|
|
| Smith, Alfred |
The Short Guide to Catholic Church History notes one of the carnards (unfounded story or hoax) believed by Catholics is the story of a tunnel from the Vatican to the White House [St. Fidgeta & Other Parodies, 63]. This tale started when Alfred Smith ran for President in 1928. "No reasonable person could possibly believe it. On the other hand, there is good reason to believe that there is a tunnel between the Kremlin and the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union."
Smith was governor of New York and an Irish Catholic, the first one to run for president. Bowen notes that "anti-Catholic feeling was much stronger in the 20s than it was in the 60s, and even then JFK had to make his case with concerned Protestant clergy and convince them that a Catholic's loyalty to the church did not supersede the president's oath of office. Fortunately, he was successful. I have been told that, during the 1928 election, many credulous Americans were told that there literally would be a tunnel - not all the way from Rome, but from the Washington residence of the Pope's representative in the US. The issue was pounded hard by Republicans, especially in Southern states, which at that time were a staunch part of the Democratic constituency, and many of those states wound up voting Republican for the first time ever."
Myers adds that Smith wound up getting more votes than any Democrat up to that time in history, "but of course he was buried by Hoover. The Kluckers had a field day during the election, spreading all sorts of malicious rumors. That tunnel to the White House canard probably wasn't too far-fetched. In retrospect, they did give Smith and American Catholicism a great service, because it wouldn't have been too pleasant to be saddled with the Great Depression." |
| |
| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Smith |
|
|
|
|
