Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-03-26
FRIENDS CONSIDER
PROBLEMS OF WAR
Yearly Meeting of Orthodox
Branch to Define Views
of President.

Philadelphia, Pa. March Bright
sunshine, instead of the proverbial rain for
Quaker week. gave cheer to the partici-
PANTS in tho business session of Philadel-
phia Yearly Meeting of the Society Of
Friends, which opened Yesterday in the
historic Fourth and Arch streets House.
AZ no time since the civil war was there a
more tense feeling among the members OF
the socicty than at the opening meeting
this wear Close on the heels of the Presi-
dents definition of non-comhatant service.
Tor which text the Friends have been
eagerly waiting, came the dsavowal
on the part of 100 Friends of the founda-
tional principle of the Quaker Society
the absolute abhorrcncc of all war and
military propaganda.
For their personal stand" said Rufus
NJ Jones, professor of psychology, NJ
lIaverfurd College, at the opening of the
meeting. Il can respect them. But
where they state that II is Christ's own
~plrit that forwards war ] can only say
hat the statement can he nothing else
but erroneous. There seems to hive been
a marked lack of apprehension ON the
part ot these people when they made
public their statement
IL MAKE PLAIN PRESIDENTS VIEW
several other members Of the Society
were wont TO express viewpoints similar
- nr Jones on this subject Francis
TAYLOR urged that the Yearly Meeting
appoint n committee To especially make
plain the Friends view on this subject.
VIC must utterly rcpudiate the state
ment made public" said Mr. Taylor
and suhstantiate our own constanCy to
those beliefs which have made us looked
upnn Nv others rs champions of Christ 5
4 Al
ol the llickSitC meeting hears q represon-
t4tivc tone of that branch of the society.
tho Hlcksitcs arc surely facing a Crisis
IN thelr history
The order of business If the meeting
included tho reading Of the minutes ct
tho quarterly meetings " the close oi
tho meeting treorge Warner interpreted
the Presidents definition of non-com-
hatant service before the gathering. 10
those Who refuse to accept the three
branches of service, rs defined NV Mr.
Wilson. said Air Warner, the text
states that those CONSCIENTIOUS ohiectors
VII ~ segregated under an officer oGtaCt
md judgment. but will be assigned
,lutics no loss eeycre or exacting than
those endured hv the men in uniform.
rRrFNDs II THE SERVICE
The vcaIly meeting ported 30 mem
l,.rS of draft ago in The service Of the
rnGutrN p IN tho Reconstruction nit
ln Iraurc l0 Ia conscientious obiectora.
and cleht ~ this country III camps.
The census ~ the meeting totaled 447o
mcnbcrS If the societv, showing gain
81 l6o members and loss, through death
and withdrawal of I5l members. with
total net gam " is members.
The Exemption Committee reported
2 total 81 2aa men of draft age, IN camps.
les not ordered into service, u IN recon
struction work m France, 80 IN hospital
work and ~ either released or otherwise
classified hy the government.
The clcIk uf the committee this wear
II William u Evans; assistant clerk
John j. Clark In the woman side the
clerk and assistant arc Jane W Bartlett
and Narv Il Copperthwaite. with Marv
Williams As reader The visiting Friends |
include. Cyrus Cooper and wife; Irwin
q Nct hcane Of Saskatchewan. Canada:
colbert and Minnie Bovles. of Friends
MISSION IN Japan. Francis and Susanna
GWndon, of Nantucket, Esther Fowler