The Labor enquirer., 1884-11-01
PARsONs DKN0UNCM,,
His Action Explained By the Chair
man of the Maryland State
Central Committee.

+ BALTIMORE. Oct. 21.-Samuel G. Apr
pleby, Chairman Of the State Central
Committee ofthe Peoples party, said
tonight that in May last convention
was called in Baltimore by O. N. Bryan,
General W. H. Parsons, Lee Crandall
of Washington city, and another man.
Parsons was made chairman, and it was
upon this responsibility that he went to
New York to arrange the business mat
tiers of the campaign, without the
Knowledge of the thousands of Butler
sympathlzers throughout Maryland.
ut was upon this responsibility that
he also pretended to try to get a fusion
with the republican state central COM
mittee here, but Mr.. Millikin, the chair
man of that body, declined to deal fur
ther with him. Parsons had picked
himself out for place on the electoral
ticket. He kindly allowed Mr.. Bryan
to sit next him, and then he cast about
for common workingman to take the
third place, making inquiries about
town as to the capabilities of myself and
two other gentlemen. the understanding
being that we were to have three cleo
tors and the Republicans eight. Here
is where the hitch came in This adj
venturer went to New York and tried to
get grease from the managers of the
campaign in New York. Here is where
he says he found Butler to be a fraud
and swIndler. But he kept the whole
thing to himself and did not notify
either Mr.. Swinton of Swinton's Paper,
or DIR. Hopkins of the Sentry, either of
whom would fearlessly expose such a
plot as Parsons claims to have discov-
cred, to say nothing of Geo. G. Jones
In the mean time we workingmen of
Baltimore went steadily to work and
formed our Central Butler club, got to-
gether an excellent Executive Com
2mittee, consisting of one member from
each ward in Baltimore, and, as soon
as we had got additions from the coun-
ties, we resolved ourselves into a state
central committee. am chairman ofthat
committee. We then negotiated with
the republicans, by whom we were
accepted as authoritative persons. While
these negotiations were pending we
came to the conclusion that Parsons
needed watching. We all concluded
that he was trying to delay us so that
our fusion idea would fall through.
Sat last Parsons returned: sent for
me, told me the tale about General
Butler, and said he was going to set hlm-
self right before the nation. Not think
| ing that the nation cared a continental
for this crank, we did not waste time on
him, but I notified Mr.. William A.
Fowler by letter that some startling
things would come out in Crandall's
National View on the Saturday follow
ing. They came. Itwas not until our
alleged Baltimore labor paper published
Parsons stuff that the other Baltimore
papers noticed the matter. At the Cen
tral club on Oct. 13 Parsons appeared
and commenced speech, in which he
rapidly approached Cleveland perora-
ton. .....r-. .......,,
"He was stopped, when endurance
ceased to be virture, and MIR. Mcnamara
our secretary, and myself gave him such
tongue lashing as he probably never
had before. l, taking the ground that
he was a Cleveland emissary, charged
him with being such, because he had
offered to pay the travelling expenses of
the State Greenback Chairman of Flo
rida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and
other states if they would come toWash-
ington to hear his great expose. Parsons
did not represent anybody but himself
in New York, and. anything done by
him in behalf of members of the Peo-
ple's party in this state would have
been entirely unauthorized. The mana
gers did rightly in firing him out, minus
the cash." II --e-
The following communication ex-
plains itself: General B. F, Butler:
The authorized managers of your cam
paign in Maryland have every conf
dence in you, and knowing of Parsons's
purpose before it became public, they
had declared their faith IN you. a.
g. .- SAMUEL G. APPLEBr,
Chairman State Central Committee
of Maryland.