THOSE UNITED STATES

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11648, 12 October 1923, Page 6

THOSE UNITED STATES

THROUGH SOUTHERN EYES THE LAND OF PROHIBITION AND PRESIDENTS. HARDING AND FORD. “It’s a great country!” fervently announced a young Australian journalist, who after several years in the United States was returning home on the Tahiti, to a “Times’’ man during his (brief stay. “You may say what you like about America and the Ame ricans; the fact remains that they do see life over there. The cost of living is high over there; but then you get the service, and labour is high too. It’s strange to you when you arrive and you don’t like their ways; but once you get used to them you have to appreciate them at their true worth. MAXING GOOD AMERICANS. “You have to face the fact that for years they have been taking the scum of many nations and have been transforming them into good Americans. Oh, they’re good Americans all right; no room for doubt about that. They come there speaking one language and stay to speak another. You need have no illusions about them ; they’re turned into honest, good citizens. WHERE HUSTLE RULES. “To arrive in Market street, ’Frisco, is something of a sensation. Four lines of trolley oars and two of motors each way; I tell you, you have to keep your eyes skinned. But once you get used to the noise, the racket and bustle of it all you grow to like it. I went pretty far afield, up to Alaska and over to Washington, and wherever I went the name of Australian was a passport to favour. There are quite a number of our men over there; and I met one New Zealander—l think he had come from a paper in the Waikato. THE PREVAILING TOPIC. “Prohibition?—well, it’s a dismal failure. I’m not a drinker, but fel lows over there told me that they had never known what it was to drink in their lives until the States 'went dry.’ The worst feature of the Prohibition law is the numlber of young people who take to drink. A number of young ladies’ seminaries (and leading ones) were challenged by one paper to produce a list of the pupils they had expelled for drinking and taking drugs sir.oe the dry days began—and they dared not do it. You’re nowhere at a party nowadays unless you have some sort of ‘dope’ with you. A PROSPECTIVE PRESIDENT. “Henry Ford? No, he’ll never be president. He’s the best advertising man in the States—and he gets it for nothing. This political campaign is purely an advertising ‘stunt.’ Ho knows plenty of them. No, I don’t think that he will succeed Harding. A Washington man who knows what he’s talking ajbout laid down the doctrine that it is a sheer impossibility for a man to reach the office unless he is supported by one of the two big political machines—Republican or Democrat —and he proved it. HARDING’S DEATH. Harding was a great man, though. A journalist; he owned a city paper. He had a most magnetic personality; and was a rare and fluent speaker, infecting all who heard him with his own enthusiasm. I remember, after his trip to Alaska, we gave him a dinner one day and he spoke to ns on the importance of our work. Every man there simply went wild But he is gone. ‘ In the States, at the time when copy finished, or unfinished, must be laid upon the News Editor’s table, you stop m tbe middle of a sentence, if need be, and pencil the figure ‘3o’ at the end of the sheet to show that there you stop. . . . All the pressmen in ’Frieoo sent a ‘Bo’ in red and white flowers to Harding’s funeral, and the wreath was given the place of honour at the Capitol.” '