Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1924-06-27
A Weekly Panorama of Events in the
National Capital.
lBy Peter Keegan)

Wy 1 SCcI ACCSdHJ
Bascom Slemp, astute Virginia pol
itician and Secretary for the past ten
months to President Coolidge, is the
first casualty of the Republican cam
paign. Not liking the way things
were being run in the Republican
party by Chairman Bill Butler, Slemp
kicked to the President and demanded
a showdown, threatening at the same
time, to resign as the White House
Secretary. Coolidge made him prom
Use not to resign, as that would have
looked bad at this time, but Slemp
has been relieved of all duties at the
Executive Mansion. He is Secretary
in name only, and Butler reigns su-
preme as the Republican chieftain.
Government officials are greatly
interested in the trial in New York of
Castor B. Means, the famous detec-
tive who is charged with conspiring
with others to bribe Harry M. Daugh-
erty while the latter was Attorney
General. Means's chief defense is
that what he did was at the direction
of the late President Harding, who
wanted to find out if Daugherty and
Secretary of the Treasury Mellon
could be trusted where liquor matters
were concerned. Attorney General
Stone had ordered the trial speeded
up, and the outcome is awaited with
some anxiety in certain quarters for
it is never known what CASTOR Means
might have up his sleeve.
Secretary of State Hughes is
stumped to know what to do about
China. Almost weekly he gets re-
ports of American citizens being
slain by bandits in that country, and
the protests of this government have
passed almost unnoticed at Peking.
Now comes the crowning blow, the
Chinese government having denied
that the United States has any right
in the Chinese Eastern Railroad, in
which American investors sunk $5,-
100000 shortly after the war. China
has turned the road over to Russia
and told the United States that the
American claims are of no value. 1t
is a perplexing problem, but at this
writing it appears that the five mil
lion is lost forever.
Some idea of the extent of federal
prohibition enforcement operations is
given here by the announcement that
fines collected in cases involving con-
spring to violate the Volstead Act
have totaled fourteen million dollars
during the past two years. The Jail
con+onoa1 K,onfal To nffnndnpc If
placed end to end, amount to 450
years.
Democratic Senators who got to-
gether here to talk over the platform
plank on the League of Nations found
out that there would be a row over
this declaration before the platform
was finally adopted by the New York
convention. One faction, embracing
the so-called Wilsonian Democrats,
wanted a straight out and out pledge
for American entrance into the
League of Nations, while the other
wanted plank that would pledge the
party to work for world peace and in
ternational understandings without
mentioning the League by name. The
platform discussions went on here
until 48 hours before the time set for
the opening of the convention in New
York.
Frederick Martin, the Army aviator
who jumped into sudden fame when
he was named to head the flight
around the world, has sunk to OBJ
scurity since his plane was wrecked
in Alaska and he was forced to re-
turn to the United States while the
other fliers continued the epoch
making trip. The Air Service want
ed to send Martin to Europe with
another plane to lead the fliers across
the Atlantic on the return trip, but
Secretary of War Weeks objected and
Martin has been assigned to ordinaryS
military duties down in Virginia. II 3e