The Alamance Gleaner VOL. LIV. GRAHAM, N, C., THURSDAY AUGUST 30, 1928. NO. 30. ' 1 I HAPPENNINGS OF THE WEEK NEWS REVIEW OF CURRENTEVENTS Smith in Acceptance Speech Is Outspoken for Change in Prohibition Laws. ^ By EDWARD W. PICKARD WITH the courage of his convic tions Gov. A1 Smith in bis speech of acceptance frankly declared his op position to the Eighteenth amendment and the Volstead act as they now ex ist. This was the dominant note of his address, which was delivered In the assembly chamber at Albany be cause of a persistent rain that pre vented the outdoor exercises. Neces sarily Smith, like Hoover, declared that If elected he would honestly and vigorously enforce the dry laws. He also repeated his belief that the sa loon would not and should not return. But the vital part of this section of the speech was a demand for the mod ification of the Eighteenth amend ment to permit the sale of alcoholic beverages by state agencies If 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 pro vided by the amended Eighteenth amendment. Severely scoring the evil conditions which be 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 In? solving the righteousness of our 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 tmmmedlately after election, acting on the advice of experts. He pledged himself to the restoration of honesty tn government and to scientific tariff making and declared against "sudden or drastic" changes In the economic system which might upset business, tn other matters he followed the plat form quite closely. Unbiased and nonpartisan opinion Is that Smith In his address showed be Is making his chief play for the Eastern stated; 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, and probably 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 Demo crats of the South. But It Is likely their attitude Is fairly expressed by the Arkansas Gazette of Little Sock, which Bays: "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 and expedient would be defeated In con gress by dry legislative votes." Governor smith took time last week to reply to the attack od his record In the New York legisla ture made by WtUlam Allen White, which already had been disowned by the Republican publicity chief. The governor justified hla votes on liquor tnd social vice matters by explaining the circumstances, and though White made answer from Paris It was gen erally admitted that Smith bad much the better of the argument HERBERT HOOVER In bis progress from California to Washington ?topped at West Branch, Iowa, the town of his birth, where he was ac corded a fine reception by the vil lagers and took occasion to elaborate Us views on farm relief. He made one concrete proposal?that of an idequate federal revolving fund to be ilaced at the disposal of the farm In Instry and Intelligently nsed In financ ing whatever measure of crop control ? found necessary to stabilize prices. He also said that. If elected, he would ?sk ex-Governor Lowden to be among the counselors for a farm solution. He administered a flnnl blow to the equalisation plan with the words: 'It la hot intended to put the government Into the control of the business of ag riculture, no.- to subsidize prices of farm products and pay the losses thereon, either from the federal treas ury or by a tax or fee on the farmer." After a conference with farm lead ers In Cedar Itapids, Hoover went on to the national capital. PRESIDENT COOUDGE named, as secretary of commerce to succceed Hoover, a personal friend, William F. Whiting of Holyoke, Mass., and the new cabinet member was sworn In Immediately at Superior, Wis., In Mr. Coolidge's presence. Mr. Whiting, who is sixty-four years of age, Is head of the Whiting l'nper company. He bas never before held public office but has been keenly Interested In politics and was a delegate to the Republican na tional Conventions of 1020, 1924 and 1928. His selection was a surprise In Washington, where It had been ex pected that either Dr. Julius Klein or Walter F. Brown, both high In the de partment, would get the appointment COMMANDER RICHARD E. BTRD'S antarctic expedition, the most elaborate of its kind ever organised, Is on Its way toward the South pole. The bark City of New York sailed Sat urday, from New York carrying planes and equipment to the hopplng-oft place, and also 31 of the 70 men who compose the expeditionary force. 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. 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 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. When hope for their safety was fading amateur radio op erators In Chicago received messages from them saying they had been forced to land on a small Island "flfty mlles 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 Fran cisco to Honolulu last year, estab lished a new record last week. Ac companied by Harry Tucker, he made a non-stop flight across the continent from Los Angeles to New York In 18 hours and 58 minutes. The distance was 2,710 miles and the average speed of their Lockheed-Vega plane was a little over 142 miles an hour. BUSINESS of running 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 Wind sor, were reported to be hastily clear ing their stocks for Vancouver, from which point they may, If lucky, be able to get them Into the United States. The Windsor rnm fleet was dispersed, and In Detroit and nearby places the prices of liquor rose rap Idly. The Detroit river trade was esti mated by Ontario authorities to have amounted to a million dollars a month. First efforts by Chicago and To ronto Interests to merge all breweries In western Canada under one holding company hare been completed with the merging of all breweries In Sas katchewan. The scheme outlined Is to organize breweries In Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia and then to consolidate the organizations Into one huge holding compsny. Coupled with the brewery mergers are plans for a. gigantic ex port business. NINE persons were killed and prop erty damage amounting to hun dreds of thousands of dollars was caused by a terrific wind storm that swept through parts of Minnesota and Iowa. Many buildings wore wrecked and crops suffered seriously. The town of Austin, Minn., sustained the worst of the blow. In northern lows hall followed the wind and destroyed the corn crop In a large district. American nsrsl forces are render ing aid to 10,000 Inhabitants of Haiti who were made homeless by the re cent tropical storm. The crops, espe cially coffee, were badly damaged and the people in the stricken area were without food and medical supplies un til the arrival of the United States naval tug Woodstock. CHINA has a new trouble, hut It Isn't likely to arouse great In terest nt this distance. Western Man churia has been Invaded by a large force of Mongolian cavalry that Is led, according to report by Russians. The Manchurians were defeated In two bloody battles and sections of the railway were destroyed. Japan was Worried by the prospect of the weak ening of her influence In Manchuria. ON THE err of the signing of the Kellogg anti-war treaty France has aroused the animosity ol Italy again by holding extends* attack and defense maneuvers in the department of Hante Savote hear the Italian bor der, ilany of the crack French regi ments were engaged in the practice and artillery snd all the elements In warfare ?fn a mountainous country were used. Italy gave its reorganised army a successful test In maneuvers along the River Po. Because of the extensive arrange ments for his visits In Paris and Dub lin, Secretary of State Kellogg aban doned his plan to stop in txindon after the anti-war pact is signed. PREMIER ELEUTBERIOS VF.NI S5ELOS won an extraordinary vic tory in the Greek parliamentary elec tions. The Venizellst pnrty secured 224 seats out of 250. The Royalists elected 20 members, the Kufandarlsts four and the Pangalists only two. Venlzeios now has a tree hand to put In operation his program, which In cludes flnnnclal reform and better re lations with Yogo-Slavla. XIFALDEMARAS, premier of Lithu v V anla, having refused to nego tiate, llf Geneva his country's dispute with Poland, the government at War saw has yielded and agreed to the Lithuanian suggestion for a confer ence at Koenlgsberg 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 fig ures In politics; diplomacy and journalism disappears with the death of Col. George B. Harvey at his sum mer home In New Hampshire. Nom inally a Republican, he wns the flrst to boom Woodrow Wilson for the Presidency, but later they became political enemies, to say tbe 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 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 Ualdane 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- World war. He was driven from office by popular out cry because he reiterated his love for German scholarship, though there was no question of his loyalty. IF THE Interstate Commerce com mission approves the consolidation of the Great Northern and the 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 Im portant changes In the personnel of some of the companies. Hale llolden. president of the Burlington. Is to he chairman of the hoard 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. Wide Variation in Nation'a Paved Roads 8t?te and local roads, heterogeneous links In the nation's chain of high ways, are but 18.S per cent surfaced. That figure Is reached by the federal burean of pttbllc roads In summarizing dau compiled on road Improvement In each of the 48 states. Taken Indi vidually. the states reveal a wide vari ance of per ceo ta gee. Indiana, as the kdgfcea* in the list, hsa 87J2 par cent ?C h?r 8M* Mri knead reads nsatausi. North Dakota la lowest, with 1.7 per cent Indiana Is Drat again In sur faced local roads, showing 05.3 per cent. Some of the Inequalities In percent ages may be lessened by the 1928 road-building campaign. In Its plana for the present year, the federal bu reau of local roads expects more than 20,000 miles to bo surfaced sad about 8,000 miles graded and drained. Surfacing of highways reoufrsd one of Ha greatest encourage rues ta ha 1801. .erfcee Hew juteer. the Or* ??ta t? depart from the prevailing costom, passed a law providing for a certain measare of state participation In road bnlldlng. Prior to ttiat time fall Jarls diction over the highways of all states had been lodged in the counties The New Kngland state* nnd Middle Atlantic state*, with California, Dela ware. Maryland and North Carolina, were quick to follow New Jersey's lead. The movement for good roods was accelerated when. Jnty 11, 1*18, President WO** signed the federal ?M road org. ?ee