Alfred E. Smith

SUMMARY: This offering is an Al Smith 1928 signature and photograph. Price:$125.00

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Alfred E. Smith (1873-1944 ). Smith was one of the first men of Irish Catholic descent to be elected to a major office in this country having served as Goveror of New York State and he was also the first Irish Catholic to be nominated for President of The United States in 1928 as the Democratic nominee who ran against Herbert Hoover. Of course he lost that election in landslide.

Smith was born of immigrant parents and he had to drop out of school at age 13 when his father died to support his family. He worked in the Fulton Street Fish market and manged to climb up out of the NYC ghetto to become governor of the state (elected three times-1922-26).As governor his young protege was Robert Moses who received his early training in administration under Smith and Smith also worked closely with Francis Perkins ( later FDR's Secretary of Labor) to make government more responsive to the social problems of the people.By all acounts he was a very good governor.

In 1928 Smith ran against Hoover for President.The Republicans were riding high on an economic boom . The issues in the campaign were prohibition which Smith ducked and whether or not he would answer to the Pope. Smith also ran a mediocre campaign partly because Jim Farley left his campaign to run FDR's successful campaogn for Governor.There is an interesting little story about the relationship between Smith and FDR. When Smith lost the election he expected to stay on as a major figure in FDR's governorship. In fact when FDR moved into the Executive Mansion Smith's clothes were still hanging in the closet so he had to be forced to vacate the premesis.

But Al Smith was, as they say, "quite a guy". For example he manage to get the Empire State Building built during a depression.

This offering is a letter of transmittal from Smith's secretary and a bold fountain pen signature, Alfred E. Smith, n.d. but letter dated 1928.The signature is on a 2 in.x 4 in. card. The letter and card show toning and aging but are in good condition.A 5in x 7 in image of Smith will be included.

The item will be come with a letter of provenance as to their origin, history and authenticity.

Price:$125.00