Indianapolis Times, Volume 40, Number 91, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 September 1928 — Page 4

PAGE 4

SCR IPP S - H O*V AJID

Truly Typical It so happens that Purdue University is owned by the State, operated by the State and its expense paid by the State. Its purpose is the education of the youth of the State. The use of a State educational institution for the personal or partisan advantage of any political party or particular candidate is an outrage upon our theory of both education and of government. It is truly typical of the state of mind of those who ■ nominated Harry Leslie for Governor that they see nothing at all objectionable in having this institution stage a “homecoming” for Leslie upon its campus and capitalize, by inference, the suggestion that he is the candidate of this State educational institution. Os course, the “home-coming”—and from whence does he return? —will be managed by the Leslie campaigners, probably by the separate organization which has been set up to pass the word among the brethren. But it is being managed as to advertise itself as a Purdue function. There will be a football game to attract crowds which have been missing thus far from Leslie gatherings. The flair will be given the color, as far as possible, of a great university enterprise. The event illustrates the difference in viewpoint of Leslie and Dailey. Leslie stands for those who believe in the private ownership of government and government institutions. Dailey would hardly be guilty of so flagrant a misuse of State property. Is Prohibition the Only Remedy? Whether you are a friend or a foe of prohibition, you are sure to be interested in the series of articles on the subject of liquor control beginning in The Times today. Sooner or later we are going to have to settle this great problem. Nobody is satisfied with the present state of affairs save the underworld, which is making vast fortunes out of it. That our prohibition does not prohibit long since has become as trite as it is true. The country is flooded with liquor. It can be had by the glass or by the barrel. Both drunkenness and crime rapidly are increasing in our country, as booze peddlers push their sales and underworld gangs battle with ali the implements of real war for supremacy in the alcohol market. High school boys and girls are being ruined by drinking because, under existing conditions, they can buy ilquor as easily as grown-ups. A school child’s money looks as good to a bootlegger as anybody’s. - The honesty of those charged with law enforcement—not only of the liquor laws, but all law—is being undermined, tempted as they constantly are by the big money held out to them by the now highly organized liquor rings. Graft and corruption are becoming increasingly common in every branch of our Government, city, county, State and Federal. Respect for all law is going by the boards as the American people grow accustomed to the wholesale flaunting, by public officials as well as by private citizens, of the most talked-of law of the land. The Constitution itself is involved. What are we going to do about it? Admittedly, drunkenness is a great evil. But are we curing it? Is prohibition the only remedy? Are we certain that it is a remedy at all? Dr. Ivan Bratt, famous Swedish physician, social reformer and temperance advocate, says no. He does not believe prohibition is a remedy. He says you can’t change human nature by law. And temperance is essentially a human, not a legal, problem. Commencing with this idea, Dr. Bratt first worked out a liquor control system for Stockholm, then for all Sweden. It went into effect just about the time ours did. It seems to be working admirably. Liquor consumption has been cut to approximately half, drunkenness to better than half, and crime about 60 per cent, while with us things have gone steadily from bad to worse. Particularly has the situation among the young people of Sweden improved. Our foreign affairs editor just has completed a study, on the spot, of the Swedish system for the benefit of our readers. He watched the system at work. He tested its rules by deliberately trying to break them. He interviewed Dr. Bratt, police chief of Stockholm, and others. Then, to complete the picture, and to obtain an interesting comparison, he went to Finland, Sweden’s prohibition neighbor, to see how things are working out there. These stories about booze will interest you. They are important, moreover, because they have a direct bearing upon our own problems here at home. For, blink it though we may, this liquor control business has become the biggest and most far-reaching domestic problem confronting the race. And it will remain so, and increase in importance, until it is settled in conformity with American public opinion as a whole. You will find the first article on Page 2. Begin reading the series today. Bootleg and Bribery Significant indeed is the relationship between crime and officialdom as disclosed in the revelations of bootleg and bribery in Philadelphia. Illicit profits from America's major source of crime, bootlegging, will stagger the mind dazzled by dollars and cents, but the real menace of the conditions fostered by the prohibition enactment lies in the vicious alliance between the underworld and those who represent the law. Bribery and corruption spell the old and familiar word “graft” and graft is a threat to government, free or otherwise. Any law, no matter how fine its intention or meaning, that encourages bribery and corruption and

The Indianapolis Times (A SCHIPI*B-HOWARD NEWSPAPER) Owned and published daily (except Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos., 214-220 W. Maryland Street. Indianapolis, Ind. Price in Marion County 2 cents—lo cents a week: elsewhere, 3 cents—l 2 cents a week. BOYD GURLEY, ROY W. HOWARD, FRANK G. MORRISON, Editor. President. Business Manager. PHONE— RII.EY 5551. WEDNESDAY. SEPT. 5, 1928. Member of United Press, Scripps Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

breeds graft, is a source of weakness to the State and danger to all free institutions. The dyed-in-the-wool prohibitionist does not hesitate to declare prohibition a moral question; but he is apt to be blind to its effect upon morality in the mass and upon official integrity. He still regards it only in its relation to the individual and refuses to recognize it as a wellspring of immorality in office, the most baleful type of crime possible in an organized state of society. Bootleg and bribery are pernicious partners. They are the Siamese twins of prohibition. The law which mothers them should be analyzed with an open mind. The safety of the State and the safety Df the soul should not be confused; one is a public matter, the other private and personal. The highest ideal of civilized government is integrity in office. The law that undermines it writes a warning sign across the horizon of national destiny. Need for Reapportionment Fear has been expressed that the present unfair system of congressional 'apportionment may lead to trouble in event of a close election this fall. Whether this is true, reapportionment is one of the first problems anew administration should tackle, whether Smith or Hoover is elected. The Constitution puts on Congress the duty of reapportioning after each census, so that each State shall be represented fairly in the House. Congress for various reasons has not performed this duty since the 1920 census, and the result is that the House’s 435 members still are divided upon the basis of the 1910 '■ census. t Some States have more than their fair share of votes in the House and some have less. Each State is assigned votes in the electoral college equal to the total number of Senators and Representatives to which it is “entitled,” so some States are more or less powerful than they should be in the electoral college. California, for instance, will have thirteen votes to represent her esitmated present population of approximately 4,500,000, so each elector will represent approximately 350,000 of her people. The proportion in Michigan will be approximately one elector to 300,000 people. Indiana, on the other hand, with fifteen electors to 3,150,000 people, will be represented by one elector to 210,000 persons. Massachusetts, with an estimated population considerably less than either California or Michigan, will have eighteen electors to their thirteen and fifteen, respectively. Os course the constitutional provisions for the electoral college in themselves give certain States great weight in proportion to size. For instance, Nevada with her two Senators and one Representative, will have three electoral votes for her 77,500 people. The unfairness -s now so great, in the matter of electing a President at least, that we are approaching the "rotten borough” system of England, abolished in the last century, by which villages of 500 had as much power in Parliament as great industrial cities. There is no clearer duty before Congress than to correct this situation. The new dollar bills are going to be a third smaller than the ones we’ve been using. And they will undoubtedly be just as hard to stretch, too. A woman artist announces she will paint no more undraped figures. If all the artists were to do that, where would the ladies go for fashions? Tunney stepped out of the ring, thereby turning down all engagements except the one which let his bride-to-be step into ring. Vacation fish stories having been heard, the day is almost here for some tall corn talk.

David Dietz on Science

Gesner, Mental Giant

No. 147

CONRAD VON GESNER was one of the Intellectual giants of his day. Modem zoology, the branch of biology which deals with the animal kingdom, is said to date from his work. Von Gesner was born on March 26, 1516, In Zurich. He was the son of a poor furrier. His father was killed in 1531 at the battle of Kappel leaving the boy without any funds to continue his education. But he had good friends in some of his teachers and they made it possible for him to go on

turned to the study of science, finally studying medicine. In 1541 he took his degree of doctor of medicine at Basel. Again he returned to Zurich, where he practiced medicine until his death from the plague in 1565. Von Gesner lived in a day when the body of knowledge was not as great as it is today, making it possible for a man to distinguish himself in many fields. Asa result, we find that he is best known for his work in botany, although the medical profession owes much to him, and modern zoology dates from his fourvolume work, “Historia Animalium.” His most pretentious work and one which gives a good measure of the man was his “Bibliotheca Universalis.” In this, he undertook to list every known writer in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He was working on the twentieth volume of the work when he died. Another of his books dealt with languages and discussed 130 different tongues. It included the Lord’s Prayer in twenty-two different languages. A contemporary wrote of Gesner, “He was faults less in private life, assiduous in study, diligent in maintaining correspondence and good will with learned men in all countries, hospitable—though his means were smU —to every scholar that came into Zurich. “Prompt to serve all, ne was an editor of other men’s volumes, a writer of prefaces for friends, a suggestor to young writers of books on which they might engage themselves, and a great helper to them in the progress of their work. 3ut still, while finding time for services to other men, he could produce as much out of his own study as though he had no part in the life beyond its walls.”

T'HE Department of Commerce reports 588 deaths uue to auto accidents in seventy-seven large cities for the four weeks ended August H This is significant because it represents an increase of 14 per cent over the same period last year. In spite of all the tiafflc cops and regulations, of crosses by the roadside and painted on the pavements, of all the insurance and litigation, we cannot seem to make any headway in reducing auto fatalities. They now are running to the tune of about 2,000 a month or 24,000 a year. They amount to as much as the deaths from murder and suicide combined. They represent a human sacrifice which equals more than we made in the war every three years. Considering the to-do we make over some other things, our indifference to the toll taken by automobiles is amazing. We accept it as though it were a necessary evil, calmly calculating how many will be crippled and killed next year and fixing insurance rates accordingly. The fact that there are many drivers who have operated autoj mobiles for years without hurting I any one plays little part in the i picture. The law of averages is taken as inexorble. No one suggests the possibility of distinguishing between carelessness and efficiency. The set-up has been so arranged that insurance companies shoulder the load. So much cash for the victim, so much bother for the driver, so much of an increase in rates to cover the loss and that’s that. a it a Careless and Lawless According to Dr. Stephen I. Miller, commercial crime now is costing this country nearly $1,000,000,000 a year. Something like one-half of it is traceable to fraudulent bankruptcies. We not only are a careless, but a lawless people. The facility with which we can mulct each other and get away with it has developed an appalling disrespect for authority. The fact that the Eighteenth Amendment, or the Volstead Act may interfere with personal liberty represents no logical basis for the organized violence which has developed in connection with crime. It has come to a point now where thugs and their protectors think little of “bumping off” witnesses and thus making it impossible for justice to function. tt tt •# Terror of Telling Three gangsters wound a policeman in Chicago. Then they undertake to kill a witness who saw them, but get the wrong man. The coroner’s jury requests police protection for the witness on the theory that he almost is sure to be subjected to another attack. People who have the misfortune to know something about the skulduggery that is going on are no longer safe. Fear of death by violence is actually closing their mouths. They are far more afraid of the gunman’s bullets than they are of the anti-perjury law. Repression of evidence through organized and deliberate ruthlessness has become a part of the criminal code. tt tt tt Knew Too Much Last Sunday the body of William D’Olier was found at a lonely spot in Maspeth, Queens County, N. Y. His right arm lay across his stomach, with the fourth finger of his hand on the trigger of a revolver. There was a gaping wound in the temple and powder marks on the hair. It looked like suicide, and that was the conclusion first drawn. A more thorough examination, however, suggested that it might have been murder. The fourth finger is seldom used to pull the trigger of a revolver. An arm seldom falls across the stomach when a person is killed standing. A suicide usually presses the weapon against his flesh. William D’Olier is said to have been an important witness in the Queens County sewer graft investigation. tt tt tt Cost of Prohibition We are dee ling with anew brand of criminals. The thief no longer is content to steal and take the risk, or the murderer to kill, but aspires to protect himself. The situation has developed into a conflict. The forces of evil are not organized, but are taking the offensive. They no longer wait to be arrested. They strike before the law moves. The dangerous witness is put out of the way, the politician is bribed, the police force is immobilized with graft and the administration of justice is made powerless. This is not the first time such a condition has prevailed. Every so often, the criminal element, accepting some unpopular regulation as its excuse and functioning by virtue of public indifference, finds itself in a position to defy authority. Piracy in the time of William 111 and Queen Anne, smuggling just prior to the American Revolution and for many years after this Government was established, the slave trade between 1808 and 1855 created just such a situation as we now face. In each instance, an unpopular regulation gave the '■criminal element a chance to capitalize widespread discontent and to develop a power which made it formidable. w hen a considerable minority believes some particular law is wrong when public officials wink at the violation of that law and when its non-enforcement is taken as a matter of course in large and populous sections, then the stage is set for organized lawlessness.

with his work. He studied at Strassburg and Bourges. On his return to Zurich he married, making an imprudent marriage, if the historians are to be believed. In 1537 he became professor of Greek at the University of Lausanne. However, his interest in natural history asserted itself and he re-

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. TRACY SAYS: “We Are Dealing With a New Brand of Criminal. The Thief No Longer Is Content to Steal, or the Murderer to Kill, but Aspires to Protect Himself. . . . The Forces of Evil Are Taking the Offensive’'

A Pair of Twins We’d Like to See Separated

Reason

THE political soothsayers who advise Mr. Hoover to change his program and make a lo*' of speeches are saying the right kind of sooth. Mr. Hoover is a great engineer, but the situation calls for a fireman—somebody to shovel coal into the firebox, get up steam, and start the campaign train! a tt tt We should not oe despondent over the scientific prophecy that the noises of the world will drive us deaf. , Thomas A. Edison * said he owed his sucess to deafness which has shielded him from the nonsense of the world, and he owed this to the train conductor who took him by the ears when he was a newsboy and threw him off because his electrical experiments sets the baggage car on fire.

BRIDGE ME ANOTHER (Copyright. 1928. by The Ready Reference Publishing Company) BY W. W. WENTWORTH

(Abbreviations: A—ace: K— king: Q Queen: 3 —jack: X—any card lower than 10.) HOW to make the most from the dummy hand is the subject of the following illustrations. Notice how often a chance for a finesse occurs and how, by planning on the next two or three plays, you often can acquire an extra trick. Assume in each case that west leads any small card less than a 10. Holding each of the following hands, you, the declarer, should play from the dummy as explained after each illustration: Dummy holds clubs K 5; declarer holds clubs J 4 3. Play low and you will be sure to win a trick in the club suit. Distribute the remaining clubs in any manner you choose and if you follow this procedure you are sure to win a trick no matter where the Ace and Queen of clubs ate located. Dummy holds clubs J 7; declarer holds A K 4. Play the Jack of spades. This is the only possible way to make three tricks. If east holds the Queen of spades and covers with it on the first round you can only win two tricks. If west holds the Queen of spades, you are sure of winning three tricks. Dummy holds hearts K 8; declarer holds hearts Q 4 3. At no trump play the King of hearts and in a suit declaration play the 8. In a suit declaration, east will probably play the Ace of hearts on the first round if he holds it and you will then be sure to make the King and Queen of hearts good. Dummy holds diamonds K Q 6; declarer holds diamonds 8 4 3. Play the King of diamonds. It gives you the best opportunity to make two tricks. If west holds the Ace, you will be sure to make both the King and Queen of diamonds good. Dummy holds clubs J 5; declarer holds clubs K 10 6. Play the 5 of clubs. East will probably cover with the Queen or Ace of clubs and you will be sure to make two tricks. Dummy holds spades & 8 6; declarer holds spades A 10 4. Play the 6 of spades. East will probably cover with the King or Jack of spades. Two or three tricks may be made by you.

How Man’s Brain Differs From Ape’s

BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of tbe American Medical Association and of Hyeela. the Health Magazine. THE weight of the average man’s brain is from 1,304 to 1,502 grams, or about three pounds. A woman’s brain averages from 1,134 to 1,332 grams, which is a little less. For a while it was thought that brain weight was a definite indication of mental capacity, but the evidence in this direction is not sufficient to establish the point. Brains vary in weight according to

wfes ■■■

m m By Frederick LANDIS

THE council of the League of Nations refuses to define the Monroe Doctrine, as requested by Costa Rica, but if some foreign power should come to swallow Costa Rica, the chances are that she would nderstand the Doctrine well enough to hotfoot it to Uncle Sam for protection. u tt Secretary Kellogg has succeeded in getting forty nations to sign his agreement to quit fighting, but up to this time we have not heard of Tex Rickard’s starting a movement among the prize fighters to sign a similar covenant. u tt tt It is the most bitter irony in the annals of exploration that Amundsen should have heaped coals of fire upon the head of his enemy, Nobile, by trying to save him. then frozen to death in the attempt. tt tt tt Those hay fever victims up In Michigan who formed a national association probably will come out strongly for an absent voters law.

Times Readers Voice Views

The name and address of the author must accompany every constributlon. but on request will not be published. Letters not exceeding 200 words will receive preference. Editor Times: A few days ago I saw in The Times where someone said that all city councilmen are in favor of daylight saving and that we likely would have it next year. Can it be possible that the white man has turned black? Can it be possible that the masses of people in this city are going to put up with this thing? A great deal has been said about the crooked politicians in the past, but there never was- anything that any of them did, from the $2,500 horse jockey down to the lowest political cuss ever in the city hall, that has affected so directly the people’s lives, and heaped hardship upon the poor as this daylight deal. People are smarting under the yoke, but, sad to say, submissive. We often boast of being rid of the whipping post and the ’ash, but we have one far more severe, the lash of necessity. The councilmen pretended to want to know hew the workingman stood on this question, and they were given an abundant chance to know. Take, for example, the factory of Holcomb & Hoke, where 500 workingmen voted against daylight saving and only about thirty-five voted in favor of it. Dbes it look very much like they wanted to know what the workingman thought about it? I saw petitions containing thousands of names presented to the council that night, but they did not look at a single one. Did they really want to know? It would have been just as well for the janitor to have taken all those papers to the basement, and DAILY HEALTH SERVICE

the time of life, the greatest weights being from 30 to 50 years of age. The average weight of the brains in 100 distinguished men was 1,469.65 grams, which is about 100 grams above the average weight of European brains. Chinese brains are a little less in weight than those of the natives of Africa and Australia and the Hindu. As every one knows, the brain is full of complex convolutions, wrinkles and fissures. The human brain is much more intricate in its

A FIREMAN IS NEEDED j t tt tt CORKER AND UNCORKER tt tt tt IT DIMS lIIS HALO

THE League of Nations is romancing if it believes America will cross the sea to punish any nation which violates the Kellogg treaty. The World War vaccinated Uncle Sam against eastern hemisphere trouble hunting, and that vaccination “took!” tt tt a One thing which makes war seem less alluring business to European politicians is the reduced birth rate in Great Britain, France, Germany and other countries. When the victims of Mars set out to starve him by giving rain checks to posterity, the Imperial Bugle Blowers lose heart. tt a tt All of the people agree that as Governor of the State of New York Mr. Smith is a corker, but a great many of them fear that as President of the United States he. would be an uncorker. ' - tt u tt The refusal of President Calles of Mexico to hold office beyond the expiration of his term, Nov. 30, may not be entirely patriotic. The provisions of his life insurance policy may forbid it. tt u tt If Mussolini really employed a beautiful lady as a decoy to entice an old enemy across the Italian border so he could arrest him, that dims the Duce’s halo until he will have to carry a lantern to enable his idolators to discern him.

threw them, all into the furnace for all the good they did. Then comes one rottenwiser, praising the city council for its courage in passing the bill over the mayor's veto. But was it courage to do what 90 per cent of the people did not want done? I have another name for it—just downright meanness. Mr. Editor, you believe in majority rule, or do you not? I know you do. Then, for the sake of suffering mothers, do what you can to bring about a referendum vote on this daylight saving question. W. B. SCHREIBER. 622 Lexington Aye. Editor Times—Returning home about a week ago from a trip in the East I stopped for the night at a free tourist camp at Findlay, Ohio. I met a tourist from Kansas City who had been through Indianapolis. “You certainly have a fine city, but the tourist camps are bum,” he said. “My town has one of the best free tourist camps in the country.” My next stop was at a good free tourist camp at Muncie. I heard several persons say bad things about our pay tourist camp at Riverside. The writer can not understand why a city like Indianapolis hasn’t a good free tourist camp, where visitors would be welcome without being soaked two bits. CITIZEN.

Daily Thoughts

Thou art weighed in the balance, and art found wanting.— Daniel 5:27. a tt a nnHE weakest goes to the wall.— A Shakespeare.

arrangement than is that of the ape or of the lower animals. This complexity is. therefore, definitely associated with intelligence. The expansion and development of certain portions of the brain is associated with increased ability in certain activities. Enlargement of the temporal lobe, that portion of the brain on the sides and toward the front, extends the sphere of ability to hear, and the associated activities of skilled performance depending on hearing.

SEPT. 5, 1928

KEEPING UP With THE NEWS

BY LUDWELL DENNY ; YYTASHINGTON, Sept. s.—Prod- ’ * ded by attacks on the Kellogg anti-war pact as a snare of dangerous foreign commitments, 1 the administration is moving to head off a Senate fight against ratification such as kept us out of the League of Nations. In addition to Secretary Kellogg, now on his way back from former Secretary of State Hughes and Senator Borah, powerful chief of the Foreign Relations Committee, have been recruited to take the offensive in an appeal to the country. This treaty offensive will be carried on as part of the Republican election campaign. Just as the Washington Naval Limitation treaty was used in the last national election as campaign proof of alleged superior Republican diplomatic skill and leadership toward world peace, the Kellogg pact will be used by party stump speakers and broadcasters during the next two months. Such tactics are considered of major importance from a party point of view for the following reasons: 1. The Democrats have indicated by their Houston platform and the Smith acceptance speech that they consider the administration’s record in foreign affairs one of its most vulnerable points of attack. Democrats are emphasizing the alleged discrepancy between Republican professions of peaceful foreign policy and the administration’s socalled attempt to drag us into an oil war with Mexico, its lack of full cooperation with the Chinese Nationalist government, and its present “imperialistic war” against the Nicaraguan revolutionists. In rebuttal the Republicans will point out that Ambassador Morrow has initiated the most friendly relations with Mexico that have existed in two decades, and that this Government was the first to "recognize” the new Chinese regime. They will answer that the Wilson administration set the pace for Marine intervention in Mexico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. tt a a OUT, realizing that the best defense is attack and that denials never catch up with charges, the administration campaign strategy is to say as little as possible about all other phases of foreign policy and as much as possible about “the epoch-making achievement of Secretary Kellogg and the (it is hoped) nations of the world to renounce war as an instrument of national policy.” 2. The Kellogg treaty Is be lieved by G. O. P. tacticians to be the best bet possible with which to catch women voters, who are going to play such a large part, at least i numerically, in this election. They* say Hoover already has the edge on the woman vote, thanks to his humanitarian war work and to the fact that he is not a “professional’’ politician. If. added to that attraction, the Republicans with the anti-war pact can capitalize for campaign purposes what generally Is accepted as the predominant “peace interest” of women voters, they figure to carry several States now dangerously flirting with A1 Smith. 3. Because the Democratic plat - form declares for the principle of the Kellogg treaty, the Republicans are confident they can prevent this from becoming a party issue. Indeed. the most outspoken opposition so far has come from old-line Republican newspapers and independent experts, headed by Edwin M. Borchard, professor of International Law at Yale University. The fact that Republicans deliberately plan to use the anti-war treaty for partisan political purposes does not mean that it was conceived for that purpose or that it is principally valued by Its authors in that light. tt tt tt j 'p' VEN the most cynical opponents of the treaty who havp talked with Secretary Kellogg do not doubt his tremendous—what some have called fanatical—sincerity and fait hin his pact. Senator Borah preached the idea for two years before the State department took it up. On returning to Washington yesterday he announced he would defend the treaty in his campaign speeches and that he was certain of its ratification by the Senate. “This treaty will be as effective for peace as any treaty for war has been in the past,” according to the Senator. “An army cannot be used for war without the force of public opinion, and this agreement of the nations will make it harder for ministries to sway public opinion for war.” Here is the heart of the opposition, as stated by Borchard: “The original proposition of Mr. Kellogg was an unconditional renunciation of war. The treaty now qualified by the French and British reservations constitutes no renunciation or outlawry of war, but in fact and in law a solemn sanction for all wars mentioned in the exceptions and qualifications. 1 "When we look at the exceptions we observe that they include war cf self-defense, each party being free to make its own interpretation as to when self-defense Is involved, wars under the League covenant, unoer the Locarno treaties, and under the French treaties of alliance ”

This Date in U. S. History

Sept. 5 1609—Henry Hudson landed on New Jersey shore. 1774 — First Continental Congress and second Colonial Congress met in Carpenter’s Hall, Philadelphia. 1894—Minnesota forest fires destroyed sixteen towns.