The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1873-03-07
State Temperance Alliance.
FIRST DAY.


The most remarkable proceedings
thus far are the report Of the Committee
on Credentials, adverse to the admission
of the delegates from the State Woman
Suffrage Convention; the irregular and
disorderly scenes that transpired during
the tendency of the report and the final
exclusion Of such delegates. While il is
not particularly any-Of our business, we
must be permitted the liberty to say
that the Alliance has in this matter not
only committed a blunder in policy, but
has perpetrated n violation of the Com
stitutiOn of the Alliance. This instru-
ment provides that any person of known
temperance principles may be n men,
Der of the Alliance. The delegates from
the Woman Suffrage Convention came
duly accredited, in like manner as other
delegates; the organization is known
as decidedly temperance in its views;
the platform adopted by it the other
day at Portland, contains, as promi-
nent plank, strong Temperance reso-
luton. We can see no reason for OBJ
lection TO these delegates that would not
lie against the delegates from any other
organization. five object to the Wom-
an Suffragists on the ground that theirs
is political organization in character,
why not object to the delegates from the
churches as sectarian? To our mind ii
is clear that the exclusion of the Wom-
an Suffrage delegates was effected
through the operation of views too mar
row and illiberal to allow Of the possible
hope that those who hold them can ever
be leaders of the people. Aside from the
general proposition of exclusion, it
NET I1. 4 IL
question were treated rudely, and with
such personal indignities of remark as
were unworthy Of gentlemen engaged
IN great reformatOry movement, in
which all possible help is desirable, and
all sincere allies are entitled to respect
iul consideration. In every way, the
action of the Convention in this behalf
was unfortunate, as we view it, because
il was calculated 10 create divisions
among the friends who ought to be
united in their refoTmatory work, and
because it subjects the dominant wing
of the Alliance to the suspicion of being
actuated by some motive other than
the promotion of the temperance move
ment. We have already heard it said
that the rejection of the Woman Suffra-
gists was on account of the active sup
port which Mrs. Duniway and others
gave the Republican ticket last summer
and again last fall We do not believe
the Alliance can afford to carry the load
of such suspicious.
SECOND DAY.
The most prominent features Of the
Alliance proceedings yesterday were
the renewal of the Duniway-anti-Du
iway fight, resulting finally in the ad-
mission Of that lady as n delegate from
the state at large; and the secession of n
number Of dissatisfied delegates from
the Alliance. The struggle for the adj
mission of Mrs. Duniway was conducted
with persistent vigor by her friends, and
resisted with equally persistent stub
bOrnness by her adversaries. Ii was
however, from the first, that
she had a good majority of the COnven-
tiOn. She was admitted, at last, by a
decisive vote, though the opposition
was unaccountably large, considering
that she came simply as a temperance
advocate and not in any way as the rep
resentative of the Woman Suffragists.
The opposition under the circumstances
conclusively showed that the Politico-
Woman-Sufirage objection of the day
before was n subterfuge. The subse-
quent secession of about fifty members
was not explained by the seeding dele
gates, and is uneXplainable, except upon
the supposition that they chose to go
out because Mrs. Duniway was let in.
In other words, they fought, bled, were
defeated and ran. In this view of the
case, the secession was simply childish
and trivial. We admire their pluck
and gallantry i'm the fight they made,
but we cannot say so much for their
petulant retreat. The seceders met in
the evening and took preliminary steps
for an Independent State Organization.
The Alliance went on as though moth
ing had happened, and the hall was
densely filed in the eyening.-SdieHi
Statesman.