"Lawyers and judges amount to little in Germany and we do not find there a class of political lawyers, who, in republics, always seem to get the management of affairs in their own hands." p. 128

'My Four Years In Germany' - 1917
James W. Gerard III / Late Ambassador To The German Imperial Court

James Watson Gerard III (August 25, 1867 – September 6, 1951) was a United States lawyer, diplomat, and justice of the New York Supreme Court.

Gerard was chairman of the Democratic campaign committee of New York County for four years. He served on the National Guard of the State of New York for four years. He served through the Spanish–American War (1898) on the staff of General McCoskry Butt. From 1900 to 1904, he was quartermaster, with the rank of major, of the 1st Brigade of the Guard.[4] He was elected to the New York Supreme Court in 1907, where he served as a judge until 1911.

Under President Woodrow Wilson, Gerard served as the American Ambassador to Germany[5] from 1913 to 1917.

In 1914, Gerard was the Democratic (Tammany Hall) candidate for U.S. Senator from New York. He defeated the Anti-Tammany candidate, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the Democratic primary, but lost the election to James W. Wadsworth, Jr.

Upon returning to the U.S., Gerard went back to practicing law. He remained heavily involved in Democratic politics. He played a leading role in the nomination of Roosevelt for president in 1932 and was the treasurer for the Democratic National Committee.[6] After an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. President in 1920, Gerard ceased active pursuit of elected office but accepted a central role in U.S. Democratic Party politics as a public speaker, fundraiser, consultant, and mass media contributor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W._Gerard

My Four Years in Germany is a 1918 American silent war drama film that is notable as being the first film produced by the four Warner Brothers, Harry, Sam, Albert, and Jack, though the title card clearly reads "My Four Years In Germany Inc. Presents ...".[1] It was directed by seasoned William Nigh, later a director at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was based on the experiences of real life U. S. Ambassador to Germany James W. Gerard as described in his book. The film was produced while World War I was still raging and is sometimes considered a propaganda film.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Four_Years_in_Germany

My Four Years In Germany
https://youtu.be/Oo7vxGm9UZM (2 hrs, 6 min)

Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for president in 1928.

The son of an Irish-American mother and a Civil War–veteran Italian-American father, Smith was raised on the Lower East Side of Manhattan near the Brooklyn Bridge. He resided in that neighborhood for his entire life. Although Smith remained personally untarnished by corruption, he—like many other New York politicians—was linked to the notorious Tammany Hall political machine that controlled New York City politics during his era.[1] Smith served in the New York State Assembly from 1904 to 1915 and held the position of Speaker of the Assembly in 1913. Smith also served as sheriff of New York County from 1916 to 1917. He was first elected governor of New York in 1918, lost his 1920 bid for re-election, and was elected governor again in 1922, 1924, and 1926. Smith was the foremost urban leader of the Efficiency Movement in the United States and was noted for achieving a wide range of reforms as New York governor in the 1920s.

Smith felt slighted by Roosevelt during the latter's governorship. They became rivals in the 1932 Democratic Party presidential primaries after Smith decided to run for the nomination against Roosevelt, the presumed favorite. At the convention, Smith's animosity toward Roosevelt was so great that he put aside longstanding rivalries to work with McAdoo and Hearst to block FDR's nomination for several ballots. That coalition fell apart when Smith refused to work on finding a compromise candidate; instead, he maneuvered to become the nominee. After losing the nomination, Smith eventually campaigned for Roosevelt in 1932, giving a particularly important speech on behalf of the Democratic nominee at Boston on October 27 in which he "pulled out all the stops.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Smith

James W. Gerard was nominated [selected] to run against Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1914 by Al Smith in order to deny Roosevelt the primary win. Al Smith also [selected] James W. Wadsworth Jr, the Republican [Tammany Hall corrupted] candidate for the win.

Gerard was serving as Ambassodor to and in Germany at the time of his nomination and the Democrat party primary election. The race was fixed from start to finish.

James W. Gerard was the power broker who convinced Al Smith to support Franklin D. Roosevelt in the presidential election of 1932.

You've heard his name before...

Al Smith.

By 1872, Tammany had an Irish Catholic "boss", and in 1928 a Tammany hero, New York Governor Al Smith, won the Democratic presidential nomination. However, Tammany Hall also served as an engine for graft and political corruption, perhaps most infamously under William M. "Boss" Tweed in the mid-19th century. The Tammany Hall ward boss or ward heeler, as wards were the city's smallest political units from 1786 to 1938, served as the local vote gatherer and provider of patronage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall

This Al Smith:

https://youtu.be/kHqm6VFuvJQ (41 min)

What bald-faced tax-exempt hypocrisy.