The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1913-09-26
And New. Plan is to Be Con
sidered lat Protestant
Episcopal ConventioK

The General Convention of the
Protestant Episcopal church, which
meets in New York October e, VIII
pc thejoccasion- Of q determined eff
fort on the part Of the larger do
ceses in the country to change the
plan OF representation in the House
of Disputes. The change win be adj
yocated on the ground that the pres
ent plan Of representation is unjust,
ineqnitable. undemocratic and un-
Amrlcan.
One OF the leaders in this move
ment is the Rev. DR.. Randolph H.
McKim, OF Washington. now the
president OF the House Of Deputies.
AT the annual convention Of the.
Diocese of Washington which was
held in May Of this year, Or. McKim
introduced resolutions which were
adopted and which have served to
start the agitation that may come
before the convention.
In the preamble to his resolutions,
DIR. McKim set forth that under the
system OF representation now exist
ing in the church, dioceses that have
Hess than 5000 communicates have
as many representatives and as many
votes in the House of Deputies as
those dioceses which contain $4,000
or even 10000 commandments.
Legislation adopted under these
conditions said DIR. MeKim yester-
Eday, emay utterly fan to reflect the
mind of the church, and may, there
fore, fail to command the loyal sup
.lport of the several dioceses. More
over, should any vital issue OF
Christian doctrine or ritual, or ec-
cleiastical policy, upon which the
mind of the church was sharply d.
lvided. be decided by technical ma
jority of votes which really repre-
scented a small minority of commu-
nicants, the peace and unity of the
church is seriously imperilled.
There is a widespread demand
that our present undemocratfc and
un-American system, which is a.
trayesty upon representative govern
ment, shaneBe changed.
by agreeing upon a certain num-
her of clergymen in a diocese as the
unit, in a vote by dioceses and or
ders, and by adopting the fractional
system of voting in the smaller do
ceses, it is possible to approximate.
equality of representation without
reducing or increasing the present
number of deputies from the al
Geese. The representation in the
House of Bishops, as it stands at
present, aproximates sufficiently the
!. principles of the equality Of the di-
oceses. after the analogy of the
United States Senate. The case has
been cited time and time again OF
the diocese of Lexington which has
twenty-five clergy and 1887 com
municants and has the same voting
power as the diocese of New York,
for example, with 412 clergy and
S6,25O communicates.
| Under the present system of rep
! resentation. the two dioceses of Viz
/ GINA and Southern Virginia, with
19S clergy and 31,20S communi-
cants have in the general convention
sixteen votes, while the six dioceses
OF Kansas City, indianapolis, Spring
field, Dallas, Delaware and Duluth,
with 1S6 clergy and "a PES commu-
nicants, have forty7eight votes. 4 do
not think It Is necessary for me to
refer to any other examples to show
the injustice and un-Americanism
of the present system Of representa-
tion.,' IN,
/ The Diocesan Convention at1
Washington by resolution autborized
committee Of three clergy and two
laymen to prepare memorial to the
general convention asking that body
TO take immediate steps to remedy
detects. A few weeks later the d.
Geese of Maryland passed similar
resolution and these were quickly
followed by resolutions OF the Di-
Geese of Southern Virginia.
/ The convention meets for three
weeks in the grounds of the Cathe-
dral of St. John the Divine and dur
ing those weeks the men who want
the plan of representation changed
will work constantly to carry out
their wishes.