Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-05
GAG RULE DEFEATED
In the Methodist Debate Over the
Admission of Women.
THE FIGHT INCREASES IN VIGOR.
WOmans Proper Sphere Discussed by Big
Ministerial Guns.
VOTE TO BIZ TAKEN TUESDAY MORNING
rPEc1AL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.

rPEC1AL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.I
NEW YORK, April 4.-There was consid-
erable sharpshooting at the opening of the
second day of the pitched battle in the New
York Methodist Conference in Yonkers to.
shall be eligi BILE from every Conference to
sit with the powers of lay delegates in the
General Conference of the determination.
Many of the ministers who are opposed to
admitting the women, and many who favor
admitting them, strenuously oppose debate.
They desire to have ballots cast secretly and
to have the vote taken as soon as possible.
When the time arrived to-day to take up
the discussion where it was dropped on Fri
day, resolution was offered TO have the
vote taken in an hour, shutting off debate.
Motions, amendments and substitutes fol-
lowed, until hall the ministers did not know
what the other half were talking about, and
those who favored debating the subject
openly and above board declared that the
other side were conspiring to defeat debate
by using all the time in filibustering.
Victory for Free Speech.
Bishop Fitzgerald restored order, and the
Conference decided by big majority to let
debate 60 on and to announce the result of
the ballot on Tuesday at II A. NJ. No time
was set for taking the vote.
"Three columbiads and q noun tain how
itzer," as the speaker described his style OF
warfare, were fired off just before adjourn
ment. The Rev. w. c. Browning, column
biad in the woman's camp, said substan-
TALLY: Il don't see that there is anything
violent and revolutionary in the movement
to admit women. l 1am not soaring worth
cent about anything in that line of argu-
ment There is a principle in logic that that
which proves too much proves nothing at
all.
II was at the General Conference where
this question was discussed, and the very
men who are now crying out that we are
revolutionary, declared then that the only
ground on which they opposed the admis-
sion of women was because the church
constitution did not provide for it. The
Methodist Episcopal Church we have al
ways believed to be child of Providence.
Chance for Further Honor.
"We have started out on new lines before,
and have been honored by the world In do
ing it, and in this matter our proposed ac-
tion is but an outgrowth Of our work in the
past. Now we who propose to keep in the
van Of progress are opposed by those who
propose to turn the whole tide of the Meth
odist Church into living in the past. It's
course contrary to the genius of the
Church"
The Rev. Delos Lull, a coIumbiad in the
anti-woman camp, said it would be q viola
tion, not of human constitution, but of
Gods and natures constitution to admit
women. The question at issue is the greatest
ever propounded in the history OF the world,
and the eye of the world is on the Meth
odist Church. especially the eye of the
Roman Catholic Church, which charges the
Methodists with being the most icono-
elastic and progressive of all the religious
denominations. Mr.. Lull divided the COM
pass of human activity into the home, the
protective and the social spheres. Women
rule in the home sphere, men in the protec.
tive sphere and women and men unite in |
the social sphere. Il
Proper Sphere of Woman.
Woman sphere reaches from home out
ward and upward to heaven. In it her |
power molds men for heaven. What would |
the influence OF Susannah W esley, the mother |
Of the Wesleys, have heen if it had not been |
a home influence? She was the founder of |
through her boys. Mans best
work is in the protective sphere. He
gathers the resources which enable women
to do their work thoroughly and well.
This is rule which is true by analogy
among all animals. In the sphere of social
union of the sexes women are associated
with men in benevolent work, in speaking
and writing and in the arts and sciences.
She is the left arm and man is the right
arm, and they work together, but at the
same time separately, for the good of the
body. In the proportion that women invade
work o. the right arm, she reflects on man
and disparages his work.
They take away that sense of trust in
mans strength to protect, which endears
men to them. Men are executive, and the !
executive must not be partial, yet who does
lot know that women, by their emotional
Ind afectionate nature, are most intolerant
o woman and tolerant to men? [Applause
md cries of That's So They crowd to
'ur prisons to plead for mercy for crimi-
lals, while almost crowning them with
lowers. Man is severe with women, out of
egard for her purity. and he is severe with
men who intrude on the privacy Of the home.
Best Power of Woman.
1t is for man by his strength to protect
he divine snnctity of home. Woman best
,ower in a legislative body is her wish. 1t
$ more respected by manly men than her
Take away the woman's rule by
Ter desire and you disparage man hood.
The last of the big guns. the Rev. DR.. Rich
Ird Wheatley, was fired from the women's
amp. He argued that women ought to be
Idmitted as a matter of expediency. 1t is
rue, he said, that the presence of women in ..
he General Conference would be an ex-
,eption to the general rule, but God made
EXCEPTIONS to general rules, and this was
me of the exceptions. 1t was said that
women would necessarily be advanced to be
preachers if once admitted; but why so, anv
more than men laymen were now? II God
hould call women to exercise the functions
f preachers, why not call them preachers
nd have done with 1t.
As to the argument that women would
ave intolerable burdens placed on them bv
dmitting them, it was to be remembered
hat history everywhere showed that in pro-
'ortion as women had had the right to pro-
ect themselves they had freed themselves
rom their burdens. The debate will be re-
umed Monday.