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"No word painting can fit the candidate. We must incarnate the philosophy of Jefferson and the invincible courage of Jackson. The same issues exist today as when Tilden, Cleveland and Wilson were elected. The tariff then as now was building up a privileged class, With the exception that today schedules are made in secret and our policy has caused European Governments to raise high walls against American manufacturers. Corruption then as now had driven men from Republican Cabinets, only then despoilers were pikers who lined their pockets with thousands, while in our day the booty has gone into millions. Privilege then extorted hundreds from the pockets of taxpayers instead of the thousands now demanded and given."
Characterizing the candidate who tries to serve both progressive and conservative masters as one who "gives conversation to the people and the plums to the interests, Orator Daniels continued:
"He must be known to be a Progressive with a big P, free from ambiguous associations. He must be free from sectional and sectarian appeal, free from religious or political narrowness."
Editor Daniels named no prospect, pushed no man's cause unless it were his own. But in Texas his Cabinet-mate, Albert Sidney Burleson, returned to pristine vigor, gave Democrats a Cause and a Man. Texan, Dry, Protestant, he called on his party to nominate Governor Alfred E. Smith, New Yorker, Wet, Roman Catholic. To newsgatherers he said: "If Smith is nominated, he will be elected. . .. Governor Smith stands for the same things that Woodrow Wilson stood for. Wilson stood for enforcement of law, and so does Smith. Wilson vetoed the Volstead Act and Smith is against it and in favor of amending it for the same reasons that Wilson vetoed it. I don't want to question the motives of some of the prominent men of the Democratic party who are opposing the nomination of Smith for President, but I am quite sure that if the real truth was known it is not because he is 'a Wet,' as they claim, but it is for some other reason. ... Of all the people on earth, those of the South should not raise the religious issue against Governor Smith because he is a Roman Catholic, or against any other man because of his religious faith. . . . During the dark and trying days of reconstruction when the Democratic party of the South was on the verge of dissolution it was the Irish Catholics of the North who held the party together. . . . We should all be free from religious bigotry and intolerance. ... I am of Protestant faith, and I, like many other Protestants, inherited prejudice against the Catholic Church. I am thankful to say that that feeling of intolerance no longer exists with me. It has no place in the United States. I dare say that the Pope will be kept busy enough during the next four years dealing with Mussolini and conditions in Mexico without paying attention to what is going on in politics in the United States. He wouldn't have time to give us any attention, even should he want to."