The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-11-08
STEVES' SIDE.
He Publishes a Statement
About " DenOuncement.''

F. NJ Stoves. who Friday afternoon
was denounced by the Prohibition state
central committee as a traitor to the
best interests of the party. denies the
charges which the signers of that reso-
luton made and declares that the fault
lies with members of that committee
and some of the candidates on the state
ticket.
The principal contention between Mr..
Stoves and the state central committee
is as TO whether or not his paper, The
Fulcrum. was or at any time has been
the ott1c1al organ of the Prohibitionists.
Ihe committeeman in their signed resO-
luton of Friday say distinctly that the
Fulcrum never has been their official
organ Mr.. Stoves, however, claims that
II has been for years. AS PROOF of the
same he cites great mass of CORE
spondence between himself and various
friends of the prohibition cause in the
state, IN which the position his paper
heId seems TO indicate that by a great
many OF them ii was considered as the
ORGAN.
Perhaps the most significant piece of
evidence which Mr.. Stoves has to cite
supstanuat1ng this claim is the action
OF the state convention of the Prohibi-
tlonlsts held at Hutchinson in the early
part OF the summer when the state tick
ct was nominated The following piece
OF the record of the proceedings bears
upon THIS subject and is as follows:
The afternoon session was opened by
prayer by Rev. ]. w. Dibbens of Barber
county. G. W. Irwin of Nickerson was
erected assistant secretary. The finance
| committee made a report recommend
ing that active efforts be put forth to
put our state party paper, the Fulcrum
in the hands of the voters
Further. he has a document which in
every way seems to be genuine and
which was an agreement between him
! self and Earl r. Delay. chairman of
the Prohibition state committee 1t con-
! tanned TIE StipulatiOnS under which Mr.
| Delay was to assume editorial direction
or the paper about the first of July IN
TIL after the November election. In this
| matter there seems to have been a diff
Guilty between Mr.. Stoves and Mr. Dc
Lay After a few issues of the Fulcrum
as its editor Mr.. Delay withdrew and
launched the Kansas Prohibitionist, and
as Stoves alleges with some of the
money which previously had been col
| lected for subscriptions to the FuIcrum
while Delay was touring the state,
Since that time it has been give and
take between Stoves and Delay, Stoves
printed the official party paper and Delay
Ignoring him and instead publishing the
paper considerable matter relating to the
controversy and further in answer to the
| statement of the committee has given the
following signed communication for publ
cation:
THE statement and resolutions published
| in the State Journal of November Z CON
corning the Fulcrum, as the official state
paper in impugning3 our loyalty to the
| cause of prohibition and to the party, is
absolutely false and the men who signed
| it knew it was false when they put their
names to it.
The charge of our publishing scurrilous
articles is absolutely false, for the reason
that we printed nothing but articles that
| E. R. Delay wrote and signed himself as
| a plain statement of the facts regarding
the burglarizing of our official office with
out naming anyone. But after a three
months campaign of deceit, treachery md
dishonesty, this man Delay must be white
washed and these ten men stultified.
"(Signed) F. NJ STEVES.
Mr.. Stoves has been in the printing bus
mess in Topeka for many years. has a
large patronage and is favora bly, spoken
of by those who have dealt with him. 1t
. is unfortunate for the Prohibition party
that it has allowed dissensions to arise
within its own ranks as the antagonist
, | even of two three members is bound tt
spread and involve others IS this contro-
versy seems to have promise of doing.