The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-13
UNITARIANS ARE AROUSED
 Resent Proposed Exclusion ff Church.
 DR. SsfAGE'S STATEMENT
 Ney Yorker Makes Lurid g Comparison. 1 S l hev. Thomas Slicer, Former Naval Sec retary Long and Others, Exc press Their Opinions Re- EardinG Matter.
DR. S?fAGE'S STATEMENT
Yorker Makes Lurid
 Comparison.

New York, Oct. 12.--At meeting or the legislative committee of tho Inter- Church conference on Federation in this city today. it was decided to make public the correspondence out of which has grown the discussion on the sub ject of the exclusion of the Unitarian denomination from the conference. The Inter-church conference will be held in this city in November. The Ameri- can Unitarian Association, the na- tional organization of the denomina- tion, selected three delegates to attend the conference, namely, Rev. Edward Hale, chaplain of the United states Sen ate; ex-Secretary of the Navy John ID. Long of Massachusetts, and Dr. samuel A Elliot, who Is son of President Eliot of Harvard.
 Members of the Executive Commit- tee. which was presided over by Rev. w. H. Roberts of Philadelphia, declar- ed the original letter of invitation was not sent to the Unitarians, nor to the Catholics. Neither of the latter two denominations, it was asserted, has taken any action in the matter.
 The correspondence division includes the original letter of invitation and the text of letters exchanged between Dr. Eliot of the proposed Unitarian dele gation and pr. E. B. Sanford, Secretary of the Federation of Churches, who Is acting for the Inter-Church Confer ence. Dr. Eliot said that as the free Christian Churches were included in the membership of the State Federa- tions of Massachusetts and Rhode Isl and, the Unitarians had assumed the general invitation of the lnter-Church xx- AAA Q- ton. During the summer. however, he had learned the Unitarians might not be welcomed and he wrote to ask 1T these rumors had any Justification.
 pr. Eliot declared it was impossible for him to believe that the coming conference, would exclude the repre- sentatives of the churches that stand peculiarly for the unsectarian prine- pies iri American religious life. pr, Eliot called attention, to the personnel of the Unitarian delegation, saying that ex- Secretary Eong and Dr. Hale were among the most beloved and trusted of Christian leaders.
 Replying to this letter. Secretary Sanford wrote:
 The Committee on Correspondence felt constrained to limit to some ex- tent the sending out of invitations to denominational bodies asking them to appoint delegates to the coming Inter- Church Coincidence on Federation. This action was taken after only serious consideration, and I am confident that the conference would decline to re- open the discussion of the matter. l need scarcely add that this decision was no way personal"
 It was stated today that the letter of Dr. Sanford had been informally approved by the Executive Committee Dr. Roberts made the following state ment about the matter:
 ''The invitations to the conference were issued to the churches which 1t was felt were in sufficient agreement one with another to receive help in the line of federation. The Unitarian churches were omitted. The work of issuing the invitations and organiz- ing the conference has been under way two years. There Is no purpose to ari- tagonize any church. but to bring to- gether for the discussion of plans of cooperation such churches as are now in close fellowship and for the attain ment of great moral and good ends. The conference represents 1s,o0o,00o communicants and a. least 50,000,000 of adherents of the distinctly Protest- ant and evangelical group of Christian churches. Unitarians do not belong to this group"