the South may suspect, which agree with the Dalton editor's estimate of the New York Governor and which do not qualify their tributes to him...
...The Miami Herald Is also dubious about the effect of the Smith letter...
...Marshall...
...The Savannah Morning News adds to the Georgia editorial comment by accepting Governor Smith's statement...
...The Observer refers to his record at Albany as proof of his statement that his Church has never " 'directly or Indirectly attempted to exercise influence in my administration of any office I have ever held or asked me to show special favor to Catholics or exercise discrimination against non-Catholics.' . . . All over the South are Democrats who have faith in the soundness of Smith's Americanism, who take no stock in the proposition that as President he would be ruled either by Pope, or by cardinal, or by Catholic influences of any kind, but would be guided solely by the requirements of the Constitution...
...The Selma Times-Journal, in the same state, finds that the Governor's reply Is "frank and unequivocal and should effectively eliminate this bone of contention as a subject of controversy in the campaign...
...The idea that Governor Smith is more liberal than his Church seems to be hinted by several other editorial writers, but they constitute a small minority of those responsible for the comments coming under the observation of the writer...
...Yet on the heels of the Governor's answer comes the news that Mr...
...The Arkansas Gazette of Little Rock, and the Jackson (Mississippi) News maintain with many others that prohibition and not religion Is the issue...
...In most cases, deliberate rather than accidental...
...Marshall will reply to Governor Smith...
...This reference to "modern Roman Catholicism" is significant of a widespread impression among editorial writers that the teaching of the Church on the relation of Church and state is variable, an impression apparently reflected also by the Macon Telegraph in the editorial already cited: "Governor Smith's personal creed is diametrically opposed to what has been the popular conception of the historic position of the Catholic Church...
...accepting without qualification the Governor's conception of the harmony of his allegiance to his Church and his allegiance to his country, and yet opposing him on other grounds...
...The country should rather be interested in Governor Smith's position on the issues of the day, says the Times-Journal, for "nobody believes that, should Governor Smith be elected President of the United States, he would violate his solemn oath to oblige the Pope of Rome...
...The...
...Only a little later it might be Brown the Protestant...
...They will return to the argument with an assertion which for them will have an air of finality: 'Nevertheless, Al Smith is a Catholic' " The Atlanta Constitution expresses the opinion that the letter "will go down in history as one of the most remarkable documents in the annals of American politics...
...but he is to be commended for the frankness and the fairness with which he has met the issue...
...Although the reaction of the southern press to the letter seems to substantiate the very recent assertion of Senator Glass of Virginia, that the impression that the South is a hotbed of religious intolerance and bigotry is erroneous, it would not be logical to assume that the papers commending Governor Smith's answer are now committed to his candidacy...
...The Enquirer-Sun concludes thus: "It might well be hoped that the Catholic question has been settled by Governor Smith's straightforward, unequivocal reply to the open letter of Charles C. Marshall...
...If the Marshall letter was designed to get the Governor In a hole or corner, it failed," the Columbia State approvingly remarks...
...In Mississippi, Kentucky, and elsewhere in the South there is similar editorial approval of the reply to Marshall, the Courier-Journal of Louisville remarking that "if those who raise the question of religion in objection to Governor Smith were anything like as clearheaded and sound-hearted as he, our politics would be degraded no longer by the injection of the religious issue they seek to raise...
...The Charleston News and Courier adds: "It is to the credit of Alfred E. Smith that he elected to speak out when the theme was placed before the public...
...The Advertiser asks: "Who can point to an instance of an American Catholic, under oath of allegiance to the Constitution, who has been untrue to his country in order to favor the Church of Rome...
...Most of the silent editors were, without doubt, not partial to the Smith candidacy...
...and after insisting that no one is compelled to vote for him "because he has so clearly enunciated certain American rights," and that "no man's religion should be held to bar him from the Presidency unless that religion would tend to interfere with the right of American citizens to believe as they please," goes on to say: "Governor Smith talks like a good American citizen...
...When a religious Issue has been Injected into a campaign, it is unusually difficult to eliminate it...
...yet the doubters are in the majority...
...that it is "not only clean-cut and to the point, but unanswerable to every right-thinking citizen of this country who believes in the guarantee of religious freedom...
...In this case, it happens to be Smith the Catholic...
...But there are in this country a great many people who believe he would be influenced, and there Is no way to make people who do entertain such opinions abandon them...
...wielders of the South's editorial pens had their day on Tuesday, and if an examination of a half-hundred leading newspapers from every section of the South is any criterion, the only dailies which did not express approval of Governor Smith's reply to Mr...
...The Greenville News, which accepts the reply of Governor Smith as "a straightforward and clear-cut declaration in behalf of a fundamental principle of the American republic—complete separation of church and state," ventures the opinion that "It is doubtful whether the statement will have any substantial effect in improving the Smith presidential prospects...
...As evidence to the point, the News recalls that, in 1920, the South without hesitation supported Governor Cox although "it was generally known he had a leaning to the wet side...
...Chief Justice White and Governor Smith are conspicuous examples of men of the Roman Catholic faith In high positions of trust whose public record has not been affected by their church membership...
...Whether enough of the voters will accept the statement as it is made, as being the sincere belief of Governor Smith, remains to be seen...
...Editorial comment was expected...
...Marshall proven a poor prophet, for his letter assured Governor Smith that if he reconciled American and Catholic principles to the satisfaction of the people of this country "the only question as to your proud eligibility to the presidential office would disappear . . ." The southern press is not in accord on the propriety of the Marshall questions...
...It might soon be Strauss the Jew...
...Nothing in heaven above or on earth below can satisfy congenital Catholic-baiters, but we fancy that even they are somewhat stunned and for the moment confused by Governor Smith's intelligent and straightforward reply to a series of questions asked him by the shrewd writer in the Atlantic Monthly...
...And those persons who do not want to be convinced will not be satisfied with Governor Smith's answer...
...The Register feels it "unfortunate that Governor Smith should have been forced to answer an attack upon his qualifications because of his faith as a Catholic...
...Many of the dailies take a stand no less significant for being more temperate...
...While most editors appear to agree on this point with the anti-Klan Macon (Georgia) Telegraph when it says that the reply was "a frank, straightforward answer to the questions which Mr...
...And the Nashville Tennessean "is persuaded . . . that the Governor's statement . . . is absolutely convincing...
...THE South awoke Easter Monday morning to find dominating the front pages of its press more Catholic apologetics than it had ever seen anywhere in its papers, even in a month of Mondays combined...
...Most small city papers, weeklies for the most part, maintain that Governor Smith is objectionable, not because of his religion, but because of his views on prohibition or some other Issue...
...It would require no stretch of the Imagination to assume that there were at least a few bigots among them...
...The Charleston (South Carolina) Post Is of the opinion that "among men and women of open mind and unprejudiced judgment" the Governor's letter "will undoubtedly receive not merely respectful but admiring consideration...
...The opinion varied from caustic commendation to enthusiastic praise, and, as far as the twoscore and ten papers selected at random are concerned, was unanimous in the thought that the letter effectively and conclusively disposes of the questions raised by the Governor's interrogator...
...Al Smith's religion has nothing to do with his fitness to be President of the United States...
...In all the editorial comment on the Governor's letter in the papers examined there was not a single word derogatory to the character or ability of New York's chief executive, and the Chattanooga Times's assertion that "Governor Smith has proved his words by his works as Governor of New York" finds plenty of specific endorsement and no disputants...
...Catholics, and criticism of them, either just or unjust, arouses no great resentment...
...The reply was a prominent subject of discussion wherever one went...
...Marshall were those which made no comment on it...
...As a matter of fact, it is so strongly constitutional in its ring that it might be taken for a repudiation of the historic position of the Catholic Church upon many questions...
...the people of New York evidently believe he is that sort of American...
...He has reflected his own Americanism in the quality of his assertions...
...There may be weighty reasons why Mr...
...The Birmingham News regards Governor Smith's answer as "direct and lucid, comprehensive and convincing . . . just the kind" that Jefferson might have made "to New England theocracy," Lincoln to "some orthodox fanatic," Jackson, Cleveland and Wilson to anti-Calvinists, or McKinley, Taft and Hughes to critics of their religious status...
...As a reply and an argument addressed to reason, it is one of the most impressive documents of the day or even of the generation," is the opinion of the Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch...
...And the Spartanburg Herald, also in South Carolina, agrees that "as President, Al Smith, a Catholic, would be under no sinister influence of the Pope...
...Governor Smith has made satisfactory acquittal on the score of church influences, on separation of Church and state, on education, on the powerlessness of the Catholic Church to over-ride the Constitution, and upon his staunchness as an American citizen...
...The Charlotte Observer believes that "in the minds of a fair-minded public...
...That most of it, or even a large minority, can be so classed, it is, in my opinion, unjust to assume—unjust not only to the South, but to Governor Smith...
...Marshall as an American citizen had a right to ask of a man who was aspiring to the chief magistracy of the nation," the outspoken EnquirerSun in Macon's neighboring city of Columbus asserts that Governor Smith has made "an historic answer to an impertinent question," and that it "still holds that, as an American citizen, living under constitutional guarantees of liberty of conscience and freedom of religious worship, the Governor should have ignored the challenge of Mr...
...His answer should end all controversy on this particular phase of the subject, not only now, but for all time...
...That some of the opposition to him is hypocritical and bigoted, despite assurances to the contrary, there can be no doubt...
...The AshevIUe Citizen, however, believes that the Smith letter, which "is just such a statement as was to have been expected from him, ought to dispose pretty thoroughly, once and for all, of the suggestions that, If he should be elected President of the United States, his first loyalty as a public servant would be elsewhere than to the people of the United States...
...Their lack of comment is a tribute to the effectiveness of the Governor's reply...
...The Chattanooga (Tennessee) Times believes that "Governor Smith's statement will serve to set many honest and fair-minded Protestants, who have had their 'doubts,' to serious thinking, and will help them to realize that they have been victimized by fanatical propaganda that should have no place in American social and civil life...
...The Dalton (Georgia) Citizen, a weekly published in the North Georgia mountain country In a city where Catholics can perhaps be numbered on the fingers of one hand, makes this comment: "Governor Al Smith's reply to the Marshall questionnaire is not only the reply of a statesman to Impertinent questions, but it Is the reply of a gentleman deeply sensitive as to his honor and duties as a public servant...
...It has no bearing upon his qualifications for the office except in its possible relation to his moral character...
...Over in Alabama, whose opinion Senator Heflin flatters himself that he reflects, the Mobile Register views with regret the reference to religion: "Are we not fighting windmills In this country when we raise this question of religion in our politics...
...Even among those who would oppose him for the Presidency because of some other reason, or who would reject him solely from the standpoint of expediency, "there could hardly be found a clear-thinking person who would refuse to accept Governor Smith's statement of his creed 'as an American Catholic' as perfectly according with every principle of American citizenship...
...Surprisingly few country weeklies among those coming to my attention the weekend after the release of the letter commented on it...
...although in most small towns in the South there are few, and often no...
Vol. 6 • May 1927 • No. 1
