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Show THE BULLETIN Bruckart's Washington Digest Rural America Leads New 'Dry Trend International Affairs Likely To Influence Party Politics As Nation Deserts 'Beer Barrel Polka' WHO'S IIP NEWS By JAMES HARRISON THIS Upon Turn of pvents Abroad May Depend Strength Lack of It Shown by Presidential Aspirants; Domestic Life in U. S. Will Feel Effects. (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) WITH the national swinging from tip- pling to temperance, rural WEEK America is climbing back on the water wagon. There's little fanfare or By LEMUEL F. PARTON about this new prohihurrah hit record. It bition NEW YORK. On that The tradicrusade. Gen. Edappear Poland's strong tional temperance groups are ward Smlgly-Rydman, might be more Inclined to fight apparently playing but a h Germany minor part. The movement Leader out Ruisia'a aid is in spite of camgrowing Started Career than with it. He by enlightened elepaigns made hii career ments the distillers urging Fighting Soviet nghting among Bol. By WILLIAM BRUCKART Press Bldg., Washington, D. C. WNU Service, National z, with-Polis- sheviki, and newi dispatches of the last few weeks have hinted that he has been considerably embarrassed at being drawn Into the new apparently broken fellowship with Russia. It has been clear that being saved by Russia was the least aifti last of his Ideas. He Is beyond doubt the ablest of Poland's military leaders, and, once the bell rings, there Is no question that he can and will fight, as he proved in the campaigns to free Poland and in his forays against early-da- y Bolshevik Russia. He never hma quite come through as a dictator. la 1936 there was one of those "ideological" buOd --ops In which he was ta emerge aa the head af re- constructed Poland. Handsome and Imposing, of dominant ' bearing, he looked the part, bat he couldn't seem to manage the big talk necessary for the Job. The best they could get oat ef him was something to the gen--. era! effect that nobody would ' ever be allowed to take a single button from Poland's robe. On August 6 of this year, when it appeared that Germany might Just take the robe and leave the button, he was expected to make a sizzling speech at Cracow. His audience was howling for a knockout punch, but the speech was mostly shadow-boxinwith nothing specific about what he proposed to do about - g, Danzig. years old, with aa engaging personality, he has been a popular dinner guest and holds the honorary presidency of the Polish academy of letters. The old Marshal Joseph Pllsnd-sk- l, searing the end of hla life, anointed the general aa hla successor. He has been supremely efficient in hla army Job, but, aa a strong man, has been somewhat overshadowed by the showier, more facile and adroit Josef Beck, the foreign minister. But fighting Is his main business and knowing observers figure that, talking little, he Is more apt to fight. Fifty-fo- ur A MICHIGAN friend of this writ- er reports that Gov. Luren D. Dickinson's war on sin may turn out to be good political medicine out there. War on Sin while May Be Very political leaders big-tow- n to Cute Politic b. somewhat embarrassed by the aged governor's alarmed discovery of wickedness in high places, the word is that his forces have been intrenched and widened since he let loose about the drinking and dancing orgies of the Albany conference of governors. His Bible class at Eaton, Mich., is crowded to the doors and he is besieged with requests for lectures and participation in revival campaigns. Currently he tells a gathering of Chicago and Detroit "pupils" that this Albany conference was pretty much like Belshazzar's feast and that our Babylonian wastrels will drag us down if we don't mend our ways. For 25 years, Mr. Dickinson has held In fee simple the anti-si- n vote of Michigan. It has held steadily around 200,000 votes, undivided in its allegiance In his repeated forays against evil, chief of which has been his still continuing prohibition battle. He is a spare, bald evangel of righteousness, his friendly eyes glinting behind his octagonal rimmed glasses when he Is aroused, his meager frame shaken with pietistie fervor. He employs much of the lexicon of the late Dr. Parkhurst of New York, in assailing sin, and some of his phillipics seem to voice again the pious horror of the author of "New York by Gaslight," written 60 yeara ago. He is a native of New York, born near Lockport in Niagara county. His parents removed to Eaton, Mich., when he was a small boy. There he still lives, happily engaged with his Methodist church Bible class, and, more recently, with the state of Michigan and, unhappily for his peace of mind, in a bout with evil which he never knew existed before. Shays's rebellion of 1785 Jolted the politicians with a realization of what a mixture of agrarie an discontent and religion may amount to. In Governor Dickinson's compact voting phalanx, things are something like that. His allied conservative Republican organization appreciates ail this. (CoanliddUd Features WNU Srrvict.l big-tow- n old-tim- temperance in drinking. Local option is the process which is making the wet spots dry. More thsn 4,000 communities have voted "dry" since prohibition was repealed 5V4 years ago, a prominent research organization estimates. The majority of these have been in rural areas. Counting the districts that remained steadfastly dry in the face of repeal, there are today at least 10,000 communities In which beer and booze are outlawed. This repof all the resents about townships, rural precincts, counties and villages in the United States. Sapid Growth Significant? An America only dry might not be regarded as ominous to the wets, when compared with the situation preceding the adoption of the Eighteenth amendment. At that time 90 per cent of all townships and rural precincts, 85 per cent of all counties and 75 per cent of all the villages in the United States had their own form of prohione-four- th one-four- th AVF W IED ERSEII EN TO PROSIT? In 1933 if wo believed return of legal beer would conquer the nation's taste for hard liquor. Strangest feature of todays dry surge is that beer consumpbition. But the rapidity with which the tion has dropped. Meanwhile, more hard liquor is being consumed. new dry movement is gaining ground today is significant of changing public sentiment Thousands of local option elections are scheduled for ballot this faU. In Pennsylvania alone 492 precincts contests. win hold wet-dr- y Some ardent drys predict that when the votes are counted this autumn, at least 8,000 communities will have entered the dry belt since repeal. This may be overoptimistic, but it is not being entirely laughed out of court by impartial observers. Dries Win 89 Per Cent. How the dry forces have triumphed so far this year is indicated by results in Illinois. Out of 341 local option contests last April, the drys won 273 or 80 per cent according to a survey by the American Business Men's Research founda- tion. Illinois now has 728 dry areas, of which about 500 represent communities that have voted that way since repeal "It is estimated that there are now more than 1,000,000 people in Illinois living in areas made dry by local option votes," says an official bulletin of the foundation. If the results elsewhere are similar, it would mean that more than 18,000,-00- 0 Americans now reside in territory from which liquor is barred. Why has the dry movement spread so rapidly in the farming districts? The answers range all the way from the rural accident problem caused by drunken drivers and tipsy pedestrians, to increases In crime and rising Juvenile delinquency. But that doesn't tell the entire story, follows Tradition, Says Authority. One of the most plausible explanations was given by Martin Nelson, secretary of the Keeley institute, of Dwlght, IL, sanitarium for the treatment of alcoholism. Rural America is simply running true to form, he says and he bases his statement on the experience of the institute in observing the ebb and flow of temperance. "In banning intoxicants," Mr. Nelson declared, "farming areas and smaller towns are for the most part returning to the status they occupied before prohibition. They have been traditionally dry for a century. It is only natural they should lead the parade today. "That rural America Is dry In 'Rumors' Cost Dime a Dozen In Secretive Dictator Lands ROME. -- - Those reports' and "rumors" your newspaper brings from Rome, Berlin and other totalitarian cities may prove in the end to be false but don't blame your newspaper! In both Germany and Italy, where news must filter through a ministry of propaganda before painstaking censors decide whether it should be released, the most fantastic rumor may prove to be true. On the other hand, a very logical report from some distant province may have been entirely false. The foreign correspondent has a choice of waiting several days until the story is "dead" and thus having it denied or confirmed by the propaganda ministry, or he can take a chance and release it as a rumor. Mystery of Eye Doctor. IL DICE Did he visit an eye Mussolini and Hitler are both men Ilcrr Hitler, or just a doctor, of mystery whose comings and goings make big news. Yet lucky indeed is the foreign correspondent who can pierce the veil of secrecy and send his paper an authenticated story. RecenUy Mussolini made a secret visit Into northern Italy which produced three rumors for correspondents. Take your pick: (1) He was going to Switzerland to consult an eye specialist: (2) he was meeting Hitler In the Brenner pass; (3) he was meeting a German diplomat and the Swiss eye specialist at Venice. Net until almost a week later did the ministry of popular culture (known as "Pop Cult" to correspondents) give reporters the story. Several of them got severe dressings-dow- n fur having issued false reports, yet no one could have expected them to ignore II Duce's diplomat? trip. So while Germans and Italians blame democratic malice or panic for the melange of rumors surrounding their comings and goings, foreign correspondents put the blame elsewhere on a blanket system of news suppression which has made the task of checking rumors almost Troop Train Panic. Similarly, the world was startled several months ago by reports that German troops were passing south- ward through Drcnncr pass for by boat to Italian colonics in Italy. This was a sensational slory, substantiated by a respected 01 private German citizen who said his cousin had seen the troop trains one night at Genoa. Similar rumors came from many villages along the line. In the end these "troop trains" proved to be shipments of German-confiscate- d Czech army equipment being sent to Libya in trains guarded by German sentries. Recently Italian newspapers made capital out of false rumors printed abroad, publishing a list of them under the heading, "An Anthology of False News." It included stories growing out of the seemingly fantastic report that foreigners were being evicted from the Italian Tyrol. This story, denied by "Pop Cult," was true. impossible. practice as well as theory is indicated by the records of patients treated for alcoholism at the Keeley Institute. A recent survey showed that only 16 per cent of the habitual drinkers come from farms and country towns. And although farmers rank near the top numerically among our patients, this can be explained by the fact that farmers as a class far outnumber any other single occupation or group of occupations. Cites 'Pnbllc Disgust.' "But while the country districts are following their normal disposition on the wet-dr- y issue, it cannot be denied that one of the major factors encouraging the spread of prohibition in rural areas as well as in cities is public disgust over the way drinking establishments are operated. People were told that with repeal the saloon was never coming back. But it did come back In many states and in a form far more vicious than ever before." Whether big cities will follow the rural districts in going dry depends to a good extent on whether the growing resentment of citizens against rowdy saloon operation can be stemmed. Apparently the saloonkeepers are like the old Bourbon kings of France who never learned a new thing nor forgot an old one, for even the Chiy of prohicago Tribune, bition recently barked: "The cause of temperance will be served If the saloonkeepers are given a kicking around. They have learned nothing and presume too much." The Tribune was angered when the tavern owners and politicians of Chicago connived to legalize a later closing hour In return for higher license fee. Beer Down, Hard Liquor Up. The Increase in dry sentiment throughout the country in the past year has been accompanied by a decrease in the total gallonage of alcoholic beverages consumed. One of the anomolies of this situation, however, is that while beer drinking has registered a marked decline, the consumption of hard liquor has actually shown a rise. Beer consumption fell off 79,389,018 gallons in the 11 months ending May 31. 1939. compared with the corresponding period of 1938. At the same time hard liquor consumption increased by 6.832.788 gallons. The net decline in all alcoholic beverages consumed amounted to 72,756,228 gallons. "Fading popularity of beer is one of the tragic Jokes of repeal," said a leading dry official. "When the agitation for the repeal of the Volstead act was at its height a few years ago, the wets argued that if beer and light wine were restored, America's thirst for hard liquor would vanish. They said people would drink more beer and less whiskey. But the fact is that Americans prefer booze to beer." But even with the inroads of prohibition, past and imminent, the liquor industry is definitely to be considered in the ranks of big business. A statistician has figured that six times more money Jingles across bars or Is rung up in liquor store cash registers annually than is dropped into the Sunday collection of America's 248.000 plates churches. Uncle Sam's yearly liquor bill is approximatcy $3,000,000,000. At the same time Americans contribute about $550,000,000 to the support of churches. It is estimated that there are 538,000 places in the United States where liquor, beer and wine can be bought, including taverns, cocktail lounges, retail liquor stores and hotels. law-abidi- arch-enem- WASHINGTON. There is an interesting offshoot of the several European crises that has begun to attract attention among political leaders. It has been practically 20 years since international affairs figured to any extent In our domestic politics, but they threaten to do so next year. And upon the turn of events abroad, it appears, will depend the strength or lack of It shown by various presidential aspirants. It may be that, in the short space of time between the writing of these lines and their publication in your local newspaper, another European crisis will have arisen and actual hostilities will have been started. It Is possible, therefore, only to take a peek over the horizon and offer conjecture as to the effect upon our domestic partisan battles. There can be no doubt of the importance of the subject as a matter for thought, however, because: (1) if there is a European war, there will be the struggle between two very powerful forces to drag us in or keep us out, respectively; and (2) if there is no war abroad but a continued threat and continued disturbance of international relations, our domestic life win be constantly feeling the effects in one way or another. So, the situation shapes up that international affairs are likely to be vitally important in the matter of selection of party nominees next year, as well as in the election of one of the major party candidates to the presidency. The condition warrants thought on the basis that it touches private lives. Private lives are concerned not onr because of the possibility when war stalks in the world that there may be blood shed by soma of our people. The effect goes as well into our everyday affairs, the thing which the intelligen-cl- a usually calls our national econever-prese- nt omy. When Political Leader Took Wrong Side of Question One needs to go back to 1920 to recall what happened to political leaders who took the wrong side of a question the wrong side from a majority of the people. President Wilson's followers stood by him, as they should have done in those days. They committed the Democratic party to a position on the League of Nations and the Versailles peace treaty that proved to be unpopular and a good many of them were engulfed in the flood of the unpopularity of that side of the question. If there were complex conditions to be considered by voters and thought through in advance of the election of Warren G. Harding over James M. Cox at that time, the conditions then must be regarded as simple to what confronts America at this time. Nor is there any possibility of simplification of those problems. The bulk of the people can say, as I firmly believe the majority sentiment to be, that we must stay out of foreign entanglements-m-ust be isolationists and there still will remain the influence of those foreign conditions upon our own life and living and means of making a living. But to be specific with respect to the political picture of presidential aspirants: The candidates now going about the country herding in delegate pledges or having their representatives do so have thus far proceeded, quite naturally, upon the basis of purely domestic questions. These questions include such as the Roosevelt money policies; the undoubted waste that has characterized the governmental spending; the regimentation of agriculture with its crop control in one place and crop expansion in another without apparent rhyme or reason; the sudden changes in national plans and the consequent instability and uncertainty. Others could be named, but these few suffice to illustrate the point. Jealousy and Distrust No Matter What Happens Now, let us assume that actual hostilities have started abroad and that they extend into next year. Of what use is the political strategy now being employed by those seeking pledges of support? Or, assume that HiUer's rapacious plans have been satisfied. There still win be heat, abroad. There will be jealousy and distrust. There Is the new pact between the slippery Stalin of Russia, and the blustering Hitler that neither will attack the other. There are now, and will continue to be, dissatisfied minorities in Central Europe, peoples who want to break away or who feci they have been used as pawns. There will be all of these and other things to keep the fires burning, a sort of an International poison ivy case. Whatever the conditions may be a year from now, there is no way that I can see by which the United Stales ?an avoid consideration of policies to meet the circumstances generated by these several influences. Why? Take agriculture, for example. Our crops long have entered into world markets, although the outgoing shipments have sunk into insignificance lately. But our farmers still have hopes. Consider Industry, manufacturing. Thousands of manufacturing establishments seek export outlets. The amount of their exports determine whether these factories can run at normal capacity, and employ normal quotas of workers, or whether only enough workers can be kept on to maintain supplies for. the purely American market Thus, the unemployment problem, and relief, enter into the picture. It is far from being simple. One can despise and distrust his neighbor on the next farm or In the next block, but he still has to pass his house on the highway or go down the alley behind his house. Campaign Strategies, Plans Must Undergo Revision None knows, for example, wheth- er the agreement between Stalin and Hitler is going to give the Russian, lion a free hand In the Orient That is to ask: can Stalin's forces now align themselves with China and' force the Japanese back to their island homes? If so, there is a brand new proposition for us on the Pacific side. Wt have wanted, and still want the market of China. But, wt have to play with the Soviet it' by chance, the conjectured change, takes place and Hitler abandons his connections with Tokyo. Thus, I think we are brought forcibly to the conclusion that the records made by the two major politi-- 1 cal parties thus far may constitute; only a part of the things which the: d voter may have to eon- -i sider next year. It is made quite) plain, it seems to me, that campaign' strategies, plans, hopes, win have to undergo serious revision in the next: few months. How they are revised ( is going to be dependent almost entirely upon the developments abroad. . There is always the thought in the; background that most people are interested in the things around them, not 3,000 miles away, and it Is not going to be easy for the political campaigners to know how much of a dose they showed attempt to offer. There seems to be no doubt that developments between now and next June, for example, will have a vital effect upon Mr. Roosevelt's political fortunes. Most sound thinking men seem to agree on that One hears discussions pro and con. Many wagers have been made around Washington that Mr. Roosevelt can not be elected, or even nominated, for a third term, but always there is the reservation "unless there Is Always, there is that reserva- -' tion "unless." I relate this, not because it indicates more than the views of those making the bets, but because it illustrates how closely linked are our affairs with those of the rest of the world. ever-puzzle- May Call Congress to Revise the Neutrality Act There is talk that Mr. Roosevelt congress into extra session to deal with international problems and acting with Roosevelt suddenness, he may have issued the call two hours after this is written. He has wanted the neutrality act revised to meet his Ideas. You wiU recall that he could not even gain consideration of his program by the foreign relations committee of the last senate. They turned it down cold. But the question is due to come up whether in an extraordinary session or in the regular meeting next January, and it cannot be wUl caU avoided. Who can guess what the political effects of that may be. I can not foresee them, nor has anyone been able to convince me of their ability to see that far into the future. As I am able to examine the puzzle of the future, therefore, I can see only a very difficult time ahead for those who want to have a voice In their government Of course, there is going to be a percentage of voters, as always, whose convictions wiU be those of their political party. But there is an increasing number of voters who would like to know what they are voting for or against; why they are voting for one man over another. They probably constitute the blance of power in American politics, and if they do it is a splendid thing. Yet I repeat they are going to have their hands full In trying to understand the Issues next year. It is a tough proposition to learn what proposed pu wiU do for or to us when those policies concern affairs close at home. It is just that much more perplexing when we are called upon to figure out what will happen when the issues of a campaign involve not only our own affairs but the affairs of other nations, as well And it strikes me that next year would be a good time for political its tiers to start being honest about what they seek to accomplish! (Released by Western Newipuper UnMn.l |