The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1892-03-07
EAST AGAINST WEST
Shall Women be Admitted to
the General Conference.
MEETING TO BE HELD AT OMAHA.
Questions of Importance to be Settled at
This Session.

eraI Conference with Great Interest-It
VIII BE Presided over by sixteen Bish-
ops, and viii be a Very Large Body
Serious Dissenssions are ExpeeUed--M Many
Delegates are Instructed How to Vote.
New YoRK, March 1.-THE great de-
Lucrative legislative and executive body
of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
known as the General Conference, will
hold its next quadrennial meeting this
year in Omaha. The session will occupy
the entire month of May, and for several
reasons they promise to be fraught with
most notable results. Methodists are
looking forward to the General Con-
ference with great interest.
At least two questions are bound to
come up, the settlement of which may
cause the birth of new denomin atoms.
A large number of other questions are
likely to cause undue excitement, as
upon them may be reflected the influence
of the greater questions, without any
reference whatever to the merit or de-
merit of the lesser Many of the annual
conferences have instructed their dele
gates to the General Conference how to
vote on the question of admitting women
to the conferences, and, whether favor
ably, to cast their votes on every other
question, no matter how remote, accord
ingly. Therefore, a delegate in favor
of the admission of women will not
vote for any man opposed to their adj
mission, no matter what Office he may be
put up for
The General Conference will be a very
large body. 1t will be made up of six
ministerial and two lay delegates from
each of the Ill Annual Conferences, 1t
| will be presided over in turn by the l6
resident Bishops of the denomination.
| The Annual Conferences ard divided into
| two classes, called the Spring and Fall
| Conferences, from the season of the year
in which their meetings are held. The
/ majority of those conferences have al
| ready e.,cled their delegates. Those of
! the East s,.c q, ~ assembling, and much
attention 10 icing directed to them in
the hope of discovering indications as to
what course they are likely to pursue on
the great questions of the day.
The East and the West were directly
arrayed against each other in the prelim-
mary votes that the General Conference
of 1888, which met in this city, directed
should be taken on the woman question
in 1890 and 1891, the West voting largely
in favor of admitting women, and the
East on the other side. The delegates
that the Western conference have elected
| are known to be almost all woman
men, while in many instances, to guard
against any possibility of conversion by
the eloquent orators of the other side in
the conference. special instruction has
been given to vote for the admission of
women as lay delegates. In the case of
the Cincinnati Conference, a delegate
who has been instructed that way is a
pronounced 'antiwoman" man.
VIII the East adopt the same tactical
is question often asked in Methodist
circles. Here in New York and Brooklyn,
where the foes of women are the most
bitter and most numerous, the prevail
ing sentiment is that the delegates will
not be hampered in any such way. There
is no likelihood that any but anti-woman
men, however, will get place on the
delegation from either the New York or
the New York East Conference.
Five women succeeded in getting elect
ed as delegates from as many conferences
to the General Conference of 1888. They
were Miss Frances E. Willard, of the
Rock River Conference; Amanda g..
Hind, of the Minnesota Conference;
Angie f. Newman, of the Nebraska Con
ference; and Lizzie ID. Van Kirk, of the
Pittsburg Conference. They were elected
under the Interpretation OF the term
clay" as including both men and women,
but the General Conference was not
ready to let them take their seats.
The decision to exclude the women
was not reached until an animated and
very general discussion had taken place.
J When it was finally decided 10 bar out
the women, it was also resolved that the
question as to their eligibility should be
referred to the entire Church, The
months of October and November, 1890,
were designated as the time when every
member of the Church over twenUy-one
! years Of age, without distinction of sex,
should vote on the question, AS the re-
suit would only be taken as indicating
. the sentiment of the Church, it was
further agreed that all the annual con-
terenCes should also pass Judgment in
like manner on the matter in 1871, the
provision being that, if three-fOurtns of
their number favored the admission of
women, then the General Conference of
1892 would take il up, while fourteen, Il
majority Of the quorum of its members,
should be sufficient TO settle the question.
A representative anti-wOman vote in
the East was cast by the New y ork East
Conference. In the Brooklyn district OF
this conference there are Is churches, q,
OF which took the vote. In the New
York East district there are 20 churche,
81 of which took the vote In the New
York district there are "a churches, IS ol
. which took the vote. The New Haven
; district has 81 churches, n OF which
took the vote. The churches which
failed to vote were in every case che
smallest in the conference The result
of the vote was l,o03 for admitting
women and 1919 against the proposal.