The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-06
IA BISHOP @ NEGRg!!RACE Suggestion Frs Methodist c <srence. THE LOS ANGELES MEETING Churches of North and South
 Closer Together. Publication of Common Hymnar and
 catechism Will Carry Forward
 the Work for More Fra ternal Relations.

J Los Angeles, Calif., May 5--The Metho.
 oist General Conference held two sessions
 tooay, the morning session being devoted
 to the reading of the quadrennial ad.
 dress of the board of bishops of the M E. Church to the general conference l and the afternoon to the receipt and reference of memorials of the various an-
 nual conferences. The morning session was presided over by Bishop Henry w. | Warren and the afternoon session by
 Bishop J. M. Walden.
 The various committees got together
 during the early morning hours and elect
 ed their respective chairmen, and secre- | taries. but as there was no business be-
 fore them, an adjournment was taken
 until tomorrow. Beginning tomorrow the
 general conference will hold sessions only
 in the morning.
 | pr. George Elliott of Detroit, presented
 memorial to the effect that the com | mittee on episcopacy consider the ad- visibility of the election of a coiored f bishop. He said that he believed that | the M. E. Church had reached a crisis
 in its relations with the colored race To Hold 300,0OO Negroes. 'If we are to hold the 100000 colored | membership we now have" said he, we ought to give them some sort of leader. l ship which they understand and trust. | ana WHICH unOefStanQS them. I Charles P. McClelland of New York, lay delegates, spoke in opposition to pr. | Elliott's resolution. Mir. McClelland said l he was very sorry that this resolution
 was offered at this time, that if the church has a crisis in It's relations with
 the colored people 1t was brought about I by just such resolutions as this He be- | lieved that the race question had been | brought before the conference entirely too much, and he said he hoped the pres
 ent conference would put an end to this | agitation. He was willing. he said, to see any man elevated to this episcopal honor. regardless of color. when that man should attain to such worth and distinction as would warrant this high I recognition.
 Sunday Newspapers. | A resolution was offered by Rev. Hor- ace Jacobs. of Central Pennsylvania Con- l ference. to request the publishers of The Daily Christian Advocate, the official or gan of the conference, to withdraw from It's advertising columns all reference to Sunday newspapers,
 l One of the publishers of The Advocate gave assurances to the conference that if the resolution should be withdrawn there would be no further cause for complaint, on that score.
 The reading of the quadriennial address Of the bishops of the Methodist Church to the general conference was the fea- ture of the days session. Bishop Cyrus D. Foss. of Philadelphia. read the ad- dress. It elaborately reviewed the statis- tical records of the past four years and set before the conference many of the current problems which the church Is facing. The present membership of the church was reported as 3.031, ,9lS. an in- 0f ha The Sunday schools include an aggregate membership of 3.124,644.
 Relations With Southern Church.
 The relations between the M. E. Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church Sroth were declared to be growing more fraternal and intimate. A common hym- ral a common catachism, and a uni- form order of service are almost ready for publication, and those will draw the bodies still more closely together.
 The suggestion was made that some mutual arrangement should be made whereby transfer of ministers and mem- bcrs from one of these denominations to the other should be expedited and made easy.
 Warnings were given against the cur rent evils of the time. political corrup- tion, the liquor traffic, the tyranny of trades unionism, the greed of unscrupu- lous employers lynching. the negro ques- ton and Mormonism. A recommendation was made that a new chapter on popu- lar amusements be added to the discip- llne. admonishing Methodists to guard their spiritual life and to avoid such amusements as have a dangerous or de- nloraliZing tendency. The chapter is in- tended to take the place of the present paragraph Number PAS. which occasioned much discussion at the general confer erce at Chicago four years ago.