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smith. He thinks it's impossible.”

I said, “Is it on Catholic grounds?”

“No,” she said, “Baruch is absolutely certain that there is no religious prejudice in this country that would turn against Smith if he were nominated, but he thinks that he's not well enough known in the Democratic party throughout the country, that his following is wholly New York and that spells Tammany. The Democratic party, except for New York, hates Tammany. The Southern Democrats hate Tammany and have for a long time. He thinks there's no possible chance for Smith to get the nomination. He doesn't see why we should bark up that tree. He thinks if he got the nomination that he couldn't possibly be elected, because the Democrats would run out.”

Although Baruch had been McAdoo's backer in '24, by '28, though he still kept very cozy with McAdoo, he was backing Al Smith in the '28 convention. He kept very cozy with McAdoo, was on good terms with him, saw him, was plausible in explanations to McAdoo. Although I don't know this of my own first-hand knowledge, I'm told that Baruch did a great deal to make Smith's nomination an easy, smooth, natural thing at Houston, and it was. There was no great floor fight that year. We'd been defeated with John W. Davis who was a perfect gentleman, after all.