A 3-cent purple stamp was issued on November 26, 1945, honoring Alfred E. Smith (1873-1944). A popular and successful New York state politician, Al Smith served in a variety of elected offices, including four two-year terms as governor. In 1928 he was nominated (by then New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt) as the Democratic candidate for president, but he lost the election to Herbert Hoover. He competed with Roosevelt for the nomination in 1932, but it was won by the latter. Smith opposed Roosevelt's New Deal programs, seeing them as too liberal and anti-business.
Gordon T. Trotter