The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-07-05
MITIGATION OF METHODISTS
 IS APPROVED Special Conference Over whelmingly Accepts
 Merger Proposal FINAL ACTION DUE
 AT SESSION IN 1925 Both Branches Will Be Urged To Ratify Plan Next Year
fRx Associafafl Press.l

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., July 4. Southern Methodists late today, in special conference here, voted over whelmingly to accept the proposed plan for unification with the Metho- dist Episcopal church devised by a joint commission of two organiza- tions and adopted by the northern general conference recently in Springfield, Mass.
 Opponents, most of them in favor of unification, but not under the particular plan recommended, could muster only 75 votes against adoption while the unificationists boiled total of 297. A two-thirds majority was necessary for accep- tance and it had been cast when the secretary still had nearly 100 delegates to poll.
 The plan of organic union has yet to run the gauntlet of the annual confer ence of the two churches, the northern conference voting in, 1925 while the southern conferences were requested in a resolution adopted today to act dur ing the same year. In the north two thirds of all the members voting in the annual conference must ratify the pro posal, while in the south the equiHed majority is three-fourths.
 With ratification by the annual con ference, the College of Bishops of each church would meet jointly and notify their respective general conferences that the union has been effected. The general conferences then wol.,d be called to meet in joint session to put unification into effect. The southern general confer ence meets in regular session in May, 1926, at place as yet undetermined. Since the northern conference does not meet again until 1928, 8 special session would be called, pro 1ably in May, 1926, to be held pointly with the southern conference.
 Should the merger finally .beeope sef- .fective, it would llisife into one. body approximately seven million -Methodists in the country and heal q breach that has existed since separation in 1S44.
 It was 80 years ago this month, six teen years before the outbreak oe the war between the states, that the church divided upon tn questions Of the pow ers- of the general confe. ence and tie rights of the Episcopacy, according to Bishop Horace M. DeRose of the south ern church.
 Bishop James o. Andrew, of Geor- gia, had married Georgian who was slave owner. Under the laws of Georgia the slaves of his wife became legally his own, although he was an opponent to slavery. The majority of the gen. eral conference, as n result. demanded that he cease exercising the functions of q bishop of the church so long as he re- mained slave owner.
 Bishop Andrew declared he had done nothing contrary to the moral reguIa- tions or rules of the denomination anI that no charge of immortality, mal-ad- ministratiOn or anything in violation of the constitution of the church had been hled. Nothing he had done, he main tained, could be regarded as criminal or immoral The tension arising from the situation resulted iE a mutual agree ment by the northern and sou Aern mem- bers to separate, cont.a to wide spread impression thas the southerners withdrew from the conference, and the supreme court of the United States later held that the rupture was mu- tual proposition.
 One of the most dramatic of the many stirring incidents since the conference convened Tuesday morning occurred to- day shortly before the delegates began balloting. Dr. Robert T. Schuler, product of the Holston conference but now of Los Angeles ind pastor of the largest Southern Methodist church on the continent, was recognized to speak against unitication Under the plan pro- posed. He explained tha. he had been working for organic nion O. the two
 (COntin1ed on Page TwO)