The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1928. GAMBLING IN POLITICS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 501, 2 November 1928, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET. AUCKLAND FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1928. GAMBLING IN POLITICS

rIERE will be a great deal of gambling on the results of the parliamentary poll in New Zealand this month, hut the extent of it is likely to be moderate compared with the sum of bets on the issue next Tuesday of the American Presidential election. A New York message to-dav states that wagers in Wall Street already aggregate £BOO,OOO, while the total may reach £2,000,000. If the betting throughout the United States could be counted, the national gamble on “Al Smith” and “Herb. Hoover” probably would amount to ten times two millions. Dollars and dimes in abundance will change hands'in all the States of the Union. So far, the betting has favoured the election of Mr. Hoover by an overwhelming majority, but as the decisive day comes nearer the long odds against Mr. Smith tend to shorten quickly and to a significant degree. A change in public sentiment within the past week has varied the odds from nine to two to four to one—a margin in Mr. Hoover’s favour which just about indicates the result of the election. The contest between Mr. Herbert Hoover, Republican candidate, and Governor Al. Smith, Democrat, though in reality the Publican candidate, is being fought on personality rather than on political ground. Politically, there is practically no difference between them. It has been admitted generally that the programmes of the rival parties virtually are interchangeable. The principal aim of each party, exactly like the aims and purposes of all political parties in this country, is to get votes, and leave to time and fate the redemption of glorious promises in order to get Like this country, too, one of the political jokes in America is that Prohibition is not a party question and should not be made a party test in any circumstances. Yet the Presidential candidates have done almost everything that could be done to make Prohibition the main issue of the American election. Mr. Hoover is a bone-dry candidate, determined to go farther in the Federal figlit against liquor than any Republican leader has ever gone. He is uncompromisingly opposed to any modification of the Volstead Enforcement Act. Even for the American public Mr. Smith’s proposals are startling. He is in favour, not only of the separate States defining the percentage of alcoholic content allowed, but also of Government monopoly in the States—the Canadian system. In respect of personality, Mr. Smith is the sort of politician that pleases the crowd. He is bluff, hearty and aggressive, and is a shrewd in-fighter. Mr. Hoover is taciturn, cold, and much too logical for the mob. But he gets things done and has done great things both as an administrator and as a patriotic citizen. It has yet to be proved, however, whether the pavement popularity of Governor Smith in New York will be repeated on the prairies. People sometimes laugh heartily with a politician, but refrain to vote for him. Meanwhile, Governor Smith is careering over America in a special train consisting of eleven Pullman cars in which arc accommodated forty-three Press correspondents, a corps of photographers, wireless experts, tons of propaganda, megaphones, and all the hideous paraphernalia of an American election. It is expected that the national auction bids for his bowler hat will yet top a thousand dollars. Probably, when all the noise has passed away, “the strong, silent man in a blatant land” will take up residence in the White House.