Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-01-27
TEMPERANCE RIVALS.
Mrs. Campbell Repeats the Partisan
Charge Against the W. C. 7. U.
THE PLANS OF THE NEW ALLIANCE.
Work of Organizing Counties Has Already
Been Started.
A BITTER WARFARE FOB SUPREMACY

You haven't gotten at the inside of more
than half of this W. c. T. o. fight" said a
gentleman whose wife is an officer in the or
ganizatio3. to DISPATCH reporter yester-
day. "There is more back of this thing
than anyone knows except those closely
identified with the work. mean by that
the officers of the organizations. Now that
the seceders have succeeded in organizing,
there will be continual fight between the
two unions for supremacy. The two
national officers, Miss Willard and Mrs.
Phinney, will be made veritable targets
for the opposing factions to aim unkind and
perhaps, sometimes, false accusations at.
This will result in continual strife"
The force of this argument is beginning to
be apparent already. Several circulars
have been issued by both sides. Those
coming from the non-partlsan faction have
consisted chiefly Of statements as to why
they left the ranks of the parent organiza-
tion. The others endeavor to show why
this "quibble of n6n-partisanship" should
not lead the members into 'the error of
secession All of these circulars are
clothed in strong terms, and both causes are
severely rubbed. The last one is an appeal
from Mrs. Mary II. Jones, President of the
Pennsylvania W. c. T. o., asking the men,
bers of her organization to stand by the old
standard.
MRS. CAMPBELL TALKS.
Mrs. b. c. Campbell, the State President
of the new Alliance, while probably the last
woman in the cause who would invite con-
troversy with those who differ with her,
consented reluctantly to answer some of the
statements made in Mrs. Jones' circular,
winch asked to do so by a DISPATCH re-
porter. In reply to the statement that the
policy of the w. G. 7. q. was misrepresented
bv being called partisan, Mrs. Campbell
said that not only the women who have
joined the new Unions are saying that the
old organization is partisan, but the most
prominent people of the nation who take
any interest in the matter, say so. She
quoted part of Judge A. W. Tourgee's letter
sent to the Cleveland convention, which
read:
''There is hardly anything in cotempo-
rary politics that has seemed to me more
horrible than the assumption of the dele
gates to the National W. G. T.U. Convention,
to pledge their membership, not only to the
dogma of female suffrage. but to that in fam
Gus and degrading plank of the prohibition
platform which pronounced in favor of ex-
cluding the colored man from suffrage, be-
cause of the enforced illiteracy which white
American Christians had by law imposed
upon the race for two and half centuries.
1 trust your organization will rem
der impossible the assumption by any dele
gate body of q right to commit the subordi-
nate bodies and individuals to the support |
of any party, or of new methods and dogmas |
without the voice of the subordinate bodies |
first had and obtained"
SHE QUOTES MISS WILLARD.
Mrs. Jones says the constitution of the W. |
c. T. U. has no reference to party, and there |
fore is not partisan, nor can it be SO except |
by amendment. Mrs. Campbell takes the |
view that it has already made itself partisan |
by resolution, and quotes Miss Willard to |
support her position. At the national con-
vention in New York in 1888, Miss Willard |
said: "To-dsy our National w. CT q. while |
the liberty of each State to be |
partisan, or not, as it elects, is practically |
partisan, with exceptions so small that they |
but prove the beauty of the rule. At WASH
ington in 1881 1 first urged the advantage to
our common cause of an alliance between
the w. c. 7. q. and the Prohibition party,
which had but then polled 10, 900 votes as
Its maximum after a struggle of ten years
|
in these years, until, as Chief Justice Waite
said of prohibition, SO we can say of our
oneness in purpose with the Prohibition
party, that is no longer an open question in
his court"
Mrs. Campbell continued: "Nfrs. Jones
;alks about consistency. Let us see how
consistent she is herself. She starts out by
,sying that the W. C. 7. q. is misrepre-
'ented' when we say that it pledges its sup
Jort to political party, and on the heels of
hat she says, What harm is it to pledge
heir infuence?' The harm is in pledging
he personal influence of an individual to
hat which they do not consider right,
without the consent of the individual It
s the same principle for which ohm Knox
md Martin Luther contended, and for
which our forefathers came over in the
right to exercise ones per-
onal and individual conviction. The al
most absolute denunciation of two
POLITICAL PARTIES
nd an Endorsement of a third, fully dem
nstrates that the Union is partisan. Why,
Hiss Willard said on one occasion that she
oped she would live to see the day when
the Democratic party would bite the dust
nd she condemned the Republican party at
very opportunity. 1 do not mean to be an
agonistIc to the old party"
"What will be the next move in the new
rganization ?" was asked. :
"We are ready to work now, and we will ..
at once to organize auxiliaries
IL over the country. Mrs. Foster has been
to prepare leafet, for general 6
istribution, setting forth our reasons for Z
eaving the W. c. 7. o., in just as chari- 9
able way as possible. We had no quarrel =
18th the Old order as many may
uppose; we only want to form
temperance organization, which will not :
Ike multitude of issues in the same
reath and fail in all of them. Our Ma {
onal Executive Committee has already
let and formulated some of the plans for 9
rganization. As soon as two counties be- :
ome organized in State, that State can !
'rm union, and each State union will be-
ome auxiliary to the national. / suppose
e have 5000 to 20, 900 women in the coun- I
y who are ready to join with us Mt the
art. By the time our National Union .
eets in November count on having at
'ast II States organized with total mem Y
ership of perhaps 10000.
"It is likely that about half dozen nom a
artisan unions will be organized in this
,unty within the next week or two. Sev-
al OF the old unions have been ready to
lopt the new policy for some time and were Z
lily waiting until the State and national
eetings were over"