The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-04-13
EW YORK EAST CONFERENCE
WILL NOT PETITION STATE LEGIS-
 L4TURES.
Citizenship is Lost by MovinS-Min- tsters, as a Body, Refuse to Use Their
 Influence in Legislative Councils
 Constitution of Church to be Con-
sidered To-morroyv.

lnHuenCb HI
 Constitution of Church to be Com
 sidered Tomorrow.
 New York, April 12. - The New York East conference or the Methodist Episcopal church put ltseh on record yesterday as opposed to peti- tioning any state legislature on ques- liens of moral reform. It was pointed out that the ministers of the Methodist Episcopal church are continually moved from place to place, and as body, are not to give utterance on questions or what shall be the laws of any section
 This decision followed the presenta- ton of a petition drawn up in the name of the conference and addressed to the general assembly of Connecticut against the substitute bill, now before that body, limiting the temperance educa- tion in the Connecticut public schools to six years and discontinuing the pres ent instruction on the subject in the first three primary grades and in the high school.
 Upon motion of Rev. pr. James M. Buckley the petition was laid upon the table indefinitely. In giving his reasons for opposing the measure pr. Buckley said:
 'Is it policy for this conference to take hold of any such thing? Such &C., tion I say would divide the conference, the church and the coWmunity. We would find it the biggest Nsort of a job to define the stand we take. Where in this body are there doctors, bactereol- ogists, pathologists and scientists? These are the only sort of men who can determine at what ages temperance should be impressed upon the minds of the children.
 Besides this, is not the body compos- ed, as it is, to give utterance on such question? Appointment from place to place has been responsible for the dis franchisenent of many ministers. Even men of this body who now live in Con- necticut aresnot allowed to vote. Per sons enjoying all the privileges of citi- zenship should be the ones to petition the legislature.
 MINISTER'S DISFRANCHISED.
 "Why, for seven years I have been disfranchised. Although I am daily at work in this city they will not let me go lO AlUduy lO dIS uS o6NiiioI .iiS "D surd laws they are producing there. live in Jersey.
 ,"It is wrong to suppose that because the trustees of this conference are an incorporated body under the laws of Connecticut that it's individual members have the right of citizenship there" \ Tomorrow morning at 10 the con ference will pass upon the new consti- tution of the church as compiled by special committee and handed down by order of the last general conference for acceptance or rejection by the annual conference. It takes a two-thirds vote of the body to pass the new articles, and 1t is the general impression among the ministers in Brooklyn that they will not be accepted by the New York East conference. Already the majority of the spring conference have adopted them.
 There are two new articles in the con- stitution which will be generally discus sed, the admission of women as dele gates to the general conference and the Incorporation of the laity with the clergy in effecting future constitutional changes.
 The new constitution had its birth in the general conference of 1888, but not until the general conference of 1900, in Chicago, was it completed. The reason for it's compilation was the growing be- lief among church leaders that Metho- dism was not governed by methodized code of laws.