30,000 Churches

What the Roman Catholic Church is believed to be to Nominee Smith, the Anti-Saloon League of America is known to be to Nominee Hoover--his largest organized backing outside of his political party. That the League would work for Hooverism was obvious. That it would endorse him outright was uncertain. Never before had it openly chosen between Presidential candidates.

Last week the League did endorse Nominee Hoover, on "Temperance Sunday."

Superintendent F. Scott McBride's explanation was simple: "For the first time Prohibition has been made an issue in a Presidential campaign."

It was announced that the endorsement statement and a leaflet attacking Nominee Smith's record as a New York Assemblyman would be distributed in some 30,000 churches.

At Columbus, Ohio, the mother chapter of the Anti-Saloon League published in The American Issue, its official organ, an editorial entitled "America's Strangest Political Campaign." Nominee Smith was described as representing "the sporty, jazz and liberal element of our population." The editorial also said: "If you believe in Anglo-Saxon Protestant domination. . . . you will vote for Hoover rather than Smith. . . . The Anglo-Saxon Protestants, working through both parties, have dominated America and made it what it is today--a world leader."

In Washington, National Superintendent McBride was informed of the Ohio editorial by a Manhattan colleague who called it "flat dumbness," "not so particularly vicious as it is extremely foolish." Announced Leaguer McBride: "The Anti-Saloon League of America stands ready to support a Dry Catholic for the Presidency against a Wet Protestant."