The article review(文章导读):
THE MAKING OF A NATION - January 10, 2002: Election of 1928
By David Jarmul VOICE 1:
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.
(Theme)
The presidential
Text(正文):
THE MAKING OF A NATION - January 10, 2002: Election of 1928
By David Jarmul
VOICE 1:
THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.
(Theme)
The presidential election of nineteen-twenty-eight gave American voters a clear choice between two different
kinds of candidates and political parties. The Democratic Party nominated Al Smith, the popular governor of the
state of New York. The Republican Party chose Herbert Hoover, an engineer and businessman who served as
secretary of commerce for presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge.
VOICE 2:
Governor Alfred Smith of New York had campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in nineteen-
twenty-four. But he was defeated at the party convention by a compromise candidate, John Davis.
Four years later, however, Smith could not be stopped. He had a strong record as governor
of the nation's most heavily-populated state. He campaigned for the presidency on a policy
of building new electric power stations under public control.
Smith knew that many conservative Americans might be worried by his new ideas and his
belief in strong government. So he chose as his campaign manager a Republican industrial
leader who had worked with General Motors, DuPont, and other major companies.
Smith hoped this would prove his faith in the American private business system.
VOICE 1:
Al Smith was a strong political leader and an effective governor. But he frightened many Americans, especially
conservative citizens living in rural areas.
They lived on farms or in small towns. Al Smith was from the city. And not just from any city, but New York
City, a place that seemed big and dirty and filled with foreign people and strange traditions. Al Smith's parents
came from Ireland. He grew up in New York and worked as a salesman at the Fulton Fish Market.
Smith was an honest man. But many rural Americans simply did not trust people from big cities. Al Smith
seemed to them to represent everything that was new, different, and dangerous about American life.
But being from New York City was not Al Smith's only problem. He also opposed the new national laws that
made it illegal to buy or produce alcoholic drinks. And he had political ties to the New York political machine.
But worst of all, in the eyes of many Americans, Al Smith was a Roman Catholic.
VOICE 2:
From George Washington through Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and up to Calvin Coolidge, every
American president had been male, white, and a Protestant Christian. Of course, there was no law requiring a
candidate to be Protestant. But millions of traditional Americans just were not ready to give their vote to a
Roman Catholic.
Opponents of the Smith campaign generally did not speak openly about his religion. But many of them were
afraid that Smith would take his orders from the Vatican in Rome, instead of working with the Congress in
Washington.
As captured by artist
Miguel Covarrubias
Al Smith fought back. He told the country, "I am unable to understand how anything I was taught to believe as a |
