Methodists v. Catholics

When Alfred Emanuel Smith was a presidential candidate, many a man and woman voted against him for fear the Catholic Church might meddle with the U. S. government. Last week, New York's Senator Royal Samuel Copeland, a Methodist, charged that the church was meddling with U. S. affairs. But it was the Methodist Church, not the Catholic, to which he referred. Senator Copeland charged that the Methodist Board of Temperance, Prohibition & Public Morals in Washington were lobbyists; that in 1927 they had tried to influence his vote on a prohibition measure.* Said the Senator in an open letter to Dr. Clarence True Wilson, secretary of the board: "I have been greatly concerned for years over what I regard to be an improper activity, the work at Washington of the Board of Temperance, Prohibition & Public Morals in the Methodist Church, in its manifest efforts to dictate and control legislation. I disapprove of this. . . . Our traditional attitude has been one of rebellion against ecclesiastical interference with the state. Yet you are doing exactly what we have demanded shall not be done by the Catholics." Dr. Wilson answered with another open letter to Dr. Copeland, denied that the Copeland vote had been influenced, declared: "We have no lobby here, we have no lobbyist. . . . Nevertheless we have the right of free speech, free press. . . ." Then concerning Catholics, Dr. Wilson added: "The Catholic Church has long had a headquarters here from which they have no hesitancy in conferring with Senators and other government officials, and not a Methodist pulpit in the land has made any special protest against that right." Alert Washingtonians thereupon expected that yet another open letter would appear in print, this time from Catholics to Methodists. Next day such a letter did appear, by Patrick J. Ward, director of the National Catholic Welfare Conference at Washington. He, like Dr. Wilson, denied that his own organization was political, declared that the other man's was. Said he: "The Methodist Board of Temperance & Public Morals is in party politics. . . . Its purpose is political. . . . The National Catholic Welfare Conference is not organized for any political purpose."

* The Prohibition Bureau reorganization bill, providing for stricter enforcement. It was passed in the Senate 55 votes to 27. Had Senator Copeland not voted for it, the bill would have failed.