The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1902-05-24
THAT WAR CLAIM"
The Methodist Ready to Return the
Money to the Government.
Barbee d Smith and stahlman Condemned
Bishops Hargrove and
Placed on the Retired List.

dist boat has been in stormy waters
today. The war claim" has been the
n persistent, all-absorbing question.
Some legislation has been accom-
plished along a number of other lines,
but no member of the great conference
has allowed this great fight to drop out
of his thought for a moment. This
forenoon practically all Of the dele
gates were in their places on time,
while every foot Of space allowed to
visitors was packed with men and
women eager to watch the hot fight.
Many persons, even among the dele
gates, had expected more or less of bit.
terness and personal feeling to mani
fest itself, but 1t soon became evident
that a spirit of strained fairness pos
sessed all. Every man seemed anx-
ious to yield every point possible with
out a surrender of positive and essen.
tial conviction. Every man was ready
to fight to a finish on two points, and
thes> two points could not be brought
into an agreement. They were, first:
The church must be taken care of,
and, second, as a General Conference
there must be, if possible, concord
agreement. On these two questions
the battle ragged for three hours. The
%snrewdest tacticians crossed swords
with wisest parliamentarians.
DR.. Mahon OF Union City. Tenn.
kept a keen eye on every point in the
struggle. and spoke or made motions
as occasion seemed to demand. Dr..
e. E. Hoss, who, it appears, is certain
to be elected one of the new bishops,
often takes part in the proceedings.
He shows a ready knowledge of rules
governing the body, and hits hard.
Dr.. McMurray Of the St. Louis dis
trict offered a substitute for the mi
nority report on the war claim" mat
ter and DR.. Atkins of Nashville Of
fered an amendment to the McMurray
paper and it went quickly to the table.
The first resolution in the McMurray
paper was debated hotly, and. after
various sundry turns and tactics by
the parliamentarians, was adopted.
The item condemns the action of Bar.
bee and Smith and Stahlman. The
hour of adjournment arrived while the
conference was in the midst of the
contest, and the body adjourned, tC
meet tonight at s o'clock for the fnal
prosecution of the subject.
Another item of wide interest wa:
the request from Bishops Hargrovt
and Cranberry that they be placed OF
in the ineffective list, the infrmitiei
of age rendering it necessary. They
were retired on a salary, or pay, O.
$4,000 per annum.
Minority Report Tabled.
The first action on the war claim
began when DR.. James Cannon, Jr.
of the Virginia Conference, presented
the resolutions which constituted tn,
gist of the minority report to the con
ference and moved their adoption. 4
motion to consider them seriatim pre-
vailed and section l was read. 1t con
demned Maj. Stahlman and the bool
agents. The first test came on a mo
ton TO table the resolution. 1t was
close fight and the ayes and noes
were ordered, but the tabling was &C
complished. The other resolutions
preamble and all, were disposed of in
the same way. r. H. Mahon of Union
City moved that the majority report
be read. This was done.
DR.. G. C. Rankin arose TO a ques
ton of personal privilege. He said
he wished unanimous consent tc
change the verbiage of the majority
report slightly. 1t was granted, and
he made a few verbal changes in the
report concerning the statement OF
the United States Senators hat there
was no necessity for further action in
the matter. At the request of B. F
Lipscomh the resolutions contained in
the minority report were read, DR.
Lipscomb moved that the minority res
olutions be adopted in place of the ma
jority. A motion to take up the reso
lutions seriatim prevailed.
The paper of DR.. McMurray wa;
then read.
The first of the McMurray resolu
tons reiterates the business and valid
ity of the claim of the church against
the government for abuse of its pub
fishing house at Nashville during the
civil war, says the claim was for q
much larger amount, but that s2SS, 00(
was finally accepted by representative;
of the church in full settlement of al
demands. The fact that certain Sen
ators criticised the means by which
the settlement was reached is deploret
and so far as the agents of the churcl
are alleged to have departed from
instructions, their actions are dis
claimed.
The Senate investigating committee
after a full review of the facts, havin!
decided that the church had been in
jured by the misconduct of its agents,
but that the church itself was e~ntirel,
blameless, the bishops having Offered
to take steps to return the money Il
the Senate, by affirmative action, de