The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-10
CHAMPIONS STRIKERS.
URGES FELLOW METHODISTS no
GIVE PRINTERS A HEARING. Il
Stirs Up New York Fast conference.-the
Buckley DenOunoes the Borough Presi'
dent as n Butter In, while Others Tell
what a Nice Brother They Have ip COler

Typopraphical Union No. O continued
Yesterday to be a thorn in the flesh of the
New York East Methodist COME rence in
session in tbs New York avenue church in
Brooklyn. The union is fighting the Metho-
dist Book Concern for not yielding to the
printers in the strike against the TypothetR.
Yesterday the union invoked the aid of a
Methodist layman, tho Hon. Bird s. Coler,
who, despite his well known reluctance to
net into the limelight, willingly took the
conference totask fornot giving tho printers
O hearing, although the conference had no
jurisdiction regarding thu printers COM
plant.
No. 8 has now troubled the Mcthodlsts in
three sessions. The first vas when DR..
Eaton of the Book Concern felt called upon
~toexplain that his house had set up whtskey
advertisements unwittingly The next was
when a letter from the printers was read
This accomplished nothing but to STIR up
the preachers and make them uncom-
Portable. Yesterday came "A letter from
Coler. He is a member of the New YORK
avenue church. Politically he likes labor
people. Bishop McCabe had the letter in
his pocket when business began. lie asked
n he should read it.. Soma of the ministers
ella mored for It, IF it isn't blasphemous,'
ae one of them said, thereby forgetting
that Mr.. CoIcr was a Methodist church
member.
MIR. Coler's letter began by saying that
he was a simple layman" of the Church.
He said he thought that the conference
had done wrong not to listen to the printers
and charged that rich men and corpora
tons were trying to iniue the honest work.
ingman. He told all about the controversy
and said that "A failure to grant the hearing
will do immense damage to the cause we
ell have at heart, and will greatly diminish,
II IL does not altogether destroy, the IN
fIuenoe Of the Methodist Church among
the masses of the public
Coler said the Methodist Church was the
Church of the poor and the plain peoplo
IL should take notice of charges of the
sgrossest hypocrisy" The printers were
going TO carry this fight to the highest
Methodist tribunal, the General Confer
ence, and the Church could not afford to
put itself in the attitude of hostility to.
organized labor without driving from it
It's own children
The Rev. DR., Buckley was on his feet
as soon as the reading was finished. He
denounced Mr.. Coler az ~butter-in;' He
said a layman from Montauk Point had as
much right to address the conference in
this way. He spoke at great length, dis
secting the Color letter point by point and
explaining that Mr.. Coler had never in
vestigated the matter himself. The Rev.
Or. Downey. who has been crossing swords
with DR.. Buckley in the conference, wanted
TO stop Buckley. Buckley wouldn't have
II and said nothing but a policeman could
stop him: ~, ir,orrurtsd tho ,oroe-
1 shall speak" said DIR. Buckley.
After DR.. Buckley had finally finished DR..
Downey pleasantly said that uine-tenths
OF what DR.. Buckley had said was historic,
unnecessary and entirely irrelevant He
Coler Thereupon the printers strike was
lost sight Of and Brother Coler became an
issue.
The Rev. Francis j. Mcconnell, Brother
Coler's pastor, got NJ, and told what p good
Mr.. Coler had given thousands of dollars
to the Church. The Rev. A. S. Kavanagh,
sllperintendent of the Methodist Hospital,
and a former pastor OF Mr.. Coler, said that
the amount Mr., Coler had given was $4,000.
He added
we ali know Mr., CoIer as a generous and
a faithful Methodist.
No one said a word about Mr.. Coler as a
politician and union labor advocate. Or.
Downey wanted word sent to Mr.. Coler
that his letter was received with thanks
IlN1 IId ' 10 go W i'il VNAI'-
ton in the premises. Thu letter was re-
ferred to the book committee, with in
structions to bring it before the general
committee IL thought advisable. The con-
ference also voted to be polite to Brother
Coler, but not until Or. Buckley had this
fling at him;
Brother Coler should know that We
have been threatened again and again.
were threatened by the Republican
marty that il the Christian Advocate did not
A - ---tNtAVa. ~ - Vtarl- - 30
platform we would lose thousands OF sub
scribers. We did not heed the threat, and
we have to say that we were never threat
ened by the Democratic party, for the
reason probably that it had too much
dolicacy to send such a letter. The brother
had q right to send this letter, but if he
had consulted his discipline he could have
saved his stenographer some trouble"
Mr.. Coler later in the day handed out a
statement telling why he had sent the
letter. He said that he did it because he
did not Thick tn, Church should mix in
business ard the refore should explain
It's position. Some OF thu clergy said after
ward that If Mr.. Coler's proposition to
In We stiga to the printers troubles, over
which they had no jurisdiction, was not
what it would be and they could not under
stand what Mr.. Colar meant.
The ca 50 of the Rev. H. S. h. Smith, "A
s~uperannuated preacher who has been
preaching in Congregational churches,
up as usual before the conference
and it was decided TO ask him to take a
location or settle" DR.. Buckley moved
for a commission of three to act with a like
commission from the New York conference
to devisa a plan to n vent struggling
from mortga ging their properties
so a s to dissiyate them. This was adopted.
II was also decided to appoint a secretary
to a commission to try to raise 5000 900 for
the supper of s~upcrannuated preachers.
The Rev. Charles II. Grubb of Trinity
Methodist Church in Harlem said that
Jews we're driving cut his people and he
wanted some method devised to keep the
church going. The matter was referred
to the beard Of trustees. The conference
also agreed TO receive a delegation from,
the Sands Street NJ. f. Church asking that
q rev pastor, irstcad of the Rev. George
NJ. Brown, he sent to it. The organ list
threatens to 90 If the pastor doesn't, and
the congregation prefers the orga mist to
the minister.
The afternoon session yesterday was
over 10 memorial services for clergy
men who had died in the year, and last
anniversary exercises of the Con-
ference Temperance Society were held,
the leading speaker being the Rev. DR.. c.
A. Crane of Boston. L
The conference is expected to close to-