The Sentinel=record., 1912-05-04
MAY CHANCE
 DISCIPLINE
METHoDlSTs DISCUSS DANCING AND OTHER ADJUSTMENTS
 AND MAY ALLOW THESE.
Hot Springs WtlI Be Visited by Bsh- op A. w. Chandler on Novem- Der 20. During the Epis-
 copal Visitation.

Minneapolis, Minn., May 3.-Mnis ters of the Methodist Episcopal church appeared to be about equally divided tonight on the question wheth- CT one church law prohibiting danc- ing, card playing, gambling and go- ing to theaters, circuses and horse races should be abolished as recom- mended by the board of bishops.
 On the ground that their investi- gations showed that two-thirds of the l 3,250,000 members of the church either danced or went to circuses and theaters without regarding it as be- ing sinful, the bishops declared the church law against these diversions in force for 40 years had become ob- solete.
 They asserted that while the church would continue to protest against these forms of amusement still it was better not to have any specific law on the subject than to have law which was ineffective.
 John Wesley's injunction, leaving the amusement question to the con science of individuals, the 24 active bishops declared was the wisest reg ulation for Americans of the twen. tieth century"
 A demonstration which greeted Bishop Earl Cranston's reading of the recommendation was taken as indi i eating a lively debate on the ques- tion when it comes up for a vote
 Arguments against continuing the anti-amusement as presented, were: The majority of church goers never have refrained from dancing and the aters because Of the church and the violation of this rule has tended to bring all church discipline into con tempt; that many people regard such Shakespeare on the stage as being as good as Shakespeare in book; that many people refuse to condemn all places because of some of them just as much as they would refuse to | condemn all novels because some novels are not proper; that gambling Is fundamentally wrong and does not need rule to prohibit it.
 ,&. erv ,Io were:
 That it's abolshment would give the impression the church was tend ing toward laxity and was endorsing the things which it formerly opposed, that abolishment of the rule would remove restrictions which held people from those forms of the rule would remove restrictions which held peo- ] pie from those forms of amusements In adopting a resolution offered by James ", Anderson of Ke0kuk, iowa, deuouncing Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson for accepting the hon orary chairmanship of brewers con. gross, in congress last october, the conference declared President Taft, Secretary Wilson and Secretary Knoy, has forfeited all claims on the flu | ture franchise of the Christian and sober manhood of the nation,' be- cause they had ignored appeals that no government official attend the congress. Secretary Wilson's expla- nation that he attended the congress because he was interested in the growth of hops and barley was de. scribed as 'an insult and frivolous. ''
 The conference today appointed a commission of 30 delegates to Col slider the demand of some of the nc. gro delegates that they be given a negro bishop to supervise the affairs of 325.000 members of their church in southern states,
 Episcopal Visitation Here.
 Nashville, May 3,-The entire Meth odist Episcopal church South, is in terested in the plan of the Episcopal visitation which was announced this afternoon following the meeting ot the board of missions, which is now in session in Nashville. The plan oi visitation as announced for tho church year is as follows:
 Bishop A. w. Wilson-Lynchburg Va. November 13: Savannah. Ca. November 27; Union Springs, Ala, December f.
 Bishop E P. Birmingham Ala, November 1a Mexican Border mission, Allende, Mexico, February 5 1913; Central Mexican Mission. Sar