New Britain herald., 1929-08-05
HERES NEW IDEA
 0F MODIFICATION
Bishop Cannon Would Make Yol- stead Law More Severe
NEA Service

 been rather overlooked in Bishop James Carnon's recent pronounce ment upon the modification" letter written by Chairman George w, Wckersham of the national law en- forcement commission to Governor Roosevelt of New York.
 First, there is the fact that the bishop is continuing to function as the acknowledged mouthpiece of the drys His standing as an oracle has yet to be damaged by revelation of his stock market speculations or the recent charges that he lent church money to Virginia republicans in the presidential campaign.
 A few months ago, when Senator Harris of Georgia tried to get an additional 25,000,000 appropriated for prohibition enforcement. it was the bishop who decided the official dry attitude. Other dry leaders had mufted the ball. General Superin- tendent F. Scott Mcbride of the Anti-Saloon league and others had declared against the Harris amend ment along with Secretary Mellon. But Bishop Cannon came right ont and demanded the s25, 5,000,000. Me Bride promptly changed his mind and so did the rest. That became the official dry attitude as soon as Cannon spoke.
 The same thing happened with the Wickersham letter. Cannon. after all the other drys had had their opportunity to disagree over the merits and meaning of it. issued his pronunciamento, and that was - that He went to great pains to explain which parts were "defeatlst' and which were all right. And what he said has now become the official dry attitude.
 The other significant thing was Cannon's use of the word "moditic3- = tion," which may forecast the day when the drys, when introducing new measures to tighten enforce ment, will refer to them as pro- posed modification"
 "The passage of the Jones' Stalker law" said the bishop. indicated the necessity for amendment of the Volstead act and other modifica- ton of the prohibition laws doubt less will and should be made"
 Well, of course, the Jones' Stalker law modified the law so that prohi- bition violators can be consigned 10 the hoosegow for five years and fined $r0,006. And if that's modification, the Association Against the Prohibit ton Amendment had better start working for something else. But it does look as if Bishop Cannon were going to become a modifcationist using the word in his new and bizarre sense. And the whole dry movement may adopt the word as its own.
 The story goes here now tha' Wickershams letter to Rooseveli was written in longhand and mean;  entirely for private consumption The White House is said to have been astounded when Roosevelt read it out loud at the governors con- ference in Connecticut Wicker sham and Roosevelt had been friends for 30 years, which is giver as the reason for Wickersham's frankness. Whether all this is true or not, it's impossible to jimmy even hint of information from the crimt commission or any of it's members But it may be related that one or two members, at least, showed sign. of astonishment when the letter be- came news.
 Vacationists returned to Washing. - ton from widely separated points in. sist that there are two main new' matters in Washington of interest tc the country at large:
 l. The case of Mrs. Gam.
 Z. The DePriest incident - JUBILEE COMMITTEE MEETS