The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-11-09
WOMAN SUES BISHOP FOR ALLEGED LIBEL Grew Out of Letter on Home
 Missions IS PAINED AND HURT Mrs. Murray Left $1O,0O0 to Society Which, Bishop Moore Alleges,
 Mrs. Cope Attempted -,. to Confiscate
IS PAINED AND HURT

l Topeka, Kan, November S.-The con troversy between Bishop David II. Moore of the Methodist Episcopal church and Mrs Carrie D. Cope of To- peka, growing out O. the formation by Mrs. Cope of an auxiliary of the national branch of the Women's Home Missionary society of the Methodist Episcopal church, reached a crisis when suit for s50,0O0 damages against the bishop was filed today. Charges are made to the conference of bishops by Mrs. Cope alleging that Bishop Moore had libelled her in H letter on the subject of a bequest of $10,000 left to tho Women's Home Mission society by Mrs Fannie Murray of Atchison coun- ty, Kansas.
 l Mrs. Cope alleges that the letter was calculated to injure her "as citizen, as a wife, as mother and as a Chris tian."
 She declares that she has been hu-
 initiated. pained and hurt.
 l The suit was filed after futile con- ference of four Methodist Episcopal bishops, Charles w. Smith. Portland
 Ore. James F. Berry, Buffalo; John Nuelson, Omaha, and David II. Moore, Cincinnati, where today in the hope that the trouble between Mrs. Cope and Bishop Moore could be ironed out
 The letter to which Mrs. Cope object ed was. addressed to an official of the Women's Home Mission society It was dated Abiline. Kan, March IS. 1911
 and read:
 Tt is Friday and Mrs. Cope has not appeared. I have carefully gone over all papers, conferred with the cab inet and with Mrs. Knosten and the officers of the auxiliary and pondered over the situation. think you will never see a cent of the bequest and a dangerous precedent will be estab- lished unless you energetically sustain the Kansas conference pushing tEe matter to a legal conclusion No society authorized by the chu-cn, however in- corporated, can rightfully supplant | your auxiliary. This the Cope society | has undertaken to do. and this only.
 What complicates the situation is the fact that Mrs. Cope, apart from this, holds official relations to your society; Is appointed to some function of your socie- | ty. Thus she is enabled to pose as an official and to disturb the work of your
 regular organization. She should be re- l lieved of all such relations at the earliest | possible moment. AS to the bequest noth- | ing comes of all her promises. Nothing
 will in my judgment. MT. Jackson, while
 seeming to act for her, has set on the
 heirs to bring suit for the property. You
 are juggled, tricked and beaten. Sincerely l yours, DAVID H. MOORE. 2
 "P. S.-Will return the papers after the l bishops meeting"
 The trouble which precipitated the pres
 ent controversy started over bequest | of Fannie Murray of Atchison county
 several years ago. Mrs. Murray provided | a deed to properly show she owned prop erty worth s20,00O in California. The deed | was made to H. M. Jackson, an Atchl- son county attorney. Upon her death the
 deed provided that half of the property | should go to the Women's Home Mis-
 sionary society of the Kansas conference
 of the Methodist Episcopal church. | There was no such society, the one to
 which Mrs. Murray belonged being the
 Women's Home Missionary Society of
 the Methodist Episcopal Church of the | Kansas conference. Later Mrs. Cope and | others are said to have organized and | incorporated society named in accord ance with the terms of Mrs. Murray's s | bequest and MT. Jackson Is said to have paid this society the sum of s450O of the | SIC, ,000 permanent fund. This is said to have been invested. When new officers of the Kansas society were elected about | gency fund existed and the new officers l demanded the money. This, it is averred, was refused. A suit to recover the money l followed