"WETS" AND "DRYS."

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 94, 22 April 1926, Page 7

"WETS" AND "DRYS."

PROHIBITION IN AMERICA. DAMPNESS OF PENNSYLVANIA. A GOVERNOR'S TESTIMONY. (By Cable. —Press Association.—Copyright.) i (Received 1.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 21. Disputes regarding procedure marked tbe opening of the day's inquiry of the Judiciary Senate into the prohibition liw. The "Drys" contended that Senator Beed, appearing for the "Wets," had taken up three hours of their allotted time in cross-examining witnesses, and they demanded an equal period. The decision of the Senate will be announced later. Mr. Striver, representing New York State farmers, opposed any modification, and claimed that aliens composed twenty-three per cent of the population of New York. Thirty-five per cent of these were in asylums for the insane. Governor Pinchot (Perm.) wrote a letter containing a record claiming that in 1923 Pennsylvania was the "wettest" State in the Union. Having enforced prohibition, it had suppressed bootlegging. He asserted that either a State or the Federal Government would be capable of enforcing prohibition in any part of the United States. - Charles Stelzle, a member of the Machinists' Union, declared that influence had been exerted upon Labour leaders to prevent them starting any organised movement in favour of prohibition. He asserted that the late Samuel Gompers, president of the Federation of Labour, had not permitted the discussion of prohibition at the conventions of the Federation, because he feared by doing so the Labour movement might be injured.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) RUM RUNNERS SENTENCED. VESSEL SEIZES IN RESCUE. AN ALLEGES CONSPIRACY. (Received 1 p.m.) PORTLAND (Oregon), April .21. Captain Robert Pamphlet, master of the Canadian schooner Pescawha, seized off Washington coast in February, 1924, as a rum runner, was sentenced on Wednesday to two years' imprisonment and ordered to pay a line ot 5000 dollars. The other members of the crew received lighter sentences. The seizure of the' Pescawha followed the rescue by the Canadians of the shipwrecked crew of a United States vessel, the defendants declaring they were , drawn inside the twelve-mile limit by the necessity of rescue. At the trial the judge ruled this defence out, holding that the defendants were engaged in a conspiracy to violate the United States liquor'laws.—(A. and N.Z.) LIQUOR FOR AMERICA. APPEAL COURT DECISION, i . ' ..... ! (Received 12 noon.) ! ' NEW YORK, April 21. ' The effect of the treaties with Great Britain and other countries which permit the United States to seize- rum runners at any place within an hour's distance of the shore was greatly limited on Wednesday by the decision of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals which set forth that the treaty does not make lawful the extension of American territorial jurisdiction. The Court dismissed the seizure proceedings brought by the United States Government against British and Norwegian vessels.— (A. and N.Z.)