Omaha daily bee., 1904-10-15
Vote Stands Fifty-Five Yea, :
Nay and Sixteen Are Div
DIVIDED VOTES COUNTED IN THE !
Committee of the Whole Reports Favorably
by Vote of 2l4 to l9l'
PROVISIONS OF PROPOSED AMENDMENT
under It's Terms Clergy would Not BE
Allowed TO Remnrry Divorced
Persons While Former
Partner il Living.

Partner il Living.
BOSTON, Oct 14-The house OF deputies
of the Episcopal general conVentloh' AT
the close of four days debate todaJ re-
jected an amendment to the divorce canon
which sought to prevent remarriage OF dl-
vorced persons by clergymen OF the de-
nomination. While the house of bishops
may yet act on the matter, it is certain
that no change will be made by the pres
ent convention.
The present law of the church, which mas
been in operation since 1853, allows the re-
marriage of the innocent party to a divorce
granted for infidelity. AT other conven-
tions attempts have been made to repeal
this law. and when a vote was taken today
by the house of deputies, sitting as com
mittee of the whole, on the question of
reporting the proposed amendment to the
house itself, the reformers were successful
by vote of IA to 191, and this vote was
regarded as representing the actual strength
of the contending forces.
The final vote, however, was taken by
dioceses and orders, and where diocese
was evenly divided in sentiment It's strength
was counted In the negative The vote by
diocese was: Clerical. for the amendment
80; against. 2l; divided, 10. Lay vote: For,
20; against "a; divided, 6.
Practically the entire strength of the mid
die western states, the stronghold of the
high church party, declared for the pro-
posed reform, but the Pacific states and
number of the southern states voted
against a change of the present canon
The diocese of New York opposed the
amendment while that of Pennsylvania
.rlr.,
New Hampshire and western Massachu-
sets they voted for change. did the
lay deputies from Rhode Island. The cler-
ical deputies from Maine favored the
amendment. but tho votes of Connecticut
and Massachusetts were negative The is
sue was not a party one, although the
whole strength of the high church forces
vas given to the reform movement. The
president of the house of deputies, Rev DR.,
r. II. McKim of Washington, voted for the
old canon, although the clerical vote of his
diocese supported the proposed change.
The convention will have no session to-
morrow s,--.--~---
Proceedings in Detail.
The divorce question again was to come
before the house of deputies OF the Episco-
pal general convention today.
At meetings of the Woman's auxiliary of
the board of missions Bishops Brooke of
Oklahoma and Indian Territory, Graves of
Shanghai China and Rowe of Alaska
were scheduled to make addresses
Tie committee on the state of the church
reported TO the house of deputies that it
had been unable to define the terms, com
municant," as requested by the diocese of
Albany. Upon the recommendation of the
committee "A special committee was ap-
point u to reEcrt to the next convention
on the subject.
: proposition bearing on changing the
name of the church came before the house
when the committee on prayer book re-
ported that it considered 1t inexpedieot to
strike the words Protestant Episcopal
from the title page of the prayer book. in
view of the fact that the joint commission
appointed three years ago to consider a
change In the name of the church had re-
ported In favor of making no change at
this time.
The committees report was upon a reso-
luton to strike the two words from the
prayer book, introduced by Rev b. Talbot
Rogers OF Fond du Lac, Wis. Mr.. Rogers
moved that his resolution be placed on the
calendar This action was ordered and the
matter viii be discussed later
Rev. DR.. Reece Alsop of BROOKLYN. I'm
presenting the report of a special commit
tee to consider request1 for the use of tie
revised version of tho Bible in churchs w.
recommended the use of the Westminster
bible at morning and evening prayer The
report will. be discussed later.
IL. ID. Adler, a lawyer OF Kansas City
announced that he would vote for the pro-
posed canon on divorce and marriage and
entered protest against what he termed
attempts to decide the divorce issue ON
party lines in the church by some of the
supporters of the old canon.
Remarriage Key TO Divorce.
The house of deputies resumed the dis
cussion this afternoon
Chief Justice ]. II. Stiness OF the Rhode
Island supreme court said he desired to
make clear what the present law is and
what II is not. The old law declared there
could be no remarriage except for the inno-
cent person. The most prominent evil was
the fact that the innocent person in most
all cases could not be learned He said:
We need not go out of this diocese TO cali
up notable instance of scandal which bo-
came possible TO the present law. You
prevent all possible reconciliation by allow
Ing the innocent person TO remarry, and
II is possible in some cases. according TO a
decision OF the supreme court as to juris-
diction, to marry persons who have never
been divorced.
The speaker was profoundly convinced
there was no way in which the divorce
could be stopped except by preventing re-
marriage. Three-quarters or nine-tenths OF
the divorces were obtained for the sole pur-
pose OF permitting a remarriage.
Rev DIR. William r. Huntington of New
York said that all the delegates were
agreed as to the sanctity of matrImony and
the evils OF divorce and declared that the
whole question was how the integrity OF
the family may be best preserved He
thought the present law offered the solu-
tion.
The speaker said while matrimony Is
an estate, II is also contract. When the
contract Is annulled the union Is broken.
II the church wished 10 influence the leRis
lators Il must do II in conjunction with the
Protestant denominations. II the Episeopal
church took the proposed step II would be
placed outside OF the interdenominational
conference and the church's influence would
be nil"
The closing argument in favor of the old