Al Smith Victorious!

This ATL deals with the possibility of what would happen if Democratic candidate Al Smith, a Catholic Irish-American, won the 1928 presidential election instead of Herbert Hoover. This radical change at this point in time would have drastic changes from OTL as it would have different effects on the Great Depression and, in the future, Hitler's rise to power and possibly World War II itself.

1927: President Calvin Coolidge at the strong urging of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover pushs a bill (the Norris Act) trough congress that prohibites exess selling of stocks based on credit. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon resigns because of his opposition to the measure. He also pledges to fight aganist Hoover's bid for the White House in 1928.

1928: Economic troubles cause Democrats to hope for victory. NY Governor Al Smith is nominated of the fifth ballot over the opposition of Old Guard Democrats who beleive Smith's Catholicism would wreck his chances of victory.

Hoover faces a strong challenge from former IL Governor Frank Lowden but maneges to win the nomination on the second ballot with 577 votes to Lowden's 307. Hoover chose progressive Nebraska Senator George W. Norris as his running mate which further alienates conservatives in the party. Altough the economy was slowing a little the Republicans still expected victory.

October 15 was a day that would go down in history. Most investors had expected Hoover to continue the Coolidge era, but when word reached Wall Street that Hoover was considering rasing taxs the markets toke a plunge.

Election night was very close, Smith won the North-east, South-west, the South. The deciding state in the election was Florida, votes were being counted for three days before a victory was declared. Even as Florida had put Rutherford B. Hayes in the White House, it did the same for--Al Smith. Smith total popular vote was 18,800,000 to Hoover's 18,000,000. Smith victory in the electoral was paper thin 268-263.

1929: President Smith had a large progressive agenda, and with Democrats having a majority in the House and the Senate he had a good chance to get it passed. The first part of the plan was to double taxs to pay for his other programs. Although this met with bitter opposition from conservatives, there were enough progressives and liberals in the Congress to pass it. These actions only drove the econamy further under.

1930: The mid-term elections were a disaster for the Democrats. A resurgent Republican party picked up 39 seats in the House and 9 in the Senate, giving them a powerful majority with which to block President Smith's polices. Among the many losing Democrats that year was New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt, who lost to his distant cousin Republican Theodore Roosevelt Jr. by a margin of less than 5,000 votes. This victory was perticully sweet since Ted had run for governor in 1924 and Franklin had campaigned in a very negative way aganist him. Franklin would soon be appointed Secretary of the Navy by Smith.

1932: the Republicans were ready to through Smith out on his ear. Unemployment was at 20 percent and rising, thanks to Smiths tax increases. The top three Republican candidates that year were Hoover, Idaho Senator William Borah and newly elected New York Governor Teddy Roosevelt Jr. (Roosevelt was supported by Andrew Mellon). Hoover was the front runner until he talked of leaving tax rates at 45 percent, that effectively ended his campaign. Borah won servel primaries but was seen as to radical, so the party boss' turned to Roosevelt. At the GOP National Convention Roosevelt won the nomination on the first ballot with 581 votes to Borah's 308 and Hoover's 104. In his acceptance speech, Roosevelt pledged himself "To a New Deal for the American people".

With Hoover as his running-mate Roosevelt took to the campaign trail aganist Smith and his vice president Joe Robinson. Running on a platform of lower taxes and fiscal goverment spending, Roosevelt swampted Smith 56% to 40%. The one bright spot for Democrats was the election of Franklin Roosevelt as Governor of New York defeating Republican Lieutenant Governor Caleb Baumes by less 1,500 votes.

Roosevelt's First Term
In chosin his cabinet, Roosevelt choose experienced bureaucrats and Washington insiders (including two Democrats) to lead the executive departments. Roosevelt's First Cabinet was as follows

Vice President: Hebert C. Hoover

Secretary of State: William E. Borah

Secretary of the Treasury: Andrew W. Mollen

Secretary of War: Henry L. Stimpson

Attorney General: Charles E. Hughes Jr.

Postmaster General: Walter F. Brown

Secretary of the Navy: Charles F. Adams

Secretary of the Interior: Frank Knox

Secretary of Agriculture: Henry A. Wallace

Secretary of Commerce: Ray D. Chapin

Secretary of Labor: Francis C. Perkins

Congressional Leadership

Speaker of the House: Bertrand H. Snell (R)

House Majority Leader: Joseph W. Martin Jr. (R)

House Minority Leder: John N. Garner (D)

Senate Majority Leader: Charles L. McNary (R)

Senate Minority Leader: Morris Sheppard (D)

1933: With a super majority in the Congress, President Roosevelt pushed a long list of legilation through during his first 100 days of office. Among them was the Worker's Assistance Recovery Program (WARP), which set forth a system of goverment loans to working men and their familes instead of the blanket checks that some liberals supported. Another act of Roosevelt's Precidency was to pass the Social Security Act of 1934. Under the act a system of private accounts would be setup, into which taxpayers would place money and the goverment would match their savings. Among the acts of Roosevelt's first year in office was a government program to bring electrical power to rural areas of the country. One of the contracts given out was one for the Tennessee Valley was given to a young New York Businessman named Wendell Wilkie (Wilkie would become very popular around the country, and particularly in the South for his speedy completion of the the projects he started). But by far the most importent bill passed during Roosevelt's first two years was the Revenue Act of 1933, which abolished the federal income tax and in its place a national sales tax of 21% was put into place. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was a force in her own right, writing her own weekly newspaper colum intitled "Elly's Week", and doing around the country campaigning for the poor in the needed (though not as much as her Democratic cousin did in OTL since husband was not cripled by polio).

1934: The Republicans make a clean sweap gaining a total of 59 seats in the Senate, and 315 seats in the House. The one bright point for the Democrats was the election of Franklin Roosevelt as Governor of New York defeating former Republican governor Caleb Baumes by over 160,000 votes.

1935: President Roosevelt appoints former Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to succeed Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes who had been appointed by President Smith in 1930. Hughes will serve until 1945.

1936: the economy was back on its feet, unemployment had been cut in half and the DOW was rising, Roosevelt was re-elected in a landslide over NY Governor Franklin Roosevelt in the presidential election. The Nuremberg laws are passed in Germany. President Roosevelt orders that refugee camps be set up across the East Coast and gets a bill passed through which grants all European Jews fleeing persecution US citizenship.

Roosevelt's Second Term
1937: During the first six mouths of Roosevelt's second term, conservative Republicans in Congress (led mainly by Ohio Congressman Robert Taft) pushed for allowing the depression era legislation of Roosevelt's first term to expire. Although Roosevelt was a moderate and favored most of the progressive bills, he relized that the times required a change in focus. Roosevelt saw the danger posed to the U.S. by Japan's expansion into China, and Germany's threats against Europe. later that year the Supreme Court ruled that part of the WARP was unconstitutional. This caused Roosevelt to fallow the wishs of Taft and the conservatives. Roosevelt pushed the Naval Act of 1937 through the Congress.

1938: Taft and the conservatives succede in allowing the WARP program to expire in 1942, and cut Social Security by 25%.

In the mid-term elections, the Republicans suffered major loses doe to division between liberals and conservatives in the Republican party. Inspite of this the Republicans retained control of Congress.

Roosevelt decides "enough is enough" when he learns that Japan has committed unspeakable atrocities in Japan, and orders that sanctions on Oil, Steel and raw materials be imposed, as well as begin the largest arms buildup in American history so far.

1939: Roosevelt had been suffering from poor health for some time (sometimes he was forced to use a wellchair). Most expected Roosevelt to fallow the 2-term limit set by George Washington, Vice President Herbert Hoover was considerd a front-runner for the Republican nomination along with Robert Taft (who had been elected U.S. Senator in 1938) and New York District Attorney Thomas Dewey.

But by September, events around the world had changed everything. Japan had responded to America's rearmament by pushing further into China and declaring war on Great Britian and France. By mid-October the Japanese had invaded Malaya, French Indo-China and the Dutch East Indies. Roosevelt declared that the United States would not stand for this blanted aggresstion. Japan relized that American bases in the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island would threaten their expansionist goals, and they planned to attack Pearl Harbor. The Japanese launched a surprise attack on December 7. On December 8, Roosevelt ask Congress for a declaration of war against Japan. Within two weeks Germany and Italy had declared war on the United States, barley 100 days after Hitler invasion of Poland, the whole world was engulfed in war.

1940: By early February, the Japanese had completed the conquest of Guam, Wake, Malaya, Siam, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The only Allied bastion left north of Australia was General Douglas MacArthur's Anglo-Philippine Army. In March, Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave the Philippines and go to Australia. In May, the Japanese launched an naval attack towards Port Morsby, New Guinea but were stopped by the American fleet under Admiral William "Bull" Hallisey. In June, the Americans under the command of Vice Admiral Chester Nimitz (who had assumed command when Hallisey was sidelined by a light case of skin cancer) sunk 4 Japanese aircraft carriers and turned the tide in the Pacific. Meanwhile, the 1940 elections went on as planned. Roosevelt decided to seek a third term because the country needed a experienced leader. Roosevelt's announcement helped unite the party which was split between Hoover and the "Hoover Republicans" (the liberal wing of the party), and Taft and the conservative wing of the party, would result in a Democratic victory in 1940. Roosevelt announced that he would accept the nomination, but would not actively campaign for re-election, because of the need to stay focused on the war.

Roosevelt easily won the Republican nomination and chose Ohio Senator Robert Taft for his running-mate. The Democrats countered by nominating Iowa Governor Henry A. Wallace with New York Senator James Farley receiving the vice-presidential nomination. Wallace seemed to have a chance early on because of Roosevelt seeking an unprecedented third term and because of early American defeats in the war. But with American victory at Midway, Roosevelt took a twenty-two point lead in a July Gallup poll. In August, American forces landed in Norway in support of British and French forces and drove the Germans out of the country by January, 1941. Also, American forces under Dwight Eisenhower landed in French North Africa and drove towards Italian controlled Libya. By November, Americans felt that victory was really possible leading them to chose to give Roosevelt and the Republicans another four years by a 20-point margin. In December, German forces landed in Syria and drove towards the Suez.

Roosevelt's Third Term
1941: In late January response, Allied forces landed in southern Iraq and pushed north. A force under General Frederick von Pause drove towards Jerusalem, the British desperate for troops turned to Jewish commando units to stem the tide of Nazi onslaught. under the command of Colonel Ben Guron Jewish forces (numbering less than 12,000) made a stand at Meggido (a.k.a. Armageden). Von Pause relized that it would take more men than he had to dislodge the Jews, so he asked Hitler for re-enforcements. Hitler told von Pause that he must capture Meggido regardless of the cost, in spite of his doubts to its success von Pause ordered his troops to attack the Zionists. The attacked failed and cost the Germans over 1,000 men (to less than 200 for the Jews). For the nest thirty days von Pause probed the Jewish lines unsuccessfully attempting to find a hole in their lines. On April 1, von Pause's re-enforced army attacked the the Anglo-Jewish army re-enforceted by British forces under General Bernard Montgomery. By August, von Pause's army was being surrounded and von Pause requested permission from Hitler withdraw from the trap. Hitler had become obsessed with capturing Jerusalem and crushing the Jews once and for all (In April, 1941 Hitler had ordered that five Jews in concentration camps be killed for every german killed by the Zionists, which only drove the Jews harder to crush Hitler). By September, the allies had trapped the Germans and von Pause was forced to surrender on September 11. Meanwhile in Iraq American forces were driving the Germans towards Syria. Also, Turkey entered the war on the allied side and began closing in on German occupied Syria. On December 12, 1941 Axis forces in Syria surrendered, the campaign had cost Hitler over 390,000 men killed, wounded, and missing. In the meantime, the Manhattan project is coming close to completion (President Roosevelt put more emphasis on the atomic bomb, as he wanted to ensure the war was brought to a quick end).

1942:

TO BE CONTINUED

This timeline is open to anyone who wants to add to it. I will inject my own information where I can and edit as I see fit.