In 1923 and 1925 he was instrumental in defeating the Barwise Bill, a measure supported by the majority of his party, which would have changed the Maine Constitution to outlaw all state aid to parochial schools.

[4] In leading the 1923 debate against the Barwise Bill, Hale said it was "conceived in intolerance against the Roman Catholic Church" and related that he "knew of a person (n Europe).

He then read extracts from speeches by the King Kleagle of the Maine Ku Klux Klan, F. Eugene Farnsworth, calling him "an ignorant demagogue.

In the war-time election of 1942, Hale used his support for Roosevelt's foreign policy to unseat Congressman James C. Oliver, who was a pre-war isolationist, in the Republican primary.

"[8] Hale started his own congressional service with equally alarmist rhetoric, telling an audience in Oct. 1942 that they could expect Roosevelt to "abolish Congress" within the next four years.

"[10] During the early Cold War, Hale supported the formation and role of the United Nations, but was otherwise on the staunchly conservative wing of the Republican Party during the presidency of Harry S. Truman.

In 1950, he said of Sen. Joseph McCarthy: "people should give him credit for what he is trying to do instead of carping on his methods," a position opposite to that of his Maine Republican colleague Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, who was an early critic of McCarthyism.

[14] On the other hand, he advised against the use of atomic bombs in the Korean War while his more liberal colleague Sen. Smith joined right-wing Maine Sen. Owen Brewster in sanctioning their use against Communist China "if necessary.