For years Straton carried on a feud with the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, New York City because of its Hall of the Age of Man, which displayed the remains of fossilized men.

During the 1928 presidential campaign, Straton, along with William Bell Riley and J. Frank Norris, rallied opposition to Al Smith, the Roman Catholic nominee of the Democratic Party.

In keeping with his strong opposition to the liquor traffic, Straton was one of the first to label Smith "the candidate of rum, Romanism and rebellion", a phrase used unsuccessfully in 1884 against Grover Cleveland in the race against James G. Blaine.

Huey Pierce Long, Jr., the governor of Louisiana in 1928 and a Smith supporter, claimed that Straton was being paid $500 a night for speeches on behalf of the Republican candidate, Herbert Hoover.

"[6] Straton's health was broken by his intense schedule during the campaign, and in April 1929 he suffered a slight paralytic stroke, which led to a nervous breakdown brought on by overwork in the fall and finally a fatal heart attack on October 29, 1929.