"The Full Garage"

For once in the campaign the opposing Nominees were in the same state at the same moment. The day after Nominee Smith reached Albany he turned his back on politics and went out for a restful game of golf. That same evening, amid the booming of flashlights and headlines, Nominee Hoover arrived in Manhattan. In the Hoover pocket was a speech, probably the most earnestly composed document of his campaign.

Before Nominee Hoover, read his speech, into the klieglight stepped a thinnish, baldish, nasal gentleman in a big collar, whose reticence and invisibility had been notable if not conspicuous up to that point in the campaign. Ever since the nominations at Kansas City, Vice President Charles Gates Dawes had been a neutral factor in the election which he had once hoped would be won by his friend, Frank Orren Lowden, and in which he would gladly have played a principal part himself. The plan to introduce him as preliminary speaker in Nominee Hoover's big drive for the Brown Derby's home state was not lacking in stage effect.

Vice President Dawes, ever brisk, had written a smart speech. He had written briefly what he had to say, written briefly what the Hooverizers had been trying to say for four months. Something happened to his delivery, however, and the huge audience missed his sharpness as he said: "The real and overshadowing issue . . . is the maintenance of prosperity.

". . . The maintenance of prosperity depends on maintenance of general confidence. . . .

"A change in Administration means confusion and change . . ., the passing of confidence."

He called the Prohibition issue "a sentimental referendum." He said Democratic tariff proposals could only result in "some oblique movement . . . and destroy prosperity." He was talking to and about "the average vote.'' "The average voter senses this . . . and it will be the average voter who determines the result of the election."

Following this prelude, Nominee Hoover stood up. The Garden became a noisy colloid of flags and enthusiasm. The Nominee was unable to do anything about it. He flapped his fingers a few times, and tried to smile.

After 20 minutes, Demos sat down. It was then that Nominee Hoover made his first, direct reference to Nominee Smith. Said he: "no man could fail to be moved by the reception I have received in the home town of my distinguished opponent." Nominee Hoover announced that he would ignore "the multitude of issues which have already been well canvassed" and discuss home "fundamental principles and ideals." He plunged into a series of generalities such as "the march of progress," "great constructive measures," and "an economic and social system, vastly more intricate and delicately adjusted than ever before" (one of his most frequent phrases). He spoke also of attempts "to inject the Government into business in competition with its citizens." And he spoke of "the American system."

It slowly dawned on the audience that in an indirect, personal but shrewdly purposeful way he was making it appear that the Democratic Nominee, because of his specific proposals in connection with water power, farm relief, prohibition and the tariff, stood in general for "a European philosophy . . ., state socialism," while he, the Republican, stood for "the American system of rugged individualism . . . diametrically opposed." It was a shrewd thing to try to do in the financial capital of the U. S. But it was a difficult speech to grasp. It seemed to overshoot the mark.

Excerpts:

"Commercial business requires a concentration of responsibility. Self-government requires decentralization and many checks and balances to safeguard liberty. Our Government, to succeed in business, would need to become in effect a despotism. . . .

"Every time the Federal Government goes into a commercial business, 531 Senators and Congressmen become the actual board of directors of that business. Every time a state government goes into business, one or two hundred state senators and legislators become the actual directors of that business. Even if they were supermen and if there were no politics in the United States, no body of such numbers could competently direct commercial activities; for that requires initiative, instant decision and action. . . .

"Bureaucracy does not tolerate the spirit of independence; it spreads the spirit of submission into our daily life and penetrates the temper of our people not with the habit of powerful resistance to wrong but with the habit of timid acceptance of irresistible might.

"Bureaucracy is ever desirous of spreading its influence and its power. You cannot extend the mastery of the Government over the daily working life of a people without at the same time making it the master of the people's souls and thoughts."

Having gone thus far, Nominee Hoover thought it well to retrench, so he further said:

"I am defining a general policy. It does not mean that our Government is to part with one iota of its national resources without complete protection to the public interest. I have already stated that where the Government is engaged in public works for purposes of flood control, of navigation, of irrigation, of scientific research or national defense, or in pioneering a new art, it will at times necessarily produce power or commodities as a byproduct. But they must be a by-product of the major purpose, not the major purpose itself.

"Nor do I wish to be misinterpreted as believing that the United States is free-for-all and devil-take-the-hindmost. . . . It is no system of laissez faire. . . .

"One of the great problems of Government is to determine to what extent the Government shall regulate and control commerce and industry, and how much it shall leave it alone. No system is perfect. We have had many abuses in the private conduct of business. That, every good citizen resents. It is just as important that business keep out of Government as that Government keep out of business."

Then came the now-well-known Hoover review of progress (in dollars) since 1921. But this time the Nominee coined a slogan. He said: "The slogan of progress is changing from the full dinner pail to the full garage."

The speech also contained a salute to New York City, "commercial agent of the American people;" a summary of all that had been said; a reminder, "prosperity is no idle expression;" and the peroration:

"Some may ask where all this may lead beyond mere material progress. . . . It leads to an America healthy in body, healthy in spirit, unfettered youth, eager--with a vision searching beyond the farthest horizons with an open mind, sympathetic and generous. It is to these higher ideals and for these purposes that I pledge myself and the Republican Party."