LIQUOR ISSUE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 218, 15 September 1930, Page 7

LIQUOR ISSUE.

SWING TO THE -"WETS.*-. Prohibition Main Issue In U.S.A. Presidential Fight. DEMOCRATS' PLANS. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) NEW YORK, September 14. ' The Washington correspondent of the "New York Times" says politicians have been brought to realise by events this week that the prohibition question cannot be disregarded as the main issue of the Presidential campaign in 1932. It is predicted that the Democrats will not only have a "wet" candidate, but will make a "wet" platform declaration, which they did not do when they had an anti-prohibition candidate in 1928. 1 \ Senator B. K. Wheeler (Democrat, .Montana), who has been a prohibitionist for a long time, has issued a statement favouring State control of liquor and calling attention to the fact that the Governor of New York, Mr.. Franklin Roosevelt, a' close friend of Mr. A 1 Smith, last week issued a similar statement as the probable Democrat candidate for the Presidency in, 1932. Republican officials who had come to believe that the prohibition question would not figure largely at next Novem- , ber's regular biennial Congressional elections, now realise that as a reisult of last week's primaries, in which Messrs. Crampton, Hudson and Miller, wellknown "dry" anembers of the House of Representatives, lost their nominations to "wets," the prohibition issue is more prominent than ever. , The general superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League, Mr. F. S, Meßride, in a statement admitted his belief that the "drys" will lose 29 seats in the House of Representatives in November, but claimed that there will be remaining 300 known "drys."