Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-10-22
METHODIST CHURCH
OFFICIAL ENDORSES
.C.BRUMBAUGH
DR.. Parkin Repudiates Action of
Temperance Convention Er-
dorsing Mccormick


the action of the Philadelphia Camden
Methodist preachers meeting in its
endorsement of Clifford Pinchot for
Senator and Vance C. Mccormick for
Governor in q letter to the Philadel-
phia Public Ledger.
Doctor Parkin comes out squareIy
for DIR. Martin G. Brumbaugh, Repub-
lican candidate for Governor, and
criticises as misguided temperance
men" those of his fellow ministers
who influenced the Methodist Preach
ers' meeting to endorse Pinchot and
Mccormick.
Doctor Parkin says that Bishop
Joseph f. Berry has intimated to
friends that the endorsement of GER
tain candidates by the Methodist
preachers meeting was an unwise
proceeding.
The endorsement referred to by
Doctor ParlSin appeared in a set of
resolutions presented by the Rev. DR..
John Watchorn, of Frankford at the
Methodist preachers meeting in Wes-
ley Hall on October 5. On that occa-
sion the Rev. DR.. Thomas w. McKenty
and the Rev. DR.. Charles Wesley Green
opposed Doctor Watchorn's resolution,
but with these exceptions it received
the unanimous vote of the Methodist
preachers.
Doctor Parkin's protest, which he
writes under the caption, Are the
Methodists Opposed to Doctor Brum-
baugh?" follows:
ITO the Editor of the Public Ledger:
"Sir-The Methodist Episcopal
Church is conceded to be the largest
Protestant body in the United States.
The same is certainly true as to its
place in this keystone State of Penn
sylvania. From the days of John Wes-
ley until this present hour no church
has been more pronounced against
the liquor traffic in all it's forms.
I'm the present nationwide cam
paign in favor, first, of local option,
and, later of national prohibition, the
Methodist preachers voice and influ-
battle against King Barleycorn. He is
ready to serve in the trenches, to
charge with the cavalry troop, to
man siege gun or do scouting service
in an aeroplane.
preachers, however, like laymen,
divide on methods where moral re-
forms are at issue. There is at pres
ent very determined effort, fostered
by a few papers, secular and religious,
to give the impression that the
Methodist preachers of Pennsylvania
in this present exciting campaign are
almost unanimously against Doctor
Brumbaugh, one of the candidates for
Governor
1.-The writer, who enjoys personal
acquaintance with at least 500 of the
$500 or more clergymen of his de-
nomination in this State, actuated
solely by his love of fair play and his
regard for the largest possible success
of the present temperance movement,
desires to protest most emphatically
against certain positions taken by
some of his brethren in the ministry
who apparently assume to speak for
the Methodist Episcopal clergymen as
a whole.
"The action of the Philadelphia
Camden Preachers Meeting on Mon
day morning, October 5, in Wesley
Hall is one of several such instances.
The. vote of that body in endorsing
the so-called Harrisburg ticket has
been widely proclaimed throughout
the State as representing the attitude
of Methodism generally in this cam
paign. Emphasis has been placed on
the fact that there were only two dis
senting votes.
Certain it is had it been known in
advance that an effort was to be made
to depart from the time-honored and
only wise course of endorsing prin-
ciples, not partisan candidates, the
large number of Methodist preachers
who were attending to other duties
that particular morning would have
been present to register their protest
against such action, which already
has aroused a widespread protest on
the part of both ministers and laymen
whose temperance records are not to
be gainsaid.
1T is an open secret that Bishop
Berry, our resident bishop, has, since
that meeting, declared to several
prominent laymen, as we'll as minis
ters, that he felt such action was not
wise. In the columns of the Metho-
dist Times last week, with charac-
teristic sagacity and acumen, he called
attention to the fact that both Mr.. Nc
Cormick and Doctor Brumbaugh are
open advocates of the local option
program, and forcibly declared that
the vital thing at stake is the compo-
sition of the next Legislature.
"Inasmuch as the Wesley Hall meet
ings are now a joint gathering of the
preachers of New Jersey and of Penn
sylvania, the action taken in endorsing
certain ticket for one State was
most unfortunate. A pastor Of a New
Jersey church was on the program for
that morning, and naturally a large
number of his fellow pastors from
Camden and vicinity were present.
am informed by reliable parties that
these men voted enthusiastically with
no argument to prove that under these
circumstances the much-advertised
vote of October is virtually nuga-
tory, If not ludicrous.
Moreover. Methodists have been
for years the most pronounced oppo-
nents of the alleged practice of an
other great and influential church in
having their clergy instruct their peo-
pie just how they should vote in GER
tain elections Methodists must now
take the defensive, If similar charges
should ever be made against them.
THE writer is an Independent Re-
publican, with the emphasis on that
first word. He rejoices in the fact
that Mr.. Mccormick, the Democratic
candidate for Governor, is man of
such high character, and so pro-
nounced an advocate of local option.
But Doctor Brumbaugh is not his
inferior in any respect, and the at
tempt by a few misguided temperance
men to hold him up as the Booze
Candidate is as grossly unjust as 1t
is manifestly unwise and only Injuries
the temperance cause. IF the liquor
men of Pennsylvania imagine that
Doctor Brumbaugh will be the easy
toll of Senator Penrose or the or
ganized liquor traffic, they are destined
to rude awakening from their pipe
dreams. While his party platform,
unfortunately for that party, is silent
on the question of local option, the
candidate for Governor is most out
spoken, both in public and private.
"In personal letter received from
Doctor Brumbaugh under date or