In the presidential election of 1928, many issues that developed during the 1920s—immigration, prohibition, religion, and the clash of urban and rural values—were brought into focus. The Republicans nominated Herbert Hoover, an engineer and secretary of commerce and leading public symbol of the prosperity of the 1920s. The Democrats nominated Al Smith, the governor of New York. Al Smith was a strong political leader and a good governor, but he frightened many people, especially the conservatives living in the rural areas. Smith was a child of immigrants and he got his start in politics with the help of the Tammany Hall political machine, which to many people was the embodiment of big-city corruption. He also condemned immigration quotas, signed New York's anti-Klan bill, and opposed prohibition with the opinion that prohibition was an …show more content…
He was well known and the people trusted him. People also liked the way that he had gained his success from poor beginnings, similar to Abraham Lincoln. Hoover was born in Iowa in 1874. Both of his parents died by the time he was 10 and he then moved to Oregon to live with his uncle. With his uncle's help, Hoover made it into Stanford University. After college, Hoover worked as a mine worker. And in the next several years he worked as an engineer in foreign countries. By the time he was forty, he had earned over 1 million dollars. After World War One, he helped provide food for starving people in Europe. Later he served as a Secretary of Commerce. He did extremely well in both of these jobs and gained a lot of favor with the people. Some people did not trust him though. Republican politicians did not like that he had spent most of his life in business rather than politics. Stock market traders thought he might change the rules of the New York Stock Exchange. Farmers also believed that Hoover had no ideas about how to solve their economic