The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1891-10-30
A LETTER TO JOHN.
Searching Document From
Mr.. w. s. McAIIiSter.
He Effectively DispOses of McDOwelI's
Charges of Bad Faith.
He Shows How Mcdowell Exposed the
Reform Press Association as
Third Party Scheme.
To the Editor of The American:


Third Party Scheme.
To the Editor of The American:
am in receipt of letters from ia it'll
worthy gentlemen in different pOr-
tions OF Tennessee informing me that
Mr.. J. H. Mcdowell in his "stale,
flat and Improbable" sub-treasury
fools Grand over the STATE, usu-
ally inIects into his mau1lin haran-
CUES, bitter personal attacks upon
me, alleging that 1 betrayed his con-
iidence in publishing n certain noted
letter Of his-that | am "a paid hire
ling in the employ OF the partisan
press to disrupt the Alliance" and
that ! was Expelled from the Mis-
sissippi Alliance for conduct unbe-
coming gentleman" The Tennes-
SEE method for administering to all
such asiniue exhibitions of reckless
Ineud4city and malevOlent petulency
II very simple, though at times,
effective one; but in this case l Will
not answer the fool according TO his
folly" but shall state some facts of
history, which Mr.. Mcdowell, with
all his faculties for cTIDging and eva
sion, will not have the IN oral turpI-
tude TO gainsay or deny. L first met
Mr.. Mcdowell at Ocala, Fla, last
December, and was very favOrably
impressed with him. He aided Hall,
Wade and myself, in getting through
the Force bill protest, and in defeat
ing the Republican attempt to re-
scind it. He opposed there, the for
nation of a third or peoples party
out of the Alliance, and, with the eX-
ception OF the Macune white-wash,
showed up well. We were frequent
ly thrown tOgether-quite an lntl-
to
and fearlessly about Alliance mat
ters. He was Chairman of the COM
mittee that investigated G. w. Ma
cune's sell out in the Georgia senate
rial contest, and at first signed the
minority report with Hall, McGrath
and others, but latterly, to use his
own language, "in the interest or mar
mony and to prevent too much frlc-
ton In the convention, withdrew his
name from the minority report and
signed one that was clearly white
wash" After Mr.. Hall entered his
celebrated protest against the adop-
ton of the committees report, L
sought Mr.. Mcdowell and asked him
what it meant. He replied with en-
phasi-: "Hall was right. Macune
is a Vile, corrupt, sc0undrel, who
ought to be expelled from our ORDER,
but to prevent a generel burst up L
-tultified my conscience by helping
10 whitewash him." His whole de-
meanor showed that he felt intensely
what he said A week later, on "A
steamboat excursion Gown the In
dian River, Mr.. Mcdowell, Mr.. Hail
and | discussed at length the Ma
cune whitewash and its future bane-
Iul influence upon tie morals OF the
order. We finally agreed that to SUB
NIT to it was cOndOniug Macune's IN
fanny, thus making us false to the
principles we had sOlemnly sworn 10
suEuort, to society at large and flually
to ourselves as honorable self-respect-
ing men. We then mutually agreed
TO expose Macune in the early future
and arraign him before public sentI-
ment, Mr.. Mcdowell promising 10
get a copy of the testimony from ID
c.. Demming, of Pennsylvania, so as
| TO be thoroughly armed when the
| fight opened.
I will now leave the Macune white
wash for the present, to Introduce a
part of the res geste OF my c0ntro-
versy with Mr.. Mcdowell, an incl
dent that occurred on the steamboat
| excursion:
TIE editors of all newspapers pub
| Iisbed in the interest of the Alliance
knights of Labor aud kindred Organl-
z4tiOus held u caucus at Ocala-whici
vas facetiOusly styled by some OF Its
| members The Second Synod oil
| ID Drt'' and "MOrniug Star to the Com
| mo Northumberland decided thai
| III the great Journals of the country
| we're bought up by the money pow
| r.. and hence the term partisan SUP
sidized press" as applied to the out
| side newspaper. The caucus ais'
decided that it was best not to give
publicity to its proceeding, but u
seek some secluded retreat to organ
| ize. so accordingly it adjourned on
to an old shed, six miles III the inter-
or. and formed the sO-called "RefOrn
! Press Association" with q "
| Macune as President. Under its mrs
| constitution Alliancemen connected
| with the outside press were eligible u
membership; but, as the result shows
this was not to stand long. a weel
| later Mr.. Mcdowell came to me yer!
much exercised, and stated ina
Macune had suddenly issued cal
for an extra session OF the Reform
| Press Association, and urged me t.
be present. He and [ went togethe
and to our surprise Macuneistated TIT
object to be to alter some objection
able features in the Constitution
| The changes made rendered Alliance
men connected with the "Outsid'
press" ineligible to membership an(
bound all members to support, with
out qualification, the combined de
mands of the Alliance, Knights o
Labor and all kindred organizations
The change in the eligibility claus
was specially directed against me, a
old Powers, of Indiana, expressed 1t
that fellow, McAlister, showed a
Ocala that he is a Bourbon Democrat
and 1--WE don't want any sucl
chickens in our pie" Mr.. McDowel
protested vigorously against tn
arbitrary action, but to no avail, t
use his own language: TIN thlr'
party plotters got in their work" ii
was so indignant as to denounce tn
Reform Press Association as "thlr'
party conspiracy" and said tn
country ought to lie notified OF 1t
real designs. To this end he wrOt
the following and requested me t
have it distributed broadcast through
the Associated Press service, which
| neglected doing:
A National Reform P. ess Associa
ton was formed composed of editor
of official organs of the Farmers Al
lance, Farmers Mutual Benefit As
sociation aud editors of third part.
papers from the states of Indiana
i illinois, Kansas, Dakota and Mich
gan The third party men were il
the majority and adopted constitu
! tic n recurring members Of the asSo
citation to support the demands no
ONLY of the National Farmers ALI
ance but such demands as may b
agreed upon by u council composed o
members of the Farmers Mutua
Benefit Association and Knights O
Labor. J. H. Mcdowell, editor of tn
Toiler and President of the Tennessee
Alliance, strongly opposed thi
clause, stating that he did not under
staud the as ISOLATION to be politica
party and could not legitimately re
quires the members to bind them
selves politically, but the third o
peoples party men got in their wOrl
and the clause was adopted. W. :
Morgan, of Arkansas, who is Secre
tary of the Association and a nOtet
third party lie lder, made a motion
that the Association adjourn to NEE
at Cincinnati on Feb. %, the day Sc
to organize the Peoples party. Thi
motion was defeated by the opposi
ton of Mcdowell, of Tennessee, wnt
reiterated that the Association wa
not in the interest of any party an,
had no business at Cincinnati the da,
this Peoples party was TO be organ
lied. The leading spirits in this Re
form Press Association are Morgan
of Arkansas; Powers, of Indiana, ant
Vincent Bros. of Kansas, all stronI
third or Peoples party politician
and ara anhaoUnrinu IN anfran fhi