Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-24
NEWTON EXPLAINS
RECALL OF SPEECH
Mrs. WiIIebrandt Not Listed
as Speaker, G. o. P.
Leader Says.
BY the Associated Press.

oEIJdJlNC Wv dLtCL NCWbOLl, IlCdu VI tIlE
speakers bureau at Western Republican
campaign headquarters, today cleared
w the mystery surrounding the recall
last night by the speakers committee
of mimeographed abstracts of an adj
dress of Mrs Mabel Walker Willebrandt
before a Methodist Episcopal Church
conference at Lorain, Ohio
He said the abstract copies Of the
address sent to Chicago newspapers
were gathered up when it was found
that Mrs. Willebrandt was not listed as
one of the scheduled speakers by the
Republican national committee. and not
because of anything in the address it
self or the abstract of it.
Mr.. Newton explained that the ma
tional committee schedules certain
speakers and that the speakers bureau
and press department attempts to fur
nish abstracts of the addresses of the
speakers so scheduled from day to day.
He said Mrs. Withdrawals advance
manuscript had been received and was
distracted and distributed before it was
ascertained that she was not a sched-
uled speaker.
Avoid Complication.
It was then picked up, he said, in
order to avoid complications In the
future, including requests for abstracts
of addresses not scheduled by the ma
tional committee. Newspapers which
objected to giving up the advance alb
stract, he said, were informed that they
might use it if they desired.
The copy withdrawn from the Chicago
newspapers was virtually the same as
that provided newspapers of the coun-
try through dispatches last night.
Mrs. Willebrandt, in her address be-
fore conference of Methodist Episcopal
ministers here last night. charged that
Gov. Smith. the Democratic presidential
nominee, "is hiding behind his own
church because he is afraid to come
out and face the record that he has
made as champion of the liquor traf-
fic"
She made this statement in denying
declaration in the candidates Okla
homa City speech, in which she claimed
he lad said she was opposing him be-
cause of his religion.
Prohibition is a moral issue which
the churches have long espoused," Mrs.
Willebrandt continued. 1T was he
who injected this moral issue into the
campaign. It was therefore his act
that drew the churches into this cam
paign."
Reviews Opposition.
The auditorium was crowded with
ministers and laymen of the church
and her thrusts at the Democratic pres
idential candidate because of his pro-
hibition stand were met with frequent
cheers.
In opening her address, she reviewed
the years of opposition by churches to
the liquor traffic. She contended that
it was moral issue and not political
and that "Tammany's candidate for the
presidency, in defiance of the large dry
sentiment of his own party, has drag
ged it into politics"
Friends of prohibition, Mrs. WILLIE
brandt said, were almost in equal num-
bers. in each political party Making
prohibition therefore" she declared, "a
party issue was an adroit political trick
to split the dry forces along sectional,
geographical and party lines.
But you didn't split. You accepted
his challenge. You are standing to-
gether to fight the candidate who de-
clared war on you"
Mrs. Willebrandt said 81 national
organizations, including Methodists,
Baptists, Presbyterians, Unitarians,
Congregationalists, Quakers and two
influential groups of Catholics" have
Joined to advance prohibition. She
cited a resolution adopted at meet
ing of these organizations, in which
Gov. Smiths record was condemned,
and told of a similar resolution adopted
by the Methodists.
ti-prohibitionists. she said, have
charged your church" with going into
politics. But you have replied" she
said THE eighteenth amendment is
our spiritual and moral achievement,
she continued. We are only defend
ing it from a Tammany politician S
unwarranted attack. If that be poll
tics, then make the most of it.
did the Happy Warrior engaged
in calling his anti-rrohibition braves
about him for a war dance over the
eighteenth amendment. actually think
you pastors who always have defended
prohibition from your pulpits. could be
lightly waved back with the admoni-
ton to keep away from worldly things?"
Mrs. Willebrandt asked.
Walsh Gets Praise.
"Your church isn't going to poll
tics. But the political trick to
divide you or to deter you from pro-
tecting the eighteenth amendment did
HOI WOTk. 1UH. SIIlltll dt OhIdlAOIia
City last week said quite truly that
ability of the candidate to make his
party's platform effective The DEM
ocratic party put dry plank in its
platform. The Democratic candidate
bored bungholes in it with his telegram
of acceptance. He invited your oppo-
sition. You are giving it to him more
concertedly and intelligently than he
likes"
Mrs. Willebrandt declared that If Sem
ator Walsh of Montana, "or any other
law-abiding, Constitution-respec
Catholic Democrat, were the Demo-
cratic candidate" that neither the
Methodist ministers nor any other min
lister interested in "the moral issue Of
prohibition" would have taken a par
tisan stand.
Gov. Smith has become the greatest
force for disregard of the prohibition
laws in America today. AS such he
draws my opposition. Religion has
nothing to do with my attack upon him
or the attack of the dry forces. We
condemn his own record. acts and ut
terances. These make him vince. SO
he seeks to shield himself and his rec
ord behind religious iSSue-an issue
which he himself raises in this cam
paign.
Denies Church Issue.
"Your campaign against Gov Smith
is not because he is Catholic. That
is a 'wolf-wolf' cry raised to cover up
the fact that he is unwilling to meet
you on the grounds of your actual OPP
position to him, to wit. his long legls-
iative record as champion of the saloon.
his Tammany training, his refusal of
State cooperation in enforcing the
eighteenth amendment and the illogic
of his using the lawlessness, thereby
resulting in his State as an argument
against prohibition: these things, topped
off by the Houston telegram.
Decentralization has been lost In
common defense of the eighteenth
amendment. You Methodists in oppo-
sition to Smith are standing beside the
association of Catholics favoring proni-
bition, the Catholic Clergy Prohibition
Ieapue and leaders in the Catholic