American progressionism and the coming of the new deal. He argues thattal al smith lost the 1928 election, his ideals and policies paved the way for president roosevelt. Good evening, everyone. Im really delighted to be able to see all of you here tonight and welcome all of you here for our talk for this evening. Im evan dolley, and on blehalf of the program here, welcome to our history talk. At the outset for being able to hold this talk, thank you to the funding of the history fund which is supporting this event, and let me jump straight to introducing our speaker for the evening. So our speaker for this evening is dr. Robert childs. He is a graduate of tascun university. He began a phd in history which he completed at the university of maryland in 2012, and the talk hes going to be giving this evening is the result of that phd dissertation, i do believe, yes. He has, during the course of this particular research, or the research for this project, he has received a couple prestigious state honors. The new York State Library cunning ham residency and the state Archives Partnership trust hack residency, both to conduct research on governor alfred e. Smith. And as part of his next project, which is on the statesman of new jersey and an aggregate for the fair labor standards act. He has also received a grant from the new Jersey Historical commission to carry that research out. He is familiar to many people in this room, i would imagine, because he is a frequent lecturer in recent history at gaucho. He is also a visiting professor at Loyola University maryland. He is talking to you tonight about his first book which was published in early 2018 by Cornell University press. And the title of the book and the talk up there on the screen, the revolution of 28, al smith, american progressionism and the new deal. Thank you very much. Welcome, dr. Childs. Thank you, everybody, for being here this evening. Thank you to the Humanities Center and to the History Program here, and especially dr. Dawley for coordinating all of this, and i dont think he knew he was going to get thrown into the midst of a media circus here, but we appreciate you working with me, and im grateful that the cspan folks were able to be here today. I also look around at the audience and im really grateful to see so many students, past and present, and family, friends, and so it means a lot to me to have such support, so thank you. I have the privilege to speak with you today about my first book, the revolution of 28, al smith, american progressionism and the new deal. My plan today is to start at some ways at the climax of this story with al smiths triumphal tour of 1928. I want to use that as a launching point to explore my major interventions in this book and then jump back to try and explain why american new stock working class voters became so enthusiastic about al smith, and more importantly than that, became committed democrats for several ensuing generations. So first to boston. It was a crisp new england autumn morning as the Democratic Victory special steamed eastward into massachusetts from upstate new york. On october 24, 1928, the temperature in boston had dropped from an unseasonable 75 degrees the previous afternoon into the mid50s. By 3 30 p. M. , when the locomotive arrived at south station, the city had settled into one of bostons cloudy fall days, considerably cooler than the day before. The anticipatory chill resulting from this atmospheric dynamism pressured with a sort of meteorological poetry, the wave of energy and upheaval that would sweep from the berkshires down to massachusetts in the wake of the albanybound train. On board was the governor of new york, the noted progressive champion of the urban working class, unashamed catholic and proponent of tolerance, liberal and economic reform, alfred e. Smith. The train slowed first at pittsfield in the west, greeted by 10,000 supporters, followed by about 30,000 in springfield where a band hailed their visitor with his familiar theme, the sidewalks of new york. There massachusetts senator David Ignatius walsh, an Irish Catholic democrat from pittsburgh extended greetings on smith who was saving his voice for the evening. On toward worcester, where another crowd of 30,000 filled Washington Square before that citys station, and less concerned over its own vocal endurance, yelled itself hoarse. Finally to boston. On boston common, smith was greeted by 150,000 people. At boston arena, only 15,000 people were able to enter out of the nearly 50,000 who sought admittance were enthralled by an army of radios, all this as two other auditoriums, Mechanics Hall and symphony hall, remained packed to the brim with ardent listeners after the overflow events. All told, police estimated that 750,000 people flooded the streets of boston to greet the governor of new york, a gathering 2,000 souls greater than that citys population at the time of the previous census. Why had they come . What did they hear . And how did they respond . In microcosm, these are the essential questions of my book. Al Smiths National prominence as a gubernatorial champion of social welfare of the laboring masses and his ambition to implement and expand that particular progressionism at the federal level, this blended with his biographical appeal to the growing cohort of newer voters as a representative of the urban ethnic growing classes who was a spokesman for a symbol of religious tolerance and opposition to prohibition and harsh immigration restrictions. These things combined the economic and cultural appeal in order to inspire these boisterous receptions in many of the nations heterogenious cities. He affirmed his later controversial, smith had a talent for popularizing very obtuse questions so the average fellow could understand him. And he was fulfilling his own pledge to maintain, in his words, direct contact with the American People throughout this campaign. Meanwhile there was the response which produced the revolutionary early stages of a National Political shuffling that would help spur the onset of modern american liberalism. And so the candidates utterances mattered profoundly. American politics like American Life moved briskly by the 1920s. Three decades of maturation by increasingly organized and wellfunded National Parties begot a precedent while Wire Services allowed propaganda to move swiftly through a zealously competitive and often fiercely partisan local press. While the radio and much more recent innovation transferred minor and Major Campaign personalities into the living rooms of millions of prospective voters every night. Within the frenzied mallieu of the 1920s required programmatic candor. The stakes for the boston address were especially high. You see, no serious contender for the presidency could allow the toxic charge of socialism to be associated with their national ambitions. Such was al smiths challenge beginning two days before his arrival in boston when his opponent, former now, commerce secretary herbert hoover, alerted a crowd at new Yorks Madison Square garden that their governor had abandoned the te t tenets of his own party in favor of state socialism. Herbert hoover, the much heralded commerce secretary and republican standard bearer was seeking the white house based on his very strong credentials as the engineer of the political economy of the 1920s of coolidge prosperity. It was really hoover prosperity, and hoover promised to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, and so he and his supporters saw smiths Progressive Agenda as a threat to their new era. 48 hours later, smith responded to herbert hoovers indictment. The socialism charge was an attack at which he had been grappling his entire career, so these charges invited the governor to review his progressive credentials. And so he did. Take the workmans compensation act, he implored his boston listeners. What was the purpose of that . Because it was a state operation, it was referred to as socialism. Take all the factory code, take the night work law for women, the law prohibiting manufacturing in the tentenemen the law prohibiting children working in the tanneries of the state. That was designed to protect the health, welfare of women and children referred to as socialistic. Herbert hoover agreed that each candidates proposal should be taken seriously and that the contradiction, in hoovers words, signalled in the American People a question of fundamental principle. So smith not only cataloged the past, he also applied that record to current conditions. Descending from popular ak la accolades for the coolidge academy, smith talked about new englands textile economy and contrasted that widespread and profound regional suffering with her better hoovers sanguine remarks of neglect in laboring classes of america. Smiths alternative approach was revealed in his record of progressive, social and welfare reforms in new york. So socialism was portrayed by smith in his words for social groups to derail, again, in his words, social construction betterment for the human element. Al smith was running against the hardingcoolidgehoover status quo, and his admirers were quite receptive to the message. Understanding al smiths message within the context of his progressive tenure as governor, an irishman from new yorks Lower East Side wrote a letter promoting the progressive senator George Norris to Cross Party Lines and support the democrat, which eventually he did. The new yorker boasted that, quote, the new york wonder man had bottmbasted things so that life wasnt worth living. In the local newspaper he cited statistics and arguments that had been propagated by the Smith Campaign. A factory worker from hartford writing under the pseudonym worker with prosperity had just never shown up in his community. A polish worker from western massachusetts excoriated the Republican Party for having, quote, further protected and fostered the special interests of a certain few against the common interests of the many. An Italian American rhode islander required the coolidges interests in justifying italian Rhode Islands support for the democrat smith. It is well known that al smith was a favorite of the recent immigrant working classes who were attracted to his candidacy because he opposed prohibition, and because he was a catholic, and because he spoke with a bowery brogue and defended immigrants. Which is profoundly true and profoundly important. It is the beginning of the story of smiths politics and the aspirations of his many supporters. Al smiths admirers, it turns out, embraced both the cultural symbolism of his candidacy and the progressive initiatives of the candidate expounded. Smiths catholicism, his working class roots, his disdain for prohibition and for the ku klux klan, these attributes all had a clear influence on voters in 1928, and they benefited smith greatly among urban workers just as they would prove unpalatable among voters in other parts of the nation. But leaving the story at that is superficial and perhaps even condescending. I have proceeded from the hypothesis that like any other human actors, the real people who became smith democrats in 1928, the ones who did the working and the praying and the suffering and the voting that historians have so long tried to decipher, these were complex human beings with complicated motivations and complicated lives. And so the idea of culture or economics, its not an either or proposition. It turns out that most smith voters were, indeed, sophisticated enough to understand the democratic candidate as representing both cultural pluralism and social and economic reform. This combination of cultural empowerment with social welfare appeals had been the formula of his progressive leadership in new york and it was the prospect of which he sought the presidency in 1928. In 1928, smith nationalized his particular brand of progressionism. Although he dwoiwent down in a bitter defeat that year, the ideas were not easily extinguished. His supporters would go on and hope he would make a comeback. In 1932, they hoped he would go on again, but that proved to not be the case. They went on to become the heart of the new Deal Coalition and of the roosevelt coalition, and their priorities would shape the democratic parties agenda for at least the next generation, really the next two, at least. My story, then, is both a local and a national tale. It starts as a new york story, the story of a young man, a product of the fourth ward on manhattans Lower East Side, a grandson of east irish immigrants, from a family who selfidentified as catholic and working class. We learned later on his father was not irish at all, he was catholic and german, but they selfidentified as irish. Young al lost his father in the eighth grade and was compelled to leave school and go to work fulltime to support his family. For several years, this kid worked 12hour days starting at 4 00 a. M. As a checker at the fulton fish market. Later on he would joke that his only Academic Degree was an ffm, standing for the fulton fish market. Along with the church and hard work and grim poverty, the other universal element on al smiths Lower East Side was the taminy hall political machine. As a young man, smith became acquainted with saloon keeper and local taminy hall wheeler and dealer tom foley. Under foleys tutelage, smith rose through the ranks of the infamous machine, and by 1903, thanks to his faithfulness, foley sent young smith to albany as a state legislator. During his first legislative session, smith could best be described as a political hack. He didnt give a single speech, he voted the party line. He was ignored, he was overwhelmed, but he grew into the job. So much so that by 1911 when his party took control of the state legislature, new York State Legislature was dominated by republicans for most of this period, partly because of old political alliances and partly because of gerrymandering. But after a scare in 1910, democrats took over the legislature, and in 1911, Charles Murphy pictured here in st. Louis a few years later with al smith, Charles Murphy sponsored young al smith for a Senate Majority leader, and smiths best friend, german immigrant robert f. Wagner, for majority leader of state senate. The tragedy that happened next is well known. In the midst of these two young legislators first session with real power, on march 25th, 1911 came the horrors of the triangle shirtwaist factory fire, a terrible inferno that engulfed a sweat shop on the Lower East Side and killed 148 workers, most of them young, jewish, immigrant girls and young women from the Lower East Side, many of whom had protested against unfair Labor Conditions just a couple of years earlier. Well, smith and wagner pictured here in a photograph taken years later formed an investigative commission, and they brought in nonpartisan reformers to be expert witnesses. We have to make this right. There was a particular place in this process for the only groups that had really taken these issues seriously in the past, largely women reformers from progressive organizations, people like mary dryer of the womens trade union league who was named a commissioner. People like henry street, settlement founder and Public Health champion, lillian wald pictured here who would be a great supporter later on of governor smith and a great champion when he ran for president. And especially involved and there are a lot of notables but especially was Francis Perkins of the National Consumers league. She took smith and wagner and other politicals on field trips to see the horrible Labor Conditions in factories all around the empire state. And she would later on become a great adviser to smith on industrial issues as governor, and eventually, as you probably know, would be the first female cabinet secretary when she became fdrs labor secretary. Well, this interaction between largely female progression reformers is sort of counter counteruntuitive and into a broad range of labor and social welfare crises facing the labor state. Such issues would dominate smith and wagner, so that in 1918 when smith was running for governor of new york, he was proposing a broad array of social welfare and labor reforms. Here you can see him being sworn in after his First Successful run for governor. Predictably, once al smith was elected in 1918 in a very close election that republicans blamed on voting being depressed because of fears of the flu pandemic that year thats probably not the case, but in any event, his agenda would reflect the agenda of the social welfare progressives with whom he had interacted. As governor, he pursued labor reforms, including something that was a major transformation at the time, a 48hour maximum work week for women in factories, or pushing against child labor or pushing for an improved workmens compensation program. He also pursued what i would call a sort of broadly defined social welfare regime in the new york state, help for a local housing improvements, charitable hospitals, clinics and Educational Programs for maternal health. People always forget much of new york is