John Roach Straton, Manhattan Baptist minister, heard “a piece of good fun” last week. A preacheradmirer, living in New Jersey, “nominated” Dr. Straton to be President of the U. S. Said Dr. Straton: “If I were President, I’d try to get Henry Ford to serve in my Cabinet. He’s a good Christian. If I were President, I’d call out the Army and Navy, yes, sir! and I’d close the dance halls, the sinks of iniquity, and I’d enforce Prohibition and all the other laws. If I were President, my first official act would be to jail Nicholas Murray Butler. Murray is, of course, just one of those who are preaching sedition with their talk of repealing the 18th Amendment. If I were President, I’d build a brand new Federal penitentiary,* if necessary, to contain all those traitors, and I’d build one large wing just for the Columbia professors. It would have plenty of room for the faculty of Union Theological Seminary too. . . .”
*Federal prisons containing 8,516 inmates June, 1925 (latest census), were crowded. Penitentiaries are at Atlanta, Fort Leavenworth, Kan. and McNeil’s Island, Wash.; Naval prisons at Boston, Portsmouth, N. H. and Mare Island, Calif.
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