Alfred E. Smith was the dominant Democratic politician
in New York State during the years when FDR
and ER emerged as political leaders. Although Smith grew
up in relative comfort on the Lower East Side, he quit school
and began work at the age of fourteen, after his father's
death. In his political career, he emphasized his lowly
beginnings, identified himself with immigrants, and campaigned
as a man of the people. Although indebted to the Tammany
Hall political machine for his entry into politics and
for its ongoing support, he remained untarnished by corruption
and worked for the passage of progressive legislation. He
was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1903 and his
oratorical gifts and skill at drafting legislation helped
him become the majority leader. When he served as vice-chairman
of the commission appointed to investigate factory conditions
after the disastrous Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire in
1911, he became acutely aware of the dangerous and unhealthy
conditions under which many laborers worked and championed
legislation to protect workers.
After serving as sheriff of New York County for several
years beginning in 1915, Smith was elected governor of
New
York in 1918. He lost the election of 1920
in the Republican landslide of that year, but was re-elected
governor in 1922 and served three more terms. As governor,
he became known nationally as a progressive
who sought to make government more efficient and more effective
in meeting social needs. Under his leadership, New York
strengthened laws governing workmen's compensation, women's
pensions, and child and women's labor, issues ER's also
fervently supported. In 1924, he unsuccessfully sought
the Democratic nomination for president and FDR made the
nominating
speech in which he called Smith "the Happy Warrior of the
political battlefield." ER, impressed with Smith's politics
and his down-to-earth manner, threw herself into the
1924
election, and followed Smith's rival, her cousin Theodore
Roosevelt, Jr., around in a car with a steaming teapot
on
its roof to remind voters of the Teapot Dome scandal.
Smith finally secured the Democratic presidential nomination
in 1928. He then asked, with ER's help, FDR to run for
governor
of New York, believing that FDR would help him carry the
state. ER worked even harder for Smith in 1928 than she
did in 1924. She wrote articles praising his candidacy
for popular journals and directed women's activities for
the
Democratic National Committee. Smith lost his bid for the
presidency, partly because of anti-Catholic sentiment,
but
FDR won. During FDR's governorship, Smith felt ignored.
FDR did not consult him or appoint Smith's associates
to
his administration. They also became rivals for the 1932
Democratic presidential nomination. When FDR won and began
pursuing the policies of the New Deal, Smith became even
more bitter and disaffected. He became a leader of the
Liberty
League, a leading opponent of the New Deal, and supported
the Republican presidential candidates, Alf
Landon in 1936 and Wendell
Wilkie in 1940, against FDR. ER, who always considered
Smith a friend, tried to bridge the gap politics caused
in their friendship by inviting Smith to stay in the White
House when he came to Washington to attack the New
Deal
in 1936. Smith refused, sadly responding how political
differences damaged good friendships. Smith died on
October 4, 1944.
ER went to his funeral.
Sources:
Black, Allida. Casting Her Own Shadow: Eleanor Roosevelt
and the Shaping of Postwar Liberalism. New York: Columbia
University Press, 1996, 12-18.
Graham, Otis L., Jr. and Meghan Robinson Wander. Franklin
D. Roosevelt: His Life and Times. New York: Da
Capo Press, 1985, 387-388.