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"What happens to the disciples of Jefferson and Jackson and Cleveland when that resolution is read out? Why, for us it is a washout. There is only one of two things we can do: We can either take on the mantle of hypocrisy or we can take a walk, and we will probably do the latter. . . .
"Now, this is pretty tough for me to have to go after my own party this way, but I submit that there is a limit to blind loyalty. ... I suggest for the members of my party on Capitol Hill here in Washington that they take their minds off the Tuesday that follows the first Monday in November. ... I ask them to read from the Holy Scripture the paragraph of the Prodigal Son, and to follow his example. 'Stop wasting your substance in a foreign land and come back to your father's house.'
"Now, in conclusion, let me give this solemn warning: There can be only one capital, Washington or Moscow. . . . There can be only one victor. If the Constitution wins, we win. But if the Constitution—stop! stop there—the Constitution can't lose! The fact is, it has already won, but the news has not reached certain ears."
Significance. Day after Al Smith's speech. Washington enjoyed a guessing game: What did he mean when he said that he would probably "take a walk" when the next Democratic Convention endorses the New Deal? Would he turn his back on politics and retire until the New Deal blew over? Would he actively attack sew Dealers in the campaign? Would he support a ticket of anti-New Deal Democrats?
The political consequences of his speech last week were more important than the speech itself. The first reaction to the speech signally failed to show what those consequences would be. The comments of public men might for the most part just as well have been written before the Smith speech as afterward, so neatly were they divided by the line of pro and anti-New Deal feeling.
Said anti-New Dealers:
Pierre S. du Pont: Perfect!
Republican Senator Hastings: A devastating speech!
Republican Senator Vandenberg: The brave words of an honest man.
Said New Dealers:
Democratic Senator Byrnes: It was the voice of Oliver Street but the thought of Wall Street.
Democratic Representative Doughton: A loose harangue from a sour, disappointed has-been.
Republican Senator Norris: The natural expression of a man who has been disappointed. . . . The peroration . . . of a demagog.
Madam Secretary Perkins: He is my friend. ... I believe he will come back.
How the public would divide was far from apparent. In Washington, amid violent clashes of opinion, three shades of reaction were evident:
1) Smith's description of the New Deal as Communistic was a descent to Hearstian demagoguery. Bitterness and wisecracks ran away with him.
2) He took a sound position, but the speech was far from his best, since at times he stretched his argument to the nonsense point.
3) He took the measure of the New Deal with common sense few public men possess, and the New Deal will never be the same again.