The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-31
CANNON IS WR0TH
HE SAYS METHODIST PREACHERS
 HAVE LIED.
The Speaker Writes a Letter to Bish- Op Bristol Defending His Course On the LlttleneId.
 aRHN


 Danviile. H., Oct. 3o-Speaker Cam non this morning at the request of Rev. F. N. Bristol bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church of In- dianapolis, addressed him an open let- ter in answer to the question put to the. speaker: Did the speaker pre- vent the house from taking a vote on the Littleheld bill7"
 Mir. Cannon In his letter had this to say:
 T did not prevent the house from considering the LIttlefeId bill or vot- ing upon 1t and will add that I had no power to prevent the house from doing either, for. as Mir. Littlef1eld says in his letter to me dated September 12, there are no rules; there is no committee on rules; and there Is no speaker that can prevent e majority of the house from taking up any meas- ure and acting upon 1t at any time. "In the first session of the sixtieth Congress the Littlefeld bill was not reported from the committee on judic- iary. The speaker had no power to compel that committee to report that or any other bill referred to 1t under the rules. or to prevent the committee from reporting any bill over which 1t had jurisdiction. The committee not having reported the bill, the speaker as 6 matter of course did not prevent the house from considering or voting upon 1t.
 'fS0 motion was ever made in the house to take up that bill for consid- eretion, nor was any recognition asked for that pGFpose. It was in the power of any member of tho house, if he had with him a majority. by raising the question of consideration. to have brought the Lttleneld bill before the house for action and 1t was not in the power of the speaker to have prevent cd action.
 T have said in my speeches-and repeat 1t to you--that the bishops of the Methodist church were misied by agents who either wIlfully or igno- rantly made untruthful reports.
 "The Rev. A. Baker. of Columbus, Ohio, is the general superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League.
 ''The Rev. Mr. s. L. Nicholson Is the legislative supporter of the Anti Saloon League in Washington. These two agents seem to be responsible for the misstatements that have been cir culated. The league and their churches which employed these agents had @ right to the truth; but they did not get 1t from them.
 "They both state that as speaker I packed the judiciary committee to prevent the report of the Llttlefield bill, and that did not re-appoint in the COu6EGbo ANCpENoCiAt0eANS Pearce of Maryland to the committee on Judiciary for the reason that he favored the Edttlefield bill These. each and all, are falsehoods. deliberate falsehoods.
 s'The Rev. Mir. Nicholson published a statement that the Littleneld bill was favorably reported to the house during the first session of the hfty-ninth Congress; that the speaker promised Mir Littleheld if he would let 1t rest on the calendar until after tho Con eressionaI elections in 1906. he should have recognition to call it up at the beginning of the second session of the Congress.
 gro show the utter untruthfulness of this statement 1t is only necessary to say that the Littlefield bill was not reported until the second ses- sion of the fifty-ninth Congress.
 'erhe Rev. MT. Nicholson is either an agent who guesses at what he ought to know, or he deliberately lied.
 T have never courted war with the Methodist church or its leaders. I know its power for good and have had some experience in this campaign with the power of misrepresentation when 1t finds lodgment in the minds of the bishops and is mistaken for truth.
 (Signed) "J. O. Cannon.