The San Francisco call., 1895-11-15
1t Was Decided to Appropriate
One Million Dollars for Next
Years Work.
REDUCTIONS WERE OPPOSED.
Treasurer Sanford Hunt Made an In.
teresting Disclosure Concerning
Debt of the Past.

DENVER, CoLo, Nov. 1.-THE formal
sessions of the General Missionary Confer
ence of the Methodist Episcopal church
began to-day in the Trinity Church, which
is known as the largest and finest Metho-
dist church edifce IN the world. Bishop
Joyce called the meeting to order and DR..
). +. Upham read chapter from the Bible
and offered the opening prayer.
The rollcall showed a very full attend
ance, the important absentees peing
Bishop Hurst, detained by death in his
family; DR.. Buckley, by illness of men,
Der OF his household, and DR.. L. ii. Burch,
by the death of his son, who died while
the doctor was en- route to Denver.
Dr. 0. Il. Baldwin was elected secretary,
and DIR. Sanford Hunt, the treasurer, read
his report, which was accepted. 1t was
decided to name special committee, con-
sisting OF one Bishop and other members
of the general committee, to whom the
different applications for special appro-
priations should be referred.
The days business was the serious prob
lem OF how much to appropriate for mis-
slons, how to divide the sum, and how to
provide for the debt, now amounting to
$250,000.
The debate upon this subject occupied
nearly the eutire morning session, and it
was extremely spirited. 1t was decided to
appropriate 81 ZOO, 900 for missions next
year, As per cent for home and 55 per cent
for foreign missions. To divide the sum for
home missions, general rule was estab-
Hshed TO scale down the appropriation of
a ct I1ctT oil
stances for special leniency to the special
committee previously named. Few con-
ferences, however, escaped the per cent
cut, the Black Hills district being one of
the few excepted.
In the discussion on the main question,
Bishop Foss said that if a reduction of the
amount to 81 100000 meant the recall of a
single missionary, he was opposed to it.
DR.. Shier objected to any reduction of any
kind. Bishop Fowler objected to all efforts
to reduce the appropriation, and denounced
the insidious attempts of those behind the
movement to reduce it. He said that he
knew the day when the total expenditures
did not exceed $450,00o, and the debt was
s26o, 600, over 60 per cent of the receipts,
and yetthey managed to get along without
trouble.
DR.. Sanford Hunt, the treasurer, said
that he would make public for the first
time that there was period when the
society owed debt of $514,000 and that
every dollar of this was represented by a
note signed by him. This was carefully
kept from the public lest some newspaper
should discover it and with flaming head
lines announce the fact that the society
owed over half million dollars He sug-
gested an appropriation of $950,000 for
missions, $4,000 for other expenses, and
100000 toward reducing the debt, total
of 81, 169, 900, which is within $4,000 of last
years receipts.
Many motions were made and parlia-
mentary tactics were used to prevent the
proposition to set the fund at 81, 900, 900,
but it finally prevailed. The distribution
of the home mission fund was not COM
pleted to-day.