Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-17
A RELIGIOUS ASPECT
Given to the Political Revolution
Which Surprised Kansas.
THE NEW LEADERS NOT ORTHODOX
In Fact, Number of Them Wage Open War
Upon the Churches.
JERRY SIMPSONS CAMPAIGN METHODS
ESPECIAL TELEeRAM TO THE DIsPArcH.i

ESPECIAL rELEeRAM TO THE DIsPArcH.I
Topeka, KAN, Jan. 16.-There are GER
tain characteristics among the leaders OF
the peoples party movement in this State
which makes their success in the recent
campaign all the more surprising. Ii the
party continues to prosper, the sentiment OF
the State must undergo complete change.
The rank and file are years behind the lead
ers in every principle of the movement.
Kansas has heretofore been State OF IN
tense religious feeling. The churches have
been prominently identified with politics
and the pastors have thought it incumbent
upon themselves to deliver political SER
mons.
The Methodist Church has formed the
great strength of the Republican party, for
its membership has been largely composed
of Grand Army men. The German Cath
Ollie Church has been and is Democratic.
This was due to the stand taken by the two
old parties on the prohibition question. All
of the Protestant churches, more especially
in the cities, were forced to espouse the
cause of the Republicans ON account of their
advanced temperance ideas, and the Demo-
cratic fight was necessarily against them.
The New Leaders Very Liberal.
The men and women who sprung into
prominence and managed the campaign for
the Peoples party are, for the most part,
free thinkers and atheists. Some of them
belong to the Unitarian Church, and have
such liberal ideas on orthodox questions that
they have been led into a denunciation of
the interference of the church in political
matters, and consequently into fight on the
churches themselves.
Jerry Simpson, who made such wonder
full campaign in the Seventh Congressional
district. had all of the power of the church
directed against him. He did not attempt
to conceal the fact that he was an unbe-
lieyer, but on the stump publicly declared
that he gave religious questions no thought
whatever, but addressed himself to those
which he could understand and hoped to
change.
Mrs. NJ. E. Lease is an infdel, and she is
proud of it. She was by far the most i'm
portant factor in molding public sentiment
in the campaign, and her phillippics against
the old parties stirred up the masses to such
an extent that calmer discourse would not
be listened to. s'The day has passed." said
she'in conversation with a newspaper cor
respondent when it is a disgrace to be an
infidel. 1t means now that one is broad
thinker, and the people to whom the term is
applied represent the advanced thought of
the age"
All in the Same Line.
Mrs. Annie L. Dggs, the associate editor
of the Alliance ADVOCATE, belongs to the
Unitarian Church, and so does Frank
Doster, who Is being groomed for United
States Senator. But the day has passed
when either recognizes anything more in
Christianity than a broad humanity, and
both are ready at all times to defend their
position. Mrs. Diggs, next to Mrs. Lease,
was the most successful campaigner in she
peoples movement. She is a member of
the Woman's Christian Temperance Union,
differing with Mrs. Lease on the prohibition
question. Mrs. Diggs believes temperance
is virtue, but her temperance work is a
secondary matter, and the religious features
of it have no attraction for her.
Henry, Charles and William Vincent,
three brothers who own and edit the Win.
field Nom Com nforn,ist, and Cyrus Corning,
editor of the Workman, an Alliance paper
published at Eldorado, are of the same re-
ligious belief as Jerry Simpson. Corning
and the Vincents have been labor agitators
for years, and have from the first been recog-
nized leaders in the farmer movement. The
appeals made by the Republican Central
the temperance question and the ready
response of the pastors brought to the sur
face the elements which war on religion.
The persons mentioned are only few OF
the more important, but they represent the
brains of the new movement. A crusade
against the existing order of things had to
be made general in order to be successful.
The country preachers at first were very pro-
nounced in their advocacy of reforms in
politics.
Preachers as Congressional Candidates.
They were candidates for Congressional
nominations and in the Sixth Congressional
district five out of the seven candidates be-
fore the Alliance Convention were preach
ers. But it was not this element of the
party which came 10 the front as the cam
psign progressed. These same people with
their liberal religious views are without ex.
ception single tax advocates. The farmers
who have thrust them forward do not COM
prehend the meaning of the Henry George
movement nor do they understand why GER
tain of their leaders are supporting Frank
Doster for Senator.
Some weeks ago a man who represented
himself as correspondent of New York
daily came to Topeka and gave it out that
he intended to thoroughly investigate the
causes of the late uprising. He was ex-
tended every courtesy by the politicians and
his paper was watched to see what would
be the result of his investigation. As none
of his efforts appeared in print, suspicion
was aroused and inquiry revealed the fact
that he represented the New York Standard.
RUDYARD KIPIINC,S second ,et+er mr.,