AL. SMITH AGAINST RETURN OF SALOON

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18548, 23 August 1928, Page 9

AL. SMITH AGAINST RETURN OF SALOON

ADVOCATES STATE DEPOTS FOR SALE OF LIQUOR. (United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Received August 23, 8.50 a.m.) NEW YORK, August 22. “I never will advocate, or approve °f any law directly or indirectly permitting the return of the saloon,” Governor Al. Smith declared to-day in a speech expressing acceptance of the Democratic nomination. The sale of intoxicants by State agencies, along similar lines to those in force in Canada, he proposed as an alternative. He pledged himself to make an honest endeavour to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment and all the other provisions of the Federal constitution and all laws enacted pursuant thereto. He advocated the amendment of the Volstead Act to permit States to fix their own standard of alcoholic content, “subject always to the proviso that the standard does not exceed the maximum fixed by Congress.”

Ho declared that the party did not contemplate “sudden or drastic” chan ges in the tariff schedules and reiterated that it would give the problem of controlling crop surpluses immediate attention.

Ho assailed the administration on the Nicaraguan and Mexican policy and declared that the usefulness of arbitration treaties as deterrents of war had been materially impaired by the reservations asserted by various nations of the right to wage defensive wars, as those reservations were inter preted in the light of President Coolidge’s record. He pledged himself to the resumption of a real endeavour to make the outlawry of war effective by removing its causes and substituting methods of conciliation, conference, arbitration and judicial determination. —Australian Press Association-United Service.