Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-05-08
REV. DIR. t. b. NELLY.

position of the lay delegates. 1t was
to be appointed having equal lay and
ministerial membership the lay dele
gates select their own members of the
committee. This was lost.
Debate on Woman Question.
AT ten o'clock the debate on the
woman question was resumed. Daniel
Stevenson, president of Union college
(kentucky), spoke for the admission of
the women. He said: "The time has
gone by when anybody shall be eN-
cluded from church offices on account
of race, color or SEX"
Rev. DIR. Neeley, of Philadelphia, who
is leading the fight against the women,
said: "This question is not one that
involves chivalry or popular demand.
There is not a man in this house who is
under instructions. We are simply
jurors and no church or conference has
the right to instruct us. Men and
women are one in Christ Jesus, but
they are not one in general conference.
You can't ordain women. 1t is part
of the Methodist constitution that the
governing power is with the men,"
John T. Copies, of Portland, Ore,
said: 81 came from land where the
grand women of the Methodist church
have done SO much for Methodism that
every time we men think of it we take
off our hats"
He told of the great work of the pion-
eer women of the Pacific slope and of
the great church they had built.
Not one church bell would ring, to-
day" he said, "on the Pacific coast, if it
were not for the great sacrifices of the
daughters of the Methodist church"
Mr.. Copies was applauded, and Bishop
Andrews vainly tried to stop it.
James Harlan. of Iowa, ex-United
States senator and member of Lin
coins cabinet said:
ministers and lay men constitute the
| membership of this body The whole ques-
ton turns on the question: Who are the
| lay men? The general conference has de-
| c;ded that lay men are all those who not
| members of the annual conferences.
Women are not members of the annual
| conferences. Now, by what right or what
Interpretation of the law of the church do
| you intend TO keep women out? The word
| lay men means non-professional, and in
| the Methodist church 1t means all mem
hers except those who are professional"
Other warm speeches We're made by
President Harris, of the East Maine
conference; James f. Chaffee. of Mime
apolis; j. r. Day, of New York; Rev. DR..
Emery Miller, of Des Moines; Judge H.
II. Brill, of Minnesota, and others, for
and against the admission of women.
Rev. DIR. Rothweiler, of the Central
German conference, said:
II am looked upon as the representative
i of the Germans. We, as a people, do not
| believe in sentiment, and we think 1t neith-
err right nor constitutional to admit women
to the general conferences. 1t has been
charged that we Germans defeated the
women in the annual conferences. If we
have, 1 am proud of it; l rejoice In it, be-
cause we have saved the lay delegates
If we adopt the majority report you will
demoralize the church,"
Rev. DIR. Charles L. Stafford, of Iowa
moved that vote be taken on the ques.
ton at ten o'clock Wednesday. Rev
III. L. Gray, of ST. Louis, wanted more
time. Rev. Staffords motion ordering
the previous question was laid on the
table.
Conference adjourned until $3.50 a. m
Wednesday, when the debate on the
woman question will be resumed.