The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-12-16
PROHIBITION LEADERS
 IN BITTER WRANGLR.
NATIONAL CHAIRMAN ATTA0Ks
 JOHN c. WooLLEY.

oliver W. Stewart Faces Ills Accusers
 at Special Meeting of Committee and
 Tells Some Unpleasant Things-Ac-
 cuses woOIley of Using the Party
 Organ, 'New vOice,v to Ell His own
 Pockets.
 Chicago. Dec. 15.-IAt special meet ing of the prohibition national commit- tee to-day Chairman Oliver W. Stewart faced his accusers and replied to their charges made during the last presiden- tial campaign. He denied every charge against him and In turn bitterly attack ed John G. Woolley who led the fight on Stewart. Forty of the seventy-seven members of the national committee were present in person at the meeting, and at least a dozen more represent ed by proxy. The first clash between the two factions came when an effort was made to seat w c. Johnson, who held the proxy of John N. Parker of Maryland. Chairman Stewart and
 
 prevent the seating of Johnson, but were defeated by vote of 20 to IS.
 A. A. Stevens of Pennsylvania led tha fight on the floor against Stewart
 There was another debate when mo- tfoa was made for the committee to hold its meetings behind closed doors Chairman Stewart and his supporters insisted that the meetings be public in view of the fact that the charges against him had been published in the newspapers. Finally it was decided that the meeting should be an open one. A. A. Stevens read the report of the auditing committee which spent six weeks Investigating the accounts of Chairman Stewart. He explained that the committee had not gone back of the face of the vouchers and had not att tempted to question the wisdom or pol- icy of the expenditures made for cer- tain purposes. The report concluded with a number of recommendations which indicated that new system of raising campaign funds and expending them was desired.
 Action on the report was deferred un- til Chairman Stewart had presented his annual report
 The results of the last campaign Chairman Stewart said were in a measure disappointing as the vote In a number of states fell below the total of four years ago. The reason for this decrease Chairman Stewart asserted was the attacks of a prominent prohi- bition paper and certain individuals on the method of conducting the campaign Chairman Stewart accused J. G. Wool | ley and his associates of causing all the trouble
 Our party organization was lame and ineffective said MT. Stewart, and realized that the first need was to strengthen it by interesting a large number of Individual workers in the movement. To accomplish this decid- ed to use our prohibition papers. Before the end of the campaign obtained an enrolment of 115,O00 members the larg- est enrolment we have ever known. I sincerely wished I might use the New Voice for this purpose. but in view of certain information which had come to me T could not do it. That was re- sponsible for the trouble. found that J. G. Woolley, when he organized the New Voice, capitalized it for $50,O0 The actual amount of the stock paid for was small Woolley sold lot of this stock and the proceeds went into his pockets. The result was that many thousands of dollars was paid in by loyal prohibitionists all over the coun- try under the impression that the money was to be used in building up the party paper, when as a matter Of fact, it was not. When these facts came to me was astounded and shocked. Later he came to me and insisted that I loan him part of trust fund in my possession. I consulted with Samuel Dickie and he agreed that it could not be done. I refused Mir Woolley's re- quest Then learned that Mr. Wool- ley's friendship and the influence of his paper could only be assured by the use he could make of my official position. When the matter of nominating Gen eral Miles on the prohibition ticket came up MT. Woolley and talked it over and agreed that he would be a good candidate if he would subscribe to the principles of our party cofaa- municated with General Miles and as- certained that he was democrat, hence decided 1t would be inexpedient to nominate him, Woolley criticised me for taking this position.
 Captain Stewart then read extracts from a score or more attacks on him published in the New Voice in the course of the campaign