The Saint Paul globe., 1900-05-15
slap At TBE PRESIDENT
REPORT OF TEMPERANCE COMMIT
TEE OF THE NJ. E. CONFERENCE
SO PRONOUNCED
COULD NOT BE SUPPRESSED
MEMBERS INSISTED THAT CON
FERENCE COULD NOT SHIELD
AN INDIVIDUAL
IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN WORSE
So Said One Delegate Commenting g
Upon the RepOrt-AdOpted After
a Heated DiscussiOn-Other
Work of the Day.

CHICAGO, May 14.-The NJ E. general
conference committe on temperance, of
which Samuel Diclkie, of Michigan, is
chairman, and of which Congressman
Johnson, of North Dakota, a champion
Of the anti-canteen law, is a member,
adopted resolutions today which, in the
minds of a number of the convention, at
least, is a direct slap at President McKin-
ley, because of his acquiesence in the de-
cision of Attorney General Griggs de-
claring the law ineffective.
The resolutions are a portion of the
report of a subcommittee into whose
hands the task of preparing the commit
tees report to the general conference
had been placed, and was adopted in the
face of a motion to substitute for it a
minority report from DR.. Jacob E. Price,
of the New York conference, after a two
hours debate, in which the members al
ternately arraigned and championed
President Mckinley in his stand on the
anti-canteen law The report read as fol-
lows:
I'VE are, however chagrined humiI-
lated and exasperated by the puerile and
absurd construction placed upon the anti
canteen law, so called by the attorney
general of the United States, and with all
due respect to his station we record the
fact that we are panied and disappointed
at the course of the president in accept
ing as final an opinion without binding
force. Such an abuse of power is multi
flcation in its most dangerous form.
Upon the president, as commander-in-
chief of our army, rests the responsible
1ty for the canteen saloon, an evil which
he has ample power to suppress. and
which, to quote the Episcopal address
is more deadly foe to the soldier than
bullet or trOpic heat
We urge upon the president an early
exercise of the power vested in him to
the end that the authority of the govern
ment, instead Of being used to place
temptation before the soldier, shall be
used to save him, as far as possible from
the moral hazards incident to military
life
While because of an oversight on the
present secretary this report was not
signed, Chairman Evans, of the Central
Illinois conference, stated that the follow
ing members had been favorable to the
report: Chairman Evans, Prof J. w.
Bashford, Cincinnati; Samuel Dlckie, ed
itor of the New Voice; Herbert T. Ames,
of the Central Pennsylvania conference,
and DR.. George StockwelI, of the Troy.
N. Y, conference.
Delegate M. N. Johnson had objected to
some sections of the general report con-
cerning states, and DR.. Price had pre-
pared minority report on the three par
agraphs referring to the president The
minority report consisted of a quotation
from the Episcopal address, and read as
follows:
Aroused and indignant at the aggres-
siohs Of the liquor power; at the tneXcus-
able miscarriage of the canteen law. and
at the new perils in which the nation is
involving its new possessions, the church
will summon and pledge all our ministers
and people to a more determined struggle
against this enormous evil and urge each
to contribute thereto according to his
Judgment, his testimony, his example and
his ballot"