The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1893-03-04
the INDUSTRIAL LESION.

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Commander-in- Chief Vandervoort *
plains IT. Purpose and Necessity.
In answer to letter from Dr.
Hendrix, secretary of the peoples
party organization in Oregon,
Commander-in-Chief Vandervoort
makes public the following, explain
atory Of the organization OF the In
dustrial Legion:
Ibeg leave to assure you that the
National Industrial Legion was or
ganized by the National Committee
as the political club of the Peoples
party. 1t takes the place of the
illy.organized and feeble Peoples
party clubs throughout the country.
It is to be strong, compact, polit-
ical organization. My experience
in the past in organizing the Grand
Army and the Women's Relief
Corps and my services in the last
campaign was, believe, the reason
that l was placed at the head Of
this order. It does not supersede
the Peoples party, but is an auxil-
iary, the same as the Republican
and Democratic leagues, and is in
tended to build up, strengthen and
enable the Peoples party to win
victory in '94 and '96. 1t is in
tended to secure the cooperation
of all persons sympathizing with
the party and to band them togeth-
er in mutual cooperation to raise
money, buy Libraries, and scatter
Peoples party literature and sup
ply political speakers for mission
ary work throughout the country.
It also brings in the young men
over fourteen, half Of whom will be
voters in '96. 1t also adds to the
organization the members of the
families over fourteen of the voting
members of the organization. We
will be thus enabled by all the
methods used by the Grand Army
and church organizations to raise
money to carry on the campaign.
The distasteful work OF taking up
collections at every meeting WILL
thus be abandoned. Further than
| that we will be able to show
by this compact systematic order
that q small contribution from each
member of the organization, con.
tributed through regular stated
channels, and accounted for every
| step of the way, will amount to 6
very large sum in the aggregate
large enough to pay all the legiti
mate expenses of great campaign
I know what your club organiza
tin was in Oregon last spring an6
fall. There was no system abou
| it; there was no head nor tail to it
and I doubt very much whether in
the way you propose it would b
much better. l had nothing to d.
with the organization of the Legion
Iwas not present when was electee
and | do not desire the position
now. am overloaded with worl
and one of my chief burdens is try
ing to explain to the people, VIII
ought to know, that we cannot vii
J the battle against the money -powe
without the best political organiza
ton that was ever formed on tn
American continent. We can max
this out of the Industrial Legion
and we have demonstrated that
cannot be made with the politica
club organization, such as we hav'
had heretofore. Another thing
there have been seven or eight in
dustrial organizations, Alliance
and otherwise, that have admitte
only certain classes into their OF
canization. Members of all thes
orders, members of the Nationa
Committee, our leading worker
everywhere, have all agreed tha
we should have a place where ever
one believing in our party an
: wishing to work for q succes
| should find q broad and generou
welcome. / wish you to understan
distinctly that we do not wish nc
intend to substitute the Legion fe
the Peoples party. | again repea
TO YOU that il is simply the polit
cal club organization of the Pee
nle's party.
You object to the military plal
: That is only the skeleton. 1t
the simplest plan Of organizatio
in the world. / recommended man
amendments to the plan adopte
at Memphis, which were all agree
to, except the mere titles used
some extent in the Grand Arm.
They carry no rank with them On y
will not add another human bein
II to the list of people who are pr
/ NOTED captains, colonels and gel
erals for bravery after the war.
Many ofthe best and noblest pc
ple in our party think there is gre
danger of a resort to arms by tt
money power of this land. Lest
Hubbard and many greater mln'
even than his, believe that the L
K. eion will be the means OF savl'
The country from armed revolutio
Thirty-two organized societies