Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-23
BOGUS PARTY CLUBS.
How Organized Strikers Work in the
Devious Political Field.
THEIR METHODS QUITE SIMPLE.
Suspicious Behavior on the Eve Of the I'm
portant ElectionA
LEGITIMATE ORGANIZATIONS SUFFER

LEGITIMATE ORGANIZATIONS SUFFEE
NEW YORK, July 22.-A Presidential
year, so-called, is the season of richest
harvest for the managers of campaign clubs
the genuine and the spurious. The former car
be described as an assemblage of earnest ano
interested persons of either political party
who design to promote the success of can.
didates by whatever method seems to them
to be most desirable.
Some believe in the efficacy of speeches
and debates; others in fireworks, music and
parades; others in mass meetings, and others
in the maintenance of q clubroom for social
intercourse, the interchange of views and
the formation of friendships, which tend to
bind the members together by a common
political purpose. As general thing the
most active members of genuine campaign
clubs are oficeholders or aspirants for
official station, and the genuine clubs are
valuable au1iliaries to party, especially
in a long campaign.
The method of establishing fake cam
paign club is very simple. Three or four
young men, usually between the ages of 10
and 25, and well known in the neighbor-
| hood where they live, arrange with the pro-
prietor of barroom, who agrees to give
them the free use of his first floor under the
condition that they and their friends will
patronize no other barroom.
How the Ciubroom l. Furnished.
Then chowder party, picnic or a sum-
mer nights excursion is organized, with the
object of procuring money enough to fur
nish the clubroom. Tickets are sold to the
politicians and tradesmen in the neighbor-
hood, and, after the expenses of the chowder
or excursion have been paid, a sufficient
surplus remains to equip the room. Then q
transparency is ordered, and on it are
painted the names of the candidates to be
supported by . majority of the members,
not all of whom are voters The club takes
It's name usually from its most active or
ganizer, whose knowledge of politics is
derived from his labors on election day as
the employe at the rate OF So from sunrise
to sundown of some candidate.
1t is customary to give house warming,
and the politicians are sought again for con-
trbutions to a fund for the purchase of
beer, liquor and cigars. IT the campaign
club be organized on a scale larger than the
average, banner raising, toward the e1-
pense of which more subscriptions are
needed, succeeds the house warming. As a
rule, however, there is no banner raising,
the leaders of the club applying their en-
ergies to getting more members. A nom-
inal fee is charged, but by common consent
payment is not obligatory.
Where the Clubs Arc in Glover.
The club, once under way, has 30 or 60
members Many of them join from no
70 alv $bA int Of bo r<xy
or the candidates, but to have some place
where, at small expense, they may meet
young men Of the neighborhood who are
employed like themselves during the day.
The presence of 20 or 80 members of the
club each evening means a trade of So to IS
in the barroom, the profit of which is con-
siderably more than could be secured for
the room if rented otherwise.
Toward the close of the summer, and
when the season of parades and marching
opens, the members of the spurious cam
paign club are in clover. Uniforms are
supplied to them, and for so much head
they march in the ranks of the torchlight
professions. There is always a generous
supply of liquid refreshments at the end of
the march, and, when the times are good
and party feeling runs high, cigars are dis
tribnted also. The members OF the club,
besides taking part in the parades, attend
the big mass meetings.
The clubrooms are visited from time to
time by the lieutenants of the party leaders
in the vicinity, and everything appears to
be going swimmingly until about two weeks
before election, when the vigor and activity
of partisans should be almost at high-water
mark. At about that time the rumble of
discord may be heard with recriminations
between the officers
Alleged Discords Turned to Account
The attitude of the club, not doubtful be-
fore, begins to be subjected to disagreeable
hints and unconcealed reproaches. A screw
seems to be loose somewhere, and soon
afferward meeting of the club is called to
take action on the situation as it presents
itself, respecting the Endorsement and sup
port of local candidates The politicians
who haye contributed to the cnowder party
the transparency, the banner raising, the
parades and the current expenses of tho
club are asked for q contribution, larger
than any preceding, for ball tickets or for
an entertainment that has been advertised
to take place in a public hall between the
day of election and the night of Thanks
giving.
If the spurious campaign club has pre-
served up to that point the semblance of
harmony and discipline, the returns are
satisfactory usually. If, on the other
hand, the club appears to be rent by dis
cordant and antagonistic elements, the
harvest is light, and the proceeds of the
ticket sales do not find their way into the
treasury; they get no further than the pock-
cts of the vendors.
On the night when the club is called to
meet for the purpose of taking action about
local candidates, its attitude toward nation
al State nominees having been defined sufi-
cientIy, the chief organizer usually dep
recates any formal action. He counsels
postponement. He suggests the appoint
ment of small committee, with himself as
Chairman.
Strikers Working ut Cross Purposes.
He intimates that it might be well to see
in turn the leaders of the parties and fac
tions before doing anything rash or commit
ting the club to any hasty act or utterance.
That proposition is acceptable after some
opposition, and the head of the club, trans
formed into STRIKER" endeavors to bar
ter the support of his associates for his own
benefit. He does not succeed usually, but |
his failure is not attributable to any lack of |
trying, but is caused by the fact that sew
eral of his associates, each on his own hook, |
are engaged in the same task.
For several days before the date fixed for |
the adjourn meeting of the club for |
action on this report of the committee there |
are rumblings Of discomfort and threats of |
reprisal The meeting is disorderly. No |
agreement is reached. In the confusion the |
proprietor of the barroom appears usually
and presents bill for rent The liability |
is, of course, disputed, but among those who
have '.held up the bar" frequently he gets
support, and the outcome of the controversy