Evening star., 1928-10-28


ported that measure and as one who
helped to frame 1t. / bid him God
speed in making any improvement as
to the machinery that must be enacted
into law to carry out the principle.
Tired Of Promises.
Il stand ready to favor anything
that will simplify this machinery. and
l want to say to you. particularly to
my Republican brethern who have stood
Tor the McNary -Haugen bill, who have
advocated its passage all over the coun-
try, and who went to Kansas CITY and
demanded to be heard, but we're turn
ed down. want to say to them as I
look at 1t, If you still believe what you
nave been advocating, you haven't a
leg 10 stand on unless you come out in
this great contest and support Gov.
Smith
Il am tired of promises The farmer
represents the fundamental industry of
all industries. From his toll and sweat
comes the food that supplies the world,
but we cannot always continue to oper-
ate under a system that, by a protec-
tive tariff, puts everybody except the
farmer upon higher and an artificial
scale of living. I am wondering now If
the Republican farmers of the great
| Middle West are going to permit the
poison OF partisanship to blind their
| Judgment and to control their actions
and their votes
Il do not agree with Gov. Smith in
his prohibition program. l am not in
favor OF the repeal or the modification
of the eighteenth amendment and /
shall oppose the repeal of the Volstead
act at least until prohibition has been
fairly and h0npetlv tecfed
But Gov. Smiths ideas on prohibition
| are not of vital Importance in this cam
paign. He cannot repeal or modify the
eighteenth amendment. He cannot re-
peal the Volstead act or change 1t.
Such action must come from Congress
and / know-and I think the country
knows-that the Congress of the United
States is bitterly opposed to such a
proposition.
II make the charge here and now
that there has never been a fair and
honest attempt to enforce the prohi-
bition law. The present administration
and the head of its enforcement bureau
are to blame for the dissatisfaction that
is quite general over the country with
existing conditions regarding prohibi-
ton. get letters from all quarters OF
the country, written by men who are
prohibitionists, who say frankly that the
enforcement officers are in league with
the bootleggers and that the conditions
In their various communities are simply
intolerable.
Demands Fair Enforcement.
what we have a right to demand is
that this law shall be fairly and honest
ly enforced, and I believe that If this
is done we would get general satisfac-
| xxtikf "a q
it is done. until the law has been fairly
and honestly tested, am opposed to
its repeal
Gov. Smith would probably have
voted against the eighteenth amend
ment and against the Volstead act, had
he been in Congress. But Gov Smith
has stated before the American people
in language which cannot be misunder-
stood that while he favors modiflca-
ton of both the amendment and the
Law, If he is elected President he will
enforce the law as it now stands. This
is something that has never yet been
done. l believe he will keep his promise
His record as Governor OF New YORK
shows him to be a man sufficiently
courageous to do this and that he has
always done it in the past
II read an article by leading woman
in the West. who announced that al
though a Democrat she would not sup
port Gov. Smith. She said we should
have another man enforcing the law
who was in sympathy with the law, and
that she feared Gov Smith would not,
therefore. properly enforce 1t. / Won
dered when / read this article II this
woman fully realized the fact that the
head enforcement officer of our pro-
hibition law is man who has made
many millions out of the distilllng OF
whisky. No one has ever claimed for a
moment that Mr.. Mellon believes in
or ever did believe in either the eight
eenth amendment or the Volstead act,
and there are now unnumbered graves
all over this country filled with men
who died from drinking too much
Mellon whisky.
Cites Oil "Debauchery."
"Mr. Hoover looks over the last seven
years of Republican administration
with a great deal of delight and salts
faction. When / think of the oil
scandals and the debauchery and the
crime which existed in high places,
even among the associates of Mr.. Hoo
yer in the cabinet, I think of those
same seven years with sense of hu
initiation and shame.
Almost from top to bottom the ad-
ministration was honeycombed with
fraud and corruption, and cannot for
get that the men who opposed any in
vestigation, the meg who defended
Daugherty, the men who defended Fall
who defended Sinclair. who defended
Forbes, who defended Miller are. in the
main, the very men who are managing
and backing the candidacy of Mr..
Hoover.
During all the weary grind, when
the committee of the Senate was trying
to get the truth about the bribery of
public officials. Herbert Hoover sat in
the cabinet. He was in daily touch
with the very conspirators who de-
frauded the Government. OF course, I
do not charge him with any personal
knowledge or In any way participating
in the benefits of crime and debauch-
cry. But from the beginning to the
end he has remained as silent as a
sphinx and has never condemned any
of the men high in official position who
were guilty of these crimes.
'Is it the duty of Republican to
cover up crime and evil when he finds
1t existing in his own party? Does