Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-01
Croker-Sheehan Fight for Control
Of the Wigwam.
TEE SILVER issue is INVOLVED
Sheehan Believed to Represent
the Interests Of w. J. Bryan.
OTHER GOTHAM GOSSIP

NEW 1ofth, May 81, 1888.
The public announcement that a fight
against Richard Croker is on in earnest
has stirred Tammany more than anything
that has happened since the boss retired
from the active leadership in 1894, and
went to England when certain defeat faced
the organization. No one familiar with
the condition of Tammany in 1896 will I'M
dertake to refute Sheehans statement that
the organization bankrupt and dis
credited. 1t has several times been stated
that the total campaign fund of Tammany
In 1875 was $4,000. 1t is expected that
every man in the wigwam who has been
turned down or Inundated by Croker since
his return to power will rally to the stand
ard of Sheehan
Says Sheehan: II have stood Croker's
persecution long enough. l have been 81
lent about affairs of Tammany Hall until
now for various reasons. but will not be
so longer. am not entering into any con-
test for the leadership of the organization.
for l do not aspire to the leadership. l
want 1t understood, however, that l am
as good a Tammany Hall man as Croker
Is or ever dared to be. L picked Tammany
Han out of the mire it was in, placed it
on Its feet and made an organization out
OF it. From this Croker now reaps the
benefit"
''Sheehan can do as he pleases" says
Richard Croker from his English home
Some men have ambitions. When they
can't get what they want they become
dissatisfied and will do anything to obtain
their desires But this will strengthen the
party. Such things make men work the
harder. All we have got in the past we
have had to fight for. Our greatest VIC
tories have been in the face of the great
est opposition"
COmbatants Far Apart.
Sheehan is fighting at close range, while
Croker is kpppinr ha hot mil
away. Sheehan is said to have the assur-
ance of the democratic national committee
that even if he is defeated this fall he
will be kept in the field next year with
the full strength of the national committee
behind him. His faction, it is said, will be
recognized in the national convention and
in the national campaign as the .'regu-
lars" There will be a conference of anti
Croker chiefs of Tammany Hall this week,
at which it is expected that twenty of the
thirty-siX assembly districts of this Dor
ough VIII be represented. There are
surances that the movement will lack
neither money, brains, organization nor
political generalship. Croker has already
been advised by cable that war has been
declared within the organization Franklin
Quinby, who now represents the national
committee in this country, is working with
Sheehan. The grand fight will be made at
about 30 per cent of the Tammany
strength has been enrolled The Sheehan
faction is working to get out 20 per cent,
and is satisfied that if that is accomplished
the organization can be captured. There
is little hope that the independent demo-
cratic strength of the city will take any
part in the battle. The independents are
anxious to fight the present controlling in
f1uences of Tammany, but will hardly ac-
cept Sheehan as a leader. Nearly all of the
independents are against Bryan and silver,
and it is on the Bryan and silver backing
that Sheehan largely counts for success
l. is tacitly understood that Sheehan's fol-
lowing will be for silver. In the uptown
districts, where the Tammany majority Is
power is in the hands of the independent
democrats. Neither side in the present
fight has much hope of securing the active
aid of these voters Conservative Tam
many men are ready to admit that a
Sheehan organization would turn the city
over to the control of the republicans, but
they do not think that Sheehan at this
time can displace Richard Croker.
Crusade Against Bible Criticism.
The much-discussed crusade against the
so-calIed higher critics of the Bible, which
has been developing in the last few weeks,
is said to have begun in earnest this week,
when eighteen or twenty members of the
High Church party of the Protestant
Episcopal Church in Bishop Potter's do
cese came together at a dinner given by
DR.. George c. Houghton, rector of the
Little Church Around the Corner, for the
purpose of having a discussion of the pro-
posed campaign against the holders of
strange doctrines within the church. DR..
Frank M. ClendeniS, leader of Dr. Briggs
opponents IN the recent ordination contro-
versy, announced several weeks ago that
as soon as the excitement over DR. Briggs
ordination should subside the opposing
party would begin to lay the ground work
for a campaign against those men, who,
as he said, had crept into the church for
the purpose of undermining the Christian
a
critical philosophy which was only COM
prehensible to hair splitters and sophists."
I'VE trust" says DR.. Clendenin that
we shall be able to get our campaign we'll
without the noise which at first attended
our opposition to the higher criticism. Our
first step will be to call together those
members of the clergy who are with us,
time-honored and time-established theology
of the Protestant Episcopal Church; then,
having convened, to organize and spread
the movement throughout the whole
clergy and laity of the church. This criti-
cism of the Scriptures, we maintain, means
the overthrow of our religion. We shall
begin slowly, but conseientiously and
earnestly, gathering recruits by the way
side until we have enlisted on side a
force sufficient to be felt and needed by
the church at large. The end in view will
be the expulsion from the holy walls Of the
church those defamers of the sacrament
and doubters of Gods word"
DR.. Houghton says that 1t is true that
he had entertained the High Church party
at dinner on Monday, and that they had
taken the preliminary steps to form a
militant organization against the higher
criticism" but owing to the present crude
state Of their plans he was unable to make
any statement. when the organization
is on its feet and drawn up in marching
order" he says, ''it will then be time
enough to tell the public just what we in
tend to do, but before then it will be i'm
possible to give the public any definite idea
Of our plans. The campaign must be con-
Quoted sub rosa and with military
strategy"
To Fight the Whisky Trust.
Nearly four hundred retail liquor dealers
and wholesale grocers, 1t is authoritatively
stated have combined to fight the whisky
trust. Preparations are now under way to
form a stock company. For the new whisky
company $46S, 600 is said to have been al
ready subscribed. and 81 10000 Is expected
soon.
1.-The whisky trust, says one of the or
ganizers, has raised the price of whisky
20 cents gallon and has issued circulars
imposing all sorts of obnoxious conditions
on patrons. The dealers of New York and