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Show NEWS REVIEW OF CURRENTEVENTS Smith in Acceptance Speech Is Outspoken for Change in Prohibition Laws. By EDWARD W. PICKARD WITH the courage of his convictions convic-tions Gov. Al Smith In his speech of acceptance frankly declared his opposition op-position to the Eighteenth amendment and the Volstead act as they now exist. ex-ist. This was the dominant note of his address, which was delivered In tho assembly chamber at Albany be-causo be-causo of a persistent rain that prevented pre-vented the outdoor exercises. Necessarily Neces-sarily Smith, like Hoover, declared that if elected he would honestly and vigorously enforce the dry laws. He also repeated his belief that tle saloon sa-loon would not and should not return. But the vital part of this section of tho speech was a demand for the modification mod-ification of the Eighteenth amendment amend-ment to permit the sale of alcoholic beverages by state agencies If approved ap-proved by popular referendum ; and for amendment of the Volstead act to allow each state to determine Its own standard of alcoholic content, the maximum not to exceed that provided pro-vided by the amended Eighteenth amendment. Severely scoring the evil conditions which he said had resulted from the present dry laws and the failure to enforce them, the candidate declared: "I raise what I profoundly believe to be a great moral Issue Involving In-volving the righteousness of our national na-tional conduct and the protection of our children's morals." Concerning the farm relief problem Smith went little further than the Houston platform on which he stands. He promised to take up the matter lmmmediately after election, acting on the advice of experts. He pledged himself to the restoration of honesty m government and to scientific tariff making and declared against "sudden or drastic" changes In the economic system which might upset business. In other matters he followed the platform plat-form quite closely. Unbiased and nonpartisan opinion Is that Smith In his address showed he Is making his chief play for the Eastern states ; that he believes the South will be solid for him, and that his hopes of winning states In the Middle West are not excessive. His prohibition program Is clear enough and Is workable, aud probably satisfies satis-fies all the wets except those who still Insist the Eighteenth amendment should be utterly wiped out No one supposes It will please the wet Democrats Demo-crats of the South. But it Is likely their attitude Is fairly expressed by the Arkansas Gazette of Little Rock, which says : "The Gazette Is for the present dry laws, fully and strictly enforced. It cannot shift ground an Inch toward compromise with Governor Smith. Nevertheless this newspaper can and will continue to support Governor Smith for President The changes Governor Smith deems necessary nnd expedient would be defeated In congress con-gress by dry legislative votes. GOVERNOR SMITH took time hast week to reply to the attack on his record In the New York legislature legisla-ture made by William Allen White, which already had been disowned by the Republican publicity chief. The governor Justified his votes on liquor and social vice matters by explaining the circumstances, and though White made answer from Paris It was generally gen-erally admitted that Smith had much the better of the argument HERBERT HOOVER In his progress from California to Washington stopped at West Branch. Iowa, the town of his birth, where he was accorded ac-corded a fine reception by the villagers vil-lagers and took occasion to elaborate his views on farm relief. He made one concrete proposal that of an adequate federal revolving fund to be placed at the disposal of the farm Industry In-dustry and Intelligently used in financing financ-ing whatever measure of crop control Is found necessary to stabilize prices. He also said that, if elected, he would ask ex-Governor I.owden to be among the counselors for a farm solution. He administered a final blow to the equalization plan with the words: "It Is not Intended to put the government Into the control of the business of agriculture, ag-riculture, noi- to subsidize prices of farm products and pay the losses thereon, either from the federal treasury treas-ury or by a tax or fee on the farmer." After a conference with farm leaders lead-ers In Cedur Rapids, Hoover went on to the natlonul capital. PRESIDENT COOLIDGE named, as secretary of commerce to succceed Hoover, a personal friend, William P. Whiting of Holyoke, Mass., and the new cabinet member was sworn in Immediately at Superior, Wis., In Mr. Cohlldge's presence. Mr. Whiting, who Is sixty-four years of age, is head of the Whiting Paper company. He has never before held public oflice but has been keenly Interested In politics and was a delegate to the Republican national na-tional conventions of 1920, 1924 and 1928. His selection was a surprise in Washington, where It had been expected ex-pected that either Dr. Julius Klein or Walter F. Brown, both high in the department, de-partment, would get the appointment COMMANDER RICHARD E. BTRD'S antarctic expedition, the most elaborate of Its kind ever organized, Is on Its way toward the South pole. The bark City of New York sailed Saturday Sat-urday from New York carrying planes and equipment to the hopping-off place, and also 31 of the 70 men who compose the expeditionary force. Commander Com-mander Byrd and the rest of the men will sail in September on the whaler Larsen and the Chelsea, taking more planes and equipment. The City of New York Is under the command of Capt Frederick C. Melville, Mel-ville, a cousin of the late Herman Melville, author of sea stories and creator of "Moby Dick," the great white whale. He has been going to sea since he was thirteen years of age. He Is now forty-four. The bark Is equipped both with sails and auxiliary engines, but will use Its sails whenever possible to conserve the fuel supply. BERT HASSELL and Parker Cramer, Cra-mer, who started to fly from Rockford to Stockholm with stops in Ontario, Greenland and Iceland, reached their first stopping place all right, but on their second hop they disappeared. W7hen hope for their safety was fading amateur radio operators op-erators in Chicago received messages from them saying they had been forced to land on a small Island "fifty-miles "fifty-miles off the Newfoundland coast," that they were safe but their food supply was getting low. ART GOEBEL, the famous winner of the Dole race from San Francisco Fran-cisco to Honolulu last year, established estab-lished a new record last week. Accompanied Ac-companied by Harry Tucker, he made a non-stop flight across the continent from Los Angeles to New York in IS hours and 5S minutes. The distance was 2,710 miles and the average speed of their Lockheed-Vegn plane was a little over 142 miles an hour. BUSINESS of runuing liquor across the Detroit river from Canada went to pot last week when a court In Ottawa ordered the stocks of the exporters seized within 20 days. Forty liquor dealers, most of them in Windsor, Wind-sor, were reported to be hastily clearing clear-ing their stocks for Vancouver, from which point they may, if lucky, be able to get tin m Into the United States. The Windsor rum fleet was dispersed, and in Detroit and nearby places the prices of liquor rose rap-Idly. rap-Idly. The Detroit river trade was estimated esti-mated by Ontario authorities to have amounted to a million dollars a month. First efforts by Chicago and Toronto To-ronto interests to merge r,ll breweries In western Canada under one holding company have been completed with the merging of all breweries in Saskatchewan. Sas-katchewan. The scheme outlined is to organize breweries in Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, nnd British Coluiriia and then to consolidate the organisations into one huge holding company. Coupled with the brewery mergers ure plans fur a gigantic export ex-port business. TINE persons were killed and prop-J- erty damage amounting to hundreds hun-dreds of thousands of dollnrs was caused by a terrific wind storm that swept through parts of Minnesota and Iowa. Many buildings were wrecked and crops suffered seriously. The town of Austin, Minn., sustained tlia worst of the blow. In northern Iowa hall followed the wind and destroyed the corn crop In a large district American naval forces are rendering render-ing aid to 10,000 inhabitants of Haiti who were made homeless by the recent re-cent tropical storm. The crops, especially espe-cially coffee, were badly damaged and the people In the stricken area were without food and medical supplies until un-til the arrival of the United States naval tug Woodstock. CHINA has a new trouble, but It Isn't likely to arouse great Interest In-terest at this distance. Western Manchuria Man-churia has been invaded by a large force of Mongolian cavalry that Is led, according to report, by Russians. The Manchurlans were defeated in two bloody battles and sections of the railway were destroyed.' Japan was worried by the prospect of the weakening weak-ening of her influence in Manchuria. ON THE eve of the signing of the Kellogg anti-war treaty France has aroused the animosity of Italy again by holding extensive attack and defense maneuvers In the department of Haute Savoie near the Italian border. bor-der. Many of the crack French regiments regi-ments were engaged in the practic and artillery and all the elements in warfare in a mountainous country were used. Italy gave its reorganized army a successful test in maneuvers along the River Po. Because of the extensive arrangements arrange-ments for his visits in Paris and Dublin, Dub-lin, Secretary of State Kellogg abandoned aban-doned his plan to stop in London after the anti-war pact is signed. PREMIER ELEUTHERIOS VENI-ZELOS VENI-ZELOS won an extraordinary victory vic-tory in the Greek parliamentary elections. elec-tions. The Venizelist party secured 224 seats out of 250. The Royalists elected 20 members, the Kafandarists four and the Pangalists only two. Venlzelos now has a free hand to put In operation hl9 program, which Includes In-cludes financial reform and better relations re-lations with Yugo-Slavia, WALDEMARAS, premier of Lithuania, Lithu-ania, having refused to negotiate nego-tiate in Geneva his country's dispute with Poland, the government at Warsaw War-saw has yielded and agreed to the Lithuanian suggestion for a conference confer-ence at Koenigsberg before the Geneva meeting in order to bring to an end the unofficial state of war between the two countries. The Polish note was notably friendly. ONE of America's spectacular figures fig-ures in politics, diplomacy and journalism disappears with the death of Col. George B. Harvey at his summer sum-mer home in New Hampshire. Nominally Nom-inally a Republican, he was the first to boom Woodrow Wilson for the Presidency,, but later they became political enemies, to say the least and in 1920 Harvey had a good deal to do with the nomination of Harding by the Republicans. His reward was the ambassadorship to the court of St James. During most of his life he was actively connected with newspapers newspa-pers or magazines and for a time he was president and managing director of Harper & Bros. Another notable who died last week was Viscount Haldane of Cloan who, as secretary of state for war, created Great Britain's territorial army and thus contributed largely to the success of the allies In the Wrorld war. He was driven from office by popular outcry out-cry because he reiterated his love for German scholarship, though there was no question of bis loyalty. IF THE Interstate Commerce commission com-mission upproves the consolidation of the Great Northern and the Northern North-ern Pacific railways, there Is likely to be a new railroad grouping which would bring Into co-operation those lines, the Southern Pacific and the Burlington system. This prediction followed the announcement of Important Im-portant changes In the personnel of some of the companies. Hale Holden, president of the Burlington, is to be chairman of the board of the Southern Pacific, of which Paul Shoup will be made president; and other changes were In prospect The new grouping, with its rate agreements with Eastern lines, would offer a service spanning the continent by three routes. |