xt7qjq0stw34_5841 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/1997ms474.dao.xml unknown archival material 1997ms474 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. W. Hugh Peal manuscript collection W. Hugh Peal article in Candid Opinion, Al Smith-The Man with the Brown Derby text 43.94 Cubic Feet 86 boxes, 4 oversize boxes, 22 items Poor-Good Peal accession no. 11453. W. Hugh Peal article in Candid Opinion, Al Smith-The Man with the Brown Derby 2017 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/1997ms474/Box_84/Folder_9/Multipage45141.pdf 1927 February 1927 1927 February section false xt7qjq0stw34_5841 xt7qjq0stw34 FEBRUARY, 1927.

which makes it apparently so hard to educate people to a
decent respect for the law. It is never the duty of the
jury to do anything except lfOll0\V the law and the facts.
The settled convictions and customs of a community have
nothing to do with a juror’s duty. If: statutes are too severe
and um'easomrble, they should be repealed or modified, but
the jury has no such right or duty as to set aside a statute
simply because it is somebody’s opinion that it is severe.
A juror is not an official, but he is serving in a very im-
portant place and it will be very difficult to enforce the
law unless he has a proper conception of this important
duty. ‘Vhen jurors will not do their duty, law enforcement
is impossible and there are certain well known violations
and certain well known cities and communities where the
law is not enforced and will not :be because it is not res-
pected. We will never make any progress in respect and
enforcement 'of law until we. get a different. conception from
that anvanced by this writer. It is the most dangerous
theory that could be advanced.

O____._

“It is certain that in the more congested districts of our city
many of the inhabitants suffer what is tantamount to a premature
burial, and people with a delicate sense of hearing will tell you they
often hear these poor souls knocking inside their tenement coffins and
calling piteously for deliverance.”—L. P. Jacks.

0——
FIG LEAVES, LEGS AND CULTURE.

THE editor of the Bookman takes a fling at our fig leaf

culture and the frantic efforts made here and there
for a smattering of knowledge on various subjects. There
is a mad scramble on the part of pretentious people to hide
their intellectual nudity and they are grabbing at con-
venient fig leaves in the hope that they may at least pre-
sent a passable appearance on occasions [when some degree
of culture is necessary or desirable.

Our :friend Brown quotes poetry :by the ream and is
not at all ignorant of some of the die-ta of the great phi1~
osophers and yet he is known to be a very busy rman. The
truth is that be. has a few select excerpts here and there
which give him the necessary polish for all occasions.

It is no longer necessary to know how to (lance to enter
society, but one must know the philosophy of Tiglath-
Pileser. ’Dhe Bookman assures us that we have a race of
bores and pedanls hopping about the drawing room in fig
leaves. We are endeavoring to put on a formidable intel-
lectual front when the dorsal aspect of our anatomy looks
like the alley back of the poor house.

There is always a question as to what constitutes cul-
ture. Occasionally we meet those who are unlettered, yet
possessed of a high degree of culture. Something depends
on the point of View. There is moreover some dispute about
whether culture is more desirable than some other things
that are very much in evidence these days. For example,
according to our esteemed contemporary, the New York
American, Dr. Marie Charlotte Davenport. a 102 year old
physician, recently advised girls in Washington to cultivate
their legs against their minds, that they were their most
important asset. :She was able herself to make an exhibit
of a trim ankle at her extreme age, and she pointed to it
as an asset which enabled her to capture a husband 47
years her junior.

I listened the other evening to Madam Francis Aida,
the famous prima donna, also said .to be the possessor of
beautiful legs, "but I could not tell it from her singing over
the radio. I concluded that her legs and voice make a
pretty good combination. Madam Aida disagrees with Dr.

CANDID OPINION

179

Davenport and does not believe that the modern woman
showing her legs to her knees, is more attractive than her
cousins of other days. who held their admirers by mystery
and subtle charm.

Ann Pennington. who is said to possess the shapeliest
legs in the world, also disagrees avith Dr. Davenport, and
also Louise Hunter, of the Metropolitan Opera 00., who
declares that she is glad if she has good looking legs, but
admits that they alone do not get her into Grand Opera.
She says that it takes talent and brains today to get ahead.

Other modern women are quoted by the American as
saying that shapely limbs constitute a woman’s greatest
charm.

All of which indicates that we are given to a good deal
of mere nonsense, as it is perfectly evident that legs can
have little to do with true culture. It would be a foolish
sort of person. who would suggest that .they are unimportant
or in any sense a drawback to feminine beauty, but it is
very doubtful if exposing them to such an alarming extent
adds anything to her charm.

In perfect candor, Dr. Davenport is too old to have an
opinion about such things. Irf she had been asked about
this a half century ago, her reply might have been quite
different. She was doubtless a grandmother then, and her
husband had never thought about being born.

The psuedo culture that we possess is based on a
smattering here, a fig leaf there and a large element of
glitter and glare. This fig leaf culture which the Bookman
complains of may be of some value, however, if it does
little more than merely impress us with the, extent of our
ignorance, our disgraceful inefficiency and alarming inade-
quacy. After all, fig lear culture is better than no culture.

0——
THERE is pending in the Arkansas Legislature a bill pro-
viding for extension of the service of circulating
libraries in the department of education. As to importance,
such legislation ranks with rural email service. It will mean
a great deal to many worthy people, who do not have the
opportunity under present conditions to read books.
_.___0———‘
MY observation is that the radical and the anarchistic
press have the conservatives cowed. The lawless free
lan-cing and the Iharpings of twaddlemongers are read for
their style and sensational bursts by many .wbo do not be-
lieve what they read. The danger is that they continue to

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS

I

It is about as foolish to be easy as it is easy to
be a. fool.

9—.
People generally speak of trouble by the peck as
though it did not also come frequently in liquid form.
0
We call attention again to our department of
“Other Opinions." It is our purpose to put here
some of the best current thought on timely subjects.
0——
Some judges have a. way of turning legal lights
down so they will not shine so bright.

0 .
Man is not a chattle until he allows a. price tag
to be pinned to himself.

0—

These days we hear more about collcgc youths
makingcthi Phi Beta. Kappa than we do making the
Y. M. . .

0—

Speaking of inventive literary genius, who can
rival Arthur Brisbane, who declares that if Benjamin.
Franklin had lived until the last anniversary of his
birth. he would have been 221 years old?

9—
There is no trouble about a warm reception if you
have a cool million.

a . .
What some people call drowning sorrow is nothing
more than a good process of irrigation.

 

 

 

 

 180

read and gather poison by absorption. Seriously speaking,
this press is the most dangerous thing in this government,
and is doing more to undermine the government than any
other one agency. Under the old cry of liberty, liberty in
speech, in opinion, in press and everything else, they are
running wide open. It were time that the constitutional-
ists, the law observers and believers, the Christian citizen
were turning their powers of inveetive, of ridicule, of merci-
less denunciation against the unprincipled scoundrels who
look principally :for loot. There is a way these things can
be done when we are bold enough to call names as they do
and denounce indecency and anarchy straight from the
shoulder. There is such a thing as being too modest to
serve God or the state.
0

Lay down this law to yourself: I can live on not quite all I earn
as well as I can on all I earn or more than I earn. If you only make
a dollar a day, save 10c of it.-—-Dr. Frank Crane.

___.__0—.__.

EN sometimes speak of the power of habit as though it
were always something to be dreaded. It depends of
course on the habit. The power of habit may serve. some
very worthy ends if it be the power of a good habit. It is
told of Horace Greeley that only a thin wall separated his
editorial room from a hoopskirt factory where boys and
girls were dill day hammering and tbradding little rivets.
When the factory moved away, Greeley had to hire a boy
to go in the adjoining room and hammer on tin while he
wrote. His nerves were set to the tune of the daily noise
and routine. Our :best work is often done—indeed it is
usually done, where the bum drum of accustomed surround-
ings make us feel at ease in doing the things which ought
to be done.
_____0____
“Notwithstanding all of the delights of youthful escalation, it is,
nevertheless, loaded with noxious germs, especially with germs of
influenza, sore throat, and particularly tonsilitis.”—Hudson Maxim,

D. 50., LL. D., Inventor, Engineer, Member of Naval Consulting Board.
_—0__—_—__

OVER the protests of President Coolidge, the Senate by

a vote of 49 to 27, adopted an amendment providing

for three cruisers. Thus there is no change in the victory

which militarism has been having for the past few thousand

years. It does not mean quite, that the cruisers will be

built, but it does mean that We still have war in our blood.
0

AL SMITH—THE MAN WITH THE BROWN DERBY.

By W. Hugh Peal.

Mr. Peel is a New York attorney, a graduate of the University of
Kentucky. and of Oxford in law. Everybody is interested in Al. Smith

whether they are for or against him. This Journal believes in his
honesty and ability as a leader. It doesn't, however, believe in his
wetness. It thinks it unfortunate that there is no outstanding Demo-
crat at this particular moment, who stands a. chance to be elected
President. The South and West will not accept Smith—Editor

Written for Candid Opinion.
UST before the last election in New York a friend of
mine invited me to attend a political meeting with him.
We arrived there early, but we found that all seats had
been gone for hours. At last however, by (lint of force
and fraud we got a good place in the hall, and were at
leisure to observe the audience. It was the most variegated
possible. Irish truckdrivers and washwomen rubbed elbows
with Armenian ditchdiggers and Italian greengrocers. Nor
were there wanting many of the old English stock, although
these were chiefly apparent in ,the reserved seats. One
thing was common to all—a feeling of excitement and
goodfeeling as if in anticipation of victory.
After we had waited for what seemed to me almost an

CANDID OPINION

FEBRUARY, 1927

intolerable time the band struck up “The Sidewalks of Old
New York.” A door opened at the back of the stage and :1
long line of people filed into the auditorium. Instantly the
house was in an uproar. Gnarled and ugly old women
shook hands with jeweled ladies from Park Avenue. Al—
though I hail from Kentucky where we take our politics
seriously, I have never seen anything like the ovation given
to “Al,” New York’s own “Al." the invincible Hero of the
East. Side. And yet I realized that the chst Side was there.
too—as many of them as could get in. \Ve looked at each
other and smiled. The election was won.

Alfred E. Smith was born on the East Side in 18731.
the son of a truck driver. \Vhat little schooling he received
was in St. James Parochial School. from which he graduated
at an early age to become a workman in the Fulton Fish
Market. When he was so years of age he was elected to
the lower house of the New York Legislature. a post which
he held twelve years. This was the seed-time of Smith’s
life. the time during which he built up a knowledge of the
government of the State of New York exceeding that of any
other man. In 1911 he became the Democratic leader of
the Assembly, and in .the same year he was appointed Vice-
(‘hairman of the Factory Investigating Committee. This
Committee made an exhaustive study of the factory sys—
tem of the state. and its report resulted in the enactment
of a, series of factory laws which have long kept New York
at the head of the American states in this respect. It. may
have been his work on this Committee which first interested
Smith in the problems of the worker. However that may be,
there is probably no other living American who has fathered
so much legislation intended to ameliorate the condition of
the worker.

In 1913 Smith was elected Speaker of the New York
Assembly. In 1915 he was a deb-gate to the State Constitu—
tional (‘onvention where he so distinguished himself as to
be complimented both by Elihu Root and George IV. \Vicker-
sham, the former saying that the young Assemblyman knew
more about. the government of New York than any other
person. The observation was probably true then and is
certainly true now, as so many of his opponents have dis—
covered when it is too late. Many of his greatest triumphs
have been due to the fact that he remembered something
which his opponents had forgotten. Only two or three days
ago the newspapers carried a story of a friendly argument
between the Governor and one of the most distinguished
judges of the highest court of the state as to whether or
not there was a provision of a cerlain kind in the. state coir
stitution. The Governor was right.

In 1915 Smith was elected Sheriff of New York County,
almost the only lucrative office that he. has ever held. In
1917 he was elected President of the Board of Aldermen.
Finally in 1018 he was elected Governor of New York.

Smith’s record during his first term marked him as
one of the outstanding progressives of his time. In June
1911') he called a Special Session of the Legislature to ratify
the amendment to the Federal Constitution which gave
women the right to vote. During the same term important
emergency rent laws, child labor laws and amendments to
the Banking Code were enacted.

In 1020 the Harding landslide swept all Democrats out,
of office but Smith ran almost a million votes ahead of his
Party. In 1922 he had his revenge, defeating Miller. the
Republican incumbent, by the largest majority ever given
in a race for that office. In 1022 be defeated Theodore
Roosevelt, Jr., by a large majority, again leading the ticket
by a tremendous vote. Early in 1926 he. anonunced his

 

 FEBRUARY, 1927.

intention of retiring. It was well known that he had re—
entered politics in 1922 at a great personal sacrifice as he
had been the head of a large New York Trucking Company
at a salary, it is said, of fifty thousand dollars per year.
The Democrats of New York, however, were determined not
to let him go and he was practically forced to accept, a
fifth nomination. At the ensuing election he not only took
into office all the state officials except one, but he enabled
Robert F. \Vagner, an old friend and co—worker to defeat
.lames W. Wadsworth, .'lr., one of the most popular and
prominent of Republican senators.

The latest and perhaps most beneficial of all Smith‘s
reforms is the Ito-organization Plan. The Governor’s poli-
tical skill has never been better demonstrated than in the
way in which he anticipated all Republican opposition by
inducing Charles Evans Hughes and Nathan L. Miller to
serve 011 the Committee which formulath the plan. Almost
at the time of this writing the newspapers both Democratic

and Republican are complimenting him on the excellent

and nonpartisan character of his appointments to fill the
new offices.

If long and distinguished services, if well-earned and
immense popularity are to carry any weight in the Democra-
tic Convention in 1928, the claims of Governor Smith must
be considered. No other man will go to the Convention
with so many friends and so much in the way of achieve-
ment and executive ability to offer.

O_.—_——

The chief reason why marriage is rarely a success is that it is
contracted while lche partners are insane—Dr. Joseph Collins.
0

STALE BREAD.

By Lilith Shell
Written for Candid Opinion.
I
LD Father Spray tap-tapped with his stout cane into

Boyle’s bakery. waited his turn for service and then
in his husky voice made known his wants;

“A loaf of stale bread,” he said.

That was all. 110 received his package, paid the half
price asked for the loaf of stale bread and departed.

Now at the back of the room where Father Spray’s
dim old eyes did not see him stood Dr. Jethro Bowman,
pastor of the big Seventh Avenue Church. Dr. Bowman
was in the prime of his manhood, strong and upstanding;
he was able and he was popular and he commanded a
salary which Inany of his brethren envied.

It happened when the city was young, in a little box
of a churchh the construction of which he had entirely
overseen and, in a large part, actually built. young Robert
Spray had organized and conducted a Sunday School. Later
as the city grew this Sunday School developed into a church
with Robert, then an ordained minister, as pastor. Here he
had married; here his children had been born and had
grown to manhood; here he had served through his youth
and his maturity. Now the little church had grown into
the wealthy and influential Seventh Avenue edifice with Dr.
Bowman as pastor and Father Spray had long since become
superannuated.

When Dr. Bowman heard that low request for stale
bread a hot flush mounted his face.

“\Vhwt a condition,” he muttered. "Father Spray in
such circumstances that he must publicly buy stale bread
at half price and that in the very shadow of the Seventh
Avenue Church. It is a shame.”

He beckoned to him Mr. Royle, proprietor of the bakery

CANDID OPINION

181

and member of the Seventh Avenue Church.

“Docs Father Spray always buy stale bread?” he
demanded.

“Yes, I always try to lay up a loaf or two for him,—he
gets it at half price, you know,” answered the baker. “It’s
not at all bad—not really stale; it’s yesterday’s bread.”

“Well, it’s not good enough for the man who founded
and for so many years carried on the work of the Seventh
Avenue Church,” said the reverend doctor and a shade of
pomposity was discernible in his voice. He placed in the
hands of the baker a sum of money sufficient to pay for
fresh bread for a good many weeks. “Say nothing about it,”
he said, “but just you lay up a fresh loaf or two for him
from now 011 instead of the stale ones.”

But somehow the story leaked out—thatpoor old Father
Spray and his wife were having to economize to such an
extent that they were actually using stale bread—were
getting it at Roylc’s at half price and right in the shadow
of Seventh Avenue Church. Dr. Bowman was “doing some-
thing about it” with the result that within a few days so
many other kind souls had begun “doing something" that a
perfectly amazing sum was provided to buy fresh bread for
the Spray household.

II

“You brought the bread, did you Father,” asked Mother
Spray.

“Yes, but I’m afraid it’s fresh again,” answered the
old man.

Mother Spray’s shaky old fingers untied the string.

“Well, it is fresh,” she cried. “We’ll just have to go to
Smith’s hereafter. He advertises stale bread. I’m just
tired of keeping extra bread in the house so we can have
it stale. If Boyle’s don’t have it I don’t see why they can’t
say so,” and Mother Spray’s voice took on a slightly queru-
lous note. “The first thing I know your stomach's going to
be all upset again.”

So the next morning Father Spray went to Smith’s
bakery, bought two loaves of stale bread at half price and
left. an order for the baker to save him one loaf each day
except Saturday. That day he would take two.

0

“The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing pro-

foundly and in a thousand other things as well."———Hugh Walpole, Eng.

Novelist and Lecturer.
———————-o————-

gllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll I:
g THE GOVERNMENT AT WORK
illlllllllIllIIllIllllIlllIllllllllllllllllllllllllllllIlllllllllllllllllllllE

:‘Laws cannot succeed in rekindling the order of an extinguished
faith, but men may be interested in the fate of their country by tho
laws.”—M. de Tocqueville.

(Edited by Professor Charles W. Pipkin, Department of Government.
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.)

This department attempts to bring problems of the government
to the attention of the readers of Candid Opinion, in such a way that
the principles of state action and public policy may become better
understood. It is hoped that this department will be found of help
to teachers of civics and government in the high schools, to special
study groups in clubs, and to the general reader who is concerned
about the work of his municipal, state and national government.
The editor of this department will be glad to answer questions con-
cerning the problems under discussion, and to supply information
upon topics of public interest to those who desire it. A stamped
addressed envelope should accompany each request, and all letters
pertaining to this department should be addressed to the Department .
of Government, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Loursiana.

REORGANIZATION OF STATE GOVERNMENT—A NE-
CESSITY OF AMERICAN ADMINISTRATION

The Problem of State Administrative Reorganization.
INCE 1912 more than a third of the states, beginning
with New Jersey in 1912, have had official investigating

 

 182

bodies on the reorganization of the administrative agencies
of state government. This is a matter of much importance
to every citizen; for government today through its public
services has taken upon itself many new functions which call
for the most efficient administration. The development
of new administrative agencies during the period from
1850 to 1915 has caused the executive branch of state
government to become an exceedingly complicated mechan-
ism. There has been unfortunately no guiding principle
in American state government with regard to the various
boards, departments and agencies created from time to
time by the state legislature. S ometimes they were
created to give a job to a supporter; often they were
called into being for a special reason now no longer at.
all suffit'ient for their present organization being under-
stood. There has been waste and inefficiency at best, and,
where evil tendencies allowed, there has been graft and
corruption. But most important of all to students of good
government has been the lack of responsibility that the
administrative agencies of state government work under,
and the fact that there has been no efficient control by the
legislature, the governor, or the people. Honest administra—
tion has been rendered extremly difficult. Public officials
have not been altogether at fault; the people have been
constantly demanding wider services from every govern-
ment department. Yet no legislature could give the serious
thought to unified state administration that an American
state in the twentieth century needed. There was no
special effort to understand the principle of administration
or the aims of control in state government until the burdens
of taxation convinced the plain democrat that he was sup-
porting the most expensive business in the whole c0untry~—
state government. The combined costs of state government

are much more in the United States than those of the

federal government. And due to the grants-in-aid given
to the states by the federal government, some of the ex-
penditures can properly be charged to state government.

The conclusion must be forced home that unless ad-
ministrative principles are made clear and unless the costs
of state government are justified, that the administration
of state government in the United States will become a
serious hindrance to sound political life in our nation.
Though the aims of government are fundamentally dif~
ferent from those of business (and this must always be
kept in mind), there is no reason why state government
should not be as efficiently administered as the affairs of
the United Steel Company or Brown Brothers’ financal
ventures in Latin America.

Accepted Principles of Reorganization in State Government.

General principles of administrative reorganization
have been worked out in the United States along the follow-
ing lines. In the first place, all departments, each com-
prehending a major function of government such as finance,
education, or public works. The internal organization of
each department should be such as to allow closely re-
lated activities to be grouped under appropriate bureaus
and divisions. Secondly, definite lines of responsibility
should be established for all administrative undertakings.
Each department should be headed by a single official ap-
pointed and removed at the discretion of the governor who
in turn is responsible to the people. This reform, as Pro-
fessor Holcombe points out, would result in electoral as
welll'as administrative reform since it would introduce
the short ballot. The governor and an independent auditor
or comptroller would be the only elective officials. This
principle is what Governor Byrd of Virginia is now advo-

CANDID OPINION

FEBRUARY, 1927

eating, and his messages are very clear in their statement
of the case for centralized administration. Of course, there
should be a responsible relation between the department
head, appointed by the governor, and his bureau and divi-
sion chiefs. Interdepartmentai cooperation should be
secured through the medium of the governor’s cabinet, a
body consisting of the department heads and advising the
governor in administrative and financial matters. Thirdlyv
the term of office of the principal administrative officials
should be coordinated with that of the chief executive. It
is desirable that such officials be designated to serve at the
governor’s pleasure, but, if this is not politically prac-
ticable, then their terms should not be longer than that of:
the governor, who should be elected for a four-year period
and should be eligible for reelection. However, for members
of boards or commissons having quasi-legislative, quasi-
judicial, or advisory powers, where continuity of personnel
is of importance, it may be preferable to provide for longer
or overlapping terms. Finally, boards or commissions should
not be used for purely administrative work, but where
quasi-legislative, quasi—judicial, advisory, or inspectional
functions are involved, a board may advantageously be at-
tached to the department to perform such functions.
What is to Hinder This Reform?

It is only necessary to read this summary of possible
reforms to know the opposition they would arouse from
legislators and politicians. There is a hard duty of edu-
cation of the popular will before substantial changes can
be made. But the progress of administrative reorgani—
zation goes on, led by such states as Illinois under Lowden.
New York under Hughes and Smith, and the program of
unifying state administration in New Jersey, California,
Michigan and Tennessee. Informaton can be had from the
secretary of state of these above named states on the pro-
gress of the movement in their respective state governments.
Progress can be classified under three heads: (1) States
where there has been piecemeal consolidation, (2) States
where there has been reorganization without materially
increasing the power of the governor, and (3) states where
reorganization has been designed to make the governor
more clearly the head of the state administration. It
must of course be kept in mind that if the governor is to be
made the real head of the administration of a state with a
lengthened term of office (a very marked tendency in state
government), then more effective ways than now exist for
holding him responsible will have to 'be devised.

One other fact besides that of the laziness of legislators
in thinking through a prograrm of administrative reform,
is the fact that in most states a‘complete reorganization of
state administration cafi'not poss'- e made without con~
stitutional amendment; This is of course a barrier in the
states where the amending process of the constitution is
difficult. Behind this whole problem of reform is the
question of creating an honest political leadership which
can direct public opinion. Men like Frank O. Lowden and
Charles E. Hughes can really lead in creating a public opin-
ion which supports modern administration for our states.
They make the problem appear as a Whole to the thinking
voters of the state, a very necessary way in which to look
at the problem of state government. Governor Byrd is wise
in convincing Virginia‘s business men that their businesses
managed under principles of state administration would in
thirty days be bankrupt. He rightly demands tnat state
administration be as intelligent as the direction of a chain
of grocery stores or the control of a railway.