Bisbee daily review. [volume] (Bisbee, Ariz.) 1901-1971, 1907-12-12
ROYAL ARCH
POLITICAL
MACHINE
Member Expelled From Tucson
Lodge Because He Did Not
Support Candidate of the
Organization.
Tucson, A. T, 1-7-lsO7.


Mr.. ]. NJ. Roberts.
Dear Sir:-With this, please be in
formed that charges have been pre-
terred against you by a member of
the lodge as follows:
That you acted at various times
contrary to the rules and regulations
of this order, in a manner unbecom1nE
a member of the Knights of the Royal
Arch.
That you positively refused to
abide by the rulings Of the lodge,
when a motion was passed that all
members should pay their license on
the Alta day of January, 19c-.
That you opposed a Sir knights
nomination for the Office of city coun-
Gilman, which &c refusing to aid Sir
knight and is contrary to the valn
you took at the time you were init,
ated. Respectfully,
F. W. sABICHI
Recorder of Tucson Lodge No. Al,
Knights of the Royal Arch"
Primarily because he would not
line up solidly with the Royal Arch
in their efforts to maintain political
ascendency in Tucson and secondly
because he persisted in selling beer
below the scale agreed upon by the
booze trust" J. NJ. Roberts, head of
the California Wine company, which
has a wholesale house and two ga
looms here, was expelled from the
organization.
This action Of the Royal Arch WIS
taken nearly a year ago and since
that time there has been a keen war
fare carried on between the organiZa-
ton and Mr.. Roberts The immedi-
ate occasion of the breach was the re-
reipt OF the letter given above.
An attempt to patch up a truce
was made when the city campalss,
began and for that purpose the attor-
ney of the California State organiza-
ton of the Royal Arch came here but
his mission proved a failure.
Il am not now a member of the
Royal Arch here and l do not have
any intentions at present Of affiliat.
ing myself with an organization. |
can get along very well without"
Mr.. Roberts stated.
Mr.. Roberts after telling of the
feud which started over his selling
bit" bottled beer instead of charging
minimum of Is cents straight, re-
vealed some interesting details re-
garding the political Vaccinations of
the members of the local organiZa-
ton.
When a prominent business man
attempted to arrange a truce between
the former administration and the sa-
loon men in an effort to have the
water bonds voted, | strongly ap-
proved his stand l strongly favored
the matter and defended the proposed
action and Tor this l came in the bad
graces of the members of the Royal
Arch. That this should have resulted
was a surprise to me and l was sur
prised at the men who constituted
the organization, he stated.
I was opposed to the nomination
of a saloon man on the Republican
ticket and so stated when the caucus
was held and there were Royal Area
men present at the time. There was
no beating about the bush. | was
against a Royal Arch member when
he ran for councilman and made no
secret of this. My stand in this in
stance brought down further censure.
Another thing that angered mem
bers of the Royal Arch was my re-
fusal to contribute to a secret cam
paign fund Individual members Of
the organization approached me and
asked me to contribute and when l
refused it looked at the time as if
might be ousted from the hall"
These facts show conclusively the
activity of the Royal Arch in local
politics and the endeavor Of the or
ganization to run the city in the in
terests of members Of their order.