New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-07-23
NO LIQUOR MAN AS LEADER
CATHOLICS, LED BY CATHOLIC CLUB.
FIGHT MURPHY'S AMBITION.
THOUGH THE CLUB is NOT IN POLITICS, IT
FEELS 1T ITS DUTY To OPPOSE
THE SALOON ELEMENT

The liquor line" as some of the members
style it, has been drawn in the Catholic Club.
No retail liquor dealer can be elected to mem
bership in the club. and it is an unwritten law
that the name of one shall not be proposed for
membership. Wholesale liquor dealers who are
already members of The club enjoy undimin-
ished esteem. other things being equal They
are regarded as merchants.
The sentiment which at last has built bar
rier between the retail liquor dealer and the
membership roll Of the Catholic Club has been
of slow but steady growth Now that it has
grown rocklke 1t affords to the student of
sociology an interesting phase of changing con-
ditions among educated and pious Catholics.
The fact that no retail liquor dealer may Sc
cure membership in the Catholic Club has an
unObtrusive but at the same time important
bearing upon the leadership of Tammany Hall.
l. The Catholic Club does not mix in politics.
Indeed. the prominent members OF the club take
the most scrupulous care 10 avoid doing any
thing that would connect the club. a club.
with politics. There are Republicans as we'll as
. Democrats in the Catholic Club. and politics
there Is a forbidden subject except behind
closed doors and between longtime friends At
such times 1t is discussed dispassionately At
the same time there is a growing sentiment
among the Catholic Democrats that not even
the shadow OF encoura cement should be given
by the club. by those influential in it, TO
aspirants for the leadership of Tammany Hall
who are directly connected with the retail liquor
trade.
This sentiment manifested itself in a quiet
and unofficial manner when the friends of ex-
Dock Commissioner Charles F. Murphy pushed
him forward for the leadership of Tammany
Hall to succeed Richard Croker. AS before
noted the Catholic Club takes no part in poll
tics. Probably Mr.. Murphy or any other retail
liquor dealer could go ahead with ambitious
plans to acquire control of Tammany Hall as an
organization without running afOul OF open or
formal opposition in the Catholic Club. At the
same time. Mr.. Murphys friends when they
have urged members of the Catholic Club TO
support his claims to the leadership on the
81 Ound that he is liberal giver to Catholic in
terests. have been surprised and chilled at the
unrespOnsiveness of educated Catholics belong
ing to the club A Tribune reporter spent some
time few days ago in trying to gauge the
sentiment of the club toward the retail liquor
trade. He discovered a remarkable unanimity
of sentiment against the elevation of any liquor
dealer to the leadership Of the organization
You'll never see another liquor dealer at the
head Of Tammany Hail." said The Tribune's
informant who is a prominent member of the
Catholic Club He added:
1T would be a grave mistake to assume for
instant that the Catholic Club. which is
made UP of high minded men. would dip into
politics Politics would destroy the club At
the same time however, the leaders of thought
In the inner circle of the club, whether Republi-
can or Democratic. are opposed more vigorously
than ever to the suggestion that retail liquor
dealer can be a successful leader of an organi-
zation that numbers thousands of young Catho-
lies who have been taught to look upon the
liquor traffic with growing disfavor 1t would
not be wrong TO say that the growth Of senti-
ment against the retail liquor dealer in the
Catholic Club is simply keeping pace with the
same sentiment outside the club The younger
generation of Catholics notably those who be-
long to the Knights of Columbus and similar
bodies, are more and more inclined to take the
hard, scientific view Of things when judging the
liquor trade They weigh IL by its results and
as the results are unsatisfactory, they mentally
condemn il as unsanitary and unscientifc This
growing sentiment against the liquor trade and
particularly the retail trade, is not the fruit of
any sudden religious awakening. 1t is rather a
phase of social evolution
What will be the practical effect of such
growth of sentiment in local politics?"
The full length and breadth of IL cannot OF
course, be prophesed. It lis reasonable TO as
sumo however. that those who lead in religious
and patriotic thought among New-York City
Catholics will be consulted. at least in an in
formal way, before the next leader of Tammany
Hall is selected. Then il will appear that the
leading Catholics are arrayed against the retail
liquor trade, and that they against the
elevation to the leadership of Tammany Hall
of any representative of that trade. If through
a political shuttle a liquor dealer should tempo
rarily be chosen as the leader of the organiza-
tion his trusteeship will he brief. as he will lack
the support of the most powerful and influential
Catholics in the metropolis
Nature keeps the Hudson Valley fresh and beauti-
fu The Day Line keeps it's flyers same way. New
landing w. 18th St. s15 a m-Adyt-