A year ago it sounded like a joke; now it is likely to be a fact.

A year ago, when this was mentioned to Smith, he himself laughed at it. Of course, he was satisfied with having advanced himself from plain street boy to governor; he was proud of being chosen governor a second time, but that was as far as his ambition would go. But he willingly consents to be a candidate for president.

However, Alfred Smith is not the first governor of New York to be nominated for the presidency. Cleveland was Governor of New York before he became President of the United States; Charles E. Hughes, the present Secretary of State, was nominated in 1916 for president, due to the reputation he achieved as Governor of New York. The well-known Ted Roosevelt was Governor of New York before he became vice-president and later president.

Cleveland was a great personality; Roosevelt, of an aristocratic family and graduated from a very aristocratic university, distinguished himself as an officer of the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War. As to Charles E. Hughes, he was both a learned man and a member of the United State Supreme Court when he was nominated for president. In other words, Cleveland, and particularly Roosevelt and Hughes, had gained national reputation before being nominated to the highest office. Alfred Smith may be much more popular than all three, but he is much less educated. He has not had as yet the opportunity to prove that he is as well qualified as the others. The contrast in education between him and President Wilson is great.

The son of a poor farmer may elevate himself to the highest office in this country, if he only possesses the necessary qualifications; this is proved by Calvin Coolidge.

A street boy can reach the highest office of the state of his birth; this is proved by Alfred Smith.

A country where such opportunities are possible can feel proud of not being 3like the older countries of Europe, even if it is a fact that a former rider is now president of the German Reich, and that the son of a poor farmer is prime minister of England. Above all it is encouraging to feel that the president is the same as any one else; that we do not have to bow to him and that we can look at him square in the face.

Roosevelt belonged to the "400" but his conduct was very plain with the common people. Hughes was conceited about his knowledge. Wilson was a former university professor, a man that stood above the crowd; and Coolidge is a farmer's son. It Smith is nominated, he will be popular among the masses.

But there are several things predicted against Smith's candidacy. First, he does not have the appearance of a statesman; his characteristics are rather those of a successful businessman who applies his business abilities in the field of local politics. In view of this fact, even Coolidge seems to be a bigger figure than he. The late Harding was not distinguished in this respect, but he was a member of the Senate for a long time and the Senate is a good school for statesman.

Second, Al Smith's opponents will not ignore the fact that he is a devoted son of the notorious Tammany Hall, where he was reared, brought up,and made famous, and that tens of thousands of citizens in the United States consider it a risk to make a Tammany Hall man president. When the press published how Smith cried over the death of his dear friend, Charles Murphy, at first it made a good impression on the readers, for loyalty to a friend is considered a fine characteristic.

That Al Smith is a Catholic, and a Catholic was never nominated for president, is naturally no more than a wild accusation, but wild accusations do more harm than poisoned ones. There are a few million members of the Ku Klux Klan who will energetically agitate against Smith, just because he was accidentally born into a Catholic family and is not a Protestant.

In conclusion, Smith is known as an anti-prohibitionist, and this would prejudice hundreds of thousands of votes of prohibition fanatics whose only concern is whether or not men should drink liquor. For them it is unimportant whether the candidate himself drinks or not so long as he is willing to swear upon a stack of Bibles that he will not permit others to drink. Governor Smith will surely not take such an oath.