The age-herald., 1900-11-17
O'keefe Replies.


 Board of the Parsons Convention, sends the Age-Herald the following letter in reply to statement of the Hayes convention, which appeared in the Age Herald yester- day morning:
 To the Editor of the Age-Herald:
 'The following Is taken from yesterdays paper: When the general assembly of the Knights of Labor met in Boston a year ago. letters and telegrams from various commercial bodies, and city and state of- ficials from Alabama, were read to that body by citizen of Birmingham inviting us to meet here. We accepted the invitation in the spirit it was offered in those invita- tions.'
 Tt will be seen that the Hayes wing speaks of the invitations to come to Birm- ingham as coming from a citizen, and not A. J. O'Keefe, the delegate from Birming ham district, yet A. J. O'Keefe was ad mitted to the general assembly and acted as chairman of the credential committee in the Boston session and passed upon all oth- CT delegates right to seats; succeeded in being elected to general executive board, and had the audacty to do many things, but not until he made a motion to investi- gate Hayes accounts was he too bad to belong to the order Now, Parsons, the head of the order, and the entire general executive board, are all pretenders. We are outlaws because we appealed to court of law to dispossess a secretary who will not submit to an examination of his books. Most men would court an investiga- tion.
 If it is any interest to the public we want it known that we claim nothing but the fact that we the individuals whom Hayes, as general secretary of the order, attested under his own signature, and published under his own supervision, in his minutes as the officers of the order of the Knights of Labor of America, elected at Boston, and invested with the right to try him any other officer member. The outlaw part of 1t will be attended to by the courts of Washington, as our side has always contended. We care nothing for a war of words. The fact that Hayes Is here Is proof that we are telling the truth, and the fact that he has a contesting set of officers for our places is prima facie a fraud What have we done beyond asking for the accounting of the orders money and the execution of a bond?
 MT. Hayes says MT. OKeefe was pelled from the order years ago in Ala bama, because of some difficulty in the old Costello case, and was not therefore eligible to the position the general executive board, though elected. The fol- lowing is interesting Hayes opinion be- fore his case came up before the general board:
 Washington, D. C., Oct. 1, 1S99 "A. J. O'Keefe, Birmingham Ala:
 Dear Brother-I am just in receipt of a clipping from paper called the Hot Shot and it has evidently been 'whooping them up for you a little. I happened to be on the carpet at the time this Costello case was made and know sonnet thing of 1t, and yet 1 do not believe that 1t Is worth the time or trouble now to repeat it. The men who seem to denounce you so bitterly in this local are the men, in my mind, who broke up the Knights of Labor in that territory, and if I remember correctly, passed many resolutions against myself without any req son or cause for so doing other than the fact that it was popular to attack the gen. eral officers at that time What is the best thing to do to overcome this vilainy? Give me your views on the subject. As ever yours, JOHN w. HAYES" I've hope the public will take this as sufficient evidence that we could answer any other slush that might be brought out without the necessity of our writing more or imposing on the press. Respectfully,
 "A. J. O'KEEFE."