The call of the North. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1923-1924, 1924-02-08
masons Oppose Leach for Governor
CRAFT IN MINNESOTA SEEK TO
Defeat member OF ORDER
L0WShIP FORUM" ARTICLE
ATTRACTS wide attention
pecial to the Fellowship Forum.) .

Minneapolis. - Mayor George E.
Leach, of this city, who has formally
filed as a Republican candidate for
governor of Minnesota, is running on
a pro- Catholic platform. Although
Leach is 80 degree "Mason" he has
earned the opposition Of 95 per cent
of the Masons of Minnesota. Despite
the fact that Freemasonry for the
first time in the history of the order
in this city entered politics and tried
it's best to defeat Leach when he was
candidate for reelection as mayor
last summer, the Catholic votes gave
him another term.
The Leach rally for governor" was
held here recently and was called by
DR.. w. F. Maetz, who comes from
New Ulm, the most disloyal part Of
the country during the war. The
principal speaker of the night was
Rev. David J. Moran, a Catholic
priest, of Pennington. Others speak
ers were DR.. Hugo Hartig, Mime
apolis; Gerald V. Barron, Cloquet; and
DIR. M. E. Withrow, international
Falls. Political bosses who sent mes
sages of congratulation to the meet
ing were: Judge Carroll A. Nye,
Moorhead; Mayor Victor L. Power,
Hibbing; and Mayor Victor E. Essl-
ing, Eveleth. Notice the names OF
the leading factors behind Leach's
candidacy.)
Opposed by Masons
A prominent business man of this
city described Leach in the following
words:
Leach is a thirty-second degree
Mason, but he ought not to be. Dur
ing his campaign for mayor last sum-
mer he was the subjest of bitter con-
troversy between the Masons, and it
was the first time in the history of
Minneapolis lodges that they had poll
tics in the lodge rooms. Every lodge,
after being closed, would have politi-
cal meetings and committees ap-
pointed to work for the defeat of
Leach. But his first term cemented
him so much with the Catholic ele-
ment of the town that he was re-
elected in the face of this Masonic
Opposition. Masons supported him
during his first campaign. They re-
gretted it, though, shortly after his
election, because he Immediately bow
ed to the will of the powerful Roman
faction of the city.
During the campaign last summer
it was reported that Leach was going
to divorce his wife. Right after the
election he was granted a divorce,
and report now has it that he has
married a young Catholic woman OF
California.
"It will be nothing short of a dis
grace to the state if he ever gets
elected governor, as he will out-Wal-
ton Walton"
Strange Bedfellows
A good example Of how Freema-
sonry views Leach's candidacy is ex-
pressed in the National Observer, a
M sonic periodical published in Min
neapolis. The paper comments as
follows:
Announcement has been made that
Mayor George E. Leach, Of Mime
apolis, will be a candidate for COVER
nor of Minnesota at the coming elec-
ton. Few, outside of those directly
interested in boosting Mayor Leach
seem to take this candidacy at all
seriously, but there is phase of il
that should not be ignored.
"As matters now stand, Mayor
Leach has the solid backing of the
Romanists of the state. Those
classed as radicals and the social
lists are with him almost to a man
Booze and vice law violators form
another wing of the forces under hi:
command, and, oddly enough, those
rated during the war as strictly pro
German seem to have swung in lint
for him.
"In outlining this situation there il
not the slightest intention to intimate
in any way that Mayor Leach can b.
properly classed with any Of the ele
ments mentioned, our only aim ant
object is to point out conditions a;
we find that they exist.
"The old adage that politics make
strange bedfellows,' was never NOR
fully demonstrated in history than
is today by the lineup for Leach"