DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
DURHAM, N. C.
Rec'd faJAMs*^. 2j t (11 1
gC iMyua^LAyy £ Eft/
soassti
-v^tf-
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2013
http://archive.org/details/minutesproceedin1902five
Minutes and Proceedings
•OF THE-
Five Years Meeting
-:- J902-:-
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
MINUTES AND PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
Five Years Meeting
OF THE
AMERICAN YEARLY MEETINGS
HELD IN INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
1902
also Minutes of the
QUINQUENNIAL CONFERENCE
Final Session
PUBLISHED BY DIRECTION OF THE FIVE YEARS MEETING
PHILADELPHIA
THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO.
1903
PREFATORY NOTE.
The Minutes of the Five Years Meeting and of the
final Quinquennial Conference are printed in full, and the
papers read before The Five Years Meeting are also given
in full. By direction of the Meeting, only a synopsis
or rather condensation of the stenographic report of the
discussions is printed. In preparing this synopsis great
effort has been made to give enough to represent fairly the
views expressed by each speaker. Discussion of technical
points of order, irrelevant remarks, and matters of unim-
portance have been omitted. It has been thought best
not to report the Devotional Exercises.
Sch.R.
• ^ Mil
AM
MINUTES OF OUINOUENNIAL. CONFERENCE. t rt
THIRD DAY EVENING. ^'^
i . The Fourtb Quinquennial Conference of the Soci-
ety of Friends in America convened at Friends' Meeting
House, Indianapolis, Ind., on Third day, ioth Month,
21, 1902, at 7.30 p.m.
The meeting was called to order by Timothy Nichol-
son, who presented Edmund Stanley, Vice-President, in
the absence of the president of the former Conference.
Ellwood O. Ellis read the 2nd chapter of 2nd Timothy,
which was followed by earnest petitions for wisdom and
blessings.
2. Delegates from thirteen Yearly Meetings were
present :
New England. — John Ellwood Paige, Charles H.
Jones, Benjamin F. Trueblood, Rufus M. Jones, Phebe
S. Aydelott, Hannah J. Bailey, Sarah J. Swift, Daniel C.
Maxfield, Olney T. Meader.
New York. — James Wood, Robert M. Ferris, Harry
R. Keates, Robert I. Murray, Elmer D. Gildersleeve,
Mary L. Chase, Emilie Underbill Burgess, Elias S.
Minard, Carolena M. Wood.
Baltimore. — Allen C. Thomas, Anna King Carey,
Samuel R. Neave, Richard H. -Thomas, Miles White, Jr.,
Annie D. Stabler.
North Caroli?ia. — D. Lyndon Hobbs, Joseph Potts,
Mary C. Woody, John W. Woody, Dr. J. J. Cox, David
E. Sampson, Mary E. Cartland, W. Alpheus White, Sue
V. Hollowell.
307304
2 MINUTES
Ohio. — Jacob Baker, J. Walter Malone, Elizabeth. M.
Jenkins, Edward Mott, James M. Estes, Esther H. Butler,
Emma E. Malone, Eida S. Romick, William J. Harrison,
William P. Pinkham, S. Adelbert Wood.
Indiana. — Timothy Nicholson, Francis W. Thomas,
Allen Jay, Naomi H. Jay, Hannah Lewis Smith, Ell wood
O. Ellis, Joseph John Mills, Ida S. Henley, Alpheus
Trueblood, Joseph A. Goddard, Enos Harvey, Elizabeth
J. Hill, Mary E- Baldwin, Anna A. Warder, Evan H.
Ferree, Mary H. Goddard, Thomas W. White, Robert M.
Douglas, Ira C. Johnson, Emma Hodges, Charles W.
Osborne, Mahalah Jay, Isabel Kenworthy, David Over-
man, Charles E. Hiatt.
Western. — Murray S. Kenworthy, Dr. Sylvester
Newlin, Henry Guyer, Milton Hanson, Dinah T. Hen-
derson, William E- Pyle, David Hadley, J. Elmore
Haworth, John T. Hadley, Enos Kendall, Joshua Carson,
Andrew F. Mitchell, Peter W. Raidabaugh, Solomon B.
Woodard, Dr. Seth Mills, Albert J. Brown, Ruth W.
Newsom, Eliza C. Armstrong, Sarah J, King, William
Trueblood.
Canada. — Alma G. Dale, William J. Moore. Elias
Rogers, William Harris.
Iowa. — Absalom Rosenberger, Isom P. Wooton,
Eaura P, Townsend, Isaach N. Rich, Zenas E- Martin,
Eliza Eindley, Joseph Sopher, Rhoda Neville, A. J.
Hanson, Cyrus Beede, Albert W. Green, Samuel E.
Haworth, A. F. N. Hambleton, Charles W. Sweet,
Alfred H. Eindley, John W. Stribling.
Kansas. — William P. Haworth, E. Clarkson Hin-
shaw, Isaac Eindley, Achsa C. Kenyon, Isaac A. Wood-
ard, Francis A. Wright, Catharine H. Osborne, Eeah
MINUTKS 3
Bales, Rachel Kirk, Edmund Stanley, Calvin C Kes-
singer, Thomas Folger, Josiah Dillon, Mary A. Sibbitt,
Dillon H. Dillon, Nathan Brown.
Wilmington.— Eliza A. West, Paul Tasso Terrell,
Elizabeth Larkin, Thomas L. Scott, Robert E. Pretlow,
Ellen C. Wright, John B. Peelle, Nancy A. C. Leonard,
Amos Cook, Esther G. Frame, Sarah T. Stanley, Emma
S. Townsend.
Oregon. — Louisa Painter Rounds, Jesse Edwards,
Aaron M. Bray, Edwin H. McGrew.
California. — Charles E. Tebbetts, Levi Gregory,
Washington Hadley, Mary M. Brown, Levi D. Barr,
William V. Coffin, R. Esther Smith.
3. Inasmuch as the delegates to the Quinquennial
Conference are for the most part delegates to the Five
Years Meeting, the Clerk of the Conference was directed
to furnish to the Five Years Meeting the reports from
the Yearly Meetings.
4. Sarah J. Swift and Timothy Nicholson were
appointed to assist the Auditor, Elizabeth M. Jenkins, in
auditing the Treasurer's report.
5. James Wood, Chairman of the Committee on the
Uniform Discipline, read the following report, which was
accepted and the Committee discharged with a vote of
thanks from the Conference. The whole report was refer-
red to the Five Years Meeting without recommendation.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE TO PREPARE
A UNIFORM DISCIPLINE, PRESENTED TO
THE QUINQUENNIAL CONFERENCE
TENTH MONTH 21, 1902.
The Committee to prepare a Uniform Discipline for
the several Yearly Meetings, appointed by the Conference
held in Indianapolis in 1897, presents the accompanying
4 MINUTES
draft. It has been adopted by New England, New York,
Baltimore, North Carolina, Wilmington, Indiana, West-
ern, Iowa, Kansas, California and Oregon Yearly Meet-
ings, and thus has become the common Declaration of
Faith, Constitution of Government, and Rules of Disci-
pline of the general body of Friends in America. Canada
Yearly Meeting also adopted it, but subsequently recon-
sidered that action.
The draft that was put forth and has been thus gener-
ally acted upon contained a number of typographical
and some grammatical errors. In the copy herewith
presented these have been corrected, so far as discovered,
and some. changes in arrangement have been made. As
none of these make any material alteration in the meaning
of any portion of the document from that originally inten-
ded, we recommend that this be considered the official
copy, from which future publications should be made.
The Committee feels that it is proper to state that
their work has been carried on and completed in much
harmony and mutual condescension. Very important
assistance has been rendered by a number of Friends, not
upon the Committee, widely scattered throughout the
country. Above all, reverent acknowledgement is made
of the Divine assistance that has made the completion of
the work and its general acceptance possible. We humbly
trust that the Divine blessing may attend its future
administration.
James Wood, Chairman,
Mahaeah jay, Recording Secretary.
Indianapolis, Tenth month 21, 1902.
6. On behalf of the Committee to consider the subject
of a Friends' Hymnal, Robert B. Pretlow made the fol-
lowing report (See .Minutes of Five Years Meeting,
Minute 57, Proposition 3), which was accepted and referred
to the Five Years Meeting without recommendation.
7. The Treasurer's report was read and, together
with the report of the Auditing Committee, was accepted,
MINUTES 5
and the cash on hand with the unpaid bills was referred
to the Five Years Meeting. The report is as follows :
TREASURER'S REPORT.
RECEIPTS
1898
June 13th, To receipted bills received
from T. Nicholson on
behalf Indiana Yearly
Meeting ....... $r 68 36
" " To Cash from Treasurer
Indiana Yearly Meeting 85 41
" To Receipted bills from
James Wood, on behalf
New York Yearly Meet-
ing ......... 6 75
" " To Cash from Treasurer
New York Yearly Meet-
ing ........ . 41 32
June 15th, To Cash from Treasurer
Baltimore Yearly Meet-
ing 14 08
" 1 6th, To Cash from Treasurer
Wilmington Yearly
Meeting 64 94
" " To Cash from Treasurer
Western Yearly Meeting 195 06
" 26th To Cash from Treasurer
Canada Yearly Meeting 12 94
" To Cash from Treasurer
Ohio Yearly Meeting . 65 70
July 2d, To Cash from Treasurer
New England Yearly
Meeting ...... 56 20
Aug. 19th, To Cash from Treasurer
North Carolina Yearly
Meeting 68 71
MINUTES
Oct. 3d,
To Cash from Treasurer
• California Yearly Meet-
ing
17 90
" nth
To Cash borrowed from
John Pearson ....
7i 38
( ( a
To Cash borrowed from
State Bank, West
.
Branch, Iowa ....
183 62
I899
Feb. 4,
To Cash from J. Pearson,
account Iowa Yearly-
Meeting
76 63
March 4,
To Cash from W. Wild-
man, Treasurer Iowa
Yearly Meeting . . .
63 37
Oct. 20th,
To Cash from J. M. New-
lin, Treasurer Kansas
Yearly Meeting . . .
149 66
ii a
To Cash from I. T. Smith,
Treasurer Oregon Year-
19 10
Sept. 6th,
To Cash from Treasurer
Iowa Yearly Meeting .
5 00
Total Receipts . . $1,366 13
1S97 DISBURSEMENTS
By Sundry receipted bills,
paid by T. Nicholson,
on behalf Indiana Year-
ly Meeting, as follows :
Nov. 3d, By Cash paid Josephine
Burson, for typewriting
considerations and con-
clusions of Conference . $ 135
Dec. 1 8th, By Cash paid T. Nichol-
son, for telegrams, post-
age, etc. ...... 2 41
MINUTES
" 27th, By Cash paid Anna Tay-
lor, reporting, transcrib-
ing, etc . 112 92
" By Cash paid Mahalah
Jay, for editing Conven-
tion proceedings, post-
age, etc. ....... 38 00
1898
Jan. 4th, By Cash to M. Cullaton &
Co., for 100 copies of
Minutes of appointment
of committees .... 3 50
"By Cash paid W. D. Hos-
kins, for sundry sup-
plies for committees,
telegraph messenger ser-
vice, etc 10 iS
By Bills paid by James
Wood as follows :
May 25th, By Cash paid Smith Iliff
Stationery Company,
250 programs .... $ 3 75
" " By Cash paid the Recorder
for 250 programs ... 3 00
June 22d, By Cash paid American
Friend for printing . . $ 400 00
July 5th, " " " . . 62 70
Aug. 25th, " (< " . . 100 00
Oct. 13th, " " " . . 300 00
$168
#6 75
2 70
July 25th, By Cash paid A. T. Ware,
expense a s Secretary
Hymnal Committee . 11 27
183
7
62
65
$ 191
27
74
12
1
62
50
04
$1366
13
1316
13
09
8 MINUTES
1899
Mch. 20th, By Cash paid State Bank,
print, note dated Oct.
nth, renewed Jan. n,
1899 • ■
" " Interest on above note .
Apr. 19th By Cash to John Pearson,
note Oct. 11, 1898 . .
" " By Cash to John Pearson,
postage and exchange .
Oct. 21st, By Balance, Cash on hand
RECAPITULATION .
Total amount received . $
" " disbursed
Balance, Cash on hand
Oct. 21, 1902 .... $50 04
Respectfully submitted,
W. Jasper HadlEy, Treasurer.
The above account has been audited and found to be
correct. With a draft on New York for $50.04 and one
unpaid bill for expenses of Uniform Discipline, $88.
Elizabeth M. Jenkins,
Sarah J. Swift,
Timothy Nicholson.
8. On motion of Timothy Nicholson, a vote of thanks
was tendered to W. Jasper Hadley, Treasurer, for his
faithful, business-like service.
9. It was moved that proceedings of the Conference
be referred to the Five Years Meeting, as the legitimate
successor of the Conference, and the proceedings of the
three previous Conferences are referred to the custody
of the Five Years Meeting.
10. The Conference then adjourned without a day.
Edmund Stanley, President.
Mary C. Woody, Secretary.
MINUTES
MINUTES OF THE FIVE YEARS MEETING, 1902.
1 . The first Five Years Meeting convened at Friends'
Meeting House, Indianapolis, Ind. , Tenth month, 22,
1902, at 9 o'clock, a. m.
2. The meeting was called to order by Timothy
Nicholson, and Edmund Stanley and Mary C. Woody
were appointed as temporary officers. Richard H. Thomas
read as an opening lesson the 13th Chapter of First Corin-
thians, which was followed by prayer and exhortation.
3. The following reports were received from eleven
yearly meetings, giving names of delegates and alternates
to the Five Years Meeting :
New England. — Delegates : John Ell wood Paige,
Charles H. Jones, Benjamin F. Trueblood, Rufus M.
Jones, Phebe S. Aydelott, Hannah J. Bailey, Sarah J.
Swift, Daniel C. Maxfield, Olney T. Meacler. Alter-
nates : Timothy B. Hussey, D. Wheeler Swift, Mary E.
Miars, Alice W. Maxfield, Alfred T. Ware.
New York. — Delegates : James Wood, Robert M.
Ferris, Harry R. Keates, Robert I. Murray, Elmer D.
Gildersleeve, Mary L,. Chase, Emilie Underhill Burgess,
Elias G. Minard, Carolena M. Wood.
Baltimore. — Delegates : Allen C. Thomas, Anna
King Carey, Samuel R. Neave, Richard H. Thomas,
Miles White, Jr., Annie D. Stabler. Alternates : Find-
ley D. Clark, Sarah H. Hoge, James Carey, Jr.
North Carolina. — Delegates : L,. Lyndon Hobbs,
Joseph Potts, Mary C. Woody, John W. Woody, J.
J. Cox, David E. Sampson, Mary C Cartland, Mary J.
IO MINUTES
White, W. Alpheus White, Sue V. Hollo well. Alter-
nates : N. C. English, Mary M. Hobbs, David Farlow,
Jr., Josiah Nicholson, James R. Jones.
Indiana. — Delegates : Timothy Nicholson, Francis
W. Thomas, Allen Jay, Naomi H. Jay, Hannah Lewis
Smith, EH wood O. Ellis, Joseph John Mills, Ida S. Hen-
ley, Alpheus Trueblood, Joseph A. Goddard, Enos Har-
vey, Elizabeth J. Hill, Mary E. Baldwin, Anna A.
Warder, Evan H- Ferree, Mary H. Goddard, Thomas
W. White, Robert W. Douglas, Ira C. Johnson, Emma
Hedges, Charles W. Osborn, Mahalah Jay, Isabel Ken-
worthy, David Overman, Charles E- Hiatt. Alternates:
Robert L. Kelly, Joseph O. Binford, Morton C. Pearson,
Fannie Elliott, Bertha Stubbs.
Western. — Delegates: Murray S. Ken worthy, Syl-
vester Newlin, Henry Guyer, Milton Hanson, Dinah
T. Henderson, William L. Pyle, David Hadley, J. Elmore
Haworth, John T. Hadley, Enos Kendall, Joshua Carson,
Thomas C. Brown, Andrew F. Mitchell, Peter W. Raid-
abaugh, Solomon B. Woodard, Seth Mills, Albert J.
Brown, Ruth W. Newsom, Eliza C. Armstrong, Sarah J.
King, William Trueblood. Alternates : Lewis E. Stout,
Lydia Taylor Painter, Sarah A. Kelsey, Lindley A. Wells,
Anna Tomlinson, Ransom Trueblood, Martha J. Binford,
Fleming Johnson.
Iowa. — Delegates : Absalom Rosenberger, Isom P.
Wooton, Laura P. Townsend, Isaac N. Rich, Zenas L-
Martin, Eliza Lindley, Joseph Sopher, Rhoda Neville, A.
J. Hanson, Cyrus Beede, Albert W. Green, Anna S, Joyce,
A. F. N. Hambleton, Charles W. Sweet, Alfred H. Lind-
ley, John W. Stribling. Alternates : Edwin Morrison,
Ellison R. Purdy, L. Maria Deane, Mary T. Thomas,
MINUTES 1 1
Charles S. White, R. J. Mendenhall, Philip Slack, Emma
F. Coffin, EH G. Parker, Anna G. Thornclyke, Hannah
T. Green, Samuel L- Haworth, Viola Smith, Hiram
Hammond, Eli B. Mendenhall, C. Bevan Johnson.
Kansas. — Delegates : William P. Haworth, L,. Clark-
son Hinshaw, Isaac Luidley, Achsa C. Kenyon, Isaac A.
Woodard, Francis A. Wright, Catharine H. Osborn, Leah
Bales, Edmund Stanle3^, Rachel Kirk, Calvin C. Kesin-
ger, Thomas Folger, Josiah Dillon, Mary A. Sibbitt, Dil-
lon H. Dillon, Nathan Brown. Alternates : William S.
Wooton, Albert A. Baile)^ Elizabeth Ljndley, John How-
ard, Mary A, Brown, Eusebia S. Couch, Orestes A. Wins-
low, Elisha H. Janeway, Eliza H. Carey, L. Ella Hartley,
Mary Jones, M. Elizabeth Watts, Laura Coppock, William
O. Elliott, Ruth S. Davis, James Pitts.
Wilmington. — Delegates : Eliza A. West, Paul Tasso
Terrell, Thomas L. Scott, Robert E. Pretlow, Ellen C.
Wright, John B. Peelle, Nancy A. C. Leonard, Amos
Cook, Esther G. Frame, Sarah T. Stanley, Emma S.
Townsend. Alternates : Arthur L. Carey, Elizabeth
Larkin, Olive Berger, William A. Starbuck, Edgar H.
Stranahan, John Cook, Elsie R. Harvey, Jesse Hawkins,
Mary Edwards, Samuel Dunlap, Ann C. Wall.
Oi r egon. — Delegates : Edwin H. McGrew, Aaron M.
Bray, Louisa Painter Rounds, Charles Baldwin, F. M.
George, Jane H. Blair, Esther Townsend. Alternate:
Jesse Edwards.
California. — Delegates: Charles E. Tebbetts, Levi
Gregory, Washington Hadley, Mary M. Brown, Levi D.
Barr, William V. Coffin, R. Esther Smith. Alternates :
Thomas Armstrong, William H. Coffin, Rebecca Naylor,
William E. Cox, Emilie V. Hadley, Jesse F. Hunnicutt,
Esther A. Hiatt.
1 2 MINUTES
4. Ohio Yearly Meeting and Canada Yearly Meeting
sent Fraternal Delegates, as follows :
Ohio. — Fraternal Delegates : Jacob Baker, J. Walter
Malone, Elizabeth M. Jenkins, Edward Mott, James M.
Estes, Esther H. Butler, Emma B. Malone, Lida G-
Romick, William J. Harrison, William P. Pinkham, S.
Adelbert Wood. Alternates: Daniel H. Wood, Joseph
C. Hadley, Frederick J. Cope, William H. Harris.
Canada. — Fraternal Delegates : Alma G. Dale, Wil-
liam I. Moore, Elias Rogers, William Harris.
A cordial welcome was extended to these delegates
and an invitation given to participate in the discussions.
5. Harriet Green, Sophia M. Fry and Rachel S. Tylor
were present as visitors from Eondon Yearly Meeting.
Rebecca W. Cadbury, Edward G. Rhoads, Elizabeth
B. Jones, John C. Winston, Sarah M. Scull and William
W. Cadbury, of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, were pres-
ent as visitors, all of whom were cordially welcomed to
the Five Years' Meeting.
6. The places of absentees were filled from the Alter-
nates by the delegations, as follows :
In New York delegation Mary T. Tatum takes the
place of Emilic U. Burgess until her arrival.
In Baltimore delegation, James Carey, Jr., to act as
delegate until the arrival of Allen C. Thomas.
In North Carolina delegation the vacancy caused by
the absence of Mary J. White, unfilled.
In Western delegation Eewis E. Stout was made dele-
gate in the place of Andrew F. Mitchell ; Eydia Taylor
Painter to fill the place of Ruth W. Newsom ; Sarah A.
Kelsey to fill the place of Sarah J. King.
MINUTES 13
Iowa delegation was filled by appointing Samuel L.
Haworth as delegate in the absence of Anna S. Joyce.
Kansas delegation, Albert A. Bailey is made delegate
in place of L. Clarkson Hinshaw, absent ; Elisfia H. Jane-
way in place of Leah Bales ; and Mary Jones in place of
Dillon H. Dillon.
In Wilmington delegation Mary Edwards filled the
vacancy caused by the absence of Amos Cook and Edgar
H. Stranahan until the arrival of Esther G. Frame.
7 . The following epistle from London Yearly Meet-
ing to the Five Years Meeting was read by James Wood,
and personal greeting was given by Harriet Green, of
London. Rufus M. Jones, Absalom Rosenberger, Ellen
Wright, Eliza B. Armstrong and Robert E. Kelly were
appointed to prepare a suitable letter in response.
"To the Five Years Meeting of the Religious
Society of Friends in America
A Greeting in Faith and Love from the Yearly Meet-
ing of Friends in London, held by adjournments from
the 2ist of Fifth month to the 29th of the same, inclu-
sive, 1902:
" Dear Friends : —
"To you, beloved Friends, who are gathering together
for the first time as a constituted representative body, we
are led to send a message of fellowship and cheer, and to
bid you God-speed in the name of our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ, your Master and ours. We have learned
with no ordinary interest of the banding together of so
many of your Yearly Meetings, and desire to express our
hope and trust that your association together will tend to
the consolidation and progress of our section of the Church
of Christ, to the promotion of unity in faith and purpose,
and to the spread of the Kingdom of Heaven amongst
men. We are encouraged in this belief because we are
sure that by your united organization you will be able to
14 MINUTKS
work more effectually in the cause of righteousness in
the world, in the promotion of peace, temperance, human
charity, and goodwill to men.
" Recognizing that the charter of your mutual asso-
ciation is that uniform Discipline which your associated
Yearly Meetings have severally adopted, we rejoice that
you have been able to find therein a basis of co-operation
and agreement under the Headship of Christ. It has
been no part of our duty to compare your book of Disci-
pline with ours ; still less have we made any attempt to
criticize it. All thoughts of criticism have been over-
powered by thoughts of love and thankfulness at finding
how heartily we are at one with you, and with what
broad-minded charity your Discipline has been drawn.
With you we believe that ' the Doctrines of the apostolic
days are held by the Friends as the essentials of Chris-
tianity . . . not as traditional dogmas but as vital, life-
giving realities.' With you we hold ' that man's salva-
tion is a personal matter between his own soul and God,
and does not depend upon the intervention of the Church
in any of its offices, or by any of its officers ; ' that it
does not consist ' in the administration of any rite, ordi-
nance, or ceremony whatever ; ' that there is ' no author-
ity for any form or degree of sacerdotalism in the Chris-
tian Church ; ' that the Holy Spirit does indeed visit and
' abide ' in the hearts of those who are willing and
obedient, leading them into all truth. We rejoice that
you recognize that there are many ministries of divers
kinds to which the children of God are called ; and that,
while no order of men is set apart, we are all called to be
priests unto God.
"In these days when our national life, even more than
yours, has been darkened by the shadows of the war
spirit, we rejoice in your unwavering testimony to the
unlawfulness to Christians of all war. We rejoice, too,
that in the recent Peace Congress held in Philadelphia,
Friends of your Yearly Meetings were able to co-operate
with other bodies of Friends many of whom , though they
stand in no official relation with us, are yet dear to us,
and whom we honour and esteem for their works' sake.
MINUTES 15
' ' We pray that your gathering may be owned and
blessed of God : that He may be glorified in your midst :
that there may be amongst you an abundant outpouring
of His Holy Spirit : that Christ may dwell in your hearts
by faith, and His divine life illuminate your souls. And
may the L,ord unite your hearts with ours in the love of
God and the patience of Christ.
" Signed on behalf of the Meeting,
"John Morland, Clerk.
" Devonshire House,
"12 Bishopsgate Without,
" L,ondon, K-C."
8. A Business Committee for the Five Years Meeting
was appointed, composed of the following individuals :
New England. — Rufus M. Jones.
New York. — James Wood.
Baltimoi'e. — Allen C. Thomas.
North Carolina. — Mary C. Cartland.
hidia na . — Allen Jay .
Western. — Peter W. Raidabaugh.
Iowa. — Charles W. Sweet.
Kansas. — Nathan Brown.
Oregon. — Aaron M. Bray.
Wilmington. — Robert E- Pretlow.
California. — William V. Coffin.
9. The Business Committee was instructed to meet
in Committee Room No. 1, at the close of the session for
organization and arranging further business.
10. Propositiens from the different Yearly Meetings
were read and referred to the Business Committee, for
consideration, to be reported at a future session, as seems
best.
1 1 . All further propositions of change of Discipline
are referred to the Business Committee, without reading,
1 6 MINUTES
to determine whether these should come before the Con-
ference or be referred to Special Committees.
Recess of five minutes.
12. Section 2, of Chapter 4, of the Uniform Disci-
pline, was read as introductory to Isom P. Wooton's
paper on the ' ' Scope and Work of the Evangelistic and
Church Entension Board of the Five Years Meeting."
Allen Jay also read a paper on the same subject, and
the discussion awakened so much interest, that as the
hour of adjournment arrived, a motion prevailed to close
the session and continue the discussion at the opening of
the afternoon session.
FOURTH-DAY AFTERNOON, TENTH MONTH 22.
13. The meeting assembled at 2.30 o'clock. Prayer
was offered by Harriet Green, of London, and a hymn
was sung by the congregation.
14. The Chairmen of the Yearly Meeting delegations
reported in writing that they had organized as a Com-
mittee by choosing Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana, as
Chairman, and Edwin H. McGrew, of Oregon, Secretary.
They proposed the following persons for officers of the
Five Years Meeting, and, on motion, the persons named
were chosen to fill the respective positions for which they
were proposed, viz. :
Clerk. — Edmund Stanley, of Kansas.
First Assistant Clerk. — Ellwood O. Ellis, of
Indiana.
Second Assistant Clerk. — R. Esther Smith, of
California.
Treasurer. — Miles White, Jr., of Baltimore.
Auditing Committee.- — Timothy Nicholson, of
Indiana ; Francis A. Wright, of Kansas ; and Charles EL
Jones, of New England.
MINUTES 17
15. The minutes of the morning session were read
and adopted.
16. It was ordered that hereafter, the minutes be
read each morning for all the sessions of the preceding
day.
17. The Business Committee offered the following
propositions, which, having been separately considered,
were all adopted, and Allen C. Thomas, Rufus M. Jones
and James Wood are appointed as proposed in the second
proposition.
(1) That the time for the sessions be fixed as fol-
lows : Morning session to open at 9 o'clock and close at
12 noon ; afternoon sessions to open at 2.30 and adjourn
at 5 ; evening sessions to open at 7-30.
(2) That the following committee of three be
appointed to edit and publish the proceedings of this
meeting, including the minutes and decisions, the pre-
pared papers and a synopsis of the discussions, viz. : Allen
C. Thomas, Rufus M. Jones and James Wood.
(3) That all propositions for amending the Consti-
tution and Discipline that have been presented to the Five
Years Meeting, and also the additional disciplinary regu-
lations adopted by several of the Yearly Meetings for
their own use, be referred to a committee to be composed
of two members from each Yearly Meeting, to be named
by the several delegations.
(Signed) AixEN Jay, Chairman,
P. W. Raidabaugh, Secretary.
18. The meeting then entered into further discussion
of the subject of the morning, viz.: " Scope and Work of
the Kvangelistic and Church Extension Board of the Five
Years Meeting;" those who participated being Jacob
IS MINUTES
Baker, of Ohio; Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana; Levi
D. Barr, of California; Joseph O. Binford, of Indiana;
Thomas C. Brown, of Western ; Esther G. Frame, of
Wilmington; Samuel L. Haworth, of Iowa; Rufus M.
Jones, of New England ; and Charles W. Sweet, of Iowa.
19. On motion of Charles E. Tebbetts, of California,
the delegations were instructed to propose at the session
to-morrow morning the names of persons to constitute
the Evangelistic and Church Extension Board, the Board
of Legislation and the Board of Education, according to
the provisions of the Uniform Discipline ; and further, to
propose the names of two persons from each Yearly Meet-
ing to constitute the committee to which shall be referred
questions of Constitution and Discipline as already pro-
vided for in the third proposition of Minute 17.
A recess of five minutes was taken.
20. Edmund Stanley, of Kansas, read a paper on
' ' Scope and Work of the Committee on Legislation and
Its Co-operation with the Government." Timothy Nich-
olson, of Indiana, presented a paper in discussion, and
the question was further discussed by Sophia M. Fry, of
London ; Mary M. Brown, of California ; and Allen Jay,
of Indiana.
21. On motion of Phebe S. Aydelott, of New Eng-
land, the question of whether there shall be a committee
to draft resolutions on subjects brought before the meet-
ings in papers and discussions was referred to the Business
Committee for their consideration and their recommenda-
tion thereon, to be reported to a future session.
22. On motion of Robert E. Pretlow, of Wilming-
ton, the subject, " Scope and Work of the Committee on
Education," was deferred till to-morrow afternoon at 2.30
o'clock.
MINUTES 19
23. On motion of Robert L,. Kelly, of Indiana, it was
decided that the business of this meeting shall continue
to be transacted according to the rules of parliamentary-
usage.
24. On motion, the meeting then adjourned.
FOURTH DAY, EVENING, TENTH MONTH, 22.
25. The meeting assembled at 7.30 o'clock. Hymns
were sung and prayer was offered by Levi D. Barr, of
California, and Charles W. Sweet, of Iowa.
26. The Business Committee gave information that a
book for registration of delegates and visitors will be
ready to-morrow and requested that all should register
their names and postoffice addresses.
Also, with reference to a direction given them in
Minute 2 1 , they gave information that they would act as
a committee on resolutions, and would consider all reso-
lutions submitted to them for that purpose by members of
this meeting.
27. On motion of Rufus M. Jones, of New England,
the Business Committee was instructed to consider the
question of devising uniform record books, and blanks
for statistics, for use by the various meetings of the
church, and to report their judgment thereon to a future
session.
28. A paper prepared by Edward M. Wistar, of Phil-
adelphia, on the " Present Condition of the Indians and
the Work to be Done for Them," was read, in his absence,
by John C. Winston. Rachel Kirk, of Kansas, led in
the discussion, and was followed by Francis W. Thomas
and Allen Jay, of Indiana ; Carolena M. Wood, of New
York ; and Cyrus Beede, of Iowa.
29. On motion of James Wood, of New York, the
20 MINUTES
Business Committee was instructed to produce to a future
session a resolution favorable to a continuance of the
Indian work as it is at present carried on by the Associ-
ated Executive Committee on Indian Affairs.
30. John W. Woody, of North Carolina, read a paper
on the " Present Condition of the Negroes and the Work
to be Done for Them." Allen C. Thomas, of Baltimore,
led in the discussion, and was followed by James Wood,
of New York.
31. On motion of Richard H. Thomas, of Baltimore,
the subject of the present condition of, and work to be
done for the Negroes is referred to the Business Com-
mittee, with instructions to produce to a future session a
strong resolution thereupon, and further, to propose some
plan for definite action, if any way opens therefor.
32. The meeting then adjourned to meet to-morrow
morning at 9 o'clock.
FIFTH DAY, MORNING, TENTH MONTH, 23.
33. The meeting assembled at 9 o'clock. Esther H.
Butler, of Ohio, led the devotional exercises, reading a
portion of the Scripture, giving an earnest exhortation
and offering prayer. William P. Haworth, of Kansas,
also made supplication.
34. The Minutes of the afternoon and evening ses-
sions of yesterday were read and adopted.
35. Zenas L,. Martin, of Iowa, proposed that in view
of the magnitude of the subject to be presented by Maha-
lah Jay, of Indiana, his time be used by her in addition
to that allotted her on the program, and the proposition
by unanimous consent was granted. She then read a
paper on the ' ' Present Condition of the Foreign Mission-
ary Work of American Friends."
MINUTES 21
36. Prayer was offered by Mary C. Woody, of North
Carolina.
37. Esther H. Butler, of Ohio, by request of the
meeting, spoke concerning her fifteen years of missionary
service in China.
Francis W. Thomas entered into discussion of the
question.
Wilfred and Delia D. Rowntree, recently returned
from mission work at Ramallah, Palestine, were intro-
duced and spoke briefly.
A recess of five minutes was taken.
38. Carolena M. Wood, of New York, read a paper
on the " Scope and Work of the Board of Foreign Mis-
sions of the Five Years Meeting." James Carey, Jr., of
Baltimore, and Thomas C. Brown, of Western, also read
papers in discussion of the subject, which was further dis-
cussed by Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England, and
Anna B. Thomas, of Baltimore, she not being a delegate,
but speaking by general consent.
39. On motion of Zenas L,. Martin, of Iowa, the
papers and propositions presented in the discussion were
referred to the American Board of Foreign Missions for
their consideration, and they were directed to prepare and
present to a further session a draft of plans for work, if
they find it practicable to do so.
40. In accordance with the instructions of Minute
No. 19, of the session of yesterday afternoon, the follow-
ing committees were appointed :
(1) Evangelistic and Church Extension Board.
New England. — Charles H. Jones and D. Wheeler
Swift.
New York. — Elmer D. Gildersleeve and Emilie Un-
derbill Burgess.
22 MINUTKS
Baltimore. — Samuel R. Neave and Anna K. Carey.
North Carolina. — David E. Sampson and Sue V.
Hollo well.
Indiana. — Joseph O. Binford, Emma Hedges, Evan
H. Ferree and Mary H. Goddard.
Western. — Dindley A. Wells, Sarah Kelsey, Dinah
T. Henderson and John T. Hadley.
Iowa. — Isom P. Wooton, Daura P. Townsend and
Samuel D- Haworth.
Kansas. — Isaac A. Woodard, "William P. Haworth
and Rachel Kirk.
Wilmington. — Esther G. Frame, Josephus Hoskins
and Nancy A. C. Leonard.
Oregon. — Jesse Edwards and Douisa Painter Rounds.
California. — Devi Gregory and Devi E. Barr.
(2) The Board op Legislation.
New England. — Olney T. Meader and Hannah J.
Bailey.
New York. — James Wood and Albert K. Smiley.
Baltimore. — S. Edgar Nicholson and Dindley D.
Clark.
North Carolina. — John W. Woody and J. J. Cox.
Indiana. — Timothy Nicholson and Francis W.
Thomas.
Western. — Amos K. Hollo well and William True-
blood.
Iowa. — A. F. N. Hambleton and Cyrus Beede.
Kansas. — Calvin Kesinger and Albert A. Bailey.
Wilmi7igton. — John B. Peelle and Paul Tasso Terrell.
Oregon, — Aaron W. Bray and Jesse Edwards.
California. — Washington Hadley and William V.
Coffin.
MINUTES 23
(3) The Board of Education.
New England. — John Ellwood Paige.
New York. — Carolena M. Wood.
Baltimore. — Allen C. Thomas.
North Carolina. — L. Lyndon Hobbs.
Indiana. — Robert L,- Kelly.
Western. — Andrew F. Mitchell.
Iowa. — Absalom Rosenberger.
Kansas. — Edmund Stanley.
Wilmington. — Robert E. Pretlow.
Oregon. — Edwin H. McGrew.
California. — Charles E. Tebbetts.
(4) Committee on Disciplinary Provisions.
New England. — Charles H. Jones and Benjamin F.
Trueblood.
New York. — James Wood and Harry R. Keates.
Baltimore. — Richard H. Thomas and Samuel R.
Neave.
North Carolina. — Joseph Potts and Mary C. Woody.
Indiana. — Ellwood O. Ellis and Alpheus Trueblood.
Western — L,ewis E. Stout and Sylvester Newlin.
Iowa. — Isaac N. Rich and Absalom Rosenberger.
Kansas. — Mary Jones and Francis A. Wright.
Wilmington. — Eliza A. West and Thomas L,. Scott.
Oregon. — Jesse Edwards and Aaron M. Bray.
California. — Washington Hadley and Eevi Gregory.
(5) The American Board op Foreign Missions,
as appointed by the yearly meetings, was also reported
at this time, and is as follows :
New England. — Benjamin F. Trueblood and Phebe
S. Aydelott.
24 MINUTES
New York. — Robert M. Ferris and Carolena M.
Wood.
Baltimore. — Janies Carey, Jr. and Anna B. Thomas.
North Carolina. — Josiah Nicholson and Mary A.
Peelle.
Indiana. — Mahalah Jay, Charles E. Carey, Ida S.
Henley and Joseph A. Goddard.
Western. — Thomas C. Brown, David Hadley, Dydia
Taylor Painter and Flora P. Mills.
Iowa. — William Jasper Hadley, Charles L,. Michener
and Viola Spurgiu.
Ka?isas. — Hannah E. Sleeper, Francis A. Wright
and Martha M. Woodard.
Wilmington. — Ellen C. Wright, Laura E- Dunham
and James B. Unthank.
Oregon. — Eaura E. Minthorn and Emmor W. Hall.
California. — Mary M. Brown and R. Esther Smith.
41. The meeting then adjourned to meet at 2.30
o'clock in the afternoon.
FIFTH-DAY AFTERNOON, TENTH MONTH 23.
42. The meeting met pursuant to adjournment, at
2.30 o'clock. Prayer was offered by Isom P. Wooton, of
Iowa, and Jacob Baker, of Ohio ; two stanzas of a hymn
were sung.
43. Absalom Rosenberger, of Iowa, read a paper on
" The Scope and Work of the Committee on Education."
The subject was then discussed by Charles E. Tebbetts, oi
California; L,- Eyndon Hobbs, of North Carolina; William
P. Pinkham, of Ohio ; Rufus M. Jones, of New England ;
Edwin H. McGrew, of Oregon ; Benjamin F. Trueblood,
of New England ; S- Adelbert Wood, of Ohio ; and
Aaron M. Bray, of Oregon.
MINUTES 25
44. On motion of Rufus M. Jones, of New England,
the subject now under consideration was referred to the
Board of Education, with instructions to present, if prac-
ticable, at a future session, propositions for the considera-
tion of this meeting.
45. Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana, read a paper on
the " Finances of the Five Years Meeting," Phebe S.
Aydelott, of New England, following also with a paper.
The question was discussed by Charles E. Tebbetts, of
California ; Milton Hanson, of Western, and many others
in brief remarks.
46. On motion of Benjamin F. Trueblood of New
England, the question of Finances, as presented in the
papers, was referred to a committee of one from each
delegation, to be reported by the chairman, for their con-
sideration, and they were directed to report to a future
session, their judgment as to practicable plans for adoption
this meeting, and also to define the duties of the Treas-
urer. This committee was appointed as follows :
New England. — Daniel C. Maxfield.
New York. — Robert I. Murray.
Baltimore. — Miles White, Jr.
North Carolina. — W. Alpheus White.
Indiana. — Joseph A. Goddard.
Western. — Milton Hanson.
Iowa. — Cyrus Beede.
Ka?isas. — Thomas Folger.
Wilmington. — John B. Peelle.
Oregon. — Jesse Edwards.
Calif orn ia . — Washington Hadley .
47. The Business Committee presented a program for
the evening session, announcing that James Wood, of
New York ; Rufus M. Jones, of New England ; Mary E.
26 3IINUTES
Cartland, of North. Carolina; Robert E. Pretlow, of Wil-
mington ; Edmund Stanley, of Kansas ; and Edwin H.
McGrew, of Oregon, would speak on the subject of the
evening.
48. The meeting then adjourned to meet at 7.30
o'clock.
FIFTH DAY, EVENING, TENTH MONTH 23.
49. The meeting assembled at 7.30 o'clock, and
prayer was offered by Rufus M. Jones, of New England,
and Mary A. Sibbitt, of Kansas.
50. According to the announcement made by the
Business Committee at the afternoon session, the discus-
sion of a plan for united action for the suppression of
the liquor traffic was given by James Wood, of New
York ; Rufus M. Jones, of New England ; Mary E. Cart-
land, of North Carolina ; Robert E. Pretlow, of Wil-
mington ; Edwin H. McGrew, of Oregon ; Emilie Under-
bill Burgess, of New York; and Edmund Stanley, of
Kansas.
51. James Wood, of New York, in behalf of the
Business Committee, read a document which was pro-
posed for the adoption of this meeting, calling upon other
branches of the Church of Christ to join ours in holding
a convention for the consideration of methods for the
suppression of the liquor traffic.
52. On motion of Robert E. Pretlow, of Wilming-
ton, the document read was unanimously adopted by a
rising vote, and the issue of it as a call was authorized in
some manner to be determined at a future session.
(For copy of this document see under Third Propo-
sition adopted by Minute 84.)
53. On motion of James Wood, of New York, the
MINUTKS 2 7
document and the subject of it were referred back to the
Business Committee with instructions to report to a future
session a plan for issuing the proposed call. (See Third
Proposition under Minute 83.)
54. The meeting then adjourned to re-assemble at
9 o'clock to-morrow morning.
SIXTH DAY, MORNING, TENTH MONTH 24.
55. The session opened at 9 o'clock. The devotions
consisted of Scripture reading, exhortation and prayer by
Esther G. Frame, of Wilmington ; the congregation joined
in singing, and prayer was offered by J. Walter Malone,
of Ohio, and Enos Harvey, of Indiana.
56. The Minutes of the three sessions of yesterday
were read and approved.
57. Propositions were received as follows :
(1). From Wilmington Yearly Meeting —
Wilmington Yearly Meeting at its late annual session
instructed its delegates to the Five Years Meeting to
request that body to take under advisement the subject of
a Chnrch catechism, and to consider the propriety of
putting such catechism within the reach of Friends.
(2). From Baltimore Yearly Meeting —
The matter of the advisability of having a Friends'
Bible School Quarterly has been brought to the attention
of this meeting by a communication from Baltimore Quar-
terly Meeting. We request our delegates to the Five
Years Meeting to bring the subject before that body.
(3). From the Quinquennial Conference —
The Committee to consider the subject of a Friends'
Hymnal made the following report, which was referred to
the Five Years Meeting- without recommendation :
28 MINUTES
REPORT OP COMMITTEE.
Owing to the distance and expense involved in get-
ting representatives from each Yearly Meeting together,
the work was undertaken by an Executive Committee,
which has given no little time, labor and personal expense
in fulfilling the object of their appointment. We did not
deem it wise to involve the Conference financially without
being able to submit the matter for acceptance. The
result of our labors has been to prove that it is possible
to obtain from publishers a book, with, say, 600 hymns
upon a wide range of subjects and acceptable to Friends
from a doctrinal standpoint, provided an order w T ere placed
for an edition of 3,000 copies, said book to be well bound
and to retail at seventy. five cents. A strong interest is
shown in this matter from the many inquiries as to when
such a book will be ready.
Your Committee recommends that the subject be
referred to the Five Years Meeting to appoint a commit-
tee with power to select hymns suitable and arrange for
printing and publishing the same at an early date.
For the Committee,
Robert E. Pretlow, Acting Chairman.
58. On motion the three items of the foregoing Min-
ute w r ere all referred to a committee composed of one from
each delegation, wmich later was named as follows :
New Eiigland. — Rufus M. Jones.
New York. — Elmer D. Gildersleeve.
Baltimore. — Samuel R. Xeave.
North Carcli?ia. — Mary C. Woody.
I?idia?ia. — Ellwood O. Ellis.
Weste?n. — Andrew F. Mitchell.
Iowa. — A. F. N. Hambleton.
MINUTES 29
Ka?isas. — Josiah Dillon.
Wilmington. — Sarah T. Stanley.
Oregon. — Douisa P. Rounds.
California. — Devi D. Barr.
59. The subject of " Methods of Practical Work
among Rural and Urban Communities ' ' was presented by
EH wood O. Ellis, of Indiana, following which, in further
presentation, a paper was read by Alpheus Trueblood, ol
Indiana.
60. David E. Sampson, of North Carolina, led in
prayer, and then discussed the question, and was followed
by Devi D. Barr, of California; Charles H. Jones, ol
New England ; Harry R. Keates, of New York ; Isom
P. Wooton, of Iowa ; J. Walter Malone, of Ohio ; James
Carey, Jr., and Richard H. Thomas, of Baltimore ; Alma
G. Dale, of Canada ; Solomon B. Woodard, of Western ;
and Jacob Baker, of Ohio.
61. On motion of Devi Gregory, of California, the
question under consideration is referred to the Evangelis-
tic and Church Extension Board for their consideration
and report to a future session.
62. The author of ' ' Throw Out the Life Dine," Rev.
E. D. Ufford, was introduced and sang that hymn.
A recess of five minutes was taken.
63. James Wood, of New York, in behalf of trie
Business Committee, presented the following resolutions,
which, having been separately considered, were all
adopted :
(1). Resolved, That we protest in the strongest man-
ner possible against the spirit of lawlessness that is being
manifested in various parts of the land. Our civilization
and our institutions are founded upon respect for and obe-
dience to law, and they are undermined and threatened
with destruction when any law is violated with impunity.
30 MINUTES
Resolved, That in respect for law, for the rights of
humanity, and for the religion of Jesus Christ, we protest
in the name of Christian civilization against the mob vio-
lence, which in the form of lynching either of white or
black, or red or yellow men, outrages every principle of
right and justice ; and we call upon the Legislatures of
the several states to so revise their statutes that the con-
tinuation of this barbarous practice may be prevented.
(2) Resolved, That we approve of the work being
done by several of the Yearly Meetings for bettering the
condition of the Negroes, and we desire to encourage
them therein.
(3) Resolved, That the Five Years Meeting approves
of the work of the Associated Executive Committee of
Friends on Indian Affairs, and while we recognize that
there is much yet to be done, we are thankful for what
has been accomplished in protecting the Indians in their
rights, in giving them both intellectual and manual train-
ing, and most important of all, in bringing them to the
knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Resolved, That we accept the present organization of
the Committee, and we request it to continue its work,
and we appoint it as our official representative in this
field.
Resolved, That the several Yearly Meetings are
advised to continue their financial support to the Com-
mittee, and we request them to increase their contribu-
tions as they may be able to do.
Resolved, That we request the Committee to report
annually to the several bodies to whom it has heretofore
reported, and also to send a full report of its work to the
Five Years Meeting.
A resolution concering Negroes was also presented
to the Committee, but there being a strong expression
favorable to its modification, it was referred back to the
Committee for further consideration (See Resolution 4,
under Minute 93.)-
MINUTES 31
64. The Meeting then adjourned, to meet at 2.30
o'clock in the afternoon.
SIXTH-DAY, AFTERNOON, TENTH MONTH 24.
65. The meeting convened at 2.30 o'clock. The
session opened with a period of silence, and vocal pra}^er
was offered by Charles W. Sweet, of Iowa, and James M.
Estes of Ohio.
66. Charles E. Tebbetts, of California, read a paper
on ' ' Practical Aspects of the Present Trend of Religious
Thought." J. Ellwood Paige, of New England, also fol-
lowed with a paper on the same subject. Aaron M. Bray,
of Oregon ; Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana ; John W.
Woody, of North Carolina ; Isom P. Wooton, of Iowa ;
andS. Adelbert Wood and William P. Pinkham, of Ohio,
engaged in the discussion.
A recess of five minutes was taken.
67. Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England, read
a paper on ' ' How Can an Efficient Ministry be Devel-
oped ? " Seth Mills, of Western, followed also with
a paper. The question was discussed by Richard H.
Thomas, of Baltimore.
68. A resolution presented by Benjamin F. True-
blood, of New England, was on motion, referred to the
Business Committee for consideration and report to a
future session.
69. The Meeting then adjourned to meet at 7.30
o'clock in the evening.
SIXTH-DAY, EVENING, TENTH MONTH 24.
70. The meeting was opened at the appointed time,
prayer being offered by William I. Moore, of Canada, and
32 MINUTES
William P. Ha worth, of Kansas ; the audience engaging
also in song service.
7 1 . The Finance Committee presented the following
report, which, on motion of Allan Jay, of Indiana, was
amended by substituting Legislative Committee for Busi-
ness Committee, and then adopted :
To the; Five Years' Meeting :
The Committee on Finance present the following
recommendation —
That the Five Years Meeting shall be incorporated ;
that the place of such incorporation , and the form thereof,
shall be referred to the Business Committee, (amended to
be . Legislative Committee) .
For the Committee,
Daniee C. Maxfieed.
Robert I. Murray, Secretary.
72. The Iowa Delegation reported that Ellison R.
Purdy and EmmaE. Coffin have been substituted as dele-
gates, instead of Alfred H. and Eliza Lindley, who are
now absent.
73. Richard* H. Thomas, of Baltimore, read a paper
on ' ' Our Present Duty to the Cause of Peace and Arbi-
tration." The question was then discussed by Cyrus W.
Hodgin, of Indiana, Anna B. Thomas, of Baltimore,
Emilie Underhill Burgess, of New York, Benjamin F-
Trueblood, of New England, Joseph Potts, of North
Carolina, Samuel L. Haworth, of Iowa, Aaron M.
Bray, of Oregon, and Annie D. Stabler, of Baltimore.
74. On motion of Allen Jay, of Indiana, the Record-
ing Clerk was directed to write a Minute of endorsement
of the Peace Association of Friends in America, which is
as follows:
MINUTES 33
The work of the Peace Association of Friends in
America is heartily approved by this meeting, and while
we urge the various Yearly Meetings to continue their
relations with it, giving it hearty support, and receiving
its annual reports as heretofore, we appoint it as our
official representative on the subject of Peace, and request
it to make report also to this meeting.
75. The meeting then adjourned to meet to-morrow
morning, at 9 o'clock.
SEVENTH-DAY MORNING, TENTH MONTH, 25
76. The meeting opened with devotional exercises,
led by Harriet Green, of London, prayer also being
offered by Joseph Sopher, of Iowa, and David E. Samp-
son, of North Carolina ; a hymn was sung.
77. The Minutes of the proceedings of the three
sessions of yesterday were read and approved.
78. Robert E. Pretlow, of Wilmington, read a paper
on " Our Church Literature, " and the question was dis-
cussed by Albert J. Brown, of Western, who presented
resolutions which, by unanimous consent, were referred
to the Business Committee for its consideration and judg-
ment thereon, to be reported at a future session.
79. Further discussion on the subject followed by
A. F. N. Harnbleton, of Iowa, and Peter W. Raidabaugh,
of Western, on whose motion the Business Committee was
requested to take into consideration the advisability of the
meeting appointing a Publication Committee.
80. On motion of James Wood, of New York, the
proposition to establish a Friends' Lectureship was
referred to the Board of Education for its consideration,
and for such action as way may open for, the question
having first been discussed by Allen C. Thomas, of Balti-
more ; Robert L. Kelly, of Indiana; Mary A. Sibbitt, ot
34 MINUTES
Kansas ; Emma F. Coffin, of Iowa ; Francis W. Thomas,
of Indiana; Charles E. Tebbetts, of California ; Benjamin
F. Trueblood, of New England, and Robert E. Pretlow,
of Wilmington.
A recess of five minutes was taken.
81. The discussion was continued by Charles W.
Sweet, of Iowa, and Esther G. Frame, of Wilmington.
82. The following report of the American Friends'
Board of Foreign Missions was read, and on motion
approved.
The Report of the American Friends' Board of For-
eign Missions to the Five Years Meeting is respectfully
submitted as follows : — That,
In session Tenth month 24, 1902, The American
Friends' Board of Foreign Missions organized by the
appointment of the following officers. Namely, for
President. — Thomas C. Brown, of Carmel, Indiana.
Secretary. — Mahalah Jay, of Richmond, Indiana.
Treasurer. — James Carey, Jr., of Baltimore, Mary-
land.
Charles E. Carey, of Fairmount, Indiana, and Ellen C.
Wright, of Wilmington, Ohio, who together with the
three officers named above constitute the Executive Com-
mittee of the Board, and as an
Advisory Committee : — Hannah E. Sleeper, of
Kansas Yearly Meeting ; William Jasper Hadley, of
Iowa Yearly Meeting; Carolena M. Wood, of New York
Yearly Meeting ; Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New Eng-
land Yearly Meeting ; R. Esther Smith, of California
Yearly Meeting; Emmor W. Hall, of Oregon Yearly
Meeting ; Mary A. Peelle, of North Carolina Yearly
Meeting.
The American Friends' Board of Foreign Missions
has considered the papers and proposition^ presented in
the discussion on Fifth-day morning the 23d inst. in
the Five Years Meeting, and by it referred to said Board,
MINUTES 35
and has adopted the following propositions to further
define the function of said Board and its relations to the
Boards of the Yearly Meetings, viz. :
I. It shall be the duty of this Board to represent
American Friends in matters pertaining to the interde-
nominational aspects of foreign mission work.
II. Each Yearly Meeting represented in the Board
while continuing its own separate work as heretofore,
should realize that this work forms a constituent part of
the foreign mission work of Friends in America, of which
the American Friends' Board has a general advisory over-
sight ; but it must not be interpreted that such advice
carries with it any controlling authority.
III. The foreign mission Boards of the Yearly Meet-
ings should annually furnish the secretary of the Ameri-
can Friends' Board a full report of their mission needs,
and of the work during the preceding year, which together
with such other information and statistics as may be
accessible shall be drawn upon as material for the annual
report of this Board to the Yearly Meetings.
IV. Whenever two or more Yearly Meetings are
working in the same foreign field, they should each keep
in view the importance of actual co-operation in such
work as far as practicable.
V. Each Yearly Meeting represented in this Board
should make, through its foreign mission Board or other-
wise, the necessary arrangements for receiving voluntary
contributions for the work of the American Friends'
Board, and forwarding the same to the Treasurer of said
Board.
VI. In order to bring this Board and the Mission
Boards of the several Yearly Meetings into close touch
with each other, it is desirable that the members of this
Board for each Yearly Meeting shall be ex officio, or other-
wise, members of its Foreign Mission Board.
Thomas C. Brown, President.
Mahai^ah Jay, Secretary.
2,6 MINUTES
83. A letter of greeting from the National Convention
of Woman's Christian Temperance Union, held at Port-
land, Maine, was received, and the Recording Clerk was
directed to acknowledge reception of the letter and to
give the hearty greeting of this meeting to the President
of that body, Lillian M. N. Stevens, of Portland, Maine.
84. The Business Committee presented three proposi-
tions, which, having been considered separately, are on
motion, severally adopted. They are as follows :
(1) Resolved, That all vacancies occurring in Boards
and Standing Committees in the interim of the sessions of
the Five Years Meeting be filled by such Boards and
Committees, if not otherwise provided for.
(2) We recommend that the entire subject of Biblical
and Religious Study be referred to the Committee on
Education, encouraging the members of this Committee
to do all in their power to provide for the pressing needs
of our membership in this direction.
(3) We propose that an Executive Committee of five
be appointed by the Five Years Meeting to make all the
necessary preliminary arrangements for holding the pro-
posed Conference on the Liquor Traffic, to carry on the
necessary correspondence with the churches, and to be the
delegates at large from this body, and we nominate James
Wood, Rufus M. Jones, Timothy Nicholson, Benjamin F.
Trueblood and Edmund Stanley as such committee. And
we further propose that the delegates from the several
Yearly Meetings name one additional delegate to attend
the Conference, if held. If the developments shall be
such that an additional number of delegates will be
advisable, the Executive Committee shall request the
Yearly Meetings to appoint such additional number as
the Committee may advise,
The following is the document adopted by Minute 5 1
at the Fifth-day evening session, and referred to the Busi-
ness Committee by Minute 53, and their recommendation,
now adopted, is made to read as follows :
MINUTES 37
From the Five Years Meeting of the
Society of Friends in America,
Held at Indianapolis, Ind., in October, 1902.
To the Various Christian Bodies in the United States :
Dear Brethren in Christ : — We are confident in the
belief that the consensus of opinion of the professing
Christians of our land is opposed to the evils of the
liquor traffic, and we find a want of co-operation in prac-
tical effort to give effect to this opposition because none
of the propositions heretofore made has met the approval
of the general judgment of Christian people. We recog-
nize that this is the case in our own body, and we believe
it is likewise true of others. As a result, the Church
exerts far less influence than it should to prevent the evils
produced by this great cause of poverty and crime, and
which, also, is a most serious obstacle to the spread of
the Gospel.
We are deeply impressed with the conviction that an
earnest effort should be made to ascertain in what way
Christians can exert a united influence in this cause, and
by what means they may work together. Upon what
proposition can we obtain a practical agreement ? We
frankly confess that we are not competent to solve the
problem, but we believe that by united inquiry and a
prayerful seeking for Divine enlightenment, with the will-
ingness to approach the subject with an open mind, the
united Church may find a way by which we can serve the
cause of Christ and the good of mankind in seeking the
ultimate elimination of this sturendous evil. We, there-
fore, invite the governing bodies of the various denomi-
nations of Christians in the United States to appoint dele-
gates to represent them in a Conference to be held in the
city of Washington, to begin on the second Wednesday
of March in the year 1906. The decisions of this Confer-
ence should be reached only in practical unanimity, and,
therefore, it is unnecessary to indicate any limit to the
proposed representation.
We issue this invitation with an humble realization
of the smallness of our body, as compared with many
38 MINUTES
others, but we do it tinder a deep sense that this duty has
been laid upon us and that God will use the proposed
instrumentality for the accomplishment of great good to
mankind and for the glory of His name.
Believing that this proposition will meet with your
approval and practical co-operation, we have appointed
James Wood, of Mount Kisco, N. Y. ; Rufus M. Jones,
Haverford, Pa. ; Timothy Nicholson, Richmond, Ind. ;
Benjamin F. Trueblood, Boston, Mass. ; and Edmund
Stanley, Wichita, Kan., with one additional delegate from
each of eleven Yearly Meetings, to represent us at the
Conference.
In the faith and love of Jesus Christ
We are your friends,
(Signed by direction of Edmund Stanley,
the Meeting.) Presiding Clerk.
Etdwood O. Ellis,
Assistant Clerk.
85. The Meeting then adjourned to meet at 2.30
o'clock this afternoon.
SEVENTH-DAY, afternoon, tenth month 25.
86. The Meeting began with prayer by Joseph O.
Binford, of Indiana ; Esther G. Frame, of Wilmington ;
and Emma F. Coffin, of Iowa.
87. On motion of James Wood, of New York, Zenas
L,. Martin, of Iowa, was given ten minutes to speak con-
cerning the mission work in Cuba.
88. Consideration of the " Place and Functions of
the Five Years Meeting in Our Church Organization"
was now taken up, the discussion being given by James
Wood, of New York ; Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New
England ; Francis W. Thomas, of Indiana ; David Had-
ley, of Western ; Isaac Rich, of Iowa ; William L,. Pyle,
of Western ; Rufus M. Jones, of New England ; Richard
MINUTES 39
H. Thomas, of Baltimore ; William I. Moore, of Canada ;
Jacob Baker, of Ohio; Annie D. Stabler, of Baltimore;
Esther G. Frame and Edgar H. Stranahan, of Wilming-
ton ; and Rebecca W. Cadbury, of Philadelphia.
89. On motion of Richard H. Thomas, of Baltimore,
the question as to whether it is best to prepare a Book of
Meetings was referred to the Business Committee to report
to a future session.
90. A proposition from the Business Committee that
a committee of one from each Yearly Meeting be appointed
as a Committee of Arrangements for the next Five Years
Meeting, was, on motion, adopted, and the several dele-
gations having conferred and proposed names of persons
to constitute such committee, they were appointed as
follows :
New England. — Rufus M. Jones.
New York. — James Wood.
Baltimore. — Allen C. Thomas.
North Carolina. — Mary E. Cartland.
Indiana. — Timothy Nicholson.
Western. — Peter W. Raidabaugh.
Iowa. — Absalom Rosenberger
Ka?isas. — Cyrus R. Dixon.
Wilmington. — Jonathan B. Wright.
Oregon. — Edwin H. McGrew.
California. — R. Esther Smith.
91. A proposition from the Business Committee that
Charles E. Newlin, of Western, be appointed Railroad
Secretary, was, on motion approved, and he appointed
accordingly.
(This was changed later ; see Minute 120.)
4-0 MINUTES
92. On motion the Recording Clerk was directed to
write a Minute concerning the attendance of fraternal
delegations at this Meeting ; it is as follows :
" We are thankful to have the presence of fraternal
delegations appointed by Ohio and Canada Yearly Meet-
ings, to whom we have been glad to extend the privilege
of joining in the discussion of the various questions that
have come before us. It is our desire that these may bear
to their Yearly Meetings the cordial fraternal greetings
of the Five Years Meeting, and an expression of our
appreciation of their representation amongst us at this
time. We are also grateful for the presence of several
members from London and Philadelphia Yearly Meetings,
to whom it has been a pleasure to grant the same privi-
leges. By the presence of all of these we have been
strengthened and encouraged."
The Meeting took a recess of five minutes.
93. The Business Committee presented four proposi-
tions, which, having been considered separately, were on
motion adopted, and the appointments proposed therein
were made accordingly. They are as follows :
(1) The Committee do not think it advisable to pro-
pose a Committee on Publication at this time.
(2) Resolved, That we endorse the American Frie?id
and the Missionary Advocate, and heartily commend
them to the Friends in America.
(3) Resolved, That the preparation of uniform blanks
and uniform records be transferred to a committee com-
posed of Rufus M. Jones, Peter W. Raidabaugh and
William V. Coffin, to prepare the necessary forms and
present the same before the Yearly Meetings for their
adoption.
MINUTES 41
(4) It is proposed that a Board on the Condition and
Welfare of the Negroes, consisting of twenty-two mem-
bers, eleven at large, and one from each Yearly Meeting,
be appointed to take into consideration the best means for
elevating them. This Committee shall have power to
carry the same into effect. The following are nominated
for said board :
At large : Augustine Jones, Robert M. Ferris, Allen
C. Thomas, James Carey, Jr., John W. Woody, J. Elwood
Cox, Allen Jay, Mary J. Ballard, Robert E. Pretlow,
Peter W. Raidabaugh, Charles W. Sweet.
From the Yearly Meetings :
New England. — Robert P. Gifford.
New York. — Robert I. Murray.
Baltimo?-e. — Richard H. Thomas.
North Carolina. — Mary M. Hobbs.
Wilmington. — Mary Edwards.
Indiana. — Joseph A. Goddard.
Western. — Solomon B. Woodard.
Iowa. — Joseph Sopher.
Kansas. — Mary C. Wright.
California. — William H. Coffin.
Oregon. — Daniel Drew.
94. The Finance Committee presented the following
report, which, having been freely discussed and con-
sidered, was on motion adopted, and the chairmen of the
delegations are directed to report as proposed in the plan
contained therein.
To the Five Years Meeting :
The Committee to arrange a plan of finance, and to
define the duties of the Treasurer, are united in presenting
the following report. We recommend,
First, That the financial affairs of the meeting be
conducted upon a cash basis.
42 MINUTES
Second, The appointment by the Five Years Meet-
ing of a Finance Committee of five members, of whom
the Treasurer shall be one They shall promptly ascer-
tain the amount needed to cover the entire expense of the
Quinquennial Conference and Five Years Meeting of
1902 ° the probable expenses prior to Ninth month 30,
1903, for administration of the Board of Foreign Missions
not otherwise provided for ; of the Evangelistic Board for
correspondence, and of such other Committees as may
have been specifically authorized by the Five Years
Meeting. The sum of these expenses shall be appor-
tioned by said Committee for payment, among the several
Yearly Meetings, in proportion to their membership.
Notifications cf the amounts thus payable shall be sent to
the Treasurers of the several Yearly Meetings, and also
to the Treasurer of the Five Years Meeting.
Remittances of these amounts shall be made prior to
First month 1, 1903, to Miles White, Jr., Treasurer, No.
214 East German Street, Baltimore, Md.
In the Tenth month of each year hereafter (the finan-
cial year shall close Ninth month 30), the probable
expenses for the ensuing fiscal year of these Boards and
Committees as above outlined shall be ascertained by the
Finance Committee, and apportioned in the manner pro-
vided for in the preceding paragraph. Remittances of
these amounts to be made to the Treasurer before the
close of the calendar year.
We also recommend that a statement of the amount
of the railroad fares of the delegates in going to and
returning from the Five Years Meeting, shall be made in
duplicate by the Chairman of each delegation, and certi-
fied by him. He shall send one copy to the Treasurer of
his Yearly Meeting, and the other to the Treasurer of the
the Five Years Meeting, certifying also the number of
delegates to which his Yearly Meeting is entitled.
The Treasurer of the Five Years Meeting shall,
prior to First month 1, 1903, adjust with the Treasurer
of each Yearly Meeting, the balance due to or from him,
after the apportionment as provided in the Discipline.
We recommend that voluntary contributions shall be
MINUTES 43
made every year in each particular meeting of the several
Yearly Meetings, comprising the Five Years Meeting, of
funds for the use of the Boards of the Meeting. Each
member should have opportunity to contribute or sub-
scribe. So far as practicable, the collection for each
form of work should be taken on the same day through-
out any Yearly Meeting. Also, that our Yearly Meet-
ings are requested to formulate and send down to their
subordinate Meetings instructions which shall result in
having brought clearly to the attention of the whole
membership, the needs of the several forms of Christian
and philanthropic effort represented by the Boards and
Committees for which money is desired. Also, that this
shall be done without conflicting with any other special
work of any Yearly Meeting.
We present the following names of persons to serve
on the Finance Committee: Amos K. Hollowell, Albert
F. N. Hambleton, William P. Henley, and Olney T.
Meader (Miles White, Jr., Treasurer, already a member
ex officio.}.
The expenses of the Five Years Meeting shall
include in addition to the ordinary incidental expenses of
heating, lighting, postage, stenographers, etc. , and the
cost of publishing in full its proceedings and distributing
the same, the expenses of necessary employees, and any
expenses specifically authorized by said Meeting, but
shall not include board or lodging of the delegates.
The railroad fare of delegates includes the actual cost of
transportation by whatever mode of conveyance is neces-
sary to and from the various places of residence of said
delegates to the place where the meeting is held, and does
not include the cost of sleeping-car accommodations, and
other incidental expenses while en route.
DUTIES OP THE TREASURER.
The Treasurer shall receive from the Treasurers of
the several Yearly Meetings, and from other sources, all
moneys for the use of the Five Years Meeting and the
various Boards thereof.
44 MINUTES
The funds raised by voluntary contributions in the
several Yearly Meetings and elsewhere, for the work of
the various Boards and Committees, shall, when received
by the Treasurer, be paid over to the Treasurers of these
respective Boards and Committees.
The funds raised by apportionment from the several
Yearly Meetings shall be paid out as follows :
First, upon the certification of the Clerk and First
Assistant Clerk of the Five Years Meeting, the expenses
incurred for the publication of its proceedings, the regu-
lar expenses of the Five Years Meeting, and any special
expenses of Committees or others authorized by the Five
Years Meeting.
Second, Upon the certification of the Chairmen and
Secretaries of the Board of Foreign Missions and of the
Evangelistic and Church Extension Board, and the
expenses of administration and correspondence of said
respective Boards authorized by the Discipline.
Third, Upon the certification of the Chairmen of the
various delegations to the Five Years Meeting of the
amount of the railroad fares of said delegations, the proper
proportions of each Yearly Meeting's share of fares.
The Treasurer shall be authorized to receive and
officially receipt for all legacies, donations, or funds,
requiring a formal legal acknowledgment. He shall be
required to furnish a satisfactory corporate bond in such
amount as the Finance Committee may from time to time
determine. He shall be provided with necessary clerical
assistance.
Signed on behalf of the Committee,
Daniel C. Maxfield.
95. The meeting then adjourned to meet at 7.30
o'clock in the evening.
SEVENTH-DAY EVENING, TEXTH MONTH 25.
96. The meeting opened with devotional exercises as
usual .
97. The Iowa delegation reported that EH G. Parker
MINUTES 45
had taken place as delegate instead of A. Hanson, who
was no longer present.
98. The Committee appointed on disciplinary provi-
sions reported as follows. The report was carefully con-
sidered, and on motion was adopted. The attention of the
Yearly Meetings is called to the amendment proposed
therein, which calls for their action and report thereon to
the next Five Years Meeting.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON DISCIPLINARY
PROVISIONS.
To the Five Years Meeting :
The Committee to which was referred the amend-
ments to the Constitution and Discipline, together with
the additional disciplinary regulations as submitted by
different Yearly Meetings, report that they have carefully
considered all the matters thus referred to them and are
united in recommending to the Five Years Meeting the
adoption of the following minute : —
Several propositions for the amendment of the Con-
stitution and Discipline for the American Yearly Meeting
of Friends have been submitted by Kansas, California and
Western Yearly Meetings to this meeting for its consider-
ation.
This meeting does not deem it advisable to recom-
mend to the Yearly Meetings the adoption of any of these
as presented. It does, however, recommend to the Yearly
Meetings constituting this Five Years Meeting, the adop-
tion of the following modified form ol a proposition from
Kansas Yearly Meeting, to amend Part II., Chapter x,
Section 1, Title, Yearly Meetings, paragraph 8, following
the words, ' When a proposition is approved by a Yearly
Meeting, it shall be reported to the Five Years Meeting
for its consideration,' by adding the words —
' and if it be approved by that body, with such modifi-
cations as that body shall see fit to make, it shall then be
46 MINUTES
submitted to the several Yearly Meetings for their action ;
and it shall become operative when it shall have been
adopted by four-fifths of the Yearly Meetings constituting
the Five Years Meeting.'
This particular amendment, of course, becoming
operative only when adopted by all these Yearly Meet-
ings.
This Committee further recommends that the verbal,
grammatical and typographical changes as well as the
changes in arrangement of matter as proposed by the
Committee of the Quinquennial Conference to prepare
the uniform Discipline be adopted by the Five Years
Meeting, and that the copy thus corrected become the offi-
cial copy of this body. Also, that electrotype plates
thereof be procured and an index be prepared and added
thereto.
The Committee has also examined the additional
disciplinary regulations proposed by different Yearly Meet-
ings in accordance with Part II, Chapter i, Title, Govern-
ment, and finds in them nothing inconsistent with the
Constitution and Discipline.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, Chairman.
ChareES H. Jones, Secretary.
99. Rufus M. Jones, of New England, read a paper
on "The Theory and Practice of Public Worship," as
also did Kdwin H. McGrew, of Oregon. The subject
was discussed by William W. Cadbury, of Philadelphia ;
Sophia M. Fry, of London ; Charles E. Tebbetts, of Cal-
ifornia, and John W. Woody, of North Carolina.
100. A resolution on the subject of prayer was pre-
sented by Rufus M. Jones, of New England, and was
referred to the Business Committee for consideration, and
report thereon to a future session.
101. The meeting then adjourned to meet next Sec-
ond-day Morning at 9 o'clock.
MINUTES 47
SECOND-DAY MORNING, TENTH MONTH 27.
102. The meeting convened at 9 o'clock, the devo-
tional exercises consisting of Scripture reading, exhorta-
tion, and prayer being conducted by R. Esther Smith, of
California. Prayer was also offered by Elmer D. Gilder-
sleeve, of New York; and Albert A. Bailey, of Kansas.
Remarks of exhortation were made I by Enos Harvey, of
Indiana; Lewis E. Stout, of Western 1 ,; J.Walter Malone,
of Ohio, and Isom P. Wooton, of Iowa.
103. The Board of Legislation presented the follow-
ing report, which, having been read and considered, on
motion of Milton Hanson, of Western, was adopted.
REPORT OP BOARD OP LEGISLATION.
The Committee on Legislation met and organized by
appointing Timothy Nicholson, President, and Amos K.
Hollo well, Secretary and Treasurer.
Hannah J. Bailey, Francis W. Thomas and Cyrus
Beede were appointed to present to a future meeting of the
Committee the names of five persons to be chosen from the
Committee to constitute a sub-committee, as provided for
in the Constitution and Discipline. To give attention to
subjects before the National Congress and in those States
where there are no Organized Meetings of Friends.
1.30, 10th, 25. The Committee appointed yesterday
report the following names to constitute the sub-commit-
tee : James Wood, Timothy Nicholson, Cyrus Beede, S.
Edgar Nicholson and John W. Woody, who being fully
united with were appointed.
Timothy Nicholson, John B. Peelle and Amos K.
Hollowell were appointed to prepare incorporation papers
to incorporate the Five Years Meeting ; to have the same
executed by all the members of the Committee, and
recorded. The State of Indiana was given the preference,
unless the laws of some other State is found to be more
favorable.
48 MINUTES
Albert A. Bailey presented and read a letter recom-
mending that petitions and memorials to Congress be
better guarded. Referred to Committee of five.
The Committee must keep a record of its proceedings
and report to the Five Years Meeting.
Timothy Nicholson, President,
Amos K. Hollowell, Secretary.
104. The Evangelistic and Church Extension Board
presented the following report, which was read and con-
sidered, and on motion was adopted :
REPORT OP EVANGELISTIC AND CHURCH EXTENSION
BOARD.
The Evangelistic and Church Extension Board met
and organized with Charles H. Jones, Amesbury, Mass.,
as Chairman ; John T. Hadley, Pecksburg, Ind., as Treas-
urer ; and Emma Hedges, New Castle, Ind., as Secretary.
Levi Gregory, San Jose, Cal., and Esther G. Frame,
Richmond, Ind., were appointed as the two additional
members to serve on the Executive Committee.
The Board submits the following recommendations
concerning the papers referred to it by the Five Years
Meeting : — ■
The work of the Evangelistic and Church Extension
Board is of such scope, that we urge great wisdom and
earnestness in the furtherance of plans to enlarge this
field, and recommend watchfulness for opportunities of ser-
vice which enlist our sympathy and demand our attention.
Since methods of work differ in accordance with
needs and localities, our ministers and workers should
recognize the importance and dignity of the mission of
the Church, and give support to such plans as will make
prominent the uplifting power of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, preaching the truth by example and precept^ in
dependence upon the spirit of God.
Charles H. Jones, Chairman,
Emma Hedges, Secretary.
MINUTES 49
105. On motion of Charles H. Jones, of New Eng-
land, the chairmen of the several delegations are directed
to furnish the five members of the Executive Committee
of the Evangelistic and Church Extension Board, viz.:
Charles H. Jones, Amesbury, Mass. ; John T. Hadley,
Pecksburg, Ind. ; Emma Hedges, New Castle, Ind. ;
Eevi Gregory, San Jose, Cal. ; and Esther G. Frame,
Richmond, Ind., each a copy of the Minutes of their
respective Yearly Meetings, including the names and
addresses of all ministers belonging thereto.
106. The Board on the Condition and Welfare of the
Negroes reported the following organization, and on
motion the report was approved.
REPORT OF BOARD ON THE CONDITION AND WEI/FARE
OP THE NEGROES.
To the Five Years Meeting :
The Friends' Board on the Condition and Welfare of
the Negroes has met and organized with the following offi-
cers ; President, Allen Jay ; Secretary, Richard Henry
Thomas ; Treasurer, Robert M. Ferris ; who, with the fol-
lowing, will constitute the Executive Committee : John
W. Woody, Mary Mendenhall Hobbs, Robert E. Pretlow,
Solomon B. Woodard and Charles W. Sweet.
On behalf of the Committee,
Richard Henry Thomas, Secretary.
107. The Committee on Finance made the following
report, which was, on motion adopted :
REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE.
The Committee on Finance met and organized by
appointing Amos K. Hollowell, Chairman, William Penn
Henley, Secretary, and Miles White, Jr., Treasurer.
Amos K. Holeoweee, President,
Wieeiam Penn HeneEy, Secretary.
5© MINUTES
Committee : Amos K. Hollowell, 2505 College Ave-
nue, Indianapolis, Ind. ; Albert F. N. Hambleton, Oska-
loosa, la. ; William Penn Henley, Carthage, Ind. ; Olney
T. Meader, 163 Hampden Street, Boston, Mass. ; Miles
White, Jr., 214 East German Street, Baltimore, Md.
108. The American Friends' Board of Foreign Mis-
sions made report as follows, and, on motion, the report
was accepted.
REPORT OF AMERICAN FRIENDS' BOARD OF FOREIGN
MISSIONS :
At a meeting of the American Friends' Board of
Foreign Missions, held Tenth month 27, 1902 :
It is the conclusion of this Board under the advice of
counsel, that having only organized in the year 1900 with
members appointed by all the American Yearly Meetings,
excepting Canada, and having in the year 1901 been incor-
porated under the laws of the State of Indiana, and hav-
ing accepted and since acted under said incorporation as
the American Friends' Board of Foreign Missions, said
Board has complied in effect with the provisions of the
Uniform Discipline with regard to the organization and
incorporation therein required.
Taken from the Minutes.
Mahalah Jay, Secretary.
109. The Committee appointed on Bible School Quar-
terly, Catechism, and Hymnal reported as follows. On
motion of Robert E. Pretlow, of Wilmington, the report
was considered seriatim :
REPORT ON QUARTERLY, CATECHISM AND HYMNAE.
Report of the Committee to which was referred . the
propositions for a Bible School Quarterly, a Catechism
and a Hymnal.
We do not deem it advisable at this time to under-
take the preparation and publication of either a Bible
MINUTES 51
School Quarterly, a Catechism or a Hymnal. We believe
it needful, however, that our meetings exercise care as to
the choice of hymns used, that they consist of spiritually
wholesome matter, such as will tend to the promotion of
substantial Christian growth and character.
Rufus M. Jones, Chairman.
no. On motion, that part of the report which con-
cerns the publication of a Bible School Quarterly was
adopted.
in. On motion, that part of the report which con-
cerns the publication of a Catechism was adopted.
112. On motion of Francis A. Wright, of Kansas,
the question of a Hymnal was referred to the following
Committee, with power to take such action as they shall
deem wise, without involving the Five Years Meeting in
financial obligation, except for the necessary expenses of
the Committee :
New England. — Alfred T. Ware.
New York. — Harry R. Keates.
Baltimore. — Annie D. Stabler.
North Carolina. — Mary C. Woody.
Indiana. — Ell wood O. Ellis.
Western. — Lewis E- Stout.
Iowa. — Charles W. Sweet.
Kansas. — Cyrus R. Dixon.
Oregon. — Mabel H. Douglas.
Wilmington. — Robert E. Pretlow.
California. — Imelda A. Tebbetts.
A recess of five minutes was taken.
113. In conformity with a recommendation of the
Business Committee adopted at a former session, the
following persons were appointed as delegates to the
52 MINUTES
proposed Conference on the Liquor Traffic, at Washington
City, in 1906, in addition to the five appointed here-
tofore.
New England. — Hannah J. Bailey.
New York. — Albert K. Smiley.
Baltimore. — James Carey, Jr.
North Carolina. — Thomas Newlin.
Indiana. — Ellwood O. Ellis.
Western . — Albert J . Brown.
Iowa. — Joseph Sopher.
Kansas. — Phebe M. Barnard.
Oregon. — Francis K. Jones.
Wilmington. — Emma S. Townsend.
California. — Charles E. Tebbetts.
114. The Board of Education offered the following
report which, after its reading and consideration, on
motion of Elmer D. Gildersleeve, of New York, was
adopted.
REPORT OF BOARD OF EDUCATION
The Committee met and organized by electing Absa-
lom Rosenberger, of Iowa, as Chairman and Charles E-
Tebbetts, of California, Secretary.
We have canvassed with great interest the work done
by our colleges and believe them to be doing a work for
the Church and the world far exceeding in value the
investment in them. We heartily endorse the efforts
being made to increase their efficiency by greater endow-
ments. We commend this movement to the attention of
all our membership, and especially to those having
means at their disposal that God would have them invest
in enterprises for the upbuilding of His kingdom. We
urge that each of our Colleges should have adequate
endowment. By thus securing permanency and effi-
ciency, they may be made centers of influence and power
that shall not only make our own membership better
MINUTES 53
equipped for service, but shall also reach far beyond our
own limits in extending those ideals of Christianity for
which the Society of Friends has always stood.
We propose that a committee of five shall be appointed
as an Executive Committee, to consist of the following
members : Robert E. Pretlow, Absalom Rosenberger,
Robert E. Kelly, Carolena M. Wood and Rufus M.
Jones.
We propose that this Executive Committee shall be
authorized to solicit funds for, and have general manage-
ment of the establishment and conduct of a lectureship on
the History and Interpretation of Christian truth as held
by Friends.
We further recommend : — •
i st. That this Meeting recommend to Friends their
co-operation in the support of the existing courses of
Bible study in our colleges.
2nd. We approve and encourage the efforts that are
being made through the means of Bible Institutes to fur-
nish a high character of Biblical instruction to our mem-
bers.
3d. To the end that our young men and women who
are feeling the necessity of superior advantages in Biblical
instruction, within our own fold, we have referred to the
Executive Committee the matter of the establishment in
connection with one of our existing colleges or otherwise,
of such courses as will meet the demand.
4th. We recommend that the Five Years Meeting
empower the Executive Committee to appoint suitable
Friends to constitute a financial Educational Board, who
shall receive and hold in trust gifts and bequests for
general or specific educational purposes among Friends.
A. Rosenberger, Chairman.
Charles E. Tebbetts, Secretary.
115. The Committee appointed to prepare a letter to
Eondon Yearly Meeting in response to the one received,
produced the following, which has been read, and on
motion of Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England, was
54 MINUTKS
adopted, direc ed to be signed and forwarded to London
Yearly Meeting.
To London Yearly Meeting of Friends,
Dear Friends : — In the midst of our assembling
together under the conscious covering of the Divine Pres-
ence, our hearts were deeply touched and our courage
and purpose augmented by the loving message of fellow-
ship and cheer from you.
Though coming from widely separated fields and
representing in many respects divergent methods of work,
we have been in a remarkable degree knit together in the
One Spirit of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. We have
indeed many members, and all members have not the
same office, and yet we feel that to a degree never before
realized in the history of our Branch of the Church in
America, we are a consolidated and united people, and
are listening as individuals and as a Church for the com-
mand of our Lord to go forward.
In addition to the well filled delegations from the
eleven Yearly Meetings entitled by the adoption of our
Constitution and Discipline to representation in this body,
we have had the inspiring presence and counsel of Fra-
ternal Delegates from Canada and Ohio Yearly Meetings
and of valued members from your own and Philadelphia
Yearly Meetings. But while we have been profoundly
impressed by the constant undercurrent of spiritual unity
and large and steadfast fellowship, we rejoice in being
able to report that the watchword of our meeting has been
an aggressive and practical Christian activity. The range
of our deliberations has been well-nigh as extensive as the
needs of men. We have felt with peculiar vividness and
force the call to preach the message of the Saviour to every
creature ; and in the consideration of the numerous
departments of our work, the deliberations have crystal -
ized with definite plans of procedure. In accordance with
the requirements of our Constitution, Boards and Com-
mittees have been appointed to extend and promote the
work of evangelization and church extension, of foreign
missions, of legislation, education, temperance, peace and
MINUTES 55
arbitration, and to ameliorate the condition of the Ameri-
can Negro and the North American Indian. Our foreign
mission work is of recent growth. Thirty-one years ago
no American Yearly Meeting was engaged in such work.
Now, each of the fourteen American Yearly Meetings has
within it a Foreign Mission Board, and the tendency of
these Boards is pronounced in the direction of co-opera-
tion and centralization. Now we have 78 of our own mis-
sionaries in the field, 153 native helpers, 2141 church
members and 1500 pupils in school. Last year $55,000
was raised within the Yearly Meetings for foreign mission
work.
Our Legislature Board has been empowered to urge
upon the Legislatures of our forty-five States the necessity
of stringent laws to prevent mob violence in the form of
lynching. Our meeting has issued a call to Christian
bodies of the United States to send representatives to a
convention to be held in Washington City in the year
1906, to consider and formulate means for concerted
action against the traffic in intoxicating liquors.
Each of our Boards and Committees, impressed by
the dominant note of unity of purpose among us, and
upheld by faith in a common Leader, is consecrating itself
to its particular task and praying for the consolation and
guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Realizing the preciousness of God's favor upon us
and in the simple belief that though we may water, it is
He that giveth the increase, we address ourselves in His
name to our several tasks, and remain your friends in the
common brotherhood of believers.
116. The Committee on Arrangements for the next
Five Years Meeting reported their organization as follows,
which was approved by the Meeting :
For Chairman, Timothy Nicholson, Richmond, Ind.
For Secretary, Absalom Rosenberger, Oskaloosa, la.
117. The Business Committee offered the following
resolutions, which, having been considered, were, on
motion, adopted :
56 MINUTES
(1) On the Christian Sabbath —
Resolved, That we desire to call upon all citizens of
our land to give proper observance to the Christian Sab-
bath. It has been an important factor in Christian civili-
zation, and its non-observance results in a weakening of
reverence for sacred things and a decadence of moral
standing. To professing Christians the Sabbath should
have the profoundest respect as the chosen opportunity
for Divine worship, and be held sacred as a Divine insti-
tution that has been and will continue to be of inestimable
benefit to mankind.
(2) Providing for Vacancy in Office of Treasurer —
Resolved, That in case of a vacancy occurring in the
position of Treasurer, the Committee on Arrangements is
hereby authorized to fill the vacancy and to direct the
transfer of any funds then in the treasury.
11S. Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana, offered the fol-
lowing resolution, which was considered, and, on motion,
was adopted :
INSTRUCTIONS TO TREASURER.
Resolved, That the Treasurer be instructed to pay
all bills pertaining to the expenses of the Five Years
Meeting, when approved as provided by the report of the
Finance Committee ; and he is hereby authorized, if neces-
sary, to borrow money.
119. The Business Committee presented the following
propositions and resolutions, which, having been con-
sidered separately, were all, one by one, on motion,
adopted :
(1) On Publishing the Proceedings —
It is proposed that the proceedings of the Five Years
Meeting be published in one volume, to contain all the
papers read, the conclusions reached, and a brief synopsis
of the discussions. The number to be printed is referred
to the delegations, and the chairman of each delegation
MINUTES 57
is directed to report to the Committee on Publication the
number of copies desired for his Yearly Meeting.
(2) On Prayer —
For the spiritual life and power of our meetings and
our entire church work in the world, true, living and rev-
erent prayer is essential. As there is a tendency, too fre-
quent in our time, to treat prayer lightly, to pray as
though the congregation were addressed instead of the
L,ord, and as though no effect was expected, we desire to
see prayer kept in its true place in the life of the Church.
And we also urge the great importance of special care on
the part of our members to maintain a reverent attitude
while prayer is being offered.
(3) Book of Meetings — ■
The Business Committee propose that the publication
of a Book of Meetings be referred to the Evangelistic and
Church Extension Board.
(4) Place of Next Meeting —
Resolved, That the Five Years Meeting of 1907 be
held in the city of Richmond, Ind.
(5) Thanks to Indianapolis Friends — ■
Resolved, That the kind and generous hospitality of
the Friends in Indianapolis is warmly appreciated by the
members of the Five Years Meeting, and we return to
them our hearty thanks for all the}* - have done to facilitate
the transaction of the business of the Meeting and to
make pleasant our sojourn among them.
120. On motion of William V. Coffin, of California,
in view of the next Five Years Meeting being held in
Richmond, Ind., the action of a former session appoint-
ing Charles E. Newlin Railroad Secretary was reconsid-
ered, and, on motion, Benjamin Johnson, a resident of
Richmond, was appointed Railroad Secretary.
121. On motion of Harry R. Keates, of New York,
a vote of thanks and appreciation was tendered to the
58 MINUTES
officers of the meeting for their faithfulness in the dis-
charge of their duties, Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana,
on motion, having been called to .preside during the con-
sideration of the question.
122. The Minutes of this session were read and
approved.
123. We have now finished the business that has
come before us for consideration. We are thankful to
our Heavenly Father for the unity and love that have
prevailed in all the sessions of this Five Years Meeting.
With renewed courage and hope, and with praise to the
Lord for His manifest blessings upon us, we now conclude
to meet at Richmond, Ind., at 7.30 o'clock P. M., on the
third-day of the Tenth month, 1907, if the Lord will.
Edmund Stanley,
Clerk.
Ell wood O. Ellis,
First Assistant Clerk.
R. Esther Smith,
Second Assistant Clerk.
RESOLUTIONS. CONCLUSIONS, PROPOSITIONS,
ETC., ADOPTED BY THE FIVE YEARS MEET-
ING, 1902.
Resolved, That we protest in the strongest manner
possible against the spirit of lawlessness that is being
manifested in various parts of the land. Our civilization
and our institutions are founded upon respect for and
obedience to law, and they are undermined and threat-
ened with destruction when any law is violated with
impunity.
Resolved, That in respect for law, for the rights of
humanity and for the religion of Jesus Christ, we protest
in the name of Christian Civilization against the mob vio-
lence, which in the form of lynching, either of white or
MINUTES 59
black, red or yellow men, outrages every principle of right
and justice ; and we call upon the legislatures of the
several States to so revise their statutes that the continua-
tion of this barbarous practice may be prevented.
Resolved, That we approve of the work being done
by several of the Yearly Meetings for bettering the condi-
tion of the Negroes, and we desire to encourage them
therein.
Resolved, That the Five Years Meeting approves of
the work of the associated Executive Committee of
Friends on Indian Affairs, and while we recognize that
there is much yet to be done, we are thankful for what
has been accomplished in protecting the Indians in their
rights, in giving them both intellectual and manual train-
ing, and most important of all, in bringing them to the
knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Resolved, That we accept the present organization of
the Committee, and we request it to continue its work,
and we appoint it as our official representatives in this
field.
Resolved, That the several Yearly Meetings are ad-
vised to continue their financial report to the Committee,
and we request them to increase their contributions as
they may be able to do.
Resolved, That we request the Committee to report
annually to the several bodies to whom it has heretofore
been reported, and also to send a full report of its work to
the Five Years Meeting.
The work of the Peace Association of Friends in
America is heartily approved by this meeting, and while
we urge the various Yearly Meetings to continue their
relations with it, giving it hearty support and receiving
its annual reports as heretofore, we appoint it as our offi-
cial representative on the subject of Peace and request it
to make report also to this meeting.
The following propositions were adopted to define the
functions of the Foreign Missionary Board and its rela-
tions to the Boards of other Yearly Meetings, viz. :
60 MINUTES
First, It shall be trie duty of this Board to represent
American Friends in matters pertaining to the interde-
nominational aspects of foreign mission work.
Second, Each Yearly Meeting represented in the
Board, while continuing its own separate work as hereto-
fore, should realize that this work forms a constituent
part of the foreign mission work of Friends in America,
of which the American Friends' Board has a general
advisory oversight ; but it must not be interpreted that
such advice carries with it any controlling authority.
Third, The Foreign Mission Boards of the Yearly
Meetings should annually furnish the Secretary of the
American Friends' Board a full report of their mission
needs and of the work during the preceding year, which,
together with such other information and statistics as
may be accessible, shall be drawn upon as material for
the annual report of this Board to the Yearly Meetings.
Fourth, Whenever two or more Yearly Meetings are
working in the same foreign field, they should each keep
in view the importance of actual co-operation in such
work as far as practicable.
Fifth, Each Yearl y Meeting represented in this Board
should make through its Foreign Mission Board, or other-
wise, the necessary arrangements for receiving voluntary
contributions for the work of the American Friends'
Board and forwarding the same to the Treasurer of said
Board.
Sixth, In order to bring this Board and the Mission
Boards of the several Yearly Meetings into close touch
with each other, it is desirable that the members of this
Board for each Yearly Meeting shall be ex-officio, or
otherwise, members of its Foreign Mission Board.
Resolved, That all vacancies occurring in Boards and
Standing Committees in the interim of the sessions of the
Five Years Meeting be filled by such Boards and Com-
mittees, if not otherwise provided for.
Resolved, That in case of a vacancy occurring in the
position of Treasurer, the Committee on Arrangements is
MINUTES 6 I
hereby authorized to fill the vacancy, and to direct the
transfer of any funds then in the treasury.
Resolved, We recommend that the entire subject of
Biblical and Religious Study be referred to the Committee
on Education, encouraging the members of this Commit-
tee to do all in their power to provide for the pressing
needs of our membership in this direction.
Resolved, We propose that an Executive Committee
of five be appointed by the Five Years Meeting to make
all the necessary preliminary arrangements for holding the
proposed Conference on the Liquor Traffic, to carry on
the necessary correspondence with the churches, and to
be the delegates-at-large from the body, and we nominate
James Wood, Rufus M. Jones, Timothy Nicholson, Ben-
jamin F„ Trueblood and Edmund Stanley as such Com-
mittee. And we further propose that the delegates from
the several Yearly Meetings name one additional delegate
to attend the Conference if held. If the development be
such that an additional number of delegates be advisable,
the Executive Committee shall request the Yearly Meet-
ings to appoint such additional number as the Committee
may advise.
THE CALL FOR A TEMPERANCE CONGRESS.
From the Five Years Meeting of the Society of Friends in
America, held at Indianapolis, Indiana, in
October, 1902.
To the Various Christian Bodies in the United States,
Dear Brethren in Christ : — We are confident in the
belief that the consensus of opinion of the professing
Christians of our land is opposed to the evils of the Liquor
Traffic, and we find a want of co-operation in practical
effort to give to this opposition because none of the propo-
sitions heretofore made has met the approval of the gene-
ral judgment of Christian people. We recognize that this
is the case in our own body, and we believe it is likewise
true of others. As a result, the Church exerts far less
influence than it should to prevent the evils produced by
62 MINUTES
this great cause of poverty and crime, and which, also, is
a most serious obstacle to the spread of the Gospel.
We are deeply impressed with the conviction that an
earnest effort should be made to ascertain in what way
Christians can exert a united influence in this cause, and
by what means they may work together. Upon what
proposition can we obtain a practical agreement ? We
frankly confess that we are not competent to solve the
problem, but we believe that by united .inquiry and a
prayerful seeking for Divine enlightenment, with a wil-
lingness to approach the subject with an open mind, the
united Church may find a way by which we can serve the
cause of Christ and the good of mankind in seeking the ulti-
mate elimination of this stupendous evil. We, therefore,
invite the governing bodies of the various denominations of
Christians in the United States to appoint delegates to rep-
resent them in a Conference to be held in the city of
Washington, to begin on the second Wednesday of March
in the year 1906. . The decisions of this Conference should
be reached only in practical unanimity, and therefore it is
unnecessary to indicate any limit to the proposed repre-
sentation.
We issue this invitation with an humble realization
of the smalluess of our body, as compared with many
others, but we do it under a deep sense that this duty has
been laid upon us and that God will use the proposed
instrumentality for the accomplishment of great good to
mankind and for the glory of His name.
Believing that this proposition will meet with your
approval and practical co-operation, we have appointed
James Wood, of Mount Kisco, N. Y.; Rufus M. Jones,
Haverford, Pa.; Timothy Nicholson, Richmond, Ind.;
Benjamin F. Trueblood, Boston, Mass.; and Edmund
Stanley, Wichita, Kan., with one additional delegate from
each of the eleven Yearly Meetings, to represent us at the
Conference.
In thefaith and loveof Jesus Christ, we are your friends,
Ellwood O. Ellis, Assistant Clerk.
Edmund Stanley, Presiding Clerk.
[Signed by direction of the Meeting.]
MINUTES 63
We are thankful to have the presence of fraternal
delegations appointed by Ohio and Canada Yearly Meet-
ings, to whom we have been glad to extend the privilege
of joining in the discussion of various questions that have
come before us. It is our desire that these may bear to
their Yearly Meetings the cordial fraternal greetings of
the Five Years meeting and an expression of our appre-
ciation of their representation amongst us at this time.
We are also grateful for the presence of several members
of London and Philadelphia Yearly Meetings, to whom
it has been our pleasure to grant the same privileges. By
the presence of all these we have been strengthened and
encouraged.
We endorse The American Friend and the Mission-
ary Advocate, and heartily commend them to the Friends
in America.
Resolved, That the preparation of uniform blanks
and uniform records be transferred to a committee com-
posed of Rufus H. Jones, Peter W. Raidabaugh and Wil-
liam V. Coffin, to prepare the necessary forms and present
the same before the Yearly Meetings for their adoption.
It is proposed that a Board on the condition and wel-
fare of the Negroes, consisting of twenty -two members,
eleven at large and one from each Yearly Meeting, be
appointed to take into consideration the best means for
elevating them. This committee shall have the power to
carry the same into effect.
Report of Finance Committee and Duties of Treas-
urer. (See Minutes — Minute 94.)
A committee appointed on Disciplinary provisions
presented the following report, which has been read and
considered and on motion adopted :
To the Five Years Meeting :
The committee to which was referred the amend-
ments to the Constitution and Discipline, together with
the additional disciplinary regulations, as submitted by
64 MINUTES
different Yearly Meetings, report that they have carefully
considered all the matters thus referred to them, and are
united in recommending to the Five Years Meeting the
adoption of the following Minute :
Several propositions for the amendment of the Con-
stitution and Discipline for the American Yearly Meetings
of Friends have been submitted by Kansas, California and
Western Yearly Meetings to this meeting for its consider-
ation.
This Meeting does not deem it advisable to recom-
mend to the Yearly Meetings the adoption of any of these
as presented. It does, however, recommend to the Yearly
Meetings constituting this Five Years Meeting the adop-
tion of the following modified form of a proposition from
Kansas Yearly Meeting : To amend Part II., Chapter x,
Section i, Title, Yearly Meetings, Paragraph 8, following
the words : ' When a proposition is approved by a Yearly
Meeting, it shall be reported to the Five Years Meeting
for its consideration,' by adding the words — •
' and if it be approved by that body with such modi-
fications as that body shall see fit to make, it shall then
be submitted to the several Yearly Meetings for their
action, and it shall become operative when it shall have
been adopted by four-fifths of the Yearly Meetings con-
stituting the Five Years Meeting. '
This particular amendment, of course, becoming
operative only when adopted by all these Yearly Meetings.
This committee further recommends that the verbal,
grammatical and typographical changes, as well as the
changes in the arrangement of matters proposed by the
Committee on the Quinquennial Conference to prepare the
Uniform Discipline, be adopted by the Five Years Meet-
ing, and that the copy thus corrected become the official
copy of this body. Also that electrotype plates thereof
be procured and an index be prepared and added thereto.
This committee has also examined the additional
disciplinary regulations proposed by different Yearly
Meetings, in accordance with Chapter i, Part 2, Title
MINUTES 65
Government, and finds in them nothing inconsistent with
the Constitution and Discipline.
Benjamin F. Truebeood, Chairman.
ChareES H. Jones, Secretary.
The following report of the Board of Education was
adopted by the Meeting :
We have canvassed with great interest the work done
by our colleges, and believe them to be doing a work for
the Church and the world far exceeding in value the
investment in them. We heartily endorse the efforts
being made to increase their efficiency by greater endow-
ments. We commend this movement to the attention of
all our membership, and especially to those having means
at their disposal that God would have them invest in
enterprises for the upbuilding of His kingdom. We urge
that each of our colleges should have adequate endow-
ment. By thus securing their permanency and efficiency,
they may be made centers of influence and power that
shall not only make our own membership better equipped
for service, but shall also reach far beyond our own limits
in extending those ideals of Christianity for which the
Society of Friends has always stood.
We propose that a committee of five shall be appoin-
ted an Executive Committee, to consist of the following
members : Robert E. Pretlow, Absalom Rosenberger,
Robert E- Kelly, Carolena M. Wood and Rufus M. Tones.
We propose that this Executive Committee shall be
authorized to solicit funds for and have general manage-
ment of the establishment and conduct of a lectureship
on the history and interpretation of Christian truth as
held by Friends.
We further recommend :
First, That this Meeting recommend to Friends their
co-operation in the support of the existing courses of
Bible study in our colleges.
Second, We approve and encourage the efforts that
are being made through the means of Bible Institutes to
furnish a high character of Biblical instruction to our
members.
66 MINUTES
Third, To the end that our young men and women
who are feeling the necessity of superior advantages in
Biblical instruction, may find such opportunity within our
own fold, we have referred to the Executive Committee
the matter of the establishment in connection with one of
our existing colleges, or otherwise, of such courses as will
meet the demand.
Fourth, We recommed that the Five Years Meeting
empower the Executive Committee to appoint suitable
Friends to constitute a financial educational Board, who
shall receive and hold in trust gifts and bequests for
general or specific educational purposes among Friends.
A. RoSENBERGER, Chairman.
ChareES E. Tebbetts, Secretary.
Resolved, That we desire to call upon all citizens of
our land to give proper observance to the Christian Sab-
bath. It has been an important factor in the development
of Christian civilization, and its non-observance results in
a weakening of reverence for sacred things, and a decad-
ence of moral standing. To professing Christians the
Sabbath should have the profoundest respect, as the
chosen opportunity for Divine worship, and be held sacred
as a Divine institution that has been and will continue to
be of inestimable benefit to mankind.
Resolved, For the spiritual life and power of our
meetings, and our entire Church work in the world, true,
living and reverent prayer is essential. As there is a
tendency too frequent in our time to treat prayer lightly, to
pray as though the congregation were addressed instead
of the Dord, and as though no effect were expected, we
desire to see prayer kept in its true place in the life of the
Church. And we also urge the great importance of spe-
cial care on the part of our members to maintain a reverent
attitude while prayer is being offered.
The Business Committee propose that the publication
of "A Book of Meetings " be referred to the Evangelistic
and Church Extension Board.
MINUTES 67
Resolved, That the Five Years Meeting of 1907 be
held in the city of Richmond, Indiana.
Officers, Boards, Standing Committees, etc., of
the Five Years Meeting.
officers of the five years meeting.
Clerk, Edmund Stanley of Kansas Yearly Meeting.
Address, Wichita, Kansas.
First Assistant Clerk, Ellwood O. Ellis of Indiana
Yearly Meeting. Address, Richmond, Ind.
Second Assistant Clerk, R. Esther Smith of California
Yearly Meeting.
Treasurer, Miles White, Jr., of Baltimore Yearly Meet-
ing. Address, 214 E. German Street, Baltimore, Md.
Auditing Committee . — Timothy Nicholson of Indiana,
Francis A. Wright of Kansas, and Charles H. Jones of
New England.
Evangelistic and Church Extension Board.
officers.
Chairman, Charles H. Jones, Amesbury, Mass.
Treaszirer, John T. Hadley, Pecksburg, Ind.
Secretary, Emma Hedges, New Castle, Ind.
Executive Committee . — The officers, and Levi Gregory,
San Jose, Cal., and Esther G. Frame, Richmond Ind.
New England. — Charles H. Jones and D.Wheeler
Swift.
New York. — Elmer D. Gildersleeve and Emilie Un-
derbill Burgess.
Baltimore. — Samuel R. Neave and Anna K. Carey.
North Carolina. — David E. Sampson and Sue V.
Hollo well.
Indiana. — Joseph O. Binford, Emma Hedges, Evan
H. Ferree and Mary H. Goddard.
Western. — Dindley A. Wells, Sarah Kelsey Dinah
T. Henderson and John T. Hadley.
Iowa. — Isom P. Wooton, Eaura P. Townsend and
Samuel I,. Haworth.
68 MINUTER
Kansas. — Isaac A. Woodard, William P. Haworth
and Rachel Kirk.
Wilmington. — Esther G. Frame, Josephus Hoskins
and Nancy A. C. Leonard.
Oregon. — Jesse Edwards and Eouisa Painter Rounds
California . — L,evi Gregory and Levi D. Barr.
American Friends' Board op Foreign Missions.
officers.
President, Thomas C. Brown, Carmel, Ind.
Secretary, Mahalah Jay, Richmond, Ind.
Treasurer, James Carey, Jr., 838 Park Avenue, Bal-
timore, Md.
Executive Committee. — The above officers and Charles
E. Carey, Fairmount, Ind., and Ellen C. Wright, Wil-
mington, Ohio.
Advisory Committee. — Hannah E- Sleeper, Kansas
Yearly Meeting ; William Jasper Hadley, Iowa Yearly
Meeting; Carolena M. Wood, New York Yearly Meet-
ing ; Benjamin F. Trueblood, New England Yearly Meet-
ing ; R. Esther Smith, California Yearly Meeting ; Emmor
W. Hall, Oregon Yearly Meeting ; Harry A. Peelle, North
Carolina Yearly Meeting.
New England Yearly Meeting. — Benjamin F. True-
blood and Phebe S. Aydelott.
New York Yearly Meeting. — Robert M. Ferris and
Carolena M. Wood.
Baltimore Yearly Meeting. — James Carey, Jr., and
Anna B. Thomas.
North Carolina Yearly Meeting. — Josiah Nicholson
and Mary A. Peelle.
Indiana Yearly Meeting. — Mahalah Jay, Charles E.
Carey, Ida S. Henley and Joseph A. Goddard.
Western Yearly Meeting. — Thomas C. Brown, David
Hadley, Lydia Taylor Painter and Flora P. Mills.
Iowa Yearly Meeting. — William Jasper Hadley,
Charles L,. Michener and Viola Spurgin.
MINUTES 69
Kansas Yearly Meeting. — Hannah E. Sleeper, Fran-
cis A. Wright and Martha M. Woodard.
Wilmington Yearly Meeting. — Ellen C. Wright,
Laura E. Dunham and James B. Unthank.
Oregon Yearly Meeting. — Laura E. Minthorn and
Emm or W. Hall.
California Yearly Meeting. — Mary M. Brown and R.
Esther Smith.
Board op Education.
officers.
Chairman, Absalom Rosenberger, Oskaloosa, la.
Secretary, Charles E. Tebbetts, Whittier, Cal.
New England. — John Ellwood Paige.
New York. — Carolena M. Wood.
Baltimore. — Allen C. Thomas.
North Carolina. — L. Lyndon Hobbs.
Indiana. — Robert L- Kelly.
Western. — Andrew F. Mitchell.
Iowa. — Absalom Rosenberger.
Kansas. — Edmund Stanley.
Wilmington. — Robert E. Pretlow.
Oregon. — Edwin H. McGrew.
California. — Charles E. Tebbetts.
Board of Legislation.
officers.
President, Timothy Nicholson, Richmond, Ind.
Secretary and Treasurer ; Amos K. Hollowell, Indian-
apolis, Ind.
Sub- Committee. — James Wood, Timothy Nicholson,
Cyrus Beede, S. Edgar Nicholson, John W. Woody.
New England. — Olney T. Meader and Hannah J.
Bailey.
New York. — James Wood and Albert K. Smiley.
Baltimore. — S. Edgar Nicholson and Lindley D.
Clark.
North Carolina. — John W. Woody and Doctor J J. Cox.
70 MINUTES
Indiana. — Timothy Nicholson and Francis W,
Thomas.
Western. — Amos K. Hollo well and William True-
blood.
Iowa. — A. F. N. Hambleton and Cyrus Beede.
Kansas. — Calvin Kesinger and Albert A. Bailey.
Wilmington . — John B. Peelle and Paul Tasso Terrell.
Oregon. — Aaron M. Bray and Jesse Edwards.
California. — Washington Hadley and William V.
Coffin.
Finance Committee.
officers.
President, Amos K. Hollowell.
Secretary, William Penn Henley.
Treasurer, Miles White, Jr.
Amos K. Hollowell, 2505 College Avenue, Indian-
apolis, Ind.; Albert F. N. Hambleton, Oskaloosa, la.;
William Penn Henley, Carthage, Ind.; OlneyT. Meader,
163 Hampden Street, Boston, Mass.; Miles White, Jr.,
214 East German Street, Baltimore, Md.
Delegates to Proposed Conference on Liquor
Traffic.
At Large. — James Wood, Rufus M. Jones, Timothy
Nicholson, Benjamin F. Trueblood and Edmund Stanley.
From the Yearly Meetings : —
New England. — Hannah J. Bailey.
New York. — Albert K. Smiley.
Baltimore. — James Carey, Jr.
North Carolina. — Thomas Newlin.
Indiana. — Ell wood O. Ellis.
Western. — Albert J. Brown.
Iowa. — Joseph Sopher.
Kansas. — Phebe M. Barnard.
Wilmington. — Emma S- Townsend.
Oregon. — Francis K. Jones.
California . — Charles E. Tebbetts.
MINUTES 71
Board on the Condition and Weefare oe the
Negroes.
officers.
President, Allen Jay, Richmond, Ind.
Secretary, Richard H. Thomas, 17 18 John Street,
Baltimore, Md.
Treasurer, Robert M. Ferris, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.
At Large. — Augustine Jones, Robert M. Ferris, Allen
C Thomas, James Carey, Jr., John W. Woody, J. Elwood
Cox, Allen Jay, Mary J. Ballard, Robert K. Pretlow, Peter
W. Raidabaugh, Charles W. Sweet.
From the Yearly Meetings : —
New England. — Robert P. Gifford.
New York. — Robert I. Murray.
Baltimore. — Richard H. Thomas.
North Carolina. — Mary M. Hobbs.
Indiana. — Joseph A. Goddard.
Western. — Solomon B. Woodard.
Iowa. — Joseph Sopher.
Kansas. — Mary C. Wright.
Wilmington. — Mary Edwards.
Oregon. — Daniel Drew.
California. — William H. Coffin.
Associated Executive Committee on Indian
Affairs, 1902.
officers.
Chairman pro tern., Allen Jay, Richmond, Ind.
Clerk, Hetty B. Garrett, Green and Coulter Streets,
Germantown, Philadelphia, Pa.
Treasurer, Jonathan M. Steere, Girard Building,
Philadelphia, Pa.
Committee : —
New England Yearly Meeting . — William O. Newhall,
Emeline H. Tuttle, Myra E- Frye, John S. Kimber, A.
Chalkley Collins.
72 MINUTES
New York Yearly Meeting. — Carolena M. Wood,
Robert M. Ferris, George D. Hilyard, Mary S. Kimber.
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. — Edward M. Wistar,
Hetty B. Garrett, Jonathan M. Steere, Walter Smedley,
Charles J. Rhoads, Marriott C. Morris.
Baltimore Yearly Meeting. — John Nicholson, Mary
B. Nicholson, James Carey, Jr., Miles White, Jr.
North Carolina Yearly Meeting. — John W. Woody,
Mary M. Hobbs, Rhoda M. Worth, Roxie D. White.
Ohio Yearly Meeting. — William J. Harrison, Benja-
min Butler, Elizabeth L. Hill, Mary C. Wood.
Wilmington Yearly Meeting. — Edward R. Walton,
Ellen C. Wright, Abigail J. Hadley, William F. Baugham.
Indiana Yearly Meeting. — Robert W. Douglas, Allen
Jay, Mahalah Jay, Eliza E- Canaday.
Western Yearly Meeti?ig. — John H. Furnas, Nathan
E. Hubbard.
Iowa Yearly Meeting. — R. J. Mendenhall, William
Jasper Hadley.
Kansas Yearly Meeting. — John M. Watson, Susanna
Osburn, Thomas M. Griffiths.
Peace Association of Friends in America,
officers.
President, Richard H. Thomas, 17 18 John Street,
Baltimore, Md.
Secretary, H. Eavinia Baily, Richmond, Ind.
Treasurer, Charles A. Francisco, Richmond, Ind.
Committee on a Hymnal.
New England. — Alfred T. Ware.
New York. — Harry R. Keates.
Baltimore. — Annie D. Stabler.
North Carolina. — Mary C. Woody.
Indiana. — EH wood O. Ellis.
Western. — Lewis E. Stout.
Iowa. — Charles W. Sweet.
Kansas. — Cyrus R. Dixon.
MINUTES 73
Wilmington. — Robert E. Pretlow.
Oregon. — Mabel EL Douglas.
Calif 01'nia. — Imelda A. Tebbetts.
Executive Committee.
officers.
Chairman, Harry R. Keates, Glens Falls, N. Y.
Secretary, Robert E. Pretlow, Wilmington, Ohio.
Lewis E. Stout, Plainfield, Ind. ; Cyrus R. Dixon,
Lawrence, Kansas ; Ellwood O. Ellis, Richmond, Ind. ;
Charles W. Sweet, Des Moines, Iowa.
Committee on Publication of Proceedings.
Allen C. Thomas, Haverford, Pa. ; Rufus M. Jones,
Haverford, Pa. ; James Wood, Mt. Kisco, N. Y.
Committee on Arrangements for the Five Years
Meeting of 1907.
New England. — Rufus M. Jones.
New York. — James Wood.
Baltimore. — Allen C. Thomas.
North Carolina. — Mary E. Cartland.
Indiana. — Timothy Nicholson.
Western. — Peter W. Raidabaugh.
Iowa. — Absalom Rosenberger.
Kansas. — Cyrus R. Dixon.
Wilmington. — Jonathan B. Wright.
Orego7i. — Edwin H. McGrew.
California. — R. Esther Smith.
STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
OF TH^
QUINQUENNIAL CONFERENCE.
Third-Day, Tenth Month 21ST, 1902. — 7.30 p.m.
The Conference was called to order by Timothy
Nicholson, who isaid : As the Chairman of the Committee
on Arrangements appointed five years ago, it becomes my
duty to call the meeting to order. I might state on be-
half of that Committee that we corresponded one with
another to find out where we were to meet, and the
majority were for Indianapolis. Our Friends in Indian-
apolis accepted the choice most graciously.
In the absence of the Chairman of the last Confer-
ence, I will request the Vice-President, Edmund Stanley,
of Kansas, to preside for this session, and Mary C. Woody,
of North Carolina, who was one of the Clerks, will be the
Clerk of the evening meeting.
You will observe by the Discipline that the Chair-
men of the different delegations constitute a very import-
ant Committee, to nominate the Five Years Meeting offi-
cers ; so if their be any delegations here that have not
already appointed a Chairman, they should attend to it
this evening, as it will be very desirable that the first
meeting of the Committee should oe -to-morrow morning
at eight o'clock.
It has also been arranged that Ellwood O. Ellis, of
Richmond, will open the religious exercises.
Edmund Stanley, taking the Chair, said : Much as I
might appreciate the honor of presiding over this meeting,
it is a source of regret to me that our able and efficient
presiding officer of five years ago fails to be with us on
this occasion. We have met for a very important service.
This meeting marks the beginning of a new era in our
75
76 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Church organization, and I look upon it as a great event
in our history. The meeting this evening is for the pur-
pose of closing up the business of the Conference prepara-
tory to the organization of the Five Years Meeting.
I will not detain you with further remarks. The
devotional exercises will be led by Ell wood O. Ellis, ol
Richmond, Indiana.
Ell wood O. Ellis, of Indiana : In the very brief
moment that I had to think as to what might be appropri-
ate for this important meeting, the Second Chapter of
Second Timothy came to my mind, and I will read it.
It is of great importance that prayer should be offered
by all those who have come up to this gathering. I do
not mean vocally, because that would probably not be
proper, but silently ; none ought to fail to call for the
blessings of God just at this moment.
This occasion is the most tremendous in importance
that the Society of Friends has ever come to yet. It is a
time to call upon God for wisdom ; to ask His leading ;
to ask that we may be prevented from doing anything that
would be disastrous to the cause we love, that we may be
able to lead into anything that w T ill advance the cause for
which we labor. Now, as the opportunity is given to
me, I suggest to the ushers that during this time of prayer
no other person be allowed to come up the aisle, so that we
may have the time quiet before the L,ord ; and in this time
let there be the freedom that has characterized our denom-
ination everywhere. Let prayer now reign.
(Several earnest petitions for wisdom and blessing were
offered by Robert E. Pretlow, of Wilmington ; William
P. Pinkham, of Ohio; Ellwood O. Ellis, of Indiana, and
others.)
The Chairman : It will be necessary for us to com-
plete our organization by having a record of the delegates
appointed to constitute this meeting before we proceed.
The Secretary will please call the Yearly Meetings in
order, and if the reports have not been handed to the Sec-
retary the delegations will please pass in their reports so
that their list of delegates may be read. The Secretary
will read the list of delegates.
op the; conference 77
(List of delegates read by Mary C. Woody, of North
Carolina. See Minutes, Minute 2.)
The Chairman : Is it the wish of the Conference that
we take the time to fill the places of absentees in delega-
tions by alternates, if any are present?
It was suggested that as vacancies could not be filled
to-night business should be proceeded with.
The Chairman : Then we will take it by consent that
we do not fill the vacancies to-night.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : Five years ago there
was a committee appointed to audit the Treasurer's account
of both five years ago and also of this meeting. The
Treasurer is not present, but he has sent in his report and
his vouchers. One of the Auditing Committee died sud-
denly, another is not here, and only Elizabeth M. Jenkins
is present on this committee. She would like to have one
or two appointed, that they may retire and go over the
report before we adjourn. I therefore move that two per-
sons be appointed by this Meeting to attend to this matter
at once.
(Seconded.)
The motion was taken by consent.
The Chairman : I will name tor that committee Tim-
othy Nicholson and Sarah J. Swift.
James Wood, of New York : As the delegates of this
Conference are for the most part delegates of the Five
Years Meeting that will meet to-morrow, and as the cre-
dentials are in the hands of the Clerk of this Meeting, I
move that the Clerk be directed to lay the credentials at
the proper time before the Five Years Meeting to-morrow.
The motion was unanimously carried.
The Chairman : Are there any other matters to claim
the attention of this Meeting before taking up the subjects
on the program for the evening ?
The Chairman : The Secretary will call for the first
order of business.
The Secretary : Report of the Committee of the last
Conference to prepare a Uniform Discipline.
James Wood, of New England, read the report. (See
Minute 5.)
78 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
James Wood: The draft referred to in the report which
I have just read is now before the Conference. Will it
be the pleasure of the Conference to be informed of the
changes referred to or to assume them ?
The Chairman : What is the pleasure of the Confer-
ence in reference to this ?
A Delegate : I would like to ask whether it would
not be wise to refer this whole matter to the Five Years
Meeting without taking action in this Conference ? I
think it properly belongs to that Meeting.
James Wood, of New York : None of these changes
are of sufficient importance to take the time of the Five
Years Meeting for their consideration. The difference in
language is siniply a transposition of some sections of
one portion to another, so they may follow a more logical
scheme. As presented to the Yearly Meetings they were
somewhat misplaced, because of the fact that after it was
determined what was to be presented, some of the Yearly
Meetings were held very soon, so the arrangement was
made somewhat hastily. A few words have been added
to make the meaning more clear in a few instances. Every
work requires adjustment after construction ; every watch
that is made must be adjusted, and some little changes
have been found necessary in the points indicated. The
most important matters for your consideration are in the
clauses that were omitted originally, which make provi-
sions for the modification of the Constitution itself. Every
constitution is supposed to have provision for its own
amendments, and the Committee were to offer to the Con-
ference the suggestion that the same method of proced-
ure provided for in the Constitution of the United dates
should apply to this. We therefore appeal to the Com-
mittee that they give careful attention to this, and if it is
approved by this Conference it will be all that is necessary
in the case. It is for the Conference to decide whether
they like these proposed changes or not. They do not
change the meaning from that originally intended. It
seems to me we need not take the time of the Conference
in considering questionable changes. It might be well
to consider clauses of amendments.
of the; conference 79
Robert E. Pretlow, of Wilmington : It might be well
to have an additional clause read.
A Delegate : I move that the Conference proceed to
hear the additional clauses.
(Seconded.)
The motion was carried.
Chairman : James Wood will present the additional
changes proposed by the Committee.
James Wood read as follows : All propositions from
Quarterly Meetings, and all proposed legislation affecting
this Constitution and Discipline, shall be introduced to the
Yearly Meeting in writing, and shall not be finally acted
upon on the day of their introduction. Propositions for
the amendment of the Constitution and Discipline must be
referred to the Permanent Board of the Yearly Meeting, or
to a special committee, for its consideration for one year.
When a proposition is approved by a Yearly Meeting it
shall be reported to the Five Years Meeting, for its con-
sideration and advice.
When a proposition is approved by a Yearly Meeting
it should be reported to the Five Years Meeting for its
consideration, and if it is approved by that body, it will
be submitted to the several Yearly Meetings for their
action, and it will be approved when it shall be adopted
by two-thirds of the members. This is precisely as it is
in the Constitution.
A Delegate : What if a Yearly Meeting did not ap-
prove of it and it had been adopted, what would be the
result ?
James Wood, of New York : We can only judge ot
the future by the past, and judging by the experience of
the adoption of this Constitution I would reply that this
is a case that will never come up.
The Chairman : Do you wish to take action upon
this recommendation ?
A Delegate : Will this addition have to go to other
Yearly Meetings before it will be adopted ?
The Chairman: Yes, it will have to take the course
of all other additions. It seems unquestionably necessary,
and no time should be lost in taking action upon it.
80 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Francis A. Wright, of Kansas: What would be the
effect of an affirmative or negative vote on this proposi-
tion at this time ? There is an amendment on this very
case coming from our Yearly Meeting.
James Wood, of New York : It seems to me as before ;
some one said, " Have we a right to do this, and second,
do we intend to do it if we have a right ?' ' It would have
to go to the Yearly Meetings before it would become a law.
Robert E. Pretlow, of Wilmington : Inasmuch as this
work has to be referred to the Five Years Meeting, and
inasmuch as other amendments covering the same ground
are to be offered, I move we refer this whole matter to the
Five Years Meeting for their consideration without going
any further.
Milton Hanson, of Western : Inasmuch as these
amendments have been prepared by a committee of this
Conference, I am in favor of referring them to the Five
Years Meeting to be disposed of in the way the Discipline
provides.
Richard H. Thomas, of Baltimore: I speak with a
great deal of hesitation, but it seems to me when that
Committee made these recommendations the Committee's
work was done, and it is not proper for that Committee to
take up the subject again in any way whatever. That
Committee put it out of its hands when it laid the Disci-
pline before the Yearly Meetings. Yearly Meetings have
printed this Discipline, and changes will work an incon-
venience. We want to be able to refer easily to passages
in the Discipline. The new arrangement, although it
may be an improvement, will work awkwardness, and
should properly lead to reprinting. The radical changes
suggested by the Committee change the whole status of
the Yearly Meeting from an independent body into a
strongly organized, systematical, welded body in which
any one of these Yearly Meetings may be obliged to adopt
laws of discipline ot which it entirely disapproves ; such
radical changes may seem a filling out of what is unavoid-
ably left unfinished in the past — i. e., a change in the
whole organic law of the body, — and for us to adopt it in
this way seems to be not wholly in order.
oe the conference; 8 1
The Chairman : It seems to me there is a misunder-
standing of the proposition which provides a plan for
amending the Discipline.
David Hadley, of Western : It seems to me that this
point is well taken. I hope the proposition will be voted
down.
A Delegate : It seems to me it is usual for this body-
to give such a matter further consideration than it has to-
night, and I think this matter should be referred to the
Five Years Meeting where it properly belongs.
The former motion was withdrawn.
Robert E. Pretlow, of Wilmington : I move that we
refer the whole matter without recommendation to the
Five Years Meeting.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : It seems
to me that the vote to recommend would approve of the
action of the Committee present here. It seems to me
after this Committee makes its report there is nothing
before the meeting. I do not see how it can be stated
that this Committee has finished its work when the draft
of Discipline is simply sent to the Yearly Meetings. I am
well aware that this draft should be made when seven
Yearly Meetings have accepted it. There is a Standing
Committee to bring the results of the work which it has
done, and it seems to me there is a weakness. I think we
can only acknowledge the report of this Committee and
let it be considered when it comes before us in another
capacity.
The Chairman : I certainly should hold that the
Committee would not be out of place as a Committee of
this Conference in making a recommendation to the Con-
ference. We have a right to approve or disapprove, but
the recommendation is certainly out of place.
The motion was carried.
James Wood, of New York : In adopting this report
I move that the report be received by the Conference and
the Committee be discharged.
The motion was carried.
The Chairman : The action of this Conference is to
refe* this whole subject to the Five Years Meeting
82 STKNOGRAPHIC RKPORT
without recommendation. The report is accepted and the
Committee discharged.
A Delegate from Iowa : I move that the thanks of
this Conference be extended to this Committee for their
earnest labor in doing this work. It has been a source of
great value to our Church and required a greal deal of
service, and I should like to have this Committee feel
they have our hearty thanks for their work.
The Chairman : There was another Committee
appointed for a specific service at our Conference five
years ago, and they should report at this time. I refer to
the Committee that had under consideration the work of
preparing a hymnal suitable for use in connection with
our church services.
The Chairman : I believe this Committee is ready to
report. We will hear from Robert E. Pretlow.
Robert E. Pretlow, of Wilmington : The Committee
was organized with Cyrus R. Dixon as Chairman. Dr.
Dixon is absent from the Conference and I have been
asked by the Committee to act as temporary Chairman,
and in that capacity I submit the following report :
(See Minutes of Five Years Meeting — Minute 57,
Proposition 3.)
After reading the report Robert E. Pretlow spoke as
follows : I would like to add that the Committee did a
great deal of work, and there would be a great deal more
in preparing a hymnal distinctively for Friends. No one
who has not been connected with that Committee has any
idea of the amount of work and the hours of very patient
toilsome labor that the different members of that Com-
mittee gave, but we were confronted with the question of
copyrights, and found that to impartially prepare a work
was almost an impossibility, especially, working as- we
were, without any financial backing save what little the
Committee had of its own. We did find publishers who
had access to copyrights, ready to alter expiring books or
co-operate with the Committee, and found other publish-
ers that would furnish a Friends' Hymnal at very reason-
able prices. The highest price that we were definitely
offered, as mentioned in the written report, was that a
of the confkrkncf 83
satisfactory book could be secured at a maximum price of
seventy -five cents. Other offers from other publishers
were at a less figure, and I suppose the cheaper ones
might not be so satisfactory. We thought it would be our
duty to present this matter to this Conference, and that it
would be a proper method of procedure for the Confer-
ence to refer the whole matter for official action to the
Five Years Meeting, and if it approved of the plan it
could appoint a Committee with power, as this Commit-
tee did not apparently have power to act on any matter
involving an expense to the Conference.
Levi D. Barr, of California : I move that the matter
be referred to the Five Years Meeting without any recom-
mendations as to action.
(Seconded.)
The motion was carried.
The Chairman : The Secretary will please announce
the next subject on the program.
The Secretary : The next subject on the program is
the report of the Treasurer.
The report was read by the Secretary. (See Min-
ute 7.)
Timothy Nicholson : I move that the report, together
with cash on hand and unpaid bill, be ordered to be turned
over to the Treasurer to be appointed by the Five Years
Meeting.
The Chairman : There is a motion before the House
to refer this report to the Five Years Meeting, and to turn
over the money on hand to the Treasurer of that Meeting
when appointed. It also carries with it a statement of
the indebtedness of the Conference.
The motion was carried
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : I move that the
thanks of the Conference be extended to William Jasper
Hadley for his services.
Robert W. Douglas, of Indiana : No doubt the Con-
ference is very thankful to all the officers of this Confer-
ence for the work they have done, but I doubt the pro-
priety of stopping at the end and thanking everybody for
what they have done.
84 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
David Hadley, of Western : I am very much opposed
to such a system of parliamentary services.
The motion was carried, those opposed voting against
the principle and not against that particular case.
Francis A. Wright, of Kansas : I would like to ask
one question . Are there any resources ; have all the
Yearly Meetings paid their assessments ?
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : We have no means
of reporting ; the Treasurer did not say anything about
that. I take it for granted they have all paid in and there
was a surplus.
Rums M. Jones, of New England : In regard to this
bill that has come in, it is a bill that has grown little by
little in the work of preparing the new Discipline, as it
had to be printed four or five times and sent in for correc-
tion. I think the bill should be charged to the Five
Years Meeting. It should be three or four or five hun-
dred dollars, but it was reduced to $88.00, and should
properly be charged to the Five Years Meeting it seems
to me. There is nearly enough money on hand to pay it.
A Delegate : I doubt the propriety of charging up
bills in that way.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : It is
rather ungracious to turn over a debt to a meeting that is
not in existence and then what should this Conference
which had died do. I sincerely hope before the meeting
to-morrow the auditor will discover some method of
extracting $30.00, and let this Five Years Meeting com-
mence without a debt on its shoulders. There might be
a possibility of this Five Years Meeting refusing to
accept it.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : Don't cross that
river until we get to it.
The Chairman : We know of nothing further that
should claim the attention of the Conference.
James Wood, of New York : It might be proper for
this Meeting to make some disposition of the proceedings
to the Conference. We have kept a record from the
beginning, I believe. Would it not be proper to make
some disposition of the Records of this Conference ? It
op the conference; 85
seems to me that the Records of the several Conferences
should be placed in the hands of some authority where
they might be cared for, as matters of reference, at any
rate. I move that we recommend to the Five Years
Meeting that the proceeds of this Conference be published
along with the proceeds of the Five Years Meeting.
(Seconded.)
The motion was carried.
James Wood, of New York : I would move that the
records of all the matters pertaining to the Conferences
heretofore in the past fifteen years be turned over to the
Five Years Meeting for its care and preservation.
A Delegate : I now move that we adjourn without a
day.
The motion was carried.
The Meeting was closed by prayer, and the Confer-
ence adjourned without a day.
FINIS.
86 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
OF THE PROCEEDINGS OP
THE FIVE YEARS MEETING.
Fourth-Day, Tenth Month 22, 1902. — 9.00 a. m.
The Meeting was called to order by Timothy Nich-
olson, who said: It is suggested by the Committee of
Arrangements that Edmund Stanley and Mary C. Woody
act temporarily as Chairman, and Secretary. We have
also requested Dr. Richard H. Thomas, of Baltimore, to
open the devotional services this morning.
Richard H. Thomas, Baltimore, read the 13th Chap-
ter of First Corinthians, after which he said : The great-
est thing in the life of a Christian who follows the L,ord
and who is living in the Spirit of the Lord is love. He
that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him,
and as we apply this practically to our circumstances, to
our environments, to the people we mingle with, in all
our duties, we find a practical solution as to how to get
out of temptation and into powerful service, and as this
is the case individually, so it is collectively ; and as I
was unexpectedly asked to open this meeting, it seemed
to me that the key-note of love was the key-note for our
meeting, and it is the key-note for our lives if we live in
the power of the L,ord. I would suggest that we have a
time of lifting up our hearts to God for his blessing with
vocal prayer or otherwise, as each one may be led.
Several prayers were then offered.
MINUTES OF THE FIVE YEARS MEETING.
Fourth-Day, Tenth Month 22, 1902. — 9.00 a. m.
The Chairman : We are now ready to take up the
business of the Five Years Meeting. If Mary C. Woody,
op the; conference; 87
of North Carolina, is in the room she will please come to
the table.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : The Committee on
Arrangements arranged with stenographers to report the
proceedings. Is this satisfactory to the Meeting ?
(It was taken by consent.)
The Chairman : The Clerk will read the lists of dele-
gates appointed by the several Yearly Meetings to consti-
tute this Five Years Meeting, and also the Minutes of
their appointment.
(Mary C. Woody read Minutes from the different
Meetings, and also from Ohio and Canada Yearly Meet-
ings, who had sent fraternal delegates. See Minutes, Min-
utes 3 and 4.)
James Wood, of New York : I am confident that the
members of this Five Years Meeting welcome here the
fraternal delegates from Canada and Ohio Yearly Meet-
ings ; there are present also with us members of two other
Yearly Meetings who are not delegates to this body. They
are Harriet Green and Sophia M. Fry and Rachel Tylor,
of London Yearly Meeting ; Dr. Edward Rhoads, Eliza-
beth B. Jones, Sarah M. Scull, John C. Winston, William
W. Cadbury and Rebecca W. Cadbury. I move that the
fraternal delegates whose names have been read, and these
friends from Eondon and Philadelphia, whose names have
now been read, be cordially invited to participate in the
Meeting and the discussions of the Meeting.
Francis A. Wright, of Kansas : We have no right to
extend all these rights, but we have a right to be courteous.
(The motion was seconded.)
Timothy Nicholson , of Indiana : I would suggest
that we take a vote by rising.
The motion was carried.
The Chairman : The Friends who are with us as fra-
ternal delegates from Canada and from Ohio Yearly Meet-
ings will certainly feel free to take part with us in the
deliberations of this Meeting. We are glad to have you
with us. We will now call the Yearly Meetings in order
that the places of absentees in the delegation may be
filled.
88 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
(Mary C. Woody called the Meetings in order.)
Albert J. Brown, of Western: I do not understand
these are permanent changes ; now what have you to rule
in regard to that matter ? We shall have some of our
delegates present in this afternoon session. We are put-
ting in alternates this morning to make our delegation
complete.
The Chairman : What is the wish of the Meeting in
regard to this proposition ?
A Delegate : I move that the alternates present be
allowed the places until the delegates come in, and when
they come in they take their places and the alternates
retire.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : I think it is import-
ant that these places should be filled even temporarily.
Very soon the delegates will be called upon to select the
members of the Business Committee by the delegations,
and I think the delegations should be kept full. Of course
they would yield to appointees when they come.
A Delegate : Who stands as the recorded delegate in
that case ?
The Chairman : The regular delegate. We have a
motion before the meeting that in case an alternate has
been placed in a delegation, the regular delegate shall
take his place when he arrives at any time during this
meeting ; and this motion has been seconded.
The motion was carried.
The Chairman, to Canada Yearly Meeting : Have
you any names to submit, or are there any vacancies in
your delegation ?
Delegate from Canada : We have none.
The Chairman : What about Ohio ?
A Delegate from Ohio : The delegation is full. :
The Chairman : We have completed our roll of dele-
gates, and are now ready to pass to the next order of busi-
ness.
A Delegate : In case a delegate is not present, or
alternates either, and there is a Friend that can acceptably
fill that vacancy, would it be in order to fill the vacancy ?
If we have not been appointed can we fill that position ?
of the; conference; 89
Rufus M. Jones, of New England : It seems to me
that would be a very dangerous precedent. It passes into
the hands of the people here and takes it out of the hands
of the Yearly Meetings.
The Chairman : As a matter of fact we have no right
to go beyond the appointments of the Yearly Meetings.
Our Committee on Arrangements have submitted a
program covering the work for the several sessions. Of
course it is only suggestive. Do you wish to take any
action in reference to it ?
James Wood, of New York : In order that we may
have definite proceedings, I move that the programs sub-
mitted be approved and made the program of this Five
Years Meeting, as that was the understanding with those
whose names appear. Those who present the opening
paper to be allowed twenty minutes, those leading in the
discussion ten minutes, and those who speak in the dis-
cussions following to be allowed five minutes, unless the
time be officially extended.
Zenas L. Martin, of Iowa : I would like to say in
regard to the programs that the Business Committee might
have a right to suggest any changes or additions to the
program that in their judgment might seem wise.
James Wood, of New York : It is always understood
that the Business Committee has a right to present such
business as may seem best to the meeting.
Zenas L. Martin, of Iowa : I think the Business
Committee should have the power to reject any of this
program or add to it.
James Wood, of New York : I will accept that as a
part of the original motion.
The Chairman : It has been moved and seconded that
we accept the program submitted, subject to such changes
as the Busines Committee may recommend.
The motion was carried.
Francis A. Wright, of Kansas : I move that if the
first person does not occupy the full twenty minutes the
second person should have the remainder of the time so
that there will be thirty minutes given to the presentation
of the subject.
90 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Benjamin F. Trueolood, of New England : I think
that is unnecessary, as the Conference can always extend
the time if it cares to do so.
Francis Wright's motion has been seconded, so what
is your pleasure ?
The motion was carried.
The Chairman : We have accepted the program as
proposed, subject to such changes from time to time as
the Business Commmittee may recommend. The first
thing is the reading of the epistle from the London
Yearly Meeting addressed to this meeting. This epistle
has been forwarded to James Wood, of New York, and as
he is familiar with it, I suggest that we ask him to read it
for us at this time.
(Consent.)
(See Minutes of Five Years Meeting, Minute 7.)
Harriet Green, of England : I feel sorry, dear Friends,
that London Yearly Meeting is left out of your Union,
because I believe so entirely in unity there is strength. I
do not think London Yearly Meeting is left out ; I think
that letter states exactly the truth, that London Yearly
Meeting is one with American Yearly Meetings in heart
and purpose. For myself and for my friends I will say
how very heartily we appreciate the kind welcome you
have given us, and what a privilege we feel it to be here
to-day. I am sure they must envy our position in this
meeting this morning.
Rufus M. Jones, of New England : I am sure it must
be a very great joy to us all to have this beautiful and
uplifting message from our friends across the sea. I know
our friends are deeply interested in our meeting this week
in Indianapolis, as I have recently talked to some of the
Friends. After having heard this epistle and having^felt
the sympathy that has come to us, I hope we shall feel the
way open to appoint a small committee to prepare a letter
of appreciation or an epistle from this Five Years Meeting
to be sent to London Yearly Meeting. I think this might
be done by a committee of five or six Friends, to be
appointed by the Chair.
The motion was carried.
OF THE CONFERENCE 9 1
The President : The next order of business will be
the appointment of the Business Committee. This Com-
mittee will consist of one member from each Yearly Meet-
ing, the members to be selected by the delegates from the
Yearly Meetings. Are you now ready to make the
appointments ?
A Delegate : Should there not be a recess of five
minutes so that the delegates may have time to agree upon
the names to constitute this Committee.
The Chairman : By consent a recess of five minutes
will betaken.
(Adjourned for five minutes' recess.)
The Chairman : We will hear the names of the Busi-
ness Committee.
New England Yearly Meeting. — Rufus M. Jones.
New York Yearly Meeting. — James Wood.
Baltimore Yearly Meeting. — Allen C. Thomas (sub-
stituted by Anna King Carey until he comes).
North Carolina Yearly Meeting. — Mary E. Cartland.
Indiana Yearly Meeting. — Allen Jay.
Western Yearly Meeting. — Peter W. Raidabaugh.
Iowa Yearly Meeting. — Charles W. Sweet.
Kansas Yearly Meeting. — Nathan Brown.
Oregon Yearly Meeting. — Aaron M. Bray.
Wilmington Yearly Meeting. — Robert E. Pretlow.
California Yearly Meeting.— William V. Coffin.
A Delegate : I hope this nomination will not be
taken as a precedent. I note that Mary E. Cartland has
the sole honor of representing her sex on this Committee.
Robert E. Pretlow, of Wilmington : I move that this
Committee be instructed to meet in Committee Room
No. 1 immediately at the rise of this meeting.
(Seconded.)
The Chairman : It has been suggested that as our
program fixes no time for the closing of our different ses-
sions, it might be well to have that point determined, as
well as the time for beginning our sessions. Shall we
refer this matter to the Business Committee ?
(Consent.)
92 STENOGRAPHIC RKPORT
The Chairman : The next order of business is the
presentation of propositions from Yearly Meetings, and
their reference to committees.
Read by Secretary Mary C. Woody, of North Caro-
lina. (See Minutes, Minute 98.)
The Chairman : The disciplinary provisions passed
by the several Yearly Meetings as provided for in the
Uniform Discipline, will not come in connection with the
business called for at this time. Only those that come as
proposed amendments are in order.
(Secretary reads proposition from New York.)
The Chairman : What will you do with the proposi-
tion from New York ?
James Wood, of New York : I move that all this be
referred to the Business Committee for its recommenda-
tion to the Conference as to what course should be taken
for its consideration. Doubtless some of these subjects
will be referred to a special committee, and others
may be referred to one committee. We can not sift
them in the open body of business as we could in the
Business Committee, as it could give them urgent consid-
eration as to the best manner of investigation of these
several subjects and recommend them to the Conference
for their consideration. I move these be referred to the
Business Committee.
Charles E. Tebbetts, of California : As to the report
of the California Yearly Meeting I think it was their
judgment that it should be read in this Meeting. It was
not read heretofore. It seems to me as a delegate that
this should be presented to this Meeting. I hope it may
be read.
(The Minute ot the California Yearly Meeting was
read in full.)
The Chairman : Do we understand that the recom-
mendation from California Yearly Meeting was passed in
the Meeting this year, or was it only submitted to the
Meeting for consideration ?
Levi D. Barr, of California : I am not sure about
that, but a year ago, I understand.
Charles B. Tebbetts, of California : The committee
OF THE CONFERENCE 93
was appointed a year ago, but the matter came before this
Yearly Meeting for the first time.
The Chairman : The recommendations from Califor-
nia and Western Yearly Meetings, touching disciplinary
changes, have not come in accordance with che provisions
of the Uniform Discipline. I do not see how we can refer
them to the Committee for consideration.
Rufus M. Jones, of New England : It seems to me
that these should be treated like recommendations from
other ■ Yearly Meetings. They do not come as proper
requests for changed Discipline. They are not according
to the Constitution, but they can possibly be dealt with
as requests coming from the Yearly Meetings in regard to
a committee. I should suggest they be included with a
whole batch of recommendations that go to the Business
Committee. They have to be treated as recommendations
and referred to the Business Committee.
The Chairman : I fail to see how we can take any
action in a case like this. We can take no action because
the Discipline has not been followed.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : The ruling of the
Chair is strictly correct in one sense ; if we were witnesses
we would be ruled out of Court ; but I suggest that all
this be referred to the Business Committee for such recom-
mendations as they may return.
David Hadley, of Western : Western Yearly Meeting
is not operating under the Uniform Discipline as yet. We
only claim the right of petition. Owing to the necessi-
ties of this meeting we had better begin on somewhat of
a liberal basis.
A Delegate : I move that this be referred to the Busi-
ness Committee.
Richard H. Thomas, of Baltimore: The ruling of
the Discipline seems to be very explicit that the questions
must be considered by the Yearly Meetings for one year
and then, when it is approved, after that it will be reported.
Robert W. Douglas, of Indiana : I like the sugges-
tion of David Hadley. I do not think we should antici-
pate what would be the action of the Business Committee
or what would be the future action of this Meeting. I
94 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
think in their wisdom they will see a way out without
discussing this general question here in this meeting.
A Delegate : It seems to me that in the first session
of this Meeting it would be a bad precedent for us to vio-
late this Discipline and set a bad example for subsequent
Meetings ; it will go down as an example and get us in
trouble hereafter.
A Delegate : It seems to me that it would be cour-
teous to receive requests from Yearly Meetings and have
them referred when they come in for discussion. The
question would then be referred without discussion. I
think that should be referred to the Committee. What
action will be taken will be decided when the time comes.
The Chairman : It is moved and seconded that all
recommendations from the several Yearly Meetings be
referred to the Business Committee. What is your pleasure?
The motion was carried.
James Wood, of New York : I desire to make another
motion. A number of the Yearly Meetings have adopted
for their own use additional disciplinary regulations which
are reported to this meeting for its consideration. I move
that all these, without being read in this Meeting, be also
referred to the Business Committee that they may recom-
mend to this Committee what disposition may be made of
them, and that the additional disciplinary regulations
approved by the several Yearly Meetings for their own
use, when they have not yet been read, be referred in a
similar manner, without reading, to the Business Commit-
tee. The object of this motion is not that the Business
Committee shall investigate all these propositions and act
upon them as recommendations and conclusions, but
recommend to this Conference what action should be taken
according to the appointment of a committee for their
consideration, not that the Business Committee itself will
undertake this investigation.
(After considerable discussion the motion to refer to
the Business Committee was carried.)
The Chairman : Is it the wish that the question of
reports be now taken up, or will you refer to a future
session ?
OF THE CONFERENCE 95
James Wood, of New York : I think this is the proper
time.
Rufus M. Jones, of New England : It is the proper
time to consider about the reports of the Five Years
Meeting. We ought to have some decision at once as to
how much of this discussion is to be kept, and I would
like to raise this question before we take up the business
of the day. The custom of the past has been to report
everything that is said, and publish it, and it seems to me
it is hardly wise to do this any more. I should like to
hear how our friends feel upon this subject.
The Chairman : Do you wish to take up this question
at this time? If there is no objection we will refer it to
the Committee with the expectation that it will be
brought up in due time.
A Delegate : The first thing this afternoon is the
appointment of officers. Has any provision been made
for that ?
The Chairman : The Uniform Discipline provides that
the chairmen of the several delegations shall constitute a
Committee to recommend officers for this meeting.
A recess of five minutes was taken.
The Chairman : Before the presentation of the paper
for this hour we will have read from the Discipline the
section relating to the Evangelistic and Church Extension
Board, in order that we may understand the matter as it
has been provided for in the Discipline.
Mary C. Woody, of North Carolina, read the section.
(See Constitution and Discipline, Part iv., Chapter iv.,
Sect. 2.)
The Chairman : We are now ready for the next sub-
ject — "The Scope and Work of the Evangelistic and
Church Extension Board of the Five Years Meeting,"
by Isom P. Wooton, of Iowa, and Allen Jay, of Indi-
ana.
96 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
THE SCOPE AND WORK OF THE EVANGELISTIC
AND CHURCH EXTENSION BOARD OF THE
FIVE YEARS MEETING.
By Isom P. Wooton,
Marshalltowx, Iowa.
"The field is the world." The efforts, therefore, of
the Society of Friends, as a united Christian body, should
be to bring the people to the Savior and build them up in
the Most Holy Faith.
In union there is strength. Hence we stand to-day
upon a hill-top from whence we, as a people, have never
before looked out on life's duties. If there should come
into our vision possibilities of which we have never
dreamed, is it not because we have a wider range from the
higher and more forceful relations of the Church ? And
will we not be brought under greater responsibilities to
put forth a greater and a better systematized effort to
carry out the purposes of our mission ? The high life of
our people will be manifested to the world, just so far as
we move out under the leading of the Holy Spirit, in the
conflict against sin and in rescuing the people from its
power.
We have never been a proselyting Church and in the
true sense we desire never to be, but we have paid too
dearly for the smallness of our numbers. It is said "The
most valuable articles are done up in small packages,"
but is this a reason that we should set our small package
away and let it waste until nothing but the wrappings
remain? Duty calls us to Evangelization. Self-preser-
vation bids us be doing. The wide spread and unoccupied
fields in the rural districts in our older States appeal to our
sympathies ; and the broader opportunities in the great
West and South offer fruitful fields to the Church. Mace-
donian cries are on every hand "Come over and help us,"
and are heard by our people ; and many of the workers are
only waiting to be sent into those fields . The fields are white
unto the harvest. To reach out and supply this needed
help, ought to be and I believe is, the concern of the Five
OF THE CONFERENCE 97
Years Meeting of the Society of Friends in America. We
may hesitate and even refuse to adopt methods because
other churches have used them, but the duty of our Society
is neither to be copyists as copyists, nor to wait until we
can find a unique and untried way in which to go. What
is that in thine hand, may be asked of the Church to-day,
as well as of Moses four thousand years ago ; and though
simple, may be a potent instrument in the hands of God.
Our beloved Dr. William Nicholson of Kansas, who
stepped from the shore of California on to the eternal
Pacific, said ten years ago in his estimable paper on the
Pastoral System, " Now we may not be inconsistent with
true and sound principles, if by the adoption of new and
safe practices in the Church, we secure a successful
answer to the prayers which we have been offering for
many years, for the reviving of the Lord's work and the
extension of the borders of His Kingdom " ; so to lay
hold of such methods in our effort to evangelize and
extend the work of the Church as will answer the needs
of to-day, will commend itself to every wise and thinking
people.
As to the Scope : The Evangelistic and Church
Extension Committee ought to be organized in the sim-
plest possible form which can meet the needs of the
Church, keeping an eye to the greatest amount of success-
ful work accomplished at the smallest expense. The
Uniform Discipline specifies a President, Secretary and
Treasurer ; we would suggest also a Superintendent.
The duties of the first three offices should be such as are
usual to these stations. The Superintendent should be
the working agent of the Committee, always subject to
the control of the Committee and yet left at liberty to pur-
sue the work unhesitatingly, unless ordered to desist by
the Committee, which should always be his advisor.
The office of Superintendent should always be advi-
sory in its power, never dictatorial. He should try to
inform himself in all the broader interests of the Society
of Friends, and be able to advise and counsel in any matter
concerning any Yearly Meeting in America, always sub-
mitting his counsel through the Yearly Meeting's
98 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Superintendent from whom the matter in question came.
He should be the one to whom all the Evangelistic and
Church Extension Superintendents of the several Yearly-
Meetings should send a copy of their approved reports
and should keep them on file and should make a sum-
mary report from them, approved by the Committee, to
the Five Years Meeting, with such other information as
shall fall under his care during the interval.
He should be the one to whom appeals are made for
assistance in the Evangelistic or Church Extension fields,
and should submit, from time to time, to the executive
committee the demands made by the Superintendents of
the Yearly Meetings for means to assist in the furtherance
of the work.
He should be the agent of the committee in soliciting
funds for carrying out the object of the committee and
should pass from Yearly Meeting to Yearly Meeting under
the advice of the executive committee in the furtherance
of the interest of the committee. He should look after
permanent endowments by Wills, etc., as opportunity
may occur.
His official relation should be by appointment by the
committee, with the approval of the whole Board, and
should hold for one year.
The Board should be incorporated under the L,aws of
the State of Indiana, to be able to hold and control
bequests made either to the Evangelistic or Church Exten-
sion department, and it should faithfully control and dis-
burse the proceeds in lengthening the cords and strength-
ening the stakes of the Society of Friends, to the building
up of the Kingdom of our Eord and Saviour, Jesus
Christ.
They should keep the endowment funds invested
with reliable securities.
In conclusion, This Board stands for the pushing of
our Church work into fields into which it would be impos-
sible for any one of the Yearly Meetings to go alone. It
becomes a centre for the stability of the work, by creat-
ing a permanent fund to meet the expenses necessary for the
wider fields in and beyond any of our Yearly Meetings.
OF THE CONFERENCE 99
Fields have already been opened by individual effort
or by the efforts of a few, in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama,
Florida, Missouri, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Colorado and
other States, all of which have been abandoned for the lack
of a little help added to the individual efforts ; fields which
would have yielded a good harvest to the Church, and
where we might have carried the true Gospel to places which
are now sitting in darkness. You object, and say, " All
this increases the expenses of the Society at large. ' ' Who
ever objected to the enlarging of the capacity of his fac-
tory because it would take more oil to grease the wheels ?
We are enlarging our Missionary work, and well we may
be, so long as Providence is dashing opportunites across
our pathway and we are compelled to pick them up.
Shall the feet and hands of the Church be pushing into
the foreign fields, while the Evangelistic or vital organs
are throbbing less and less forcefully ? No, let us raise
higher and higher the healthful throb of the heart. L,et us
open the lungs and take in more of the invigorating air
around us, so that the members of the body may be in-
creased and strengthened for the conflict that is before us.
By Allen Jay,
Richmond, Va.
The scope and work of the Evangelistic and Church
Extension Board of the Five Years Meeting is pretty
clearly defined in the Uniform Discipline. Yet it may
not be unprofitable to dwell a little upon some matters
connected with this important branch of Church work.
The Board should be composed of those who believe
in the work ; those who have heard the call, " Go ye " ;
and as far as possible have had some experience in the
Evangelistic and Church Extension work in their own
Yearly Meetings. In accordance with the provision of
the Discipline, the Board should have a complete list of
all the ministers with their post-office address ; and as far
as possible have a knowledge of their individual gifts and
adaptability to places and circumstances.
In addition to this list should be added the names of
IOO STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
those who are gifted in singing in the spirit and with the
understanding, along with those also who are skillful in
religious work who are not recorded, but who may be
very useful in helping the Evangelist and Pastor to bring
souls into the light, and introducing them by personal
work, into an acquaintance with their Savior. Many of
these who may never be recognized as called to preach
the Gospel publicly, have nevertheless proved themselves
workmen that need not be ashamed, handling aright the
word of truth.
When the Evangelist goes into a meeting to work,
he should work in harmony with those who have the pas-
toral care of said meeting, whether such care is main-
tained by an individual or a pastoral committee. He
should avoid drawing the congregation to himself, but
leave them under the care of those in authority. Avoid
making division and stirring up bitter feeling. Preach
Jesus and Him crucified.
In order that the work may be fruitful of the best
results, it is very necessary that the Board should be well
informed as to the needs of the field in the various Yearly
Meetings, and the nature of the work required. With a
knowledge of the workers and an acquaintance with the
field and its environments, the Board, under the leading of
the Spirit, can render more efficient help.
The Board should encourage the different Yearly
Meetings to be active in endeavoring to carry on " Church
Extension" work. It is necessary to a healthy growth
of the Church. A self-centred Church, like a self-centred
Christian, soon wastes all its spiritual life on itself and
becomes self-righteous and ready to judge and condemn
others who do not believe and do as it does. The
remedy for such an evil is to look out and around, and
see what the Master would have us to do for others ; to
know the fact that we are debtor to others who are not in
the fold. They that water shall be watered. The Church
thus engaged will grow in spiritual life and power.
Happy the Church that is filled with the spirit of the
Master, who bids us go into the world and make disciples
of all nations.
OF THE CONFERENCE IOI
The Board should use proper efforts to secure funds
to assist in carrying forward this healthy growth of the
Church. A special Building Fund would enable them to
do efficient work in this line, and a well directed plan
should be instituted to raise such a fund.
It would be beneficial for the Board to have well
digested plans for Church buildings ; plans suited to
various sized congregations and to different localities.
These plans should be for neat and tasteful buildings, not
extravagant or costly. Special attention should be given
to light, heat and ventilation. The seating should have
care ; the platform not too high or too low ; the acoustic
properties should have special attention. The title to the
property should be perfect. With these plans on hand,
and with some funds to assist in carrying them out, great
encouragement can be given to those who are struggling
to secure a place for worship.
Here permit me to say, on the subject of loaning a
certain sum to help in the building, with an obligation
that it is to be returned after three or five years. To my
mind it is doubtful if this is conducive to the future wel-
fare of the Church. First, is it right to set apart a build-
ing devoted to the worship of God with a debt hanging
over it ? Is it a good example to the members of the
Church ? In the second place, in a few years it becomes
an old debt. And who does not know an old debt is hard
to raise ? The members don't like to hear about it. They
have lost their enthusiasm, and it drags along, and finally
a few faithful ones have to meet it and pay it off Better
raise it all in the beginning, and be free to use all the
money that comes in to carry forward the work that the
Lord lays upon the Church.
With the Board supplied with the proper amount of
funds, and a thorough knowledge of the field and the
workers, it is then prepared to act systematically and
intelligently. Great care should be exercised in the dis-
tribution of the workers. Too much attention cannot be
given to this part of the work. In the first place, the
endowment of the Board should not be given to those who
are not in harmony with the views of Friends, and who
102 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
go about making divisions and separations in meetings
and among individuals ; those who introduce methods
and practices subversive of good order and discipline in
the Church ; who are found teaching and preaching
against Church regulations, claiming to be too good and
spiritual to be members of any Church ; whose time is
put in finding fault with the Church and condemning all
who do not accept their presentation of the Gospel, claim-
ing they have the only revelation of the truth, selecting
some special phase of the Gospel and riding it as a hobby
until it becomes an error of the most dangerous kind,
running into ranterism, which ends in fanatical actions
and expressions, subversive of the truth and calculated to
lay waste and destroy the Church of God.
Against all these extremes the Board should guard,
and should seek to build our ministers and workers up in
a full, clear, evangelical, and an all-around Gospel. Not
merely a fourfold Gospel, but a manifold Gospel, to meet
the manifold temptations of this life.
The day may come when the Evangelistic and
Church Extension Board of this Five Years Meeting
may have under its care a Biblical Department in some
Christian college where our ministers and workers can be
trained in the truths of the Bible, in connection with
literary and scientific training, that will develop them into
all-around Christian character, prepared to preach the
Gospel to those who want to hear it, with power and suc-
cess. The world needs, and is waitingfor such preaching.
We should pray for such men and women filled with the
Spirit to be raised up among us. We have many such.
Their numbers are on the increase. And with this fact
before us and the fields white unto harvest, may we not
hope, with a wise and Spirit-filled Board, assisted by wise
and earnest Yearly Meetings' Superintendents working in
harmony, the work may be blessed during the next five
years ? That the cords of the Church may be lengthened
and her stakes strengthened, and God glorified by His
militant Church.
Eevi Gregory, of California : I am intensely inter-
ested in this subject. I feel confident a more weighty
OF THE CONFERENCE 103
subject will not claim the attention of the Five Years
Meeting. It has been my lot in an experience of some
years in the ministry to have somewhat to do in pioneer
work in Iowa and California for eight years, and it seems
to me that we might well consider some of the proposi-
tions that have been presented by these papers that we have
heard. I have found, in my experience, demands that
cannot be met by local meetings, or even Yearly Meet-
ings. I remember instances in Iowa when there were
certainly excellent opportunities for Friends to heed the
call from Macedonia, and yet, for the lack of money, we
were not able to possess the land. I have found a very
much the same condition in California. We have had to
surrender meetings simply for a lack of a few dollars, and
so it seems to me that as we consider the Evangelistic and
Church Extension work we certainly must bear in mind
that there is need, and will be need of money. I have
very often had questions pressed upon me in this field,
"Have Friends no funds for new fields?" and I have
been compelled to say for California, "We have not."
And it seems to me that it is a very sad state of affairs
that a church two hundred and fifty j^ears old has not
means to go out into new fields. I have more recently
come in contact with calls that have come to me not
merely from the country places in California, but from
large cities, such as Stockton, San Francisco, etc. I pray
God the directions of this hour may reach our hearts and
we may be able to go home from this Five Years Meeting
ready to do what God has given us to do not only in the
Evangelistic work but in the Church Extension work.
Harry R. Keates, of New York : I am very thankful
this subject comes in the name of this Conference. I expect
there is a feeling in most of our hearts that there is a lim-
ited time to consider what is the most important part of the
work of the Church. I indorse both of these papers. When
we carry out our organization I trust that we shall see to
it that we appoint men who are not only in favor of care-
ful evangelistic work but who are red hot for it. The
time has come when some of us will have to stand whether
we like it or not, and utter our protesting to the dead-
104 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
locking of the church wheels of progress by putting peo-
ple into power who are not prepared to go the length they
ought to in this work. We have 93,000 members of the
Society of Friends in America and in round numbers more
than 70,000 of them are adults, who are capable of deny-
ing themselves and giving at least one penny per day for
the cause of Christ and for the salvation of souls and for
the upbuilding of the Church in America. Friends, this
Board would have by such a means over $200,000 at its
disposal. A very simple way. It is somewhat of the
way that was operated in the Church of Rome. I do
trust that when the time comes we may be furnished with
men and women who will be filled with the Spirit of God,
and by faith and prayer go forward with the work which
we desire to see done in filling up the vacant places and
building up the weak and wasted places.
Rebecca W. Cadbury: I stand before you, dear Friends,
in deep feeling, for we of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting do
not consider the finances for Church Extension Work, but
I would not for a moment say that money is not necessary
to the extension of the Church of Christ as we Friends
hold it. But may I lay before you something that is far
dearer than the purse. It is the thought of what Quaker-
ism stands for, and if Quakerism is worth anything it is
worth its spirituality, and Quakerism to-day in Philadel-
phia, in Ohio and in Indiana, and in the length and breadth
of the land, needs a deepening of spiritual life. A Friends'
Meeting (excuse me, I do not speak as a critic) but
a Friends' Meeting is a gathering together to worship, of
worshipers who come not to hear one man but who
come to hear the Gospel. In waiting upon the Lord our
souls will be fed and nourished, and as we grow in Chris-
tian life we will become strong women and men for the
work as Friends, and Friends will not take a secondary
place. The deep spiritual life will remain at the top.
Dear Friends, when we come to our Meetings let us listen
for the Ford and hear his voice. " My soul, wait thou
only upon God."
Elmer D. Gildersleeve, of New York : I have been
asking myself the question: ' ' What about the Evangelistic
OP THE CONFERENCE 105
Committee ? What has it done for the Society of
Friends ?" and I think if I should ask those present here
to-day, especially the delegates, what is the means through
which you were brought into the church, or by which
you were inspired to work in the Friends' Church to
which you belong, I believe, if I should ask this question
very many would say, it was through the work of the
Evangelistic Committee, and what is known also as the
Committee on Church Extension Work, or Church Exten-
sion Board. I well remember the early days of my own
work when an evangelist came from a Western Yearly
Meeting. Many will remember that those who sat among
us were men and women filled with the Spirit of God. Many
of us are birthright members of the Society of Friends,
and possibly I might say, it was not until the beginning
of the evangelistic services of our Board, and not until
then, you began your real active work in the Church.
Others of us stand and say that it was not until we
gave our hearts to God through the instrumentalities God
has placed among us by sending among us these evangel-
ists, who, in the hands of God, were the means of placing
us in the Church ; so we stand debtors to the Evangelistic
Committee, and as evangelistic workers we should come
out and do our work for God. I believe that the respon-
sibility that rests upon us is very great, very momentous,
and the responsibility that rests upon us, or at least should
rest upon us, is one that we cannot carry without God's
help. Let us grasp the situation and feel the responsi-
bility and assume it, and I can assure you as we go for-
ward in His name very many more will be added to the
Church. Let us see to it that we are ready for the work,
and ready to assume the responsibility ourselves, that
God's name may come off more than conqueror through
Him that loved us.
The Chairman : We will have to close this subject
unless we extend the time.
(After some discussion it was concluded to continue
the consideration of the subject at the afternoon session.)
The Chairman : I will now name the committee to
prepare an epistle in response to the epistle received from
106 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
London Yearly Meeting. I appoint Rufus M. Jones, i
Absalom Rosenberger, Eliza C. Armstrong, Ellen C.
Wright and Robert L- Kelly.
Adj ourned .
Fourth-Day, Afternoon, Tenth Month 22.
After a time of waiting before the Lord and prayer
and the singing of a Irytnn, the Chairman said : The first
thing for us to consider is the appointment of officers for
the ensuing sessions of this Meeting. We are ready to
hear the report of the Nominating Committee.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : The Committee met
this morning and all the members were present but one,
and the results of this consideration were as follows :
The Committee proposed the following persons for
officers of the Five Years Meeting, viz.:
Clerk, Edmund Stanley, of Kansas.
First Assistant Cleik, Ellwood O. Ellis, of Indiana.
Second Assistant Clerk, R. Esther Smith, of California.
Treasurer, Miles White, Jr., of Baltimore.
Auditing Committee. — Timothy Nicholson, of Indi-
ana ; Francis A. Wright, of Kansas ; and Charles H.
Jones, of New England.
After reading the report, Timothy Nicholson said : As
the name of our temporary Chairman is in this list per-
haps he will excuse me if I ask this Convention what we
will do with this report ?
(The report was adopted.)
Edmund Stanley, of Kansas, in accepting the posi-
tion of Clerk, said : We thank you for the expression
of confidence and for the honor that you have placed upon
us. We have met for an important service. Fifteen
years ago the Friends of America and of England felt the
need of a closer union, of combining interests and uniting
strength. Three Meetings have been held, and out of
these three Meetings have grown the Five Years Meeting
which now becomes a permanent factor in the history of
the Church. We can only anticipate its future, its use-
fulness in the Church ; and yet our convictions are strong
OF THE CONFERENCE 107
in the belief that it will occupy a very important place in
the organization of this body of Christian believers. The
work which was undertaken by the Conference is, per-
haps in some instances, incomplete. It would be strange
indeed if all the work undertaken by it had been fully
consummated ; and, to my mind, one of the important
duties for this body is the completion of the work that
has been in the hands of the Conference, and the meeting
of certain conditions that have not as yet been met in the
plans and process of organization. In addition we have
in our hands the formulation of plans for carrying out the
lines of work entrusted by the Yearly Meetings to this
body of Friends. It is needless for me to take the time
of this Convention to speak on these subjects, as many of
them are referred to in the program. It is my desire and
my prayer to-day that in our deliberations we may care-
fully consider the interests of the Church and the pur-
poses for which this meeting has been organized. May it
be the means of making us strong in every line of service,
and united in purpose and thought in the great questions
that the Church must meet, must consider, must solve in
the interest of mankind. May God grant that this, our
new experiment in Church organization, may grow in
strength and in wisdom and in power for the glory of His
name. I thank you again for the honor you have con-
ferred upon me. The reading of the Minutes is now in
order.
Mary C. Woody, of North Carolina : The Minutes
are in quite a rough shape. If they could be omitted
until another session we could have a fresh copy. I
scarcely think the Secretary can read them.
Robert W. Douglas, of Indiana : I think the former
Secretary should read the Minutes at the present time and
the new clerks could go on to better advantage.
The Minutes were read by Mary C. Woody, of North
Carolina.
Robert L,. Kelly, of Indiana : It seems to me that
those who are delegates from the Canada and the Ohio
Yearly Meetings will hardly understand in the Minutes
what we mean, as the statement is rather ambiguous. A
108 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
more definite statement could be made, for the statement
as made certainly would admit of a very broad interpre-
tation'. They do not have a right to vote.
James Wood, of New York : It is a definite propo-
sition they should be invited to participate in the discus-
sions but nothing further.
The Minutes were approved as corrected.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : I move
that hereafter the Minutes be read once a day at the open-
ing of the morning session.
(This motion was taken by consent.)
The Clerk : We have a report from the Business
Committee.
James Wood, of New York : I should like to state
that the Business Committee chose Allen Jay as Chairman
and Peter W. Raidabaugh as Secretary.
The Clerk : We are now ready for the recom-
mendations of the Business Committee. (See Minutes —
Minute 17.)
All the recommendations were approved.
The Clerk : We are now ready to enter upon the
discussion of the subject referred from the morning
session.
The discussion of the morning session on "The Scope
and Work of the Evangelistic and Church Extension
Board " was resumed.
Jacob Baker, of Ohio : As stated this morning, the
basis of our combined action is how to build up the organ-
ization of our L,ord Jesus Christ in Church Extension
work. I will have a few words to say from the Evangel-
istic Committee platform. Without the preaching of the
Gospel, without the power of the Holy Ghost, there
would be no Church extension. The sunlight to-day in
October is just as bright and as pure as it was in the first
century, and has never grown old. The sunlight from
the Sun of Righteousness for this benighted world is as
pure and sweet and golden as it was in the morning when
the sons of God shouted for joy and the morning stars
sang together. The purpose of Church Extension work is
soul saving. This is the fourth session of this Conference
OF THE CONFERENCE 109
that I have been privileged to attend, and I have an in-
creasing desire at this time to keep to the old landmarks
of the Gospel of the blessed God in all Evangelistic work.
We should have a Gospel not only full of enthusiasm and
intelligence, but full of love and mercy, and full of the
arrows that stick fast to the hearts of those that are in
need of the quickening power of God's Spirit and the refin-
ing power of God's Word. It does seem to me that I am
here a trophy saved by grace. Thirty-nine years ago, in
a revival that struck this country, it found me, and I am
here a soul in zeal and in the Word. I am here to stand
for the Church Extension work. I want all these young
people to keep full of the truth of God, for the truths are
as good in the Old Testament to-day as they are in the
New, and if I begin in the New I run into the Old, and if
I begin in the Old I run into the New. L,ord bless these
young people as they go into Evangelistic work. There
is no blessing that can reach the soul like the truth of
God. I am the oldest active minister in the Ohio Yearly
Meeting. May God bless His work. May God bless this
movement, is my prayer.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : The question is
The Scope and Power and the Field of Work of the Evan-
gelistic Committee of the Five Years Meeting. I hope
the Chair will rule us down to speak directly to the sub-
ject.
L,evi D. Barr, of California : I suppose we all take it
for granted that we are evangelists and must be evangel-
istic. Those who live out in the vast western country
feel the need of this Church Extension work, and of hav-
ing help from the strong centres of the Church. We have
too long neglected the teeming centres of population ; we
have been too much in the rural districts as Gospel fishers,
and I believe this plan of organization will enable us to
press the battle into the places where there are many peo-
ple. We could make it possible for those who feel the fire
burning in their hearts to go to these places where men and
women are, where men and women battle with the problems
of life, and bear this message of life and love. I am sure
there is much of this work to be done. I see no reason
IIO STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
why this Commitee as proposed should not be empow-
ered. If it is simply complimentary, then I am opposed
to it. Not all are called, but those that are should carry
this work forward. I for one am in favor of recognizing
the suggestion of the first paper this morning, that that
Committee when it is appointed be empowered to go for-
ward and prosecute its work.
Joseph O. Binford, of Indiana : The papers which
were read this morning have my hearty approval. I
think the question is, What can this Meeting do to advance
the work of the Evangelistic and Church Extension
Board ? I have thought in connection with this sub-
ject that one of the questions for them to consider would
be how to impress our various congregations in the
various Yearly Meetings with the importance of this great
work. Many of us have to acknowledge with sorrow
that there has been some great reaction with reference to
evangelistic work. The reasons might be given why this
action has taken place, but I believe this Board can do
much to stir up the membership of our various Yearly
Meetings upon this question, as well as to lay plans to
enter new fields. I believe we need to be stirred up on
this one question ; we aie not accomplishing what we
should accomplish if our hearts w 7 ere in the work as they
should be.
Thomas C. Brown, of Western : I feel deeply, dear
Friends, the importance of this subject. Lay aside our
evangelistic work, and the result will be that our days will
be numbered. I feel that we ought to get something
practical from the papers that are presented this morning,
and in the discussions in which we have so profitably
engaged, both morning and afternoon, that I therefore
make this motion, that this Conference appoint one. from
each Yearly Meeting to take into consideration the two
papers that were presented this morning, the questions
relating to the Uniform Discipline, and present a plan in
harmony with those papers to a future session of this Con-
ference for its consideration and action. I hope I can get
a second to that motion.
Charles E. Tebbetts, of California : I would like to
OF THE CONFERENCE III
offer a substitute to that motion, and I move that the
delegations be instructed to propose to-morrow morning
members to constitute the Evangelistic and Church Exten-
sion Board according to the provisions of the Constitution
and Discipline, and to propose names of two persons from
each Yearly Meeting to compose the Committee, to which
the questions of discipline already mentioned shall be
referred.
(Seconded.)
The Chairman : Is Thomas C. Brown willing to accept
the substitute as the original motion ?
Thomas C. Brown, of Western : I am willing to
accept it.
(The motion was carried.)
Esther G. Frame, of Wilmington : I think evangel-
istic work is the very foundation of our Church activities.
All that we have, all the blessings that we have, have
come up from the evangelistic work.' A great many col-
leges are outgrowths of this movement. We need gifts
now just as much as we did when God first gave them.
He had a purpose in giving these gifts. These gifts are
just as essential to us as they were to the evangelists. I
never knew in reading the Scriptures that the time ever
came when Priscilla and Aquila ceased to be evangelists.
All the way through the Church the Scriptures speak of
the men evangelists and the women evangelists, and every
gift is necessary to the health of the Church just as much
as every member of our body is necessary to the health
of our body. What we want to do is to have the Church
Extension go out into the different places where there are
no Quakers and no Quaker Meetings. We want these
people to feel they have the support of the Church. We
are not ashamed we are Quakers ; we are not ashamed to
go into the city and teach, Quakerism will live in the
city and delights to live there, and will grow wondrously.
I pray God the time will never come when a single gift of
the Church will be ignored.
Samuel L,. Haworth, of Iowa : I am from Iowa, but
I live in Nebraska. I do not know that what I am about
to say is entirely within the subject, but if the Friends'
112 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Church can carry on Church Extension work and build
churches, I believe they will have to go somewhere else
besides Nebraska to do it. We have empty churches in
Nebraska. I would not ask you for money to build
churches there. We have had evangelistic work, but I
believe if you carry on this Church Extension work with-
out pastoral work you will have to go somewhere else
besides Nebraska. I am speaking advisably. I think I
know what I am talking about. Now you may call this
work pastoral work, personal work, or resident ministry
of Brother So-and-So, but when I first went to Nebraska
they called me Brother Sam. Now that was all right,
but sometimes they would call me pastor, and sometimes
Reverend, and I did not like that name, but it does seem
to me that the support of such work as we call pastoral
work ought to come within the power and privileges of
this Board. I believe that I can say to you from obser-
vation in the work in Nebraska that you lose money to
send evangelists into a community and hold a series of
meetings, and build a church, and then let it go down.
We do not ask for money to build churches, evangelists
to hold meetings, but for permanent workers. It is my
firm conviction that what Nebraska needs is Friends'
workers, a supply of pastors, or resident workers in these
various places where meetings have been established rather
than evangelists or church buildings. The people out
there were not raised Quakers, and you need not expect
them to carry on a Friends' Meeting as if they had been
in operation one hundred years. I belonged to a Meeting
in Tennessee that would go along without a preacher or
without a resident minister. They do not do that way in
Nebraska. They were not raised to it, and so I believe
that if this Board will do its work properly it will take up
just this line of work in such places.
Rufus M. Jones, of New England : I think it is uni-
versally recognized here that pastoral work has to be
done. I do not suppose there is a delegate here that
would have the pastoral work taken from the Yearly
Meeting. It is a distinct work of the Yearly Meeting,
and Church Extension work. It is the function of the
OF THE CONFERENCE 113
Yearly Meeting to see that it is properly carried on. The
Five Years Meeting should not take charge of the pastoral
affairs of any section of the country in America.
Charles W. Sweet, of Iowa : I have enjoyed the dis-
cussion of the question that has been before us. I think
the scope is the world, but it seems that we are to advance
and take the territory that is next to us. The workers of
Jesus when they came to Him and asked Him the ques-
tion, He- answered, " This is the work of God, that ye
believe in Him whom He has sent." We need for the
people to believe just what Jesus says, when He says,
"Come that ye may have life, and have it more abun-
dantly." And then again, " Go ye, and preach the Gos-
pel unto all nations." Hence there does rest upon us a
tremendous responsibility. I believe just what Jesus has
said, that we are to go into the whole world and preach
the Gospel unto every creature. If the Church is not
evangelistic we shall not accomplish the work, but if the
Church is evangelistic I believe that more will be accom-
plished than has ever been accomplished in the past. I
believe there should be some one at the head of this move-
ment.
William P. Haworth, of Kansas : I should like to
ask if there is not now a motion pending before the house.
The Chairman : The motion was to appoint one from
each delegation to have these papers in charge, but a sub-
stitute was proposed that the' delegates should appoint
persons to constitute the Board as provided for in the
Discipline.
The Clerk : The motion is that we nominate the
persons to constitute this Board and refer this matter to
them. As there is no time fixed for naming these persons
I suppose it will be done now if the motion is carried.
(The motion was carried.)
Charles E. Tebbetts, of California : I move that at
the opening of the next session the nominations for all
this Board be made, and the various matters be referred
to them so they will have time to consider the report of
this body.
Thomas C. Brown, of Western : I wish to ask one
114 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
question in connection with this. Western adopted a
Uniform Discipline one year ago. The time has not yet
come for its going into effect, and hence the Yearly Meet-
ing has not made the appointment of the members for this
particular Board. If the Five Years Meeting takes this
action what will be the status of Western Yearly Meeting ?
Can we place delegates upon these different Boards ?
Rufus M. Jones, of New England : These delegates
are not appointed by Yearly Meetings excepting perhaps
California.
The Chairman : We are now ready for the question ;
what is your pleasure ?
(The motion was carried.)
The Chairman : The report will be called for to-mor-
row morning.
Miles White, Jr., of Baltimore : I rise to ask for an
interpretation of the requirements of members of this
Evangelistic Committee, so that we may know who could
act. It requires two members from each Yearly Meeting.
Do they have to be simply members of the Yearly Meet-
ing, or members of the delegations here present?
Rufus M.Jones, of New England: The Discipline
means that the members of this Committee shall be mem-
bers of the Yearly Meeting. While it would be more
convenient that the members should be present, it is not
absolutely necessary, according to the Discipline, that
they should be.
(A five minutes recess was taken.)
The Chairman: I will ask Elwood O. Ellis to take
the chair.
SCOPE AND WORK OF THE COMMITTEE ON
LEGISLATION, AND ITS CO-OPERATION WITH
THE GOVERNMENT.
By Edmund Stanley.
There is perhaps no more delicate question to come
to our attention in this meeting than the one of legislation.
First, because of the apparently inseparable relation exist-
ing between legislation and political domination ; and
of the conference; 115
second, on account of the diversity of opinions held by
Christian believers as to the proper methods that may
be used to accomplish what might be agreed upon as
legitimate legislation. So long as the Christian world is
divided in sentiment regarding plan of action there can be
little prospect of great achievements along any lines of
public reform.
Three questions must be considered, and upon these
an agreement must be reached to assure even a degree of
success : What changes in private, social, or national
polity are essential to the development of our highest and
best interests ? Is legislation the most promising way to
reach the desired end ? And, lastly, how shall we pro-
ceed in the use of legislative means to accomplish this
purpose ?
That the Church has a right, and it may be a duty in
this matter, to encourage and influence legislation that is
believed to be in the interest of the general welfare of
mankind we need not question. It is, however, important
that any movement be supported by settled conviction
both as to the matter and as to the method of procedure.
There are many questions upon which we have
formed opinions from present evidence, or from hasty
investigation, that we believe conducive to the public
good which have not passed beyond the theoretic stage.
Any attempt to secure or influence legislation along such
lines would be hazardous, and in the end might produce
such results as would destroy the usefulness of the organ-
izations that were instrumental in their production.
Briefly stated, the Church can only help to promote
legislation touching questions upon which there can be
little if any diversity of opinion. There are questions of
great moment that confront us as a nation upon which
the ablest statesmen are divided in opinion, some of which
a hundred and twenty years of discussion has left unset-
tled. To enter such a field would show lack of wisdom
and the folly of indiscretion.
There are fields, however, that are open for the efforts
and activities of every influence possible that may be exer-
cised for and in the interest of the public good.
Il6 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Among the first great reformatory efforts made by the
Friends was the movement in the interest of the Criminal
classes. The introduction of humane and reformatory
measures into the prison life of England first, and then of
Europe, produced such wholesale results that there can
be no question as to the wisdom of the course pursued by
Elizabeth Fry and others, as to the advanced ideas held
by these reformers, or as to the practicability of continued
and enlarged efforts in behalf of the unfortunate classes
that fall under the penalty of the law.
There is no longer a question as to the wisdom of
introducing reformatory measures into prison discipline,
and the force of the Church should be thrown in favor of
any movement that promises to restore the unfortunate to
a place in the world where the blight of prison life shall
cease to cloud and depress those who seek for opportuni-
ties to live honorable lives.
There is often a line of distinction between the crim-
inal punished and the criminal unpunished ; between the
one who has paid the penalty for his offence and the one
who has remained free, only because of a lack of evidence
to convict. The one is restored to an honored place in
society, the other wears the scarlet letter throughout a
life-time, and leaves its effect like a dark cloud overhang-
ing the lives and destinies of unfortunate posterity.
There are, too, other unfortunate classes that call for
our sympathies and our help. The eleemosynary institu-
tions that care for the insane, the feeble minded, the
blind, the deaf, and the deformed, are calling for the
attention of the public mind. So long as these institu-
tions are subject to political influences and changes, the
great Christian and philanthropic heart of the people must
reach after these helpless creatures, must feel the prompt-
ing to energetic action for the alleviation of their unfor-
tunate conditions.
Again, in every town and city, and oftentimes in
rural communities, there are found boys and girls growing
up without the care necessary for the development of
right character. How far the public authority can
intrude upon the private domain is a question upon which
OP THE CONFERENCE 117
there will be many opinions ; but as society must protect
itself against the criminal classes,, and must care for those
guilty of offenses, and those rendered helpless by the acts
and lives of such, society has the right — nay, it becomes
a duty — to put forth every effort to prevent the produc-
tion of criminals in our midst. We are derelict of duty
when we allow the children to grow up about us in igno-
rance, and under conditions that tend to make them
familiar with crime. From a financial standpoint it is a
perilous policy ; from the Christian standpoint, nothing
short of negligence of duty and a crime.
We coin a few pennies in the mint of vice and pour
out pounds for our folly. The care of unfortunate youth
must claim our attention if we would elevate the standard
of morals among all classes of our people, if we would
reduce crime in our cities and the criminal classes in our
courts and prisons.
Hard as it may seem, the parents and guardians of
boys and girls who fail to control, to educate, to fit for
honest and honorable living, should yield to the demands
of society and the authority of the State, that proper care
may be extended for the good of the individual and for the
welfare of society.
It is not for me here to outline a plan for the accom-
plishment of this end ; but all must agree that it is practi-
cal and possible to greatly reduce the criminal and non-
productive classes of onr country by and through the
proper care of the youth of the land. Thousands of chil-
dren are growing up in the slums of our great cities, and
we know well what it means. Few of these fail to enter
the ranks of the violators of law. There should be no
slums in our cities ; but if slums do exist, it should be a
crime subject to severe punishment to keep children under
such influence ; at least it should be sufficient cause for
the law to interfere in the interest of society, and the care
and control of such children should be assumed by the
municipality or the State. We quarantine against disease
to prevent its spread and deadly effect. Every place and
locality where crime is housed and criminals resort
should be quarantined against the spread of their deadly
Il8 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
contagions. If parents will resort to such places, or choose
to live in such surroundings, child life should be spared
the penalty ; and by force of law, if need be, they should
be placed in environments that are productive of manhood
and womanhood.
The Christian world has ever sought to relieve dis-
tress, to alleviate suffering, to promote brotherly sympa-
thy and kindness. The opportunities are multiplying with
each succeeding decade, and the pressing needs are forcing
upon us the consideration of questions of vast proportions
and of vital importance. Each is within itself a problem
for a master mind, and all call loudly for help from the
Christian world. The American policy towards the native
American is, and has been, a disgrace to Christian civiliza-
tion . No treaty has been held sacred in the face of greed and
avarice ; no spot has yet been found for the Indian where
his title remained inviolate, if the white man set his heart
on such possession. In our efforts to protect and elevate
him we have proceeded blindly in the undertaking ; we
have never thought to help him through any other plan
than that of converting him into a white man, a process
almost universally fatal.
Honest as may be our convictions, our policy con-
tinues to impoverish and to kill ; and it is doubtful if we
will learn better in time to save even a remnant of these
most unfortunate people. Here is a legitimate field for
intelligent Christian activity. The negro, a slave forty
years ago, is now but half free, and has yet to learn the
real meaning and value of freedom. The Armenian
troubles, the situation of the Jews in some European and
Asiatic countries, the peoples of our new possessions, all
offer fields for investigation, and connected with which
are opportunities for vital legislation that Christians
should press to the point of action.
Upon the traffic in and use of intoxicating drinks the
Christian world is fast becoming a unit. In most of our
States and in many other countries Christian influences
are being felt, and legislation is taking shape in opposi-
tion to this terrible curse. We are coming to know our
strength, and the enemy is already wavering.
OF THE CONFERENCE 119
Again, we have long stood as a people opposed to
war as a means of settling differences. Whether between
man and man, or nation and nation, the principle is the
same. We were slow, however, to suggest a plan to pre-
vent the resort to arms. We are proud of our stand on
this great question, and rejoice to know that there is a
possible — yes, a feasible plan being worked out to accom-
plish the very thing we so long desired.
I have tried to point out a few of the legitimate fields
for legislation, such as are open and solicitous for the help
of Christians of all denominations. Perhaps the most deli-
cate is not what questions are worthy our attention and
demand our action, but how shall we proceed in the per-
formance of known duty ? Strong as may be our convic-
tions, bitter as may be our prejudices, the fact remains that
only as we are able to separate these questions from party
affiliations, from party influences, can we hope to gain and
permanently hold ground in great reforms. The Church
has always lost spiritually in partisanship ; as a political
organization it has suffered the direst evils. Under the
persecutions of Nero it prospered ; under the protection
of Constantine the seeds germinated that afterwards threat-
ened to choke out the very life it had manifested under
severe persecutions.
Every persecution with which the name of the Church
has been connected, it matters not whether it be the Span-
ish inquisition, the massacre of St. Bartholomew, the de-
struction of the Huguenots of France, or the Jews and
Mohammedans in Aragon and Castile, the persecution
in turn of Catholics and Protestants in England, or even
the Salem witchcraft of our own time — every one has been
the direct result of political designs under pretensions of
religious zeal.
L,et the Church become a political power to further
any interest, however good, and she at once becomes the
prey of designing men who eagerly grasp the opportunity
to use honest, conscientious men to further private interests.
It is not party organization that we need ; that will
insure success ; but united Christian effort toward the
desired end.
120 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
The Christian world can produce the great reforms so
much needed to-day by speaking out with no uncertain
sound. Not a saloon could run in many of our States if
the Christian people could but agree upon a plan of attack.
Not another war would be waged between civilized
nations if the Churches that claim the Christ as their head
would stand uncompromisingly for international arbi-
tration.
The public utilities and natural resources of our coun-
try, under honest management, with impartial legislation,
should and would be made conducive to the welfare of the
people as well as productive and profitable to the owners.
It is the duty of every man to study the social and eco-
nomic questions of the day, and to so inform himself that
he may act intelligently in matters that are daily becom-
ing more prominent in the polity of the Nation and the
State, and more important as factors in the social, moral
and spiritual realms of human society.
What we need is a united Christian sentiment in the
interest of universal good to mankind.
LEGISLATION.
By Timothy Nicholson, op Indiana.
From copies of two addresses by, and a recent letter
from, our dear friend, John S. Rowntree, of York, Eng-
land, I learn that for more than one hundred years pre-
vious to the repeal of the Test and Corporation Act in
England in 1828, which was the harbinger of the great
Reform Bill in 1832, no important measure in the interests
of religious freedom was passed by the British Parlia-
ment, and no Friend could be a member of that body. In
1833 Josph Pease, the first Friend member, was elected to
Parliament. Erom this time Friends and other noncon-
formists took an active part in municipal and national
affairs, and great progress in religious and civil liberty
followed. In 1833 the affirmation of Friends, Moravians
and Separatists was made equivalent to an oath for all
purposes, including qualification for office. In 1837 there
OF THE CONFERENCE 121
was the abolition of Negro slavery, and subsequently the
abolition of religious tests in the great universities, and of
compulsory church rates, &c.
Out of all proportion to their numbers Friends in
England have participated in legislative and municipal
affairs ; as members of Parliament — at one time there
being as many as twelve Friends in that body, — as Lord
Mayors, Magistrates, Members of City Councils, of School
Boards, Poor Laws, Guardians, &c. Birmingham for
many years had a Friend in Parliament, and seven Friends
have filled the office of Mayor. York and Scarborough
were each represented in Parliament by a Friend. The
office of Mayor of Darlington has been held by Friends ten
times, five have been members of the Corporation and seven
have been Magistrates — an important office in England.
The education and training of English Friends de-
velop a type of character eminently fitted for self govern-
ment, and the public has not been slow to recognize
this fitness, and Friends have thus had a remarkable influ-
ence upon the educational, physical and moral life of that
country.
The Meeting of Sufferings of London Yearly Meeting
is one of the most remarkable religious bodies in the world.
Meeting monthly, often from fifty to seventy-five members,
men and women, in attendance, it acts as a search-light
over nearly all parts of the world. In a recent meeting the
following subjects were considered : "Arbitration between
England and France," " Friends' South African Relief,"
"The Australian Deputation," "Slavery in Pemba,"
" Doukhobors in Canada," " Library and Printing Com-
mittee's Work," " Friends' Work in Norway," " Memo-
rial to the Government on Gambling," " The Devonshire
House Premises," " The Granting of Twenty-five Copies
of J. S. Rowntree's ' Faith and Practice,' for Distribution
in Australia," &c
I doubt if the combined actions of the Permanent
Boards of all the Yearly Meetings in America during the
last year will equal the work of that one session of the
London Meeting for Sufferings.
In proportion to the population of the two countries
122 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
there are twice as many Friends in the United States as in
England, and in Indiana twenty times as many.
What are we doing to influence National , State, County
or Municipal legislation ? How many Friends have been
members of Congress during the last decade ? How many
in our State Legislature ? How many Mayors ? or mem-
bers of City Councils, or County Commissions, or mem-
bers of School Boards ?
I have long felt we have fallen far short of our duty,
as well as of our privilege, and sadly failed in these re-
spects to exercise that influence for good in our respective
communities, which, as Christian citizens, we should have
done ; and I sincerely hope we will in future encourage
some of our young people to prepare themselves for use-
fulness in the lines above indicated : that they may merit
the encomium of Dr. David Gregg in his " Quakers the
Makers of America," when he says, " The Quakers, when
seen at their best, stand in American history for ideal
civilization ; and this civilization is their contribution to
the American Republic. As historic characters they are
a marked and influential people in the midst of the most
marked and influential types of mankind. They have put
their stamp indelibly on national and international life.
If we enter the courts of justice we can see that they have
been there ; the substitution of affirmation in place of the
oath is their work. The jails of humanity show the re-
sults of their reform. The dream of that beautiful prison
angel, Elizabeth Fry, is being worked out into reality in
criminal law, and the remedial element in punishment is
being pushed to the forefront in this administration of jus-
tice," . . . . " and that this has been done by uttering
an emphatic protest against all destructive evils, and by
keeping before one's country uplifting and inspiring ideals
and righteous principles."
Sophia M. Fry, of London : I do not like to occupy
the valuable time of this Meeting upon what has just now
been said of the political life in England. Our young
men in England feel they have a duty as citizens, and
wherever you go in England you will find Friends taking
OF THE CONFERENCE 1 23
their share of public life, in the work of our school boards,
as guardians, etc., and in the work which concerns Par-
liamentary life. You will also find women in England
doing a great work. I have been particularly struck in
this country that men of position do not feel they can
enter into politics because of their impurity. It would
seem that if one-tenth part of their abilities were turned
into your politics you would make a clean sweep in a very
short time of those things which you hold to be impure.
Mary M. Brown, of California : I dislike to have this
important question passed without a word upon it, dear
Brothers. I believe it is your duty to see that we have
better laws, and that the laws that we do have are enforced.
I think the brethren should enter the political ranks of
our country and see that the politics are cleaned up. We
will not get better or proper laws until the best part ot
our people take hold of it. Our politics are in the hands
of those who do not care for the morals of our country.
This should not be.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : In the last letter I ever had
from John Bright he wrote : ' ' Why is it that Friends take
so little a part in Congress or Legislature ? They do not
feel that they are governors. If Christian people do not
take their part in the government the time will come when
the nation will mourn." I am glad to announce that we
have a delegate on this floor who is Mayor of a city of
10,000 inhabitants, and they do not have a saloon in the
city.
Phebe S. Adyelott, of New England : I move that
all papers and resolutions be referred to the Business Com-
mittee for consideration.
(The motion was carried.)
Robert E. Pretlow, of Wilmington : In as much as
we have taken from to-morrow afternoon session one of
the subjects, and the time would be so limited to preclude
the discussion of a very interesting subject that will next
come before us, I offer a motion that we do now adjourn
and give the delegates a chance to appoint their represen-
tatives on the various Boards, and that the subject for this
hour come at the time of the appointment of this Board
124 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
on to-morrow afternoon's program. I move that we defer
the consideration of the next paper until 2.30 to-morrow
afternoon in the place of the appointment of the Board.
(The motion was carried.)
James Wood, of New York : The postponement of
this subject will give an opportunity to fill in the vacancy
upon the program in connection with the subject that was
to be considered. The subject was to be by Absalom
Rosenberger, and the discussion was to be opened by
Isaac Sharpless. Isaac Sharpless met with a severe acci-
dent and is not able to attend this Conference, so you will
find but one name following the subject. Will the Con-
ference allow the Committee to select some person to fol-
low the discussion to-morrow afternoon ? Or do you
prefer to leave it for an open discussion after the paper is
presented ?
David Hadley, of Western : I move that the Business
Committee select a person to follow President Rosenberger
to-morrow afternoon.
(The motion was lost.)
The subject will be open for general discussion after
the presentation by President Rosenberger.
John W. Woody, of North Carolina: I move that
in addition to this Board already provided for that we
ask the delegates from the different Yearly Meetings also
to name a Board in the interest of the Negroes.
The Clerk : Shall we ask the Business Commit-
tee to recommend a plan of procedure for passing upon
the questions that require action from this Meeting ? We
have thus far been following the precedent of the Confer-
ence of five years ago ; and as this is a different Meeting
it seems to me that in some way it should be decided by
this body how the sense of the Meeting shall be taken.
James Wood, of New York : The order of business
so long established in the Friends' Church does not apply
to delegated bodies. This body is composed of represen-
tatives of the Yearly Meetings, each having an equal
authority with the other, and as such shall try to have
individual opinions expressed, and therefore the method
pursued by the Chairman in this Meeting so far seems to
OF THE CONFERENCE 1 25
be entirely correct, that each delegate shall have a right
to vote his or her own opinion on every subject that comes
before us. It is entirely different from the Friends' Meet-
ings as ordinarily held. We have long pursued a beauti-
ful method, but it does not harmonize with the situation
here, and I hope we shall continue the practice of voting
on questions as we have already done.
Robert L,. Kelly, of Indiana : It seems it ought to be
considered by us. There are eleven members of that
Committee ; we are here as delegates, we ought to have a
voice, and I see no reason it should be referred to the
eleven members. I would hope, therefore, that the orig-
inal parliamentary usage which has been carried on in our
Conferences should be made the usage of this Conference.
I move that the ordinary parliamentary procedure shall
govern the proceedings of this Meeting.
(The motion was carried.)
The Clerk : We will now adjourn.
A.nd after a prayer the Meeting adjourned.
Fourth-Day, Evening, Tenth Month 22, 1902.
The Clerk : May we have a few minutes of quiet
before the L,ord. I want to say, dear Friends, that we
should be prompt to every intimation of duty. These
moments for devotion are free for everyone that feels a
prompting to any vocal service for the Master.
Levi D. Barr, of California, led in singing " All Hail
the Power of Jesus' Name," and then offered prayer, as
also did Charles W. Sweet, of Iowa.
The hymn, " Leaning on the Everlasting Arms,"
was sung.
The Clerk : The Business Committee have some
matters of information for us.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : It is proposed that we have
a book prepared for the names of all the delegates and
their post-office addresses and the names of all visitors,
that we may keep a record for reference, and as soon as
the book is prepared, which will be to-morrow, it will be
placed at the right of the desk, and I hope each one of
you will see that your name is written plainly.
126 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
The Business Committee will undertake to have reso-
lutions presented on the various subjects considered by
the Meeting. Any person desiring to have a resolution
presented will please write it out and present it to the
Business Committee, and we will see that they are prop-
erly taken care of.
Rufus M. Jones, of New England : The Discipline
provides that the records of the various Meetings shall be
kept in a uniform record book, and also that statistics
shall be kept ; I therefore move that the whole subject of
providing uniform records and providing uniform blanks
for statistics be referred to the Business Committee, and
they can bring some plan of accomplishing the desired
end. It needs to be brought in at an early session so that
it may have attention.
(The motion was carried.)
The Clerk : The next subject on the program, " The
Present Condition of the Indians and the Work to be Done
for Them," was to be presented by Edward M. Wistar, of
Philadelphia. As he is not present, John C. Winston has
been asked to read his paper.
John C. Winston, of Philadelphia: I am sorry our
friend is not here to read this paper for himself. It is
always difficult to read another man's paper, especially
when you have only a short time to look it over.
FRIENDS' ASSOCIATED WORK FOR INDIANS.
AN EPITOME AND GLANCE AT
PRESENT CONDITIONS.
By E. M. Wistar.
The Society of Friends in America has a record of
fair dealing, benevolence and Christian endeavor towards
Indians. On the 14th of this month, 220 years ago, the
historic Treaty under the Elm at Shackamaxon, on the
banks of Delaware River, was made. Upon that occasion
William Penn, Governor and Friend, in concluding his brief
address, said : " Our desire is not to do injury and thus
provoke the Great Spirit, but to do good. We are now
OP THE CONFERENCE 1 27
met on the broad pathway of good faith and good will,
and no advantage will be taken on either side, but all is
to be openness, brotherhood and love. " And the response
on behalf of the Indians was likewise memorable and
solemn, and agreed that "they would live in love and
peace with Onas and his children so long as the sun and
moon shall endure."
That these words on neither hand were of the nature
of an idle flourish we have the testimony and mutual acts
of children's children through seven generations, during
which the Indian has proved faithful, and of the Quaker
it has not been recorded that the compact of brotherly
love has been forgotten. L,et us, too, not forget.
William Penn, in petition to King Charles for the
grant of land, since known as Pennsylvania, says, "he
had in view the glory of God by the civilization of the
poor Indians and their conversion by just and lenient
measures to Christ's kingdom," and George Fox is
recorded as writing to Friends in Pennsylvania and West
Jersey that they should ' ' let them know the principles of
Truth, so that they may know the way of salvation and
the nature of true Christianity, and how Christ has died
for them," and at another time he wrote requesting
Friends " to instruct the natives in the principles of
Christianity and the practice of a true Christian life."
In thinking over these things and in trying to sift
and choose what should be presented in a brief review
and appeal such as has been requested for this occasion,
it seems as though childhood memories are insistent to be
heard, and almost clog the pen with numerous anecdotes
and familiar names and sayings of the Indian of the past
and of earnest Friends, whose heart, hand and substance
was freely bestowed in behalf of the sorely tried and needy
red brother.
Records are rife with items of interest that show a
history worthy to be cherished by any loyal Friend.
Old Corn Planter, the masterful and celebrated Chief,
in the year 1791 sent greetings to Friends in Philadelphia
wherein he said: " Brothers, the Seneca Nation see that
the Great Spirit intends they should not continue to live
128 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
by hunting, and they look round on every side and enquire,
' Who it is that shall teach them what is best for them to
do ?' Your fathers dealt honestly by our fathers, and these
have engaged us to remember it. We wish our children
to be taught the same principles by which your fathers
were guided . . . and such other things as you teach
your children, especially the love of peace."
Friends who visited the Delawares in 1793 were thus
addressed by their Chief :
' ' Brothers : We are glad in our hearts to see our
brothers, the Quakers, speaking before us. We feel the
grace that is in your hearts conveyed to us, and we wish
to be of the same religion, but we are poor and weak and
not capable of judging for ourselves. We hope you will
have pity on us and instruct us how to gain a more com-
fortable living, and also how we may come to obtain ever-
lasting happiness. When we think of our poor children
our hearts are affected with sorrow. We hope you will
send us teachers."
Just here pathos tempts kindly sentiment and sym-
pathy to expand and guide our judgment and future
action, but limited minutes forbid. Briefly, however, is
there not revealed a century of honest Christian endeavor ?
Is there not indicated a cordial relation between the Indian
and the Quaker for the century of great national activities
during which he was to be bereft and driven to the wall ?
Is there not an echoing cry to-day for the encourage-
ment of Friends here assembled and for those they repre-
sent, to cherish the mission work for Indians and to con-
tinue Christianizing effort during the remaining years of
transition from Paganism and while the historic, though
weaker, people are gradually becoming obsolete and
merged into the life of an overpowering nation ?
During the period above referred to, on till the time
of united effort by the several Yearly Meetings, large sums
were contributed by Friends in America, with consider-
able additions from English Friends, to inaugurate prac-
tical education and religious teaching amongst some of
the tribes, and continuous care as to their general welfare
w 7 as not neglected.
OF THE CONFERENCE I 29
111 1795 the Yearly Meeting of Friends in Philadel-
phia instituted a Standing Committee on the subject of
improvement and civilization of the Indians, which, by
successive appointments, has now exceeded a century of
continuous existence and activity on behalf of the Indians
of various lesser tribes located in the northwestern part
of Pennsylvania and in western New York.
A synopsis of the work of Friends as then under-
taken may be gained in considerable part by the following
extract from the Minutes of that year :
"To the Yearly Meeting now sitting: The Com-
mittee appointed on the interesting concern for promoting
the welfare of the Indian natives report that at several
meetings, in which we have had the company of divers
concerned brethren not particularly named to the service,
we have deliberately considered this important subject,
which has for a series of years deeply exercised the minds
of many Friends, and been latterly revived in the Yearly
Meeting with increased weight. Our minds haye been
measurably drawn into sympathy with these distressed
inhabitants of the wilderness, and on comparing their
situation with our own, and calling to grateful remem-
brance the kindness of their predecesors to ours in the
early settlement of this country ; considering our pro-
fessed principles of peace and good will to men, we are
induced to believe, with much unanimity, that there are
loud calls for our benevolence and charitable exertions, to
promote among them the principles of the Christian relig-
ion, as well as to turn their attention to school-learning,
agriculture and useful mechanic employments, especially
as there appears in some tribes a willingness to unite in
endeavor of this kind. We believe that this end may be
much promoted, under the Divine blessing, by a recom-
mendation from this Meeting to the several Quarterly
Meetings that a liberal subscription be set on foot and a
fund raised, to be under the direction of a special com-
mittee to be appointed by the Yearly Meeting, in order
that these purposes may be carried into effect as early as
practicable, and the apparently friendly disposition of the
Government towards this desirable object improved. And,
130 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
conceiving this subject is of sufficient magnitude to claim
the attention of our religious Society in different parts ot
this continent, we think it may be useful to embrace the
substance of this concern in the epistles to the respective
Yearly Meetings."
During the early and middle part of the last century
the interested efforts of Friends were further increased
and extended into frequent interviews with the Executive
and Department of the Interior at Washington, and this
again, by natural sequence, led to Federal commissions to
Friends from time to time, who, as occasion called for
their active and self-denying services, were specially qual-
ified to treat with the Indians and to advance the better
objects of the authorities at Washington on their behalf.
Early in the year 1869 the Meeting for Sufferings of
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, under a weight of responsi-
bility because of the perplexed and suffering condition of
many of the native tribes scattered over various parts of
our country west of the Mississippi River, memorialized
Congress and in a vigorous and able document endeavored
to influence our Government.
On the 26th of First Month, 1869, four Friends, hav-
ing the wrongs and rights of the Indian much at heart, and
one of whom being already well known at the Interior
Department and to members of Congress likely to have
influence, carrying copies of the memorial, went to Wash-
ington and succeeded in placing it before the individual
members of both Houses, and in the interesting and his-
toric interview with President-elect U. S. Grant, handed
him a copy. Following this came the avowed peace pol-
icy of the President and the subsequent appointment of
Friends as Indian Agents and subordinate officials through-
out the Central Superintendency by nominations from the
Associated Executive Committee of Friends on Indian
Affairs, which was now called into existence and imme-
diately became active and energetic, as evidenced by their
minutes and reports of that and subsequent years. In
President Grant's first message to Congress he said :
' ' I have attempted a new policy towards these wards
of the nation with fair results, so far as tried, which I
OF THE CONFERENCE 131
hope will be attended ultimately with great success.
The Society of Friends is well known as having suc-
ceeded in living in peace with the Indians in the early
settlement of Pennsylvania, while their white neighbors
of other sects, in other sections, were constantly embroiled.
They were also known for their opposition to all strife,
violence and war. . . . These considerations induced me
to give the management of a few reservations of Indians
to them, and to throw the burden of the selection of agents
upon the Society itself. ' '
In order then that harmonious and effective action on
the part of the Society might be obtained the Associated
Committee, a delegate body representing ultimately all
the Yearly Meetings, was organized, and responding to
the invitation of the President, during his two adminis-
trations co-operated with the Government through the
selection and subsequent oversight of a superintendent
and nine Indian agents, together with many subordinate
officers of the Federal service, all of whom were Friends
chosen for their sterling character and ability to do the
service intrusted to them.
We may readily believe that the burden carried by
the Committee in early days, as well as the labors of those
under them, was great. It was then, and has since been
through all its changes, an invigorating work for those
actively engaged in it. In this connection we may take
briefly from the full and most interesting report published
by the Associated Committee in 1871 :
" No good work is ever wholly lost. Some of this
people have already been blessed with the knowledge of
salvation. War has been prevented, and we think some
permanent influence of our labors may be expected to
remain, even under such a change as would exclude us
from the field. The results of true missionary labor often
survive changes in government. But whatever may be
the result to the Indian, our own blessing will be sure.
We are to act well in the present. We are to enter the
vineyard to-day and labor, though frost may come on the
morrow and blight our prospects. We are to plant and
to water, expecting a blessing to ourselves and to the
132 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
objects of our concern in just that measure which God
sees meet to bestow. He giveth the increase. Can we
safely stand idle ? Can we truthfully say we have not
been divinely called unto this service ? Does it not seem
that a door has been opened for us to do our part as a
Church in bringing about a fulfillment of His forespoken
declaration : ' I will give thee the heathen for thy inheri-
tance, and the uttermost part of the earth for thy posses-
sion ; ' and if we depart from the work, shall we not be
responsible to Him for all the darkness and heathen igno-
rance which it is in our power to prevent ? ' '
Changes did occur during the following administra-
tions which led to the exclusion of Friends from Govern-
ment offices, but their efforts were made to conform to
this, and, through the mission stations and schools, have
been continued to the present time, and while one gener-
ation labored and has passed away, another has entered in,
and the old concern to aid and promote Christian civiliza-
tion amongst the Indians still has place amongst us ; and
quietly, through our Meetings, through thousands of
family visits, in our own established day and First-day
schools, and prominently through intimate and cordial
relations with both teachers and children of certain Gov-
ernment boarding schools, the true Gospel, we believe, is
being preached, and many thousands, who otherwise might
be almost or entirely without Christian teaching, are being
reached and given the opportunity to know of our Sav-
iour's love.
As an interesting and important natural incident of
this work, a number of Meetings, as is well known, have
been established, and a number of these, still more or less
under care of the Associated Committee, exist to-day.
These, together with the more aggressive initial mis-
sion work, comprise not all but important parts of our
united efforts and ma}- be submitted here for the considerate
judgment of Friends as to their proper attitude and the
responsibilities which accrue or which should be assumed
by them for the future. In the said Meeting we find a mixed
membership. With the great influx of white settlers
and adventurers upon the reservations, it has not been
OF THE CONFERENCE 1 33
practicable always to exclude the one in working for the
other, nor has it been deemed desirable to have done so
with a view to best results for the Red man.
For detail information regarding the Committee's
work of to-day it seems proper to refer to our published
reports and our Minutes of annual Meetings which are
carefully sent each year to the several delegate members,
trusting to them to distribute amongst the members of the
several Yearly Meetings according to their best judgment.
It is proper, however, to say that these stations and the
missionaries in the field are the subject of deep and con-
tinuous thought, and that the varied work incident to
active membership in the Committee still gives opportu-
nity for a wide range of constant care and influence which
cannot be detailed or even mentioned within the confines
of this brief paper.
In closing, reference is made to a collation of figures
for the purposes of this paper, which assumes that in some
327 bands and tribes scattered throughout all the States
and Territories west of the Mississippi and in the States
(excepting Ohio) which touch the Great L,akes, there are
roughly 245,000 inhabitants of our country classed as
Indians.
Statistics show from 30,000 to 35,000 of these to be
members of some religious organization and that there are
some 350 church buildings in use by them ; nevertheless, it
may be confidently stated that for earnest and devoted
mission workers, under responsible call to duty, there is
an open field.
In these transition days, while so much that is degrad-
ing and harmful is being presented and forced upon the
notice of the Indian, whether he be fast passing away or
whether the life of his varied race adapt itself and be con-
tinued yet many years, in any case the toil, the tears
and the prayers of the past, the call of the present and
the hopeful duty for the future thus inadequately and so
briefly brought to notice, make their appeal.
The way of Christian missions is hard and rough and
oftentimes difficult to travel, but with the Gospel message
to be preached it seems necessary for Friends as well as
134 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
others to exert themselves and continue in their work and
privilege of carrying it to the Indian and in caring for the
tender growth from seed already sown.
The Clerk : The subject will be further consid-
ered by Rachel Kirk, of Kansas Yearly Meeting, who has
been for twenty -five years a worker among the Indians of
Indian Territory.
Rachel Kirk, of Kansas : When I received word that
I would be expected to talk on the Indian Question as
given on the program , I was busily engaged in our Yearly
Meeting, and I have had but a few minutes alone since
that time. The subject has been very well handled, and
I do not know why I should be called upon to add any-
thing else. The Present Condition of the Indian is the
first thought on the program. I think it is more perilous
than ever before since we have been among them. This
is caused by the white men who are there seeking to de-
fraud them of their homes ; but first of their minds, by
giving them stimulants and intoxicants ; and those who
do that not only do it seeking to take away their lands,
but since Congress has made it a ruling that a dead
Indian's land can be sold, some have been drugged. We
have evidence of this. One man, an educated Shawnee
Indian, was given poison. He was sick at a white man's
house with whom he had had a great deal of business, and
where he had gone to have some business settled. He
was taken sick and was taken to his room and his wife
was called, and in a short time while she was absent from
the room he was given another dose of the medicine, and
when she returned he was almost speechless. That will
be a common occurrence, we think, under existing cir-
cumstances. We think they will be brought into this
condition by those who are seeking to get their land.
This is the condition of the Indians with whom we are
associated principally. This Indian's name was John
King, and he was educated at Hampton School in Vir-
ginia. We think the work to be done among them is to
be accomplished by those to whom Christ's word comes
when He said to His disciples, " As My Father has sent
OF THE CONFERENCE I 35
Me into the world, even so I send you into the world."
This means giving time and means and self and all.
Missionaries are needed in more of the government schools.
There is one school, thirty-five miles from where we live,
which has no missionaries, and we have been begged for
years to send them one We considered it ten or twelve
years ago, and the Executive Committee had it under
consideration at the same time. There is an Indian Bap-
tist minister there, and we thought, and the Executive
Committee thought, that it would be a detriment to the
work and would be infringing on other denominational
work ; but the sequel shows that it would have been well
had we sent missionaries there. They would now gladly
receive missionaries of the Gospel from our denomination ;
they talk of the Quakers and ask them to come and hold
meetings there. At another school there has been a
transfer made of some of the employees from the govern-
ment schools among the Indians where George Hartley is
located, and where we have been for the last sixteen or
seventeen years, and they write and tell us they miss the
little Church services and the Sunday-schools, and ask if
there could not be missionaries sent there to care for them,
teach them God's Word and lead them to Christ. This is
one great need of the Indians. Another need is for some
one to look after the interests of the girls who come home
from the government schools, and give them instruction
and provide homes for them. They usually have land
allotted to them ; they need some one to look after them
to see that they are not called back into the camps and
into the same environment from which they were taken.
It will not be long until they will be associated with the
Indians just as they were before. We need some one to
look after them and teach them to work, take them into
their homes and supply their needs. They would soon
learn to take care of themselves. Some people have said
to me — some one since I came into Indiana — " The time
that is spent with the Indians is thrown away." Of
course, that touched a very tender spot, but I think we
can prove by two illustrations that it is not the case.
One is, one of our girls in the government schools at
136 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Wyandotte, in charge of Franklin M. Meredith and wife ;
many will remember her being in Karlham college for
three years. She is now the wife of a banker in Rock-
port, Indiana, and has two beautiful children and an
ideal home, and is engaged in Christian work of different
kinds, especially in temperance work, and other works of
that kind. She can lead a prayer meeting and do a good
deal of work in different ways ; and is called on for all the
entertainments that are given in music in that place.
Another one is Ida Johnson. She also had two or three
years in Karlham College. She is the wife of Colonel
Pratt in Carlisle School. I think these two instances oi
what can be done for Indians are sufficient. What we most
need is to go out in the spirit of the Master and remember
that love conquers all things . What the Indian needs is love
unfeigned. We have been trying to give them this love.
The Clerk : We can take a little time for a general
discussion upon this subject.
Francis W. Thomas, of Indiana : I think this ques-
tion is not too old, but is a question that we ought to con-
sider. It comes to us forcibly, " Open the doors wide for
the success of our Christian civilization " ; but for a long
time the efforts that we have made in the United States
in reference to the Indian trouble were in the wrong di-
rection. We put civilization before Christianization, and
before the maintenance of any solid civilization in the
world we must first be founded on a solid Christianization.
No advance I believe can be maintained with relation to
the heathen tribes on earth that has not been so associated
together with the principles of the Christian religion.
Our work of civilization and Christianization — I am put-
ting it as we have worked upon it for almost a century —
that work, I say, has simply brought them up, that we
might admit them to the doors of the Church, and when
we reach that point we turn away and leave them to their
peril to be picked up by those of some other religious
organization who have warmer hearts and longer aims of
mercy to take them in. We have come to the door, and
only in a very few instances has the door ever been opened
to admit them into Church fellowship.
OF THE CONFERENCE 1 37
Allen Jay, of Indiana : I take my stand on this ques-
tion with a great deal of hesitation as a member of the
Executive Board which has had charge of this work for a
number of years. In the last meeting in Philadelphia a
few months ago it was decided by the Board to turn this
work over to the Five Years Meeting, and I came to this
Five Years Meeting with the hope and desire that this
matter would be so interesting and the delegates so aroused
on this subject that they would appoint a Board on the
subject of the Indians, and that they would assume the
work now being carried on by the various Yearly Meet-
ings in America. But on coming here I find my Brothers
on the Business Committee, as well as others, feel as if the
Five Years Meeting is going to have more than enough to
begin with, and they do not feel that this meeting is
ready for this at the present time. And my own judg-
ment, after carefully weighing the matter, is that perhaps
we had better refer it back again to the same workers
in the various Yearly Meetings. Let them carry it for-
ward five years longer. I should, however, suggest
that our Secretary or Clerk be requested to make a very
strong Minute, if you are willing, to urge the different
Yearly Meetings to continue to pay up their proportion oi
the money, in order that we may go forward with the
work. I think it would be very discouraging if some one
should take up these Minutes and see that we dropped the
matter. That is not what we want now. We want to do
something. I hope you will do something one way or
another, but I do hope that a strong Minute of endorse-
ment will be passed by this meeting, and that the Yearly
Meetings will be encouraged to support the work actively.
You should remember there are nearly four hundred
Indians who are members of the Friends' Church.
Levi D. Barr, of California: Does the four hundred
include the Indians on the island in the Alaskan field.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : I think it does.
James Wood , of New York : I should be glad to
second any motion that Allen Jay might make indorsing
the work of the Associated Executive Committee. I think
it very proper that this consideration of the Indian work
138 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
which has been done and which is to be done should come
directly after the discussions we had this afternoon. I
want to say just one word in regard to government
schools. Our government has found that we must have
civilization ; the Indians must be educated pure and sim-
ple ; they must have a spiritual education, and so the
government has been glad to have the co-operation of
Friends, and their influence has been very great, and I
feel that for the future we have a very open door for work.
I feel, dear Friends, that we should go forward in co-ope-
rating with the government in caring for these Indians.
Cyrus Beede, of Iowa : While I acknowledge Allen
Jay is a prophet, yet, I doubt whether he is led by the
right spirit at this time. In 1871 I first worked with the
Indians, and I remained with them until 1878 continu-
ously. I visited repeatedly the wildest Indians of the
Northwest, the Apaches and the Wichitas ; also the In-
dians of the Indian Territory ; and I went and visited
these Indians after being specially warned against going
into the neighboring camps, as it would not be safe under
any circumstances to go into their camp, as they
were on the war path. I took my team that very same
night and after sundown rode twenty-five miles into the
country away from any inhabitants, and stopped at a
tent and slept in a bed with the Chief of the Coyote
Indians, after arriving there at two o'clock. I staid there
until morning, and then, after the old Quaker way, two of
the important Indians — the chief ones — went with me to
convey me to the next camp, and show me like friendly
Indians. I feel an interest in the Indians such as I feel in no
other philanthropic subject that has come before this body.
I have spent the best years of my life in this service. I was
carried out of the Indian country when it was supposed that
I would never be able to go back again, and I have lived
under a doctor's care for years suffering from malaria con-
tracted in the Indian country. I think the legislation
within the last two or three years in connection with Indian
matters has been suicidal in many instances ; not that I
would cast the least reflection on the Washington Com-
mittee ; they have done a great deal ; but I fear they have
OF THE CONFERENCE 1 39
not been as watchful at all times as they might have been
to secure the proper legislation. The Indians have been
made citizens of the United States before they were ready.
The last time I visited the Indian country I was told that
a minister had been talking to them, and he said that the
Indians should be put in deep water and should be made
to swim or drown. A law recently made by Congress
provided that the Kickapoos might sell their lands, pro-
vided they moved out of their country, so that they were
no longer residents there. They might sell their lands if
they would leave the country. They sold their lands
after moving out for a short time. One piece of land I
was sent especially to examine. There were one hundred
and sixty acres sold first to a man for $3000 — a very nice
piece of land ; finally $4500 was bid. I was asked to
examine that case and make a report. I went down there
and called for the storekeeper and asked him how much
he had sold to the heirs of a certain person ; how much
have you sold to the credit account of that land ? $3000
was the amount that was finally received for the land.
They did not know exactly how much they were going to
get. A store bill was for $2000. I asked to see the
account. I looked at the account and made a report on
the case, and requested that the money be paid to the
Indians, but not in the presence of the traders. The
orders were so given, but the payment was not so made.
One of the traders was at the bank at the time the pay-
ment was made, and he got most of the money. The
Indians are not calculated to take care of their lands ;
they are not ready for citizenship. It means a class of
paupers on the hands of the American people for a few
years. I would be exceedingly glad if this convention
would take the work from the several Yearly Meetings
and organize a committee and take charge of this work,
and have a Washington Committee that would look after
the legislation. We do not know anything like the whole
number of cases, especially if the party in service does not
take hold of the matter and protect the Indians from the
white man who purchases their lands. A woman came to
me and said she had sold a piece of land, but instead of
140 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
putting in the amount as sixty acres that she had sold
they put it in at eight} 7 , taking twenty acres that she had
never sold, and after taking the twenty acres which she did
not sell, she said she lacked five hundred dollars of get-
ting the price she had been promised for the sixty acres,
and she did not know what to do. She could not tell
anything about it. I made inquiries about this matter.
Well, the man did not seem inclined to say much at first,
but after a while I found out he did buy the land, but the
man to whom it was deeded did not know anything about
it. The first time he knew that he owned the land was when
he was asked to deed it away. I then went to the man
who really had charge of the whole thing. Well, he said,
" It is true I kept $500 of that money, but I came by it
honestly; I kept it for my services." It would take
more time than I have to tell you all about these Indians.
Robert W. Douglas, of Indiana : We have a political
motto over in Ohio, it is " Let well enough alone." The
Indian work is going on and is doing fairl} 7 well with the
present organization of the Associated Executive Com-
mittee, and I, for one, prefer that it would stay there until
the Five Years Meeting is better organized. The detail
of the work is great and it takes a great deal of thought
and organization to carry on successfully, so I doubt
the propriety of taking away this work from the Asso-
ciated Executive Committee until we are better informed
or convinced that the Five Years Meeting can manage the
matter better. I am in favor of the matter remaining
right where it is for the next five years at least.
William P. Haworth, of Kansas : I am in favor of
leaving this matter as Allen Jay suggested. There is
more than one reason why we should do so. The Five
Years Meeting is now a new organization ; if the Five
Years Meeting takes the work out of the Executive Com-
mittee's hands it will spoil some of the plans of the Phil-
adelphia Yearly Meeting, and as they are not represented
in this Meeting, we would interfere with their work. For
the next five years at least, I think it should remain
where it is.
Benjamin F. Traeblood : It has occurred to me that
OF THE CONFERENCE 141
this Five Years Meeting might adopt this Associated Com-
mittee. The matter is left in such an indefinite way that
it strikes me as being entirely competent for this Five
Years Meeting to adopt the Committee.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : If the Five Years Meeting
indorse it they will pay the same money right along and
will work just the same as they have before.
James Wood, of New York : I move that the Busi-
ness Committee be instructed to bring in a resolution pro-
viding for the continuation of this work as it is.
The motion was carried.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : I rise to say that Edward M.
Wistar advises me that the Government is going to build
Oklahoma mission at once.
The Chairman : We are now ready for the next sub-
ject, "The Present Condition of the Negroes and the
Work to be Done for Them," by John W. Woody.
John W. Woody, of North Carolina, read a paper.
THE PRESENT CONDITION OF THE NEGROES
AND THE WORK TO BE DONE
FOR THEM.
By John W. Woody.
The Negro came to this country a captive slave. It
was the only way that he could have had a part in our
early civilization. He came a pagan and a savage. His
new master cared for him, trained him to labor and taught
him the language of England and the Christian religion.
Among the slaves there were good blacksmiths,
wheelwrights, carpenters, bricklayers, cooks and trained
household servants. The slave listened to the same
preacher as his master and accepted the Christian doc-
trine as a great Divine reality. It was at once the source
of the race's comfort and hope. The paganism of the
fathers was given up and the Negro in America has never
ceased to believe in the Gospel of the universal brother-
hood of man. The other day a minister, speaking to his
people of the family of God, said in the full hopefulness
of the dark race, " The adoption into the family of God
142 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
is our only road to a better civilization. Politics will not
save us, God alone can do it. The black man is a
brutal savage in Africa to-day because God is not in his
civilization."
The slave was trained in accordance with the labor
in which he was to serve. Hence, in the cotton, rice and
sugar growing sections where the Negroes were thrown
together in large gangs under an overseer, and therefore
brought into but little contact with the white race, there
was small evidence of an improved civilization, and hence
the higher and lower classes of Negroes so marked in the
South to-day. When freedom came, the American Negro
was not pagan but Christian, and speaking the language
of the highest Christian civilization. They had the spirit
of obedience and faithfulness in industry. Many were
skilled workmen and finely trained domestics, with almost
no one gifted with the elements of wise leadership.
Through generations of slavery the average Negro had
simply learned to obey, with almost no thought of respon-
sibility, not even of his own children. Almost no indi-
viduality, no self-reliance or power of self-supervision,
and but little independence of purpose. Such was the
Negro when the rights and responsibilities of freedom
came. Such was the colored race in America when it
passed from the protection and training of the old master
to begin a new era and to make for itself an epoch of his-
tory under new relations in the midst of friends and ene-
mies and many sore temptations.
During the thirty-nine years of freedom the colored
people have made commendable progress, not all that
some of their friends expected. Few understood the
Negro thirty-nine years ago as we know him now. At
first the effort was to train a generation of freemen for
good citizenship, but before the first generation was
trained another was on hand with much the same needs
and characteristics as the first.
It now becomes apparent that Christian and patriotic
duty is not simply the education and training of a body
of liberated slaves, but the problem of the training and
development of a race numbered by its millions and in
OF THE CONFERENCE 143
the very childhood of its history. Millions in America
and many more millions of savage pagan brothers in
Africa. All to be under the training hand of God by any
peoples, forces or environments that our Lord shall choose
to use.
Very early in our Church history God gave us an
interest in this people. It could hardly have been other-
wise. A cardinal principle of Quakerism is the universal
brotherhood of man. That is what our thee and thou
stand for, if for anything. George Fox, in an exhortation
to his followers, said, " Let your light shine among the
Indians, the blacks and the whites, that you may bring
them to Jesus Christ." John Woolman gave his life in
behalf of mercy and freedom. The Quakers were among
the first for the abolition of slavery, and when freedom
came they were early on the field to take up the work of
training. Now the standard of Quakerism is set up in
the center of the Dark Continent and in other places of
benighted wretchedness. Thus, with the multiplicity of
our numbers and the increased abundance of our resources,
God has enlarged the hearts of our membership, widened
our vision of the world's needs and added to our oppor-
tunities for helpfulness.
What part the Christianized Negro in America is to
have in the salvation of his pagan brother in Africa does
not yet appear. In due time God's wise economy will be
shown. Thus far the Anglo-Saxon seems to be the
appointed missionary and trainer for the dark race ; not,
of necessity, because he is white, or because he is of Saxon
blood, but the more because of the centuries of discipline
the Saxon has undergone. The Anglo-Saxon himself is
much the better disciplinarian to-day because of his two
or three centuries of training under the Norman-French.
There are a number of excellent teachers and leaders
among the colored people, some capable disciplinarians,
but, as a rule, they have been trained by white teachers.
At least for a time, the best results may be expected
where there is co-operative effort and white supervision.
The Negro still needs the help of his white Christian
brother. But this aid should be given in the way of a
144 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
reinforcement rather than as a free donation. The Negro
is as easily spoiled by beneficiary aid, unwisely applied,
as members of the white race. As a rule the individual
Southern Negro is weak in the points of self-supervision
and self-help, personal responsibility and look-a-headitive-
ness. He is dependent on the white race to supervise him
in his labor, help him in his thinking and planning and
carry his responsibilities, and he generally uses the bird
in hand and does not trouble himself about the one
in the bush. Because of these slavery-begotten weak-
nesses the dark skin stands for shiftlessness and reckless
indolence. To reach the race in these points of weakness
and thus aid in its substantial development, efforts of great
fruitfulness are being made in four different lines : —
First, The improvement of the home. The home is
the measure and the basis of a people's civilization. Many
of the colored people have substantial and well-kept
homes of their own in which live intelligent, industrious
and well ordered families, but in most parts these people
have not come very far from the windowless one-roomed
cabin of slavery days. While thus huddled together in
large families there can be little hope of a better social
life. Where the environments are encouraging they soon
work their way out of these miserable rented cabins by
securing homes of their own, often beginning with a
house with one room and a loft, then adding other rooms,
a barn with a well-kept cow, the dogs swapped off for a
pig, a neat garden with fruit trees growing in all the spare
corners of the lot. Here is hope for the race, and all
from the help and encouragement of some one who has
been trained for better life and better living.
Now is the opportunity for the colored people South
to secure homes while land is cheap and many of the
white families are leaving the farms and moving to the
factory towns. The owning of a home, however small,
is a great remedy against idleness, and the essential to
best citizenship. It is very encouraging to notice the
spirit of contented thrift that comes to a colored family
with the possession of a home, a chance to work for
themselves.
OF THE CONFERENCE 145
But a short time since I went to employ the services
of an old former slave who has secured him a home of
five acres. I found him alone in his field using his leis-
ure time digging up the stumps — a rare sight even among
the enterprising white men of our State.
Next to the home as a means for elevation of the
colored people are the school and the church.
The school teacher and the minister are the principal
means through which the home life and social life of these
people are to be reached. They have the confidence of
their people and are their natural leaders. In the better
training, reinforcement and wise siipervision of these is to
be found the key to the solution of the race problem.
The teacher of the colored people should have the
spirit and preparation of a practical missionary. In addi-
tion to the work in the school room the teacher's influ-
ence should touch the homes of the patrons. Instruction
and encouragement are much needed in the matters of
farming and gardening, poultry raising, caring for cows,
making butter, cooking, housekeeping and the training of
the children in the home.
Who can better meet these needs than the school
teacher, well prepared by an ample course of literary and
industrial training ? Here a large opportunity is open to
the Friends' Church whereby it may exercise its philan-
thropy and patriotism by reinforcing the efforts now being
made to prepare teachers for these rural districts among
the colored people, and to follow up these teachers by
necessary aid and supervision.
The part of Quakerism in the building of our nation
has been to labor for the development of the country's
best forces and for the extension and improvement of her
citizenship, rather than to do service in her armies. By
our exemption from military service our resources have
been augmented, our opportunities for philanthropic ser-
vice for the country have been enlarged and our responsi-
bilities for our nation's standard of civilization and stand-
ard of citizenship have been increased.
The wise distribution of funds by the reinforcement
and co-operative method has been, successfully illustrated
146 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
by the Trustees of the Peabody Fund, as applied to many
of the higher grade schools for both races.
A few years since a number of the best colored people
of Winston-Salem, wishing to have better advantages for
the normal and industrial training of their people, secured
the aid and co-operation of a number of substantial busi-
ness men and prominent church men of the white race.
Reinforced by funds from the white people and directed
by the supervision of these experienced white business
men and an efficient and well trained colored principal,
they opened their school. Being further reinforced by
the Peabody Fund, the State and other sources, the
Slater Industrial and State Normal School is doing excel-
lent work in the midst of a school settlement of some
fifty thrifty and well regulated homes of colored people.
The civil officer has never 3^et made an arrest on the
Slater Heights.
A few days since a visiting member of the State
Board, in his talk before the school, made the statement,
1st, That in the Slater School was being realized his ideal
of what a colored school should be and what he himselt
had long worked for but had not been able to reach, and
2d, That the school is what it is because that from the
first it has had the reinforcement and supervision of the
best white business men of the community.
The Normal and Industrial School at High Point is
an illustration of what the New York Friends have
accomplished by the same method. As the Friends' Col-
ored School has been built up at High Point, and as the
Slater Normal and Industrial School has been built up
for the colored people at Winston-Salem, so in most parts
of the South the rural schools of both races may be reor-
ganized and very materially improved by wisely applied
aid and efficient supervision.
The subject of the white rural schools enters the race
problem. The race prejudice in the South is almost
entirely among the illiterate poor of both classes and the
small politician. What is needed then is a kind of Pea-
body Fund for the rural schools of the South and another
Dr. Curry, who shall .visit some of these rural districts
OF THE CONFERENCE 1 47
with his encouraging suggestions, wise reinforcements
and efficient supervision.
Should not Quakerism supply this fund and this
agent for its distribution ?
The colored people believe in their churches and
their ministers. Their meeting houses show more thrift
than their homes. In the rural districts they often appear
as well as the church buildings for the whites. The hope
of the race is their confidence in God. Their standard of
religion may not be so high as that of some, but their
zeal keeps about as well up to their knowledge as that of
any other church people. They believe in their Bible and
read it in place of fiction. They know more about the
Bible than almost any other book, yet, as it is with some
of us, some of their ministers are hurtfully deficient in
the knowledge of the Bible and Bible history.
The Negroes make good Methodists, good Baptists,
good Episcopalians, good Presbyterians and good Congre-
gationalists, and there is material among them to make
substantial Quakers. And the religious thought of the
race needs the quiet and substantial influence of Quaker-
ism, taught through Bible Institutes for their teachers and
ministers, by Bible and Normal classes maintained in our
colored schools or by the organization and supervision of
churches among the colored people. Perhaps by all these
means the colored race should be brought into contact
with the doctrines and practices of the Friends' Church.
Next to the family, the school and the church, the
industrial problem touches the race question of the South.
The most healthy industrial condition is that in which
each one can pursue the occupation of his choice. Under
the environments of the South, fortunately or unfortu-
nately, the choice of the Negro must for a time be lim-
ited. In their present weakness of individuality the
tendency of the race is to collect together in the towns
and about places of public works to take any job that
luck may give them , part of the time to be employed and
part to be idle, with no settled occupation and no definite
purpose in life, not working at any one thing long enough
to become efficient in any line of labor. Among this
148 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
company are young men and girls who have come from
poorly governed homes. Many of these drift into idle
habits and into trouble, and finally into houses of correc-
tion, or into the convict gang on the roads where they
receive their first lessons of real industrial training. Is
it any wonder that those accustomed to see these dark
rabbles are ready to disfranchise them ? But there is
another side to the picture. There was a colored woman
who came with her son and lived with a white widow who
was once her mistress. This boy grew up under the dis-
cipline of his colored mother reinforced by the discipline
of the white lady at whose home the mother of the boy
lived. The boy was trained to work and given some edu-
cation. Three years ago he came to the Slater School ;
we found him reliable and used him in responsible tasks.
This summer vacation he had charge of the school dairy,
did the milking, drove the dairy wagon, made collection
and rendered his weekly reports — all satisfactory. What
is the difference between this boy and the one in the chain
gang ? certainby not blood. One was disciplined and
trained to work , given responsibility and kept busy doing
something useful ; the other was not. One is respected
by all who know him, the other is not. Thrift and intel-
ligence always command respect. When the black skin
comes to stand for these, race prejudice will retire. This
trained young man is a type of the coming Negro, and
his thrift and intelligence will admit him to respectable
citizenship. None will object to his franchise except it
be the ignorant rabble or the little irresponsible politician .
The present educational movement through the South
means a new era for the colored race, an era of better
homes and better home discipline, an era of intelligent
thrift, when the colored people shall live more in their
own houses and be efficient in settled lines of industry, an
era of stronger individuality, better self-supervision,
greater foresight, and in every way better citizens. Yes,
the Negro has a future of hope, and Quakerism is still to
have a part in his training and his encouragement.
OF THE CONFERENCE I 49
The Chairman : The discussion is to be opened by
Allen C. Thomas.
Allen C. Thomas, of Baltimore: I think we can all
agree that schools and colleges are very important. My
thoughts turn to some different aspects of this subject,
the present condition of the Negro. I had the privilege
of staying in England three months this past summer. II
I was asked once, I was asked twenty times, ' ' What about
the treatment of the Negro in America ?" I need hardly
say that I blushed for my country, and perhaps for our
Society of Friends, whenever this question was asked. I
could say little on the subject. What are we doing as
the Society of Friends ? We are doing a great deal from
one point of view, as we have heard, and I am very sure
we will all say, "God speed the work." But there is
another thing which the Negro needs, and that is Justice.
I sat in a window of a hotel in Oxford, England, looking at
the beautiful memorial to the martyrs, Ridley and Fatimer,
who were burned at the stake because of their religious
opinions. While sitting there I saw several American
tourists standing before that column who were evidently
speaking of the suffering of the martyrs and the great in-
justice they had received, and the thought struck me, " I
wonder if they ever stop to think that in our free America
nearly every month in the year some one is burned at the
stake?" There is this great difference, however ; Ridley
and Latimer had at least a show of a trial, and had an
opportunity to give some words of defence, while not one,
I think I can safely say, of those who are burned at the
stake in America have a chance to say anything in self-
defence. As citizens of America and as members of the
Society of Friends in America we ought to take some
official action on this great matter. I do not know that I
can suggest anything better than that the Business Com-
mittee should be asked to present a series of resolutions
on this subject, and in regard to lynching. I know it has
been said, and I have heard it said, that nothing but lynch-
ing will produce the desired effect on the Negro. I do
not care whether this is so or not. Everyone should at
least have a trial. Matters of this kind are either right or
150 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
wrong ; if they are wrong we should do our best to stop
them, and I hope this Five Years Meeting will see its way-
clear to issue a series of resolutions in regard to lynching,
and in regard to securing justice for all men, whatever
may be the color of their skin.
A Delegate : Are we to understand that a Negro
every day is burned at the stake ?
James Wood, of New York : I think that is not far
out of the way, but that statement was not made. It
was said one Negro per month ; some one else suggested
one per day ; but I think the one per day is more nearly
correct. There are two reports from Texas, one for yester-
day and two for the day before. These would last for
three months. In connection with this thought of lynch-
ing, I have always thought,
" Oh wad sonie power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us.''
Do you know that the people of England regard lynching
in America as the blackest thing upon this earth to-day.
It is looked upon as a deeper d} r e of iniquity than anything
else that takes place on earth. I wish to say a word on
the paper read b}^ Professor Woody. It was an exceed-
ingly able paper, and was true and just in its statements.
I trust a way may be found for its speed}' publication,
because it gives more light upon this subject than any
paper I have yet seen. And when we consider these
questions are being developed in the South as they have
never been before ; when we consider the great ability of
some of the men at the head of the institutions there, that
the fact that out of the five most intelligent men in
America one is a Negro, and this one man is Booker T.
Washington.
Richard H. Thomas, of Baltimore : I move that this
question be referred to the Business Committee, with the
request that they bring up a strong resolution on the sub-
ject and present it to us.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : I hope this will not
be confined to lynching: the Nesro. There have been a
of the; conference 151
great many white men lynched. Let us strike at this
miserable, barbarous practice of lynching any one.
John W. Woody, of North Carolina : The resolution is
a good one, and I hope to tell the people that this conven-
tion, this Five Years Meeting, would take up this work
for the colored race in some associated way, because we
are not doing our part. We have an opportunity now to
show that we are patriots, that we are philanthropists
and that we are willing to do our part, and now that
the race is free, we are willing to help bring them up
to a plane of respectable citizenship. The Negroes in
the South, so far as I am acquainted with the question,
accept the situation, and go to work to prepare them-
selves for the battle with the determination that when
:he proper time comes they will vote. They are looking to
get public sentiment, and will work out their own salva-
tion. I heard a colored man say, " We are not especially
interested in suffrage ; we do not want social equality ;
vie want civil rights — that is what we want."
We have our Boards in all great works. Are you
going to switch around the Indian ? Are you going to
swtch around the Negro ? We have an Evangelistic
Beard and other Boards ; what are we going to do ? I had
hojed that the Negroes and Indians might be put some-
where together. If we do not help these people we shall
have a blot on our history from the days of the Civil War
on cown. We have helped to free him, but if that is all
we ire going to do we have not done very much for him.
The Negro should vote. The best people of the South
have made up their minds the Negro must be helped.
The ^norant rabble of the South is the element that does
the lynching. What shall this Five Years Meeting do
on thi subject?
Rifus M. Jones, of New England : I would amend
the mcion by adding that some definite plan of action
shouldbe proposed, if any opens therefor.
Tfr motion was carried by a unanimous vote. Then
adjournd.
152 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
FIFTH-DAY MORNING TENTH MONTH 23, 1902.
The Devotional exercises were led by Esther H. But-
ler, of Ohio, who also offered prayer ; as also did William
P. Haworth, of Kansas. The hymn, "Fill me now,"
was sung.
The Clerk : The Recording Clerk will now read the
Minutes of the sessions of yesterday.
The Minutes were read and approved.
A Delegate : The proposition of Rufus M. Jones in
regard to the Uniform Discipline as well as a Uniform
Record Book, I believe he said both were provided for in
the Discipline. The Minute in regard to the blanks was
omitted this morning.
Francis W. Thomas, of Indiana : I would like to ask
that the Minute in regard to the Indian work be read
again. I did not understand it as it was given.
(The Minute was read again.)
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : I thick
there is a very serious misunderstanding of the matter.
My understanding was that the Five Years Meeting should
take up this work and conduct it as they thought best.
James Wood, of New York : The record of the Clerk
is correct.
The Clerk : I think Benjamin F. Trueblood strted
it correctly.
Allen Jay, of Western : My understanding of the
matter was that the Five Years Meeting indorse the vork
and also recommend that it be continued under the same
organization as heretofore, and that the Yearly Meetings
should be asked to make the same appropriation;, and
that the Committee should report to this Five YearsMeet-
ing five years hence. We do not assume the rnone^ mat-
ters, but we assume the work; that is, the Five Years
Meeting adopt the same work.
James Wood, of New York : The conception; of the
idea seem to vary very much, but Allen Jay is comet, and
probably that was the understanding of the meetiig when
they voted upon the question. We asked them fr unan-
imous consent so as to include the intention of themeeting
OF THE CONFERENCE 1 53
when they voted on the record. If consent is granted
it will undoubtedly meet the purpose the meeting had in
view when they voted upon the resolution. I therefore
move unanimous consent be given.
Samuel L. Haworth, of Iowa : Will you please state
to the meeting what the amendment is ?
Allen Jay, of Indiana : Just a little word of explana-
tion. My opinion is that this Five Years Meeting is not
yet ready to meet the expenses of carrying on this great
work , and as the work is already organized, and as the
present committees of the different Yearly Meetings are
very anxious that this meeting indorse the work, my
proposition is that the Five Years Meeting here now in-
dorse the work as carried on by the Associated Executive
Committee of the different Yearly Meetings, and recom-
mend it to report to this Five Years Meeting, and that the
Yearly Meetings be requested to go forward and pay their
share the same as before. Some of the Yearly Meetings
will take more interest in the work if it is indorsed by the
Five Years Meeting. The Yearly Meetings will continue
to pay the expenses, and the Committee will report to the
Yearly Meetings just as they have been doing, and also
report to the Five Years Meeting.
Ellwood O. Ellis, of Indiana : The Business Commit-
tee knows the sense of the meeting and let them act ac-
cordingly.
Clerk : We were to have a report from the dele-
gations in regard to the appointment of members to con-
stitute our various Boards. The proposition for the ap-
pointment of the different Boards at this time was made
with this thought in view, that the members who would
constitute these Boards would be benefited by an early
appointment. They would, because of their appointment,
keep in touch with the discussions of the sessions and the
presentation of the particular subjects in which they are
interested. This report, according to program, should
come in the afternoon session ; and in all probability the
members of the several Boards have been selected and
notified of their appointment. Is the meeting willing to
pass the reading of the reports from the delegates until
154 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
the time provided in the program, that we may give full
time to the discussion this morning ?
(Consent.)
Clerk : There are only six of these reports on the
table at the present time.
Thomas C. Brown, of Western: Western Yearly Meet-
ing Delegates have discovered a mistake and would like
the privilege of withdrawing for a minute to correct it.
L,evi D. Barr, of California : The Chairman is to hand
these to the Clerk, and when he has all of them he is to
announce it to the meeting.
The Clerk : The Clerks would like to have a lit-
tle time to look over these reports and arrange them. By
the time we are through with the first subject they will be
ready, and the Clerk will present them.
Robert E. Pretlow, of Wilmington : We noticed yes-
terday that there was often great delay in the delegates
taking their places after the recess, and they were very
tardy in coming to recognize that in our discussions we
had only five minutes each, that our delegates were of the
opinion that our presiding officer needed a reminder, and
the delegates went out this morning and provided them-
selves with a gavel to present to the presiding officer for
use during the sessions of this Five Years Meeting. After
having secured this we came in possession then, through
the kindness of Charles E. Newlin, of a smaller one 01
historic value. The mallet of this gavel was made out of
the sill of the Old Lick Branch Church, the first church
of any denomination ever built within the limits of this
county. The handle was made out of the gallery hand-rail
on which the hands of the venerable Benjamin Seebohm and
many others of the sages rested as they proclaimed the
everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ. On behalf of Charles
E. Newlin and the Wilmington delegation I take great
pleasure in presenting to the presiding officer these gavels
for use during the sessions.
The Clerk : We accept these gavels with thanks
to the donors. They will find a place in the conduct of
this Five Years Meeting. The little one will be called
OF THE CONFERENCE 155
into service on ordinary occasions, and the larger one in
times of great disturbance.
The Business Committee has limited the time of papers
to twenty minutes. Ten minutes will be given to the per-
son that follows as the first speaker, and five minutes for
the speeches in general discussion.
We are now ready to take up the subject assigned
for this morning, ' ' The Present Condition of the Foreign
Missionary Work of American Friends." The subject
will be presented by Mahalah Jay, of Indiana.
Zenas D- Martin, of Iowa : As the paper is too long
to render in the time allotted she may have the time
alloted to me, the second speaker, thus giving her thirty
minutes time.
PRESENT CONDITION OF THE FOREIGN MIS-
SIONARY WORK OF AMERICAN FRIENDS.
By Mahaeah jay.
Foreign Mission work in the form now exemplified in all
the Yearly Meetings, of locating missionaries in foreign
fields to reside among the people and teach them, is a
thing of but a few years' trial by American Friends.
Indiana Yearly Meeting was the first to establish such
work. Samuel A. Purdie and wife, first of this class of
missionaries, entered Mexico in 1871, scarcely thirty-one
years ago. They began work at Matamoras, in the State
of Tamaulipas. The work of this Yearly Meeting in
Mexico has been nearly all within this State, and has been
conducted mainly on three lines — the press, the school
and the church. A religious monthly paper was started
in 1872, and is still issued from the mission press. It
goes, in small numbers, to every Spanish-speaking coun-
try on the globe, including all important Spanish-speaking
islands. School books and other books and tracts in
large numbers have been prepared or translated, and
printed at the mission and circulated among the people —
some years as many as a million pages. It still is a very
effective arm of the service, though less of this work is
now done. Last year 270,000 pages only were issued.
156 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Schools were started from the first in a small way ;
the girls' school, later known as Hussey Institute, at
Matamoras, has been continuous for twenty-nine years.
Preparations are now being made in Victoria for a school
of higher grade and a Bible Institute for young men. A
building is provided, a qualified northern teacher is on the
ground, and the school opens this fall.
The Gospel preached with power has won many to
Christ lin the years since the founding of the mission.
Meetings have been gathered in many places. Seven
monthly meetings have been set up. Six Mexicans of in-
telligence and filled with the Holy Spirit have been re-
corded Ministers of the Friends' Church. These all con-
tinued faithful ; some have finished their work on earth,
others labor on. Other preachers and exhorters are rec-
ognized workers in the mission. The church member-
ship within reach of Friends' meetings now is less than
five hundred.
The mission has three buildings at Matamoras — a
church, a school-building, and Hussey Institute ; cost of
this property, $10,000. At Victoria there is the printing
establishment and missionaries' home, a building for the
Young Men's School, and a meeting-house not yet com-
pleted ; estimated cost of all these, $10,000 more. Six
missionaries from the United States are now in the field.
About $7,200 have been raised in Indiana Yearly Meeting
the past year for foreign missions.
IOWA YEARLY MEETING.
Iowa Yearly Meeting began missionary work in the
island of Jamaica, West Indies, in 18S3. Its work is
among two distinct classes of people — the colored popula-
tion born upon the island and the coolies, or people from the
West Indies and their children, brought there as laborers.
These last especially are strictly heathen people. The
work has expanded from year to year till now they report
thirteen missionaries in the field at three principal stations
with ten out-stations, three churches, five hundred and
thirty church members, and an average attendance at all
OF THE CONFERENCE 1 57
their places of worship of seven hundred and eighty per-
sons each Sabbath. This mission has a well-established
training-home for girls and is opening such a home for
boys, and there is a large number of day-scholars under
its care. Seventeen buildings belong to the mission, viz. :
— Bight meeting-houses, four school-houses, three mis-
sion homes and the two training homes. The value of all
this property is reckoned to be $16,000. The mission
is in good condition and the prospects encouraging. The
interest in the work is increasing in Iowa Yearly Meeting.
It reports $5,700 raised this year for foreign missions.
PHILADELPHIA FRIENDS.
Next in the order of time was the establishing of
Friends' mission in Tokio, Japan, in 1S85, by the
Woman's Foreign Missionary Association of Friends of
Philadelphia. They have five foreign missionaries in
Tokio at this time and two at an out-station supported by
another Board. The mission is provided with good
buildings for the meeting and the school, and the homes
of the missionaries, which have cost $15,189, and this
year a property has been purchased for $1,200 at Mito, an
important sub-station of the mission. Mary Morton
Haines, who herself was for some years a missionary in
Tokio, writes :
The Foreign Missionary Association of Friends of
Philadelphia is thankful to report much blessing to have
rested on the work in Japan during the past five years.
Although crippled by the loss of our faithful pioneer
missionaries, Joseph Cosand and his wife, the work so
well started by them has, in the main, been carried on by
those who have succeeded them.
At the main station under our care in Tokio the mis-
sion force, consisting of Gilbert and Minnie Pickett
Bowles, Mary A. Gundry and Edith Dillon, were rejoiced
early in last summer to welcome Sarah Ellis, who went to
aid in the work of the Girls' School, and, as way opened,
in the general work of the mission. Gilbert and Minnie
Pickett Bowles have their home in the mission residence,
which is close to the Girls' School, where a comfortable
I5§ STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
home is provided for the three foreign ladies whose work
is chiefly in the school. The number of pupils has been
larger the past year than at any time heretofore, and the
hearts of the teachers rejoice in recording fifty pupils in
average attendance, nearly all of whom are Christians.
A stone's throw from the school building, and right
on the street, stands the Meeting-house, with seating
capacity for two hundred, more or less. Over the en-
trance is a sign-board, bearing the text — John xviii. 3 —
" This is Life Eternal, that they might know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent."
It is a silent witness for the truth. A remarkable instance
lately came to the notice of our workers of the conversion,
through reading this text as he passed daily, of a dissolute
man. Now rejoicing in his Saviour, and desiring to serve
Him, he is endeavoring to earn a little money to buy
ground and put up a sign-board containing some of the
Gospel truths so precious to him. This he wishes to
place near the railroad between Tokio and Yokohama,
where many will read the Words of Life.
The chief out-station in connection with Friends'
work in Japan is Mito, under the care of the Woman's
Foreign Missionary Society of Canada Yearly Meeting .
At Tsuchiura the Meeting and First-day School are
kept up by resident native Christians, encouraged by
visits from the members, Japanese and foreign, of the
Evangelistic Committee.
At Ishioka an earnest and gifted Japanese evangelist
is in charge of the work. He wrote some months ago :
" Christian work seems pretty difficult, yet by and by their
attention is coming toward Christianity I believe. I am
praying to the Lord to get His preaching power at present
and in future."
Since the disorganization of the Society of Friends in
1894 occasioned by the National vs. the Quaker element
at the time of the Chinese and Japanese War,!the mission-
aries have not seen their way clear to reorganize nnder the
name of Friends ; but the church work is carried on under
the care of an Executive Committee composed of Japa-
nese — w T ho are, in belief and practice, true Friends — and
OF THE CONFERENCE 159
some of the missionaries. With this organization there
have been no appointments as ministers made, though the
several evangelists working with us have proven them-
selves true Gospel ministers, and others often take part
acceptably in the meetings.
Tract distributing, translation and publication of
books (Life of Stephen Grellet ; of Elizabeth Fry ; of
George Fox; Offices of Holy Spirit by Dr. Dougan Clark,
etc.) classes for young men in English and the Bible;
cooking and Bible classes for the women, and Bible
Women's house to house visiting, in addition to the regu-
lar meetings and First-day School work, and the Girls'
Boarding School, have been means to the great end of
bringing souls to Christ in the Sunrise Kingdom.
KANSAS YEARLY MEETING.
The Foreign Mission Board of Kansas Yearly Meet-
ing furnished the following account of their mission.
Their work is among the Indians of Douglas Island,
Alaska, and vicinity, less than one thousand in number.
They report two hundred church members, an average
attendance at meeting of one hundred and twenty-five, and
two hundred in the Sabbath school. The mission reaches
the white settlers as well as the Indians. This Yearly
Meeting raised $1,039 for foreign missions this year.
REPORT.
The Friends' Mission at Douglas Island, Alaska,
which is owned and managed by the Friends' Mission
Board of Kansas Yearly Meeting, was founded in 1887.
The following buildings are at this station : The Mission
dwelling-home, value, $1,200; church building, value,
$1,800; old school-house, value, $300; native school-
house on the beach, value, $200 ; total, $3,500.
There is also at the sub-station of Takou one log cabin
and a new tent. Church services and Sabbath-schools are
held at Douglas for both whites and natives, and a day
school has been taught by a missionary teacher about
seven months in the year for several years. A missionary
holds meetings and preaches to, and teaches the natives at
l6o STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Takou. There are four missionaries maintained at Doug-
las, and much assistance has been given at Takou harbor.
About $1,400 annually is expended at these stations by
Kansas Yearly Meeting.
NEW ENGLAND YEAREY MEETING.
New England Yearly Meeting, after contributing to
the work of English Friends in Syria for several years, in
1888, took separate charge of the mission in Palestine, at
Ramallah, situated a few miles north of Jerusalem,. Be-
sides its distinctively Gospel work, its main features have
been its medical work which reached from its dispensary,
!!335 patients the last year; and its training-home and
school for girls, now having thirty-four inmates, both of
which have been ably managed or assisted by educated
native workers , and its seven day-schools in neighboring
districts, these having an average aggregate attendance
this year of one hundred and fifty pupils. Thirty. six
church members, one hundred and fifty adherents, an aver-
age attendance of one hundred and twenty-five at meetings
for worship, six Sabbath- schools with one hundred and fifty
scholars are reported this year, and $6,499 raised in the
yearly meeting for foreign missions. Four acres of land
are held by a clear title from the Turkish government,
upon which as the work has broadened, in addition to the
mission home, a laundty building has been erected, walls
built, stone walks laid, two large cisterns dug, and in 1897
a large addition built to the home at a cost of $6,000, mak-
ing the whole plant valued at $25,000. East year an im-
portant and much needed training-home for boys was
opened. Applications were far in excess of accommoda-
tions, even though a nominal fee was demanded toward
the cost of training. There are now eighteen carefully
selected bright, active boys in this home. Both girls and
boys in these homes are trained in industrial pursuits, in
addition to their school studies and daily instruction in
the Bible.
WESTERN YEAREY MEETING.
Western Yearly Meeting, after assisting Indiana
Yearly Meeting for several years, in 1889 established a
OF THE CONFERENCE l6l
mission of its own at Matehuala, in the neighboring Mexi-
can State of San Luis Potosi. The mission now has three
principal stations, seven foreign missionaries and a num-
ber of native helpers. They report four established
churches and a church membership of one hundred and
fifty-eight, one hundred and thirty-nine pupils in schools,
and $4,668 raised in the Yearly Meeting the last year for
foreign missions. One Quarterly Meeting of this Yearly
Meeting supports two missionaries — husband and wife — at
Johannesburg, South iVfrica.
The following account of their Mexican mission is
presented by a member of their Foreign Mission Board.
Western Yearly Meeting has an established mission
at Matehuala, Mexico ; owns the mission property^ which
is used for home for missionaries, school and printing de-
partment ; also chapel for church services, property
valued at $7,000 ; also owns buildings at Cedral, used for
the same purpose with the addition of medical office,
property valued at $4,500.
The work was opened at Matehuala, Eleventh Month
1888 ; at Cedral later ; and the last, promising station of
Catorce Real, was opened last Fourth Month. The medi-
cal work was opened nearly two years ago, and has made
rapid progress in preparing the way for the reception of
the Gospel. The educational and evangelistic work are
making commendable progress. Each one of the princi-
pal stations has one or more sub-stations, where the Gos-
pel is preached, and at one point, La Paz, a church and
school was organized. The work is being extended into
many parts of the field, by preaching, distributing liter-
ature, and the entrance of the Bible itself. A printing
press is owned by E- M. Sein, one of our missionaries,
who publishes a paper called El Catolico Convertido, which
has a large circulation, and is a means blessed of God in
teaching truths, and disclosing the errors of Romanism.
Our schools are taught by faithful, conscientious teachers,
and are doing satisfactory work. There is increasing de-
sire on the part of the people for the privilege of sending
their children to our schools. The wide range covered by
the medical work, bringing numbers under the influence
1 62 • STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
of the Gospel, the number of young men who have come
to learn the " Way of Life," the financial aid given by the
native church in meeting current expenses, and also in
relief of needs surrounding it, are tokens of increased
interest and life — all due to the blessing of the Lord upon
every effort put forth in His name. To Him be all the
praise !
OHIO YEARLY MEETING.
Ohio Yearly Meeting dates the founding of its China
mission 1890, though its pioneer missionary, Esther But-
ler, had been in the country learning the language and
the conditions for missionary work in the mission of
another denomination three years before. This mission
has two principal stations, two churches, eighty church
members and five hundred adherents, one boarding-school
and three day-schools.
Ohio Yearly Meeting has also a successful mission in
Nowgong, Central Province of India, conducted by four
women, two supported by the Ohio Board and two sup-
ported from other sources.
The Yearly Meeting reports $11 ,000 given for foreign
missions this year, and $3,900 given outside the Yearly
Meeting; total, $14,900 for their whole foreign work, a
larger amount than usual, being increased by some special
gifts and legacies. We take the following in regard to
the China mission from Esther Butler's report on the
subject.
Friends' Foreign Missionary Society of Ohio Yearly
Meeting owns three and one-half acres of land at Nanking,
China, on which have been erected three large substantial
brick buildings, home, boarding-school and hospital.
Also there is a chapel arranged for to be built at once.
The actual outlay for land and buildings, $8,900, present
value, one-third more. The church was organized in
1892 ; the girls' boarding-school and hospital both opened
in 1896. For the years 1902 and 1903 six missionaries
are resident at this station.
Luh Hoh mission station was opened in 1898 ; the
church organized in 1900. Property owned by Society,
OF THE CONFERENCE I 63
one small lot 100 feet deep by 36 wide, on which has been
built a small semi-foreign brick house. Cost for lot and
building, $758. Estimates have passed the Board for buy-
ing land and erecting chapel and dispensary. Five mis-
sionaries resident at this station for 1902 and 1903. Four
other buildings are rented for the use of chapels, dispens-
aries and day-schools.
The work has been providentially opened and
equipped on lines that meet the three great demands of
China to-day — educational, medical and evangelistic.
All China is now asking for "Western learning," and
having finally decided that this is her need, rest assured
she will have it. Great opportunities are given us to help
in Christian education and training for the evangelization
of China by her own people.
The medical work has developed and enlarged very
much since the troubles of 1900. The five thousand who
have received medicine at the dispensaries is at the very
lowest but half the number that have heard the Gospel
through this agency. The faithfulness of the foreign phy-
sicians in staying by the people at the risk of their own
lives during the great epidemic of cholera that visited
Nanking the past summer, has been greatly appreciated
by the people, and is telling in a most fruitful way in all
the missions at that place.
The crucial tests through which China passed in 1900
and the supernatural way in which native Christians met
persecution and death, gave to the religion of Jesus Christ
a reality and power, both in the church and out, that she
had not felt or known before. The progress of Christian-
ity has been slow and very difficult, but the records of
1900 show it to have been sure. The " Son of Man has
found faith ' ' in China .
OREGON YEAREY MEETING.
Oregon Yearly Meeting's mission is on Kaak Island,
Alaska, which has a population of 400. The mission was
opened in 1894. They have now a church of fifty-four
members. They recently built a meeting-house, the
natives helping to the amount of $300 in cash and labor.
164 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
At its dedication one hundred and thirty-one natives re-
quested membership. The missionaries write: "We
think best to hold them on trial for a[ while before sending
their names in ; they are a people of such emotional
natures." The mission has a comfortable dwelling be-
sides the church building. These Indians, like nearly all
others of Alaska, spend only the winter months at their
homes on the island ; the rest of the time they employ in
hunting and fishing to make their living.
There are now three missionaries in the field most of
the year. The amount of $810 is reported raised this year
for foreign mission work by Oregon Yearly Meeting.
CALIFORNIA YEARLY MEETING.
In 1897, California Yearly Meeting opened a mission
near Kotzebue Sound, Alaska, far north, looking out
toward the Polar Sea. It has been conducted by devoted
missionaries who felt called to carry the Gospel to the few
benighted inhabitants of that frozen region, the dwindling
race of Eskimos. The population of their large field is
estimated at only about one thousand. Three mission-
aries are at the mission at present, one of them sent and
supported by another Yearly Meeting. The missionaries
report a church of one hundred and four members, and
that a much larger number usually attend the services ;
two Sabbath schools with one hundred and eighty-eight
scholars, and two other schools.
The Alaskan nature is accessible, teachable and re-
sponsive, and the outlook is encouraging. The buildings
consist of a mission home of five comfortable rooms, a
school -house, which serves on the Sabbath as well, and a
warehouse. The interest in the home land is well sus-
tained and means sufficiently supplied. The Yearly Meet-
ing raised $1,520 for foreign missions this year.
OTHER YEARLY MEETINGS.
Baltimore, New York, North Carolina, Wilmington
and Canada Yearly Meetings have not opened separate
missions, but help in one or several of those of other
Yearly Meetings. It is not that these Yearly Meetings
1
OP THE CONFERENCE 1 65
do not take equal interest in foreign missions, or are not
as able to support separate work as others, but some of
them at least have thought it a wiser policy to strengthen
existing missions with their means than to start weak
ones of their own. In most cases they do some definite
part in the missions they assist. Accordingly,
Baltimore Yearly Meeting has long aided Indiana
in the Mexican work, supporting for a time a boys' school
and at present a native evangelist. It supports a travel-
ing secretary of the Japan Scripture Union, and a girls'
day-school in connection with New England's mission in
Palestine, besides its numerous smaller or special gifts to
other work. It is a large contributor to the work of the
American Friends' Board. It reports this year $2,129 for
foreign missions.
New York Yearly Meeting's Board assists in the
work of four Yearly Meetings. At Victoria, Mexico, of the
Indiana Yearly Meeting mission, New York has a board-
ing and day-school for girls, Penn Institute, ninety pupils,
two foreign missionaries and three native teachers. It has
provided its own building for this boarding-school. The
property is valued at $3,400. New York also aids the
Ohio Board in its mission in India and supports two mis-
sionaries at L,uh Hoh, China. It supports a native evan-
gelist in Japan and two teachers of day-schools in Palestine,
Its contribution this year to foreign mission work is $4,206.
North Carolina's Foreign Mission Board directs
its efforts principally to the support of its missionary,
Annie V. Edgerton, who works in the mission of the Ohio
Board in India. She went out the last of the year 1898,
and has proved an efficient worker in caring for the thirty-
two orphans at the Nowgong orphanage, is a teacher in
day-school and Sabbath-school, visiting Zenanas and em-
bracing all opportunities to lead souls to Christ. She has
acquired the use of two of the languages of India, the
Hindi and Urdu, and thus is equipped for evangelistic
work. The North Carolina Foreign Mission Board is
credited with $605 this year for foreign missions. Indi-
viduals in the Yearly Meeting support at least four chil-
dren in India.
1 66 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Wilmington Yearly Meeting has for four years
supported a native worker in the Mexico mission of West-
ern Yearly Meeting and three years ago went out a mis-
sionary to the Kotzebue Sound mission of California
Yearly Meeting, and supports her there. They now pro-
pose to take for their chief work a station in Cuba in con-
nection with the American Friends' Board. Their receipts
this year for foreign missions are $1,192.
Canada Yearly Meeting's Foreign Mission Board
has long been interested in Japan, working with the Phil-
adelphia Board. In 1899 they assumed the support of the
station of Mito and sent out their missionaries, Gurney
and Elizabeth S. Binford, who are very industrious
workers. Their time is much occupied with Bible classes
taught in their own house. This work is largely among
students. Elizabeth Binford has mothers' meetings,
cooking classes and Bible classes for women and girls. A
native evangelist, M. Kato, a faithful worker among his
countrymen for many years, works with them. The
church gathered there numbers fifty-seven, and two Sab-
bath-schools, 211. This Yearly Meeting contributed
$1,128 this year for foreign missions.
The American Friends' Board op Foreign Mis-
sions organized in 1894 under provisions made in the
Quinquennial Conference of 1892, continued till 1900 to
discharge its functions as a bureau of information and a
medium of communication between the Boards of other
denominations and Friends. In 1900, with the authority
and instructions of seven Yearly Meetings, it made prep-
arations to take up also field work in Cuba. It followed
the plan laid down in the Uniform Discipline in its further
organization for this class of work, and is incorporated
under the laws of the State of Indiana. It appointed an
agent through whom it selected a location in the north-
eastern part of Cuba, a region destitute of missionaries
and the Gospel ; it sent out four missionaries in the fall of
1900 and has sent three since, making seven missionaries
in Cuba at the present time, and one Cuban evangelist is
working with them. They are holding two stations now;
Gibara and Holguin, and some other preaching places,
OF THE CONFERENCE I 67
with church and school and colportage work in successful
operation. A third station at Banes, the headquarters of
the United Fruit Company, has the buildings ready for
occupancy this winter, and the arrangements are made, in
part, for building at Tanamo Bay, the headquarters of the
Cuba Fruit Company, with the expectation of opening a
mission station there within the next year. The Board
has had four buildings erected, two homes for missiona-
ries and two meeting-houses, at a cost of $6,500, includ-
ing cost of lot at Gibara. The work at Holguin is carried
on in rented property. The receipts of this Board from
appropriations of the Yearly Meetings and of other
Boards, and from donations, bequests and other sourses,
are between $6,000 and $7,000 this year; the total re-
ceipts since beginning the work in Cuba are about
$14,000. All the American Yearly Meetings, except
Philadelphia and Canada, have fallen in line with the plan
of the Board and grant it appropriations for the expenses
of administration, etc., and are thus virtually united in
the work.
The Friends' Africa Industrial Mission for which
funds have been solicited in most of the Yearly Meetings,
obtained the amount deemed necessary to make a start. A
Board was organized to aid in carrying on its work com-
posed of two members from each of ten of the American
Yearly Meetings, and incorporated under the laws of the
State of Ohio. It sent out its three pioneer missionaries
last Fourth Month. After reaching the region in which
they expected to locate, they spent something over a month
in selecting the site for the mission, and at length settled
on a location some twenty miles or so northeast from the
present western terminus of the railroad from Mombasa
on the east coast, in British East Africa, near Lake Vic-
toria Nyanza, among the Kavirondo people, supposed to
number one million— an unclothed but industrious tribe,
who now welcome the coming of the missionaries. The
location chosen— post-office address, Kisumu— is consid-
ered healthful and very satisfactory. The altitude is be-
tween five and six thousand feet, on the banks of a beauti-
ful river with waterfalls close by that can be utilized for
1 68 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
power, and several springs of the best water to use for
household purposes. A mile square has been selected of
the most fertile soil with excellent timber in a dense forest
near by. Altogether the prospects are very encouraging.
This year $3,173 dollars have been contributed for this
work, and a total of $8,724.78 have been received by the
treasurer of the Board during the time that this work has
been before our people.
Elsewhere, in the missions of other denominations,
under the Christian Alliance, under independent Boards,
or independent of any Board, a considerable number of
our members are working in foreign fields.
We see from the foregoing sketch that in all the
American Yearly Meetings Friends are engaged in foreign
mission work, and that their work is in nine widely sepa-
rated countries. The interest is deep with a part of our
membership, but many are not awakened on the subject.
The aggregate amount of contributions reported this year
for foreign missions is $55,000, a creditable sum, do we
think, for a Church of less than one hundred thousand
members ? Yet it is not all we are able to do in fulfilling
the great mission of the Church. Not half the purses of
our membership were reached in collecting this fund.
These problems are before us : How Our Church
Shall Come to Do Its Whole Duty, Its Full Obedience to
Our Lord's Command to " Disciple All Nations " ; How
We May Strengthen the Long Line of Missions We Have
Laid ; How We May Guard Against Future Unwarrant-
able Expansion ; How We May Gain the Strength of
Union of Effort without Weakening the Sympathy and
Individual Interest that Foster Our Missions in their
Separate State. Machine work is cold and, even with
money provided, will fail ; we need heart in it for whole-
some warmth in foreign mission work. May the Lord
teach us how to solve the problems before us.
Mary C. Woody, of North Carolina : I feel as if we
ought to stop a moment for thanksgiving at the array of
interesting facts before us. Let us pray.
OF THE CONFERENCE I 69
Lewis E. Stout, of Western : I do not know how
many returned missionaries there may be in this Five
Years Meeting, but there is a feeling from some of us that
we want to hear from Esther Butler. I move that she be
invited to speak ten minutes at this time.
The motion was taken by consent.
Esther H. Butler, of Ohio : I am glad I am with you
to-day. I have been saying as I hear these different
opinions that I am glad there is nothing limited about
the Gospel. It is an uttermost salvation, and it is an
uttermost opportunity and time for us here assembled. I
cannot speak for every country but I have a message
from China this morning, and what I will say of it may
be said of a great many of our heathen lands, that they
are ready for the Gospel.
The signs of the times announce that the Lord's
coming draweth near, and it is a time for the Church to
do what she is to do and do it quickly, and for every man
that has the privilege of being in heathen lands to-day,
whether you be there as a visitor or a worker, there is
one thing that immediately impresses you, and that is the
special loving touch and the special workings of the Holy
Spirit, and not only through the agencies of humanity,
but directly sent here and there by taking up things that
we least would have thought that he would have taken
to advance the work. There are going through China
to-day a class of workers spreading the Gospel to the
very farthest side of the empire ; the very last agency
that any of you or us would ever have thought of God
using. They are the ex-" Boxers," and in many cases
if they are not ex-" Boxers ' ' they are people with thought
and purpose very little above the ex-" Boxers," and they
are going far and near and telling the people how the
people died for their religion in China. There are no
public halls, but in every town and square of the city,
there are what are known as Tea houses, and every public
announcement is given from these places. These people
are going about from place to place telling of the wonder-
ful death of the people who believed in Jesus' doctrine in
I JO STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
1900. They are not telling this to spread the Gospel.
They say, "We do not understand, we cannot explain
to you, but it is verily the truth that these people die as
we tell you, and they die willingly and without fear, and
even when they had an opportunity to repent they refused
to do so. Refused to do so much as step over a cross
drawn in chalk on the street to save their lives, and
in many cases, when they might have escaped, feeling they
had to be true to God, acknowledged that they were disci-
ples without being asked." This fact is being spread by
ungodly men through China to-day. The Lord is sealing
this testimony, and from the farthest parts of China the
people are coming by land and river. For instance a boat-
load of men from the interior of China, after they had
planted their rice, took charge of a boat and twenty-five
or fifty of these men sailed day and night to reach a cer-
tain place and meet the missionaries there, that they
might understand from them about this Gospel. The
beginning of this was the talk in the Tea Houses by those
ungodly men. Friends, what impression does this bring
to you ? It says to me, God would save the world, and
He would have you send out men and women that belong
to the Holy Ghost. Friends, we have no right to be deaf
on this question, it is the work of the hour, it is the work
of the Church, do it, and we will sweep through the
pearly gates if we attend to this cry. Friends, I have
long since ceased to pray for God to have pity and mercy
on the heathen, but I am praying to-day that God may
have mercy on the Church and on Friends. It is time
we were working, it is time we were filling in these last
days with some tremendous spirit-filled effort to bring the
tidings to this people. The whole world is open, and
every place in China is open. Wonderful things have
occurred in China, and I believe that had we been faithful
all these years God would not have asked such a costly
price for the salvation of China. When you go to China
you find why the Chinaman is conservative, but when the
blessed Holy Spirit touches that man's or woman's heart
it melts just as yours or mine does. Sit down beside
them and tell them a message fresh from Christ, and it
OF THE CONFERENCE IJI
will not be very long until the tears are coursing down
their faces, and they will say " That is what we want."
Men and women of x*\merican Yearly Meetings, there are
such wonderful privileges that the Lord Jesus will give
us ; let us step out and take them. I did not know I
should be allowed to say a word, but I feel it in my soul
that the Lord Jesus brought me here for such a time as
this.
Two delegates offered prayer that the Lord's will
might be known, and that when known it would be fol-
lowed.
Francis W. Thomas, of Indiana: This question is
like a fire in my bones. Fifty years ago we started from
nothing. If we have a right to claim a religious origin
on the basis of the Xew Testament grounds it is because
we are a missionary organization. I want to say first of
all that the report was not only hopeful to me but to my
mind it was sublime. The progress that we have made
in the march of missionary work in the world at large
during the years of its operation since we have taken it
up as special work is marvelous to me. As I have just
said, fifty years ago it was objected in the Yearly Meetings
to using the word Missionary. I hope that even- state-
ment that shall be made in this meeting shall be to
enforce and enlarge this work. Though our field is
broad it is not the world. The missionaries of the Lord
Jesus Christ go out in the field and earn- light into dark
places. I hope that the spirit of the missionary will soon
take hold of our heart and life, and that the missionaries
will be multiplied a thousand fold before we have another
Five Years Meeting. We have the money and the
means. Let us invest in the house of God that we may
carry the truth broadcast all over the earth, and that this
Board which has charge of this question may be enabled
to sow beside all waters, sow broadcast, and I tell you,
brethren, the name of our God shall be great and our
Church shall be broadened and deepened in the love of
God and in the harmony and fellowship of each other
here on earth.
172 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
The Clerk : A suggestion has come to the Chair
that our members would like to hear a word from our
missionaries just returned from Palestine, Wilfred and
Delia Rowntree. Will Mr. and Mrs. Rowntree come to
the platform ?
Wilfred Rowntree : Dear Friends, it is a great pleasure
to be with you here to-day. We have enjoyed hearing
from all of you this morning. Whether we are at home
or abroad we like to know what others are doing in the
ranks of the Lord. One great problem in the foreign
missionary field is the same as it is at home, that is, get-
ting workers. Missionaries that go out to Palestine have
to work upon the lines that our L,ord himself worked
upon in the same land. He chose a few and instructed
them, and sent them out as workers, and all missionaries
there find that is the way in which the work is to be done.
We go into a strange country, the customs are strange,
the language is strange, and we find that we ourselves are
not able to get at the problem in a way that would inter-
est the people, so we cannot do very much ourselves, but
we can put all our strength in training others to go out
and work. Just as you have heard in China so in Pales-
tine our efforts are put in that direction. No nation will
be raised until the women are raised, and the girls and
women of Palestine seem to be lifted up by the missionary
work, and so we devote our energies especially to training
up the girls. The parents did not at first care to send
their girls, but now that is all changed. The girls go
back into their homes to their people with messages ofi-sal-
vation. The children who come to the day-schools carry
back messages of salvation to their parents. These girls
really know what salvation is and they are doing good
work, and soon in the future their efforts will bear fruit.
You know there is the time of sowing in foreign mission-
ary fields before a harvest is reaped. I am glad to see the
change in their lives which will bear witness to the power
of God. And if I might leave just a word with you it is
this, " Remember the workers in your prayers." From
experience I can bear witness to the fact that the greatest
OF THE CONFERENCE I 73
strength comes to those away from home in the know-
ledge of the prayers that are ascending for the blessing of
God upon the work ; but not only upon the workers, but
for the work. L,et the workers know you are praying for
them. It would not be a bad plan to carry this on in the
home fields as well as in the foreign fields, for there are
just as brave workers in this country as in any country on
the face of the earth. Don't forget those who are trying
to serve their Master.
Delia Rowntree : I want to say that those in the
foreign fields will realize the loving remembrances this
morning, and I think they will feel cheered and invigorated
for their work. I want to thank the people here on behalf
of them , because I so realize how sweet it is to feel the
sympathy of the good people at home.
Harriet Green, of England : Dear Friends, we have
heard about giving our money. We have something
better to give than our money ; it is our children. I
want to say one word about the London Yearly Meeting.
We have about one hundred missionaries in foreign lands,
and we ought to have about two hundred, but it has come
about in this way. We have taught our children to
expect that God will want them in the foreign fields. I
know this means a great deal for parents, but I long that
this Five Years Meeting should take this message to
every Yearly Meeting, that the time is drawing near, the
time for our lives is short, the time for our service is short
in this world, and considering the last words of our L-ord
we should not only educate our children, but we should so
keep them interested and informed that scores of them
should hear the call from Jesus. At least fifty have heard
the call from our Children's Meeting. And through school
life and through college life have grown up with the
thought before them that God would want them. And so,
dear Friends, it seems to me that in this meeting of such
exceptional interest, and while we have the power of the
Holy Ghost with us, that there should be not only the edu-
cation of our children, but the thought that God wants
the children of our meetings. If we give our children the
money will come in. I am glad our Foreign Missionary
174 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Board long ago came to this conclusion. I thank God for
it and for the rapidity of His work. But, dear friends, we
are not doing one-half enough yet, are we ?
(Recess for five minutes.)
The Clerk : ' ' The Scope and Work of the Board
of Foreign Missions of the Five Years Meeting ' ' will be
presented by Carolena M. Wood, of New York.
THE SCOPE AND WORK OF THE BOARD OF
FOREIGN MISSIONS OF THE FIVE
YEARS MEETING.
By Carolena M. Wood, of New Yoke.
We have seen this morning something of the work of
the American Friends and of the pioneer efforts of the
American Friends' Board to meet the needs of the work.
We come now to consider the possibilities of closer union
and greater mutual helpfulness which may be developed
through the Foreign Mission Board of the Five Years
Meeting.
As our minds have traveled around our world — through
Alaska to Japan and China, through India to Syria,
Africa, the West Indies and Mexico — we have realized
that American Friends have accepted a world-wide service
which calls for the greatest knowledge and skill in order
to properly administer for the greatest results, the lovei
and self-sacrificing gifts of the Church at home. So far
we have had scarcely forty years of experience in mission
work, and we may well learn much from the high ideals
and well-organized work of the Boards of other denomina-
tions after their century of experience. In every case we
find them with a strong central executive under whose
well-trained eye every detail of the work is organized with
the same systematic care which is used in any railroad
office or other great business. Under such an executive
they divide the responsibility both for the home work and
for the work on the field. At home, the interest in dif-
ferent sections is placed under the care of subordinate
Boards or individuals, and these in turn have subordinate
OF THE CONFERENCE 175
Boards and Societies, so that, if possible, every member of
the Church may be touched by the news of what God is
doing for the nations, and by a feeling of his responsi-
bility in the work. Thus the gifts are gathered in and
administered with the greatest technical skill by the cen-
tral executive. On the field, on the other hand, the re-
sponsibility is placed squarely on the shoulders of the sec-
tion, or mission as a whole, and they, with the advice of
the central executive, administer what the home Church
has sent to help them in their service. This, in general
outline, is the plan of organization for all the great Boards,
and I welcome the organization of the Foreign Mission
Board of the Five Years Meeting, which is being effected
this week, as opening great possibilities for improvement
in the mission work of Friends.
Let us for a moment consider the organization of the
Foreign Mission Board as outlined in the Uniform Disci-
pline. We find at present a Board consisting of twenty-
seven members representing all the allied Yearly Meetings.
Its duties shall be both advisory and executive — advisory
for all the work of the allied Yearly Meetings, executive
for the work specifically put under its care. It shall
be organized with the usual officers, making, with two
others, an executive committee of five. Under this com-
mittee the Secretary shall be the executive officer, " and
it shall be his duty to collect information respecting the
condition and needs of Foreign Mission fields, and to
learn, as far as possible, the best means of supplying those
needs ; to obtain from the members of the Board and from
other sources full information of the foreign mission work
carried on by the several Yearly Meetings represented in
the Board, or by the members of these Yearly Meetings,
and to advise those in charge of such work in reference
thereto ; to ascertain the qualifications and preferences of
those offering themselves as missionaries ; to collect and
publish full statistics concerning all the foreign mission
work of Friends in America, and in general to obtain and
impart such information from within and from without
the denomination as may aid the foreign mission work."
The Board shall assist each Yearly Meeting to make the
176 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
necessary arrangements for annually soliciting contribu-
tions in every congregation ; it may assume control of
work transferred to it, may enter upon new work, and
may establish regulations with regard to foreign member-
ship and foreign meetings.
Such a Board may do much for missions. L,et us
consider some of its possibilities in its advisory capacity.
Everywhere knowledge is power, and now, as always,
no one can succeed who does not thoroughly understand
his subject. Especially is this true of so complicated a
service as one carried on in a foreign country must neces-
sarily be, and it will be a great assistance to all our
workers to have an information bureau where we can get
the information "from within and without the denomina-
tion' ' to aid us in the work. Beside providing information
for special cases, the work will necessarily take the form
of publications — statistics, a prayer calendar, reports, and
some adequate method of disseminating missionary infor-
mation through our periodicals and by leaflets. We shall
need a circulating missionary library for the use of the
missionaries on the field and for the Boards at home.
While the well organized Boards of other denominations
have years ago proved the importance of self-support,
self-government and self-propagation for the native Church,
we are only just realizing them. Although the primaty
importance of industrial missions for some fields has been
long ago demonstrated, we have had to give years of ser-
vice to learn the lesson which we might have learned from
our next-door neighbor. We do not yet understand the
importance of business principles in mission work, of defi-
nite support, the strong central station, or a score of other
proven propositions. Much of this information may be
brought to us without loss of time through an up-to-date
information bureau.
In its advisory capacity the Board of the Five Years
Meeting might encourage and make systematic arrange-
ment for proper visitation of the mission fields. No
amount of paper and ink can ever take the place of per-
sonal contact with the people and problems on the field
itself, and in no wa) r can the sympathetic bond between
OF THE CONFERENCE I 77
the Church at home and the Church on the field be so
strengthened as by a visit ' ( in the love of the Gospel ' ' to
the foreign work. Such visits pay tenfold for the labor
and money expended.
Great help could be given all our Boards in prepar-
ing missionaries to go to the field. There should be a
complete list of all our members who are looking toward
service abroad. We should understand to what field they
feel called , and what are their qualifications ; and much
help might be given them in making adequate preparation
for their life service. Such a central Board can much
better judge of a Friend's physical, mental and spiritual
preparation for the work, than can a Board of less experi-
ence. Friends have already expended too much upon
workers physically or mentally unqualified for the service
required, as discrimination in such matters needs great
sanctified common sense and Christian courage. The
care of such a Board ought to awaken in those going into
foreign work a deeper sense of responsibility as they
realize the wider opportunities of the foreign field. In
sending out missionaries and supplies often large reduc-
tions in expense can be obtained through a Central Board
from railroads and steamships, and only through a Central
Board can Friends be properly represented in interde-
nominational work and relations. Such a Board would
certainly give to Friends a sense of the importance of the
work ; it would unlock some of the coffers, produce self-
denial, and retain within the enterprise of Friends some of
the funds, many of the lives, and much of the effort, now
going from us to the foreign work through outside chan-
nels.
This work, indicated under "advisory duties," if
well done, would certainly produce confidence in the body
at large and a certain unity in the work. This would
ultimately lead to combinations of work in different fields
and make it possible to develop broader policies and more
proper organization to produce far-reaching results.
Thus in time the work now carried on by the separate
Yearly Meetings would doubtless be put more and more
under the care of the central body, and this, with the
178 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
present work in Cuba, would develop its more executive
functions. When this time comes, however, I feel that
our plan should not interfere with the support of indi-
vidual missionaries or schools or stations devolving upon
a Quarterly or Yearly Meeting. If a work has been car-
ried on for years by any one Yearly Meeting, it will be
very near to the hearts of its members, and should be
definitely supported by them, that meeting simply promis-
ing to pay a certain sum for the support of the work and
the Central Board administering it. Thus that field may
still be the special object for the care of the meeting and
yet all will be well administered. In this way it may be
possible to prevent the confusion of interest which results
from repeated appeals in one place for different works,
and will fix the privilege and interest and responsibility
in one place rather than risking the possibility that the
support which is everybody's business is nobody's busi-
ness.
For the organization of the Board to accomplish this
work I would make the following suggestions : There
should be a regular office for the Board's work where the
secretary and a clerk could give their whole time to the
work. This office must be situated in one of the Mission
Board centres of the country if we are to keep up to date
in mission matters. These centres — New York, Boston,
and Nashville, Tenn., — are, unfortunately, not near the
centres of Friends, but I feel it to be of the first import-
ance to be closely in touch with the work of the great
Boards. Only thus can we help the work of Friends as it
needs to be helped. As the executive work of the Board
grows it will need a salaried treasurer, but this will be a
future need. I would suggest that the Board meet each
year at the same time and place as the other Boards of the
Five Years Meeting. If it were to meet successively at
New York, Oskaloosa, Wilmington (Ohio), Baltimore
and Indianapolis, it might cover our territory in the most
practical way. The Executive Committee should meet
much oftener to properly oversee the work.
It might also be helpful to divide the Board into sec-
tions — one on Alaska, one on Japan and China, one on
of the conference; 179
India, one on Syria, one on Africa, and one on Latin
America — to have special oversight of these fields. There
might also be sections devoted to the study of evangelistic
work — one for educational and industrial work, one for
medical and philanthropic work— each of which should
have representatives on the section for the country where
that type of work is carried on.
The possibilities for the Foreign Mission Board of
the Five Years Meeting seem almost infinite. If we can
add to Friends' blessed feeling of personal responsibility
in service a missionary society in each meeting, an indi-
vidual or society in each Quarterly Meeting to keep up
the interest there, a YearlyMeeting's Board to care for all
its responsibilities in missions, and a strong central execu-
tive under the Five Years Meeting, we ought to be, as far
as organization can go, well equipped for the beautiful
service to which we are called. We ought to be able to
produce not only laborers of ' ' good report full of the
Spirit and of wisdom," but those whose technical skill
may help to make our service more nearly a perfect
service.
The Clerk : This paper will be followed by a short
paper by James Carey, Jr., of Baltimore.
ORGANIC DEVELOPMENT OF FRIENDS' FOR-
EIGN MISSION WORK.
By James Carey, Jr., of Baltimore.
We have had presented to us this morning ' ' Foreign
Mission " work under the care of the various Yearly
Meetings and of the American Friends' Board.
We have also listened to a most interesting paper,
presenting a number of subjects for our careful thought
as to the best method of organizing and carrying on our
work ; what has especially impressed my own mind as
important for us now to consider, has been the general
under-lying principles which should govern us in this
organization and the further development of the work
which we are now entering on.
l8o STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
The Society of Friends since its first organization has
with more or less insistence held two peculiar views of
religious truth. First, an absolute need of the immedi-
ate guidance of the Holy Spirit in all the affairs of life.
Secondly, an advocacy and employment of democratic
methods of Church government, founding both of these
views on the Scriptures as exemplified by the early
Church.
Until the organization of the United States of
America, democratic principles in political government
were never clearly understood. In Church government
they were almost unknown, as not only the established
Church of England, but also the dissenting churches,
were governed by strong central organizations composed
largely of their clerical members. It was reserved for
George Fox, the broad-minded and far-seeing organizer
of the Religious Society of Friends, to solve the problem
of a real democracy in Church organization.
True democracy involves the largest degree of per-
sonal liberty consistent with the real interest of the
community. As development progresses, as the social
and political life becomes more intricate, individual liberty
must give way more and more to the good of the commu-
nity.
The organization of the Society of Friends of America
in separate Yearly Meetings created a number of small
democratic bodies, each entirely independent of the other,
and with few points of contact except through the
exchange of annual epistles and the visits of ministering
Friends. They met to transact their business, with but
little knowledge as how this might affect a neighboring
Yearly Meeting. Fortunately the ties of kin, and the
brotherly love pervading the Society, kept these organiza-
tions somewhat together, as well as the general attach-
ment to the mother Church in England and their desire
for its recognition. After more than two hundred years
of this almost separate church existence, it is an event of
no small interest that they have recognized the necessity
of the organic union recently effected by the adoption of
the uniform Discipline and the setting up of the Five
of the; conference 181
Years Meeting now in session, a result which was brought
about through the action of the last Quinquennial Confer-
ence. In comparing this new meeting with its predeces-
sor, we see at a glance that the Five Years Meeting is a
permanent instead of a temporary body, and that it is to
work as well as to advise. It will co-operate with the
several Yearly Meetings in and even share their responsi-
bility for a part of the work of the Church, and this is
essentially the case in its relation to foreign mission
work.
It is only necessary to glance at the early history of
the Society of Friends to find that it was essentially a mis-
sionary church from its inception, though it was probably
longer than most other denominations in adapting itself
to the organized foreign mission work which is found
necessary to meet the needs of the present day. It
would be strange, indeed, if with its democratic organ-
ization and its distinctive views as to the necessity of
immediate Divine guidance in undertaking and carrying
on its work, the Society of Friends of America had
promptly developed a uniform system of foreign mission
work applicable to all the Yearly Meetings, and so that
these would not overlap each other in the different
countries where their work was situated. May we not
see the guidance of the Head of the Church when we find
this overlapping so small and the unity of the work so
great ?
The proposition of the Quinquennial Conference of
1892, for the establishment of a Board of Foreign Mis-
sions for all the American Yearly Meetings would seem
to have had in view only a bureau of information and sta-
tistics, but it held within it the seeds of a new development
for our Society which should soon spring up and bear
fruit. In the Third Annual Report of the new Board, its
vision is becoming broader, and we find the suggestion to
the Yearly Meetings that its functions should be extended,
(I quote from the report) " In the direction of con-
certed action of foreign mission work among Friends in
America, implying the thought that the primitive stage
of foreign mission work among us by separate Yearly
1 82 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Meetings, and different Boards and Committees, with no
related action, has to some extent fulfilled its mission,
and that our Church would effect more and have greater
iufluence if there was at least co-ordination among the
Yearly Meetings and Boards."
There were two events which occurred shortly after
the writing of the above, which more than anything else
helped to bring about the consummation of the desire
therein expressed. I refer to the Ecumenical or World's
Foreign Mission Conference, held in the spring of 1900,
and the freedom of Cuba as a result of the war with
Spain. The first incited our own Church, as well as
others, to renewed and more active work, and the second
opened up a field which in the minds of many created an
opportunity which could not be neglected. It was
clearly felt, however, as stated in the Board's Report of
1899, that no one or two Yearly Meetings were able to do
all that Friends should do in this new field, and the sug-
gestion to the various Yearly Meetings for the reorganiza-
tion of the Board and the empowering of it to carry on
this work met with a hearty response, which has since
resulted in the active and successful work now carried on
in the northeastern end of the island of Cuba.
I have referred thus hurriedly to the foreign mission
work of the Society of Friends of America, in order to
show its organic development from the un-official work
in Palestine undertaken by Friends of New England and
London Yearly Meetings, to the active and efficient mis-
sions of the various Yearly Meetings, and now to the
more recently organized work of the Society of Friends of
America under the American Friends' Board of Foreign
Missions, and yet the fully developed and most efficient
plan of work has not been entered upon by us. It would
be easy to ignore the past and to take the shortest and
easiest path back to the road which our Society left at its
organization by adopting the plans and organization of
the work of our sister churches, but it is not in this way
I am sure that we should be doing our best work in this
new field. The times have changed, and we must adapt
our plans and methods to the present age, but let us not
OF THE CONFERENCE 1 83,
lose sight of the democratic principles of church organiza-
tion upon which our Society has always rested, but rather
avoid in our foreign mission work too great centralization
of power and responsibility which we have endeavored to
avoid in other departments.
It should not, therefore, be a prime object of the
Board, even were it possible, to take over the Foreign
Mission Work of the various Yearly Meetings, and
thereby assume a responsibility which in most cases these
can best carry. It should seek rather to supplement their
efforts and to bring about such unity of purpose and co-
operation in action as will produce the best results and
most advance the cause of Foreign Missions. To this
end I would make the following suggestions which are in
accordance with the spirit at least of the uniform Disci-
pline :
First, Each Yearly Meeting represented in the Board
while continuing its own separate work as heretofore,
shall realize that this forms a constituent part of the
foreign mission work of the Society of Friends in Amer-
ica, of which the Board has a general advisory over-
sight.
Second, The Foreign Mission Committees of the
several Yearly Meetings shall annually furnish the Board
a full report of their mission needs, and work during the
preceding year, which together with such other information
and statistics as may be accessible shall be incorported by
the Secretary of the Board in its annual report to the
Yearly Meetings.
Third, Whenever two or more Yearly Meetings are
working in the same foreign field, they should each keep
in view the importance of co-operation in such work, and
if deemed advisable by them should arrange for carrying
it on through a joint committee; should, however, the
work require in their united judgment the co-operation of
all the Yearly Meetings, an application should be made
to the Board to carry on such work. If the Board should
conclude to assume the control it may appeal to all the
Yearly Meetings for their aid and support.
184 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Fourth, Each Yearly Meeting represented in the Board
shall make through its Foreign Mission Committee the
necessary arrangements for receiving voluntary contribu-
tions for the work of the Board, and such contributions
shall be forwarded to its Treasurer through this Com-
mittee.
Fifth, In order to bring the Board and the Foreign
Mission Committees of the Yearly Meetings into closer
touch with each other, it should be recommended that
the members of the Board for each Yearly Meeting shall
be ex-ofncio members of its Foreign Mission Committee.
In conclusion, I would suggest the advisability of
uniformity in the Foreign Mission organizations of the
several Yearly Meetings, and to this end that the Board
of Foreign Missions of this meeting be instructed to pre-
pare and forward to the Yearly Meetings of 1903 for their
consideration a plan of organization having in view the
present relations of these meetings to the Board of For-
eign Missions.
What this organization should be and what its rela-
tion to the Foreign Mission Board, it may not be my
place to suggest. It has come to me, however, some-
thing like this : permanent Yearly Meeting Boards of
Foreign Missions, uniform in their constitution and organ-
ization ; supreme under their several Yearly Meetings in
the administration of their own work and confederated in
the Foreign Mission Board of this meeting for the general
oversight of the entire Foreign Mission Work of our
Society.
A small Executive Committee, which can readily be
brought together for frequent consultation and in addition
to its officers an agent, who shall be at liberty to visit as
thought best the Mission fields of all the Yearly Meet-
ings, as well as those of the Board.
With some such working plan as this we shall be
prepared I think to extend and make effective the Foreign
Mission Work of the Society of Friends of America.
The Clerk : In opening the general discussion we
will allow Thomas C. Brown, President of the Board
of Foreign Missions, to speak first. We have before us
of the; conference 185
two practical papers that have suggested definite lines of
work. Let us keep this discussion strictly within the
limits of the subject under consideration. We wish to
reach some definite conclusions ; and if we keep our
minds to the thought of the paper we shall accomplish a
great deal more than if we branch out in other lines.
SCOPE AND WORK OF THE BOARD OF
FOREIGN MISSIONS.
By Thomas C. Brown.
Negatively speaking, it is not within the scope and
work, neither is it the purpose of the American Friends'
Board of Foreign Missions to interfere in any way with
the work or management of any Board or organization
now doing work in the foreign field. Neither is it within
its province to interfere with the organization and prose-
cution of further work in any new field by any such
Board. The Woman's Boards of Foreign Missions and
the different Yearly Meetings have been pioneers in this
field, and have wrought nobly in the past, showing a
commendable zeal and enthusiasm which is commensu-
rate with the greatness of the subject in which they have
been engaged, viz., " Preach the Gospel to every Crea-
ture." That they have been free from error, no one will
claim. That their management has always been wise,
their best friends do not maintain, neither did they hope
for. But when errors have been made, either in organi-
zing or working such missions, those Boards have been
quick to correct all errors as far as may be, and press
forward in their work with such zeal as has held the con-
fidence of the general public. Their acts have been woven
into history, and stand as monuments of the energies of
earnest and consecrated hearts, shaping the work of the
oncoming hosts who shall toil in this field, and, awaiting
the testing of the final judgment which will reveal the
wood, hay and stubble, as well as the precious metals
which will stand in the final testing.
Their mission is not yet completed. The door is
still widening before them, and, touched by the Divine
1 86 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Spirit, they are moving onward. Paralyzed be the hand
that would strike down, and disorganize the forces that
would remove these agencies from their appointed voca-
tion. Maintain the individuality of these Boards. Is
there, then, any room for the American Friends' Board of
Foreign Missions ? An}- specific field in which it may
expend its energies and not interfere with other kindred
organizations ? If it may not be helpful, it has no claim
for life.
There are some questions that are broader than any
one Yearly Meeting. Some problems that cannot be
solved by local forces. Union of forces and compactness
of organization have been potent agents in many sharp
conflicts, and have turned victory on the right side in
many of earth's greatest battles.
The cry of "fire " breaks the quiet of the midnight
hour. Yonder building is already within its destroying
grip. Its flames have taken hold of the building, and
now begin to leap from within. Five minutes and they
are in check ; ten, and they are suppressed. Where is
the secret of this success found ? In the one word —
organization.
The Foreign Mission work is one subject that is
broader than any one Yearly Meeting. Its successful
management requires not only thorough and compact
organization, but the employment of a broader force that
will in some way bring the united energies of the entire
Church to bear upon its problems. Here is the mission
of the American Friends' Board of Foreign Missions. As
a distinct organization, it can take up the subject of sta-
tistics, showing the work of each separate Board that has
been organized in the Church. These statistics carefully
prepared, not giving undue prominence to the work of
any one Board or field over another, will constitute the
History, past and present, of all of the Foreign Mission
work in the Church. Its value will at least be two-fold.
First, it will reveal the weaknesses that may exist in the
work of any Board, and be helpful in correcting them.
And second, it will stimulate to greater effort in the finan-
cial support of these missions ; and contribute to greater
OF THE CONFERENCE I 87
efficiency in the work accomplished in the field. It is
within the scope and work of the American Friends'
Board of Foreign Missions to enter any field that is not
already occupied, and organize and maintain the work
there. The rapid march of events in the political world
among the nations of the earth suddenly opens the door
for the Gospel to a nation. At nightfall it may lie beyond
the reach of the Gospel, but with the first gleams of the
dawn over the eastern hills, it may be lying at the feet of
the Christian world, looking imploringly to the Christian
Church for the simple message of Him whose coming
brings not only the dawn of the " Sun of Righteousness,"
but that full-orbed hope which alone can be an " Anchor
to the Soul " when most needed.
Cuba is just such a field. Suddenly, by the turn of
National events, she was thrown, with all her pressing
needs, at the feet of Christians. It was our opportune
time. Had it not been that the American Friends' Board
of Foreign Missions already existed, Friends could not
have so quickly entered that field. Each Yearly Meeting
already had its field, the demands of which were increas-
ing. Retraction meant death. Advance meant victory,
growth and success. By the union of all the Yearly
Meetings in this work, a commendable start has been
made ; a mission has been planted that insures growth in
the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, and the reflex influence on
the churches is healthful and binds us one to another in
fellowship and service.
The American Friends' Board of Foreign Missions
may also be helpful in securing suitable and needful legis-
lation either in our own country, or in any country where
Friends have opened missions or may desire to open them.
It may render advice and counsel to any Board rela-
tive to questions touching the organization or manage-
ment of any mission work, but it must not be interpreted
that this advice carries with it any controlling authority.
This function alone belongs to the Board organizing it,
unless it shall choose to transfer this management to the
American Friends' Board of Foreign Missions.
The American Friends' Board shall have power to set
1 88 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
forth the standard required for, and to receive into church
membership those with whom they are working, and to
organize churches and make provisions for their future
care, after they have been so organized.
It should have power to develop plans for raising
funds for financial support of its work, either by contri-
butions, special collections, or bequests, but it should
have no power to assess a tax on any Yearly Meeting for
this purpose, and make it binding on the Yearly Meeting
to pay this assessment.
The ' scope and work of the American Friends'
Board of Foreign Missions may then be briefly stated as
follows :
First, To gather statistics of all Mission work in
the Friends' Church, and to act as a medium of com-
munication between our Board and that of other denom-
inations.
Second, To organize and open Mission work in any
field not already occupied.
Third, To aid in securing needed legislation affecting
Foreign Mission work, either in our own or foreign gov-
ernments.
Fourth, To render advice and counsel with any
Friends' Board relative to its work.
Fifth, To arrange for and confer church membership
upon suitable persons in our missions, and to organize
them into churches.
Sixth, And to raise funds and provide for the finan-
cial support of its own work.
The Clerk : The subject is now before the meeting.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : I would
like to state in another way practically the same thing
that has been stated by the clerk. I think it is very
important that we get into our minds a clear conception
of what is to be the general and final outcome of it.
First, in the present condition of it, to care for the funds
for the development and the practical work in Cuba and
the West Indies, which is now undertaken. Second, an
advisory connection with all Boards of all Yearly Meetings.
Third, I believe it would be a function of the new Board
OF THE CONFERENCE I 89
to open up new fields in South America, and South
Africa, and the Philippine Islands. I believe it would
be extremely wise to consult with the American Friends'
Board and see if it is not the thing to open new fields.
Fourth, I think it would be distinctly the scope of this
Board to co-operate with other Boards on the subject of
missionary comity, as to whether it is proper to enter a
section of a new field. Fifth, part of the function of this
new Board is the general instruction of all of our Friends
in America, and the whole Friends' Church on the subject
of Missions and Missionary work. Sixth, to provide
funds gradually, and begin at once by encouraging
bequests, and to have a general fund which may be used
not only in the support of its own work, but in the co-
operation and support of special fields now under the care
of the Yearly Meetings ; and ultimately, to get together a
large fund that will lie back of our Mission work in all
quarters of the earth. I do not believe the Board will
ever reach its highest power until it does this ; and when
it does it will reach the fulfillment of its great mission.
Anna B. Thomas, of Baltimore : I am a delegate on
the Board of Foreign Missions, but not to this Conference.
May I have a minute or two ? [Consent was given.] I
believe in the future of this Board as does Benjamin True-
blood. I have been thinking of the way that English
Friends carry on their vast work in foreign missions.
We do not expend anything like as much money in our
own church work. We do not have to expend much
money in our work, so we ought to be able to do more
for the general mission field, and American Friends
should appreciate the advantage of pushing forward into
it. The English Friends carry forward their great work,
and yet keep their individual responsibility, because they
have sub-committees in the different fields in which they
are interested. The work carried on by the English
Friends is far greater than ours, and that work is carried
on independently. Our work could have Boards for
Latin America, China, Africa, etc., and be affiliated with-
out interfering with each other's province.
Zenas L,. Martin, of Iowa: I think the two papers
190 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
have well compassed the field, and the speakers have done
well also. I hope, however, that we will not be inclined
to put too much on the Five Years Meeting. I move
these two papers and suggestions be submitted to the
Foreign Mission Board to consider, and report what
measures they deem best for this meeting to adopt.
(The motion was carried.)
The meeting adjourned to meet at 2.30 o'clock.
Fifth-Day Afternoon, Tenth Month 23d, 1902.
The Clerk : We will have a few minutes of quiet
waiting before the L,ord. Prayer and the singing of a
hymn.
Esther G. Frame, of Wilmington : I want to say
what is upon my heart. I notice in the appointment of
the various committees that only three of these had any
women on them, and that is of great concern to us. I
read in the Scriptures, " Stand fast in the liberty where-
with Christ hath made us free." I want a full Quaker
Church, but there is no department that needs to be
attended to more than women, but we have little chance,
and my heart burns as I think of it. I do not understand
it that it is Quakerly not to give the women a chance. I
do not want the women to take the men's places. I
admire a womanly woman and a manly man. You can-
not say if you can find a woman competent to go on that
committee you would put them on, for I answer that we
have as competent women as we have competent men. I
think it is a mistake, and we should see to it that in all
the committees there is at least one woman represented
there. I think it is right for us to do do this.
Robert B. Pretlow, of Wilmington : I would like to
say that from our Wilmington delegation we have four
men and seven women.
The Clerk : These speeches are a little too late,
as they nearly always are. We are now ready for the
next subject.
of the; conference 191
SCOPE OF THE WORK OF THE COMMITTEE
ON EDUCATION.
By Absalom Rosenberger.
It is important that, under the new regime into which
the Friends have just entered, the great co-ordinating
departments of the Society shall enter upon their work
with clearly denned powers, in order that their functions
in the church economy may be properly performed and
each confine its activities within clearly marked bounda-
ries, usually denominated their scope or fields of work.
Thereby will be avoided all the departmental friction that
might otherwise occur and the interests of the body cor-
porate be promoted.
Hitherto the different Yearly Meetings have been ac-
customed to conduct almost all their enterprises as separ-
ate organizations with no interdependence whatever.
This has been notably true of our educational work.
Monthly, Quarterly and- Yearly Meetings have been free
to found, maintain and conduct such schools as in their
judgment seemed wise, regardless of the rest of the world.
We fully concede that marked good judgment beyond
their day and generation has characterized the efforts of
our fathers, and the good guidance of Providence can be
seen in their comparative freedom from mistakes. Now,
however, under our changed relations it would seem wise
to give careful consideration to this subject, as new times
may bring new demands at our doors.
Looking backward from this milestone of events, it
can safely be said that the world is practically undivided
in its approval of the educational work of Friends in the
past. A half century and more ago the Friends' schools
were the acknowledged centres of a safe and wholesome
education equal and possibly superior to almost all others
either public or private, both in moral excellence and in-
tellectual advancement. They were the pathfinders who
' ' blazed ' ' the way through the unbroken forests and laid
.the foundations of an educational system that had for its
mission, expressed or implied, the intellectual training of
every child born within its borders. Eong before the
192 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
State had begun to feel the premonitions of a coming sys-
tem of free public schools that should be universal in its
application, William Penn in Pennsylvania, and the
Friends in New England, New York and the Carolinas
had made excellent provisions along this line. As the
star of empire westward turned its way along the great
thoroughfares through Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Michi-
gan, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and across the
great plains even to the sunset slope of our western moun-
tains, beside the house for worship stood a structure for
the intellectual and moral development of the young
Friends.
In process of time a change came in the tide of
events. The declaration of our Federal Government in
setting apart the great Northwest Territory to the effect
that within this vast domain, Religion, Morality and Edu-
cation should be forever promoted, supplemented by the
free grant of lands for the maintenance of a system ol
public education, brought about a new order and arrange-
ment of affairs. Since that time it has been increasingly
the public policy to supplant the denominational schools
by those under the direct management of the States. In
keeping with this changed situation the State, and to
some extent the large Christian denominations from their
almost exhaustless resources, have been providing second-
ary schools and universities, liberally supplied with
modern appointments, faculties of scholarly men and
wealthy endowments. Thus the public school system is
being carried to a high state of perfection. In turn the
free tuition, excellent libraries, laboratories, gymnasia,
and the influence that graduation therefrom gives in the
way of public recognition for appointments to remunera-
tive positions, are exerting a potent influence in gathering
the young Friends to these centres of learning along with
he multitude. In some quarters it is now openly pro-
claimed that the only safety for the small denominational
college is to take refuge by affiliation under the protection
of the wealthy university. The perfection of the public
school plan seems to require the kindergarten, the primary
grades, the high school, the State Normal, the State College
of the conference; 193
of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and the State Univer-
sity. This condition that now confronts our western
colleges has a decided tendency to eliminate the whole
system of denominational schools.
Might not the Committee find it within the scope of
its powers to conduct a careful inquiry into the situation,
consider the Macedonian cries for help, and suggest means
of relief in needy places ? Earlham with a moderate en-
dowment must compete with the practically free State
schools of Indiana ; and Penn College in a common-
wealth that embraces 52,000 square miles and contains a
population of two and a half millions, has as competitors
the free State schools and fifteen denominational colleges,
all of which have been declared by the Association of Iowa
Colleges to be worthy of a name and place in the sister-
hood.
If there is still a place and mission for Friends' Col-
leges the spirit of the times demands that they be clearly
set out and boldly published. The State has so far sur-
passed all other agencies in the line of opportunities for a
purely secular education that their continued existence
cannot be justified on that ground. The moral and
Christian culture not vouchsafed by the State may be
secured in well-nigh any of the well-equipped and well-
manned denominational colleges now in existence ; but
somehow that does not satisfy or eliminate the Quaker
element in the equation. At last are we not driven to
cover under the only tenable position, viz., that we must
have colleges that have a distinctively Quaker atmosphere
and at least a grain of Quaker leaven to give life ? No
plea is entered for some great Quaker temple of learning
with gilded domes approached by a George Fox boulevard,
William Penn avenue, or ascended by a Robert Barclay
stairway for all that would be most unquakerly indeed.
We need rather institutions of more modest pretensions
where the atmosphere is thonntghly saturated by the keen
prophetic spirit of Fox, the cultured but consecrated
endowments of Penn, and the profound erudition of many
of the early Friends. In the fierce scramble for patronage
have we not too much lost sight of the primary purpose
194 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
of founding and maintaining Friends' schools ? We seek
to divest them of every earmark that proclaims the name
of the owner, and too often the Church gets little direct
return from the capital invested, and therefore becomes
discouraged about making any further outlay in that
direction. Cannot something more be done or some
method be devised whereby a larger return shall be made
to the Church on its invested capital ? Every young Friend
who walks through the halls of L,ondon Yearly Meeting-
House must have his Church loyalty deeply stirred by
the collection of portraits of worthy Friends and the brief
statement of their lives and labors that are to be found
neatly framed and hung upon the walls. A few years ago
a )^oung Friend graduated from one of our best colleges
where, during a full four years' course, he saw and heard
few things that acquainted him with the origin, wonderful
history, heroic sufferings and the distinctive views and
doctrines of Friends. A few years afterward, while taking
a professional course at one of the great universities, his
Church interests were ver}r much aroused by hearing a
lecturer of world-wide repute on Constitutional History
devote a lecture hour to a statement of the influence of
Friends, declaring that the world was destined to appre-
ciate more and more with the lapse of time the trend, of
righteous influences set going by the life, doctrines and
practices of the peace-loving Friends. To know all that
is strongest and best in the past history, the heroic strug-
gles for the uplift of the race and the present life of the
Society is the birthright of all young Friends.
It is further imperative that our colleges be kept on
a plane of excellence equal to the best in the land if their
halls are to be filled with our youths. Young Friends
are not slow to recognize the economic difference between
" the good " and " the best, and to place a proper esti-
mate upon the commercial value of graduation from insti-
tutions of the highest reputation for affording the most
thorough preparation for life. The intense competition
for remunerative positions in this day requires thorough
training, alertness and skill acquired by the most
OF THE CONFERENCE 195
approved methods of instruction ; and we cannot afford
to send our young people out handicapped for the race.
To keep our colleges abreast of the times requires the
expenditure of large resources and wise administration.
It might now appear clearly within the province of this
Committee to make a searching survey of the whole field,
looking especially at the location, number, relative stand-
ing and support of our institutions of learning. It is
altogether possible to have a college with vast wealth so
located as to render it largely inaccessible to the body of
the Church, in which case its chief patronage would come
from outside sources. However valuable its work might
be in a general way it would be largely a waste of treasure
from the standpoint of Church economics. Given another
location more accessible to Friends the same institution
might prove of vastly more value to the Church as its
patronage would then come from the membership. It
may sometimes happen that those sections which contain
the largest numbers are the least capable of providing for
their education, and consequently the temptation becomes
the greatest to rely upon the free tuition of the State or to
accept the benevolences proffered by the wealthier de-
nominational colleges. A few years ago a Friend minister
with a large family of children to educate, induced by free
tuition, moved into the neigborhood of a State school.
The children are enjoying gratuitous instruction in an
excellent institution but are joining other churches.
Caught in the currents thrown around them in college,
many young Friends are annually drifting out from us to
become sound scholars, bright lights in other churches,
enthusiastic missionaries under other denominational
Boards, and valued fellow-citizens ; but that does not
build up the section of the Church to which we belong
and in whose prosperity we are most interested. It would
appear advisable that the strong centres of Friends should
have ample provision made for advanced education under
favoring conditions.
If in some manner the Committee could find a plan
for securing a large educational fund held for a common
benefit and distributed judiciously to those sections where
195 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
the stringent necessities seemed most to demand relief,
untold good would result. There must be some reliable
means of directing the attention of those blessed with a
liberal spirit and large means at their disposal to the
points where their benevolences will be most helpful and
bring back the best returns. If the volume of the resources
of the gratuity of Friends could find its outlet along the
channels of society work, relief would be given to the
whole educational system. Too much of the Society's
wealth is spent upon fields not our own in such a manner
as to bring no direct return.
In a sense the extraordinary catholicity of Friends is
commendable, and the missionary spirit that has sought
the enlightenment of a world lying in darkness is Christ-
like indeed, but the methods have too often been wanting
in wisdom. As an example our evangelistic efforts have
been instrumental in leading multitudes to a knowledge
of saving grace, but too long has our chief joy been in
seeing the Philistines gathering in the harvests. We have
long needed some Quaker Shamgar with oxgoad to defend
the fields sown with bountiful hand, that our garners
might be full and running over at the time of ingathering.
Our educational policy has been scarcely less unwise.
Too many of the largest gifts for educational purposes
have fallen practically outside the lap of the Church.
The resources bestowed upon Friends' schools should not
be used for self-adornment, but should be so employed
that, by the production of a higher state of efficiency in
the body itself, much more may be accomplished for the
good of society in general. With the decline of intelli-
gence in the Church, skillful service will take its departure,
inasmuch as weak brain power brings about the decadence
of all true greatness. By keeping the whole organism in
a healthful state we shall secure strong functional energy
and power that may be utilized for the common weal.
Whenever the seat of life becomes enfeebled by ignorance
or its energies dissipated by want of unity of action, there
will ensue a debilitated state of the Church wherein it
shall be incapable of energetic and powerful efforts.
The number of Friends' colleges is a question of
OF THE CONFERENCE 197
moment. At present we have Haverford and Bryn Mawr
for New England, New York and Pennsylvania ; Guil-
ford for North Carolina ; Wilmington for Ohio ; Earlham
for Indiana ; Penn for Iowa ; The Friends' University for
Kansas ; Central for Nebraska ; Pacific for Oregon ; and
Whittier for California. In most cases they are far sepa-
rated, a distance of about 500 miles intervening be-
tween them. Hitherto they have been independent enti-
ties, every one revolving in its self-appointed sphere.
Among them different standards prevail as to the require-
ments for admission to Bachelors' Degrees. Shall they
remain fixed at the present number ? Shall they all stand
upon the same plane and be measured by the same stand-
ard of requirements ? Or shall there be enlargement ot
curricula in some special centres ? Would it be possible
to provide for such concurrent action as would enable all
to do first-class work up to a certain minimum require-
ment for Bachelors' Degrees and, by special arrangement
wherein proper financial relief should be extended, provide
for additional two year courses leading to Masters' De-
grees in certain colleges ?
Are we disposed to continue to entrust the Biblical
training of young Friends to other churches, or has not
the time about come to make ample provisions for the
same under our own auspices ? The Hebrew nation at
one time sank into such a hopeless condition of servitude
and so bereft of national honor that no smith or smithy
was found anywhere within its borders, but all Israel
went down to the Philistines to sharpen every man his
share, and his coulter, and his ax and his mattock ; and
it came to pass in the day of battle that there was neither
szvord nor spear found in the hand of any of the people.
How long will the Friends remain at ease about having
their ministers and workers educated in the schools of
other Christian denominations ?
In a brief recapitulation we might suggest that within
the scope of this Committee's duties might lie a consid-
eration of such questions as —
1. Is there still a demand for Friends' schools ?
2. What shall be the number ?
1 98 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
3. What shall he their relation to one another?
4. How shall they be supported ?
5. Can courses on Friends' doctrine and history be
introduced to an advantage to the Church ?
6. Would it be advisable to have an Educational
Board capable of receiving and disbursing funds for the
good of all the colleges ?
James Wood, of New York : Yesterday I called at-
tention to the fact that there was a vacancy on the pro-
gram, and the meeting was asked if they would like to fill
this vacancy, and they replied that they would rather
speak themselves. I wish that you would now call upon
Charles E. Tebbetts, of California, to speak on the work
in California.
(Consent.)
Charles E. Tebbetts, of California : It seems to me
that there is an important function that lies before us in
all of our work ; and saying this I recognize the value of
the various kinds of work that come before us. I realize
while these are vital to the Church, that if we are to ac-
complish what we should in these various channels of
influence, we must have men and women who will stand
for our Church before the world. They should be found
in any locality where a college is to be placed, so that our
young people can be trained to the very best advantage.
I look forward to the outcome of the Five Years Meeting
with a great deal of interest, because it seems to me it
might get away from localism and get into such an asso-
ciation of Friends in America as would cause us to .look
for and enter entirely new fields. It seems to me that no
outcome of this conference could be more appropriate
than that in this consolidation of work in all departments
of our Church the standing of our 3'oung men should be
raised. There are various institutions that ha* T e need of
funds for endowments. There are institutions already in
the field for securing these endowments. It would be an
easy matter to go before the Friends of America in this
enterprise of the Church, first, by this conference defining
the policy in regard to the educational system, as to what
of thk confkrfnce; 199
it wants to do, and then call for the body of the Church
to stand for the institutions, and support them with all
funds necessary to make them command the respect of the
district in which they are placed. I believe that it would
be easy for our Church in this country to place every one
of our colleges upon a respectable foundation. With the
movement on behalf of the Church I believe it would be
an easy matter to place every one of these institutions
upon a firm basis, and the outcome of this conference
might give confidence to our men of means and the entire
membership of the Church. There has been too much
scattering of means in the Church. Our wealthy men
have given their means generously to institutions that
were not in any distinct sense Friends' institutions. I
long to see the day when our men of means will have a
respect for our Church and will give abundantly for the
establishing of our own work and for carrying it on in the
world.
L. Lyndon Hobbs, of North Carolina : In the first
place I want to give my hearty approval to the papers
presented. I think great good will come from the dis-
cussions which they brought before us. They touched
so many points of vast importance to the Society of
Friends in America. I have so forcibly felt the demand
upon the educational power of the Society of Friends by
the competition of other institutions, that I think the fol-
lowing comparison will express it. What would be the
effect upon the Society of Friends in America if all the
other denominations existing in America were just as freely
open to the ministers of the Society of Friends as is the
teaching profession ? If we lost some ten or fifteen good
preachers in America every year, what would be the result
upon evangelistic and Church Kxtension ? Four excellent
teachers went out of Guilford and went to the State Nor-
mal School — -four of the best teachers in the college ; and
they went to the State Normal because they got a great
increase in their salary. So a person who is at the head of
an institution feels sick at heart when his best teachers are
taken away from him . It is absolutely necessary that we
shall pay better salaries to our teachers in order that we may
200 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
maintain the Society of Friends in America. This is the
truth, and we shall have to acknowledge it. There is a
vast amount of work before us, and better equipped insti-
tutions stand at our sides trying to get our young men
and women. It is almost impossible to hold them just by
our saying we would like for them to stay. So the ques-
tion that is just such a burden upon my heart is that we
cannot keep our best teachers ; and I tell you the only
way to remedy this, so far as I am able to see, is to put
our shoulders, heads and hearts together and better equip
the institutions we have, in order to cope with the insti-
tutions that surround us. It is important for us to go
forward in the Society of Friends, and we cannot do this
without educational institutions, and they must be main-
tained.
William P, Pinkham, of Ohio : I would like to make
two points in respect to our colleges just to call attention
to what seems to me a very practical consideration for the
present moment. Of course there will always be a diffi-
culty in competing with public institutions while they set
the pattern in all respects in regard to courses of study
and methods of instruction. It is a fact, and it is well
known to educators generally, that all through the edu-
cational world there is a longing for more practical
methods in our educational systems. Some may remem-
ber several years ago the National Association appointed
a large committee — thirty persons, — and they appointed a
sub-committee of ten ; and the report of that committee
of ten was full of life and full of excellent suggestions in
regard to methods of instruction ; but it is certainly true
that our public institutions have only to a very limited
degree been able to act upon the suggestions given there,
and our colleges scarcely dare take hold of these things at
all. It seems to me by a proper study of this great ques-
tion it would be possible for the Friends' institutions to
take the initiative in bringing about a system of education
modifying the curriculums of our schools, and modifying
the methods of instruction, and to make them far more
thorough than they have been under the heavy machinery
that is necessary in the mechanical system of the public
OF THE CONFERENCE 201
schools. The other point of which I wish to speak is
this : Some years ago our Church most certainly took a
noble position in regard to religious instruction of our
children. And our children went to Friends' schools, and
they found there as a rule something better than they find
in their homes in the way of historic instruction and very
earnest and Christian life. But I fear that as a whole
our Friends' schools have scarcely kept their prestige in
this matter. It seems to me if there is a crying need in
connection with educational work, that our colleges and
our academies be maintained by officers and teachers who
are not only good scholars but who have a rich and deep
Spiritual knowledge of the Christian life. I believe the
crying need of the Friends' institution is that the spiritual
quality be made equally proportionate to the educational
quality in other respects. The time has come when a
professor should not be selected simply with reference to
scholarship in a particular department. Where are we to
find a biologist who is a thoroughly elevated spiritual
man, who is evangelistic in his faith, sound, free from the
errors of modern thought — I say, Where are we to find
him ? I am not going to answer that question.
Rufus M. Jones, of New England : I was going to
make a motion that the paper that has already been read
on this whole subject be referred to the Committee on
Education for it to devise some plan for carrying out prac-
tically the ideas that have been brought before us. I
want to add in reference to the whole subject, in a sen-
tence or two, that if the colleges are to go on and the
educational work of Friends in America is to go on and
accomplish what they ought to do, we should realize the
situation more than we ever have as yet. The difficulties
are these : We hardly get a man out in the world ready to
serve our Church when he finds a more congenial place
somewhere else. He is made to feel over and over again
he is unsound, simply because he has been compelled to
do thinking on lines that are not exactly square with the
ones that were held fifty years ago. He is made to feel
he is not wanted, I want to say, and I speak with
some grounds of assurance, that there never was a time in
202 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
the history of America or any other country when the
men and women who are teaching in our American col-
leges, and also in our own colleges, had such sound faith
in Jesus Christ and were so deeply filled with the spirit of
salvation. I wish we might realize it and encourage it,
and I wish we might have faith enough to encourage
young men to go on in the truth and meet the great prob-
lems of Jesus Christ.
Lewis E. Stout : I would like to second Rufus M.
Jones' motion, but Edwin McGrew rose early in this ser-
vice and I think we should hear him.
Edwin H. McGrew, of Oregon : I feel very deeply,
and I think I ought to feel very deeply, along the lines
that have been suggested this afternoon . From the little
experience that I have had in one of the most struggling
institutions that has ever existed — I speak with all kind-
ness and respect of Penn College — I know what the
struggle has been. I went there under protest ; but I was
a Quaker, and I loved the Church and the institution,
not because I had better advantages or equipments — but I
am glad I went. And then I went from there to an insti-
tution that is yet more struggling and needy ; and so I
think I ought to feel deeply on these lines to-day. There
is just one question that I desire to emphasize ; that is
what is suggested by the question , ' ' Ought we to quit main-
taining the Friends' institutions? Have they proved of
sufficient value to the Church to compel us to believe they
should be maintained ? I think if we take even a hasty
survey over the work of the various Yearly Meetings,
especially in the West, the question will be answered.
None of our institutions, in my judgment, have any rea-
son for apologizing for their existence. I am sorry to
say our experience in a very great measure is simple ; but
with all that, under the direction of the Lord, we have
touched lives for God that never would have been reached
had .it not been for that little institution in the Great
West. Sometimes the work is discouraging, but I do
rejoice that we can bring the message that by our strug-
gle there great blessings have been brought to the lives
of men.
OF THE CONFERENCE 2 °3
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : I arose to
make one particular suggestion, and this suggestion has
grown out of a great deal of experience and interest in
our educational work. I suppose that, as a teacher and
President, I have been connected with more of our educa-
tional institutions than any Friend in America. I do not
know how many more I shall be connected with before I
die but I know the struggle of these institutions. I was
in Earlham College when the first dollar was given ; I
was President of Wilmington a long time before the first
dollar was ever thought of for endowment, and I was
President at Penn for a great many years before the first
dollar of endowment was put into the hands of that insti-
tution ; and I say in all humility that no Friend in
America has absolutely given more time, more of his life
to educational institutions than I have given. I am
ashamed to say it, but I never received a respectable liv-
ing salary as a Professor of a college or President, that
would enable me to live as a college Professor or Presi-
dent ought to live, and I never got into a position in
which I received a respectable living salary as a citizen of
the country until I went into work entirely outside of the
Church. And yet, I am glad I did all the work, and I
feel to-day that the fruits of it are appearing in very many
lives. I now come to the particular suggestion. You
will excuse my personal reference which it is not at all
my habit to make. I think if there were any proofs
needed of the value of these educational institutions we
have them in this conference. There are forty men and
women in this conference that have been Professors and
Presidents or students of the single College of Penn in
Iowa, and I suppose that there are many that have been
students, or Professors or Presidents of Earlham College.
The Chairman of this conference is the President of one
of our institutions which has a financial father who is
going to put it very rapidly into the forefront of the Ameri-
can colleges so far as money is concerned. I suppose the
subject before this meeting is the Scope and Work of this
Committee on Education. I have this suggestion to
make, that, when it is organized, the Committee ought at
204 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
once to take up as a committee of the whole body of
Friends in America, the immediate endowment of our
present existing institutions. Take them up one at a
time ; apply to the whole body of Friends, and throw its
entire influence into one college at a time until it is en-
dowed with a quarter of a million or a half million — all
of those that do not already have that amount of money.
Guilford College is now in the field for an endowment of
one hundred thousand dollars. This Committee might do
this within a year. Then this Committee might tackle
Wilmington, and give them a hundred thousand, and ask
the whole Society of Friends in America for it ; then help
Pacific College by giving it one hundred thousand, and as
before make the appeal to the whole Society of Friends in
America. It would only take one dollar a head for us to
put down one hundred thousand dollars a year. They
might also remember Whittier, and when they have gone
the rounds and have the institutions up to this basis, they
might commence the process right over again and give
them another hundred thousand. This could all be done
within the next ten years, and every one put on a sound
financial basis, and then there would be time to consider
as to whether or not a new one should be opened in Texas
or Mexico, or Cuba or somewhere else.
S. Adelbert Wood, of Ohio : I think it might be
well for them to be graded from the standpoint of the
parents. As parents we have clamored throughout the
years for guarded education. I think it ought to be a
part of the work of the Board to see especially that our
children do have a guarded education, that our children
may go to these places of learning and come home with-
out their faith impaired in the Scriptures ; that they would
come home with confidence in the Christian religion that
nothing shall impair that confidence in the vicarious sac-
rifice of Jesus Christ. A large proportion of our Presi-
dents and Professors to-day are Christian men and women
whose influence is such that we are glad to have our chil-
dren come under their influence ; but we do know posi-
tively that the influence of some in other places tells upon
the students, so that when they come to our homes they
OF THE CONFERENCE 205
come with their faith impaired, if not destroyed, in the
Bible as authoritative and as the Word of God, and for
that reason we desire the Board of this Five Years Meet-
ing should exert an influence, as far as it is possible for
them to do so that this may be eliminated from our
schools.
Aaron M. Bray, of Oregon : I want to endorse with
all my heart the expressions that have been made. This
is certainly true, the faith of our young people is often
impaired. They have come home to us scarred and
wrecked and ruined so far as religious belief is concerned.
The Clerk : The Secretary will please read the
motion.
The Secretary : I move that the subject now under
consideration be referred to the Board on Education with
the instructions to present it, after practical consideration,
to this meeting.
(The motion was carried.)
The Clerk : We are now ready for the next sub-
ject, " The Finances of the Five Years Meeting."
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : I want to take a
minute to say I have known people that were brought up
in preachers' families under the very best of religious in-
fluence, and they went off and did not believe in the
Bible. I do not wish any aspersions cast on the educa-
tional institutions of the Friends.
THE FINANCES OF THE FIVE YEARS MEETING.
By Timothy Nicholson
Steps should be taken to incorporate this body ac-
cording to the laws of some one of the States. At least
two delegates from each Yearly Meeting represented
should sign the Articles of Incorporation. A Board of
seven trustees should be appointed. Also a treasurer, who
should give satisfactory bond for the faithful discharge ol
his duties. An Auditing Committee of three should be
appointed by the Five Years Meeting, who shall annually,
or oftener, carefully audit the accounts of the treasurer
206 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
and of the treasurers of all the Boards and Committees,
and report to the next session of the Five Years Meeting.
The Constitution provides that the expenses of the
Five Years Meeting, including the publication and distri-
bution of its proceedings, should be apportioned to the
several Yearly Meetings according to the number of their
membership, and the railway fares according to the num-
ber of their delegates, and each Yearly Meeting will raise
its quota in whatever manner it may prefer.
For the expenses of this session, some of the Yearly
Meetings, if not all, have already made specific appropria-
tions, and they will do this again in 1906 for the session
of 1907.
For the work and expenses of the Foreign Mission
and the Evangelistic and Church Extension Boards and
other Committees of the Five Years Meeting, voluntary
contributions should be periodically solicited in every
congregation of each Yearly Meeting, arrangements to be
made therefor by the Yearly Meetings with the active
co-operation of their respective members of these Boards
and Committees. It will be desirable that each of these
collections be made the same day in all the congregations
of a Yearly Meeting.
At present the Five Years Meeting represents about
85,000 members.
For the next five years I suggest the Yearly Meet-
ings apportion for voluntary contribution a rate of ten
cents per member per annum for the American Board of
Foreign Missions; ten cents per member per annum for
the Evangelistic and Church Extension Board, and five
cents per member per annum for the other Committees of
the Five Years Meeting. These amount to only twenty-
five cents per member ; but each congregation should
raise that amount for every one of its members, including
absentees and non residents.
In those Yearly Meetings having Boards for the same
kind of service as the Boards of the Five Years Meeting,
the respective rate for the voluntary contribution may be
increased sufficiently to meet the needs of these Yearly
Meeting Boards. For instance, if a Foreign Mission
OF THE CONFERENCE 207
Board of a Yearly Meeting requires for its work, in addi-
tion to the appropriation by the Yearly Meeting, ten cents
per member, let twenty cents per member be raised for
Foreign Missions, and thus avoid any rivalry or competi-
tion between the Boards of the Five Years Meeting and
those of the Yearly Meetings.
All collections should be paid to the Yearly Meetings'
treasurers, who will remit to the Treasurer of the Five
Years Meeting its proportion of the contributions, and he
in like manner to the treasurers of its Boards.
I would further suggest that the chairman of the dele-
gation of each Yearly Meeting promptly furnish the
treasurer with the name and address of each delegate in
attendance, and the amount paid by each for his railroad
ticket from his home to Indianapolis. If any one has
purchased a round-trip ticket, let it be so reported. The
treasurer will get the sum of these fares, omitting the
round-trip tickets, double the amount, and add the sum
of the round-trip tickets and apportion this total sum
among the Yearly Meetings, according to the number of
delegates to which they are entitled.
THE METHOD AND ADVANTAGES OF THE
ENVELOPE SYSTEM AND SYSTEMATIC
GIVING.
By Phebe S. Aydelott, of New England.
I am thankful to speak on this subject, partly be-
cause it is important in itself, and partly because there is
need of reform in some churches in the management of
finances. It is a hopeful feature that we are calling
things by their right names. In other days we talked
about the ' ' apportionment of stock ' ' an expression
which carried little meaning to any but those of Quaker
pedigree. Now we speak freely of " finances," and are
seeking for a better knowledge of the principle that should
govern all our beneficence. It is a well-known fact that
formerly the current expenses of many meetings were
borne by a comparatively few adult members who were
208 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
able to give, while the younger members and those in
more limited circumstances were never solicited. The
Church has never applied the test to its birthright mem-
bers as to whether they would be willing to contribute of
their earthly substance for its support and maintenance as
the Lord should prosper them, and too often the person
received by request has not been asked to assume any
financial obligation toward the Church as a duty and
privilege. In every organization of whatever nature that
man has devised, every member must, to be in good
standing, pay his proportion of the expenses. Should
not the Christian in seeking admission to the Church fulfill
the law for love's sake and feel under moral obligation to
sustain its interests? In our denominational arrange-
ment there is now a chain of six links, — viz., the individ-
ual, the congregation, the Monthly Meeting, the Quarterly
Meeting, the Yearly Meeting, and the Five Years Meeting.
It will readily be seen that the meeting is what the indi-
viduals make it ; hence the individual is the unit of
power. If a spring is pure, the stream will be pure, and
wherever it flows it will carry blessing and comfort with
it. There is a very close relation between the spirituality
of the Church and its finances. The Holy Spirit is the
administrator of the Church. He should have charge of
all its affairs, and He will take charge of them and manage
them right if He is permitted to do so. If we recognize
His authority He will lead and make the way easy. The
Holy Spirit can create unanimity. He can transform
selfish men and women into cheerful and liberal givers,
' ' and all the Church shall know that I am he which
trieth the reins and the heart." The shortest way to a
man's pocket-book is by way of the throne. There is
money enough among Christian professors for every need
of the Church, but the spiritual life is not deep and strong
enough to bear it into the Lord's treasury, Christian
giving ought to be a distinctively personal transaction
between the giver and his Lord, but it does not follow
that the giving must be secret. The example of one who
gives systematically should be allowed to have its influ-
ence with others. God has seen fit to place the beneficent
OF THE CONFERENCE 209
work of the world upon a financial basis, and everywhere,
both in nature and in grace, does He teach us the beauty
and the value of system. Tides rise and fall in regular
succession, seasons come and go, and the planets revolve
in their orbits with absolute certainty. In the Jewish
economy God sanctified the first-born to Himself. Later
in their history, the Levites were taken in place of the
first-born, and when they were numbered it was found
that there were 273 more of the first-born than of the
Levites. Then God gave the command that five shekels
apiece should be paid to Aaron for each of these 273
in order to redeem them. Coming to the Gospel dispen-
sation the command was, " Upon the first day of the
week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath
prospered him that there be no gatherings when I come."
Has not the time fully come when we should apply sys-
tematic Scriptural methods to our Church finances ? Is
it too much to expect that old and young, rich and poor,
male and female, should unite together for this end ?
Work shared by all is more likely to be appreciated by
all. The more persons give to a cause, the more they
love that to which they give, and it is the consistent,
continuous employment of money that tells. It is .fair to
assume that the blessing of God will rest upon all legiti-
mate plans for Christian success which are intelligently
conceived and energetically carried forward, or in other
words, God will bless the means which He Himself has
ordered for the advancement of His kingdom. In the
Yearly Meeting of which I am a member, we came to the
point some years ago, when our finances needed a new
and fresh impetus. We studied the methods used by
other denominations and we learned that by the use of
envelopes for weekly or monthly free-will offerings, these
churches had increased their funds 100 per cent., and
had trebled the number of contributors. We reasoned
that the Friends have as much common sense and as
keen business ability as others and as it was Scriptural,
there was every argument in favor of adopting the plan
ourselves. For more than ten years this system has been
used. It overthrew certain ancient customs and there
2IO STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
were prejudices to overcome, but wherever it has been
adopted by any congregation it has proved successful.
The advantages of the plan are :
i st. Each one decides for himself, and by himself,
what it is his right to give.
2nd. It secures the small gifts.
3rd. It enlists the interest of a greater number.
4th. It makes giving voluntary and conscientious.
5th. It is educational and enlists the young.
6th. It makes giving a part of worship.
7th. It furnishes a strong argument to Christians to
do this for Christ's sake.
As an example of what systematic giving may accom-
plish, let us take Indiana Yearly Meeting with its 20,000
members. It is safe to say 15,000 of these have some
money in their hands that they may call their own.
Taking richer and poorer together, these 15,000 could
average for church work ten cents per week, $5.20 per
year, or an aggregate of $78,000. Let every member of
every Yearly Meeting, under like conditions, give with
system and in proportion as the Lord hath prospered him,
and the question of finance will be forever settled and the
revenune which will flow into the coffers of the Church
will be sufficient to sustain the largest plans for the bet-
terment of humanity. It is therefore of the greatest
importance, that without delay the best methods of Chris-
tian giving be introduced and habits of self-denial be
formed which will carry the Church of Christ gloriously
forward .
The Uniform Discipline contemplates the use of
advanced methods, as will be seen b}- the following
extract in Part II, Chapter XI: "Meetings are to give
careful attention to wise methods for raising funds for the
service of the Church. They shall encourage voluntary
giving, and shall make such arrangements as will extend
to every member an opportunity to contribute as he may
desire. Every member should contribute according to
his means, and a failure to do this becomes a culpable
avoidance of Christian duty." So much for the principle
that should govern the saver.
OF THE CONFERENCE 211
How shall this indispensable motive power reach the
Five Years Meeting ? In Part II, Chapter XIII, of the
Uniform Discipline we read : ' ' The expenses of the Five
Years Meeting shall be apportioned among the several
Yearly Meetings according to their membership." Each
Yearly Meeting might reasonably pay a pro-rata amount
per annum into the treasury of the Five Years Meeting
sufficient to cover all probable expenses, the same to be
forwarded near the first of each year. There is much
more dignity in having money in the treasury to draw
upon, than in having to wait for the Yearly Meetings to
contribute after the expenses have been incurred.
The objection might be made that Yearly Meetings
would have to pay for members that are simply nominal
and do not contribute to anything. But every Yearly
Meeting has this difficulty and one can sympathize with
the other in this particular. If there is the same standard
for all, no one should be unwilling to co-operate. The
approximate number of Friends in America is 93,000. It
will be safe to say that the Yearly Meetings which now
constitute the Five Years Meeting number at least
81,000 members. At the rate of one cent per member
this would receive into its treasury in one year $810.00,
and in five years $4,050.00. The Five Years Meeting is
proving that it is necessary to the growth and extension
of the Friends' Church in America. With the individual
member right toward God and with loyalty to his supe-
rior meeting, money will not be lacking to give to each
link in the chain the needed strength and efficiency
Charles E. Tebbetts, of California : I have been very
much pleased with this paper. We had a very pleasant
experience in our Yearly Meeting where we adopted
this method. I believe most of our Meetings have
entirely adopted this, and they have raised far more
funds than before. In this present year with a member-
ship of 1,300, there were $20,000 raised for our work.
Milton Hanson, of Western : I have listened very
attentively to the plans as outlined by Timothy Nichol-
son, and the plan strikes me as so wise, so practical, and
212 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
so in harmony with God's plan, that all these funds are
to be raised by voluntary contribution except the expenses
of this meeting, that I feel there is nothing to discuss.
The proposition seems to be self-evident. We might some
of us discuss some features, as there is ample room here
for talk on the various plans. I feel like moving that we
adopt it as a whole. I do not want it discussed, it is so
plain and self-evident. I want it adopted as a whole.
The Clerk : A little explanation touching the
part of Discipline that provides for the distribution of
the travelling expenses of the delegates, I think is neces-
sary. It is not clearly understood, so James Wood will
please explain.
James Wood, of New York : A number have asked
why this arrangement was put in the Discipline that the
traveling expenses should be met in the way therein prov-
ided. It is one of the most difficult practical problems
to be solved in the whole preparation of the Discipline.
The solution was met by a suggestion from two Friends
representing the larger Yearly Meetings in this country
and the West. The difficulty arose in this way, that if
every Yearly Meeting paid the traveling expenses of its
own delegates, and if the Five Years Meeting continually
met here or in some other similar locality, the Yearly
Meetings situated like California and Oregon and New
York and North Carolina, would have to pay more, much
more for their delegates to attend the Five Years Meeting
than would those who had the meeting near at home ; but
the difficulty was solved when the propositions came in,
and one was from Indiana herself, that this plan should
be followed.
Francis A. Wright, of Indiana : I did not follow this
paper, all of it, but it had a great deal in it, so when the
time came to vote I did not know what to do, but I
thought it would be better to refer it to the Committee on
Education. I am not opposed to this in any way.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : I would
like to ask Timothy Nicholson, through the Chair, if
there is any advantage in adopting it outside of the fact
that it would be in the report.
OF THE CONFERENCE 213
The Clerk : Will Timothy Nicholson please answer.
Timothy Nicholson : It is very important that this
body shall endorse it. If this body adopts it and sends
it down as the judgment of this body, it will add to its
force.
Charles H. Jones, of New England : I think our
Friend from Kansas ran against the same snag that came
from us on this side in reference to adopting these two
papers. The two are identical so far as the spirit is con-
cerned, but the suggestions are different, and in adopting
both papers it would be very difficult to harmonize them.
Milton Hanson, of Western : I move that we adopt
the plan presented in the Paper by Timothy Nicholson.
Miles White, Jr., of Baltimore: I have been ap-
pointed Treasurer, and I should like some one to explain
to me just what I am expected to do. I am asking for
information.
A. F. N. Hambleton, of Iowa : I have very great
confidence in the one who presented the paper, but it is
very nearly impossible for me to follow a paper and take
in all the details and plans when so many subjects are
touched upon, and whether it would be the right and
proper thing for the delegates of this body to vote to
adopt such a plan without a further careful consideration
of the question is very doubtful to me. I think it would
be better and wiser judgment for us to first refer this to a
committee and let them give it careful consideration.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : I did not have any
idea that any plan that would be proposed and read here
would be accepted at once. I supposed it would be
referred to a committee of one from each delegation, and
I think that would be a more satisfactory course. They
may see some places it would be better to modify . If the
mover of the resolution is willing to withdraw I think it
would be better.
Milton Hanson of Western : I will withdraw my
motion.
The motion was withdrawn.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : It has
been moved that this matter be referred to a committee
214 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
of one member from each delegation to be chosen by the
chairman, and I second this motion.
( The motion was carried.)
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : I suggest that this
committee take into consideration what Miles White, Jr.,
the Treasurer has asked. He wishes to know what his
powers and his duties are.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : You will notice in the pro-
gram for to-night at 7:30 is the Discussion of a plan for
united action for the Supression of the Liquor Traffic, and
the committee makes this proposition that James Wood
is to have ten minutes, Rufus M. Jones twenty minutes,
Mary E. Cartland twenty minutes, Robert E. Pretlow ten
minutes, Edmund Stanley ten minutes and Edwin H.
McGrew ten minutes.
Esther G. Frame, of Wilmington : There is only
one woman on for this evening. I think we should be
better represented. We have women that are just as
smart as the men.
A Delegate : We put two women on the list and one
of them would not serve, and there is one left yet. My
opinion is that the Business Committee perhaps think it
best that when we get through with the speeches it will
not be best to throw open the discussion.
The Clerk : If the Conference will select a woman she
may have eight minutes of my ten, and if she is making
a good speech I will not stop her until she has used the
other two.
Samuel L,. Haworth, of Nebraska : Has any provi-
sion been made for the program for the next Five Years
Meeting.
The Clerk : Heretofore the programs have been
prepared by committees. A committee for this service
will have to be appointed in this meeting.
Samuel E- Haworth, of Nebraska : I think we are
leaving a good many things until the closing hours. I
believe it would be a good idea to attend to some of these
things. I move that the chairman of the delegations be
instructed to name the committee for the next five years,
one from each delegation.
OF THE CONFERENCE 215
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : I think
this is not quite the form the subject should take. It will
be necessary before this Five Years Meeting closes to
have a number of persons to constitute the Executive
Committee to represent the Five Years Meeting, and they
will look after the matter of the program , and I hope the
Business Committee will take that subject into considera-
tion.
The Clerk : The Business Committee will attend
to this matter in due time. I think there is no question
but that the Business Committee will give us information
in reference to all subjects that should claim our attention.
They have them under consideration at the present time.
The names of the Foreign Missionary Board as far as
reported were read.
Adjourned after prayer by a delegate.
Fifth Day Evening, Tenth Month, 23.
The Chairman : Let us have a few minutes of quiet
before we enter upon the business of the hour.
Prayer by Rufus M. Jones, of New England, and
Mary A. Sibbitt, of Kansas, and singing "All hail the
powers of Jesus' name."
The Clerk: Our subject for this evening is "Some
Plan for United Action for the Suppression of the Liquor
Traffic . ' ' The Committee announced the speakers and the
time of each at the close of the last session. Since that
time there has been added the name of Emilie Underhill
Burgess, of New York. The first speaker of the evening,
James Wood, of New York, will have ten minutes.
James Wood, of New York : The subject before the
meeting this evening is a proposition sent to this Five
Years Meeting by the New York Yearly Meeting. That
proposition has had the approval of a number of other
Yearly Meetings and thus comes to this meeting with the
united endorsement of those meetings. The Business
Committee have asked me to make a statement as to just
what this proposition is, and what the subject is that is
now before this meeting. In one of the New York Yearly
2l6 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Meetings, there was held some two years ago, a temper-
ance meeting, and at that temperance meeting the
question was asked by the chairman, " Why is it that the
Church of Jesus Christ does not exert a more potent influ-
ence in opposition to the liquor traffic, for if the Churches
of Jesus Christ would unite on this matter they could
control it." The answer to that question was given then,
as it has been given since everywhere, and it is well
understood by you that the Christian people of our land
are not united, because none of the propositions for the
suppression of the liquor traffic have met with the
approval or united judgement of the Christian people.
There could be no other reason. The Quarterly Meeting
sent the Yearly Meeting a proposition to lay this subject
before the Five Years Meeting, with the view of having
Friends, and the members of the Christian Church through-
out the land ascertain what they could unite upon, so
that they as with one voice and one hand might act, and
their influence might be felt everywhere throughout the
land. This proposition was made because of the well
understood fact that men cannot walk together unless they
be agreed. And the great question we are confronted
with is to ascertain how far we can agree to walk together,
because just so far, and not one bit farther, can we have a
united Church and the influence of the united Church
upon this great question. Now I proposed to ascertain
whether by any conferences with all the Christian
churches in the land what could be agreed upon in this
very great and very serious proposition. In order- that
we might come to a better understanding of how the
other churches might possibly consider it, I took occasion
to get the best information I could obtain on this matter.
I consulted with the presiding Bishop of the M. K- Church
in this country, he who was chosen to preach the official ser-
mon at the funeral of President McKinley in the Capitol at
Washington. I stated what the proposition was to that
eminent Bishop of the M. E. Church and I said to him, "It
was very important for us to have some understanding as
to how such a proposition might be received, if we should
send one out from the Five Years Meeting of the Society
OF THE CONFERENCE 217
of Friends to the Christian churches of all names through-
out the United States." He gave the subject very care-
ful consideration. He said, "It will depend very much
upon the appeal or the invitation you send out to the
Churches to meet in a conference for this purpose, and
next it will depend upon the persons, the individuals
whom you appoint. They will be most thoroughly invest-
igated by every Christian body before they take action
upon your proposition, " and he said further, " I want to
say to you if you appoint extremists of any sort upon
your delegation you had better never issue the call ; but if
this matter is undertaken in the spirit you state it to me, it
you appoint persons of sound judgment and well known
character, I can say that the Methodists of this Country
will respond most heartily on your proposition, and I
believe the other denominations of the land will also most
cordially unite with you.
I endeavored to see Dr. Henry Van Dyke, the
Moderator of the Presbyterian Assembly, I was unable to
see him, but I saw a person that was very near Dr. Van
Dyke. He was an official in the Presbyterian Church, and
he spoke to me practically in the same way as the Metho-
dist Bishop had spoken to whom I have referred. An
official representative of the Congregationalist Church gave
me practically the same answer, and I have reason to believe
from what I have learned that the Baptist Church will
consider that the occasion is ripe for this movement.
Now, dear Friends, that is just the proposition that is
before us to-night. To my mind it is one of the greatest
of which the Society of Friends has ever undertaken to
consider. It carries with it a very great responsibility,
and a dignity of purpose that is immeasurable. If God,
the Holy Ghost, leads us forward in this matter let us go
forward with boldness ; but if we cannot be united and
there appears to be dissent among us in regard to this
proposition, let us not consider it further. The Business
Committee have taken this matter under consideration,
and if it be apparent that the Holy Spirit has set his seal
of approval on this proposition here to-night they have
delegated me to present to you the draft of a call from
2l8 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
this conference of the Church for your consideration, but
not otherwise. The Business Committee have considered
that the best possible opening of this subject would be a
simple, impartial, historical statement of the propositions
that have already been presented to the American people
upon this great subject. Fortunately we have one who
is exceptionally well informed in this particular. Rufus
M. Jones will make an historical statement and give us
the several propositions that have already been before the
American people.
The Clerk: We will now hear Rufus M. Jones,
of New England.
Rufus M. Jones, of New England : My dear Friends:
During the leisure of the last twenty-four hours I have
tried to prepare my mind for an impartial discussion of
this great subject, the greatest economic problem that is
before the American people, the liquor problem which
confronts us to-night. The receipts from the sale of
intoxicating drinks last year amounted to one billion two
hundred and fifty million dollars, that means that from the
moment I was born into the world had I begun counting
dollars without stopping a second, I should not have fin-
ished this total yet in my whole lifetime. One billion
two hundred and fifty million dollars, the amount of
money spent. That helps you to realize the greatness of
the economic problem that is involved in the subject
before us. The moment you touch it as asocial question,
I need not tell you, you are face to face with the most
difficult social factor that has ever been presented in the
history of the world, because without entering into an
enthusiastic discussion to-night, because I speak impar-
tially, it is a recognized fact that crime which is cer-
tainly on the increase in all civilized countries grows very
largely out of the problem of the saloon interest now
before us. In fact, almost every one of the social dis-
eases of modern civilization is fed in the saloon. I believe
it is a historic fact that there has been no other single
influence that has so brought corruption into American
politics as the saloon question. I cannot speak fully
to-night, for time will not permit. This awful curse fixes
OF THE CONFERENCE 219
itself upon the individuals of our community, and blights
and spoils their lives, and makes wrecks wherever it puts
its cold hands. If one of us could imagine living with a
man who comes home drunk, if we could imagine that
situation, we should know a little about what is taking
place in millions of homes to-night when men come home
after their evening's debauch. We spent about twelve mil-
lion dollars on our foreign missionaries over the world, and
right at home our citizens spent about one billion two
hundred and fifty million dollars on intoxicating drinks ;
if we cannot do anything to stop that issue in our country,
then the question comes up as to whether it is any use
for us to throw out kindly hands toward the poor
heathen. If we cannot do anything for one shall we touch
the other ? Now, how shall we deal with it ? First,
every Christian man in the world must be a total abstainer.
But that is only one little bit of the opportunity in dealing
with this problem, for though every Christian man should
abstain, it would not solve the problem. It is still with
us. Drinking liquor is grounded upon abnormal appe-
tite, and you must realize this situation before you can
deal with it. Now it seems that the situation at present
means that it has to be dealt with not passively but
aggressively. You can burn a hay-stack or a brush-pile,
but you have no right to set fire to a building in the city,
for the moment you endanger another man's house the
law touches you. We have found that it is dangerous to
have men spit on our streets because it carries disease,
and in many of our cities a penalty of $500.00 attaches to
the act, because it is dangerous. We have discovered
that one of the worst diseases in America, or any country,
comes from the bite of a mosquito, and though we never
liked them and could not see any use for them, we did
not organize to fight mosquitoes then, but now we have
the legislature appropriating large sums of money to drive
the mosquito out of existence. In Massachusetts they
have spent days and nights discussing what to do with
the Buffalo Moth, because it has come to be such a pest.
If we have to fight spitters, Buffalo Moths, and mosqui-
tos, how much more aggressively should we go to work
220 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
to fight the liquor traffic. What methods can we use in
fighting it ? Various methods have been tried by which
to fight it. First, there is the license method. The
license method is based upon the fact that there is no
inherent right for any individual to sell intoxicating
liquors, so he must have a license. Under the license
system there has never been a successful method in deal-
ing with the saloon. It sanctions the whole business.
Under this method it permits the immorality to go on for
money. We do not believe this is right. The system
has provided occasion for the most extensive corruption,
and it is there the liquor traffic has laid its hands upon
politics. The saloon has been driven to this for pro-
tection. I believe the license system has not reduced
drunkenness. You remember the man who went into
court and gave three reasons why his client was not
present. One was, his wife was very sick that particular
day; second, there was no horse to be obtained for his
getting there ; and third, he was dead. Having the third
reason presented to the Court, it was not necessary to
present the other two. Another system we have is the
so-called tax system, which differs somewhat from the
license system. Here the State lays down certain con-
ditions under which the liquor may be sold. It pro-
vides that business must be carried on within certain
definite lines : for instance, it prohibits the sale of
liquor on Sunday ; to minors ; from being sold within a
certain distance of a church or school-house. In Ohio,
they provide that every one who sells shall pay a tax of
$250.00. There are some other provisions in the Ohio law.
By the Mulct law in Iowa, every man who sells liquor is
taxed $600.00, and he must give a bond of from $300.00
to $5,000.00. In Iowa, he must have a paper signed by
one-half of the voters, and if the town is a small town he
must have sixty-five per cent, of the voters. In New
York, there is the Raines law, and a very high tax,
graded somewhat as to the size of the town. The Raines
law provides that all saloons that have Hotel attachments
may sell liquor on Sunday. I think, perhaps, the worst
feature of this law is that it raises such a revenue. The
OF THE CONFERENCE 221
revenue was eleven million six hundred thousand dollars
one year ago, which takes so much directly off the indi-
vidual taxes. Another method dealing with it, prohibition
is also well known to us ; it is the attempt to stop the
traffic altogether, or to stop the manufacture, and thereby
stop the sale. There are two methods on the statutes
for getting at it. It has been tried by seventeen States
in the United States, at various times in their history,
and it is now in operation in five of the States. The
great feature is that it drives the traffic out of operation in
any city where it is in force, it removes temptation from
the young ; they do not see liquor and smell it everywhere
they go. You do not see men drinking, and in large dis-
tricts it is made practically impossible to obtain intoxi-
cating drinks. In times of great moral earnestness it has
succeeded in driving the traffic out of the State. Now
there are no objections that I know of to such a system, it
it would work. When it does not work, of course, it is the
fault of the people. But in States where it is or has been
in operation, there has generally been great difficulty in
competing successfully in the rebellion against the law.
I use the word that ought to be used — " Rebellion."
When a law is not enforced, and when nobody promises
to enforce it, or where the mayor of the city comes and asks
whether people want it enforced, this is nothing but rebel-
lion. The demand for liquor has been a very serious diffi-
culty, and in prohibition States bogus drug stores have
sprung up in all directions, as we all know. A man
came into one of these prohibition towns one day and
wanted to know if he could get a drink quickly. The
gentleman answered that he could not get one. The man
still asked if there was no way at all by which he could
get a drink, and the gentleman answered that he could
only get a drink if he was bitten by a rattle-snake.
He then said, " Do you know where there is a rattle-
snake ?" The gentleman told him that one of the neigh-
bor's boys had a pet snake. The man asked where the
boy lived. He went down there, but in a short time came
running back and said, " I must have a drink, there are
twenty-five people standing around there waiting for a
222 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
chance to get at the snake. ' ' So that has been the exact
situation. I was born and brought up under a prohibi-
tion law, cast my first vote for the amendment of the
State Constitution. I watched it, believed in it, and I
believe in it to-night, and yet we must face the facts. I
have something very interesting to show you to-night. It
is the latest seizure. The box was obtained in the city of
Portland, Maine, where the sheriff gave his life in an
effort to enforce this law and put down the rebellion
against it. This was seized by the sheriff, it is a perfectly
harmless looking box, you could take it with you
anywhere. Take off the cover and this is what you
have inside. (Here shows a Kentucky whiskey bottle.)
This bears the mark of W. B. Samuels and Company,
Fifth District, Kentucky. Of course, you have read of
the magnificent work of Sheriff Pearson. You will see
some of the difficulties which confronted him. Men will
do absolutely anything to get liquor. There was a case
of a man that was put in the asylum to keep him from
getting drunk. He went out into the yard one day and
cut off his hand, and then asked for whiskey to put the
bleeding stump in. They brought the whiskey and he
put his arm into it, but he drank the whiskey from
around it. This is an exaggerated case of an abnormal
appetite. I tell you, Friends, we do not know anything
about it. We cannot conceive it. We must realize and
treat this matter accordingly. Of course, there are other
phases of prohibition which we have not discussed to-
night. I can only treat of it as it is in our present condi-
tions of society.
Local option is another method. It has been tried
in a great many of the States, and the difference between
local option and State prohibition is that it is often
impossible to get in the whole State a sentiment that
will support the law, and so a community here and there
backs the law. In Cambridge Massachusetts, a city of
nearly 90,000 inhabitants there is not a single drop of
liquor sold. I suppose that is the largest city in the
world free from liquor selling, but you must remember
that in fifteen minutes you can get into Boston. But a
OF THE CONFERENCE 223
number of Massachusetts towns have absolutely prohibi-
tion as a result of this method, for each town decides
whether it wants prohibition or not. I suppose there are
no laws quite so good on the statute books as the Missouri
law; I mean their local option law. It provides that
each ward of a city shall itself decide whether it will have
any liquor sold within that ward or not, and if it is settled
by the vote of the ward that liquor may be sold, then a ma-
jority of the residents must sign the paper. That puts the
control into the hands of the people. The State Prohibition
laws ought to stop the liquor traffic ; the idea is right, but
you know of the results that have followed in the past.
The Dispensary System is another of the recognized meth-
ods that have been followed in dealing with the liquor
traffic. In South Carolina we have the only instance of it in
this country that I know of. One of the advantages of
it is that it takes away the personal profit, for the man
who sells it gets nothing out of it excepting his salary as
an officer. The would-be purchaser must make his
request for liquor in writing, leave a blank signed, and
get his liquor and go home. No liquor can be sold to a
minor under any condition, nor to habitual drunkards.
It can be sold only in the day time and never to be drunk
on the premises, and the man who sells it is paid a certain
salary, and no matter how much or how little he sells the
profit is just the same. One half of the profit goes to the
State, one quarter to the county, and one quarter to the
town. This method has other advantages. Gambling is
prohibited, and treating is impossible, and the towns are left
free to have prohibition if they want it. But the State has
the monopoly of the liquor business, and the State sells it
to its people and thereby reduces the taxes. One plan is
to have a public dispensary where liquor can be sold,
where every cent of money is to be used to build substi-
tutes for the saloon where people will be educated not to
use the whiskey. This is the plan of Joseph Rowntree.
The money will build gymnasiums, recreation-rooms,
etc., where the poor people can go and spend their spare
moments, and where they can recover from the effects of
the saloon. Now this I believe is an historical account of
224 STENOGRAPHIC RKPORT
our dealing with this great problem, and I believe it is
clear to everyone of us that not one of these methods have
been successful in stopping the sale of liquor. We have
made some inroad upon it, we have taken some great
steps, but we have done very little to destroy the business
itself. I feel hopeful. I want to state two or three hope-
ful things before I take my seat. I think the most
hopeful side of all has been the decision of the Courts in
the great case that is very familiar to the Indianapolis
people, the decision which we should keep well in mind.
The Court has decided first that the saloon-keeper is
civilly responsible for damages. If a man is thrown out
of his occupation the family can get damages ; the land-
lord that rents property for the use of a saloon is also
responsible. License is no protection for a man. If he
does damage he is responsible for it. Secondly, that an
orderly saloon in an orderly neighborhood is necessarily
disorderly and is therefore a nuisance.
The great bulk and force of the work against the
saloon is helped by the fact that many of the larger cor-
porations and organizations refuse to employ a man who
drinks. He can not work on a railroad, he can not
work where he endangers lives, and indeed no man wishes
to employ a' man who drinks. The great law of the sur-
vival of the fittest is weeding out drunkards, though very
slowly. The offspring of a drunkard is a weak man; he
cannot stand with the offspring of the man who dees not
drink. The Christian forces of society are working against
the saloon. Who should be the representatives of God in
this world if not the Christian Church, and if we are
looking for a good organization of the work for God in
the world where should we look for it except in the
Christian Church, and in our hearts. This liquor traffic
should be stopped, then let us with one mind and one
voice call upon Christ's name, and come together to see
if we cannot discover some method to stop this great evil
about which I have been talking.
The Clerk : We will now hear from Mary E. Cart-
land.
Mary E. Cartland, of North Carolina: Reforms move
OF THE CONFERENCE 225
slowly, but they do move, and they never go back. This
is true of temperance. The time is ripe for such a step
as that before us. The Women's Christian Temperance
Union, the greatest organized effort against this evil, has
been largely educational. " Organize, agitate, educate,"
has been its motto. It is fitting that the plan proposed
should originate with Friends. If the churches could
only unite, bow much could be done! The Church
should give itself to this great work.
The Clerk : The next in order will be Robert E. Pret-
low.
Robert E. Pretlow, of Wilmington : I trust the
audience will forgive me for two or three personal refer-
ences. I have the honor of being an original woman's
crusader, that tremendous movement that started out
against the saloon, and awakened the conscience as no
other movement has ever done. We did a great deal of
good but the saloon kept increasing. I have the honor
of being a charter member of the Prohibition Party in the
State of Indiana, and the Prohibitionists have stood
together, and talked, and voted, and used clubs unwisely,
and have done a great many other things, and have pro-
voked a tremendous amount of thinking, and have
awakened a tremendous amount of conscience, and the
saloon kept on growing, and kept on increasing. I
lobbied for the Nicholson Bill in Indiana, and we got it,
and the liquor traffic was absolutely unmoved, and the
saloons in Indiana are more numerous to-day than they
were before. In Indiana, Ohio, and Arkansas I have
helped in local option contests, and we have driven
saloons out of communities, and have saved men and
boys in those communities, but the liquor traffic has not
felt the little we were able to do. We have been work-
ing along these various lines and some of us have gone
down into our pocket books, and have conributed to this
great cause that Rufus M. Jones has referred to, and we
have secured the magnificent decision from Judge
Higgins, and the saloon passed out from the control of
the man into the control of his wife, and the Judge was
defeated for nomination by the party that had put him in,
226 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
before, and a liquor man nominated in his place, and
before the opposition he was Speaker of the Legislature,
but the liquor man was chosen Speaker. I bring this
before our notice not to discourage us, but to enforce
upon our minds and consciences the one idea that the
question is yet unsolved. Every effort towards righte-
ousness has God's blessings upon it. We have been
doing the right thing, but we have not done it
adequately yet. But because these methods have failed
and other methods have failed I do not think we should
lose hope and lose courage. I don't believe that the
Church of the Living God and the God of the living
Church is to be baffled in this fight. Victory is to come
but it may yet be that God must smite the sea and divide
it before us before we are going to be able to cross over to
the promised land of victory. I believe that some extra-
ordinary method that has not been tried is called for in
the churches throughout all these different Yearly Meet-
ings, that have been sent to this body, with the request
that we call all Christians together everywhere and get
down before God on our face in prayer before Him. But
some say ' ' What method are you going to propose ? If
we knew what to do we would not need to call this con-
ference. If we had found a method that we know is
going to succeed there would be no need of this. Resolu-
tions will not solve the question. If strong resolutions
would have solved the question the saloon would have
been gone out of Indiana years ago. They will not solve
it. Laying aside our resolutions for a moment — our pet
idea can't we altogether keep this one idea before us the
absolute extermination of the saloon, and ask all Chris-
tians to help. In the meantime Friends object that we
cannot get all of the churches together for some years.
There must some time elapse. In the mean time Friends
try to get the saloons out of your towns. Keep at work
for the Nicholson Law and prohibition, vote a clear white
ballot that counts for God and conscience if we do not
elect anyone. Local optionists keep on working in your
own communities ; you who believe in education keep on
educating, work along these lines with redoubled vigor,
OF THE CONFERENCE 22 7
and keep our mouths closed from saying anything about
our brother that is working in another way, and spend
the years that must elapse in earnest prayer to God that
the light from the eternal throne may burst out on this
question, and that the Captain of our Salvation shall take
command and lead our forces on to victory.
The Clerk: We will now hear from Edwin H. Mc-
Grew.
Edwin H. McGrew, of Oregon: RufusM. Jones has
said something about the liquor traffic to-night but he has
not told us all about it. Our hearts have been stirred with
these remarks that have come to us this evening. We
have had much said about plans that have not yet worked
satisfactorily. I agree very heartily with what Robert E.
Pretlow has said. The time has come when we must face
this question. The Friends ought to do something very
definite. I cannot sum up what has been said, but I
think we should face this question as we have faced other
questions that we cannot always understand, believing
that God lives and that he is able to work out these things
and make a way when there is none. I believe that I
have no preconceived notions that I cannot give up, I have
no resentments that will hold me if I know my mind
before God, from acting in this matter impartially as a
Christian man before his Maker. Shall we not approach
this in a most prayerful spirit? God will make the way.
Emilie Underhill Burgess, of New York : We
should not be discouraged. The battle is not yours but
God's. There are many views of what should be done.
We shall have to meet the saloon where it is, and take
away its props. I trust that some action may be taken
that we may unite with other churches.
Edmund Stanley, of Kansas : I believe we have had
enough. This is not the year to turn to Kansas for the
settlement of great social or political questions. It is
said that when Kansans fail to raise a good crop of corn or
wheat they are sure to raise a new crop of political or
social ideas for the world. This year we have a most
magnificient crop of corn, and a fair crop of wheat. It is
not the time to look to Kansas for new ideas along these
2 28 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
lines. I presume Kansas is given a place on this program
because she has taken some advanced positions on this
question. I am from a prohibition State and we accept no
compromise propositions; but I want to endorse the remarks
that were made by Robert E. Pretlow when he said that
we must work on in whatever lines we may be working.
We may differ in our opinions and in our methods, but
we are all coming to the same point, we are striking the
same enemy, and with every stroke are doing effectual
work. In the state of Kansas we have saloons in a large
number of the towns and cities ; but the saloon every-
where under the law is a public nuisance. Whiskey is
outlawed and the saloon keeper is considered an anarchist.
We are trying to teach the people of Kansas to recognize
this fact. We cannot take care of the toper but we are
trying to take care of the boys. We get into a great
hurry sometimes, and think reforms come too slowly.
We should not expect great reforms to come in a day.
In our educational work in public and private schools we
are emphasizing the point that the boys in the schools
must be taught to be honorable American Citizens ; and
that to be American Citizens they must be law-abiding,
must recognize the law of the land as authority, and
must accept it whether they like it or not. Whenever we
raise up a class of voters under the teaching that obe-
dience to the law is necessary to make good citizens, we
will help to solve this question. We are not here to-night
to tell you the best way to solve it. We are trying one
way, and propose to stay by it unless we are sure of a
better. The editor of one of the most prominent political
papers in the State, and one who has made a fight on pro-
hibition, said recently that he never expected to see
Kansas go back on that law, much as he hated and
fought it. Reforms never go backward. There is
nothing new for us here to-night. If we are trying to find
an easy way to solve this problem we will be disappointed.
Take from the saloon the protection of the law, and the
saloon keeper is not the brave man he appears to
be; he is a coward and is ready to run at the first attack.
If I were asked for a practical plan for operation I would
OF THE CONFERENCE 229
say, L,et us stand for the right, and pledge ourselves as
men never under any circumstances, anywhere or at any
time, to vote for any man unless he is known to be right
on this question. There are enough men in every county
in the State of Kansas, with probably two or three excep-
tions, that are in favor of the enforcement of law, to
compel every political party that has a foot-hold in the
State to nominate men who have honest convictions on
this subject, and will stand for the enforcement of all
law. The official positions that have to do with the
making and enforcing of laws are the ones that require
attention. I cannot hope that through any political party
organization positive and lasting reforms of this kind can
come. Reverses in politics will come and often with fatal
effect. The refusal to support unsafe men is a common
ground for all regardless of party, and to take and
occupy such a position means the encouragement and
often the enforcing of better government.
The Clerk : What is the further pleasure of this
meeting ?
James Wood, of New York: I am selected by the
Business Committee to read for your consideration a
definite call to the Churches. ( Proposition read.)
The Chairman : You have heard the proposition
coming from the Business Committee.
Francis W. Thomas: I like this proposition very
much, and I hope we will take measures to effect this
proposition.
( Consent.)
James Wood, of New York: I offer the following
resolution and move that it be referred to the Business
Committee for careful consideration, and that the Com-
mittee should present a resolution carrying out the propo-
sition before us.
(The motion was carried. See Minutes, Minute 84.)
The Clerk : What is your further pleasure.
Robert E. Pretlow, of Wilmington: I move that we
now adjourn.
(Carried. And after a prayer the meeting adjourned.)
23O STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
SIXTH DAY MORNING, TENTH MONTH 24.
The meeting was called to order by the Clerk at
9.00 A. M.
The hymn — "I Need Thee Every Hour," — was sung,
and Esther G. Frame, of Wilmington, led the devotional
exercises, and prayers were offered by J. Walter Malone,
of Ohio, and Enos Harvey, of Indiana.
The Clerk : The Recording Clerk will now read the
Minutes of the sessions yesterday.
(The Minutes of the different sessions were consid-
ered separately and approved.)
Three propositions were received by the Meeting,
viz.:
(1) From Wilmington Yearly Meeting, proposing the
preparation of a catechism ; (2) from Baltimore Yearly
Meeting, proposing a Friends' Bible School Quarterly ;
(3) the Report of the Quinquennial Conference on the
proposition to prepare a Hymnal for Friends.
After some discussion, the question was referred to a
committee, consisting of one from each delegation to be
named by the delegations.
Reports of Committees on Referred Business.
The Clerk : Have you any reports from committees ?
(Clerks answer, none on the table.)
The Clerk : I fear we may be crowded with reports
later in the sessions. If there are no reports ready we will
take up the next subject on the program.
Allen Jay, Indiana : I think it is very important that
the committees get ready to report, I am afraid by to-mor-
row they will all come up at once, and there are other
committees that will have to be appointed and will have to
get together, and I am afraid we are going to have every-
thing at the last.
Cyrus Beede, Iowa : I would like to know if it
is arranged permanently as to the time when this Conven-
tion adjourns.
Allen Jay, Chairman of Business Committee : The
arrangement is to have a session on Second Day morning
OP THE CONFERENCE 23 1
and if we do not get through we can go on for the balance
of the week.
Francis A. Wright, Kansas : It is very important
for some of us to know when we can get home.
Allen Jay, Indiana : With the days and evenings so
taken up, it is impossible for the committees to get ready
to report, but we can take up some other subjects this
morning, and then take up the reports of the committees
when they do get ready. We have power to have a ses-
sion after that if we want to, but I do not think anybody
thinks of anything else but to adjourn on Second Day.
Charles E. Tebbetts, California : We are here on
important business. We meet only once in five years,
and I hope that we are not going to rush away. I believe
that as we are here we should have our plans arranged and
if necessary we ought to stay until our work is complete.
Thomas C. Brown, Western : I notice at the heading
of this program a clause which reads, " This program may
be changed at any time by the meeting." I think it
would be unwise to try to fix definitely a time for the
adjournment of this Meeting this morning. I think we
should go on with our program this morning.
Francis A, Wright, Kansas : I did arrange to stay if
it was necessary. I asked the question because it is
important for me to know right away when I shall be
able to get home, as I have another engagement. I thought
we might take up two subjects this morning, and that
would leave a place in another session for the reports of
these committees.
Albert J. Brown, Western : Mr. President, let us
proceed with the business.
The Clerk : The point raised by Francis A. Wright is
a good one. It might be well for us to know if we are
going to introduce more than one subject this morning.
Robert E. Pretlow, Wilmington : It does seem to
me that with the days and evenings so taken up, the
committees have had very little time to give the sub-
jects consideration outside the sessions, and if we could
proceed with the program for this morning and close just
as soon as through, we might expedite business.
232 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
The Clerk : Unless there is some proposition for us
to act upon we shall proceed with the program.
METHODS OF PRACTICAL WORK AMONG
RURAL AND URBAN COMMUNITIES.
By El wood O. Ellis.
More important than method is the spirit of the
worker. Some persons are effective anywhere. Put
them in communities isolated or otherwise and they will
always make themselves felt as factors of great influence
wherever they are. But every member of the Church of
Jesus Christ ought to make himself felt as an influence
for good. There is no distinction between minister and
layman in this respect ; all are alike servants of Jesus
Christ, and to the one who has a will to work there is a
field of labor anywhere. Such persons welcome sugges-
tions from any source, and that is the reason why it is
proper that we should discuss methods.
I like, very much, the program of this meeting. It
is so filled with suggestions as to how we may work, when
we get back to our respective places of service. Work
would better centre in a town for a radius of at least two
or three miles into the country. The plan of having the
meeting-house a half-mile or so outside of the town, as it
used to be, however well it may have served its purpose
in the past, is no longer adapted to the conditions .that
exist. I do not know why this plan prevailed so much
with the Friends' denomination, but the time has come
when the town is the centre. We cannot make it other-
wise. To work against it is to work against the current
of the day.
Of work in strictly rural districts, I am not prepared
by any experience to speak. I was born a mile and a
half from town, and spent all my boyhood days just that
far from town in three different communities, but I have
always been connected with the work of a meeting in or
near the town.
OF THE CONFERENCE 233
The church building should be a centre. It is under-
stood that it is a place of prayer, of ministry, and of spir-
itual power ; not that these are confined to any one place,
but that it is especially appointed for these purposes and
dedicated to them.
The church building should also be a social centre,
supplying the social demands with social good, and thus
counteracting as far as possible the social evils of the
community. The employment of means to attract away
from evil to good is always proper.
About a year ago I was passing through a large city,
and with a friend was walking along a sidewalk, when we
came to a certain church door, by the side of which we
read these words : ' ' Come in and rest and pray.' ' I can-
not express the feeling that that sentence of hearty wel-
come brought to me. Though I could not then take
time to heed it, I felt a strong impulse to walk in, to sit
down, rest, meditate and pray. I believe the time has
come when our church buildings ought to be made a
place of welcome to the weary passer-by. We should not
permit the saloon to be open away into the hours of the
night and early in the morning, and have the church
building open only about twice in the week. Conse-
crated members of the Church should make the church
building a centre that will attract sinners and wayfarers
into its doors, and then lead them surely on to Christ.
The need of a home of welcome, with proper and helpful
attractions to persons weary, and lonely, and restless, and
seeking diversion, is a great one.
There have been many social changes in the past few
years, that have very materially changed the work for the
Church to do, and to be blind to these changes and fail
to adapt ourselves to them, is to fail in accomplishing the
most effective service for Christ. A certain man walked
upon a high bridge for the purpose of leaping from it and
ending his life. Just before the intended act, a stranger
spoke to him kindly, and soon learned from him his sad
story of distress. He was given counsel and help in a
wise and substantial way, and walked off the bridge with
a new and better purpose, and afterwards lived years of
234 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
useful service. Every member of the Church ought to
emulate the example of the stranger and discover the per-
son who is in need of brotherly love and counsel. It is
the duty of the Church to execute such plans as will bring
it best into contact with the sinful, the discouraged, the
needy, and then wisely administer to their needs.
I believe that meetings in towns might well consider
the propriety of having reading-rooms established in con-
nection with them. I was thoroughly impressed with this,
when visiting in England, and I admire the centres there
established by Friends, where persons may come in and
read, write, obtain lunch, and have a place of many con-
veniences, that is opened under the auspices of the
Church, the organization which above all others, has the
right to reach the hand of help to every human being, no
matter what his condition.
So I put it before you for consideration whether the
time has not come, when, especially Friends' church
buildings in the towns shall be provided with reading-
rooms, with books, periodicals of the day, and with pic-
tures hanging upon the walls. Here again, I was so
impressed with the pictures hanging upon the walls of
Devonshire House, Fondon Yearly Meeting, — pictures of
Friends, of historic value ; pictures that told so much
more in a moment than could be told in words. Friends'
pictures are on sale at this meeting that are appropriate
to hang in our meeting-houses, and which tell the history
of our people that is worth the telling.
I would suggest also that there be writing material —
letter-paper, envelopes, pens and ink, so that a young
man, although a stranger, may know that under the care
of the Friends' Church there is a place where he may sit
down and write to his father or friend . We may properly
become known as providing centres for convenience in
these things, where persons will come and put themselves
under the care and help of those who are spiritually-
minded, and who will lead them into the best things.
Also, I think we ought to provide more as do English
Friends, for lectures and entertainments of proper charac-
ter, so there will be an inclination on the part of the
OF THE CONFERENCE) 235
people to go to the church-building. A working Church
is a happy Church, and is one in which the members have
neither time nor inclination to talk about each other, nor
to complain. It is one of our difficulties that we do not
have enough for our members to do.
I believe the attitude of the Church ought not to be
that of condemnation toward anybody. A certain elderly-
lady reproached a young man with severity and harsh-
ness, and the result was that she closed every avenue of
influence she had ever held upon him. The Church
should be wise in its approach to individuals. Only last
Sabbath, a middle-aged woman told me the experience of
her girlhood days, when a certain Friend, whose name
you would likely all know were I to mention it, exer-
cised great control over her by the prudence and wisdom
he had. She was wild, reckless and careless and engaged
in questionable things. On one occasion he said to her,
" Does thee get something in dancing more enjoyable
than in other things? " She replied, " Well, I like it."
Then he said, " Just as long as thy conscience allows it,
go on in dancing, but watch carefully to see if there is not
a better way." In telling me of the incident she said,
" Had he condemned me sharply, I should have turned
against him, but as it was, it was not long till I was com-
pletely of his opinion and ready to defend it. I thought
he was the best man on earth and would not do anything
that I knew was contrary to his views."
There is in this a lesson for our profit. Our relation
to the sinful world should be such as to prompt men to
do right, because they respect and love, and desire to
please and honor us in this way. In the organization of
our meetings we should provide for coming into personal
contact with as many as we can. As long as there is an
unsaved soul in the community, the Friends' Church ought
to be trying to reach that soul and save it. There is a
key to every human heart and it is ours to find that key.
' ' He that winneth souls is wise ' ' is equivalent to ' ' He
that is wise winneth souls," and our wisdom is made
manifest by the true test — our success in the great work
of winning them for Christ.
236 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
The Clerk : The further consideration of this subject
has been assigned to Alpheus Trueblood.
AlpheusTrueblood, of Indiana: There are three pas-
sages of Scripture that may be made the basis of all our
Church and individual Christian life. John 16:13, "How-
beit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide
you into all the truth. " 2 Cor. 5: 14, "For the love of Christ
constraineth us." 1 Cor. 9: 22, "I am all things to all
men, that I might by all means save some." Christ and
his apostles do not furnish us with specific rules, for the
government of the Church, and for our conduct in all
the relations of life. Plainly it would be practically
impossible to do so. It cannot be done in human laws.
Instead of the attempt to meet the inventive versatility of
fraud, by a corresponding versatility in the enactment of
laws, the New Testament deals in broad principles,
capable of universal application. There is one underlying
truth which the Church must keep hold of in consider-
ing the subject of methods, and that is, that there is not
to be one idle soul among all its members. There is an
Arabian proverb which says, " He who knows not, and
knows that he knows not is simple, teach him. He who
knows, and knows not that he knows is asleep, wake him.
But he who knows, and knows that he knows is wise, follow
him." It would probably be difficult to classify our
churches, but I venture to say that the majority of us
belong to the second class.
There are very few who have any fair idea of the
situation, or any conception of the possibilities for good
which centre in the Church. Our subject takes on special
interest when it is known that eighty per cent, of the
churches in this country are in towns and cities of less than
eight thousand inhabitants, and four pastors out of every
five are in charge of town or country churches. Virtually
a large number of these churches are unorganized.
Organization is the keynote of modern civilization.
Organization is simply the proper distribution of the
working forces. This will include methods almost as
varied as the conditions of the different localities. The
commander of an army orders a certain movement when
OF THE CONFERENCE 237
the enemy is entrenched on the hill, but he changes his
tactics when he learns that the enemy has changed his
position.
Some one has said that the great hindrance to the
Church is the statement of " half-truths " and " glittering
generalities." All efforts to reach a systematic plan of
giving for the support of the Church, is met with the
suggestion, that all we have belongs to the L,ord, or the
proposition to observe Decision Day in the Sabath School
by the ' ' glittering generality ' ' that every Sabath ought to
be a Decision Day. This is true in both cases, but when
it is used as an argument against a definite time or plan
for doing things its practical effect is to weaken the work.
To ask what will become of the Church when its member-
ship is absorbed in organizations for specific work, is
very much like asking what will become of a great manu-
facturing establishment when all the wheels, belts and
pulleys are in their places, and by this a proper distribu-
tion of the power is maintained. The Church will always
be powerless when out of touch with God, and we can
only be in touch with Him when we are in harmony with
His plan ; and His plan is, " To every man his work."
In urban and rural districts the columns of the local
paper may be used to great advantage, if wisely managed,
in keeping the interests of the Church before the people.
News which the city editor might consider as entirely too
tame to suit the taste of his contingent, will, because it is
a part of the local interests of the community, be gladly
accepted by the town editor.
Often a lack of interest is due to a lack of knowledge.
The business man by persistent advertising creates a
demand for his wares. The great Biscuit Trust says
"Uneeda Biscuit" and straightway the American people
needs a biscuit or thinks it needs a biscuit which
amounts to the same thing. Not an Acme Biscuit nor
a Star Biscuit, but the one they read about. The end is
accomplished by persistent enforcement upon the con-
sciousness of the individual, of the superiority of the
article. Those of us who are divinely appointed to break
the Bread of Life ought to have the inspiration which
238 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
comes from knowing that we have the only Bread, that
will feed the hungry soul.
We have probably all heard something of the small
attendance at the Sabbath evening service in most or all
denominations. I think the matter has been magnified
beyond what the merits of case would justify. We have
said so much about the reasons why people do not attend
church that a great many have come to believe that there
is nothing to go for. Would it not be better for us to
discuss for awhile the reasons why men do go to church,
and then do our very best to provide the things they are
looking for. Evidently there is something needed, and I
believe that that something is within our reach.
The American people virtually spend their leisure
time during three or four months of the year in the
open, and it is well that they do. Would not a brief
Gospel service in the afternoon and early evening in
the parks with good singing and a short discourse full of
soul food, and suggestions of practical help along the
line of the difficulties of life, be as apt to catch the ear of
the people, as many other things, all right and proper in
their place. Experience proves that it would.
In the smaller places where there are no parks the
evening service could be changed from the house to the
church lawn, or some other suitable place, where we
would secure a larger attendance and a new inspira-
tion to this part of our work which seems to drag so
heavily. This would help men to see that it is the
message that we are emphasizing, and not the church
edifice, and the forms of religion.
The demand upon the Church in a social way is
greater now than ever before, and while men do not
attend the services with the same idea, that they would a
social club, yet as a rule the} 7 do enjoy a good social
Christian atmosphere. It will be a long time before we
can all have the " open church," but we can have right
away the open home and open heart. If we do not
have a church parlor, we may occasionaly convert the
audience room into a veritable reception room, where the
church may spend an evening at home to its members.
OF THE CONFERENCE 239
And now, finally, we can make no hard and fast rules.
It our ministers and other church leaders are men and
women of God and of close observation as we ought to be,
the matter of methods will largely adjust itself.
There are no automatic self-acting plans, that will
run the church. " Eternal vigilance is the price of lib-
erty." Plan your work and work your plan. Organ-
ization is economy of time and methods and money.
The Gospel needs sometimes a good airing. Nothing
is ever gained by magnifying our difficulties. Methods
necessarily change, but what of it, it is for us to help
men to fill the new forms of thought and activity with
the spirit of loyalty to God and love to man.
Making new church history is more important than
trying to live on the dry bones, of ancient church history.
The one aim of the Church should be, to bring men into
a higher and nobler life, and any method that will help
us to do this should not be too quickly discarded.
The Clerk : The subject is now open for general dis-
cussion.
David B. Sampson, of North Carolina : May we bow
our heads in a word of prayer ?
I wish I could express the feelings I have this morn-
ing as this subject is brought before us. We are all well
aware of the wondrous changes that have come over this
country, and especially do we realize it in the rapid de-
velopment. Throughout the country the families are
going to the busy centres of industry, and the rural meet-
ings are to a large extent separated, and it looks as
though some of them would almost be neglected ; yet we
turn again and are glad to see the meetings building up in
our towns and cities ; but the nucleus that builds up these
churches comes from the country in almost every case.
If this shall go on our country districts must still have
our support, our prayers and our effort. I know the dis-
tance between one point and another in many cases is
great, and in many places the roads are very bad. The
sacrifice is closely allied to that which is required of those
who seek the foreign field, and yet if we are going to do
the work and follow the pattern of Him who walked
240 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
through the valleys and over the hills from village to vil-
lage and from home to home, we must follow that same
course. There are the children in the country, and in a
few years they will be young men and women seeking
positions and flocking to the towns. We must get them
in the country if we expect to use them in the towns,
where they will find their future homes. I therefore earn-
estly plead for a systematic, persevering, loving effort for
those who live in the country. I want to emphasize the
opening sentence of the first speaker. More important
than all system and everything else is the spirit of the one
that goes. If he does not have a willingness to go, a real
yearning for the souls of those with whom he is thrown in
contact — it may be only once a month, as he goes from
place to place — if he does not have that spirit, he will
soon grow tired of his work and have fewer people to lis-
ten to him when he gets there ; but if he has that baptism
that comes from the great Father above, he will have a
place given him in the hearts of the people, and the chil-
dren will flock around him ; they will be glad to see him
and will learn to be interested in the cause he represents.
I desire that we should realize that this needs to be kept
up continuously. Itinerancies have done more in the little
experience I have had in North Carolina to establish
meetings and keep them going than any other one thing
that I know of ; and while we are glad to see the meet-
ings developing in the settlements, we want to remember
that they need to be continually fed by those who come
from the country. That is where we first get them, and
I pray that we will not lose sight of this, and not only
rally around the meetings which are to be found in the
meeting-houses, but that we will avail ourselves of every
cross-road and every school- house where we have no
meeting-house, and at the cross-roads and in the school-
houses we will preach the same Gospel that always
attracts and builds up, and as they come under the
power of that Gospel they will fall in line with His
work and we will have those coming on, who, when
some of us have ended our work and served our day
and been laid away, will take our places and do better
OF THE CONFERENCE 24 I
work than we have ever done. May God ever remem-
ber the rural districts.
Levi D. Barr, California: I wanted to quote a pas-
sage or two of Scripture written to all nations, that My
house shall be a house of prayer — a place of worship. It
is also declared by the great Apostle of the Gentiles that by
the preaching of the Gospel the salvation of the world is
to be accomplished. I believe as members of this Five
Years Meeting of Friends we had better be slow about
running to remedial agencies until we have extended our
commission. I know in the city, teeming with life and
the problems of life, and in the country where men and
women are absorbed with the things of this life where they
become calloused and hardened, it seems that the door-
way is somewhat closed. And other words and means
will take the place of that truth of God . But the spiritual
life of a man or woman who comes from the busy world,
from the cares of life, will not be built up or strengthened
by any institutional means whatever. I have heard on
the right hand and on the left busy men of affairs, who,
when they go to church, often at the hours appointed for
divine worship they find, so theylsay, that there are means
and methods employed to occupy the time, such as lec-
tures, soloists introduced to entertain the people, when
they need salvation. Beloved, we cannot compete with
the world in the question of entertainment. This old
world does not need entertainment. Thousands of men
and women are dancing to the music of the world, the
flesh and the devil when they ought to stop a little and
hear the Gospel, " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
perish." I believe friends, that the Church should bear
that message. Somebody may say, that is what we aim to
do, but I am sure that men and women should be more con-
cerned about hearing the Gospel ; that is what they go to
church for, and while the old Gospel ship is being tossed
here and there, there is not time in this mad rush in which
we are hurrying forward for the Church to undertake to
change things by seeking to cater to these things. I trust
that this conference shall take a position on this question
that shall not be any uncertain position.
242 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Charles H. Jones, New England : I want to empha-
size very strongly one or two points bearing on the
remarks which have been made. This question of the
relation of the Church to rural and urban communities is
certainly not of secondary importance. The matter of
idleness — there is an old saying, " Satan finds some mis-
chief still for idle hands to do." The working Church is
a growing Church. The Church that solves the problem
of how to keep its members at work, has solved the prob-
lem of its relationship to communities, whether in the
cities or country. In regard to methods — in a great
many places Friends have made a mistake, a sad mistake,
in confounding methods of work with the principles of
the denomination. The principles of the Society are
unchangeable and the methods are as changeable as the
age we represent.
A man cannot do business as his father and grand-
father did. He must adapt himself to his age and envi-
ronment. The Church must do the same in regard to the
methods she employs to carry forward the work which
has been alotted her. Every member of the Church of
Jesus Christ, as a result of his membership, becomes
a responsible party in the Church, and upon him or her
rests the responsibility of carrying out the divine com-
mission — " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gos-
pel to every creature." Every living member of a living
Church has a work in the harvest-field. It is not a ques-
tion of methods but a question of results that you and I
are interested in to-day. I want to leave this thought
and it is a practical one for ministers or laymen ; we are
all servants of Jesus Christ commissioned to preach the
everlasting Gospel.
Harry R. Keates, New York : I want to say that I
think we are indebted in these discussions to those who
have prepared the papers, though we may not agree with
the premises in the case. It was said by the first speaker
we have all, in the past, placed our batteries in the most
unfavorable position. We have placed them where the
enemy was not. I think the principle in the parable of
the marriage feast is what we ought to recognize in all
OF THE CONFERENCE 243
our work. First, the invitation was given to the house of
the King — a rich man in the center of population — they
failed to respond, and then there was the message to go
out into the streets and lanes of the city, and yet there
was room, and then there was the region beyond, and he
commanded, " Go out into the highways and hedges and
compel them to come in." John Wesley's motto was
' ' All at it , and always at it . " Sam Jones says the trouble
with the Pastoral question is that the Church calls a man
for its pastor and expects the Gospel chariot to roll on,
but generally the pastor is found in the shafts and the
people all on the inside sitting down and taking it easy.
If you will go back to the first principles of the Society of
Friends you will find that the whole body was incorpor-
ated into the life of the Church. I think we ought to
have the highest conception of the truth.
There are some methods which we ought to observe.
The Church ought to be an active force reaching out with
its influence and consciously and unconsciously bring
people to Jesus Christ. How are we going to serve Him ?
Are we going to serve Him as if there was nothing in it ?
I think there are some methods that ought to influence
the young people. In the days of George Fox, when he
went out to see how the Church was prospering he found
that some of the most startling ministry heralded from
the young, so I think in the centers of population and in
the country, the young and the old ought to take hold
and build up the Church. Our eyes ought to be open for
opportunity. The Church should send some committee to
visit every one who moves into a community and see
where he belongs. There ought to be others to call upon
him, and show their sympathy and help. These and
many others are practical methods which we ought to
take hold of. The main object is to lead people to the
Lord Jesus Christ.
Isom P. Wooton, Iowa : I have but little to say
with reference to the central work. It has been brought
out by Ell wood O. Ellis. I think the)' have spent
about eight thousand dollars at his meeting (Richmond,
Ind.) to make it practical, but this is not a rural district.
244 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
When an individual is to work in a rural district it seems
to me the first thing to do is to make a survey of what he
has to operate on. Now the central work has drawn
from the rural districts and outside of our largest cities,
the most neglected portion is from one to five miles out
of the city. Everything is centered in the city and the
young people of these districts are left out. It is the
business of one going into such desolate places to make a
centre of his own, and every one of these centres ought
to be a training school, so that when the boys and girls
move into the city they will be fitted to take up the work
there. Boys and girls that have been neglected in that
district ought to be educated in regard to religious
work. They should feel they are a mighty factor in that
work. That is a thing we ought to impress upon them,
and if we succeed we will bring these boys and girls over,
they will forget the gossip of the neighborhood, and will
labor in the Lord's work. Boys and girls in the country
are more susceptible of impressions from the conscience
side than those in the city. They see the iniquity and
ungodliness of the city more than the boys and girls in
the city who become so accustomed to seeing it, and there
is a chance to reach these boys and girls out in the
country. We must keep the boys and girls impressed
with the fact that they must prepare themselves to meet
the wrongs of the cities with positive work that at least
will modify the iniquity of the cities. It is the business
of the pastors to tell the boys and girls that out of the
great workers in the cities nine tenths of them have come
from the boys and girls of the country. It is a fact and
needs to be impressed upon them that they are in the
greatest school ever organized and by this means you can
make them feel the importance of the work they are
engaged in, and they won't want to run into the city
quickly but will wait to prepare and go to the work of
the Lord.
J. Walter Malone, Ohio: I am very much interested
in how this meeting is putting first things first, but
there are just four little words that I want to leave this
morning, the words of the Master who said "Go ye,"
OF THE CONFERENCE 245
for we cannot wait for people to come but must go, " Go
ye," "All power is given unto me," "All nations and
all people," and " L,o, I am with you always." So, be-
loved, if we come to God, who has promised all power and
let us make our meetings a fire — I have noticed people
always run to a fire — some say, well, if you are going to
keep your fire going you will have no crowd. God
will fetch the people together if we will keep the fire
going; you will have no trouble about the crowd. I
believe God wants us to keep the fire going. A man
came to our mission once from one of the worst of neigh-
borhoods and said they wanted to join the mission. Where
did you hear the Gospel ? We never heard it. When did
you meet a missionary ? I never met one. Why do you
want to join the mission ? That is the point sir, that man
from my community got up here in the neighborhood ; he
was the worst man, a drunkard, of my town and he came
back sweet as heaven and we want that same Gospel out
our way. So I want us to make our meetings a place
where something happens, which means service — lives.
We are to save the world and by the power of the Holy
Ghost we can do it. Let us preach the old Gospel of Jesus
Christ that Jesus and Paul preached and we will have the
result that they did or I will throw my Bible away. The
old Gospel is as powerful as it ever was.
James Carey, Jr., Baltimore: One of the speakers
referred to the fact that we must set our members to
work. At home there is no trouble about work. All our
factories and warehouses are running full tilt and every
body is occupied. It is not a question of being occupied,
it is a question whether we are giving enough time to
the work of the Church. Now, of course, there are a
great many people who are not their own managers.
There are a great many prosperous people in the Friends'
Church ; there are merchants and men engaged in other
business whose time is taken up very closely, but there
are others, especially the women, who, though they are
anything but unoccupied, can work out their own time
better than some of us men, and I believe w r hen we go
home from this meeting that we ought to think over the
246 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
different work this Five Years Meeting has given us to
do and the work at home, and try and arrange our time
to do it. I have thought that a real, true Friend cannot
make as much money as a person not a member of the
Society of Friends. We have a certain work to do, and
one of the first things we have got to have is the time.
We must think over very carefully how to arrange our
business and affairs to get that time, and it cannot be
gained without sacrifice.
Richard H. Thomas, Baltimore: I want to say how
very much I enjoyed the papers. I also very strongly en-
dorse the thought that the great object of the Church is to
bring souls to the Lord Jesus Christ and build up the
kingdom of God on the earth. It is very important for us
to bear in mind that there are very many ways of serving
the Lord. The best way of sowing seed is to sow seed in
prepared ground, and while it is very true that it is not the
Church's duty to amuse — it is not the Church's duty to
do anything of that kind, — yet it is the Church's duty to
have its hand on every avenue of life, to make every one
feel that it has an interest in him or her, to make the
young people feel that the desires which God has placed
within them are not simply to be left to develop of them-
selves, but to be directed and made use of. The church
that takes the position that it has no care for the amuse-
ments and things of that kind of its young people and its
old people, is very far from doing its duty. The desire
for amusement is not only natural but is absolutely essen-
tial to sound health and growth. A man never becomes
the man he ought to be unless he has the proper amuse-
ment while young. The Church should make the young
people know that it does care whether they go to bad
things or good things. I hope no one will misunderstand
me. When we come to our church services nothing
should enter into our services but the things of the Lord
and the proclamation of the truth ; anything in the way
of mere amusement is utterly out of place. The attention
of people is to be drawn to Jesus Christ — coming, dying,
rising again, and coming now into our hearts to live there
and abide there forever. There is one thought that I
OF THE CONFERENCE 247
wish to emphasize, a passing word of encouragement to
people in small meetings, you that feel that you cannot
cope with the organism in great cities. The thing for
country meetings to do is to understand the duty of indi-
vidual faithfulness. Each one can keep on the outlook
for some one to bring to the L,ord Jesus Christ, whether
we bring him to be a member of the Friends' Church
or not.
There is a saying that I believe is too true, that
" While God made the country and man made the city,
the Devil made the small town." There is no place where
there is so much wickedness as in small country villages.
There is no place where the Gospel is needed in all its
purity more than in the small country towns ; no place
where it is more important that it shall be preached than
just there ; and in these small country towns and meet-
ings no one need be discouraged, for every one who names
the name of Christ ought to feel that he has received a
commission from the Lord Jesus Christ to go after every
lost soul, and as long as there is a soul in bondage that he
has any influence over, he should strive to bring him to
the L,ord Jesus Christ.
Devi Gregory, California : I propose or move that
this matter be referred to the Evangelistic and Church Ex-
tension Board.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : We have with us a person
who has been working in Manitoba and who knows all
about this work. I should like to hear from Alma G.
Dale.
Alma G. Dale, Canada : We cannot dictate to each
other as to the methods we should pursue in our work. If
you find your place you will find it at the foot of the
cross ; you will find it in the baptism of the Holy Spirit ;
and then, as you feel the call from the L,ord you get down
and ask Him to furnish you your place, He will give it.
It may be to leave your home of comfort and go out
into the far-away places and live as the people live ; but
as you go you can realize that every soul that comes
across your path you meet and touch for good or evil, and
248 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
then you expect to give an account in the day of judg-
ment for that soul ; you go into their homes, you sit
down and eat the tough meat, you partake of the black
bread and sleep on the sod floor, and when you get to
that place you touch them for God and for Heaven and
eternity. We are living in too soft times. We talk about
sacrificing ; we are not sacrificing for God ; we are taking
the fat of the land. Come to the place where you can
divide your last dollar with some poor person and trust
God for the next one, and you will get to the place where
you can do efficient work for God. I tell you the world
has never been at such a stage in its history when it so
truly needed the Friends' Church as it needs it to-day. I
tell you oftentimes one woman can do more good on the
plains and in the slums than ten men can do. I had a
primary class in a mission Sabbath-school for a year and
had some children out of some very poor families. There
were two little girls out of one family, and one of these
came one Sabbath and the other the next, and I wondered
why it was that Jane came one Sabbath and Mary the
next ; and I noticed that when Jane came she had a blue
bow on her hat and when Mary came in she had a red
bow. That was the only difference in the dress. The
mother, to hide the deficiency in clothing, had provided
these two bows. A man would have been there for ten
years and never found out why Jane came out one Sab-
bath and Mary the next. When I go into these homes I
meet women that never hear the Gospel from the first
week in November till the first week in April. May God
help us to be right down with our brother ; get down on
the same level ; take off the cloak of pride and put on the
cloak of humility. It is no place for lazy people.
Albert J. Brown, Western : I second the proposition
made by our brother.
Solomon B. Woodard, Western : I heartily endorse
the papers and all that has been said, but there is one
part of the subject that has not been touched upon, and
that is in bringing this right into our homes, and it seems
to me we fail more than anywhere else in not bringing
the practical work right into our families. If we would
OF THE CONFERENCE 249
make the Church work — the work that we are called to
do — if we would make that the primary point above all
our secular work before our children, and talk with them
with the common sense that we apply to our business
obligations, we should educate them to have an interest
in the work that lies so near our hearts. Then when
they come in contact with individuals they will know
how to work and will have a desire to work in our Church
work.
Jacob Baker, Ohio : I believe that every sermon
ought to be new-born — ought to be under the fresh inspi-
ration of the Holy Ghost, and where that is the case and
where we are down to the level of the common people in
our lives, so that we can assist and sympathize with them
in their cares and trials, we shall have a greater hold
upon them than we could have by any human plans to
direct them.
When the matter of the country was before us — I
looked back to David as a shepherd — I looked back to
Gideon upon the threshing-floor — I looked to Elisha as a
diligent lad — and I think of the country lad of to-day
and I want to say, God bless him who has come from a
country home, and may God touch us with a real spirit
of love for the country folk, and I want us to live among
our country folks with the spirit of God that will make
us a center of attraction everywhere.
Clerk : It is moved and seconded that this subject be
referred to the Evangelistic and Church Extension Board.
(Carried.)
Clerk: We have in the audience the Rev. E. S.
Ufford, who is the author of the hymn, " Throw Out the
Life-Line," and there has come to the table a request that
we ask him to sing that hymn. If there is no objection,
and I think there will be none, we will ask him to sing
it at this time.
Rev. E. S. Ufford, of Massachusetts : I am provi-
dentially with you this morning, passing through this city
on my way to the coast, as I go to bear the Life -Line
around the world. It gives me great pleasure to sing it
to you as I go. I have sung the hymn in a great many
250 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
parts of the country — in Whitechapel , London, and in
Paris. May God's blessing rest upon this hymn as I sing
this hymn which I wrote, I hope, under the blessed inspir-
ation of the Master.
(Sang the hymn.)
(A recess of five minutes was taken at this time. )
Clerk : We will call for names to constitute the
committee which was to be selected during this recess.
• (For names of Committee on Catechism, Quarterly
and Hymnal, see Minutes, Sixth day, Morning.)
Clerk : We are now read}- for any business that may
come from the Business Committee.
James Wood, New York : The Business Committee
directs me to present these resolutions for the considera-
tion of the meeting. (See Minutes, Minute 63.)
(Reads resolutions against Lynching and Lawless-
ness.)
Clerk : We will take these resolutions separate^.
What will you do with the resolution just read ?
Delegate: I move that this resolution be received.
Robert L. Kelly, Indiana : I move that this motion
be amended to the effect that the Legislative Committee
be instructed to propose some means of presenting this to
the different Legislatures.
Clerk : I would rather have that in a separate motion.
Cyrus Beede, Iowa : I would like to have the Indian
included in that resolution.
Delegate from California : In respect to color, we
have the Chinese.
Clerk : I think the intention of the resolution is to
cover all classes. It is moved and seconded that this
resolution be referred to the Committee on Legislation.
(The motion was carried.)
Clerk : I will ask Robert L. Kelly to state his motion
again.
Robert L. Kelly, Indiana : My motion was that the
Legislative Committee be empowered to take such steps
as are necessary to bring these resolutions to the notice
of the several States.
(Motion carried unanimously)
OF THE CONFERENCE 25 I
(James Wood reads Resolution, No. 2, on Plans for
Improvement of the Negro.)
Richard H. Thomas, Baltimore : I feel rather sorry
that that has been proposed. It seems to me that the
Society of Friends, which took so much care and labored
in behalf of the Negro before he was set free and labored
for a number of years after he was set free — has been neg-
ligent to a certain extent of its duties. I do not think
the duty of the Society of Friends is exhausted by simply
having a duty on the legislative side. Therefore, I
should be very glad if the Business Committee is willing
to have the matter referred to them with the request that
they again carefully consider the matter, and see whether
the proposition made by Professor Woody is not practical
that we have a special board for the interest of the Negro.
I believe that as members of the Society of Friends that
it is a step which we should be first in taking.
James Wood, New York : The committee has given
careful attention to the point raised by Richard H.
Thomas, and it is seen at once in regard to the holding of
property some legislation would be necessary, and there
seems to be no other body in this meeting to whom this
subject could be so properly referred as the Committee on
Legislation. If referred to some other committee, it is
quite likely they will have to have aid to carry out the
plans that will be presented.
John W. Woody, North Carolina : The basis of the
proposition as suggested by our friend here simply brings
out this thought. A committee appointed by this Meet-
ing for the purpose of the elevation of the Negro can work
with better effect, in case it is not necessary for legislative
work to be done, because the work must not be in the
least sense political. Those of us in the South feel this
subject more than any of the rest of you can. The ques-
tion is right in the midst of us. The best people of the
South have made up their minds that this race must be
elevated, and this movement, should it work with the
best results, ought not in anyway to touch legislation— it
should not touch the political movements of the coun-
try in any way. For that reason a Board could work
252 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
more efficiently throughout the whole South, and it
would be very easy for the Legislative Committee to re-
inforce the other committee without seeming to have any
contact with it, but wherever you come before any Legis-
lature in the South you touch the political interests of the
country. Now, none of you know probably better than
I know that if you go there it goes through as a Republi-
can measure or a Democratic measure — it touches legisla-
tion — it comes more or less to one of these parties. Now,
if this board should be separate, and get the help of these
best white people, and then take hold of the colored race
as well as the white race, it seems to me that we could
direct a work that would be fruitful in the line of work
that we are wanting to bring about. Now, I do not
speak of this because of my interest in the white man in
the South but because of my interest in the civilization of
the country. Where I am living it is the white race as
well as the colored race — they are limited in their indus-
tries, it is our purpose to make them efficient in their
industries.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, New England : I think this
Five Years Meeting ought to show a great deal of respect
to the wishes of our friends from the South, in as much as
they know more than we do, and as tbeir judgment is
that a different course would be wise, I think we ought
to take steps to do this.
Francis A. Wright, Kansas : I would like to hear the
resolution read again.
James Wood. New York : I think the best way is to
refer it back to the Business Committee, I therefore move
that the Resolution be referred back to the Business Com-
mittee for further consideration.
(The motion was carried.)
Clerk : We will hear the next resolution.
(James Wood read resolution, 3, commending the
work done by several of the Yearly Meetings on behalf of
the Negro.)
(Motion that the Resolution be approved carried.)
(James Wood read Resolution, 4, concerning the work
of the Associated Executive Committee on Indian Affairs.)
OF THE CONFERENCE 253
(On motion, the resolution was approved.)
(Announcements were made and the meeting was
closed with prayer by William P. Haworth.)
Then adjourned until 2.30 p. m.
SIXTH DAY AFTERNOON, TENTH MONTH, 24.
The meeting was called to order at 2.20, by Ellwood
O. Ellis.
Clerk (E..O. Ellis): The delegates will please take
their places promptly and we will have a little time for
devotion and it is not a fit time for devotion unless there
is perfect quiet.
Charles W. Sweet, Iowa ; and James M. Estes, Ohio,
offered prayer.
Charles E. Tebbetts, California : I want to say, dear
friends, that I come to you with no hobbies to present.
The subject I am to speak upon is not one of my own
choosing, but I have approached it, and every step of the
way has been with earnest prayer that the outcome of this
consideration might be for the strengthening of the
Church of Christ and for the advancement of His king-
dom. I trust that in this same spirit of prayer what I shall
say shall be received this afternoon, and that whatsoever
is said shall be in this same spirit of prayerful considera-
tion — seeking the advancement of the kingdom of God.
PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF THE PRESENT TREND
OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT.
By Charees E. Tebbetts.
Every advance in man's investigation of God's work
in nature, and His dealings with man, make necessary a
readjustment — not of the Christian's faith — but of our con-
ceptions of what God has done and His ways of working.
Only God is omniscient. Man is very finite. The horizon
of his knowledge is exceedingly limited. At his best he
can but confess, with Newton, that he is but a child play-
ing upon the shore of the vast ocean of that which may be
known.
254 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Within the realm of the spirit, he is capable of con-
tact with the infinite, and may know all that is necessary
for his safe passage through the wilderness of this life
into the glories of the future ; but in the realm of the in-
tellectual he is but an interpreter of the records left in
nature of God's handiwork, and in revelation of God's
dealings with man in the past, and His purposes for man
in the future.
As an interpreter he can but " know in part," and in
this partial knowledge there must needs be many crudities
and mistakes, which can be only gradually corrected by
more careful investigation of the material which God has
placed at his disposal. It is man's privilege and duty to
search out that which may be known and reverently read
of God ' s thought in the pages of nature and revelation . To
successfully accomplish this, requires almost infinite
patience in the comparison of all the records open to him.
And the results, at the very best, can only be an approxi-
mation to the absolute truth. New sources of informa-
tion will be constantly opening to him, and these will all
the while be correcting the mistakes of previous study.
The great trouble has always been the lack of humil-
ity — in the modest appreciation of our own powers as in-
terpreters- In our over-confidence, both in scientific
study in nature and in theological study in revelation, we
have too often placed our superficial guesses at truth upon
the plane of assured knowledge. To quote a remark of
Dr. Behrends at the Ecumenical Missionary Conference,
" The great trouble with us is we know so many things
that are not so." The result has been most disastrous in
the so-called conflict between science and religion, and in
the wordy warfare of past generations between the dif-
ferent sects of the Christian Church. Fiercely has the
battle raged over questions of science — whether the earth
is round or flat ; whether it or the sun is the centre of
motion ; whether the earth was made in six of its rota-
tions, or through immeasurable ages ; whether present
forms of life were spoken into existence by theyfo/ of the
Almighty or came to be by slow changes through long
ages ; over questions of theology — predestination and
OF THE CONFERENCE 255
free will ; forms of church government ; modes of admin-
istering the so-called ordinances ; certain questions of
eschatology. Over such questions as these, men have
been pronounced heretics, excommunicated from the
Church, burned at the stake — literally and figuratively ;
the Church of the living God has been divided, the body
of Christ rent asunder, discord between brethren, suspi-
cion, anger and hatred have taken the place of Christian
love. Is it any wonder the world has looked on doubt-
ing the verities of a religion manifesting such bitter
fruits? When the smoke of battle has cleared away, it
has been found there were no irreconcilable differences
after all. The records of nature and revelation have not
been in conflict. They have been questions of interpreta-
tion only ; it has simply been shown that human judg-
ment was not infallible.
It would seem that Christians should by this time
have learned wisdom by experience and have quit their
useless controversy. We may thankfully acknowledge
that most of the old bitterness between the different de-
nominations has passed away, and that a much better
understanding exists between the theologian and the
scientist. And yet we are frequently made aware that
suspicion of brethren is not entirely passed. Every little
while some brother is impaled with the charge of heresy.
There are still occasional hints of a broken fellowship,
unless the thoughts of believers are held strictly within
the limits of the older interpretations. I trust that in a
Quaker conference Christian love may rule supreme while
we candidly discuss some of the practical aspects of the
present trend of religious thought.
I cannot speak as an authority upon the subject, as
my work for the last fifteen years has been under such
pressure in other fields that I have read no work either
expounding or opposing modern theories. It is impossi-
ble, however, for a person to intelligently read such re-
ligious and scientific articles as find place in the current
literature of the day without being impressed with the fact
that great changes have taken place in the scientific and
religious thought of the last quarter century. I suppose
256 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
it to be a fact that evolution in some form is generally,
perhaps unanimously accepted by those who have given
careful, intelligent study to the questions involved ; and
that there are no text books now issued and no institu-
tions of higher education of any standing that do not re-
ceive it as a fundamental hypothesis in all science teach-
ing. If I rightly understand, higher criticism in its rela-
tion to the Bible investigates the books contained therein
as to their date and authorship, and the place they are to
occupy as history or literature. I suppose it is a fact that
as a result of these studies the views of some upon these
points have been materially modified. The practical
questions for us are — what place shall we give these
teachings in our own scheme of thought, and what should
be our attitude as a Church in regard to them.
We may group those who devote themselves to these
studies into two classes : First, Those who investigate
from the standpoint of opposition to the Bible. Such are
likely to make extreme claims more or less sensational in
character with a fondness for startling religious people ;
they enjoy any evidences of anxiety upon their part for
the safety of their convictions. The less attention the
Church gives them the less trouble there will be from that
source. A second class, studying from the standpoint of
a Christian faith, desire to ascertain the truth. They are
constructive in their work and are the real defenders of
the faith. Because of different points of view there are
great differences in the claims made ; and most of us have
not the data at hand nor the time for sufficient investiga-
tion to rightly decide upon the merits of the controversy.
It must be left to Christian scholarship. There it may
safely be left.
A question of immediate and practical interest for us
is : " Are there any indications that tend either to excite
or allay anxiety as to the outcome. The claim is made
that there is unusual indifference on the part of the people
to the claims of Christianity ; that there is a lack of con-
viction for sin, and of real heart seeking after God. Some
assert that this indifference is caused by the views promul-
gated by modern scholars. It may be admitted that there
OF THE CONFERENCE 257
is far too much indifference among the people to their
spiritual needs. But if modern thought be in any consid-
erable degree the cause, we ought to find indifference and
skepticism greatest in our educational centres where ad-
vanced thought is supposed to exert its strongest in-
fluence.
Now the fact is just the reverse of this. There is no
organization so closely in touch with student life through-
out the world as the Y. M. C. A. I present the follow-
ing communication received a few days ago from the in-
ternational headquarters :
" New York, Oct. 2, 1903.
" Your letter of Sept. 25th making inquiry concern-
ing the religious condition of the colleges and univerities
in Europe and America has just been received. In
America evangelical Christianity is undoubtedly a more
vital power in the lives of the students than at any pre-
vious time during the last century. The proportion of
members of evangelical churches in the 690 institutions of
learning in which there are Young Men's Christian Asso-
ciations is reported to average a little over fifty per cent.
The religious influences exerted upon the students by pro-
fessors in the smaller denominational colleges are much
the same as in former decades, as far as we can ascertain.
In the large universities of an independent character the
professors do not have opportunity to exert as direct a re-
ligious influence upon students, and in not a few cases
their influence is not in the direction of positive Christ-
ianity, although by far the majority of the professors are
evangelical Christian men. On the other hand, the vol-
untary religious activities on the part of the students them-
selves exert an influence upon student life such as has
never been experienced before in the history of higher
education. The result is that there is more study of the
Bible and deeper interest in missions and a greater respect
for Christianity on the part of students than ever before,
and as far as we can ascertain a larger number of students
are led to become Christians each year than in preceding
258 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
decades. The conditions in Europe are not so pro-
nouncedly in support of evangelical Christianity. As far
as we can learn, a smaller proportion of students are evan-
gelical Christians in the positive sense of the term.
Agnosticism, materialism and rationalism are much more
common ; and yet, also in European universities a nucleus
of earnest Christian men is found in practically every in-
stitution who are beginning to exert a marked influence in
the direction of vital Christian living. The conditions in
the universities of Great Britain and Ireland are much more
nearly like those in the United States and Canada, and each
year the university students are themselves assuming a
larger share in exerting an organized influence to reach
their fellow-students. This is chiefly in the direction of
the development of the religious life of those who are now
Christians. The influence of certain professors in Eng-
land and Scotland, following the example of Prof. Drum-
mond, is quite pronounced in promoting Christian living.
" Very sincerely yours,
" H. P. Anderson."
" To Pres. Chas. E. Tebbett, Whittier, Cal."
Every person familiar with college life knows, as the
above evidence shows, that the influences toward evangel-
ical Christianity are far stronger in those centres than
ever before. The most enthusiastic and spiritual gather-
ings of the present day are those of Christian students.
Modern missions had their rise, in this country, among col-
lege students, and nowhere at the present time do they
receive more intelligent study and more hearty support.
That at the very time that indifference rules in the world
at large, there is an almost universal uplift in evangelical
spiritual life throughout the educational centres of the
world, does not indicate that so-called advanced thought
is strongly detrimental to religious influences. Even in
the rationalistic centres of Europe evangelical Christianity
is gaining, and shows that the extreme form of destructive
criticism is losing its influence. I can bear personal testi-
mony from an experience of over thirty years in connec-
tion with student life in various fields, in all of which the
OF THE CONFERENCE 259
claims of modern thought were candidly considered, and
such as seemed reasonably established freely received, I
have never known a student turned aside from the Chris-
tian faith. I have known two young men from Christian
families, placed between the two extremes of rationalistic
thought on the one hand and blind denunciation of
modern thought on the other, who became skeptics.
Openness to all forms of possible truth and absolute can-
dor in considering all claims is the only safe place for the
Church to stand. The advice of Gamaliel to the leaders
of religious thought of his time, when they would con-
demn the teachers of new ideas, is still sound and safe.
Any other course is likely to exaggerate the evils without
accomplishing good ; if the views advanced be false, open
denunciation and heresy trials simply advertise them the
more. Condemnation for heresy, even if just, enables the
heretic to pose as a martyr and gain the sympathy of the
world ; and if unjust, as it generally has been throughout
the past, it arouses indignation against the Church and
destroys its power as a witness-bearer to the truth.
Again, to cling to old interpretations and to denounce
the new when they have been generally accepted, is to
destroy one's power of reaching intelligent men with the
truth. A person maybe a true believer and teach correct
conceptions of all the essentials of faith ; but if he persist
in declaring that the earth is flat, and that to believe it
round is to deny the Bible, he cannot expect to reach in-
telligent men with the truth. He will make skeptics
rather than believers.
The practical conclusion I believe to be that the
whole controversy should be left to the tribunal of Chris-
tian scholarship. Before the open light of thorough in-
vestigation the truth will be established and error over-
come.
I must briefly touch upon a few other practical phases
of the question :
First, Confidence in the leadership of Christian
scholars should take the place of suspicion. Ever since
the days of Paul, the Christian scholar has been the strong-
est human factor in the promulgation of the truth. His
260 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
spirituality is certainly as deep, and his love of truth as
strong as that of any ; and his opportunities for investiga-
tion, and his ability to sift out false claims from true are
immeasurably superior. The history of the Christian
Church in all the ages of the past have assuredly estab-
lished his claim to our confidence and honor.
Second, The Church of Christ should always have
deep reverence for truth. While all truth is not equally
important, all truth is sacred. Any statement of possible
truth should be treated with respectful consideration and
not with derision. If evolution be a possible mode of
God's work, we do not honor Him by treating it lightly.
If we show irreverence for that which is God's truth to
the scientist, we may have ourselves to blame if he lack
reverence for those truths most sacred to us.
Third, We should welcome light from any source.
Superstition and error always thrive where investigation
is suppressed. Truth always delights in the open light of
day.
Fourth, New statements should neither be hastily re-
ceived nor condemned. If they seem to be inconsistent
with Biblical statement, it may prove to be only with our
interpretation. The Berean attitude is always the correct
one. Search the Scriptures carefully to see whether, after
all, they may not be perfectly reconcilable with the state-
ments that are new to us. In this searching make wise
use of the thoughts of other interpreters ; our range of
vision may be too limited ; other eyes may be keener.
Personal conference with those who love our L,ord.and
who hold other views is most helpful in broadening our
outlook. Discussion with those who deny our Lord
should be with great caution ; it is rarely helpful to either
party.
Fifth, The best place for the consideration of such
themes is in open conferences, where devout Christians
may candidly and lovingly compare their divergent views,
and by personal contact and the sweet fellowship of the
devotional service may learn to love as brethren and re-
spect each other's Christian spirit, though they may not
see eye to eye.
OF THE CONFERENCE 26 1
Most emphatically the sermon is not the place for
such discussion. The clear presentation of the awful fact
of human sin and failure, and the glorious remedy through
salvation and redemption in Christ Jesus and the help of
the Holy Spirit, is a theme amply sufficient to occupy the
time and strength of the Christian pulpit. It is no place
either to air the new views of modern thought or to hurl
anathemas at those who hold them. The apostolic rule
was this: "That which 'we have seen and heard, that
which we have seen with our eyes, that which our hands
have handled of the Word of L,ife — that declare we unto
you." The closer we adhere to this practice the more
completely will we fulfill the mission of the preaching of
the Gospel.
Sixth, What are the bearings of this question upon
the integrity of the Bible ? It has not been shown to be
in error in any important statement of fact, nor has any
essential doctrine been touched by an5' statement of
modern thought that has received the general approval of
Christian scholars. Rationalistic critics may claim that
its veracity is overthrown, and Unitarians may claim that
they invalidate the doctrines of sin and redemption ; but
the veracity of the Bible and the truthfulness of the doc-
trines taught were never so strongly established in the
thoughts of intelligent men as they are to-day. That it
should stand the test of the severest criticism and be
found not inconsistent with verified facts of the latest sci-
ence is one of the strongest proofs that it is not of human
origin.
Human interpretations have been shown to be at fault.
Certain ideas have been read into the Bible that were
never in its text. It is a revelation of God to men and of
His will for them. It uses facts from nature to make
clear God's relationship to His creation and to illustrate
His truth ; and in doing so it uses language that could be
used with perfect consistency by the scientist of the twen-
tieth century. It sets forth God's purposes in the history
of His chosen people. It teaches the most sublime truths
in the form of philosophy, oratory, poetry, parable and
allegory. It may not be always easy to determine in
262 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
which category some special portion should be placed,
but the truth taught and the integrity of the word is en-
tirely independent of such questions, as they are also of
questions of authorship and date.
The Bible is still, as Gladstone calls it, " The Im-
pregnable Rock of Holy Scripture." In its pages, as
nowhere else, are found help for the tempted, comfort for
the sorrowing, courage for the faint-hearted, inspiration
for the living, and everlasting hope for the dying.
When the heathen prince asked good Queen Victoria
" why the difference between the degradation of his own
people and the blessings enj oyed by hers," she gave him a
copy of the Bible, saying : "This is the foundation of
England's greatness." Any book whose teachings can
lift men out of the slime of sin to a noble manhood ; that
can lift tribes out of savage cannibalism to devoted
Christian living ; that can lift nations out of barbarism to
civilization, needs the support of no human hands to
steady it from falling. Years ago infidels prophesied that
our Bible would soon be a book discredited and unread.
But to-day no book approaches it in the eagerness with
which it is sought after. It never was in so great demand
among the people in any former generation, and never
before so reverently studied in our centres of education.
For it we have nothing to fear. It is still able to make
wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus.
Clerk : We will have a further presentation of this
subject by J. Ell wood Paige, of New England Yearly
Meeting.
PRACTICAL ASPECTS OF TPIE PRESENT TREND
OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT.
By John Ell wood Paige.
Whoso toucheth this topic toucheth the apple of the
eye, and in approaching it I wish us to have clearly in
mind the proposition laid down by Paul in his epistle to
Timothy which was read in the opening of our first
session in this house, "The servant of God must not
of the; conference 263
strive." A discussion of a subject does not necessarily
imply a marshalling of antagonistic forces, but rather a
comparison of views in the effort to obtain light upon
the matter in hand and to come to correct conclusions.
From a general view of some of the trends of
the religious thought of our time the outlook is
hopeful. There is a growing and deepening desire to
obtain a strong, comprehensive grasp of truth, not of
opinions and deductions which are the result of other
men's thinking but of truth itself and for the real love of
it, and men come to conclusions based upon their own
research, and I am thankful in the belief that they go
about their task with a divine illumination and guidance,
something which they have obtained because they have
devoutly sought for it. If there was ever a time, we
have long since passed from it, when Protestant Christ-
ians were willing to accept the judgment of any man or
set of men as final, and they base their action upon the
apostolic teaching ' ' Let every man be fully persuaded in
his own mind . ' , Like the Bereans their patent of nobility
rests upon the basis of dail} r scriptural study and research.
The trend of religious thought is away from a blind
acceptance of other men's interpretations of Scripture
truth, and toward a reverent desire to find for ourselves
what the truth really is. In this independence however,
let it not be understood that no value is placed upon the
thought and experience of men of earlier times. Let it be
fastened with a nail in a sure place that the quest after
truth is an honest one, that the desire is to prove all
things and to hold fast that which is good. The thought
of to-day, taking advantage of the opportunities which
the schools afford, together with the accumulated ex-
perience of the years, goes into deeper and broader realms
as the days go by. What could we claim by way of
advancement if it did not ? It would be strange indeed
if mistakes were not made, they are made to-day, they
have been made in the past, they will continue to be
made. But he who seeks aright, in the light of the spirit
of our master, will eventually discover the straight path
between right and left hand errors.
264 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
One important practical aspect of religious thought
to-day is its comprehensiveness, its thoroughness, and its
effect in the sy metrical development of the man. We
have suffered in the past, and we have not secured com-
plete release, from men of one idea. One particular phase
of truth fastens itself upon the heart and conscience of
the man and he bends the entire energy of his being upon
it, to the exclusion of other and equally important phases.
I do not care how good and pure and strong and
scriptural and orthodox that particular truth may be, an
exclusive insistence upon it is bound to result in an
abnormal development along one line and a painful
shrinking in others. The tendency of modern thought is
to save from this, and to bring one up to the measure of
the stature of the fullness of a man. Nothing is more
clearly apparent in the purpose of God for his creatures.
There may be a place for specialists in religious teaching,
but they do not always receive their preparation in the
way the specialists in medicine or the other sciences
receive theirs, more's the pity. The scientific specialist
does not start in his line of preparation with an eye solely
to his future vocation, taking up only these branches
which relate immediately to it. It is an absolute necessity
that his mind should be developed in all its parts, a
necessity too that his physical being should be trained
and developed, so intimate is the relation between the
physical and the mental. Then when all the parts of his
mental, moral and physical nature receive a full develop-
ment, the energies of his being may well be concentrated
upon the chosen pursuit of his life. We have discovered
that we have no business to take the spiritual away from
all the other forces of our being and treat them upon a
separate line. They too need to be cultivated, expanded,
and given their proper relation with the mental, the
moral, and the physical. The man of one idea is sure to
wax impatient with those who run not with him to the
same excess of concentration upon his pet theme. His
charity is often found to be inadequate, whether you take
it in the broad sense of love or restrict it to that shade of
meaning which relates more particularly to toleration.
OF THE CONFERENCE 265
The trend of religious thought to-day ( I speak more
particularly of our own people ) is not to break away
from our old moorings. We have a priceless heritage
and we do not want to squander it. We would take our
patrimony with all thankfulness, and by judicious care
and the use of any methods which the progress of events
may place in our reach we would enlarge it for our own
benefit and the benefit of our children. Modern thought
would not take from our Bible one iota of its truth or its
teaching. It only asks to be allowed to delve into its
depths and to bring forth from its treasures things new
as well as old: It is pitiful to see the efforts that are
made to defend the Scriptures, as though they needed
defending. The good old book in its entirety has stood
the wear and tear of twenty centuries and to-day is more
widely circulated than ever before, translated into more
languages than ever before, studied more than ever before,
believed in more than ever before. Now and then a
critic puts his puny hand upon it and tells us it is over-
thrown, but he endureth for a little time and then vanish-
eth away. To-day the Church has more to fear from
petty criticism from those who are on the constant watch
for heresy than from that bolder type that meets one in
an open field and fair fight.
The demand of the hour is for broad, liberal, yet
carefully guarded training for the work of life. In saying
which, I am profoundly impressed with the fact that an
unlearned man if he be spirit filled is a power inconceiv-
ably greater than the most thoroughly cultivated without
such filling. What I contend for and what I conceive to
be the practical trend of the best religious thought of the
day is a healthy combination of the two. The Bible
nowhere puts a premium upon ignorance ; its general
demand is for thorough development. Let me cite two
of its notable examples, one from the Old Testament
Scriptures whose career is fresh in our minds from recent
study. Forty years in the high grade schools of Egypt,
forty years alone with his flocks and his God in the
pasture lands of Midian, forty years leading and training
a vast rabble of slaves, murmuring, complaining,
266 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
impatient ; and leading them to his successor, a diciplined,
loyal, and invincible army. Men who have started out
in a search after the ' ' mistakes of Moses ' ' and have
followed him carefully from the Nile to Nebo will, if they
are honest, return from the quest in admiration of the
greatest law-giver, the truest poet and seer that the world
has ever known. The other, rich in his natural endow-
ment, trained in the schools of Tarsus, no mean city,
finishing his studies at the feet of Gamaliel, ardent in the
vigor of his young manhood, is shone upon by a light
from heaven and has given in his life and his writing a
brilliant proof for all time of what God can do with a
well trained man, when once He gets his hand upon him.
To such practical issues, as I understand it, is the
trend of the religious thought of our best minds to-day.
Clerk: The subject is now before you for discus-
sion.
Aaron M. Bra}-, Oregon : I do not know that I want
to discuss this question. I notice that whenever this ques-
tion is brought to the attention of an audience everybody
that brings it before us says that the whole thing must be
left to Christian scholarship. Now, I suppose there is
no one here who would claim to be a scholar in the sense
in which the term is used. They tell us about the con-
census of Christian scholarship — that term was used five
years ago. Some of us ignorant people would like to
hear what that means. We know that some of the higher
critics in our land, including men in our own Church,
have declared positively that the only fall of man that -the
world knows anything about is a fall upward. Now,
what some of us ignorant people would like to know is,
whether the Christian scholarship of America, or Europe,
has come to the conclusion that the only fall of man is a
fall upward. We want to know what to think of evolu-
tion. I ask this question for information and we want
the information. I will give you the reason that I want
it. I heard a man, who believes both in higher criticism
and evolution, declare in the presence of forty or fifty
persons — he says, " I discard entirely the substitutional
idea of the death of Christ. I belive in the educational
OF THE CONFERENCE 267
idea. I believe that Christ died on behalf of man, but
the trouble is," says he, " that somebody comes along
and claims that Jesus Christ died instead of man." I
admire the papers that have been read this afternoon,
they have been well written, but neither of them has
touched the marrow of this question. They have failed
to touch the very thing that we want to know. I ask for
light upon this subject. I am not a scholar, but I think
I have a right to know what Christian scholarship does
declare in regard to the fall of man.
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana: There are a great
many expressions made by persons who are members of
Friends that do not represent the Society of Friends, and
because somebody who may be a member may give expres-
sion to something that is not in accordance with the trend
of thought of the Church, the Church is not responsible,
and I would refer the brother and all others who want to
know what the trend of thought of our Church is to the
Declaration of Faith of the Richmond Conference in 1887
which you will find in our Books of Discipline.
Clerk : What disposition will you make of these
papers ?
James Wood, New York : I do not know that any
action is necessary in the face of this meeting.
John W. Woody, North Carolina : As this question
is before us it seems to me our friend has put a question
that some of us would like to hear answered. I would
like to know how we stand on this question. When we
speak of the practical aspects of a thing we would like to
know what are some of the results that should be looked
for. Now, as the papers that have been read before us
have clearly led us to believe that first there is that which
is revelation and there is an open question as to what
revelation is. We all believe in revelation as a Church,
but we differ as to what revelation is touching certain
points. There are two lines of thought, man's thought
and God's thought. Now, when we go to look at the
practical aspects of a thing we can better know a thing
by its effect. In the days before Christ came, this meas-
uring of revelation by reasoning began — we find we can
268 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
trace this measure of Man's thought with God's thought.
It is no new thing. What has been the effect of this
measure of man's thought with God's thought upon the
heart and its effect upon the Church ? Now, shall we
study the Bible, and go out with God's help to bring the
world to believe in the Bible, or shall we give our time
to find out whether this Bible is true or not ?
Isom P. Wooton, Iowa : I rose to put myself on record
at the present time on this great issue that is before us
to-day. I was not in to hear the papers, but I have been
under advisement in regard to the prudence of introducing
any measure of this kind to a body of this kind. A dis-
cussion of this kind belongs to educational conferences ;
it belongs to Bible conferences ; it belongs to many
places but it does not belong here. Dr. McKenzie, well
known by the reading people of the East, was representing
the cause of Christ at Harvard University. He was called
upon by the ministers of the Methodist Church to come
before them in a morning meeting, where were almost
always two hundred people gathered from the ministers of
the Methodist Church, and he told them why they had not
been successful, and especially in reaching the more intel-
ligent and bringing them in touch with the Gospel.
Among the things that Dr. McKenzie said is this, " Breth-
ren, your call is to preach the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ ; you have no call at all in the scientific lines, and
if I had a question to ask on a scientific subject I would
not go to a single one of you for an answer. You are not
situated so as to know." Now, you go into your places
on Sabbath day, if a man comes from the scientific circles
he does not go to hear scientific questions discussed, he
wants his soul fed. He is a scientific man, you begin to
explain yourself and you begin to flounder and he says,
"O, pshaw! he doesn't know anything about this subject."
Shall you expect that man to come again ? That expec-
tation would be a failure if 3^ou did. There is a reason
for scriptural investigation ; I am heartily in favor of the
deepest researches of the Gospel on constructive lines. I
shall alwa5 r s be in favor of an education that can be put
under man's feet, so that you feel that you are standing
OF THE CONFERENCE 269
on something solid below you. But to have these ques-
tions brought before such an audience as this, I protest
against it as out of order, and I think our protest ought to
stand against any introduction of anything of the kind
ever again in these meetings.
S. Adelbert Wood, Ohio : I want to add, in the
strongest terms that the practical tendency of to-day is to
rob us of the Scriptures as authority because the tendency
is to eliminate certain parts. It strikes right at the vital
truths upon which we stand as a Church when we recog-
nize that the trend of religious thought is to eliminate
from the offering of Jesus Christ on Calvary everything
but the ethical, and that the purpose of the death of Christ
was simply to influence, thus leaving us without a vicari-
ous sacrifice, without a substitutional offering. I claim
as a man who has sought God and has found Him, who has
sought the forgiveness of sins and has heard the sweet
words, " Thy sins, which are many are forgiven thee,"
one who has sought by the power of the Gospel to be
cleansed from all sin, and sought for and received the fill-
ing of the spirit of God, that I know something of the
Gospel though I am not a scholar. I contend that we
are not disposed as a people to drift back into an educated
priesthood to interpret the Scriptures for as. As Chris-
tian men and women having known the truth, having
tasted and seen that the Lord is good, we know some
things, and 'we know it as well as any other man knows
it. We know that there is an efficacy in the blood of
Jesus Christ to cleanse from all sins, that death has taken
place for the redemption of the world, and that there is
forgiveness of sins. When we have transgressed the
Word of God, we know that we are under the curse of
the law because it is written, "Cursed is everyone that
continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them," that He might redeem them
under the law. We stand in defence of the truth,
though we be not scientists, and make no profession
in that direction ; as Ministers of the Gospel we stand
in its defence, though we be not scientists. I feel
that the time has come when questions of science should
270 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
be tested by the Word of God and not the Word ot
God by science.
AVilliam P. Pinkhatn, Ohio : I have thought that if
one of these excellent papers had just given us the mean-
ing of the expression, " The Trend of Modern Thought,"
it might perhaps have been a help to us in our discussion.
Evidently the expression indicates a movement against
our old standard beliefs. Our brother who has just
spoken, has indicated one of the lines of difference — the
trend toward the acceptance of the ethical theory of the
atonement and the rejection of the substitutional theory.
The scientific thought is certainly toward the adoption of
the idea that the works of humanity are generally inspired
— that the genius of Newton and Edison and Morse was
just as truly inspired as were the sayings of the holy men
of old — although the inspiration did not exist in the same
degree or standard of excellence. This is one of the ten-
dencies and one most certainly destructive in its influence
and which I hope that the Church of Christ will stand
against. Then there are other thoughts, one of these is
respecting the fatherhood of God. The tendency of the
time is to reject almost wholly that sublime conception of
the judicial relationship of God toman which every where
beams out from the pages of the Book. The tendency is to
emphasize the Divine love to such an extent as to almost do
away with the idea of Divine judgment. In the human
being there is another tendency — a tendency toward an
altogether altered view of the subject of what sin is. We
have accepted the thought that sin is the transgression of
law, but the idea obtains more and more that sin is rather
man's misfortune than his fault. There is in these lines
and in others a tendency to enthrone the doctrine of evo-
lution. It has been said to-day, in one of the papers, that
evolution is generally accepted everywhere. Evolution in
one sense has always been recognized in some respects.
The evolution of the oak from the acorn has in it in a
certain sense the fact of evolution which has always
been, and will always be recognized, but for the theory
of evolution to be brought forward as an explanation of
nature is questionable, is undemonstrable and to assert
OF THE CONFERENCE 27 1
it as a fact to base all our reasons and conclusions upon
is one of the disastrous tendencies of the day in which we
live.
Rufus M. Jones, New England : We have a very
important subject which must be discussed this afternoon
if it ever is. It seems to me that this subject has been
pretty thoroughly discussed and I would move that we
now turn our attention to the next subject.
(Motion seconded.)
Levi D. Barr, California : I think such an important
question as this one, that affects the vital interests of the
Church, ought to be thoroughly discussed. There is no
question concerning the Church that needs the attention
of the Church more than this. I want to enter a protest
against side-tracking this question until we do something
with it somehow or other. I should like to see some of
the older members take a part.
Clerk : There is a call for the question. If you do
not desire this motion to pass you can vote it down .
(The motion was carried by a majority of 72 to 23.)
David E. Sampson, North Carolina : I was not present
to hear the papers, therefore I did not feel that it was
right forme to vote. I wished to make that statement.
There has been ringing in my ears ever since I entered
this room, this passage of Scripture, " Nevertheless the
foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The
Lord knoweth them that are His."
(A recess of five minutes was then taken.)
HOW CAN AN EFFICIENT MINISTRY BE DEVELOPED ?
Clerk : This subject will now be presented by Benja-
min F. Trueblood, Secretary of the American Peace
Society.
"All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name," was sung
while the delegates were taking their places.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, New England : When the
subject upon which I am to speak was given to me it was
rather a more modest one than has gotten into the pro-
gram. I am compelled to assume a great deal in the
treatment of this subject, to assume what the Church
272 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
holds on its spiritual side and to confine myself, in the
limited time of twenty minutes, to the discussion of what
I consider to be certain practical inefficiencies in our min-
istry in the past, and to some extent at the present time.
It is impossible for me to cover the ground fully, so if you
find a great many things unsaid in the paper, remember
I know of many more, and if you find criticisms about
the incompleteness of this you may certainly know that I
myself, have found many more.
HOW CAN WE DEVELOP A MORE EFFICIENT
MINISTRY ?
By Benjamin F. Trueblood.
The wording of the subject which I have been asked
to present assumes that our ministry, if not altogether
inefficient, is at least much less efficient than it ought to
be. Of this assumption there is little need to bring proof.
Every one who has any fairly extensive knowledge of our
church throughout the United States knows it to be cor-
rect. In the development of our church activities in
recent years, evangelistic work, foreign mission work,
general educational work and other lines have gone much
in advance of effort to secure for our congregations an
intelligent, comprehensive, living ministry of the word.
Let me, then, speak briefly, first of the nature of the
inefficiency, secondly of its causes, and thirdly of possible
remedies which may be found.
The inefficiency shows itself in several directions.
Our ministry is still much too traditional in its manner
both of conceiving truth and of presenting it. Platitudi-
nous exhortations, stereotyped phraseologies, threadbare
illustrations and figures, and traditional interpretations
now ruled out by larger Biblical knowledge and better
translations, abound all too much in many discourses.
The changed conditions of the time in which we live are
not well grasped, and methods of setting forth truth
suited thereto are not adopted. The result is that much
of our preaching fails to lay hold of people and make them
feel that living and eternal realities are being dealt with.
OF THE CONFERENCE 273
In not a few instances where ministers have aban-
doned the traditional habits of thought and methods of
public speech formerly prevalent among us, they have
fallen, or plunged, into the almost equally worn-out ways of
thought and speech of preachers of other religious bodies.
Again, our ministers are still largely a body of intel-
lectually untrained and meagerly equipped men and
women, incapable therefore of fully grasping the inner
divine significance of the great movements of thought
which are surging everywhere around us. They have not
learned to think deeply, sustainedly and comprehensively.
Besides their deficiency in general mental culture, many
of them have learned little of the long and many-sided
history of the church catholic, and not much more of that
of our own body. The history of the doctrinal interpre-
tations of Christianity, with their developments, transfor-
mations and disappearances, is to the major part of them
a sealed book. The results of this general and special
lack of intellectual equipment are poverty of ideas, weari-
some repetitions, readiness to catch up new and super-
ficially plausible notions, proneness to extremes in the
statement of special phases of the truth, hobby-riding,
sentimental moralizing, fanatical excesses and narrow
intolerance of other views than one's own. Another
result is woeful failure to enter into and understand the
peculiar intellectual and moral struggles of the men and
women of our time, and a consequent failure to grip and
hold congregations, especially when they contain any
considerable numbers of the educated young men and
women of our day, whose drifting from our churches is
one of the most painful phenomena confronting us.
Because of this paucity of ideas and its general effect
on their preaching many ministers are able to stay but a
short time in one place. The} 7 have to move on before they
have had time to lay and develop any important plans of
work in a community, or run about to find opportunity to
repeat their small barrel of sermons. Congregations, in
consequence, become discouraged, or restless, hard to
please and critical, to the great detriment of the cause for
which Christian assemblies stand.
274 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Again, too large a imrnber of our ministers have only
a meagre understanding of the real nature and Scriptural
basis of onr denon al principles, and of their rela-
tion to the tenets of other Christian bodies and to the
spreat general doctrines common to all. They are conse-
quently unable, in many eases, to meet the ministers ot
other denominations on the same level of attainment, and
: . gi . a satisfactory account of themselves and of our
church.
ice more, few of our ministers are producing any-
:he way of valuable general religious literature,
— sermons commentaries, essays on important religious
. ies, treattses : plied Christianity, studies in the
origin and history of our religion, etc . so much in
in these days of universal reading, thought and
: es e.-n ch . Our membership are hence compelled to satisfy
_ thirst foi knowledge and help in these directions at
other fountah -
Is it any - ader, then, that as a whole our church
is. according to the statistics of recent years, only just
maintaining Itself, if it is doing that?
1 have no disposition, in call:::,, attention to these
acts, to produce a distorted or shabby picture of
the character and work of our ministers. Much of what
I have said applies with equal force to a considerable por-
of the ministry of other religious organizations.
:- are numerous, increasingly numerous, exceptic
this general characterization of our ministry. There is
not in any denomination a more spiritual, devoted and
self-sacrificing body of preachers than ours, and certainly
hich is doing so large and successful a busi-
ness on so small a capital. Our mini sters are not under
par in either brains or energy. I believe them to be
naturally above the average. Whence, then, comes this
inefficiency which is imperiling our work, indeed
our whole denominational existence, as almost nothing
else is ?
The trouble in general lies only secondarily with the
ministers themselves. It lies primarily with the Society
as a whole. The mefficiency has been caused bv certain
OF THE CONFERENCE 275
extremes to which our church at one time carried some of
its conceptions of the ministry and its functions in the
church. Through these extremes the ministry was
degraded from its divinely appointed position in the work
of the church, and thereby shorn very much of its vitality
and power. Preachers were made to feel that their min-
istry was an entirely secondary thing, to be exercised only
after everything else had been attended to. The theory
that there is no class distinction between ministers and
others, that the holding of public worship is not necessarily
dependent on any visible ministerial leadership, that the
preaching of the Gospel should be unmercenary and free,
that preachers are dependent directly upon the Spirit for
their general qualification and upon his fresh moving for
each particular service, that education cannot make a
minister, — important as these conceptions were and are,
taken in their true meaning and proper proportion and
application, they were entirely overworked by us. To
such an extent was this the case, that whole sections of
the personality of ministers, as created by God and
ordained for their proper ends, were treated practically as
if they were non-existent, — the intellect in particular, the
former disownment of which was probably the greatest
error ever committed by Quakerism. Spirituality, spirit-
ual guidance, the sufficiency of the divine anointing and
qualification, — great principles of which we must never
lose sight, — were interpreted in such a narrow, tread-mill
way that they were made a cloak for all manner of ignor-
ance, crudity of ideas, mental vacuity, extravagant senti-
mentalism, sanctimonious and unnatural speech, intellect-
ual fear or indolence, and endless repetition of single
monotonous discourses.
From the repressive and sterilizing influence of this
perverted conception of a spiritual ministry and the habits
that sprang from it, we are still suffering greatly ; it has
been nearly impossible for any of us entirely to escape
from it. Few, if any, of us older preachers have pulled our-
selves wholly loose from it, or ever can do so. We are still
under the bondage to such an extent that, from fear of
not being duly solemn and heavenly minded, neither our
276 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
thoughts nor our voices will work freshly and naturally,
nor can we without great difficulty set ourselves to the
kind of mental and theological training and work which
we need, lest we crowd the Lord out of our service. Our
younger ministers also are suffering from the same cause
much more than many of them imagine, so deeply were
these one-sided conceptions ingrained in them in their
earlier years.
Perhaps the most discouraging feature of the situa-
tion is that not a few of those who have gotten rid of some
of the narrowing conceptions and peculiarities which
befell us, have retained others, and those not the least
detrimental, or have fallen into opposite extremes no less
unfortunate. This has given rise in places, in the
untrained intellectual soil of the Society, to a large
amount of crude dogmatic self-assertion, under the claim
of infallible Spiritual guidance, to fanciful and highly
sentimental conceptions of truth, and to methods of
preaching and teaching which are, if anything, more peril-
ous to our strength and usefulness than the worst of the
old peculiarities.
How shall the ministry of the present and future be
saved from these conditions, and made such as our inter-
pretation of Christianity and its efficient propagation in
the earth demand ? That is a difficult question, to which
probably only time can give any adequate answer. The
following suggestions may possibly help us to think along
right lines on the subject.
1. Our conception of the divine qualification - and
Spiritual guidance of the ministry must be entirely res-
cued> as it has already been in part, from the narrowness,
onesidedness and artificialness into which it fell, and
given its rational and complete interpretation. The prin-
ciple itself is right and 'always was. It lies at the very
foundation of all living and effective ministerial service.
But we have treated divine qualification and guidance too
much as if they were something artificial, put upon the
spirit on the outside, — a bit of spiritual tatooing or finger-
printing, or the effects of some immaterial pianola shoved
up against the soul to make it go right, or flashes of a
OF THE CONFERENCE 277
light from some region far away from the spirit illumina-
ting the inner being occasionally in a fitful, irregular and
mechanical way. This perverted notion has been the
origin of pretty much all of our ministerial errors, weak-
nesses and whimsies, — our depreciation of the intellect
and of hard, patient intellectual work, our melancholy
management of the voice, our fancy-chasing sermonizing,
our irregular and uncertain service, our ebullitions of loud,
passionate and often empty rhetoric.
The doctrine of divine qualification and guidance
truly interpreted means the possession of the entire being
by the divine life and purposes, in an inner, organic way.
It means not only the Spiritual possession and guidance,
but also the sanctified human use, of all the parts and
faculties of the being, each according to its own nature
and laws. It allows of neither the suppression nor the
misdirection of any. God's work in the creation and
organization and ordinary processes of our nature is just
as great and sacred as His supernatural direction of it,
and the one is never supplanted in the work of the other.
When our ministry come to have this normal conception
of the doctrine and try practically to realize it, there will
be no more neglect or belittling of the intellect, no more
mental bondage and fear. Ministers will thoroughly
prepare themselves intellectually for their work, both in
a general and special manner, and in briefer or more
extended way for every sermon which the Lord calls
them to preach, just as naturally as they will pray much
and wait much upon God. Following the law of the
mind's growth and use, they will be diligent, constant
and open-minded students, not only of the Bible and of
books upon the history and development of the religion
which they teach, but also of those treating of the
manifold ways and works of God in nature and human
society. They will as far as possible study history and
literature and science and psychology and philosophy
and economics and sociology and political principles.
Heart, imagination, mind, voice, body, — all will be
constantly, diligently and harmoniously held to their
best and most efficient service, in the interests of the
278 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
unsurpassed work to which all ministers are divinely
appointed.
Here, it seems to me, is to be found the great and
fundamental secret of a more efficient ministry. The
whole nature with all its faculties, working according to
their several laws, fed from all possible sources of truth,
must be taken into the circle of divine qualification and
guidance, and God must not be excluded from so much
of the being as by our traditions He has practically been
shut out in the past.
2. The } T oung men and women now entering the
ministry, exceptions of course aside, should all have a
thorough mental training, both general and special, before
assuming in a large way the active responsibilities of the
work to which God has called them. The universal edu-
cation of our time makes this a necessity. It constitutes
a clear manifestation of the general will of God in the
matter. These young men and women, however able,
intelligent and consecrated they may be, can make no
more serious mistake than to hurry into their work in a
raw and immature state, through eagerness to be about
their Master's business. Their Master's own spirit of
self-restraint in the matter of His supreme work till He
was thirty years of age is worthy of their reverent imita-
tion. To rush raw into their work, the highest and
most exacting in which men can engage, means in many
instances to run a short and possibly brilliant career, and
then to fail and fall out, because they find themselves
exhausted in resources and unable to meet the increas-
ingly heavy demands which modern educated Christian
congregations are laying upon those called to minister
to them spiritual truth in its ever-enlarging unfolding.
There are, in some of our Yearly Meetings, possibly in
all, not a few ministers only just past middle life, at the
period when they ought to be at the height of their power,
who find themselves actually in this position at the
present time. Our imperfect conceptions and methods in
the past gave them when young no proper qualification
for the new age which was coming upon them. We must
beware lest this happen again in this age of young people,
OF THE CONFERENCE 279
when there are grave dangers that many young men and
women will be crowded forward into responsible positions
before they are properly developed and matured. There
is time enough, — -and money enough, if the church will
only set-it apart, — to fit up every young minister in such
form as will make him in the generation to come a work-
man who will not need to be ashamed, and of whom the
Church will have no excuse for growing tired.
3 . We have now in active service a large number of
capable and most valuable ministers — and no one appre-
ciates them more highly than I do — who cannot go back
and educate themselves in the higher learning, either
general or religious, as they would all so much like to do.
These need not be discouraged. They can do much to
keep themselves fresh and to increase their efficiency, if
they will only devote a portion of their time systematic-
ally and conscientiously to careful and serious reading.
In these days of libraries and inexpensive books there is
little excuse for any minister allowing himself or herself
to become intellectually antiquated and dull. Some min-
isters might well curtail a little the social side of their
activities — very proper in their place — in favor of an extra
hour daily with valuable books. What they would lose
thereby temporarily with certain members of their con-
gregations they would gain twice over in permanent
influence, respect and staying power.
4. One further consideration : If we are to develop a
ministry as efficient as the age we live in demands, as our
great, increasingly important mission in the future will make
absolutely imperative, if we are to survive and have any
leadership in the further work of the world's redemption
and reconstruction in the divine order, we must have
under our own care an institution or institutions, in
which our young men and women called to the Christian
ministry may receive the very best and most compre-
hensive training which the present advancement of the
world's Christian life and knowledge makes possible.
We ought to have the best and completest that can be
had ; nothing superficial and onesided is worthy of us.
The case is urgent and admits, I fear, of little further
280 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
delay. Not another year ought to be allowed to pass
without seeing the foundations of such an institution well
laid. Some of our young men who feel deeply the neces-
sities of the time go from us to the theological schools
under other direction ; almost half of them never come
back to us. The number who go, if we neglect to
provide for them at home, will steadily increase; the
proportion who will not return will almost certainly not
diminish.
I do not rate, I hope, at less than their real value the
attempts which have been made in connection with our
colleges and elsewhere to meet the need of such education
and training as have been indicated above. Some of
them have been made in the face of great difficulties and
with a courageous devotion and self-sacrifice worthy of
all praise. But none of them, it will be readily con-
fessed, has reached a standard of development in scope,
equipment and general efficiency at all adequate to the
needs of the case, nor is it likely that they ever will
under present conditions. The Biblical Departments in
all our colleges ought to be made strong and efficient,
but our present needs require something more.
This Five Years Meeting, assembled this year for the
first time, representing practically the entire body of
Friends in the nation, and opening for us under the leader-
ship of our Lord Jesus Christ a new era of power and
progress in the fulfillment of our mission, ought to
assume at once this task, which it has the ability and can
command the means adequately to accomplish. It could
not, I believe, better mark its inauguration and give jus-
tification of its existence than by taking steps for the early
establishment under its own supervision of a Biblical
Institute and Training School, where those called to the
Christian ministry and other Christian work may obtain
the best and most comprehensive training for their calling
which can be had, and obtain it under conditions which
will not tend to weaken and undermine faith in the great
principles which have made us a people.
In closing the paper Benjamin F. Trueblood presented
OF THE CONFERENCE 28 1
a resolution in regard to Biblical Institute or Training
School.
Clerk : Further discussion of this subject by Dr.
Seth Mills, of Western Yearly Meeting.
Seth Mills, Western : I think I shall not need all the
ten minutes appropriated to me for my discussion, which
at this hour you will be very glad to know.
HOW CAN AN EFFICIENT MINISTRY BE
DEVELOPED ?
By Seth Miees.
It may be assumed at starting that two things are to
be kept in sight throughout ; first, the raised-letter idea
of development ; second, the employment of some definite
means to secure it.
If we were able to state in adequate terms what an
efficient ministry is, the question of its development might
more readily be answered. We may at least, be sure that
efficient preaching is only that which conveys the truth
of God to the hearts of men .
The Pauline proposition that the ' ' Gospel of Christ
is the power of God unto salvation," logically demands
that preaching have in it the power of God ; and further,
that by this power, the message of salvation reach its des-
tined end.
Explicitly stated, preaching to be efficient, must fit
some one's Spiritual need.
Jesus said to the first preachers, " Go, and as ye go,
preach, saying, the ' Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.' "
There is no mistaking the import of this command ; and
that is the first word of the Gospel to the kingdom of this
world for all time. Further on, His charge to Peter was,
' ' Feed my sheep, feed my lambs. ' ' Let it be remembered
now, that Ministry which fails in feeding the food of God
lacks efficiency.
Entertainment for the mind was no part of the Mas-
ter's standard, but the word of life to the soul, was always
and in all of, His ministry.
282 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
St. Paul illustrated our topic in the training of Timo-
theus, his son, in the Gospel ; his charge to the young
preacher was to strive for efficiency in ability rightly to
divide, — that is, — " cut straight,'''' the word of truth.
What is intended here, is the skill of an expert in car-
pentry to make a precise section of his material that it
may exactly fit a complementary piece of workmanship.
It is the developed proficiency of a master workman who
has studied to "show himself approved," and feels that
he may confidently rely upon the commendation of his
employer. Such skill, is the standard here inquired for.
This efficiency is not the work of a moment, or the
" life of an air-plant." There is no royal road to it. It
demands hard, patient study of mechanical law, using the
figure here spiritually, and persistent application in prac-
tice of these principles to their intended use. In spiritual
artizanship there must be the apprentice, beginning at the
bottom and working patiently to the top.
To state some of these first things, there must be to
begin with, a distinct recognition of the Divine Call. It
is a great thing for one to feel that he is " called of the
Lord, as was Aaron." A strictly intellectual apprehen-
sion of duty, while not to be undervalued, is still less
than enough. There must be the emotive impression
that presses the magic button of the soul to the response,
" Here am I." There must be the mysterious touch ot
the finger of God, and the audible, if yet unspoken, voice,
which calls by name and moves the heart of the man,
like the phenomena of the " Burning Bush," and making
bare the feet to the deep, reverent consciousness of ' ' Holy
ground."
Then there is the always practical importance of pre-
paredness. It is too late in the day for untrained service
in any of the world's great enterprises, and intellectual
equipment for the Lord's work surely cannot safely be
overlooked. Discipline in thought as well as action,
forceful expression, logical deduction, all have their value
illustrated in the great Apostle to the Gentiles ; and I
think it must be generally conceded that at any time a
truly spiritual ministry will not be less spiritual for being
OF THE CONFERENCE 283
scholarly. True scholarship is the best guarantee of that
practical simplicity which best adapts the Word to the
understanding of the most simple-minded. Moreover, it
is not to be forgotten at this juncture, that whatever there
may be of a frowning castle in modern thought is likely to
be vulnerable only to an intellectual thinker.
Then again, there is the element of abandonment to
be incorporated primarily into the scheme of progress.
Paul sizes up the situation exactly in his ' ' waiting
upon," or rather giving oneself to, the ministry. The
"separating" or "setting apart," which is expressly
the work of the Holy Spirit, must be supplemented by
personal consecration and a settled understanding with
oneself that all is to be counted loss for the blessed service
of Jesus Christ.
Still further, there must be the one single specialty
to know the Bible and believe it with an all-consuming
belief. The minister, of all men, must give his days and
nights to the Bible. A sharp-sighted world knows when
a man is preaching what he does, or does not believe, and
disposes of his message accordingly.
The terminal is reached in the steadfast conviction
that after all else is settled, the " enacting clause " is
from the Lord. After all the possibilities of individual
effort are exhausted, the whole is but failure until it is
charged with the truth of God by the ever-blessed Holy
Spirit. " Preach the preaching that I bid thee," was the
imperial order of the prophetic age, and belongs to ours
as well.
The gift of a " learned tongue " is a necessary factor
in the process of development. Medical authority recog-
nizes what it is pleased to term a ' ' Therapeutical
Instinct," as the secret of correct prescribing. lamsug-
gesting the need of a true spiritual instinct, implanted
by the Lord and refined by His grace, which may detect
with spontaneous and delicate nicety the indication for
special gospel truth.
The study of words and their best use is another
essential. Here again we are permitted to draw upon the
great Apostle. To Timothy, he commends the pattern of
284 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
his own " sound words." The deep inwoven sense is
that of " healthy " words, virile words, live- wire words,
having vital energy within and free from the artificial
superficial. The late President Harrison once said of his
pastor, who is still an honored minister in this city, " I
have never heard him say a foolish thing." O, that such
efficiency might be correctly attributed to all of us.
Passing from the minister's personal relationships,
some collateral agencies are vital in promoting healthy
development. Among these must be noted the place of
the Eldership. Efficient Elders are as handmaids to the
ministry. They are, if not to go before, at least to go
hand-in-hand with it. Their office ought not to exist in
name only. If development is growth, Elders ought to
be of the kind to help growth. Spirit filled and strenu-
ously active they should be forever awake to every chang-
ing current in the atmosphere about them. The most
practical movement along this line for the hour, is the
inauguration of good methods to facilitate return to the
Apostolic type of Eldership.
Then it must not be forgotten that in a large measure,
church people are, themselves, responsible for the effi-
ciency of the ministry. Nothing will more surely weaken
the best man's service than a listless, somnolent congre-
gation. Ministry cannot develop in an atmosphere of
chilling, passive, inactivity. The walls of Jericho stood
up straight till the priests blew the trumpets and the
"people shouted ; " then " they fell down flat." Given
a moody and unresponsive church membership, and a
weakly, insufficient ministry will result in spite of the
minister.
Attempting to reduce the sense of these fragmentary
suggestions to something like a working formula, it seems
appropriate that the greater Friends' Church now being
established, should renew its structural principles with
diligent care. First, It would be well in some suitable
way to re-emphasize its original belief in the necessity for
a truly Holy-Ghost inspired and baptized ministry. Sec-
ond, To outline anew, broadly and comprehensively, its
conception of the real nature of the Divine Call to the
OF THE CONFERENCE 285
ministry of the Gospel, and insist upon the necessity of its
recognition . Third , To adopt some stated measures look-
ing towards the amplification of service in the Eldership,
and with special reference to its place in guiding and
developing the ministry. Fourth, To inaugurate some
organized appliance which may help ministers, young and
old, but more particularly the young, to the benefits of
systematic Bible study and training in Christian work.
Fifth. To secure in the Church at large, a more general
response to duty in co-operation with the ministerial
department.
As a last word, to develop a thoroughly efficient
and church-building ministry, demands time, patient and
continuous effort, faithfulness and prayer on the part of
the whole membership.
Richard H. Thomas, Baltimore : I have listened
with much interest to these papers. It is a matter of
great importance, that we should look at this subject
carefully and thoroughly. There has been a tendency in
the past, at least among Friends in America, to run from
one extreme to the other. When they find that one
extreme does not answer they have, not infrequently, run
into the opposite. We are right when we assume that the
minister needs the call of the Lord ; and that he needs the
guidance of the Holy Spirit, but when we merely assume
it. and then emphasize his intellectual training as his
necessary outfit, the first is very likely to fade from our
remembrance. For, as a rule, what is simply assumed
is likely to be forgotten . I want to plead this evening for
that great preparation for the ministry which is to be had
in a life lived with Jesus Christ. The great theological
school that I and you are to go to is that school to which
the disciples went, when they walked with our Saviour
through Judea and Galilee. We also need the loving
training that comes from a walk with Christ. There was
nothing joyful or sorrowful that had not been glorified
and sanctified to the disciples by the communion and
teaching of their Master, and I know of no training for
the ministry that begins to equal the training that comes
286 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
from living with Jesus Christ. In following our ordinary-
natural duties we become and remain men among men.
I know something of what I am speaking of from personal
experience. For two years or more I spent my whole
time in the ministry of the Gospel in a foreign land and
the Lord blessed me, and I trust it was not without bles-
sing to others, but when I returned again to my home and
entered into the ordinary duties of life I felt a new grip
on the truth of God, a new power to teach it to other
people, a new connection with men. I know one who is
an eminent authority in his own department of study,
and one who knows a great deal of the trend of modern
thought. He had absolutely stopped attending any place
of worship ; because he knew more than the preachers
could tell him. But he went one day into a Friends'
meeting where there was no especially trained minister,
but where there was freedom, under the spirit of the
Lord, and he said, "Here is my place. These people
make no profession of learning — no profession of teaching
me what I know better than they do, but they speak sim-
ply, and give what they feel to be messages from God
and these messages reach me." There is a great deal
more in what that man said than many of us are apt to
think. When a man feels that he must supplement the
knowledge of the call of God by a special course in
an institution and he takes a course of training along
intellectual lines, it is almost impossible for him to
come out of that theological institution at the end of
three years, and not lay an undue emphasis on the
intellectual preparation rather than the spiritual when he
comes before the people. I do not plead for ignorance,
but I do want men and women who give themselves
up to the Lord to give their powers to Him, to be willing
to take of such opportunities for improvement as they may
have, but never in such a way as to think, or to lead
others to think, that intellectual training is of prime im-
portance. The emphasis should always be on the call of
the Lord. That is what is needed, and then on the guid-
ance of His Holy Spirit, teaching us what to do and
what to say. If there were more close waiting upon His
OF THE CONFERENCE 287
Spirit, more speaking when He says speak, and stopping
when His Spirit stops, and less feeling that it is im-
portant to fill up an hour, or a half or three-quarters of an
hour, and more readiness to leave time for somebody else
or for silence, the needed variety would be supplied by the
Holy Spirit laying His touch upon this person and on
that person. I praise God for our ministry — for our min-
isters who are endued with the Holy Spirit. I praise God
for the learned Apostle Paul ; but I do not stop there ; I
praise God also for the unlearned Apostle Peter. Who
can say that Paul was the greater ? It was Peter who
preached that wonderful sermon on the day of Pentecost,
and not Paul. Both have their right place, and the Church
that is in full harmony with the apostolic spirit will make
room for both.
On motion it was decided to refer the resolution of
Benjamin F. Trueblood in regard to the establishment of
a theological institution to the Business Committee.
Clerk : Unless you order otherwise, we shall have to
pass from this question and take up the matters from the
Business Committee that must be disposed of in this session .
Allen Jay, Indiana : All committees should have
their reports ready for the session to-morrow morning as
arranged on the program.
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana : I do not know how it
is possible for all of these committees to report to-morrow
morning. One committee, of which I am a member, was
not to meet until 1.30 to-morrow, and I don't know how
we are to get together and get our work done so as to
report to-morrow morning.
Allen Jay, Indiana : There are arrangements for re-
ports in the afternoon.
Clerk : We will rise and be dismissed by Robert W.
Douglas.
Then adjourned until 7.30.
SIXTH DAY EVENING, TENTH MONTH 24.
Clerk : Let us have a few moments of devotional
waiting before we begin the work of the program.
Prayer was offered by William I. Moore of Canada,
288 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
and William P. Ha worth of Kansas, and the hymns,
' ' While the days are going by ' ' and ' ' Will Jesus find us
watching," were sung.
Clerk : There are one or two items of business on the
table that should be disposed of before we take up the
program.
(Recording Clerk read a proposition from the Finance
Committee. See Minutes, Minute 71.)
Aaron M. Bray, Oregon: We would like to know
what this means.
Robert I. Murray, New York : The Finance Com-
mittee took up the paper that was read in our hearing on
the general subject of raising money and various other
things, and the first clause in that had to do with the
incorporation of the Five Years Meeting. The direction
to our Committee was to bring in a plan of action. We
reached the conclusion that it would be desirable that this
Meeting should be incorporated ; but there were so many
difficulties in the way, as to what State should be chosen,
and so many points were in the way, that we hesitated to
undertake to present an}' plan for such purpose, and
therefore it was thought best that the matter be referred
to the Business Committee with power, that they might
proceed to enter the corporation under such laws as they
might see fit and at such place as might seem best. That
they might have an opportunity to consider it — that was
all — and of course that would carry with the necessity
of the Business Committee being continued beyond the
sessions of this Meeting.
Allen Jay, Indiana : In order to settle this matter
without bringing it before the Business Committee, I
make a motion that this subject be referred to the Com-
mittee on Legislation in order to get the law proper for it.
It seems to me that we should do this ; they hold over
for five years, and there are twenty-two of them, and some
of them are lawyers and doctors, and they know some-
thing about the business. I do not see how we could get
a better committee to refer it to. Let them select the
Legislature we want to incorporate under, and as a
certain number of people have to sign the articles of
OF THE CONFERENCE 289
incorporation, and we can authorize them — there are
twenty-two of them to sign the document — I believe they
can manage the matter and report in five years from now.
William P. Ha worth, Kansas : I second the motion,
Isom P. Wooton, Iowa : Any number of members of
this Five Years Meeting can write out articles of incorpo-
ration and sign it as incorporating this body. The
authority may be given to any committee, but the persons
signing it must be in the State where the incorporation
act is accomplished. It is not a very hard thing to in-
corporate.
Allen Jay, Indiana : The American Friends' Board
of Foreign Missions had to go before the Legislature in
order to get a special law in order to incorporate, and as
this Five Years Meeting will be something new in the
world, it may not be so easy after all.
(Motion carried.)
Chairman: The subject for this evening, "Our
Present Duty to the Cause of Peace and Arbitration . ' ' The
subject will be opened by Richard H. Thomas, of Balti-
more Yearly Meeting. I want to say in introducing this
subject, there is one thing which I hold as a firm convic-
tion ; that is, that history in future years will tell us that
the arbitration movement is regarded as the greatest event
of the Nineteenth Century.
OUR PRESENT DUTY TO THE CAUSE OF
PEACE AND ARBITRATION.
By Richard H. Thomas of Baltimore.
The very fact that all of us in this Conference are
convinced on the general question of peace is, perhaps,
a difficulty in itself in our consideration of it. We
all agree that Peace is right and that arbitration is
the way to settle difficulties. But in so far as we begin
to take a thing for granted, just so soon do we begin
to let it go into the background ; and this is, to a certain
extent, true in regard to Peace ; for I know of some
who feel that we have no time to give to it because we
are so taken up in Gospel work, and others, who think
290 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
that the recognition of universal brotherhood is so far
in the future that it is hardly worth while to work for
it. But Peace is a real integral part of the Gospel mes-
sage. We were reminded this afternoon of the trend of
modern thought. I will not dwell upon it now, but we
must recognize the fact that this age is intensely practical.
People are asking, What is the value of Christianity to
the individual — what is its value to society and to the
nation ? The practical answer to that question given by
professing Christians has too often allowed the spirit of
Christianity to be grievously misrepresented and defamed.
Do we say that we have not time to engage in Peace work
because of Gospel work ? Look at the condition of things
in Europe. There the people, or at least a large part of
the people who stand for social reform , for Peace and for
the betterment of mankind, have denounced Christianity as
the friend of war. I myself, for instance, heard a prom-
inent man say, " My wife wants me to be a Christian, but
I am unable to be one, because Christianity teaches war."
And he was utterly surprised when some of us told him
that we were Peace men because we were Christians. The
case is not exactly the same in America, of course, but
there is a feeling even in America — and it is not confined to
a small class — that Christianity even here and now panders
to the wealthy ; has to a certain extent sold itself to wealth ;
and the ears of this class are closed to the teaching of the
Gospel, because of the position of Christian people on
these vital questions. The man who has experienced a
real change of heart is a man who has come to be changed
through and through, and society is going to be changed
through that man's influence. A converted man, there-
fore, ought to mean a converted home ; a converted man
and a converted home ought to mean a converted society,
and a converted society ought to mean a converted na-
tion ; but it is a very usual conception of Christianity that
says that Christianity means that I am to be saved simply
as an individual, and that I am to help other individuals to
be saved from hell. I was calling at the house of a religious
man — not a member of our denomination — and I gave him
a Peace paper. He said, " That is all very well, but I can
OF THE CONFERENCE 29 I
take no interest in that ; I do not believe in it at all." I
said, ' ' Why not ? " He said that the reformation of the
world was something that God had given up, and it is
no use for us to attempt it. On that man's table I saw
wine and wine glasses. Has God given up the reforma-
tion of the world and ceased to try to save it ? What a
travesty of the Gospel is this ! The attitude which inter-
ests itself in what is known as evangelization — that is, the
personal salvation of the individual and in little beyond
that, an attitude that a great many maintain, forgetting
that all men and women are brothers and sisters — is re-
sponsible, perhaps innocently responsible, for a large
amount of infidelity in the world. When a man comes
into the new life, it means that he has come into an en-
tirely new atmosphere, and that through him others also
are to come into it, till the whole earth is influenced. It
is a Gospel of glad duty. There is freedom for all be-
cause Jesus Christ has struck at the root of everything
that leads to oppression ; freedom, because Jesus Christ
has brought freedom to the hearts of men, and because
Christianity touches life on every side of it. A man
whose social relations are not converted is not soundly
converted ; a man whose politics are not converted is not
soundly converted. Christianity touches a man in every
phase of life ; therefore, a full Gospel of salvation for the
individual is a step to a converted family life and a con-
verted social and political life, and we are to do what we
can to make the conditions of life such as to enable people
to hear the Gospel and accept it. The followers of Jesus
Christ are to be separate from the selfish spirit of the
world, and are called upon to deny it and in every possi-
ble way to be free from it. But this is not simply an in-
dividual matter. There are social wrongs and evil sys-
tems that need combined action to abolish them, and the
Gospel for society is to be preached and society is to be
saved through the power and life of Jesus Christ, working
through men and women who are themselves saved by
Him, and who, because they are saved, are growing into
His likeness. In proportion as society is saved will the
individual be in a condition to hear and accept Jesus Christ.
- ._ STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
But you say that the apostles did not preach this, nor
did they expend their strength upon it, but upon indi-
viduals. We must remember that Christianity arose in
the midst of the corruption of Roman society. It came as
a pure breath from Heaven to the vitiated moral atmos-
phere of the day. Its wildest enemy could not accuse it of
the slightest responsibility, or even connivance with the op-
pressions of the time. It gave men a new outlook, a new
hope, a new life : yet it recognized the responsibility to
the State by inculcating the duty of adopting the only
direct method it then had at its disposal of influencing it
— that is, by prayer for those in authority. Now times
have changed. Official Christianity has so long been in
the ascendency, so long been the attendant and supporter
of constituted authority ; has so often allowed its free tes-
timony to righteousness to be reduced to very small pro-
portions by its alliance with those who have arisen through
iniquity, that many to-day hold it responsible for the worst
evils of the times. It is, therefore, no secondary part of real
Gospel work to labor for such a salvation for society as will
bring about conditions where the Gospel of Jesus Christ
will be willingly heard, and where it can be fully lived out.
For it is impossible to dwell among a people of unclean
lips and keep our own lips entirely clean, so long as we are
only intent upon our own personal salvation and our own
inward experience. We are members of a social body ;
when our eyes are opened to see the truth, we find our-
selves at every turn an inevitable part of the system with
its injustices and oppressions. Unless by thought, or
words, or deeds, or prayers, we are laboring to free' the
social and political body from the weight of these things,
we are contributing to their continuance.
Of all the anomalies the world has ever seen, there is
none worse than the followers of Jesus Christ fighting with
deadly weapons. I accuse no one. It is not for me to judge
my brother. How do I know but that to others I am allow-
ing in my life things which seem to them as inconsistent
as their war attitude appears to me ? But I submit the fact
that though I may not see everything, that is not to make
me close my eves to what I have seen, or cease to raise
OF THE CONFERENCE 293
my voice in testimony to it. And some of us here have
seen that no argument from necessity, no argument from
the good that may have come from war, can make the
passions of hell and acts of ruthless cruelty harmonize
with the Spirit of Him who came not to destroy men's
lives but to save them, and to give His life a ransom for
many. War, with its substitution of might as opposed to
justice; war, with its desolation and suffering ; war, with
its fearful cost in money and in human lives ; war, with
its necessary violations of even elementary morality, with
its awful list of crimes directly and indirectly attributable
to it and following in its wake, is in its root and in its
fruit essentially opposed to Jesus Christ.
Further, I make bold to say that never during the
past seventeen hundred years, since the remembrance of
the early overwhelming conviction of the first Christians
on this subject passed away, have there been as many
who, as a general proposition, would agree to this indict-
ment against war as there are to-day.
This brings me to the first specific duty which lies
before us in this connection. It is to take advantage of
this fact, and by example and precept do what we can to
induce these to have the courage of their convictions, and
to teach them that, mixed up as things are in this world,
no amount of jugglery is to induce us so to dishonor
Christ as to make Him a minister of sin, or to suppose
His authority can be used to justify any war or any
preparations for war on any pretext whatever. For any
whose eyes are open on this subject to plead that war is
ever necessary, is in that particular a flat denial of the
truth of Jesus Christ, and, as all denials of Him do, it
injures His cause. I am sorry to say that on this ques-
tion of social redemption many professed atheists are
going into the Kingdom before us, for they, starting from
the basis of humanity, are working out the teachings of
Peace in many instances more rapidly than those who
felicitate themselves on having received light from
Heaven.
What is our duty, the duty of those whose eyes are
open to the truth of this subject ?
294 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
First, to maintain our position and to emphasize it.
The fact that few of us are in public life, that few have
very extended influence, does not alter the fact of our
privilege and responsibility in the matter. Thomas
Ellwood's suggestion caused Milton to write " Paradise
Regained." If you get hold of the personal history of
active workers for Peace in public life to-day, you are very
likely to find a Friend had a hand in making him what
he is. In the multitudes of men and women we come
across evety day, we know not the influence that those
we influence may exert. The revival in modern times of
the ancient Waldensian Church came about through the
instrumentality of an English Christian gentleman whose
attention was directed to them through the apparently
accidental reading about them in a pamphlet which he
picked up carelessly in a physician's waiting room. The
great Chalk Cliffs that overlook the English Channel are
made up of myriads of shells. The strength of our work
lies in daily individual testimony faithfully borne.
Secondly, L,et us welcome and encourage any move-
ment for Peace, even though it does not go as far as we
wish. The establishment of the Hague Convention is,
perhaps, the most wonderful witness to the change that
is taking place in the thoughts of men on the subject of
Peace and War that has ever been known. It is not
wholly on the full Christian basis, but it is a step, and is
one more evidence of the fact that men are finding that
what is morally wrong is not politically wise. Let us, by
our influence in conversation and in writing, make The
Hague Convention, with its international Court of Arbi-
tration already in actual operation, tell for Peace as far as
we can make it tell, till men's minds become saturated
with the thought of Arbitration, so that it will come to
them more naturally than the thought of war.
Third, L,et us understand that we are not only against
war but for Peace, and that Peace is a principle. We
who believe in Peace because Christ is the Prince of
Peace and because He has shown us that Peace is what
man is made for, cannot approve of anything that makes
for war. Peace is to be had only on the basis of justice
of the; conference 295
and love. It cannot be had when there is greed and
injustice, or when there are wrong or foolish notions as
to National honor. These principles we have just now
an opportunity to stand for in the question of the treat-
ment of the Cubans and the Filipinos. Let us never
justify our country in any position or in any act that in
its legitimate consequences would lead to war. If the
nation finds itself in a position where there is no way to
avoid war except by an exercise of Christian forbearance
beyond what the average temper of its citizens is able to
exercise, let us not justify the country or condone the
wrong, but without railing, consistently bear our testi-
mony and so be genuinely patriotic and loyal to its truest
interests.
Fourth, Do what we can to substitute sound ideas as
to National honor and greatness. Besides private influ-
ences we can utilize occasions like the Fourth of July or
Washington's Birthday, for these commemorate events so
long gone that all personal feeling has died out, and we
can speak on Peace without inconsistency. The case is,
of course, different with Decoration Day, or with Grand
Army Reunions ; for with these there is the direct glorifi-
cation of arms, and without condemning those who think
differently, I should feel that the endorsement of war in-
volved in the acceptance of invitations to deliver addresses
on these occasions would have more influence for the
wrong side than any words for Peace that could suitably
be uttered would counterbalance.
Fifth, As I have said, Peace is a principle. It cannot
be confined to international relations. We cannot proclaim
Peace between nations and ignore it between individuals,
and between sections of society, capital and labor, white
and colored. Competition, when it practically means
that competitors are enemies, means war, at least in the
spirit of it. It is far too often assumed that capital and
labor are essentially antagonistic. The truth is that if
they understood their true relations they would see that
they are essentially co-operative. We, as Friends, may
well feel thankful that President Roosevelt, whose belief
in and endorsement of war we have so often regretted, has
296 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
come out so nobly in the great coal strike as the champion
of Peace and justice. It is part of our Gospel message
to encourage and help promote all movements that will
lead to justice and fellow-feeling between employer and
employees, and to teach men that in Christ Jesus there
can be neither white nor black, and that while a man may
rightly choose who shall be his intimate friends, he may
not, as a follower of Ghrist, choose that justice and kind-
ness shall be dealt to one class of men and not to another.
Sixth, The careful arrangement of lectures and ad-
dresses not only on Peace but also on these aspects of
Peace, and the dissemination of sound literature, are also
most useful. There is The Peace Association of Friends
in America, which has done much work in this line, and
deserves the continued support of Friends. It publishes
a monthly paper The Messenger of Peace, which is circu-
lated more or less in most of the States. Then, there is
in Boston the able Advocate of Peace, edited by our friend,
Benjamin F. Trueblood.
Seventh, We can also do much in influencing legisla-
tion in right directions.
Finally, I end as I began, by saying, let us present a
full Gospel to the people, to society, and to the world,
and live it out. Here is the solution of the abolition of
war and the spirit of it, and of the bringing in of the
reign of Peace.
Clerk : Further discussion of this subject by Cyrus
Hodgin.
Cyrus Hodgin : I want to endorse very heartily the
points that were made by Dr. Thomas in his paper, and
the suggestions that he makes as to how we may practice
Peace and Arbitration, and I wish him to be encouraged
by us. I believe that the present duty of the Society of
Friends toward the subject of Peace and Arbitration is
practically the same to-day that it has always been. The
Society of Friends has always been a Peace and Arbitra-
tion Society. We have never gone back on our teaching
of that doctrine, and I trust we never shall. The Society
of Friends has led the world to our views on this subject
OF THE CONFERENCE 297
of Peace and Arbitration, and we have reached out without
any help from other denominations. We have discharged
our duty so far as we have gone in a way that has been
helpful to the world, but that duty is not yet complete.
It is our present duty to stand by this broad Gospel that
Dr. Thomas has spoken to us about. In niy childhood,
in the Quaker home in which I was brought up, and in
the Quaker meeting which I attended, I obtained the idea
that the Bible was a Quaker book somehow or other, and
I believed Quakerism rested right on the Bible. Since I
have grown older and have studied the Bible more, I am
more and more convinced that Quakerism stands on the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. That being the case it is certainly
our present duty to stand by this Gospel. It is the doc-
trine of the Gospel that love is the fulfilling of the Gos-
pel. " L,ove worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore,
love is the fulfilling of the law." Friends hold to the
Gospel standing of morality. The Gospel declares that
we shall " Provide things honest in the sight of all men."
War does not. Strategy in war is regarded as the highest
accomplishment of an army of soldiers. What is involved
in strategy ? Take, for instance, an incident in the late
war with the Filipinos. You are all familiar with the
account of Funston's capture of Aguinaldo ; how he
practiced his brutality ; how he successfully practiced his
forgery, his falsehood, and how he got things under false
pretense. But the nation applauded that man ; the Gov-
ernment applauded and rewarded him by promoting him.
Can Friends applaud forgery, briber}^,. falsehood and false
pretense? Not and be Christians. The one great objec-
tion to war is that it holds up a different standard of
morality. We must give up one and hold to the other,
-or we may love one and hate the other. We cannot serve
two masters — War and Peace. War and the Gospel of
Jesus Christ are utterly out of harmony as to their stand-
ards of morality.
Again, we must trust to our standard of righteous-
ness instead of stepping aside for the other standard ; for
if we do not stand by our standard, the standard of dis-
unity, of bribery, of forgery, will crowd itself down into
298 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
our business life. Tbink of it ! If we applaud forgery
and briben T and falsehood in the conduct of a man in the
army, what can we say against a man who practices it in
his business ? And there are men in business that are
taking the stand that certain forms of dishonesty are right,
that they are business methods. The principles involved
in war are coming up in business interests.
Friends hold that Jesus Christ taught in His Gospel
that we are to love our enemies. War says, Hate your
enemies. Is that true. Not very long ago a man who
became Secretary of War for the United States set up this
standard for a man who went out as a soldier. He said :
We hear a good deal these days about loving our enemies,
but, says he, I have no patience with that sentiment ;
away with it. We must hate them, we must despise
them, and when the occasion rises we must say, " Come
on, boys, let's give them hell." That is the standard he
set up for them. The Gospel teaches us that we should
not avenge ourselves. War calls for revenge, for venge-
ance. One Sabbath morning, after the Maine was
blown up, I met a group of men, and they all wore
badges on their coats, and I read on those badges the
words, " Remember the Maine. To hell with Spain ! "
Now, if that is the spirit of war, and we cannot den}'' it,
what ought to be our duty toward it as Christians, as fol-
lowers of Jesus Christ, who says, ' ' Love your enemies, and
pray for them which persecute you and despitefully use
you " ? War says, the end justifies the means even to the
destruction of property and lives. The property and lives
of thousands are sacrificed in order that the end may be
achieved. In a single combat war destroys the fruits of
civilization that were generations in producing. Indeed,
I heard a very learned gentleman say, " It is the business
of war to destroy the fruits of civilization." If this is
true — if our Christian civilization is going down before
war, what ought we to do as Friends and Christians ?
But, somebody will say, you are not patriotic if you
do not stand by the country, sometimes we have to go to
war, and we must stand by the country even if it is war.
I believe that the truest patriotism stands for peace under
OF THE CONFERENCE 299
all circumstances. What does a true patriot wish for his
country ? If I mistake not he wants his country to be a
light unto the nations, he wants his country to be in the
van, in the lead of the nations, lift them higher and
higher and higher in the progress of civilization and life.
But war destroys nations The warlike nation of to-day
is the decadent nation of to-morrow. This is the view of
one of the greatest scientists of modern times. On one
occasion Jesus Christ told Peter, " All they that take the
sword shall perish with the sword." At one time the
question was expounded that heat expanded bodies, and
men by experiment tested the application of heat to this
body and that body, and the other body, and every time
heat expanded the body, and they came to the conclusion
that heat expands all bodies. So we may apply that ques-
tion of induction to this question that Jesus Christ pro-
pounded, and give it the test of scientific men. L,et us go
back for a moment and look at example after example.
Old Egypt built herself up by the sword . Where is Egypt
to-day ? She perished with the sword. Then came
Assyria with its great walled city of Nineveh. But
Assyria built herself up by the sword, but died by the
sword. Babylon and Persia fell by the sword. Athens,
cultured, philosophic, literary, scientific Athens, was
built up by the sword and Athens perished by the sword.
Rome built herself up by the sword and likewise perished
by the sword, and lies in the dust to-day by the strokes
of the sword. Spain came on after Rome building herself
up by the sword. Spain, the other day, was mutilated by
somebody's sword. Think of it, Friends, if Jesus Christ
was right, does not the sword hang over us if we go on
building ourselves up by war. War is dangerous, and I
tell you the patriotic thing to do is to say to our Govern-
ment, it is unsafe to build up the military system, to build
up a great army ; we are in danger every day that we do
it. It is not difficult to see why.
France is an illustration of what war will do for a
nation. France became a great warlike nation. France,
time after time, pushed to the front the greatest army the
world ever knew and, like all nations, selected the best,
300 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
physically speaking, the best built men, perfect specimens
of manhood — those who were the most fitted for the propa-
gation of her race, and so France has been going down !
down ! down ! down ! If a farmer wants to build up a.
herd of cattle he does not select the poor little weak stock
from the shambles, but he breeds from the fine ones,_
those that are most fit.
So France has been going down until the other day
when there was a parade of soldiers of all nations — Ameri-
can, German, French soldiers, the. most striking thing in
that parade was the diminutive stature and the weak
appearance of the French soldiers.
What does patriotism demand of us ? It demands-
that we shall stand by our doctrines of Peace and Arbi-
tration. Let Arbitration settle these difficulties. Some
say that questions involving the national honor and
national dignity can never be arbitrated. That would be
saying that there are questions between individuals that
can be settled in no other way only by the old code of the
duel. They have substituted the civil Court for the
duel. Why is it dishonorable for men to settle other
difficulties in a civil Court ? What can be more honora-
ble than righteousness ? What can be more dignified
than justice ? As Dr. Thomas has so well put it, when
righteousness and justice prevail in a nation then all call
for War is gone. The honorableness of righteousness
and the dignity of justice will settle all these questions.
The national honor and dignity will be safer under the
Hague Court than under two great national armies. - I
want to endorse this statement of our Chairman, that
history in the future will look back to the adoption of
this Court at the Hague as the greatest event of the Nine-
teenth Century. I take great pleasure in looking over
the facts that the French had more influence in implant-
ing in the Czar of Russia a desire for that Court than any
other nation.
Trusting to righteousness and the God of righteous-
ness shall bring us to the time when " The kingdoms of
this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of
His Christ."
OF THE CONFERENCE 3OI
Allen Jay, Indiana : I would like to introduce the
editor of the Messenger of Peace, Anna B. Thomas, of Bal-
timore ; and I move that she be allowed to speak to us for
a few minutes at this time on this subject of Peace.
(Motion carried.)
Anna B. Thomas, Baltimore : It gives me great
pleasure to look into the faces of the delegates in the
capacity of the editor of the Messenger of Peace. It goes
into many States — more States, I think, than are repre-
sented here — but it should go into more. We put it
around on the benches to-night that those who do not
know the paper may see it, and if any Friend will
hand the sum of one quarter of a dollar to me and the
name of some friend they want to interest, the paper will
be sent to such a one, or for one dollar they can send
eight copies to one address.
I think this work for Peace means some effort. I
want us to make this effort. I want each one of us
to try to win over one person to the principles of Peace.
Fix upon some one — your friend, the Methodist min-
ister, or the Presbyterian minister ; ask him to preach
a Peace sermon on Peace Sunday. Work with him
until you convince him of the principles of Peace. Do
the same with your public school teacher, with your
next friend who is at the head of a big business estab-
lishment. We have got to do some aggressive work
for Peace. I think the Peace Conference last winter in
Philadelphia did a great deal to stir us up on this ques-
tion. It is a work we can do individually in our home
life. I want us to be at work.
Emilie U. Burgess, New York: I wondered if the
women of this audience realized that there are two prob-
lems that especially interest us : the Temperanance ques-
tion and this one of Peace. No other subject can mean
as much to the women as these two questions. I won-
dered if we were just going to listen, take it all in, and
then go home and do nothing. How can we go home
and do no better than we have done ? Our children are
learning war. War pictures come in Harper s Weekly,
many of our books are filled with the war spirit, and eager
3<D2 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
as they are to learn, they will see and read things that will
affect their lives. If we educate men and women in the
war spirit, we are going to have war. Bring this subject
before your children, especially the boys ; ask them to
write essays on the subject of Arbitration, and when they
come to study it they will see what a wonderful subject
it is.
We can make this subject exceedingly practical, and
I hope the different branches of your Yearly Meetings
here will take this subject up before our educational insti-
tutions, let them have the children write these essays, and
they will see what a wonderful subject it is. Then in the
evenings, cannot we have a meeting with the boys ? It is
useless for us to come here and hear these papers and
addresses if we are going to go home and say to ourselves,
What a wonderful conference and what wonderful essays,
unless we are going to put those Peace principles into
practice^
Benjamin F. Trueblood, New England: I did not
get into the room in time to hear Dr. Thomas's article,
but I want to call attention to two or three things, and I
hope that no Friends will go out unless it is really nec-
essary. I do not think we have any appreciation of the
vantage ground which we hold on this subject. In 1899
I went to The Hague to attend the Peace Conference
with a deputation of the English Friends who were sent
over at that time to the Conference, and when John
Bellows, the chairman of that deputation, presented his
address, Baron de Staal, in his reply, said " I am very
glad to see this body of Friends here ; we all know that
you are sincere." And that deputation had as much to
do in that association as anything done there.
In 1 8 19, Stephen Grellet made a visit to Alexander
I. of Russia and had a long and serious interview with
him, after which the Emperor declared that his soul had
been greatly moved. He also made a visit to Nicholas
II. The influence Stephen Grellet made 011 the imperial
family of Russia was behind that conference — in a quiet
way — perhaps, as strongly as every where else . We do not
appreciate the vantage ground we hold to-day. The
OF THE CONFERENCE 303
Society of Friends has been a great factor in creating this
great Peace movement and in the setting up the great Inter-
national Court of Arbitration. Through the work and in-
fluence — first, of George Fox, William Penn and one of
the William Aliens, and later the work of men like John
Bright — has come a tremendous moral and spiritual influ-
ence, until they have had to realize that our Church in
its Peace capacity has been at the bottom of the Peace
movement more than any other organization ; yet I al-
ways hesitate to say that, because we live on these old
things of the past.
What is the duty of the Society of Friends at this
present time on the Peace question ? I have been for
twelve consecutive years constantly engaged in this
movement and little else. It is a fact that we have few
men and women in our Church who are engaged in this
work. From Maine to California we have, perhaps, a
hundred men and women in the Society of Friends who
are doing active, intelligent, energetic Peace work. We are
orthodox on the subject, but we are resting on the oars of
our orthodoxy. It is more work to get up any real en-
thusiasm in the Quaker towns than anywhere else. It
has got to be an old story ; we are not interested in going
to Peace conferences, and in our Yearly Meetings the
Peace meeting is always the smallest one. More Friends
will go to sleep in a Peace meeting than upon any other
subject that comes before the Church. These things
ought not so to be. We have a vantage ground; we
have a national record on this subject, and you ought to
set yourself to reading and finding out this history of the
cause of Peace and Arbitration, following the days of
George Fox in the seventeenth century up to the present
time. I have never in all my work found anything which
so touches every feeling and every part of my being as
this does. I wish there was time to-night to tell you the
triumphs of this cause. There is not time, but I do want
to tell you not to let what these friends have said fall on
listless ears. Study upon this subject ; subscribe for the
Peace paper, the Messenger of Peace. What is the cost
per year ? Only the price of a piece of ribbon — not a very
304 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
long one, either. I think I shall speak the truth when I
say that not ten of you that are here who are not sub-
scribers to that paper will subscribe for it here, and still
less will subscribe for that other paper, for which I must
not speak because I am the responsible editor of it. I
speak thus not from an} 7 personal interest, but because I
love the cause of Peace, because I love the Church and
because I love you. On every Friends' platform, every
place from which a Friend minister preaches, I want our
Church to be in the forefront, where God has intended it
to be and where it was so long.
Allen Jay, Indiana : You will all remember the posi-
tion that the Five Years Meeting assumed yesterday in
regard to the work among the Indians. This Peace Asso-
ciation of Friends in America have an organization ; they
have a Central Board, President, Vice-President, Secretary,
Treasurer and an Executive Committee ; and then they
have two members from each Yearly Meeting in America,
or at least they may have. Now, I do not propose to ask
that the Five Years Meeting assume this, but I wish the
Five Years Meeting would now make the same Minute in
regard to the Peace Association of Friends in America as
they made on the Associated Committee on Indian Affairs
and recommend it to the different Yearly Meetings. Will
you do it ? I move that this Five Years Meeting do that.
Richard H. Thomas, Baltimore: I think the Peace
Association of Friends in America will be glad to come
under the Five Years Meeting.
Ellwood O. Ellis, Indiana : It came by a resolution
from the Business Committee.
Allen Jay, Indiana : Make one just like that. I don't
believe in too much red tape.
Clerk : Under ordinary circumstances I should try to
persuade you to pass this over for further deliberation,
but these two Boards have been in existence for many
years. They have evidently shown that we needed some-
thing in the way of a united organization. They were
the forerunners of the Five Years Meeting, and for this
reason I think we are safe in taking hold of the subject.
(Motion unanimously carried.)
OF THE CONFERENCE 305
Joseph Potts, North Carolina : About half an hour
ago we heard some one tell us that certainly Peace was a
part of the Gospel. I have concluded in my own mind
that it is the whole of the Gospel. " Peace with God and
Peace with Man." Peace was what the Lord Jesus came
to bring us, and we know that we cannot have peace with
God unless we have peace with man. I have written
down what I want to say.
Peace and Citizenship.
This body should need no argument against War.
We simply recognize that Peace with God implies also
peace with all men everywhere. We can be enemies to
none and retain His Peace.
In so far as we find the human government over us
proposing war measures of any description we absolutely
decline allegiance to it therein, whatever the consequences.
However, we remain submissive, as our Saviour and His
disciples taught, to the powers that be, but cannot be
forced to fight. In the stage of the world's history which
we have reached, we do not expect great inconvenience
from this.
Examining the Constitution under which we have
been organized as a nation for more than a century, we
quickly learn that it provides for an army and navy, and
for arsenals and forts ; the President is made Commander-
in-Chief of such army and navy. It grants power to
Congress to declare war, and to make regulations about
the militia, and thus commits the nation to ultimate
appeals to destructive force. This is a burden which the
willing voter assumes.
Christ and His apostles have much to say about our
subjection to the powers that be, but nothing whatever as
to how His children shall bear rule in the body politic.
While this is no argument whatever against the pro-
priety and the necessity of human government by and
over those who will not submit to Christ's rule, it is sug-
gested as defining somewhat the duties of those who do.
They cannot administer un-Christian human law but
306 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
must work with greater earnestness and zeal toward estab-
lishing the rule of Christ. Let us have Peace and poli-
teuma — Citizenship, conversation, manner of life, policy ;
whatever be the right translation ; but peace with God
and peace with men — this kind of Peace at any price ; and
our citizenship will be in heaven while we are yet on
earth. Uninjurious force may often be required and
properly used in the restraint of lawbreakers, insane peo-
ple, or children. Injurious force may not be used under
any circumstances, nor may we run the risk of injuring
by using a dangerous weapon. Love cannot injure a
fellow man intentionally. There is a ferocity, or wild-
beast nature, which inheres in all not fully redeemed
souls. There is not a vestige of this which harms,
abuses and injures others in Christ, nor in His spirit
which dwells within the fully redeemed.
Samuel L- Haworth, Iowa : I would like to make a
suggestion. In a home where I was boarding some time
ago, one of the girls of the family was a student of United
States history, and I either took up the book and looked
at it or asked her whose history it was, and she said
" Thomas's," and I had heard something of " Thomas's
History," because the author is a Friend, and I was
pleased to know that our Public school in the town where
I was living had adopted his History. Now, I am not
an agent for the publishers of this book, nor has the
author given me a commission to say this, but if Friends'
schools are not using " Thomas's History," I would sug-
gest that you make a change and use it ; and if you have
any influence with School Boards, that there be an effort
made to introduce this United States History, not simply
because it is a Quaker history, or a United States history by
a Friend, but as the thought impresses me, because for one
reason at least, that the relationship between War and
Peace may be put to us in the proper light. I will give you
one instance. I noticed concerning the War ot 1812 a
statement something like this, that " A treaty with Eng-
land more favorable to the United States could have been
made before the war than was made at the close of the
war." That is a short statement, and yet it will cause
OF THE CONFERENCE 307
young people to think, what good, then, was that war
if the United States could have had a better treaty before
the war than it got after the war ? One reason why peo-
ple go to war is because they fail to think. I think that
President McKinley had assumed a thinking attitude
towards the affairs of the nation, and I believe that our
Congress lost its head, and that that was the reason, or
partly the reason, of the war with Spain.
A Delegate : I like the remarks in regard to the
United States History, and would like to suggest that
the author of that book, or some one else, write a general
history on the same subject. I think people ought to
find out there is something beside glory in war, and our
histories, if properly written, would help them to find it
out.
Aaron M. Bray, Oregon : I want to simply state that
a little more than a year ago the State of Oregon displaced
# a very objectionable school history and adopted one writ-
ten by a Friend, and I suppose that so far as the entire
schools of the State of Oregon are concerned, they are
going to use this same book that has been referred to.
Richard H. Thomas, Baltimore : May I remind
Friends that while we have heard that Stephen Grellet,
an honored Friend, some years ago took a journey and
called on the Czar of Russia, that an honored Friend of a
later day called on the Czar, and may have had some
influence. I refer to Barnabas C. Hobbs.
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana : Another name should
not be forgotten, that of Daniel Wheeler.
Annie D. Stabler, Baltimore : My heart was wonder-
fully stirred on this subject some time ago when I went to
hear a Presbyterian minister. The subject was " Spirit-
ual Tessons to be Gained from the Battle of Gettysburg."
I think I never heard anything depict the horrors of war
more clearly, yet after he got through telling of the
awfulness of war, he went on to say that our war with
Spain was a holy war, and he further went on to say that
" if a burglar conies into my house and my life and the
life of my family are in danger I should consider it a
Christian act to take that man's life." It seems to me
308 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
we do want to be stirred up on this subject and make our
testimony heard by the world. I feel like hanging my
head in shame when I hear men declare such things as
that which that minister uttered. L,et us be up and
doing.
Clerk : I think the time has arrived to close the dis-
cussion. We have a few announcements and then we
will be ready to close the meeting.
(Announcements were then made.)
Clerk : We are now ready to close the meeting. We
will arise and be dismissed by Isom P. Wooton, Iowa.
Clerk : We stand adjourned until 9.00 o'clock to-
morrow morning.
SEVENTH DAY MORNING, TENTH MONTH 25.
The meeting was called together at nine o'clock.
Clerk : Our devotional exercise this morning will be
in charge of Harriet Green of Eondon.
Harriet Green, Eondon : May we have a little time
of prayer together ?
Harriet Green then' offered prayer and spoke. She
was followed by Allen Jay, of Indiana ; Eevi D. Barr, of
California; and David E. Sampson, of North Carolina;
and the hyinn, " More about Jesus," was sung.
Clerk : The recording clerk will now read the Minutes
of the sessions of this meeting held yesterday, beginning
with the morning session. (The Minutes of the three ses-
sions were separately read and approved.)
Albert J. Brown, Western : If it is in order, I would
like to ask if the Finance Committee has any plan to pro-
pose in regard to the settlement of the expenses of the
delegates of this meeting. The delegates are beginning
to pack up and we would like to know about this matter.
Cyrus Beede, Iowa : I will answer that that was
before the Committee this morning, but I think the report
will come in some time to-day.
Josiah Dillon , Kansas : I want to say in reference to
the breaking up of the delegations, that we are under
moral obligations to remain until the meeting is out, and
OF THE CONFERENCE 309
that we be present at each session, and more especially so
if we expect our expenses to be paid. I think we ought
to hold ourselves responsible to God for attendance here
until this meeting closes.
Albert J. Brown, Western : May I ask, Who is to
settle the railroad fares of the delegates — the Treasurer of
the Five Years Meeting or the Treasurers of the Yearly
Meetings ?
Clerk : Will Tiniottry Nicholson answer ?
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana : The Treasurer of the
Yearly Meeting will pay the railroad fares of its delegates
and will report the amount to the Treasurer of the Five
Years Meeting, and when the Treasurer of the Five Years
Meeting has received all these amounts he will take the
aggregate and find the proportion that each Yearly Meet-
ing should pay, and if any Yearly Meeting has paid more
than its apportionment, the amount will be remitted to
the Treasurer of that Yearly Meeting, and if any Yearly
Meeting has not paid enough, the Treasurer of the
Yearly Meeting will be asked to remit to the Treasurer of
the Five Years Meeting the amount necessary to cover the
deficit. There may be a simpler way, but I have not
been able to see it. I cannot answer for any of the other
Yearly Meetings, but I was directed to pay the expenses
of the delegates from Indiana Yearly Meeting.
Isom P. Wooton, Iowa : It seems to me that it is
important to know what is to be done in regard to the
expenses of the alternates. There are alternates here
who need the mone}^, and they have come with the ex-
pectation of being used as delegates.
Phebe S. Aydelott, New England : It seems to me
that the Discipline is very plain on this matter, that the
amount is apportioned among the Yearly Meetings ac-
cording to their delegates. It seems to me very simple
for the Treasurer of this meeting to pay the individuals
the amounts due them. These cards will go to the
Treasurer of our Yearly Meetings, and he will — or rather
these cards will — go to the Treasurer of the Five Years
Meeting, and he will apportion it, and then it will go to
the Treasurers of the Yearly Meetings, and if one has
3IO STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
paid more there will be something returned, and if one
has paid less than they ought they should remit to cover
the apportionment.
David Hadley, Western : We are setting business
precedent here that will probably govern this body in
years to come. I cannot see that this would be a busi-
ness-like way unless the Yearly Meetings furnish the
money and then let the Five Years Meeting seek some
method by which it shall pay for the expense of the dele-
gates. We ought to require each Yearly Meeting to pay
the amount assessed.
Lewis E. Stout, Western : Our delegation did not
ask this question to hear from the Conference in the way
we have been doing. We hoped that the Finance Com-
mittee had something to suggest. I would like to sug-
gest that they withdraw and complete this plan so that
our minds may be clear in reference to this matter, so that
they may report before this session closes.
Milton Hanson, Western: That matter has been
before the Finance Committee, but it is not ready to re-
port. The plan is as outlined by Timothy Nicholson.
But as part of the delegates want their money now, there
could be a temporary arrangement made with the Treas-
urer of this meeting so that he could pay the individuals
and let the Yearly Meetings settle the accounts later on.
Carolena M. Wood, New York : I think when the
expenses of this meeting are made up we shall find that
the time of this meeting has been worth about $10 a
minute, and I think we should not spend $20, $30 or $50
here discussing a point we cannot settle.
Clerk : In filling out your cards make them show
what your railroad fares are from your home and to your
home. We will pass from this subject and ask the
Finance Committee to take the matter in hand.
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana : Somebody made the
right remark when they said that the Treasurer of each
Yearly Meeting should see that all these expenses are
paid to their delegates ; that should be attended to at
home. I think probably the traveling expenses of the
delegates of Indiana Yearly Meeting will not be over $150,
OF THE CONFERENCE 311
but the cost to some of the Yearly Meetings will be over
$500. Now when the Treasurer of the Five Years Meet-
ing has apportioned the expense to the Yearly Meetings,
if he should find the average cost to be $575, all that the
Treasurer of Indiana Yearly Meeting has to do is to
deduct the traveling expenses he has already paid — say
$150 — from that amount and remit the balance to this
body. It seems to me if we would manage it that way we
would not have any trouble.
Clerk : We will now take up the first subject on the
program, for this morning, which is a paper by Robert
E. Pretlow, of Wilmington Yearly Meeting.
OUR CHURCH LITERATURE.
By Robert E. Preteow.
The subject assigned to me is a very broad one, far
too broad for elaborate treatment in a twenty minute
paper. Some phases of it were ably presented by papers
and discussion at the Conference of ten years ago, and
others five years ago. These need not be repeated. This
paper shall take for granted, first, the great value and in-
fluence of its own distinctive literature in the Church ;
and second, the possibility of an improvement over
present conditions ; and shall attempt to confine itself to
a brief discussion of some ways in which practical action
may be taken by this body toward the improvement and
enlargement of our literary supplies.
The necessity of a periodical which shall be the ex-
ponent of the thought and work of the Church is too well
recognized to need argument, just as is the value of a liv-
ing ministry. In regard to supplying the preaching of
the Word, we are beginning to learn that the organized
Church has a duty to perform in taking the initiative and
sharing the sacrifice, not leaving the whole business to an
individual.
There has long been a feeling, and it has been grow-
ing, that the publishing interest also ought to be the con-
cern of the Church and not merely the private enterprise
of an individual. But no one Yearly Meeting adequately
312 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
represented the Church, and in some ways it seemed
more objectionable for a general publishing concern to be
in the hands of a single Yearly Meeting than to be under
private management.
A desire to connect the Church more closely with its
publications led some years ago to the organization of the
Publishing Association of Friends, composed of repre-
sentative Friends from various sections. It was, doubt-
less, the best that could be done at the time ; but all that
it could really accomplish was to substitute the private
enterprise of a number of individuals for that of one per-
son. And beyond that point we have not yet progressed.
Our Church needs a publishing house that shall be
unmistakably the affair of the Church, and which, as
such, can lay just claim to the loyalty of all her members.
At an important assembly of Friends a resolution
indorsing the American Fj'iend was objected to because
that paper is a private enterprise.
On the same ground many Sabbath-schools feel ab-
solved from claims of denominational loyalty in securing
their supplies, because the Church, as such, has no publi-
cations. In deciding between the output of different pri-
vate concerns they feel justified in guiding themselves by
a careful counting of the pennies, and too often the value
of our own presentation of the Bible School work is lost.
No reflection is intended upon those who have so
faithfully served the Church according to the methods
thus far in use. Under existing circumstances those
methods were the best possible. Hitherto there has been
no channel through which the united Church could act.
With the creation of the Five Years Meeting conditions
have been revolutionized. The whole question of a
Church publishing house and a Church periodical must
be viewed under entirely new aspects. This body with
its various Boards represents, continuously, united Qua-
kerism, and makes possible, for the first time in the his-
tory of the Church, the creation of machinery adequate
for the management of a publishing institution for the
Church.
No more important Board could be created than a
OK THE CONFERENCE 313
Publication Board, which should have power to acquire
for the Church existing interests, and to further extend
its operations as the means placed at its disposal and the
needs of the Church may warrant.
Our periodical literature would naturally first claim
its attention. One of the burdens of the Conference ten
years ago was the multiplicity of periodicals. Since that
time the happy results of the consolidation of the Christian
Worker and Friends' Review have amply demonstrated the
truth of the proposition that for a denomination of our
numbers one general periodical is better than two or more.
Should our periodicals pass under direct control of
the Church still further consolidation would seem to be in
order. The Church paper should be broad and strong
enough to cover all departments of Church work, so that
the reading membership may be symmetrically developed
and informed along all lines, and not be divided into
various groups showing different varieties of one-sided
development. Special periodicals maintained in the inter-
est of special departments would seem to a degree both
wasteful and ineffective. The same matter presented in
the special publication would be more economically pub-
lished and more widely circulated as a department of the
one Church paper than under the present system.
Of course the periodical would not be edited by the
Publishing Board, nor would the editor be under its con-
stant surveillance. God has called some men to declare
Him with the pen, as He has others to proclaim Him with
the tongue. It should be the Board's concern to find God's
man and give him the best facilities and the largest liberty
for his service.
The Board having a general supervision would ac-
complish the one important thing of making our period-
ical and other publications no longer an individual enter-
prise, but a concern of all the Church. Then every
pastor ought to feel that it is a part of his duty to extend
the circulation of the paper among the membership as the
exponent of the Church and to contribute to it all items of
important Church news, so that it may properly reflect
the Church.
314 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Periodical literature, however, important as it is, is
only a part of the literature which we need. There is an
urgent demand for the more thorough and extended treat-
ment of subjects than the periodical affords, and the more
permanent form which may be placed upon the library
shelf and referred to again and again.
We still have, it is true, the books that have been
standards in Friends' libraries for two hundred years; but
notwithstanding the wealth of material in them, they have
long since ceased to meet our needs.
Thomas Kirnber said of them in a essay more than
twenty years ago : ' ' The modern reader stands appalled
before the long array of ponderous volumes of the literature
current in the day, whether theological, biographical or
historical. They almost seem to justify, in their amplitude,
the complaint of an Edinburgh Reviewer of the last genera-
tion in regard to Dr. Nares' ' Memoirs of L,ord Burleigh,'
that ' The title page is as long as an ordinary preface, the
prefatory matter would furnish out an ordinary book, and
the book contains as much reading as an ordinary
librae . '
" One seems at a loss which most to wonder at, the
patient industry of those who wrote such Titanic volumes,
or those who read them ; both apparently for a mere pas-
time."
We may as well face the fact that these books are not
read, and will not be read, to any considerable extent.
If we are to have a literature that will get into the hands
and minds of our present day members that literature
must be created.
We have a great and inspiring history, but it is
nowhere made readily and attractively accessible.
We have produced men and women of noblest quali-
ties and most fruitful lives, but the records of those lives
are, for the most part, confined to ponderous and solemn
memoirs that are marvelously successful in soothing to
sleep any awakening interest.
We have a philosophy so simple, so clear, so true and
strong, that the greatest minds of the world are charmed
when they come in contact with it ; and still we refer back
OF THE CONFERENCE 315
to the stilted and scholastic work of Barclay for an expres-
sion of that philosophy.
There is a painful dearth of books which express in
the language of to-day either the history or the genius of
our Church, and there never was a time when they were
so earnestly desired by so many people as now.
The demand is not for controversial literature in-
veighing against the faults of this or other ages. We
have tons of that sort of stuff in old libraries, and all of it
is as dead as the cities of the plain. Nor do we want mere
negation. We are not protestants ; we are affirmers.
Our mission is not to deny some certain things, but to
declare a life so large and free and strong that it cannot be
compressed into the outworn shell of dead systems.
We want, then, an expression of Quakers and Quaker-
ism that shall be positive, practical, clear and concise ; in
short, that shall conform to the spirit and form of our
time as completely as the involved and voluminous tomes
of Fox and his fellow-workers conformed to their times.
Can such works be produced ? If not, then we had
as well drop all consideration of the subject,
But is the desire unreasonable or the hope of satisfy-
ing it vain ? And can this body do anything that will
tend toward the practical solution of this problem ?
There is abundance of material for a literature of the
greatest interest and value. And there is ability sufficient
to make excellent use of this material. But our able men
and women are very busy ones, and, for the most part,
those who have their own livings to make. The produc-
tion of worthy literature requires time for thought and
research, and research requires money. In the final
analysis the question that confronts us is one of money ;
money for the production of the literature, and such a
channel for its publication and distribution that the money
question may take care of itself.
The latter item would be far on the way to solution
through the establishment of the Church Publication
Board above proposed. It would represent the whole
Church. It would have its advertising media in the
Church publications. It would have its agencies in the
316 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
various book and tract committees, and in the whole body
of the ministry. It would have more direct access to the
whole body of probable customers than any other publish-
ing house could possibly do. Friends would naturally
look to it for all matter of special interest to the Church.
Thus it would have an exceptionally good opportunity of
disposing of its publications.
"How shall production be stimulated?" Let us
examine the circumstances attending the production of
three important publications of the last quarter of a cen-
tury and see if we cannot get a hint from them.
Probably the most satisfactory brief presentation ot
Quakerism now attainable — certainly the most charming
in its style — is Thomas Kimber's " The True Christian
Theology of the Early Friends." This was delivered as
a lecture at Earlham College, and its publication in pam-
phlet form made possible by the action of Indiana Yearly
Meeting Book and Tract Committee.
A very important contribution to Peace literature is
Dr. Trueblood's pamphlet, "William Penn's Holy Experi-
ment in Civil Government." This also was prepared to
be delivered as an oration at Philadelphia, and was pre-
served by publication through the American Peace Society.
Possibly the most deeply philosophical and pro-
foundly spiritual little book to which Modern American
Quakerism may lay claim is " A Dynamic Faith," by
Rufus M. Jones.
This series of five lectures was delivered before the
Haverford Summer School of Religious History, and- the
Friends' Bible Institute at Earlham, and afterward put
into book form by Headley Brothers, of London.
Attention is called to the fact that all these were first
prepared as lectures, and that the Church as such had no
hand in the putting into permanently available form of
but one of them. Now it is entirely probable that these
have not been the only really excellent lectures, well
worthy of presentation, that have been delivered. From
our Summer Schools, Bible Institutes, Endeavor, Educa-
tional, and Sabbath-school Conventions it might be possi-
ble to glean many things worth reading as well as hearing.
OF THE CONFERENCE 317
It is already the duty of the Committee on Education ,
according to the Discipline under which we are met, to
' ' recommend text books that give valuable information
concerning the history or doctrine of our branch of the
Church."
Might not the scope of duty of that Committee be
extended so as to include watchfulness for the discovery
of such matter and the encouragement of its publication ?
But a further step in which the Church shall more
directly take the initiative in the production of a literature
commends itself to the writer as now for the first time
practical.
Let the Committee on Education, under the direction
of this Meeting, be properly incorporated and solicit funds
for the endowment and support of a lectureship on Church
History and Doctrine. Let this Committee then annually,
or as often as its finances will permit, employ some capa-
ble representative of the best thought of the Church to
prepare a course of lectures on some subject of historical
or religious interest. Let these lectures be delivered
before the students of our various colleges or elsewhere
under such arrangements as may be made with the Com-
mittee on Education, and at the end of the year let the
subject matter be available for publication in book form.
This plan, if adopted, would secure careful and
scholarly work. It would bring annually some one of
our best thinkers into personal touch with the student
body, not of one college alone, but of our various colleges.
It would provide frequent additions to our literature, and
at the same time secure in advance of its publication a
considerable demand for it, as large numbers of those who
heard the lectures delivered would wish to possess them
in print.
Being under control of a permanent Committee, a cer-
tain degree of continuity would be assured which the per-
sonality of different lectures will insure against monotony.
Year by year a worthy literature covering an ever widen-
ing field will be built up, supplying the want which we
now so keenly feel.
318 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
This need not be the only source of production. In-
dividual ability and opportunity will find as free a field as
it ever did. But the problem the writer has endeavored
to consider is, How can this organization work toward
the betterment of our literature ? The suggestions which
have been made are not made as mere academic theories,
but as practical propositions for the consideration and
action of this body.
Clerk : The further discussion of this subject has
been assigned to Albert J. Brown, of Western Yearly
Meeting.
Albert J. Brown, Western : I thought in view of the
fact that the book of ' ' Brief Selections from the Life and
Works of William Penn," has been referred to, that I will
read one of these this morning. (Lifts up the folio vol-
ume.)
If there is any suggestion that might be made further
I do not know what it is ; for this paper has covered the
whole subject, and I appealed to the author to know if he
had anything else to say and he said he had, so I will tell
you what further he would say. He would have the Five
Years Meeting take supervisory control of the publica-
tions of our Yearly Meetings and in time try to work out
a central publishing house for Friends, which I think,
perhaps, would be a very practical thing, but I have
wondered all along if some statements are true that we
have no literature of the present time and how are we
going to use all this machinery that is proposed. It has
been said here that we do not have a living representa-
tive literature from the Friends of America to-day. Now,
I cannot tell you how we are going to produce it ; but I
have a hope that we will produce it, and I think I can
give a reason for the hope that is within.
History will certainly show that all literature that
survives has come out of some great struggle. Man in
his struggle with evil has spoken to the world through
the prophet and the seer, and I believe that we as a peo-
ple are entering upon a new era. The other evening,
when we discussed the temperance question the most pro-
nounced thing in that assembly was the feeling of pressure
OF THE CONFERENCE 319
from above that we must go forth and give the word.
There must come a literature — there must always come a
way out for the people who believe that they have not
attained the heights. We have organized this body with
the belief that under organized effort we can extend our
borders. Now, that is my hope — that there will come a
literature under these various lines; for instance, I have
longed to see Friends do as some others have done when
great issues came upon the nation, to lift their voices, and
some of them have, and proclaim to the world and to the
nation that we have a solution for the questions of the age.
To illustrate, a few years ago when England went to war
in South Africa, a College president on the Pacific coast
left his chair and started across the United States lecturing
against war. He was David Starr Jordan, and his subject
was " The Blood of the Nations." It seems that he was
called to the emergency, he left his chair in college and
seized the opportunity to travel clear across this continent
and lectured in- Europe upon this problem, and Indiana
Yearly Meeting recognizing the value of this document,
printed extracts from it, and sent it broadcast.
It has not been very long since Dr. Hadley, of Yale,
lifted up his voice in behalf of better citizenship, and his
lectures have gone broadcast. These men are leaving
their thoughts on the minds of the people, and I would
like to see twenty Friends where there is one coming out
on these lines to show men the way.
Then again, I would like to see the ministry so effec-
tive among Friends that it would be qualified to speak before
the public institutions, like the great universities and great
assemblies ; that it would be so efficient that these people
would be called upon to deliver a message from God to
these institutions and assemblies. I spent three years in
the University of Indiana. Every week a sermon was
preached by some minister in the State of Indiana. Not
one Friend was called upon to speak in that institution,
and I inquired one time at the institution if they had a
prejudice against Friends and this was the reply that was
made by one who was near the president, " We have not
felt that they have commended themselves sufficiently."
320 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Since I left the university one minister has been
called to preach before that body who was a Friend. I
wish we might have dozens and dozens of them, so
that we could proclaim the message that we have to
men everywhere, and may God grant us the favor and the
privilege of declaring the truths which we hold as funda-
mental to this whole country and to the world around.
So I say to you this morning, my friends, that we have
the hope of a great future, and unless we have convictions
that are as deep as human experience, we will not be
called upon, and we will fail. But the little body ot
Friends gathered here this morning I trust do have a
message for men. If the spirit of God calls on a man or
woman to write — it may not be many words you say, but
if the spirit of the eternal God is in them men will hear
the message. There came a man from Israel who saw sin
creeping into every household and he lifted up his voice
against it, and Hosea lives in the heart of mankind. We
have a Friend whose service has been recognized by the
world, and when I was reading the life of John Bright it
seemed to me that Parliament was before me and the
great problem of humanity was there, and here was Bright
standing by the rail lifting up his voice for God and
humanity. I have read some sermons that came from
Friends that can never die.
Friends, let us set our hearts upon the larger hope ot
humanity and go forth in every field of human thought to
leave the influence of our thought and our conviction
upon this old world. We can never die so long as we do
that. I have a resolution I wish to offer :
(Read a resolution in regard to The American Friend
and The Missionary Advocate. See Minutes, Minute 92.)
Levi D. Barr, of California: Is that offered as a
motion ?
Clerk : It is offered as a resolution to this meeting.
Lewis E. Stout, Western : I suppose that it should
be referred to the Business Committee.
James Wood, New York : I think it had better be
referred without deliberation to the Business Committee.
OF THE CONFERENCE 321
Clerk : We have previously taken action that resolu-
tions shall be referred to the Business Committee, so it
will be referred without further consideration.
Albert F. N. Hambleton, Iowa : I do not know that
it would be possible for me to add much to what has
already been covered by these able papers presented on
this subject, which is to my mind one of the most im-
portant subjects before the Friends of America. But,
however, I should venture a suggestion to try to make a
practical application of a thing which to me has been
revealed in talking with the ministers of the Friends'
Church during the past few years, which might, if prop-
erly carried out, be able to assist them in presenting to the
congregations to which they preach some of the principles
of Friends and the reasons for the belief in the doctrines as
promulgated by the Society of Friends. The thought I
have in mind is along the line of what we find our best
educators need, and that is practical reference books on
the various subjects which can be readily referred to. We
find the professional men — -the doctor has his books to re-
fer to, his encyclopedia ; the lawyer has his encyclopedia
— but when it comes to the Friend minister, and he wants
to present his reason for the statements of Friends, he has
only such books as the one shown here in our midst this
morning. I hope that we may soon have, in connection
with this subject, an encyclopedia which will state facts
relating to history, brief biographies of the best men of
the Friends' Church. Each subject being given to
those best adapted to handle this subject, and give state-
ments of the doctrines of Friends, such as the doctrine of
the ordinances, the doctrines and testimonies of Friends
on war, and all the various cardinal principles which the
Friends' Church has held from its origin ; and have a
statement, biographical, of the lives of men who have
founded or been connected with the early history of our
denomination. By reference to the histories we find that
many slanders have been perpetrated. Macaulay 's history,
we find, is incorrect and slanderous, and many others have
either purposely or ignorantly misrepresented the history
of many of our founders. L,et biographies be presented,
32 2 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
in a page or two to each one. This can be done by those
who have the time and opportunity to consult the best
books of reference obtainable, and thus let us have in the
near future an encyclopedia for Friends' use.
A few years ago I went to attend a church which was
presided over by a pastor who was once a prominent
member of this Society. He spoke on the subject, ' ' Why
am I a Presbyterian?" I thought it was a complete
failure ; but also I thought it was probably no more a
failure than most of our pastors would make should they
undertake to say, " Why am I a Friend ?" I have had a
deep concern for years on this subject, and I do hope that
in this Five Years Meeting some steps may be taken
whereby we can have brought to our use and our privi-
lege a book for the use of young ministers and those who
wish to present the truths as held by this Church.
Peter W. Raidabaugh, Western : For twelve years I
have been working practically on the line suggested by
Robert E. Pretlow's paper. When I came in contact
with the Friends' Publishing Association I found every-
thing was moving along at a dying rate, small circula-
tions, much money being spent, $17,000 sunk in the
Christian Worker with a circulation of 4500. We went
to work to bring about a consolidation of the Friends' 1
Review and the Christia?i Worker, and this union has been
a good thing. We found concerning the publications for
the Bible Schools one Quarterly to supply all the different
grades of the school. To my mind we can never succeed
until we can have a publishing house in some way Under
the direction of the Church. We have our missionary
interests under the care of a special Board ; we have our
Educational Board, and we have our Evangelistic and
Church Extension all under Boards and under the control
of the Church. But the publishing interests — the Quar-
terlies, Lesson Eeaves and papers for the children, under
the control of one man, or practically so. The children
who are to be the future members of the Church, in the
years when impressions are made on their minds, are hav-
ing placed in their hands the publications that are practi-
cally controlled by one man.
OF THE CONFERENCE 323
I do not know that this Five Years Meeting is ready
to take up this work further than to have a Committee on
Publications which should have advisory relation in re-
gard to what shall be published ; and if some one comes
forward with a book pretending to be the views of
Friends, let these papers be referred to the Committee,
and if it gives its endorsement its goes out with the en-
dorsement of the Church, and if some paper is not re-
ceived Friends will know that the Committee has read the
manuscript and cannot endorse it ; Friends will know
that that is not endorsed by the representative body of the
Five Years Meeting. If anything not strictly in harmony
with the Church should appear in our publications this
Committee could call down the editors, and the editors
could submit questions of difficulty to this Committee and
receive advisement from them. Perhaps this is as far as
we are ready to go now, and I will move you that the
subject be referred to the Business Committee, that if in
their judgment they think best, such a Committee can be
asked for or suggested.
James Wood, New York : I wish to speak upon
another branch of the subject, not on the resolution.
Clerk : Are you ready for the question ?
(Motion carried.)
James Wood, New York : The resolution offered by
Albert J. Brown and the resolution just passed on some
other matters still leave the practical suggestion that
was suggested in the paper of Robert E. Pretlow that
lectureships should be established for the benefit of
Friends. This proposition meets my hearty approval.
The suggestion is in line with the very best literature of
our age. It is in line with the experience of others. The
celebrated Bampton Lectures at Oxford, England, have
been the means of giving to the world some of its ablest
and best productions in regard to the wide fields which
they embrace. It is considered throughout the world that
one of the greatest steps ever taken in regard to matters of
this kind affecting the world at large was the establishment
by an American lady of a lectureship for India. Mrs.
Haskell established a lectureship that met the admiration
324 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
of the intellectual and Christian world ; that lecturers
should be appointed to go to India and express to them the
highest and the best thought of the Christian world. The
publication of these lectures for use elsewhere since they
were delivered in India have proved a great means of
benefit to the Christian people everywhere. Robert E.
Pretlow spoke of instances of lectures similarly prepared
by Friends in America as having brought some of the most
valuable literary productions of recent time, and I think
his proposition is just in the line of the best experience of
the Church in this direction ; therefore, I take great
pleasure in moving that the proposition be referred to the
Committee on Education for its consideration and for such
action as way may open for.
Rufus M. Jones, New England : Just as James Wood
rose to speak I was about to rise to speak on the same
subject. I want to second the motion he has made.
About a year ago I thought a good deal about this same
idea that Robert E. Pretlow has so well set forth, and I
worked for some time on the idea, and finally went to a
man who has a large pocketbook and told him that I
believed it would be a new way for good to be accom-
plished — the idea of establishing a lectureship so that
some Friend or Friends could be kept at work visiting
meetings and presenting the early history of Friends and
subjects that concern Friends to-day ; and this Friend
expressed a very great interest in the idea, and told me he
was ready to contribute liberally to any such scheme.
Now, James Wood has referred you to one of the most
important lectureships in the world. I want to call your
attention also to the Gifford lectures, the greatest in the
world, a good lecturer is chosen to lecture every year.
These lecturers receive for their services at the rate of $5
a minute for their speeches. While we are not expecting
to have a lectureship of quite that high grade, I believe if
we really take this matter up with the deep concern to
give it our full endorsement, there will be no difficulty
about securing the funds to carry on such a work as this.
I know a little about the publishing interest of
Friends and the difficulties of it, and I want to say here
OF THE CONFERENCE 325
that it will be absolutely impossible ever to bring about
any sort of a publishing house among Friends unless there
is a big capital back of it. We may make these resolu-
tions and appoint a committee and say it is practical
and all that, but it can't be done. We cannot do it. I
believe there is but one of the denominational publishing
houses in America that is self sustaining ; I have found
only one in my investigation. Two of the largest have
just consolidated because financially they could not live.
Now, you have this difficulty before you, and it will
always be before the Society of Friends because we are a
small body. I do not believe there ever can be a pub-
lishing interest of any consequence unless there is a large
fund raised and some individuals who are deeply con-
cerned should put their hands in their pockets and make
such a thing go.
David Hadley, Western : There is one feature that
has not been touched upon in these discussions, and it
seems to me there is a field for literature that appeals
directly to the personal experience. We must have that
which touches the heart life, that which comes along the
line of doctrinal revelation, and I think the Church will
fail in its mission if it does not keep before its member-
ship a literature that shall appeal to the personal experi-
ence of the individual ; and if we only want historical
literature and lectures upon such subjects, she will fail to
touch the heart life of her membership. While I have
full harmony with what has been said, still I was rather
expecting he would refer to such a matchless book as Dr.
Clark wrote ; books about the deeper spiritual currents of
literature that would appeal to the heart life and not to
their sense of denominational pride ; books which will
touch the personal experience and by which men will
gain an experience in Christ Jesus.
Allen C. Thomas, Baltimore : I unite heartily with
the proposition of Robert E- Pretlow in regard to a
lectureship. I believe we shall reach a wider field than
has been mentioned, not only our young people and
the members of our own body, but also the public. If
such lectureships as proposed are established, I am sure
326 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
that one object of our coming together in thi,s body will be
realized. It is a way, and one of the best, of putting our
views before the public and letting them be known ; it is
also an education and training to our members. I have
received many letters during the past few years — from, I
suppose, ten different States of the Union, asking for
information in regard to the doctrines of the Society of
Friends ; the interest is great not only within our own
body but outside. And ministers of the Society of
Friends have written me to ask, " What shall I read,
where shall I find information upon the doctrines of
Friends," so I believe that this is a step which is prac-
tical and one which we can take.
In regard to a publishing house, as our friend, Rufus
M. Jones, said, any one who has had any experience with
publishing houses, knows that large capital is necessary
to carry them on. A publishing house is a business enter-
prise, and the financial question lies back of everything
else. The Society of Friends is not a large body, and has
not many wealthy members. I do not believe that a
publishing house would be practicable for us.
Robert L,. Kelly, Indiana : I feel that I have some-
thing to say upon the proposition which is now before
this conference. I am afraid to say to you here that since
the suggestion was made for the election of the members of
this Educational Committee, I have had very little faith
in the practicability of such a committee on the ordinary
educational lines. Activity is what we are engaged in in
the United States. Our local interests are so exception-
ally peculiar that there has been no proposition come to my
knowledge thus far, until this proposition of Robert E.
Pretlow's, on which the educational interests of Friends
could unite in a practical way, and I have expressed that
conviction over and over. This is a proposition which I
do believe is practical, which the Educational Commit-
tee could take hold of and make something of. I most
sincerely subscribe to what my friend, David Hadley, has
said. So far as I am concerned, I suppose that the pride
of the Friends' Church has been appealed to sufficiently.
I suppose we are sufficiently proud of what our fathers
OF THE CONFERENCE 327
and grand- fathers did as Quakers. Perhaps we are not
sufficiently familiar with what they did. Yet as a young
Friend, I have felt that that is not the great problem that is
before the Quaker Church at this time. Now I do not
want it to be understood that I do not wish this historical
information of what has been done in the Quaker Church,
or that we shall go out with a limited notion of what has
been done in the years that are past, but I want these
lecturers to go out before God, and filled with the spirit
of God, and ask Almighty God to interpret the genius of
Quakerism to the world at this time, right here and now.
It seems to me that is what we need and what we ought
to have, and it seems to me that this lectureship would
give an opportunity in a better way than any other way
that has come before this convention for these lecturers to
go out. I should want it to be on the same basis as the
ministry. When one Yearly Meeting has been willing to
liberate a minister, and appropriated the funds for his
traveling expenses, that he might go out and preach
Jesus Christ in the various quarters within the limits of
Friends, he has the sanction of the Church, and I should
want these lecturers to go out in the same way, that when
a lecturer goes out he may feel that he is being liberated
by the church. It is the genius of Quakerism that we
want interpreted. If it does not stand for anything for
these people of this age, I want to attend some other
denomination. I do not want it limited, but I want it to
be one of the great means of building up the kingdom of
Christ on earth.
Mary A. Sibbitt, Kansas : I want to say that my
heart has been pained at the silence of the women all
during the conference. You do not rise to your feet.
We cannot complain that the brothers do not give us a
chance. I represent one of the young Yearly Meetings,
but I want to tell you that we are true Quakers, from the
top of our heads to the soles of our feet. I want to
sanction the words of David Hadley. The cry is for the
real spirituality of the Quaker religion. My work takes
me among other people, I have been engaged in temper-
ance reform work among other people, and they come to
328 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
me and say, " Mrs. Sibbitt, give us some idea of where
you get your wonderful spiritual power in your Church ? ' '
I cannot lay my hands on the literature that I may edu-
cate them. The cry of my heart has been for the last
four years, give me some literature, give me some litera-
ture. The cry is the same all over Kansas Yearly Meet-
ing. Give me something that I may put into the hands of
those who are seeking to know what the real baptism of
the Holy Ghost is, as we as a Church teach it. God stir
the hearts of the members of this conference that we may
develop some practical plans that we may not only go
out and teach the historical truths but bring it into prac-
tice. I would not disparage the ministry of the Quaker
Church. There is no ministry in the West to-day that
stands as high as the ministry of the Quaker Church.
L,et us stand by them.
Clerk : I hope that Friends will speak to the proposi-
tion now before the meeting ; that is, that the proposition
to establish a Friends' Lectureship be referred to the
Committee on Education for consideration, and that they
be empowered to provide for it as way may open.
Francis A. Wright, Kansas : I was not going to
speak on this proposition, but on another feature — that
was in regard to literature for the unsaved. This need
has been apparent to me for a number of months, and
during the past year numbers have written to our Book
and Tract Depository and said, " Why don't Friends
write books and tracts for the unsaved ? ' ' We are sup-
plying spiritual reading for the Church, and I wanted to
touch upon this here this morning in connection With
what has been said.
Francis W. Thomas, Indiana : I wish to give my
support to the remarks made by my brother, Robert L,.
Kelly. I can call to mind, and you can call to mind, that
such a thing was inaugurated by Indiana Yearly Meeting
fully thirty years ago. " General meetings " were organ-
ized and subjects were selected and assigned to the minis-
ters, and in these congregations they were able to set forth
the doctrines and practices of Friends in relation to the
Church and Society. Brother Robert Walter Douglas
OF THE CONFERENCE 329
and John Henry Douglas and others were engaged in that
special work. There were lectures, and a lecture was
usually specified to be on a certain subject, or an address
on a certain point of doctrine or profession of the Society
of Friends. This went on for three years, and the founda-
tion was laid by these lectures for the progress of Indiana
Yearly Meeting and for the increase in its membership
which took place afterwards. It was better than sermon-
izing then ; the public mind needed it, our own member-
ship needed it. I believe we have men to-day. L,et us
give them an opportunit} r and lay the burden on them and
we shall have an advance made in our testimony of the
doctrine that will stand before the public. There is a
class that will go to hear a lecture that will not go to hear
a sermon, and they get to understand that there is some-
thing to be found out and that the Quaker Church stands
for something and not for nothing. If we ever stand for
anything as a people and accomplish that for which we
are gathered together, we must have this as one of the
means that goes out into the world.
Charles E. Tebbetts, California : We are entering
into a broad field in this regard if we put before the world
a potent lectureship, and in this way I am sure that we
shall be able to gain the ears of other institutions of
learning.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, New England : If I thought
this lectureship means simply a rehashing of old tradi-
tions in a traditional way I should oppose it ; but if it
means an interpretative lectureship in the large sense,
with a sociological side, a political side, bearing on all
the functions of life, then I should favor it. It does not
seem to be so formidable as some would suppose. Such
an endowment would need a comparatively small sum.
(The motion was carried.)
Francis A. Wright, Kansas: This means the Educa-
tional Committee has power to act but does not have
power to report ?
Clerk : The Educational Committee does not report
this year.
330 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Robert E. Pretlow, Wilmington : It was rather a sur-
prise to me that there should be an idea on the part of any
one that this lectureship means a dry-as-dust presentation
of facts is all that is intended. Difficult as it is to get at
old Friends' history now through all the dust and volume
of these old tomes, there is in it something that stirs the
spirit of everbody that goes to do it. I believe that it
will be taken as a matter of course that everything intro-
duced to this body was introduced for the spiritual uplift
of the whole Church ; otherwise I would have no thought
of burdening this Conference with anything that would
merely deal with dry facts. The space that was allotted
to this subject forbade going all over all kinds of litera-
ture, but the preacher who is to go before an audience
and interpret to the people the genius of our great Chris-
tian philosophy should have this before him. This was
my idea that this lectureship should provide.
(Recess of five minutes.)
Esther G. Frame, Wilmington, led in singing,
" Blest Be The Tie That Binds."
Charles W. Sweet, Iowa : I feel that I would like to
say this. I have different commentaries in my library,
they are all written by men of some other churches. I
wish some one of our own Church would give us a good
spiritual as well as historical exegesis of the Old Book,
that we might have something giving the correct views of
Friends on the ordinances, &c. I wish that we could
have something clear and concise on these questions.
Esther G. Frame, Wilmington : This is a very inter-
esting subject, and I am glad that our brother presented
the paper. I think it is a wise suggestion, and I rejoice
in the responsibility that has come over this conference
and I am thankful for the speeches that have been made
by David Hadley, the President of Earlham College, and
others. I think it is the very thing we need. But we
are talking about our ministers. I do not like it. I do
not unite with the brothers in this. I know we are a
little people, so far as numbers are concerned, but we have
strong ministers. There are no stronger ministers in
Indiana than those in the Quaker Church, and as for the
OF THE CONFERENCE 33 1
membership of the Church, they are far ahead in intel-
lectual pursuits — they are ahead of the most of the people.
Clerk : I hope the sisters will not go away from here
and complain that they had no chance to speak. You
have not stood to claim your place, and I have looked
right into your faces just as much as I dared to see if you
did want to speak, and you would not make a move. It
is seldom that you go from a meeting like this but that
some one is heard to say, that " somebody did all the busi-
ness and ran the meeting." You have the same right as
any of the rest, and if you fail to take your part you are
to blame, not the people that do the business.
Are you ready to take up the questions that have
been assigned to this session ?
Francis A. Wright, Kansas : Our Saviour said,
" Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that He
will send forth laborers into His harvest." So I believe
if we will pray the Lord to send them out, and it may be
that He will send them out themselves. I believe that if
they will carefully consider these questions some of these
people who feel these needs will be called of the Lord to
fill these places.
Clerk : We will now take up the Reports of Commit-
tees on Referred Business. We will have the report
from the American Friends' Board of Foreign Missions.
(Report was read. See Minutes, Minute 82.)
Clerk : You have heard the report from the Mission-
ary Board ; what is your pleasure with reference to it ?
Aaron M. Bray, Oregon : I move that it be approved
and adopted by this meeting.
James Carey, Jr., Baltimore: I do not think it is
necessary for this body to do more than receive the report.
The American Friends' Board of Foreign Missions is not
appointed by this meeting, but by the Yearly Meetings,
and in accepting our report I suggested that we might be
recognized as The American Friends' Board of Foreign
Missions, which the Discipline provides that should be
organized.
Thomas C. Brown, Western : I was about to remark
that there were some legal phases of this question, and
332 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
there is an additional report which, is withheld on account
of these legal phases, and I hoped that the discussion on
this matter would be withheld until we are thoroughly
satisfied in regard to these legal phases, and until the
Five Years Meeting received that report. In adopting that
report it is virtually recognizing the American Friends'
Board of Foreign Missions as a board of the meeting.
Clerk : With the addition suggested by James Carey,
Jr., would it affect the action of this meeting?
Thomas C. Brown, Western : James Carey is familiar
with it, and will meet with us.
(James Carey, Jr., withdrew the suggestion.)
(Rufus M. Jones called attention to the Discipline,
Part IV., under Boards.)
David Hadley, Western : I do not see why this Board
should be the only one to be appointed by the Yearly
Meetings.
Thomas C. Brown, Western : It is necessary because
of the fact that we have articles of incorporation, and
on that account the law requires that the members be
appointed by the Yearly Meetings, and the law was
passed by our request to fit this particular case.
Isom P. Wooton, Iowa : As there is amotion before
the House to pass upon this report, I would move as a
substitute, that we defer any action on this report until
the committee shall settle these legal points of law.
Thomas C. Brown, Western : The legal question
will not affect the face of the report submitted here this
morning.
Clerk : The original motion was seconded, the sub-
stitute was not ; the motion is on the approval of the
report as read.
(Motion was carried.)
Clerk : We have on the desk a letter addressed to
this meeting, from the Women's Christian Temperance
Union at Portland, Maine.
(Tetter of greeting from Women's Christian Tem-
perance Union was read. See Minutes, Minute 83.)
Clerk : What action do you wish to take in reference
to this letter ?'
OF THE CONFERENCE 333
Robert W. Douglas, Indiana: I think we should re-
spond to it, and I move that the clerks be authorized to
send a response to this letter of greeting.
Thomas C. Brown, Western : You will remember
that on this platform Zenas I/. Martin had a part assigned
him, and he yielded his place to others, and I would sug-
gest that at the final introduction of this business Zenas
L,. Martin be requested to speak not to exceed ten
minutes, as he has yi elded his time to other individuals
on other occasions.
Question : Are there other reports on the table ?
Clerk : There is other business that we can take up.
Robert E. Pretlow, Wilmington: I suggest that we
continue the business, as there are other reports to come
from this American Friends' Board of Foreign Missions.
Clerk : If it be the pleasure of the Meeting, we will
call up in connection with the subject when it comes up,
as it will later.
Thomas C. Brown, Western : We will consent to that.
Clerk : Has the Business Committee or any other
committee anything we can dispose of in the time of this
session ?
Allen Jay, Indiana : The question has been asked, if
in the course of five years any of the members of these
Boards or Committees should die or move out of the
limits of the Yearly Meetings, how these vacancies should
be filled. The Business Committee offer this Resolution :
' ' Resolved , that all vacancies occurring in Boards or
any Committee in the interims of the sessions of the Five
Years Meeting be filled by such Boards and Committees
themselves where not otherwise provided for."
The Recording Clerk re-read the resolution, and on
motion it was adopted.
Allen Jay, Indiana : The Business Committee pro-
pose that an Executive Committee of Five be appointed
by the Five Years Meeting to make all the necessary pre-
liminary arrangements for holding the proposed confer-
ence on the liquor question, and carry on the necessary
correspondence and make all the arrangements in the
334 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
other churches, and these five to be delegates at large to
that conference.
We recommend that James Wood, Rufus M. Jones,
Timothy Nicholson, Benjamin F. Trueblood and Edmund
Stanley be that Committee.
And we further propose that the delegates from the
several Yearly Meetings propose one additional name
from each Yearly Meeting, and if the developments shall
be such that an additional number of delegates would be
advisable, the Executive Committee shall report such ad-
ditional numbers as the Committee may recommend to the
different Yearly Meetings.
It means that those five persons shall be appointed to
make all necessary arrangements and to attend this con-
ference if the meeting is held in the year 1906 ; and that
we ought to appoint one from each Yearly Meeting, these
to be appointed by the delegates, to unite with them in
this matter, and then if the other denominations should
appoint large delegations, and the Committee thinks the
Society of Friends ought to have a larger delegation, they
will call on the Yearly Meetings to make up that number.
On'motion, the recommendation of the Business Com-
mittee was adopted.
Mary A. Sibbitt, Kansas : I rose to say that we
ought to have a representative in the far West.
Allen Jay, Indiana : This work has to be done by a
very few persons ; we wanted to get them as close to-
gether as possible:
The Business Committee recommend that the entire
subject of advanced Biblical Study be referred to the
Committee on Education.
On motion, the subject was referred as suggested.
After prayer the meeting adjourned.
SEVENTH DAY AFTERNOON, TENTH MONTH
25th, 1902.
Clerk : The meeting will now please come to order,
and we will have a few minutes of quiet waiting before
the Eord.
OF THE CONFERENCE 335
Ira C. Johnson, Esther G. Frame and others offered
prayer.
James Wood, of New York : As Zenas L,. Martin
gave up his time to another speaker this morning, I feel
that it would be no more than right if we should allow
him to speak this afternoon. There is certainly time for
him to speak now. I move that he be allowed ten min-
utes now.
(The motion was carried.)
David Hadley, of Western : I would ask the privilege
of this Conference that we take one word out of the report
made by Allen Jay ; that is, if we have the consent of the
convention, I would like to have the word "advance"
stricken out.
A Delegate : I should think this should be referred
to a committee.
The Clerk : As it is the wish of this body the word
will be stricken from the resolution. We are now ready
to hear Zenas L,. Martin.
Zenas L,. Martin, of Western : I do not wish to take
the valuable time of this Five Years Meeting, but I have
a few things that I would like to say. It would cer-
tainly be very difficult to embody the work of the various
departments of a Board in this Five Years Meeting. It
would be almost impossible to tell how much they will
develop, and what they will be ready to present to the
sessions of the next Five Years Meeting. We have a
child that I wish to introduce to you, and that is the only
reason I wish to speak to you at this time. He has
almost grown out of infancy and is a lively, active, grow-
ing boy. I refer to our missionary work in Cuba, as the
first real production of this Five Years Meeting, as the
Missionary Board organized under the convention, which
was accepted this morning, and his work has presented
to you some real things along that line. I will briefly
state how our interests have grown in the Island of Cuba.
I want to present to this Five Years Meeting the fact that
it is the missionary field of the Five Years Meeting. I
am glad that every individual Yearly Meeting has its
336 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
field, and observation will show that the miss'ionaty inter-
est of the Friends in America ought to be a growing field,
and the Quaker Church in this country increasing in num-
ber, and financial support in a greater proportion than
any home work ; and while this child in Cuba is an active
little fellow, we expect to introduce him to you in five
years in a larger form. The conditions of the missionary
work among the inhabitants of Cuba may be classed as
favorable and unfavorable. Of the unfavorable may be
mentioned (a) The indifference of the Church at home to
their need ; (b) The unchristian example of Americans
among them ; (c) Their long schooling in dishonesty
which has produced a retaliating nature ; (d) The innate
restlessness of the people aggravated by war which makes
it difficult to get them quiet and thoughtful ; (e) A grow-
ing indifference to an}' religion ; (f) Some of the usual
difficulties met in the Catholic countries, etc.
Of the favorable conditions may be stated : (a) The
Church and State having been united in an unhelpful gov-
ernment that gave no opportunity for encouragement or
development has placed the people in a bad state of morals
and practically without a religion. From these conditions
they have struggled for freedom and have turned as much
from the Church as from the Spanish government, and thus
are not held to the dictation of their religious system as are
those other Spanish- American republics, (b) The lack of
any educational system worthy of the name of such has
held the people in a state of ignorance from which they
are awakening to a new light, making conditions favor-
able for educational work, (c) The changing political,
social, commercial and industrial conditions make the
time opportune for the gospel, and in many ways give
promise of great results, (d) The financial outlook is
hopeful, and with a country rich in undeveloped re-
sources the Gospel applied to its commercial and social
life will make possible a self-supporting church, (e) The
time of the readjustment of the policy of the Catholic
Church to the conditions of the Cuban people is the
golden opportunity for the Gospel, (f) The domestic
habits and social nature of the people make an easy access
OF THE CONFERENCE 337
to the homes and personal lives of the people, and their
affectionate nature responds to the nature of the Gospel
truths.
There was a notice in the paper that the Catholics
were going to convert all the Quakers to Catholicism, and
there was still another stating that our Church was dead ;
but in the face of it all, we have crowded houses when we
have services. The outcome looks hopeful. In order to
care for this growing missionary work, we all know what
is necessary. We have now spent $7000 or more on the
buildings, and quite a sum in the maintenance of the
work. We have no Yearly Meeting to go before. Who
will take up this work ? We must depend upon the
interest of this body. The gifts that you may be
called upon to give beyond the obligations of your
own Church in the missionary interest of your own
individual meeting, and we, trust, as we have in the
past, to this liberality to carry the work on. There
are some buildings that must be built this year, and
some that are already built must be furnished. We
have four buildings and lumber ordered for five, and have
eight missionaries in the field and must have four more
the coming year. If this matter comes before you person-
ally or before any individual of the Yearly Meeting, please
remember that the obligation of the Five Years Meeting
rests upon us to maintain the work. Before I close I
would like to read you a portion of a letter that I have
recently received. It says : ' ' We are having a large attend-
ance at church. Sunday evening there was a parade of
Catholics at 5.30; so after it was all over they came
around to see how we were getting on. We preached a
sermon that stirred them up, I'll tell you."
The Clerk : We are now ready for the first subject
on the program, " The Place and Function of our Church
Organization." The further discussion of this has been
arranged for by the Business Committee. The Business
Committee announce that they have asked Benjamin F.
Trueblood to open the discussion. James Wood will
have a few minutes to open the question .
338 STENOGRAPHIC RKPORT
James Wood, of New York : The Business Commit-
tee have asked me to make a little preliminary explana-
tion as to why this subject was put upon the program for
informal discussion. It was put there because the Five
Years Meeting was in its experimental stage. We did
not wish to have any formal papers upon it because they
would emphasize unduly some individual opinions upon
the subject. We wished to have an informal discussion
so that all thought upon the Five Years Meeting and its
place in our Church organization might be thrown out
for further consideration, that thus we can consider in
the years that are before us all thought in regard to this
organization and its future possibilities, without coming
to any definite conclusion at the present time. Of course,
the Organization of the Five Years Meeting is all pro-
vided for in our Constitution and Discipline, but the Five
Years Meeting itself is not a new invention. It is simply
the development of and the outgrowth from conditions
that have existed heretofore throughout our body. We
have come together in conferences, and these conferences
have been of great benefit, but they show that we were
lacking in that we have not been organized for any prac-
tical work. We have simply gone one step further in the
development of the idea of the many conferences, and
this is the whole matter or cause of its being upon the
program. The committee has given the matter much
thought; and have decided that the greatest danger of the
Five Years Meeting is the danger before its dawn is past,
and I will tell you what this danger is. I and some of
my family once arranged to take passage on a steamer to
a foreign land, but when we came to the steamer, which
had been very heavily loaded with freight, overloaded
indeed, she sunk ; she sunk in the harbor before she had
ever moved a foot, and that may be the danger of over-
loading the Five Years Meeting, so that we cannot put
out to sea with the possibility of successful navigation,
but there seems to be no place at which a halt can be
called, and now the situation is before us. Just one
thought and I am through. I want to give the Five
Years Meeting- a fair chance. Do not have unreasonable
OF THE CONFERENCE 339
expectations of what it should do and of what it is going
to do. The Five Years Meeting is going to prove a
necessity in our organization, but we will do it a very-
great injustice if we start out with too great expectations
of what it is going to accomplish. From the very nature
of the thing it cannot accomplish very much at the start.
We may look forward to great things.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : I suppose
when we first began to talk some seventeen years ago,
about a General Conference of American Friends some
two years before the first convention in 1887 was held,
none had the remotest idea we would land in Indianapolis
in 1902, in a General American Meeting of at least eleven
yearly meetings of Friends in this country. The meeting
has grown step by step until we find ourselves in what I
believe is the work of the providence of God. The prov-
idence of God never moves backward, but it may move
forward, and whether we wish it or not, we have this
concern on our hands and we must face it in a manly and
womanly way, and make the best of it that we can. As
for myself, I have no fear whatever of this meeting ever
failing. I have no fear of the vessel sinking in the harbor.
I look forward to the future without a tremor. I
know it means work, faith, difficulty, perplexity, and
feeling our way, thinking our way, and that we have a great
man}' difficult problems, but we shall come out farther
along on the other side than we are now. That is my
faith in regard to the matter. I am asked to open a dis-
cussion as to the place of this Five Years Meeting in our
General System. I do not think anybody can define it at
the present time. What it is going to develop into time
only can tell, and what that development will be depends
upon the prayer, faith, and the Christian devotion of our
numbers. L,et me outline what I believe will be the gen-
eral place of the Five Years Meeting as we have it in our
system. Of course, the general purpose of it is the com-
bination or union of the powers of the various localities
of the country in such a way that we can throw the whole
force of our Quakerism in whatever direction we may
need from time to time. In a general sense it is the union
34-0 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
of forces not for detailed work, but along general lines of
Quakerism in America and the world. Now, first, in
regard to the relation of the Yearly Meetings. I do not
believe that this body will ever infringe upon the local
liberty and self-direction of the Yearly Meetings. That is
all safely guarded in the Discipline, and if it were not,
we would safely guard it. Our Yearly Meetings will
remain just as independent in local work, adoption of
rules and methods for their local work, just as the people
of Massachusetts are in this regard. In Massachusetts
we never think of the General Government excepting
when we come into the larger relations in which we are
bound to come in relation with Indiana, and Iowa, and
other States, and I think it will be the same in regard to
the Yearly Meetings. I do not think the Yearly Meet-
ings ever think of their local liberties being infringed upon.
I conceive the work will be to carry the great general
work and Disciplinary Constitutional principles of Quaker-
ism. The body will be not the creator of the statement,
but will be the interpreter of our faith. Then I think
another factor in the matter will be that this body through
some committee, some executive body, will become the
general representatives of all Friends in America before
other great Christian bodies in their Christian Union life,
and not only that, but will become the great representa-
tive of the Friends in the governmental interests which
concern the advancement of our political interest in the
national life. Some representative of this Five Years
Meeting will go before the National Government in great
matters and great legislation in which we will be inter-
ested, while the Yearly Meetings will take care of the
local interests in their particular States. Then it seems
to me that our Five Years Meeting will necessarily have
more or less of the direction and advancement in the lines
of work in which we are engaged, which go into the whole
world. The great missionary interests which go all over
the world, will be at least under the advisement, if not
under the direction of this body ; and so it will meet the
question of Temperance, and of Peace and Arbitration.
That I conceive to be stated in the general plan of the
OF THE CONFERENCE 34 1
Five Years Meeting. If I had been called upon to outline
definitely what this meeting would do this year in taking
up and adopting some of these great general lines of work,
I should not have thought it would have done one-fourth
as well as it has done. We find ourselves face to face
with the responsibility which we practically had to assume
in starting out this Five Years Meeting. What is to be
its future ? I cannot conceive a very great change.
When the thirteen colonies became united in the United
States of America, the whole American life and principle
was then established once for all, and there has been no
change excepting the adding of State after State, and «
there has been no real modification of the great Con-
stitutional principles, so that we have the forty-five States
united to-day, under just the same form as when the Con-
stitution was signed. So when we come to have the
Yearly Meetings in every State of the Union, it will
expand, and take in, and give an opportunity to all.
Francis W. Thomas, of Indiana : That which has
already been said well outlines the functions and purposes
of this meeting and its organization, yet I differ just in
one respect from the speaker. I think he said nobody
anticipated us just as we are now. I did anticipate this
from the beginning ; I thought we should reach this
point. I have looked forward to this point because we
needed it, and that we must have it in order to unify all
the forces of the expanding organization of the Society of
Friends in America. We were drifting apart from year
to year. I saw the necessity of this unifying of some
kind and of an organization that would unify, and I think
we have it. That is what we started out to get. Another
point was that in the face of a future difficulty which
might arise between two of these co-ordinate powers there
might be a body somewhere to which two or three might
appeal for arbitration and authority to settle difficulties.
We recommend arbitration to nations and states in
different portions of the earth ; why not have it among
ourselves ? I hope it may prevent any great difference or
difficulty of the body of the Church of the Society of
Friends hereafter. I think this is one of the functions of
342 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
this body. I am glad we have this organization. It is
already on the right line, and I feel that we have nothing
to fear if unity prevails in the body of the Society of
Friends in America.
David Hadley, of Western : I want to say in connec-
tion with this matter that the principle upon which the
Society of Friends is organized is destructive of every
effort to organize congregations, and anything that would
destroy the relation would be a very fatal thing. When-
ever we come to the point that this aggregate body with
its deliberation should be in favor of sovereignty — I mean,
should interfere with the sovereignty of the Yearly Meet-
ings — I should be very much opposed to such a power.
I believe the Five Years Meeting should gather up and
give force to the statements and doctrines ; but when it
comes to the matter of legislation affecting the local inter-
ests of the Church, it would be a very serious thing to the
delegates of this body. The independence of the Yearly
Meeting should be kept intact. As a Church we have
always guarded with a great deal of care the matter of
ecclesiasticism ; but when we increase the organization
we increase the power of ecclesiasticism.
A Delegate : There is one thing I am hoping for, and
that is that the work of this body shall tend to the unifi-
cation of those that profess to be Friends on working lines
if not on all lines. I bless God for the spirit of unity,
and so I am hoping from the influence that has started out
from here that there will be a unification of those that
hold our name. Let each session of this meeting be for
the glory of God and the uplifting of man. One other
point. I hope this body will use some way or other to
get an invitation for every one of the organizations that
belong to the so-called Friends for a fraternal representa-
tion, if they cannot unite with us.
William L. Pyle : I feel quite unable to emphasize
our success. I have been very much encouraged by this
meeting and by the progress we have made. A number of
years ago I said that from my point of view the Uniform
Discipline was desirable, but I feared it was not practical.
I have watched its course from time to time, and I have
OP THE CONFERENCE 343
become more and more convinced that it is practical, and
I am in favor of our Yearly Meetings adopting the Uni-
form Discipline. As a Church organization composed of
different Yearly Meetings, I consider the strongest point we
have obtained in this relationship is the coming under one
confession of faith. That is the strong point which binds
us together.
Rufus M. Jones, of New Kn gland : Five years ago
I had the privilege and honor of reading the paper that
proposed this Five Years Meeting, and when I finished
the paper I called attention of the conference to the
incident that happened when the Constitution of the
United States was signed in Philadelphia. George Wash-
ington had been sitting on a chair through the stormy
debates, and after it was all over and they had gathered
around to sign the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin
pointed to the figure of the sun painted on the back of the
chair on which George Washington had been sitting, and
said : ' ' Mr. President, through all these weeks I have been
looking at that picture to see whether it was a rising sun or
a setting sun , and to-day I know that it was a rising sun . ' '
I related that anecdote five years ago and asked if it was to
be a rising sun or a setting sun. I wonder if there is any-
body to-day who doubts what the answer is to be, as to
whether it is a rising sun or a setting sun. We have
come here to-day from all parts of the United States ; we
have spoken on the question that touches every aspect of
our religious life and work ; we have faced all sorts of
problems with a full understanding of their difficult
nature, and we have reached out into all lines of Chris-
tian activity ; we have differences of opinion, but I would
not belong to a church that did not have them. I would
undoubtedly leave it if everybody agreed with everybody
else. You would not have an}>- power, everybody would
be ready to give up his power. We must have indivi-
duality to have power. We can have individuality and
power, and the spirit of love and unity also. There is
not a person in this meeting that wishes to force an}7thing
on any one who are not ready for it. No one wants to
take a privilege away from the Yearly Meetings. That
344 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
idea does not prevail anywhere, and no one can for a mo-
ment believe there is such a disposition. Everyone of us
would have refused in our own Yearfy Meetings to give
our voice to the Discipline if it was to take away from our
Yearly Meeting. We want to see a body formed that will
enable us to bring our followers together for positive
work. That we have accomplished. At least we are
going to accomplish it. We can not prophesy, but if we
may judge the future from the present and past, we
may well believe to-day that our sun, under God's bles-
sing, is to be a rising sun.
Richard H. Thomas, of Baltimore : I wish to say
how extremely glad I am for this conference which we
are having this year. I believe even the looking into one
another's faces and hearing the words of encouragement
will help us, and I believe when we go back to our
homes we shall be able to do much better work in the
future. As one who felt exceedingly doubtful as to
whether this was really a wise move, and while I still see
danger, I am exceedingly glad to be able to express my
great thanks for what we have now, and for what seems
to be before us. I was exceedingly pleased by the prac-
tical suggestion made by a Friend in the meeting encour-
aging others in the name of Friends to send fraternal
delegates to us. I think it would be a very great advan-
tage to us, and I believe the outcome would be of very
great value, and I hope this meeting will not allow it to
pass by without very careful consideration. I would be
glad if the Business Committee could be encouraged to
take this into consideration, and see if some definite
arrangements could not be made by which they might be
invited to send fraternal delegates if they wish.
I also believe it would be very helpful to us if we
could issue a Book of Meetings. There has been no Book
of Meetings issued for nearly twenty years, and it would
be very valuable to us if we could have a book giving
the addresses of the ministers, and stating where there
are meetings. This would be a very great help to
Friends who are going to different parts of the country,
and ministers visiting different Yearly Meetings would
OF THE CONFERENCE 345
be able to form some idea of what is before them. I
should be glad if this proposition could be laid before
the Business Committee for their consideration. I am
not used to motions in Friends' Meetings, but I wish
that the subject of Fraternal Delegates, including English
and Irish, be referred to the Business Committee, and also
the matter of a Book of Meetings.
David Hadley, of Western : I would like us to recog-
nize the fact that we have two Yearly Meetings here that
have no connection with this body, and before invitations
are issued, I should be glad if we could bring some kind
of an influence to bear to have Canada and Ohio come
home ; then I would be in favor of fraternal delegates.
There are a great many Friends in the United States. I
hope we will not rush too much when we have two meet-
ings that are not as yet in the fold.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : I hope our friend
will not create a doubt in his mind that the Friends of
Canada and Ohio are coming in. They will come in, and
there is no doubt about it.
Richard H. Thomas, of Baltimore : I move that the
question of the practicability of issuing a book of meet-
ings be referred to the Business Committee with the
request to make, if way opens for it, a suggestion.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : I fear I
did not make myself entirely clear with regard to the dis-
ciplinary aspect of the functions of the Five Years Meet-
ing in the future. David Hadley 's remark made it clear
to me that my statement was not clear. What I meant
to say was that hereafter in the matter of issuing a decla-
ration of faith, or of general disciplinary provisions, I
supposed that this body in some way would take the
initiative, but I had no thought this Five Years Meeting
would ever assume the place of sovereignty. I believe
with all my soul in government only with the consent of
the governed. I speak in a Christian sense. I hope I
have made myself clear as to what I meant to say.
Allen Jay, of Western: Our Friend, William I. Moore
wishes to say a few words.
346 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Rufus M. Jones, of New England : Our Friend,
Esther Tuttle Pritchard, has just called me up on the
telephone to ask me to deliver for her a message. " Peace
be to the brethren, and love with faith from God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." It comes from her,
and I thought the meeting would be glad to hear it.
William I. Moore, of Canada : I am glad some one
called attention to the fact that there is a country called
Canada. We may be somewhat overshadowed, but we
still exist. We are going on, and perhaps in five years
the difference will not be so great ; however, what I want
to say 7 is this. We come to you with a kindly greeting
from Canada Yearly Meeting. We are glad to have the
privilege of meeting with you in this conference. We
thank you very much for the kind courtesies extended to
us on behalf of our Yearly Meeting. I think I can say
that they thank y^ou also. In regard to our position ;
on this question when this Uniform Discipline was brought
before our meeting it was discussed and considered very
carefully at the time, but some of our prominent members
and active workers were absent. There was some doubt
about the propriety of adopting it on this account, and it
was proposed that it be approved, the adoption to come
into force at a time set at the next Yearly 7 Meeting. A
committee was appointed to go over the matter carefully,
and they were not able to make a full report at the next
Yearly Meeting. The time was deferred, and the com-
mittee empowered to go on. And this Yearly Meeting
after prayerful thought decided that it would not be wise
for us to accept the Discipline. I want to make it clear
that there is not a lack of unity with the Friends on this
side of the line. It is, simply, we believe on account of
our local condition which perhaps you can not fully
understand. Perhaps we can get a Discipline that would
not be out of harmony with this, one that would better
suit local conditions. This is our position. I do not
think from present indications there is any prospect of
our Yearly Meeting adopting this Discipline just as it
stands. We do not want to do anything that would put
us out of harmony with these Friends. It is with a
OF THE CONFERENCE 347
feeling of love and unity for the prospering of this cause
that is in our hearts to-day. May God bless and prosper
the work of all the Yearly Meetings in this body is our
prayer.
Jacob Baker, of Ohio : Perhaps you would like to
hear from Ohio. I want to say that there is no thought
in the Ohio Yearly Meeting that is out of harmony with
this body. We have come with loving hearts and sympa-
thizing spirits for your good word and work that is before
the Friends in your realm. We greatly appreciate the great
courtesies that have been extended to us. When you
ask me what about Ohio Yearly Meeting coming into this
Five Years Meeting, you will have to change, or we will
have to change radically before we can come in. Not
because we are fearful, but because we cannot at the
present with unity adopt the Uniform Discipline. If all
the declarations that have been expressed here this after-
ternoon are to be carried out in the future of every
Yearly Meeting and every Yearly Meeting left for inde-
pendent action upon the lines of its own conduct, there
may be a radical change in Ohio. We are now exceed-
ingly anxious that the blessed doctrine of holiness to the
L,ord be not impaired anywhere. We are exceedingly
anxious that the doctrine of the baptism of the Holy
Ghost may be a potent doctrine of the Friends' Church
everywhere. I have enjoyed this Five Years Meeting
greatly. I have entered into sympathy with all the
speeches and discussions. I think I may speak for our
delegates that we return to you our sincere thanks. We
will go back and make the best report we can, and I
expect we will come back with fraternal or internal dele-
gates to your next Five Years Meeting.
Annie D. Stabler, of Baltimore. I want to tell you
how very much I have enjoyed this meeting and what a
great privilege I feel it has been to attend this conference.
I had no fear about this meeting, for- 1 felt it was from
God and that He would draw us closer together. I have
been more and more impressed with the fact that God is
uniting us together and that we are going forward to
advance His kingdom. I want to say, God bless the
348 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Five Years Meeting, and may it prosper in every par-
ticular.
Harriet Green, of "London : I have nothing great to
say, only that I noticed that Dr. Thomas mentioned Eng-
land and Ireland. I do not think you have any idea how
much good you will do by inviting them to send fraternal
delegates to this conference ; and let them feel they are
one with you. Your difficulties and your problems are
very much like ours, and I only wish you were on the
other side of the water so that you could help them as
much as you have helped me.
Esther G. Frame, of Wilmington : The churches are
certainly being united. I am ready for it, and I believe
it is of God, and I believe the churches from the East, the
West, the North and the South are being bound together.
Our purpose is to win souls to Christ and His kingdom,
and to pray to God still more and more. Of course, we
cannot all see every point alike ; but what we want to do
is to build up the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ and
our Church, and I want you to know this. I am in full
harmony with this. You have my hearty sympathy.
A Delegate: This is my first meeting of this kind,
and I want to say that I feel greatly encouraged to go
back to my work, and I can work with a greater deter-
mination to be a true Friend and hold up Quakerism.
We certainly ought to have an abiding faith in Quakerism.
I am glad to be able to attend this convention where so
many different people are brought together and there are
so many different lines of thought.
Rebecca W. Cadbury, of Philadelphia : I have lis-
tened and I have heard that all the Yearly Meetings of
America will be here when Canada and Ohio have joined.
Where are we, dear Friends ? We of Philadelphia are a
very small body, I regret to say ; but we are a very earn-
est body along our line. Most of our families in Phila-
delphia have traditions, I believe in the truth as it is
handed down from our fathers, and I have listened with
wonderful interest to the enthusiasm and life here to-day.
I have longed that all our Yearly Meetings might get
some of it. I want to say to you, " Hold fast to that
OF THE CONFERENCE 349
which is good ; let no man take your crown." I entreat
you not to lose sight of Quakerism, but to be loyal to it.
Quakerism is not dead, for I believe it is the truth of God
as He has shown it to us ; and I want to say that I was
exceedingly grieved yesterday afternoon to think that there
was a possibility of establishing a school for the education
and training of ministers. We do need to be educated, but,
Friends, we cannot get all our education in school. I
think every member of the Quaker Church should be a
member of that school, for I do not like to see a distinc-
tion between the laity and the clergy. I trust the power
of the Five Years Meeting may step across the Alleghenies
and reach Philadelphia.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : The Business Committee pro-
poses that a Committee of one from each delegation be
appointed to make the necessary arrangements for holding
the next Five Years Meeting. We thought we had better
make the selection during the recess. I move that one
delegate from each Yearly Meeting be chosen to make
arrangements for the next Five Years Meeting.
The question was voted upon and passed.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : I also propose that Charles
E. Newlin be appointed as Railroad Secretary for the
next Five Years Meeting.
The motion was voted upon and carried. [But see
Minutes, Minute 120.]
The song, " Draw me nearer, Lord," was sung by the
congregation.
We will have five minutes' recess, but we do not wish
any of our Friends to conclude this is the close and pre-
pare to go home.
The Clerk : We will have the report of the delega-
tion nominating a Committee on Arrangements for the
next Five Years Meeting.
(See Minutes, Minute 90.)
The Clerk : We are now ready for the report of the
Business Committee on miscellaneous business.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : You will remember that a
resolution was introduced to appoint a Committee called
a Publishing Committee. The Business Committee beg
35° STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
leave to advise that they did not think it advisable to
appoint a Committee on Publication.
(On motion the report was adopted.)
Allen Jay, of Indiana : A resolution was introduced
to propose an endorsement of the American Friend and
Missionary Advocate. The Business Committee recom-
mend that the resolution offered by Albert J. Brown be
adopted.
The Clerk : We will now vote upon the resolution
offered by Albert J. Brown, containing an endorsement of
the American Friend and Missionary Advocate.
(The motion was carried. See Minutes, Minute 92.)
Resolved, That the Five Years Meeting desires to
impress upon all our meetings the importance of exercis-
ing great care in the acknowledgment of ministers as pro-
vided for in the Discipline.
Robert W. Douglas, of Indiana : Considerable im-
portance is attached to that suggestion, and I suggest
that it should be read again.
(Resolution read again.)
David Hadley, of Western : I think we should be
willing to let this matter rest with the present under-
standing. I think we are strict enough now.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : We certainly do
want every Yearly Meeting to be just as careful as the
Discipline requires.
Francis W. Thomas, of Indiana : Now we want
every Yearly Meeting that has an interest in this subject
to be very careful ; but at the same time it does look to
me that this is a little out of place here.
Robert W. Douglas, Indiana : I think there is no
doubt that we can pass this resolution if necessary. Our
Yearly Meeting has just organized under the Discipline,
and it strikes me that it is a little out of place to call spe-
cial attention by the Five Years Meeting to one of the
provisions of the Constitution and Discipline which is as
yet almost untried. If any Friend knows of any special
reason why special attention should be called to this, all
right ; but I do not. I do not think we should be so hard
on the ministers, as we do not have enough to go around
OF THE CONFERENCE 35 1
now. I do not want this resolution, if passed, to act as a
discouraging influence upon any of our young people
who are coming forward in the ministry. I feel more
like encouraging them than discouraging them. If the
Business Committee have any reason why there should be
special attention called, I have no objection ; but I doubt
the propriety of it.
Charles W. Sweet, of Iowa : How much better it
would be if there was a clause in the Discipline that
would obviate the whole thing, and the committee would
be appointed by the Yearly Meeting to attend to this
matter, and no trouble would come from it, and there
would be no trouble in the Yearly Meeting before whom
they came.
William L,. Pyle, of Western : It seems to me that
the point is well guarded in the Discipline, and I do not
see the necessity of passing a resolution instructing a
subordinate meeting to observe the laws and rules of
order as laid down there. I fear it would be discouraging
rather than profitable.
Cyrus Beede, of Iowa : I would like to ask whether
there is a single person in this congregation who is
opposed to exercising due care and discretion in reference
to ministers. I believe there is no one here.
Harry R. Keats, of New York : I think there is a
pretty strong feeling in this conference. We have not yet
arrived at some or all wisdom in regard to our ministers.
I would not only be in favor of strengthening and encour-
aging our ministers to a state of usefulness, but I fail to
see the pith and point of this proposition. I do not think
we want such a resolution as this. I move that this reso-
lution be sent back to the Business Committee to do with
it as they like.
The Clerk : The vote will be taken on the proposi-
tion to refer this question back to the Business Com-
mittee.
The motion was carried, and the proposition was
sent back to the Business Committee.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : You will remember in the
Discipline there is a provision made for blanks for the
352 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
monthly meetings. The Business Committee makes this
proposition :
Resolved, That the publication of the uniform blanks
for records be referred to a committee composed of Rufus
M. Jones, Peter W. Raidabaugh and William V. Coffin,
to prepare the necessary blanks and present same before
the meeting for their adoption.
Rufus M.Jones, of New England: We have been
working on something like this. We will try and get
something in shape to report, but the subject is really too
large to be done in the allotted time we have.
Allen Ja}f, of Indiana : It is proposed that a Board
on the Condition and Welfare of the Negro, consist of
twenty-two members, eleven at large and one from each
Yearly Meeting, be appointed to take into consideration
the best means for elevating the Negroes. This commit-
tee should have the power to carry the same into effect.
The following are for the said board at large :
(See Minutes, Minute 93.)
The Clerk : We will now hear the Report of the
Committee on Finance.
The report was read by the Reading Clerk.
(See Minutes, Minute 94.)
Charles E. Tebbetts, of California : If I understand
correctly all expenses are proportioned among the Yearly
Meetings in proportion to the membership.
The Clerk : That is right, the expenses are divided
according to membership.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana: The report should
agree with the Discipline. We have no right to change
the Discipline. I should like to hear that part of the
report read again.
(The Reading Clerk read that portion of the report
again.)
A Delegate : It seems to me that as much as there is
of that, we can hardly begin at it all at once, and I should
think it should be taken up a subject at a time.
OF THE CONFERENCE 353
The Clerk : The Recording Clerk will read a subject
at a time.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : I suppose that this
means that the Treasurer be instructed to borrow money
if necessary. Do I understand it correctly ?
A Delegate : A word of explanation. The Finance
Committee has had three long sessions upon this subject.
We realized that it was a great thing to handle. We are
starting new, and all these things must be arranged and
planned, for in the future they will always be coining up.
We anticipated a discussion of the question. In regard
to the point the Friend has just made, it was decided to
let it follow the letter of the Discipline. The report
should be the same as the Discipline. We did not expect
to have this come before this body in perfect form, but
we did the best we could with the time at our disposal.
Josiah Dillon, Iowa : Do I understand that the Trea-
surer is authorized to borrow money ? And if so, by
what authority does he borrow it ?
The Clerk : He is not authorized by this report to
borrow money.
Part 2. Approved.
Part 3. The Yearly Meeting has made an appropria-
tion which was thought would meet the expenses of the
Board the coming year. Do I understand that this is to
be paid into the treasury of this Five Years Meeting or
shall it be a part of it ?
Part 4.
Josiah Dillon : It seems that it would be impossible
to comply with this. The facts are the Yearly Meetings
have not made provision for this, for the Treasurer to bor-
row money before January 1st, and I think I can speak
for Kansas, as it is certainly the case there. Appropri-
ations have been made, but I am sure not a sufficient
amount for all. There cannot be enough until our Yearly
Meeting convenes again.
Cyrus Beede, Western : I think it was the thought
of the Business Committee that, it would be a very easy
matter for the Treasurer to borrow money and pay our
354 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
obligations, easier than it would be for the Treasurer of
the Five Years Meeting to borrow money and pay us. I
do not think the Treasurer of the Five Years Meeting
should be called upon to meet the expenses of the Yearly
Meetings.
Isom P. Wooton, Iowa : It ought to be remembered
that the Yearly Meetings are already passed and no appro-
priation has been made for this expense, and now this
cannot reach Iowa until January ist. It would be im-
possible for us to do anything until the next Ninth
Month. That would be nearly a year from this time.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : Could
not a permanent Board meet all these cases ?
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : There will be no
trouble about that. The treasurers of the Yearly Meet-
ings will feel authorized to pay the money if they have to
borrow it. It is stated clearly in the Discipline ; we do
not need any instruction, and when the time comes if he
needs it he can borrow money.
Edmund Stanley, of Kansas : I think that will pro-
bably be the feeling of the Yearly Meeting.
Part 5.
Francis A. Wright: I would suggest that we insert
in that " the appropriation of the railroad fares." There
is nothing else in the clause of railroad fares.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : That seems to me
perfectly clear. First, the expenses, second, the railroad
fares, and I think that is perfectly fair and clear.
Part 6.
Solomon B. Woodard, Western : It seems to me that
it would be better if they would set a time for all the
Yearly Meetings. We could then all understand it.
A Delegate : That was thoroughly considered. We
left it to the Yearly Meetings to decide.
Part 7.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : We have no power or author-
ity to direct, but I think that each Yearly Meeting should
pay the board and lodging of its delegates.
OF THE CONFERENCE 355
Cyrus Beede, of Iowa : I am perfectly willing, and
more than willing, that that kind of a recommendation
apply to the Yearly Meetings, but I do not believe that
Iowa ever intends to pay all the expenses of her dele-
gates.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : I do not think my friend
understands me: I do not mean all of the expenses,
simply the boarding.
Isom P. Wooton, of Iowa : I should be perfectly
willing that the people of Indiana should pay the ex-
penses, for so many of their people have the advantage of
attending, and our people are kept away, and I think if
it is anybody's place to pay the board it should be Indi-
ana's, and Western's.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : All right ; we will come to
Oskaloosa next time.
A Delegate : I think this matter may well rest with
each Yearly Meeting.
David Hadley, of Western : It seems to me that if
we depend upon voluntary collections this is a very small
body of delegates, and I fear very much the fact that
we need means. I think official action should be taken
in this matter.
Miles White, Jr., of Baltimore (Treasurer) : I should
like to have some instruction as to just what my duty is.
I do not know anything about it, and I should like to be
instructed,
A Delegate : Some of us would like to know what
the expense of publishing these minutes will be.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : There has, as yet, been no
action in regard to the quantity that will be published or
how much will be published. We have not as yet con-
sidered that, but it will be brought up later.
Aaron M. Bray, of California : I question whether
the action we have taken is the best. I refer to' the mat-
ter of the Treasurers of the Yearly Meetings. I think
it should come in an official document signed by the
Clerk of this Meeting.
Francis A. Wright, of Kansas : I am thankful I am
not chairman, for I never could remember all the points
356 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
made, but I think as soon as possible that printed copies
of this report should be furnished to the chairman so that
they can be handed out.
The Recording Clerk : I desire to suggest that the
proceedings of this Meeting will be printed and signed
properly and sent to the chairman of the delegations.
Francis A. Wright, of Kansas : We will have these
parts printed, so that they can be sent by mail. I think
that would be wise.
The Clerk : I suppose these will be published at a
very early date.
A Delegate : Every delegate should consider as to
how many of the minutes should be used in the individual
Yearly Meetings, so that they can give a suggestion to
the Business Committee in regard to this. We are like
Iowa, we think every delegate should pay for his own copy.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England: Hereto-
fore the stenographic report, including the minutes, have
been printed or published in a book, and this book has
been sold. That is the way the expense has been covered.
The Clerk : The Business Committee will take this
matter in hand and make an estimate of the number of
copies of the stenographic reports to be published.
Allen Jay, of Indiana : The Business Committee will
be very glad for the chairmen of each delegation to say
how many you will want.
(" Duties of the Treasurer " read by the Secretary.
See Minutes, Minute 94.)
The Clerk : Are you ready to pass upon this ?
Allen Jay, of Indiana : I move this be adopted.
A Delegate : I would like to ask who is to pay for the
bond ?
The Clerk : The Five Years Meeting.
A Delegate : May I ask for the clause regarding the
payment of the Foreign Missionary Board, and what cer-
tificates will be made ?
(It was read.)
A Delegate : Might I ask on what certification the
expenses of the Five Years Meeting are to be paid ; on
that of the Clerk and Assistant Clerk ?
OF THE CONFERENCE 357
Francis W. Thomas, of Indiana : It should read
Clerk and First Assistant, should it not ?
Zenas L- Martin, of Iowa : I wanted to ask that
question, but it is now clear to my mind,
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : Money that has
been appropriated to the Foreign Missionary Board, pro-
vision is made for voluntary contribution to the Mission-
ary Board, and that would have everything to do with
the authorization of the expenses of that Board. They
have the money in their hands, and have the authority to
pay their secretary.
Zenas L. Martin, of Iowa: If I mistake not, the
recommendation of the Business Committee was that the
expenses of the Board should be included.
The Clerk : Is that money in the hands of the
Board ?
Answer: Some of it.
The Clerk : Now the question is, whether the money
will be left in their hands or whether it should go into a
general fund.
James Carey, Jr., of Baltimore : I understood when
I took the position of Treasurer, that we had to pay our
debts. The first debts to pay, of course, were the debts
that we incurred first. We do not want to appropriate
the money subscribed for the Missionary work. My
understanding is that if we do not have money enough to
pay our debts we should go back to the money that is
subscribed for a general purpose. If it is given for cer-
tain purposes, such as buildings, etc., we could not touch
that money for anything but that. I do not thoroughly
understand about this matter.
The Clerk : I think it will be better to refer this
question back to the Business Committee, and have them
settle it for us, and thereby save a good deal of time.
Thomas C. Brown, of Western : I move that we
refer this portion of the report relating to the Distribu-
tion of Funds to be used in the Foreign Missionary
Board, back to the Finance Committee.
Thomas C. Brown, of Western : I move to amend
the motion by referring that portion relating to the
358 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Foreign Missionary Board back to the Finance Com-
mittee.
The Clerk : You have heard the motion. What will
you do with it ?
Miles White, Jr., of Baltimore : As I understand it,
the report of the Committee on Finance has been adopted.
The other motion was put and adopted long ago. It is
simply a question of the duty of the Treasurer.
Thomas C. Brown, of Western : I move that the
report be approved.
The Clerk : We cannot do anything further until the
other motion is disposed of. We will now vote on it.
(The motion was voted upon and was lost.)
The Clerk : The question now is upon the original
motion.
(The motion was voted upon and carried. The report
was adopted.)
The Clerk : We will now adjourn.
The meeting stood adjourned until 7:0 o'clock.
SEVENTH DAY NIGHT, TENTH MONTH 25.
The meeting was called to order and the congrega-
tion sang " Jesus, Dover of my Soul," after which Achsa
C. Kenyon led in prayer.
The Chairman : We have but one subject on the pro-
gram for this evening. Is it your wish that we take up
a few matters of business in this session ?
James Wood, of New York : If there is anything
ready it might be well to dispose of it in the opening of
this session.
The Clerk : If there is no objection we will dispose of
some of the matters on the table. We will hear the
report of the Committee on Amendments to the Constitu-
tion and Discipline.
[See Minutes, Minute 98.]
The Clerk : What will you do with the report of the
Committee?
Rufus M- Jones, of New England : I move that we
adopt it.
OF THE CONFERENCE 359
The Clerk : You have heard the motion ; have you
any objections ?
David Hadley, of Western: I would not like to open
a debate in reference to this matter, but there is one
feature of the new Discipline which ought to take a few
minutes of the time of this conference, and that is the
question of Associate Membership.
Rufus M. Jones, of New England : This belongs to
the special committee on the Discipline ; the Business
Committee had nothing whatever to do with it.
The Clerk : That proposition has not come to this
meeting in such a shape that we can take any action on
it under our present Discipline.
David Hadley, of Western : That is the correct and
strictly parliamentary way. In view of the fact that one
of the Yearly Meetings is not yet corporated under the
Discipline, if we are going to be so very technical about
forms and conditions, we shall get into a great deal of
trouble. I very much approve the idea of working and
investigating in connection with such an important
method as was instituted by the Church over two hundred
years ago ; and to have the question passed without an
opportunity to amend it, does not seem to me to be in
accord with the Spirit of God.
Aaron M. Bray, of Oregon : I wish to say that at the
present time it is absolutely impossible to change the Dis-
cipline in any respect whatever. We have at this time, so
far as this meeting is concerned, the law of the Medes and
Persians. The Yearly Meetings that have adopted this
Discipline are compelled to live under it for the next five
years, for it contains no provision whatever by which it
can be amended ; but the proposition that has come from
the Disciplinary Committee provides a way b5 r which it is
possible to amend the Discipline. Now the only way that
that can be done is for one or more or all of the Yearly
Meetings to send to the next Five Years Meeting a propo-
sition which has been submitted to them ; then, whenever
that becomes a part of the Discipline, it will be possible
to change other points. Until this work is done, it will-
be absolutey impossible to change the report.
360 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Rufus M. Jones, of New England: I think a few
words will in a few minutes clear up the matter. If any
Friend will take the Discipline and study the parts that
refer to the Associate Members, he will readily see it need
not cause any difficulty for the next Five Years Meeting.
It requires that each monthly meeting shall keep a sepa-
rate list of those who are Associate Members and report
how many there are. It does not require that they shall
be denied any function of the work ; they simply have
to keep separate lists ; that is practically all — the only
necessary requirement. The Discipline, it seems to me,
gives great freedom for using Associate Members, as seems
wise and best. It simply requires that they shall be called
Associate Members and be kept and counted in a list by
themselves.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : We need not be
concerned about that. The only Associate Members that
we will have for the next five years will be the babies that
will be born, as very few children will be received by
request of their parents. There are not many that will
want to be active members by next meeting.
Francis W. Thomas, of Indiana : The membership of
the Society of Friends as it is now, is not the same as it
was at the first organization of the Society of Friends.
There were no birthright members until 1737. Now this
is the first change from that.
The Clerk : The subject of birthright membership is
not before the meeting. I would like to have you act
upon the motion before the meeting. You must dispose
of this question, and then if you wish to take up another
question we will be ready to hear it.
David Hadley, of Western : It was understood when
the Yearly Meetings began to adopt this Discipline that
we had the power of appeal, and when we did make an
appeal we were to be heard in connection with the matter.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : May I
say as chairman of that Committee that the whole subject
was before the Committee and was thoroughly canvassed
in several different sessions, and the Committee saw no
good grounds for making any recommendations whatever
OF THE CONFERENCE 36 1
as to any changes. We discussed it in the Committee and
decided it would be impossible to do anything in regard
to changing the Discipline on that subject, and so we con-
fined ourselves practically to getting the Discipline in
shape to be changed hereafter. I think we found the
proposition on this subject from Western Yearly Meeting
had not come up in due form, if I remember correctly.
Francis W. Thomas, of Indiana : What is the ques-
tion, please ?
The Clerk : The question is upon the adoption of the
report of the Committee as read. The clerk will please
read that report again.
Albert J. Brown, of Western : I am, personally, in
favor of the motion prevailing ; but there are some who
feel as if we are pressing the thing pretty strong, and so I
move as a substitute that this matter be referred back to
the Committee, carrying with it the privilege of being
heard on the floor of the Committee, to be discussed and
give persons an opportunity to express their convictions ;
and after the Committee has heard all of these arguments
I think that will end the whole matter and people will
feel better about it ; so I move this be a substitute.
James Wood, of New York : I second the motion — I
mean the substitute as offered by Albert J. Brown.
Richard H. Thomas, of Baltimore : I think it would
be a very great pity to cut people out of talking, that
have a great burden on their minds, and I think they will
now feel much better.
. Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : The Com-
mittee will be very glad to take up the subject and discuss
it. It is entirely within the competency of this meeting
to take it up even though the subject was not referred to
the Disciplinar}^ Committee. If we see fit to take up the
subject of Associate Members the Discipline Committee
has no disposition to suppress anything ; but every mem-
ber believes in the fullest, freest, frankest open discussion ;
but we did the best we could, and we shall find that it will
work very satisfactorily. We recommend a change in the
original form of the various propositions, recommended
.all the Discipline references to Associate Members stricken
362 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
out, leaving birthright membership, and we went over
the ground and concluded there was nothing to dispose
of. If this motion is adopted and is approved by the
Five Years Meeting there is no reason why this other
cannot come up right here.
The Clerk : The better disposition of the matter will
be to vote upon the motion, the original motion ; a motion
to have that subject considered by a committee, the same
to give an opportunity for those who wish to present their
arguments for or against it would then be in order, and it
would put the Minutes in better shape. The motion is
upon the substitute.
James Wood, of New York: I will withdraw my
second, and I hope Albert J. Brown will withdraw the
motion.
Albert J. Brown, of Western : The Chairman is cor-
rect, and I will withdraw my motion.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : May I
say I thought the Committee might suggest something
about the electrot} 7 pe plates, for when this copy is brought
up we might put it within the power of the Yearly Meet-
ings to edit the Discipline at a cheap rate in a good form.
Josiah Dillon, of Kansas : I would like to ask a
question. Suppose this motion carried, would that shut
off any further possibility of voting for a change this
year? We do not want to discuss this matter for fun,
and it is out of the province of this meeting to make these
changes that Western Yearly Meeting proposes.
(The motion was carried.)
Albert J. Brown, of Western : I believe there was no
second to that. It occurs to me that we want to get at
some definite plan. This matter has been taken up by the
Discipline Committee. After thisitmight be brought before
this body, which could discuss it much more intelligently
than to open up the discussion in that way. So I move
that the Discipline Committee be instructed to take up the
matter of Associate Membership, and also that persons
may have the privilege of speaking before the Committee.
I think this explains what we want.
OF THE CONFERENCE 363
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England : I do not
know whether or not I made this plain that we had this
before us for several sessions. The only way we can do
will be to take it out of the hands of the Committee and
bring it in here for discussion .
Albert J. Brown, of Western : The proposition which
came from the California Yearly Meeting had a technical
error in it which made it say what it did not want to say.
I think we do not want to place any technical errors on file.
The Clerk : It is moved and seconded that the Disci-
plinary Committee be asked to further consider the recom-
mendation from California Yearly Meeting, and also one
from Western Yearly Meeting, regarding Associate Mem-
bership ; and that persons having a burden on their
hearts shall be given opportunity to speak before this
Committee.
Milton Hanson, of Western : I think it would be
better for that motion not to include Western Yearly
Meeting.
Levi D. Barr, of California : I think it would be fair to
state that the question brought into the California Yearly
Meeting was brought in at the close of the session, and
there was not over five or ten minutes given to the ques-
tion ; that it was not fairly discussed, and while it was
probably the voice of California Yearly Meeting at that
time, some understood that it was not to be presented in
the face of the meeting, and I do not think it is a fair rep-
resentation of the California Yearly Meeting. I felt it
would be right for me to say this in the face of the
meeting.
Timothy Nicholson, of Indiana : I do not see any use
of this Committee meeting again. There is nothing we
can do. This Friend over here spoke my mind. It was
discussed in our Yearly Meeting, and it does not seem to
me this is the place for it unless it had come up as a
different proposition that had been approved by the Dis-
ciplinary Committee.
Charles E. Tebbetts, of California : I want to say
that the error was in another case and not with reference
to the subject of Associate Membership. The Associate
364 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Membership has been in the hands of a committee for two
years. The Committee had the matter in hand and
found it not prudent to act upon it at this time.
Albert J. Brown, of Western : I think I have done
my duty in regard to this matter. My sympathies are
with the matter as it stands. I will withdraw this motion
and get it out of the way.
David Hadley, of Western : I would like on behalf
of these people with deep convictions and out of due
deference to the people who have put in operation and
submitted these thoughts, and with the limited amount of
time we have had to discuss it, to withdraw my motion,
and do the best we can to carry out our convictions.
Richard H. Thomas, of Richmond: I was going to
oppose it since there are Friends that feel very strongly on
this point, and it would be courteous to let them have a
hearing, and I should have been glad if the meeting had
been willing to do it. The members of the Committee on
Disciplinary Arrangements would be glad if the commit-
tee decided to do it. I am willing to stick to the second
or withdraw it.
Benjamin F. Trueblood : I call for the question so
that people who have anything to say can say it or forever
hold their peace.
David Hadley, of Western : I have no desire to go
before the committee to relieve my mind. I hope this
action will be voted down.
Albert J. Brown, of Western : I think that the best
thing that we can do is to withdraw this motion.
Richard H. Thomas, of Baltimore : I will withdraw
my second.
Louis E. Stout, of Western : I move that we now
take up the subject for the evening.
(The motion was carried.)
The Clerk : We are now ready to take up the subject
of the evening — "Theory and Practice of Public Wor-
ship," by Rufus M. Jones, of New England :
OF THE CONFERENCE 365
THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PUBLIC
WORSHIP.
By Rufus M. Jones.
We can no more discover the origin and beginning
of worship than we can discover the origin of smiling or
of loving. Go back to the period when man first smiled,
or to the time when he first felt that indescribable exper-
ience which we call " love," and you will find that that
being was one who worshiped. His worship may have
been crude and the object of it may seem to us incapable
of stirring or lifting any noble human soul, and yet we
must not treat slightingly these beginnings of great things.
We must read worship at its highest, not at its lowest,
and, knowing the height to which it may rise, we are inter-
ested to find it, even in its crude form, among all peoples
and in all ages. It seems to be an attitude which is uni-
versal. Where there are men they will worship, for it is
an attitude which belongs to man as man to attach him-
self to something outside of himself, to which he gives
himself, at least for the moment.
And now we stop to ask what it is that makes man a
worshiper. How shall we explain this remarkable fact
which finds its illustration in some form among every
people we have yet discovered ? It had no artificial
origin, that is certain. Religion was not invented and then
inculcated by those who had the patent on it. It springs
out of the deepest needs of the soul. In the presence of
the mystery of life and the mystery of death, conscious of
the mystery of evil and the no less unfathomable mystery
of goodness, aware of his littleness in the movements of
events and laws which he cannot control, man instinct-
ively feels his dependence and his need of a Power outside
himself that understands him and can help him. This
sense of dependence and need, this cry of the soul for its
other self, this yearning for relief from mystery and per-
plexity predisposes men to become worshipers as soon as
they find something to worship, and even impels them to
accept unworthy objects where the soul's eye finds no
really adorable being.
366 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
There are, it hardly needs to be said, many forms of
worship, running up an ascending scale from the crude
incantation of the savage to the saint's absorption and
rapture as he dwells upon the goodness and love of God
who has redeemed him . But all forms of worship may be
reduced to two main types : First, that which aims to
change the disposition of the being who is worshiped, to
win his favor and to make him kind and propitious ; and,
secondly, that which is mainly concerned with the atti-
tude and state of the heart and spirit — the whole nature —
of the worshiper himself. In the first type the effort is
concentrated upon sacrifice and methods which will induce
the divinity to take a kindly attitude toward the suppliant.
Priests, who are believed to have peculiar access to the
divinity, will be in great demand and elaborate ceremoni-
als will come into use ; for custom soon renders a sys-
tem sacred and so more likely to win God's ear. To
those, however, who know Jesus Christ all this has passed
away. There is nothing now in the nature of God to be
changed. He so loved that He gave His only Son that
men might be saved. His love is prior to our need of it.
All the infinite wealth of meaning which can be put into
the word Father — all this is inherently and essentially in
His nature. He does not withhold His love and Father-
hood, until we importune Him and win Him by our wild
cries and sacrifices. He is our Father ; He is love ; the
initiation of redemption is from Him. There is sacrifice,
but He makes it. There is a painful search, but it begins
from above downward. We, therefore, come to worship
One whose glory is unfathomable goodness, who with-
holds no blessing which any mortal will receive from
Him, and who, as a spiritual center of the universe,
draws to Himself all responsive souls as the beloved
object draws the heart that loves it. In Christianity,
therefore, there is no place for an intercessory priest,
whose function is to win God's favor and change His dis-
position. The entire business of our religion is to bring
about a change in man himself, in nature, heart, and dis-
position — to put him in the right attitude toward God.
Christian worship does not begin until there is some vision
OF THE CONFERENCE 367
of the riches of the glory of God and a positive movement
of the soul toward Him. It is from the nature of it an act
which can never be delegated to another. To have been
where some one else was worshiping differs by the whole
width of the sky from having worshiped oneself, One
might as well try to delegate the eating of his daily bread
or the appreciation of a sunset. If your own heart has
not caught the glorious truth so that it thrills with the
joy of it and gives itself in response, you have not wor-
shiped, however faithful you may have been in attending
" divine worship." You might as well expect to get a
comprehension of the meaning of love by attending some
one else's wedding. Worship is the vital act by which
the whole spirit of man expresses itself to God, whose
personal presence it feels. It is therefore the highest
activity the human soul can engage in. He worships
best whose thought of God fulfills all his highest ideals,
and so kindles within him a fixed desire to become ever
more like the Being who realizes all his hopes, for the
true worshiper approximates that which he worships.
What I have said thus far seems to make worship so
distinctly a personal and private affair, that it raises at
once the question, why, then, do we have public worship ?
It is more than a theory ; it is a well-established fact, that
when men unite together to worship God the community
of spirit in harmonious activity toward one end increases
in each one the consciousness of the Divine Presence, and
exalts in an unaccountable way the devout attitude of
each soul. There is a blessed contagion in the devotional
attitude. Where one sensitive soul feels God's presence,
it helps his neighbor to feel it.
L,ow breathings stole,
Of a diviner life, froni soul to soul,
Baptizing in one tender thought the whole.
Those who have never known what it means to feel the
actual presence of God in this united hush through the
congregation as God pours His life into the souls bowed
before Him in the worshipful attitude, have, I think,
missed one of the highest experiences of religion . But at
the same time it must not be forgotten that a meeting- for
368 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
worship is by no means complete unless it does more than
make possible these high occasions of wordless com-
munion. Nothing more would be needful if all men were
up to the spiritual height of engaging in such worship.
But it is a tremendous attainment, and alas ! not all have
yet attained. No meeting for worship is adequate to the
situation unless it takes account of the needs of those who
have not yet found the shekinah within their personal
spirits, where they meet and commune with a personal God.
The practical end and purpose, therefore, of a meet-
ing for worship is two-fold : First, to furnish an occasion,
for those who are already spiritually minded, to worship
the Father in spirit and in truth. To afford here in
this busy and material world the glorious spectacle of
a company of sons of God who have in their own hearts
the overwhelming evidence of their personal relationship
to a heavenly Father and the first-hand assurance that
their life and joy are in Him. And, secondly, it is the
purpose of a meeting for worship to help other men who
are not yet born of the Spirit, or who have not yet attained
to a strong spiritual stature — to help them get such
glimpses and visions of God that they, too, say "yes,"
to Him and join in the worship of Him. A meeting
which ignores men's imperfections and does nothing to lift
human lives into the light and truth is perhaps not much
better than the meeting which forgets to recognize the high
possibilities of true worship for those who are spiritual.
It is just here that the practical problems of worship
arise. We have in our congregations all degrees and- con-
ditions of spiritual experience, from babes who need milk,
up to the strong, valiant souls who wrestle with God for
their own blessings ; while probably to most of our meet-
ings there come some who have never once said to God,
" I will." How then shall we best work out in practice
our theory of worship ? Well, I should say that the first
and most important thing of all is to make everybody
present realize, even if only dimly, that the meeting is
a meeting with God. If there is no true sense of this upon
those who gather — then they have missed the one mark
or test which distinguishes a meeting for worship from
OF THE CONFERENCE 369
any other assembly. It is the first duty, then, of those
who are spiritual in a meeting to put themselves into such
an attitude and to conduct themselves in such a manner
that they will give the impression that they are meeting
God, are aware of the high import of the occasion.
Unless they act as though they felt in the presence of
God, others surely will not catch the spirit of worship or
rise to an appreciation of God. There will, perhaps, be
some differences of view as to what will best produce this
reverent, adoring attitude in a congregation — what is
most suited to bring upon the hearts of the people the
consciousness of God. It can be said with positive cer-
tainty that no dead routine will do it. The moment reli-
gion falls back into some groove of habit, and a semi-
mechanical performance is substituted for the rapture ot
the heart as it responds to God, that is always a religion
in some stage of degeneration — it is not in its period of
inward strength or power. This state of decline may
come equally well through over-emphasizing the import-
ance of silence. Neither activity nor silence availeth any-
thing in itself, but a living sense of God. Whatever is
done must be done with freshness and life. It must be
done, too, because the life and spirit of the meeting needs
it and finds expression through it. The spirit of the Liv-
ing Creature must be in the wheels. If we had some
infallible method of discovering the mind of the Spirit, it
would then be easy to work out our beautiful theory that
each exercise must come as a direct and immediate
prompting under the inspiration of God. We have, how-
ever, no infallible way of discovering what is our own
individual impulse and what is opened to us by the Spirit.
The whole history of public worship shows this statement
true. Men have again and again uttered their own preju-
dices or their own judgments and proclaimed them, sin-
cerely, no doubt, as the voice of the Lord. Why not,
then, settle down to a well-regulated and pre-arranged
system as most of the churches have done, and give up
the idea that the true way to worship is to have the vocal
exercises rise out of the spiritual life of the congregation,
in response to the divine moving ? What is the use to
370 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
hold to a theory which does not work in practice ? What
meeting held under this theory, that the true exercises
must come as the Spirit calls them out, can compare in
convincing and converting influence with a church which
is rigidly organized and has a broad-minded, well-trained
preacher at the head, who directs all its activities with
the same kind of judgment and insight that a railroad
president uses to direct the vast interests of his corpora-
tion ? These are all questions which require careful
answers. Well, I say that, even if all these things were
true, yet the world needs above everything else a commu-
nity of Christians who know that they have direct deal-
ings with God ; who come together not to be entertained
with artistic performances, not simply to be instructed on
the ethical questions of the day, not to flatter God with
finely-constructed phrases, but to meet with Him, and
to enjoy Him, and to make their lives, as far as it can be
done, organs of His thought and will and purpose. That
blunders will be made we must expect ; that sometimes
we shall hear poor human talk where we expected a divine
message is likely. We are still children. But this great
experiment of ours — to show that Christ can be the Head
of a meeting — is grandly worth trying ; it has not been
sufficiently tried yet, and it has never been proved false.
It cannot succeed, however, if we ignore human needs, if
we close our eyes to the facts of life and social conditions,
or if we expect God to work miracles for us while we sit
with folded hands and closed eyes.
There is no Christian community in the world that
can go on in effective power unless its membership is
continually being edified in the truth. High feeling and
rapturous emotion never take the place of the positive
instruction in the truth. There is a limit to the height to
which you can pile inch blocks. They will eventually
topple over of their own weight. High structures must
always have broad .bases. The worshipful spirit of a con-
gregation always declines if there is nothing done to
broad-base the spiritual life in the truth. You may as
well try to dodge the law of gravitation as to dodge this
law. When the ministry of a meeting dies down to
OF THE CONFERENCE 37 I
nothing, or to platitudes, or to chaffy, dry-as-dust talk,
the worship goes too, and the sound of prayer will be
low. The height of the meeting will be largely deter-
mined by its width. The question of ministry in a meeting
for worship is vital. But the ministry must not be poured
on from the outside, as water from a hydrant ; it must
bubble out of the spiritual life of the meeting, and he who
speaks must speak because he feels that a message has
been quickened within his soul which will feed, as the
word and bread of God, the souls about Him. The pre-
cise moment when the inspiration comes to him is not
important. It may be within the meeting-house or on
the street or in one's own chamber. That matters not.
The prime necessity is to have it.
Now, what is the practical test by which we shall
decide whether a meeting for worship is alive or not ?
How can we tell whether it is a place where the members
meet with God, or one where they merely go through the
forms of worship. We can tell by what they do after-
wards. A meeting for worship which has no permanent
effect on men's lives after they walk down the aisles was
held to little purpose. Worship is not truly and com-
pletely worship until it becomes the business of life, and
not merely the occupation of an hour. If the hour of wor-
ship, by its brightness, only puts the rest of our work-a-day
life in the shade instead of sending its light and power into
every deed of the week, we are still poor worshipers.
The great truth which worship reveals is this, that God is
actually present, and if He is present anywhere, He
ought to be present everywhere, and our worship must
bear witness to His continual presence. To "worship
the Lord in the beauty of holiness " is to practice His
presence, whether we are sweeping streets or using our
lips in vocal prayer. " I will go forth in the strength of
the Lord God ' ' are the words over the door of the little
parish church in Drayton-in-the-Clay, where George Fox
sat Sabbath after Sabbath as a boy. The idea is the true
one. Life is full of struggle. There is some grind in it
for us all. We do not see the glory at its full in all the
hours of our life. But we may be sure that we have
3J2 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
not learned how to worship yet unless for every glimpse
of vision we live a more victorious life, and for every
touch God gives us we make a better contribution to the
redemptive forces of the world. " Immediately I was not
disobedient to the heavenly vision," says the great Chris-
tian worker. May we all rise up from our period of
worship with cleared vision, go to living in the power of
what we have seen and felt, and if we have really seen
Him, we shall say as we go out :
" I may not live a little, petty, self-centered life,
because the love of Christ constraineth me to reach out and
realize in my being all that He calls me to be. I may
not dwell at ease in my narrow tent, for the love of Christ
constraineth me to care for all who feel the weight of sin,
the power of temptation, the press of struggle, the pain
and bitterness of losses. I may not seek to perfect my
own soul just for the joys of a timeless heaven, for the love
of Christ constraineth me to find my joy in helping to
bring the heavenly life into as many lives as possible. I
may not wear a gloom}- face or lose heart over the trials
or evils of this present world, for the love of Christ con-
straineth me to enter into the joy of service, the victory of
faith and the grandeur of life."
The Clerk : The subject will be further discussed by
Edwin H. McGrew, of Oregon.
Edwin H. McGrew, of Oregon : I do not know that
there needs to be an apology offered for placing one from
the extreme East and the other from the extreme West on
this subject. I fear, however, I shall not follow the same
broad comprehensive line. I have made no attempt what-
ever at that.
THEORY AND PRACTICE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP.
By President Edwin H. McGrew,
Of Pacific College, Oregoii.
The little tract or paper entited "A Quaker Service,"
written by one William Cross, is a most beautiful descrip-
tion of what was to the writer a most blessed and soul-
enriching hour of worship. He had never attended a
OF THE CONFERENCE 373
Quaker meeting. He was charmed by the sweet simple-
heartedness main ifes ted by dress and words. He was
greatly impressed by the simplicity of the worship ; and
the restlessness that at first possessed him in the fear that
the leader of the meeting was not to be there, gave way to
great quietness of spirit when the words came to him,
" Where two or three are gathered together, there am I in
the midst." The Leader was there. The silence and
every exercise of the meeting seemed to bring special
blessing to this devout worshiper. Was it the silence,
was it the prayer, was it the little address or exhortation
or sermonette given by one or more that refreshed the
devout soul ; or was it not in the fact that God was in the
silence, and in the prayer, and in the discourse to meet
the longing of the one who sought to worship in all ?
Theory and practice of public worship — what a sub-
ject ! Cannot Friends' theory be briefly stated in the rich
expression of the Christ as He gave that priceless message
to the Samaritan woman and to the world : " Believe me,
the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain,
nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour
cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall wor-
ship the Father in spirit and in truth : for the Father
seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit, and they
that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in
truth."
If the Friends have stood for anything that has char-
acterized us as a body it is spirituality of worship. This
is sought in part by casting aside formalities and by great
emphasis of the doctrine of the priesthood of believers.
If some things have been put aside, other things have
been allowed ; nay more, encouraged. These possibly
may constitute our practices. Shall we notice some
of Friends' practices ? In the first place, silence in wor-
ship has not been uncommon. You may say, perhaps, that
the matter of silence in Friends' meetings has gone well
over into theory ; and to a degree I regret I am forced to
admit it ; but I am convinced that a spirit-filled silent
worship has not lost its power and should not lose its
place. Perhaps it was never quite the Friends' theory
374 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
that there should be an hour or two silent, sleepy,
drowsy meeting, whatever may have been some of our
practices ; but I appeal to you, have you not known
times when the only way for our meetings to come into a
place of true worship was through a brief period of
silence? Have we not sometimes been found singing
time away simply to consume time? In my judgment a
Friends' minister ought to prize the privilege to lead the
congregation in a period of silence in which they may be
strangety fitted by the Spirit Himself, to receive His mes-
sage through the minister.
In the second place, we recognize that prayer should
have a place in public worship . I speak especially of the
larger public meetings. For should we include the
prayer meeting in this subject I would insist that a
prayer meeting is a place to pray. Prayer certainly
does have an important place in our public worship ;
certainly not formal, cold, unfeeling prayer, but that
which comes out of a warm, devout heart ; that effectual,
fervent prayer of righteous men and righteous women that
availeth much. It is most desirable that the minister,
the pastor, be very gifted in prayer ; but ought we not
retain the theory and the practice, under the Hoty Spirit's
direction, of prayer from the body of the congregation.
Perhaps some ma3^ take undue advantage of such oppor-
tunity, but without it some soul, for want of expression,
must grow lean and powerless. That meeting will come
close to God that seeks Him and His blessing through
the medium of Spirit-filled prayer.
Thirdly, the public preaching of the Word has been
theoretically a part of the church service or worship and
has been largely practiced. The efficiency of the earlier
ministry of our denomination was most marvelous. The
Quakers have been great preachers. Much has been said
during this Five Years Meeting of the means toward a
more efficient ministry, and the remarkable inefficiency of
our present ministry has been duly emphasized. How-
ever this may all be, it remains for me to urge that one
high calling of the Church is to preach the Gospel. In
our branch of the Church the practice of preaching has
OF THE CONFERENCE 375
been observed to a large extent in our meetings, and in a
measure we have practiced what we have preached. The
two-fold object of preaching has already been clearly
pointed out in the paper that has just preceded this. The
preacher is supposed to bear God's message of truth in
real ministry to the believer and a message of searching
power to the sinner. The minister who would measure
his place and work under the call and leadership of the
Great Head of the Church must recognize that his call is
a high calling of God, in comparison with which the vari-
ous professions of life and business sink into unrecogniz-
able nothingness. That minister when he looks in upon
himself cannot fail to recognize his utter helplessness and
hopeless inability to face the situation. In such spirit I
cannot conceive of him setting a very high price upon him-
self for his service as a minister. To every devout minister
of the Gospel there must come the assurance expressed
by the apostle, " Our sufficiency is from God." Study the
lives and life work of the great ministers of the Gospel of
our Church and of others, and while some have been well
educated — and all now ought to be, for we are without
excuse — yet the efficient minister receives his efficiency
from God. A spirit-filled ministry does have a place in
our meeting for worship. The measure of a minister is
the measure of the results of his ministry. They may be
immediately seen ; they never can be wholly known. Some
may object to this proposition, but in a large measure it
must be true. I read of one who preached boldly and
fearlessty, and when he was through no one thought of
his sermon's rhetorical smoothness, of its literary merit;
no one reached out a cold, formal, distant, complimentary
hand-shake and said, "I congratulate you, Reverend
Peter, on that masterly address ' ' ; but this is what the
record says : ' ' Now when they heard this they were
pricked in their heart and said, Brethren, what shall we
do ? " — and fortunately Peter was able to tell them what
to do. A ministry squared by the Word -of God and
prompted by His Spirit will ever have its place, and
ought to have every encouragement.
37 6 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
I have now referred to all the practices in worship
which exist in some Friends' meetings and to all but one
which usually are found in others. This one is the prac-
tice of singing. I have no discussion to enter upon con-
cerning it ; none is needed. If through the ages God has
been pleased with the songs of His children ; if psalmists
and prophets, and Jesus and His disciples sang; if the
founders of our Church sang, and if song full of Gospel
truth has cheered the lives and strengthed the souls of
toiling men and weary women and has brought conviction
to the sinful, perhaps the practice of singing has yet a
place in worship. Let us apply to it, however, what we
have required in the other practices, that it be spirit-filled.
A song that is merely to fill up time is no more in line of
worship than preaching or praying or dead silence merely
to fill up time. It is very pleasant sometimes for us to
sing just to while the time away, but that singing is not
necessarily worship.
Dr. Adoniram Judson Gordon's dream had for him a
rich blessing, and may have a lesson for us. You know
the story of it, I suppose. Dr. Gordon had studied late
on Saturday night preparing for the Sabbath. When he
retired he dreamed that he was in the Sabbath service.
With others who came in was a stranger, a man not
richly clad, but who had in his face a most kindly
expression. The minister was greatly attracted by the
stranger and sought to meet him at the close of the ser-
vice, but before he could reach him he had gone. Dr.
Gordon asked the gentleman in whose pew the stranger
had been sitting, who he was, and the gentleman answered,
' ' That was Jesus of Nazareth ; He has been here to-day
and He will come again." Then Dr. Gordon meditated:
"Was He, Jesus of Nazareth, pleased that morning as
He sat in the service ? Did the arrangement of the church
please Him — the singing, the prayer, the sermon ? Was
He pleased. ' ' He has been here to-day and He will come
again ! Oh, brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, our
meetings of public worship have been times of refreshing
and strength only when we have recognized His presence
in the person of His Spirit, and as we have sought
OF THE CONFERENCE 377
through silence or prayer, or preaching or song, to wor-
ship and glorify Him who has been with us and will come
again.
Rebecca W. Cadbury, of Philadelphia : The idea of
worship is one of the sublimest beliefs of the Church since
the early Christian days. We go into other churches and
we hear ministers sing and preach and pray, and are we any
better for it ? I do not know but what if we Friends will
go and sit down in silence before God, and pour our
hearts before God,' then listen to His voice, that every
one of us will be ministers. Every one of us is a
temple of the Holy Ghost, and God speaks to every
one of us.
Sophia M. Fry, of London : May I emphasize what
was said by the last speaker on the value of silence in our
meeting for worship, which is sometimes to-day in danger
of being crowded out by vocal solos which take its place.
Over and over again I have been told by people who have
been in our meetings for worship for the first time, that it
was not the sermon that impressed them, but it was the
time of silence which seemed so very solemn to them.
There is perhaps no one in this house who has not been
in a meeting when the congregation met and sat, not in a
listless, languid attitude of mind, but of waiting expect-
ancy ; and then there has come over the congregation a
sense of power and uplifting, and a feeling that the
Creator was meeting with the creatures ; and perhaps
those who met there left the house stronger and purer and
better than they were when they entered it. There is a
cry, a great outcry, in our country for educated ministers,
which would lead us to believe that there was no such
a thing in our Church. I believe the common people
should have an equal opportunity in our services to
express themselves ; they would be able to touch the
various attitudes of man. We should give our ministers
a good opportunity for an all-around education, but do
not let us turn them out if they do not have it. I think
the congregation should take their share of the service.
There should be no contention about who occupies the
highest place in the synagogue.
37 S STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Aaron M. Bray, of California : In view of the fact
that to-morrow is Sunday, and many of us are rather tired,
I move that we do now adjourn.
Charles E. Tebbetts, of California : I wish to express
a word on the value of prayer. I believe our Church
should emphasize this and should never get away from it.
In our meetings of worship every individual is responsi-
ble for the character of the worship. I trust the time will
never come in our meetings when one or two persons will
feel that the entire services of the meeting depend upon
them. It will be a sad time for our services if ever the
time comes that there will be a large feeling of responsi-
bility on one person and not upon the entire congregation
or membership. They certainly have a part in the ser-
vice. I think the membership should feel a large respon-
sibility in regard to worship. It is one of the sweetest
things that I know of to hear the voices of children min-
gled with the older ones in the sanctuary. In all parts of
the congregation, old, young, every one should feel they
have a part in the services and have a place there. I
think there is no one preacher that could have as mufh
power as the whole congregation. I have felt a great
difference in standing to preach the Word of God when
\'OU felt that you had the support of the members and the
prayers of the members of the congregation, especially if
there has been a free utterance of it, than if you are stand-
ing in another place where there is a total absence of con-
ditions for prayer and worship and praise for God. I
believe we are coming back to it, and I trust that, in hon-
estly seeking after that which is best, we may find, at
least, that the individual worshiper throughout the con-
gregation feels an individual responsibility for everything
that is proper in our worship.
John W. Woody, of North Carolina : I like the
thought that every one in the congregation is responsible.
The Clerk : There is a motion before the house. I
feel that it is time for us to adjourn.
Albert J. Brown, of Western : I believe we ought to
adjourn, for our Sabbath-school is at 9.15 in the morn-
ing, and while [the congregation is in the state of mind
OF THE CONFERENCE 379
that it now is I believe that we ought to adjourn so that
we can get rested for to-morrow.
(By permission, before adjourning, the following
proposition was introduced.;
Rufus M. Jones, of New England : I would like to
ask the privilege of introducing one subject. The Busi-
ness Committee, in its leisure hours that it has had since
the rise of this meeting, have been considering the attitude
of the people during prayer and during devotion. It is
desired that a resolution be sent out in reference to it, and
I was asked to prepare this resolution and submit it, and
I will now read it. It can be adopted without discussion.
(Reads a resolution. See Minutes. Minutes ioo, 119.)
I now move that this be referred to the Business Com-
mittee to be brought up in a resolution by them.
''The motion was carried.;
'The motion to adjourn was carried.;
The Clerk : We will arise and stand with bowed heads.
After several vocal prayers, the meeting adjourned
till Second day morning at nine o'clock.
SECOND DAY MORNING, TENTH MONTH 27.
The meeting was called to order at 9 A. M.
The devotional exercises were led by R. Esther
Smith, of California Yearly Meeting, which were opened
by singing, " Let the Lower Lights be Burning." Then
followed exhortation and prayer by R. Esther Smith.
Lewis E. Stout, Isom P. Wooton, J. Walter Malone, and
others.
Clerk : We will now have read the Minutes of the
different sessions of Seventh day.
(Minutes of the morning session were read and ap-
proved.;
(Minutes of afternoon session read and approved.;
Ell wood O. Ellis, of Indiana : I am requested to say
that the Finance Committee, to whose report Minute
number eleven of this session alludes, requests the privi-
lege of having the report referred back for verbal changes,
and requests unanimous consent to it.
(By consent, the report was referred back.;
380 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Minutes of evening session were read and approved
with slight correction.
Clerk : We will now take up the reports of the
Standing Committees. First, the report of the Legisla-
tive Committee will be introduced.
(See Minutes, Minute 103.)
Clerk : You have heard the report of the Committee
on Legislation, what is your pleasure ?
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana : I see by the wording
that it might be misunderstood where it speaks of the
articles of incorporation to be considered by the sub-com-
mittee and that they are to be signed by the committee.
It is not to be signed only by the sub-committee, but by
the whole twenty-two, two from each Yearly Meeting.
Albert F. N. Hambleton, Iowa : The incorporation
of the Five Years Meeting would necessarily have to have
a place designated where it will meet. If the meeting has
any direction to make or preference to give it would be a
good time to express it.
Clerk : Do you wish to take up that matter before
passing upon the report ?
Milton Hanson, Western : Cannot that be left with
the Business Committee ?
Clerk : If the meeting so orders it may.
(On motion, the report was accepted.)
Clerk : Will the Business Committee bring in a
proposition covering the point that has been raised ? If
there is no objection, it will be left with the Business Com-
mittee and it will come in at a future time. We will now
have the report of the Evangelistic and Church Extension
Board.
Report was read by Reading Clerk. (See Minutes,
Minute 104.)
Clerk : What is your pleasure with reference to the
report of the Evangelistic Board ?
(On motion, the report was adopted.)
Charles H. Jones, New England : In connection with
these reports it is necessary, according to the Discipline,
that the names of all the ministers of the Yearly Meet-
ings be in the hands of the Secretary of this Committee.
of the conference 381
Some of the Yearly Meetings' Minutes contain the names
and addresses of the ministers of the Yearly Meeting,
others do not. And it is also necessary in carrying out
our work that this Executive Committee of this Board
should be in possession of the Minutes of all the different
Yearly Meetings, and I move that the Chairman of each
delegation be instructed to provide the Secretary with
copies of the Minutes of the different Yearly Meetings,
and also where the names of the ministers of the Yearly
Meetings are not printed in the Minutes, that the Chair-
man of each delegation be instructed to provide the names
and addresses of these ministers.
Delegate : I think the entire Board ought to receive
the Minutes of the Yearly Meetings.
Isom P. Wooton, Iowa : I think the Chairman, Sec-
retary and Treasurer would constitute the responsible
members of the different Boards, and I would, therefore,
offer an amendment to the motion that they furnish the
Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer with copies of the
Minutes.
Charles H. Jones, New England : I accept the amend-
ment.
Clerk : It is moved and seconded that the Chairmen
of the several delegations be asked to furnish the Chair-
man, Secretary and Treasurer of the Evangelistic Board
copies of the Minutes of the several Yearly Meetings,
accompanied with full lists of the names and addresses of
the ministers of the several Yearly Meetings.
(Motion was carried.)
Clerk : Are there other reports on the table ? The
Friends' Board on the Condition and Welfare of the
Negro. Clerk will read.
(See Minutes, Minute 106.)
Clerk : You have heard the report from this Board,
what will you do with it ?
(Motion to adopt the report carried.)
Richard H.Thomas, Baltimore: I would like to
make the statement that we have decided to try to get on
with voluntary contributions as far as possible, and
we are going to ask our representatives in each Yearly
382 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Meeting to do what they can to raise $25 toward meeting
the expenses. There will be a considerable amount of
expense as there are so few of us really on the ground, not
sufficient to take the responsibility ; and we will have to
have money to use in furnishing Friends information,
and we will have to have a careful review of the whole
situation, and a considerable amount of correspondence
will be necessary, and a certain amount of travel, and we
need funds very much, and we hope that Friends as they
go home will bear in mind that each Yearly Meeting is
asked voluntarily, not officially, to contribute $25 toward
the expense.
Clerk : Are you ready for the next report ? We
have had many requests to close the business at noon
to-day, and we will try to do it ; but we must not rush
through matters so quickly that we will not settle them
satisfactorily. We will have the report of the Committee
on Finance.
(See Minutes, Minute 107.)
The report was approved.
Clerk : We will take up the Report of American
Friends' Board of Foreign Missions. Clerk will read.
(See Minutes, Minute 108.)
Robert E. Pretlow, Wilmington : I move that the
report be adopted.
(Motion carried.)
Clerk : We will now have the report of the Commit-
tee on Bible School Quarterly, Catechism, and Hymnal.
(See Minutes, Minute 109.)
Clerk : You have heard the report of the Committee,
what is your pleasure in regard to it ?
Delegate : I move the report be adopted.
Harry R. Keates, New York : My sympathies are
with the committee and the difficulties they have encoun-
tered. The proposition came to us five years ago, and
after a very lengthy and warm-hearted discussion this
committee was appointed to consider the matter and the
committee have labored for five years ; they were given
OF THE CONFERENCE 383
power, and they might have gone on and involved us
financially, but they did not think it wise to do so. Now,
there is that in the recommendation of this committee
which shows that they appreciate somewhat the position.
This is not theory, it is practice, but the question is that
sooner or later hymns shall be passed upon as suitable for
use in our meetings. Too often we find our people sing-
ing perhaps something that we do not heartily assent to.
The time is not far distant when many of the trashy
things which pass as hymns shall be swept away from us
and in the place of these we will have some that will
stand the test of time and which will appeal to the human
heart. The doctrinal truths which we hold should be
embodied in our hymns and be a means of encourage-
ment to the older ones and which shall be instructive to
our young people. I am sorry that the report comes
in the form in which it has, yet I realize that the recom-
mendation was in place.
Robert E. Pretlow, Wilmington : It seems to me that
these three unrelated subjects could not be well associated
together. The proposition for a Quarterly and the propo-
sition for a catechism coming to this Five Years Meeting
as new propositions which have never been considered,
might be considered together. But the proposition for a
Hymnal is an entirely different matter, but as Harry R.
Keates has well said, it was very thoroughly and care-
fully considered five years ago. The committee was
appointed by the Conference and empowered with equal
powers with that intrusted to the Committee on the pre-
paration of the Uniform Discipline under which we are
here to-day. The Church has passed upon this question
that it wants a Hymnal. There is a long-felt desire all
over this Middle West, and some of us who have been
concerned on this matter for the last five years, have been
astounded at the wide-spread wish that has come to us
from all over the Church wanting us to hasten the pre-
paration. Because we felt that we needed the endorsement
of another conference, and because of the difficulties we
found in our way, making it impossible for us to be ready
with the issuing 1 of the book until close to the time of this
384 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
meeting, and we thought the Church might pass upon it
again. I believe that it would be a most serious disap-
pointment to our younger Friends all over the country,
and a most serious detriment to the worship of Almighty
God through the service of song in all our meetings, and a
most serious blunder in every consideration for this confer-
ence to finish the matter as it is proposed to do in this
meeting. I move, as an amendment to the motion that
is before us, that these three subjects be considered separ-
ately and passed upon separately. I move that as a sub-
stitute.
Clerk : It is moved and seconded, as a substitute to
the motion before the House that these three subjects be
considered separately.
(Motion carried.)
Clerk : The Recording Clerk will read the report
upon the first subject named.
(The Recording Clerk re'ad the part of the report
referring to the Quarterly.)
(On motion of Zenas L,. Martin, the report was
adopted.)
Clerk : The Recording Clerk will read that part of
the report referring to the proposed catechism.
(The Recording Clerk read report.)
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana : I had hoped that some
conclusions could have been reached upon this question
that would settle the difficulty. In connection with this,
there is a very valuable little catechism prepared by Edgar
Williams, of Iowa, "The Juniors' Friend." I do uot
know whether Friends know of it or not. We do a great
deal with them, and I wanted simply to call attention to
the fact that the "Juniors' Friend" is very valuable to
place in the hands of young people.
Mary C. Woody, North Carolina : Let me say just a
word. The committee did not think a catechism was not
a worthy thing, but as the request came from only one or
two Yearly Meetings, it felt that the catechism already
published would be valuable without undertaking the
thing in the Five Years Meeting.
OF THE CONFERENCE 385
David E. Sampson, North Carolina : I would have
been glad if we could have at least recommended some of
these catechisms for those who feel the need of it. We
have a great need of something to instruct many of the
new members, as well as those of the young ones, that are
coming to us. Could we not in some way name some of
these catechisms, and the place where they might be
obtained ?
Harry R. Keates, New York : While I think probably
we are not ready at the present time to prepare a cate-
chism, as a representative of this body, I trust we will
carefully consider the value of such a work. We some-
times complain that our views are not understood. If we
desire that these views should be understood, we must
begin with the children. In New York Yearly Meeting
we have upon the shelves of the Book and Tract Commit-
tee a catechism, an excellent little book prepared some
years ago by Ruth S. Murray. I had not seen that edition
until it was sent to me a few months ago. On looking it
over and comparing it with other catechisms of our own
denomination, and with the catechisms of other churches,
I was struck with its simplicity and force. While the
delegates may possibly feel that they are not able to speak
for their Yearly Meetings in favor of the proposition at
this time, I do trust that the time is not far distant that
we may have such a work to place in the hands of our
children, that when asked they may be able to give posi-
tive reasons why they are Friends, and positive reasons
for the doctrines that we hold as the truth as it as in
Jesus Christ.
Esther G. Frame, Wilmington : I heartily endorse
the speech our brother has just made. In our evangel-
istic work sometimes when a number of young people
have been awakened and looked forward to joining
Friends, we have had these young people come and say,
What are your doctrines ? and we had nothing but the
Discipline. We had some other things, but they were too
large. What we want most is to set out our beliefs.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, New England : I rise to ask
if this matter could not be disposed of by being referred to
386 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
the Educational Committee, or some other one, the proper
one to refer the matter to. I think the matter is of im-
portance enough not to be dropped at this time, but it
should be referred to a suitable committee.
James Wood, New York : It seems to me that the
statement has been called for, and I think it is right for
me to say that New York Yearly Meeting has an official
catechism adopted a few years ago after having been in
charge of the representative meeting for two or three
years. If you wish copies of the catechism for personal
examination and use in the Sabbath-school, you can
leave your order at the desk over there and you will be
supplied.
Rebecca W. Cadbury, Philadelphia : I wish to say,
our Friend James Wood some time ago wrote a very
excellent paper on the doctrines of the Society of Friends
that we in Philadelphia have found of great use not only
among the young people but others ; and James Wood
had a letter from Japan asking that a number of this little
document should be sent there, and I can speak of its value.
Delegate : I would like to ask James Wood what use
is being made of the catechism in New York Yearly
Meeting. I remember well we spent a long time on it.
James, Wood, New York : Some use is being made
of it ; how much I cannot say. I have not followed it up.
(The motion to adopt this part of the report was
carried.)
Charles W. Sweet, Iowa : I would suggest that in
the interim we might adopt the catechism used by New
York Yearly Meeting.
James Wood, New York : I think that would not be
advisable, but if you wish it they can be obtained. I do
not think it is wise for this meeting to give its approval
to anything put out by any Yearly Meeting until it has
examined it.
Delegate : I move that the chairman of each delega-
tion select a member from their delegation to constitute
that committee to have this matter in charge until the
next Five Years Meeting, and if possible report a cate-
chism suitable for the needs of the Yearly Meetings.
OF THE CONFERENCE 387
Richard H. Thomas, Baltimore : I believe that there
is very great use for an independent catechism prepared to
meet certain needs ; but before we put such an authority
or power in any work in the hands of any committee, we
ought to remember what we are opening the way for. Many
of the catechisms that have been spoken of are very easily
obtained ; some are better in some places and some in
others ; and let us be free about it, and not have a cate-
chism which will be very difficult to prepare and of very
little value when it is prepared.
Carolena M. Wood, New York: I think we have
been very unwise to bring up so important and far-reach-
ing a subject at this last session as this subject of a cate-
chism. It is a very serious matter, and I think, appar-
ently, we have not found out what the catechisms are that
have been prepared, and so I would suggest that we keep
this matter before us, that we get these catechisms that
have been spoken of, examine them, bring them to the
next Five Years Meeting, and let us get in touch with the
catechisms and understand exactly what we wish ; and in
the meantime that we make all the use of what we have
that we can. I think it would be unwise to take this
matter up with the amount of attention that has been
given to the work.
Clerk : I fear the motion is not understood. The
motion is that this matter be submitted to a committee for
consideration, they to report thereon to the next Five
Years Meeting. No authority to be given to the commit-
tee to take official action.
Albert J. Brown, Western : I am in favor of this
motion with the exception of a little part. I believe the
committee ought to take this matter in hand with no
further instruction ; so I move that we amend this motion
before the House by striking out " to prepare a draft." I
think that is what we want.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, New Kngland : That is
what I meant. I would like that to pass that way.
Cyrus Beede, Iowa : I would like to know if we appoint
a committee to take the matter under consideration and
388 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
they be allowed to prepare a plan if way opens for it,
would there be any danger in that ?
Albert J. Brown, Western: The purport of my
motion is to that effect, but that we do not instruct the
committee to do it.
James Wood, New York : I hope this amendment
will prevail. I wish the committee to appreciate the
momentous importance of their purpose. I have had
experience in work of this kind, and if you had had this
experience you would approach this with the greatest
possible hesitation.
Milton Hanson, Western : The chairmen of these
delegations, although persons of ability, were not ap-
pointed with special reference to work of this kind, and it
should be placed in the hands of a committee who are the
best that we can find among all the Yearly Meetings in
America ; and that is a reason why the amendment should
prevail.
(Calls for the question.)
Chairman : It is moved and seconded that the matter
concerning a catechism be referred to a committee, con-
sisting of one member from each Yearly Meeting, to be
chosen by the chairmen of the several delegations ; said
committee to have the authority to prepare a draft or
plan and submit the same to the next Five Years Meeting
for its consideration. An amendment to strike out the
clause providing for the preparation of a draft of a cate-
chism to be submitted to the Five Years Meeting, has
been proposed and seconded. The motion is upon ^the
amendment.
(Amendment was carried.)
Josiah Dillon, Kansas : I wish to propose another
amendment, that the delegations instead of the chairmen,
should select the committee and not leave it wholly with
the chairmen.
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana : I was about to say,
but we seem to have so many amendments, if we are not
going to do anything with this, can we not refer it to some
committee already in existence ?
OF THE CONFERENCE 389
Delegate : This is an extremely difficult question. I
think it would be almost impossible to prepare a cate-
chism that would be what we would want, and it seems
to me it could hardly be adopted without passing through
the Yearly Meetings, therefore I wish that the whole
thing might be voted down.
Mary C. Woody, North Carolina : The discussion is
just the same as it was in the committee. Our conclu-
sion was that if these catechisms that have been men-
tioned could be mentioned in the American Friend, and
the places where they can be obtained, and if it is
not out of order, I move that the motion be laid on the
table.
Chairman : The motion is in order.
(Motion carried.)
Delegate : I hope that we shall not lose sight of the
fact that the place where these catechisms can be obtained
shall go into the American Friend. We have had calls
for these, and I have never known where to get a copy.
James Wood, New York : I wish to make a motion
to relieve the Recording Clerk, that the Clerk, in the
final preparation of his minutes, only refer to the action
taken by the meeting, and that the various amendments
should be not recorded as such, but leave it to the discre-
tion of the Clerk to state what the action of the meeting
was without referring to all these amendments.
(It was so ordered by unanimous consent.)
Allen C. Thomas, Baltimore : I would like to make
a request that if any one here knows of any catechism
published by any member of the Society of Friends, or by
any Yearly Meeting, or Quarterly Meeting, or Monthly
Meeting, that he will send me the name and place where
it can be obtained, and I will see that a list of all such
catechisms is published in the American Friend, with
information where each can be obtained and at what cost.
Chairman : We will now have the third clause of the
report, in regard to a Hymnal. Clerk will read.
(Report in regard to a Hymnal was read.)
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana : I move we accept the
report.
390 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Francis A. Wright, Kansas : I move to amend the
report, that we refer the question of a Hymnal back to
the committee appointed by the last Quinquennial Con-
ference on the subject, with the power to take such action
as they shall deem best without incurring the Five Years
Meeting in any obligation except for the expenses of the
committee meeting.
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana : That cannot be done.
Many of the members appointed five years ago are not
here. This is out of order now, it seems to me.
Cyrus Beede, Iowa : I do not think that we can refer
to a committee that is dead.
Esther G. Frame, Wilmington : I feel like second-
ing Francis Wright's motion.
Clerk : We can hardly refer a matter to a committee
that is not a committee of this meeting. That committee
received its appointment from another body.
Esther G. Frame, Wilmington : I would like the
reappointing of the same committee to consider the mat-
ter, and if they find it right to have a Hymnal that we
should give them authority to go forward. I think the
crying need of our Church to-day is for good substantial
Hymnals, and not that kind which teaches ungodly truths.
Josiah Dillon, Kansas : It seems to me that the same
causes that we objected to the appointment of a commit-
tee with reference to a Catechism should come in force in
this. Our reason in asking for another is that we may
have one in which the doctrines shall be taught and the
importance of this must be very apparent to all, and it
seems to me that it is of such a magnitude that it would
be very unwise for this meeting to consent to this, as this
is a document from this meeting, and I should object to
leaving the matter to such a small committee, or to a
committee at all, without first coming before this body
for its approval, and I shall certainly object to author-
izing anything of this kind or giving such a privilege,
although it incurs no expense to the meeting.
Allen C. Thomas, Baltimore : Before we take action
I think there is one point which ought to be brought
forward — the great expense of such an undertaking. Who
OF THE CONFERENCE 39 1
is going to run the financial risk ? Hymns cannot be
written to order. We have to take those already written.
All the good hymns, except the old ones, are copyrighted.
Who is going to pay for the privilege of the copyright ?
It is a practical question- I think if we want a Hymnal
there are plenty of good ones.
Robert E. Pretlow, Wilmington : I do not suppose
that it is the idea that Quakers are going to write a lot of
new hymns and then publish them. We want the good
inspired hymns of all the ages, and we don't want trashy
hymns mixed up with them if we can help it. The com-
mittee appointed five years ago gave careful thought to the
point just raised, and it is just because we have found out
absolutely that it can be published, and can be published
without financial obligation on the part of this body that
the report was brought in. We have learned that it is
exceedingly practical, that we can do it, and that we can
get the best songs that have ever been placed on the
market, and have a uniformity and dignity that has been
wholly lacking in the years past. I hope this meeting
will see fit to vote down Francis A. Wright's amendment,
and take up this matter and push it to completion.
Charles W. Sweet, Iowa : L,ast year we placed the
Gospel Hymns up to No. 6 in our church, and I feel that
our church needs something of this kind, and I move as
an amendment that this be referred to the Kvangelistic
Committee with power to act in this connection without
financial obligation, if the mover will accept.
Lindley A. Wells, Western : It seems to me that it
would be unwise to refer this matter to the Evangelistic
Committee. I am sure that it is the feeling of a great many
that we are very much in need of such a work, and I would
like to see it placed in the hands of those who have had
this matter in hand and know how to touch this question.
Charles W. Sweet, Iowa : If the second will consent,
I will move that the names of the committee appointed
by the conference five years ago be reappointed to act as
a committee on this subject.
Francis A. Wright, Kansas : I will accept that
amendment.
39 2 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Clerk: We will have the names read.
Richard H. Thomas, Baltimore: I confess a very-
great hope that we shall not adopt this method. There
is no desire on the part of any one to restrict whatever
any people feel to be right in this matter. There are some
of us who would be very sorry to have an official Hymnal
issued by the Society of Friends for which we should be
made constructively responsible. The feeling in regard
to worship and methods of worship which some of us
have is not consistent with the issuing of such a Hymnal,
and while we have the broadest feeling of love for those
who do not see as we see, we have a certain amount of
feeling about being compromised by the action, and I
cannot see why each meeting cannot act as it seems best in
that matter. I confess from a business point of view I
agree with my brother, and it does not seem to me that a
Hymnal published by the method proposed by Robert E.
Pretlow is likely to give us a really good one and one
that would be of permanent value ; so if I wanted a
Hymnal I should vote against it.
L,. Lyndon Hobbs, North Carolina : Just one word.
I wish we might adopt the report of the committee for
about this reason, that we can trust to our friends pretty
largely to use their own good judgment in the selection
of such hymns as are already in print, and it seems to me
at this late time in the Five Years Meeting to take up this
subject upon which we are clearly not all united and go
back on the suggestion of the committee, is hardly wise,
and I wish that we might adopt the report of the com-
mittee.
Robert L. Kelly, Indiana : I am very much in favor
of leaving this matter to this committee to consider again,
with all due deference to the last two speakers ; for at the
present time a great many of our congregations use sing-
ing in their worship and will keep on using singing in
their worship, and it becomes a question as to what class
of hymns they will sing. I certainly do not feel as Presi-
dent Hobbs has just suggested. I must say that our con-
gregations cannot be depended upon to select hymns, as
they do not work out very well. I have heard hymns
OF THE CONFERENCE 393
sung in our congregations, and I want to be impersonal,
but they were absolutely immoral ; they were unreligious
and immoral in their sentiment and immoral in the irrev-
erent jingle, and I do not feel that since we are bound to
sing, we do not want this kind of songs, and we ought to
have a book of hymns that will appeal to the hearts of
the common people in our worship. I think there ought
to be a consolidation of the committee ; we ought to know
that some of the members of this committee have moved
away from the Yearly Meetings by which they were ap-
pointed, and whether some members are suitable to go on
or whether some changes are not of importance. I would
like that to be looked into. I only make this as a sug-
gestion.
Clerk : I suggest that we allow the delegations here
to take the matter under consideration, and to make any
changes in the committee that they may think advisable ;
allow the delegates to substitute other names than those
on former committee where it is desired.
Albert J. Brown, Western : I am opposed to this
motion by Francis A. Wright on this ground, unless we
carry with that motion they are to compel the local meet-
ings to use this Hymnal we cannot avoid the difficulties
which have been set forth here, and they certainly never
will carry such authority. If a congregation wishes to
sing a jingle they will sing it.
Francis W. Thomas, Indiana : I want to say a word,
and if any man has a right to speak I think I have, as I
originated the question of using song in our services ; but
the question resolves itself in my mind at our present
stage, and accustomed as we are to hearing, singing and
using Hymnals, and I think you know what I say is true,
our taste as to the hymns that would suit us. In certain
localities and in certain interests hymns could be used
that would not suit in others. When we have arrived at
the stage of a benefit at large in this regard of introducing
it and endorsing it for the whole Church, I question it
very much. I believe we had better not take up the
matter at the present time, much as I love it and believe
in it when property conducted.
394 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Delegate : After hearing Dr. Thomas and Albert J.
Brown and some others, I move that we table this question.
Harry R. Keates, New York : Our Clerk a while ago
said he would like to make a speech on this matter of the
original proposition. While time is pressing, I am sure
that we have a little time to spare, and I move that we
give him all the time he wants.
(Motion carried.)
Edmund Stanley, Kansas ; I do not want to take
your time. I wish to say, however, that we are forming
tastes with the songs we are singing. If our children, in
the song service in our meetings for years continue to
sing a certain kind of jingle, if I may call it such, the
very use will create a taste for that kind of song. The
question, in my mind, resolves itself into just this:
Shall we allow matters to continue for another five years
with many kinds of questionable songs introduced into
our meetings all over this broad land, or shall we set
apart a cautious, careful, conservative committee to take
the matter in hand? They can, as they report, get per-
mission to take some good book, or books, and glean
them and give us the real wheat, cutting out the chaff,
the questionable matter ; so that we can say, if you want
singing in your services, here is something that is safe for
you to use. Those who live in the older settlements, in
the older parts of our country, and belong to the meet-
ings that have been long established, do not realize the
situation as those on the frontier and in the newer meet-
ings that are often made up largely of people who know
little about Friends. The proposition as it comes from
the committee means this : That the proposed committee
be authorized to take this matter in hand and submit
something for use in Friends' Meetings, prepared by the
committee or approved, if a book is found that is satis-
factory. If we do not wish to use it, we need not ; but it
will go out with the stamp of the Church upon it, and
with such approval or endorsement, we might hope for its
adoption and use in the place of many books now in use
against which there is much criticism. In the choice
of reading matter, instead of turning a child loose to read
OF THE CONFERENCE 395
anything and everything, we recommend something that
is good and elevating, and if we succeed in getting him to
read something that is indeed good, by and by he will
have formed a taste for good reading and good literature.
Just so with song ; safety is found in the creation of the
taste for that which leads the mind toward pure and lofty
sentiment.
Jesse Edwards, Oregon : I move that this matter be
referred to the committee as provided, without any
instructions whatever ; they would be under no obliga-
tions ; they can report to the next Five Years Meeting,
and if we see fit to adopt a Hymnal we can do so. I
offer this as a substitute.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, New England : I think the
committee which has had this in charge is the proper one.
I think it is a good thing, but I don't think any of us
want to compel Dr. Thomas and his friends to sing if they
do not wish to sing.
Francis A. Wright, Kansas : As the mover of the
motion, I have it written here and will read it — " That
the question of a Hymnal be referred to the following
committee, with power to take such action as they shall
deem wise, without involving the Five Years Meeting in
financial obligation, excepting for the necessary expense
of the committeee.''
Milton Hanson, Western : Would the mover consent
to refer the appointment of this committee with instruc-
tions to make such changes as are necessary ?
(Motion carried.)
Charles H. Jones, New England : With the unani-
mous consent of the body, I wish to amend the action of
the meeting a few moments ago in regard to sending the
Minutes of the different Yearly Meetings, to include the
additional members of the Executive Board, Esther G.
Frame and Levi Gregory, and I request that the two
members be included.
(Taken by consent.)
Peter W. Raidabaugh, Western : I understood the
Business Committee would have another matter to present
to the delegates, and would it not be well to receive that?
396 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Delegate : I think we ought to take a five minutes'
recess at this time.
Allen Jay, Indiana : The Business Committee should
leave the room as quickly as possible when we adjourn.
Esther G. Frame, Wilmington : Cannot the delega-
tions get together and present to our chairmen whom we
want?
Clerk : That is to be done. The Secretary will read
the names of the former committee.
(Names of committee were read who had had charge
of the matter of the Hymnal.)
(Five minutes' recess.)
Clerk : The report of the Finance Committee was
referred back this morning for some verbal changes that
they desired to make. They are now ready to submit
their report.
Chairman of Finance Committee : The Committee
have decided to eliminate from its report the words relat-
ing to the Foreign Mission Board, as that Board has been
incorporated and organized and acting under the various
Yearly Meetings for the last two or three years, and is
already regulated ; we decided best to eliminate any refer-
ence to the Foreign Mission Board, and also to make the
financial year close Ninth Month, 30th.
(The report was approved and the changes allowed.)
Clerk : We will have the names from the several
delegations to constitute the committee which was re-
ferred to just before our intermission.
(For names, see Minutes, Minute 112.)
Charles W. Sweet, Iowa : I wonder if there can be a
meeting of this committee before we go away.
Clerk : I think you might make a call for a meeting
of the committee.
(Call was made.)
James Wood, New York : I would like to have a
statement as to what is referred to this committee so that
we might have it distinctly on our minds. I should like
to hear Francis A. Wright's motion read.
Clerk : The Recording Clerk will read.
OF THE CONFERENCE 397
Recording Clerk read as follows : " That the ques-
tion of a Hymnal be referred to the following committee,
with power to take such action as they shall deem wise,
without involving the Five Years Meeting in financial
obligation, excepting for the necessary expenses of the
committee."
Ell wood O. Ellis, Indiana : Would it not be a good
time to get a report from the delegations on the Commit-
tee on Temperance ? Three names are on the table, the
others are not.
Albert J. Brown, Western : Were the delegates in-
structed to appoint such a person ?
Delegate : We didn't understand it so. We thought
it was the committee on arrangements for the conference
that was proposed. We did not understand that it was on
Temperance.
Ell wood O. Ellis, Indiana : It is not in the form of
the Minute only, as the meeting approves the report of
the committee, and it says, " We further propose that the
delegates from the several Yearly Meetings name one
additional delegate for this proposed Conference on Tem-
perance."
(On request, the whole report was re-read.)
Albert J. Brown, Western: We had overlooked this
matter, and ask the privilege to withdraw and attend to it
at this time.
(Consent was given, and the delegation from Western
Yearly Meeting withdrew.)
(Report of Committee on Education was read. See
Minutes, Minute 114.)
Clerk : It has been moved and seconded that the
report carrying with it the recommendation of the com-
mittee, be adopted. Are you ready for the question ?
Richard H. Thomas, Baltimore : I personally doubt
the advisability of our Five Years Meeting selecting one
of our educational institutions. I like " in our institu-
tions " better than " in one institution."
Zenas L,. Martin, Iowa : It seems to me that it may
be that we will want a separate institution entirely.
398 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Chairman : I think that is provided for in the recom-
mendation.
(Motion carried.)
Aaron M. Bray, Oregon : I would like to ask if that
carries with it the suggestion made in regard to the ap-
pointment of certain members to receive the appointments ?
Robert L. Kelly, Indiana : This is the plan of the
committee, and they wish to know if that is what the
meeting wants. The suggestion is made that this board
be appointed by the Committee on Education.
James Carey, Jr., Baltimore : I think the incorpora-
tion should be made, otherwise the committee will be of
no use in a number of places.
Cyrus Beede, Iowa : I rise to a point of order. I
believe this motion was passed, and I want the meeting to
say whether it is proper to discuss a matter after it has
passed.
Charles E. Tebbetts, California : I was going to
remark that this is a point that we ought to attend to
before passing away from it.
Allen Jay, Indiana : It seems to me that the com-
mittee will look after it.
Robert E. Kelly, Indiana : Those of \ t ou who will
take the pains to read the recommendation again, will
notice the question of incorporation was not under the
consideration of the meeting. Some arrangements were
left with the committee in reference to the matter, so that
some laws of the State might be complied with.
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana : If the Five Years
Meeting is incorporated, the greater will cover the less,
and this will cover all these committees of this organiza-
tion. The Foreign Mission Board need not have been
incorporated if we had waited until we had incorporated
this Five Years Meeting. The incorporating of this Five
Years Meeting incorporates all its work.
(The epistie prepared in response to the epistle of
Eondou Yearly Meeting, was read by Robert E- Kelly, of
Indiana Yearly Meeting.
(See Minutes, Minute 115.)
OF THE CONFERENCE 399
(After discussion of several clauses, some slight
changes were made and the epistle adopted.)
The Clerk will call up the next report.
(The Report of the Committee on Arrangements for
the next Five Years Meeting was read and approved.)
(See Minutes, Minute 116.)
Clerk : There are no other reports on the table, but
the Business Committee has three items yet to be heard
from.
Allen Jay, Indiana : The Business Committee has
this to offer :
(Reads resolution in regard to Sabbath Observance.)
(See Minutes, Minute 117.)
Chairman : You have heard the resolution, what is
your pleasure in regard to it ?
(On motion of Charles E. Tebbetts, of California, the
resolution was adopted.)
Allen Jay, Indiana : " Resolved, In the event of a
vacancy occurring in the position of Treasurer, the Com-
mittee of Arrangements is hereby authorized to fill the
vacancy.
(On motion, the resolution was adopted.)
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana : With the consent of
the chairman of the Business Committee I have a resolu-
tion here to offer in connection with the office of Trea-
surer, which I learn from him was overlooked by the
Business Committee. You will find that a number of
the Yearly Meetings have made do arrangements for the
raising of their proportion of expense of this meeting, and
as the Finance Committee suggested in the paper that
was read, that everything should be done on a cash basis,
and as it has heretofore been our practice to instruct the
Treasurer to pay promptly all bills presented for the
expense, I wish to present a proposition: "Resolved,
That the Treasurer be authorized to pay all bills pertain-
ing to the expense of this Five Years Meeting when draft
is approved, and is hereby authorized, if necessary, to
borrow money for this purpose," and I move its adop-
tion.
(Motion carried.)
400 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Chairman : Has the Business Committee anything
further to offer ?
Allen Jay, Indiana: It is proposed that the proceed-
ings of the Five Years Meeting be published in one volume,
to contain all the papers read, the conclusions reached,
and a brief statement of the discussions. The number to
be printed to be referred to the delegations and the chair-
man of each delegation is directed to report the number
of copies desired for his Yearly Meeting to the Committee
on Publications.
I do not suppose you will be able to do that now, but
just as soon as you can after you return home ascertain
the feelings of Friends and send them to us.
Clerk : It is understood that these reports will not be
published at the expense of the Five Year's Meeting ; but
that Yearly Meetings ordering certain numbers will be
expected to pay for the same.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, New England : It will be
impossible for the chairmen to tell whether any certain
number will be wanted. They will have to be published,
and we will have to send for them.
James Wood, New York : Heretofore each Yearly
Meeting has taken a number and given them away, or
sold them, just as they saw fit.
Cyrus Beede, Iowa : It occurs to me that these dele-
gations at the present time are just as well prepared to
state the number that they will want as they can be after
they go home.
Chairman : According to the resolution, they have a
right to do this if they so elect.
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana : Friends, it is a very
difficult problem. Five years ago it was referred to the
Publishing Committee to decide itself how many copies
should be printed. The conference could not do it, so it
was left to the Publishing Committee, and they decided
by correspondence, and ascertained as best they could,
how many would be wanted. We announced through
the papers that cloth copies would cost so much, postage
paid, and in paper they would cost so much, postage
paid, and whatever was sold was deducted from the cost
OF THE CONFERENCE 401
of publishing. It is a very difficult problem to know
what to do. Heretofore we have sent down to the Yearly-
Meetings the conclusions and suggestions in four or five
pages in a separate leaflet. The Publishing Committee
have been instructed to do that ; those things that imme-
diately concern the Yearly Meetings in condensed form.
I should be glad if we could give a good deal of liberty
to this Publishing Committee.
Zenas L,. Martin, Iowa : In speaking of the report
with reference to the publishing of papers and discussions,
it occurs to me that it would be far better that the discus-
sions be printed in full the same as papers, not extracts.
I should prefer that we should have the discussions.
Have it all published in the proceedings.
Chairman : The motion is upon the adoption of the
resolution.
Albert J, Brown, Western : How much does this reso-
lution include. Does it include the clause by which the
delegates shall say how many shall be taken for their
Yearly Meetings ?
(The resolution was read again.)
Allen Jay, Indiana : It is proposed that the proceed-
ings of the Five Years Meeting be published in one vol-
ume, with a brief synopsis of the discussions. The num-
ber to be printed is referred to the delegations, and the
chairman of each delegation is directed to report to the
Committee on Publication the number of copies desired
for his Yearly Meeting.
Peter W. Raidabaugh, Western : The Business Com-
mittee's idea was that the delegates right here might
approximate the number, if not, the chairman will have
to refer to the Yearly Meeting, and the chairman can
report at any time to this committee how many their
Yearly Meeting will likely need. It does not make it
absolutely necessary to report at this time, but the thought
was that the delegations might confer together and tell
approximately what they would need and others perhaps
could tell exactly what they want, so we will have to rely
on the report of the chairmen.
4-02 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Albert J. Brown, Western : That means that the
delegates, if they report now take the responsibility,
which I should not want to do. I would rather refer
it to the Yearly Meetings.
Charles E. Tebbetts, California : It would be easier
to do if the expense was known .
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana: The Publishing Com-
mittee can form a pretty accurate estimate of what they
will cost after a while, but of course it depends on the
number of copies taken, the kind of paper and the style
of binding. Heretofore the expense has been borne by
the Treasurer, and the bills were divided according to the
'membership of the different Yearly Meetings. As to the
suggestion to publish the discussions in full, I think you
will find it will make the volume too large to publish all
the speeches we have been making here. Some of us
would not care to see them in print.
Josiah Dillon, Kansas : What we want is that our
membership shall be informed of the actual proceedings
of this meeting, and it seems to me the better way would
be to publish the minutes of this meeting in a separate
book, and the minutes be sent down for distribution to
the members of the Yearly Meetings. The speeches can
be published in another book, and can be sold to those
who want it. I believe if we want it to get to the Yearly
Meetings we will have to place the work before them in
such a way as they can take it. If we send it out in a
large publication the meetings will not be informed.
Clerk : That has been done in the conference.
Delegate: I understand Rufus M. Jones that -.the
absolute cream of the matter is to appear in next week's
issue of the American Friend, which will reach the mem-
bers of the Yearly Meeting.
Isom P. Wooton, Iowa : I should be very sorry to
send out a book with less than a fair report of the discus-
sions that have been made.
C yrus Beede, Iowa : I move that the discussions
be published with the minutes. I unite with the remarks
of Zenas L. Martin.
Peter W. Raidabaugh, Western : By action a few
OF THE CONFERENCE 403
days ago it was put in the hands of a committee appointed
for that purpose.
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana : I think it should be
left where we have put it.
Clerk : It certainly is the intention that all the neces-
sary discussions be included, all that is needed to give a
full and clear and fair statement of the trend of thought
presented in this meeting.
Nathan Brown, Kansas : It was stated in our Busi-
ness Committee by Rufus M. Jones that perhaps in a
week or two a very full statement of the subjects pre-
sented here and the conclusions reached would appear in
the American Friend, and it seemed to me, and I think to
many others in the Business Committee, that that would
fill the place of printing the Minutes, that that would be
sufficient, and the membership throughout the Yearly
Meetings would get the information referred to, and it
would not make it necessary for us to print the Minutes.
Allen C. Thomas, Baltimore : The matter will have
to be left to the judgment of the committee, for a full
stenograpic report would make a very large volume
which would cost not less than $1.50, and perhaps more.
I do not suppose many of us would care to pay for a full
stenographic report. In the end it will have to be left to
the judgment of the committee as to how much to pub-
lish. We do not want to publish everything. We sim-
ply want the committee to publish the facts and conclu-
sions reached, giving a fair report of the proceedings.
Zenas L. Martin, Iowa : As this motion is not sec-
onded, I will move that we amend it by ordering that all
discussions immediately following each paper be printed
in the proceedings. Of course, we will leave the minor
discussions on motions and resolutions ; but those discus-
sions immediately upon the papers are important, and
those papers and all lines that have been discussed freely,
and we will not get at the consensus of the opinions of
this Five Years Meeting without having these discussions
on the papers. And it seems to me it will be sending out
a wrong impression of the conclusions if these discussions
do not appear following the paper. If we do not wish to
404 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
put in the discussions, it would be far better that we did
not put in the papers.
James Wood, New York : I am sorry to call atten-
tion to Allen C. Thomas' statement that this book would
cost from $1.50 to $3.00 I do not see that the book
could be published for less than $2.50 to $3.00, if it be
possible at $3.00. There would not very many want
them at that figure. If several thousand were taken it
may be it could be done for less money. But at $3.00 per
volume a great many would not be taken.
Benjamin F. Trueblood, New England: I hope the
plan of Zenas L. Martin will not be adopted. The
publication of a fair synopsis will be all that is required.
Some of us have had a great deal of experience in this
line, and we have found that it is possible to condense the
discussion and yet preserve all the sentiment of it.
Milton Hanson, Western : I think the phrase " a
synopsis of the discussions," is ample and sufficient for
all that we want. It has been apparent we sometimes
have blundered considerably away from the subject, and
I would not want in a volume of this kind everything that
was said on every subject. Many of us would not like to
have a full report of what we have said. Leave it to the
judgment of this committee.
Aaron M. Bray, Oregon : The question that has been
discussed for the last ten or fifteen minutes is all out of
order. We have passed upon this two or three days ago.
Clerk : The question is upon the amendment.
(Motion was lost.)
Clerk : I should like to give this committee authority
to cut down speeches and take extracts from the papers.
Charles E. Tebbetts, California : I want to ask sim-
ply in regard to the motion as it now stands, Is the
expense to be borne by the Yearly Meetings in proportion
to the membership or the number they order ? Do we pay
for them when we get them ?
Clerk : There will be no assessment on the Yearly
Meetings to pay for the expense of this publication.
Each Yearly Meeting will pay for the books ordered by
its delegates. (The motion carried.)
OF THE CONFERENCE 405
Allen Jay, Indiana : Yon will remember a resolution
in regard to prayer which was referred to the Business
Committee. The Business Committee offer the following :
" Resolved, For the spiritual life and power of our
meetings, and our entire church work in the world, true
living and reverent prayer are essential. As there is a
tendency too frequent in our time to treat prayer lightly,
to pray as though the congregation was addressed instead
of the Lord, and as though no effect were expected, we
desire to see prayer kept in its true place in the life of the
Church. And we also urge the great importance of spe-
cial care on the part of our members to maintain a
reverent attitude while prayer is being offered."
Chairman : What will you do with the resolution ?
John W. Woody, North Carolina : There is one
point I do not like ; that is the criticism in regard to how
we should pray. I do not believe we pray enough, and I
think any criticism of this kind will have a tendency to
suppress many persons.
William L,. Pyle, Western : Dear friends, it seems to
me a very critical question for us to take up and legislate
upon as to how prayer to God should be offered in our
congregations. It does seem to me to be a matter that
we cannot enter into upon a resolution by this meeting.
It is a very delicate subject, and I am not in favor of
legislation upon this subject. I have no doubt that there
may be a criticism to offer in regard to vocal prayer, but
I am with Professor Woody, of North Carolina, that it
will have a tendency to suppress many persons from pray-
ing in our assemblies.
Isom P. Wooton, Iowa : I would like to endorse the
same sentiment with the thought that the fact that there
is a tendency in that regard is shameful enough, and I do
not think we ought to put it out in publication.
Mary C. Woody, North Carolina : I wish the Busi-
ness Committee would withdraw that Resolution. Per-
haps its reading there will have the desired effect. It does
406 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
seem to me to be hardly in the province of this meeting
to pass a resolution like this.
James Carey, Jr., Baltimore : There is a tendency to
treat prayer too lightly. I have noticed it in our own
meetings among Friends wherever I go. There is not a
reverent attitude observed during the time of prayer. I
have come into Friends' Meetings when I could not tell
whether it was prayer or preaching, owing to the fact
that the congregation were sitting upright, even though
they might have had their eyes closed. There is a clause
in Scripture in reference to that. " 'Abstain from all appear-
ance of evil." I think if this Five Years Meeting, will
advise Friends everywhere to observe a reverent attitude
in time of prayer that will be a far better way than the
way we have been doing.
Allen C. Thomas, Baltimore: I think there is a
little misconception as to what has been proposed. It
is not legislation ; it is simply a recommendation that we
take account of this very serious subject, and- if the
Friends will pardon me, I think this very Five Years
Meeting has shown the necessity of our thinking a good
deal about it. I myself have come into this room more
than once — I do not like to say it — when I was not aware
by the appearance of the meeting at large that prayer was
being offered. If we do this without thinking, it is a matter
which needs attention . In regard to the character of prayer
which is being offered, it often happens that the person
tells the Lord a great many things that He knows a great
deal better than we do. Prayer frequently partakes more
of the character of preaching than of real petition to our
Father in Heaven and the placing ourselves in humility
at the feet of a loving Father and just God. I think the
Society at large ought to think of these things. The
Resolution says, " a tendency." and I appeal to everyone
in this meetiug to know if there is not a tendency in that
direction.
Clerk : I fail to see any reason for objection to advice
of this kind. It seems to me to be very timely.
Esther G. Frame, Wilmington : I think for the most
part it is right. I do not think an}- body has the right to
OF THE CONFERENCE 407
tell us how to pray, but we do need this caution with
regard to reverence in prayer, reverence to our Father. I
have been often disturbed by somebody turning leaves to
find out a song. I think when we are in prayer every-
body should be in silence whether you like the man or
woman or not, be quiet when that soul is before God in
prayer; but as to telling how people shall pray. I do
not believe we have a right to do that. What we want
to do is to keep in reverence, not to turn over books, do
not look out of windows. It is not giving reverence to
man or woman, but because some one is talking to the
Lord.
James Wood, New York : I beg leave for a moment
while this is under consideration. We are all agreed that
there is a lack of proper reverence. There is often a very
great lack of reverence in our meetings. There is no use
finding fault with the people. Strike at the cause. Why
is there a want of reverence while prayer is being offered ?
It is because the name and form of prayer are prostituted
to uses other than what we mean by prayer. It is almost
universal in the churches that the audiences are too fre-
quently addressed instead of God, and as long as that is
the case you will cry for reverence and it will have no
effect. Let the reverence be in the prayer, and it will be
in the congregation, if we pray with the Spirit and as the
Spirit gives us utterance. But if we prostitute the real
name and form of prayer to other uses than that legiti-
mately intended, we must expect the congregations to
recognize just what this is, and take it at its worth and
turn their backs upon it, and they will look out of the win-
dows, look to see the next hymn, look to see who is in
the house, and look to see the bonnets there on exhibi-
tion. But if prayer is the sacred thing it ought to be, it
will be felt by even' man and woman in the congregation.
There is no use talking about this matter with the people.
The people are not responsible. There is a cause for it
all, and let us look for this cause.
(The motion was carried.)
Clerk : Has the Business Committee anything further
to offer ?
408 STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
Allen Jay, Indiana : The Business Committee pro-
pose that the publication of a Book of Meetings be referred
to the Evangelistic and Church Extension Board.
(The proposition was adopted.)
Allen Jay, Indiana : They also propose the following :
" Resolved, That the Five Years Meeting of 1907 be
held in the city of Richmond, Indiana."
Lewis E. Stout, Western : I move the adoption 01
the Resolution.
Samuel L,. Haworth, Iowa : There might something
arise in five years that would make it very inconvenient
and impractical to hold the meeting at that place. There
is no provision made for a change.
A Delegate : The Discipline provides that it be set-
tled now.
(Motion adopted.)
William V. Coffin, California : Charles E. Newlin
was appointed Railroad Secretary to the conference.
Charles E. Newlin has been consulted, and since the con-
ference is to be held in Richmond, it will be better to
have a Railroad Secretary there, and therefore I move
that the action of this meeting be rescinded, and that Ben-
jamin Johnson of that place be appointed as Railroad
Secretary.
Chairman : It is moved and seconded that the name
of Benjamin Johnson, of Richmond, be substituted for the
name of Charles E. Newlin as Railroad Secretary. Are
you ready for the question ?
(The motion was carried.)
Allen Jay, Indiana : This is my last appearance.
Resolved, That the kind and generous hospitality of the
Friends in Indianapolis is warmly appreciated by the
Friends of the Five Years' Meeting, and that we return to
them our hearty thanks for all they have done to further
the transaction of the business in this meeting and to
make so very pleasant our sojourn among them.
Timothy Nicholson, Indiana : Let us rise.
(Rising vote was unanimous.)
OF THE CONFERENCE 409
James Carey, Jr., Baltimore : The question comes to
the desk whether any means is provided for making
stereotype plates of the Uniform Discipline ? The stere-
otype plates are in existence and can be used at any
meeting.
Allen C. Thomas, Baltimore : The stereotype plates
are at the printing office in Philadelphia, and they can be
used and alterations can be made with very little difficulty
and with very little expense.
Chairman : We understand that changes authorized
in this meeting will be provided for.
Esther G. Frame, Wilmington : I have not found a
paper that tells us what makes an efficient ministry.
There has been a great deal said about the support in all
departments of our work save the support of the ministry.
It has not been urged at all. It has not been pressed.
There is a necessity in our Church — I know there is an
exception sometimes. I cannot understand why we sup-
port our missionaries, pay them well and still fail to sup-
port our pastors at home. I am not pleading for myself,
I am pleading for my Church.
Allen Jay, Indiana : I ought to say that there was a
feeling also in the committee that we owe a vote of thanks
to the presiding officer and clerks for what they have done,
but we thought Friends were not in the habit of passing
resolutions in regard to their work.
Clerk : Does any one know of other business which
should come before this meeting ? If not we will have
the Minutes of this session read that you may adopt them
before we adjourn.
(The Minutes were then read.)
Clerk : Do you approve of the Minutes as read ?
(Approved.)
The Minutes are approved, and so far as we know,
we have now completed the business that should come
before this Five Years Meeting. What is your pleasure ?
Harry R. Keates, New York : I do not know whether
we would consider it Quakerly or not, but in an informal
way we desire to express thanks to the clerks and officers,
and I would move that Timothy Nicholson be asked to
4IO STENOGRAPHIC REPORT
take his place and put this motion ; as many as are in
favor please say aye.
(The motion was carried, and Timothy Nicholson
took charge of the meeting.)
Harry R. Keates, New York : I feel that we are very
much in debt to the presiding officer, the clerks and to the
Business Committee for their services during this meet-
ing. I therefore move that the very best thanks of the
Five Years Meeting be given to these officers and that we
express them by a rising vote.
(The motion was carried unanimously by a rising
vote.)
Clerk (Edmund Stanley) : I could not ask you to
remain long ; but I desire the privilege to say that we
thank you for your patience and for your readiness to
compfy with every ruling that has seemed to be for the
best interest of this meeting. If the Society of Friends
lives as we believe it will live, and prospers and grows
strong as we expect it to prosper and grow strong, filling
its place among the churches of the land, then you have
been making history during this past week that shall go
down on the records of this branch of Christ's Church in
the land.
We thank you for your readiness to respond and for
your heart} 7 support to everything that has come before us
for decision and for action. We most heartily thank you
for passing, with the sweet spirit that has ever been mani-
fested, the many mistakes, the errors you must have
observed, in the part that we have taken in the exercises
of the past few days. And now, in conclusion, with
thankfulness in our hearts for all that we have enjoyed in
association, in interchange of ideas, and in the discharge
of the Master's work, we pray God that He may add His
richest blessing to all of His people represented here, and
that He will direct in the carrying out of the work that
has been planned in this meeting, that it may redound to
His glory and to the honor of His name.
Are you ready now to close this meeting ?
Allen Jay, Indiana : Chair, please, I propose that
we have a few moments of silence.
OF THE CONFERENCE 41 1
Clerk : Before adjourning, we will have the conclud-
ing Minute read, which will become a part of the records.
Let us have a moment of silent waiting before God.
After a moment of silent waiting Richard H.
Thomas, of Baltimore offered prayer.
Clerk : The Recording Clerk may read the conluding
Minute.
The concluding Minute was then read.
Clerk : We will stand and be dismissed.
Singing, " Praise God from whom all blessings
flow."
Benjamin F. Trueblood, of New England, then
offered prayer, and the Five Years Meeting of 1902
adjourned without a day.
INDEX
NAMES OF DELEGATES, ALTERNATES AND SPEAKERS
Armstrong, Eliza C. . . . 2, 10
Armstrong, Thomas .... 11
Aydelott, Phebe S. . 1,9,123,
207, 309
Bailey, Albert A 11
Bailey, Hannah J 1,9
Baker, Jacob . 2, 12, 10S, 249, 347
Baldwin, Charles 11
Baldwin, Mary E 2, 10
Bales, Leah 3, n
Barr, Levi D. . 3, 11, 83, 92, 109,
125, 137. 154, 241, 271, 363
Beede, Cyrus . 2, 10, 138, 230,
3°S, 35 1 ) 353) 355
Berger, Olive ...... 11
Binford, Joseph O. . . 10, no
Binford, Martha J xo
Blair, Jane H, n
Bray, Aaron M. . 3, n, 205, 266,
307, 355 359. 393
Brown, Albert J. . .2, 10, 88,
231, 248, 308, 309, 318, 361,
362, 363, 364, 388, 393
Brown, Mary A n
Brown, Mary M. . .3, 11, 123
Brown, Nathan . . . 3, 11, 403
Brown, Thomas C. . . 10, no,
in, 113, 154, 185, 231, 331,
332, 333. 358
Burgess, Emilie U . 1,9, 229, 301
Butler, Esther H. . .2, 12, 169
Cadbury, Rebecca W. . 12, 104,
348, 377
Cadbury, William W. ... 12
Carey, Anna K 1,9
Carey, Arthur L n
Care}', Eliza H n
Carey, James, Jr. . 9, 179, 245,
33i, 357, 4o6
Carson, Joshua 2, 10
Cartland, Mary E . . 1,9, 224
Chase, Mary L 1,9
Clark, Lindley D 9
Coffin, Emma F 11
Coffin, William H 11
Coffin, William V. . . . . 3, 11
Cook, Amos 3, n
Cook, John n
Cope, Frederick J 12
Coppock, Laura 11
Couch, Eusebia S n
Cox, J. J 1, 9
Cox, William E n
Dale, Alma G. . . .2, 12, 247
Davis, Ruth S 11
Deane, L- Maria 10
Dillon, Dillon H 3, 11
Dillon, Josiah . 3, n, 308, 353,
362, 388, 390, 402
Douglas, Robert W. . 2, 10, 83,
93, i°7, 140, 333, 35o
Dunlap, Samuel n
Edwards, Jesse . . . 3, n, 394
Edwards, Mary n
Elliott, Fannie 10
Elliott, William 11
Ellis, EUwood O. . . 2, 10, 76,
153, 232, 397
English, N. C 10
Estes, James M 2, 12
Farlow, David, Jr 10
Ferree, Evan H 2, 10
Ferris, Robert M 1,9
Folger, Thomas ... . . n
Frame, Esther G. . .3, n, in,
190, 214, 330, 348, 390,
406, 409
Fry, Sophia M. . . 12, 122, 377
412
INDEX
4*3
George, F. M u
Gildersleeve, Elmer D., i, 9, 104
Goddard, Joseph A. ... 2, 10
Goddard, Mary H. ... 2, 10
Green, Albert W 2, 10
Green, Hannah T 11
Green, Harriet . . 12, 90, 173,
308, 348
Gregory, Levi . 3, 11, 102, 247
Guyer, Henry 2, 10
Hadley, David . 2, 10, 81, 84, 93,
124, 310, 324, 335, 342, 345,
35o, 355. 358, 359, 360, 364
Hadley, Emilie V 11
Hadley, John T 2, 10
Hadley, Joseph C. . . . . . 12
Hadley, Washington . . 3, 11
Harnbleton, A. F. N. . . 2, 10,
213, 321
Hammond, Hiram .... 11
Hanson, A.J 2, 10
Hanson, Milton ... 2, 10, 80,
211, 213, 310, 363, 388, 404
Harris, William 2, 12
Harris, William H 12
Harrison, William J. . . 2, 12
Hartley, L. Ella 11
Harvey, Elsie R 11
Harvey, Enos 2, 10
Hawkins, Jesse 11
Haworth, J. Elmore ... 2, 10
Haworth, Samuel L. . . 2, 11
in, 153, 214, 306
Haworth, William P. . . 2, 11,
113, 140
Hedges, Emma 2, 10
Henderson, Dinah T. . . 2, 10
Henley, Ida S 2, 10
Hiatt, Charles E 2, 10
Hiatt, Esther A 11
Hill, Elizabeth J 2, 10
Hinshaw. L. Clarkson . . 2, 11
Hobbs, L. Lyndon .1,9, 199, 392
Hobbs, Mary M 10
Hodgin, Cyrus 296
Hoge, Sara H 9
Hollowell, Sue V 1, 10
Howard, John 11
Hunnicutt, Jesse 11
Hussey, Timothy B 9
Janeway, Elisha H 11
Jay, Allen . 2, 10, 99, 123, 125,
137, I4i, 152, 153. 214, 230,
231, 288, 2S9, 333, 334, 349,
35o, 35i. 352, 354, 355, 4oo,
401
Jay, Mahalah . . . . 2, 10, 155
Jay, Naomi H 2, 10
Jenkins, Elizabeth M. . . 2, 12
Johnson, C. Bevan 11
Johnson, Fleming 10
Johnson, Ira C 2, 10
Jones, Charles H. . . 1, 9, 213,
242, 395
Jones, Elizabeth B 12
Jones, James R 10
Jones, Mary 11
Jones, RufusM. . . 1, 9, 84, S9,
90, 93, 95, 112, 114, 126, 151,
201, 215, 218, 271, 324, 343,
346, 352, 3 6 o
Joyce, Anna S 10
Keates, Harry R. . . 1,9, 103,
242, 351, 394
Kelly, Robert L. . 10, 107, 125,
250, 326, 392, 398
Kelsey, Sarah A 10
Kendall, Enos 2, 10
Kenworthy, Isabel . . . 2, 10
Kenworthy, Murray D. . 2, 10
Kenyon, Achsa C. ... 2, 11
Kessinger, Calvin C. . . 3, n
King, Sarah J 2, 10
Kirk, Rachel . . . . 3, 11, 134
Larkin, Elizabeth . . . , 3, 11
Leonard, Nancy A. C. . . 3, n
Lindley, Alfred H. ... 2, 10
Lindley, Eliza 2, 10
Lindley, Elizabeth .... 11
Lindley, Isaac 2, 11
McGrew, Edwin H. . . 3, 11,
202, 227
Malone, Emma B, ... 2, 12
Malone, J. Walter . . 2, 11, 244
Martin, Zenas L. . .2, 10, 89,
155, 189, 335, 397, 403
Maxfield, Alice W 9
414
INDEX
Maxfield, Daniel C 1,9
Header, Olney T 1,9
Mendenhall, Eli B 11
Mendenhall, R. J 11
Miars, Mary E 9
Mills, Joseph John . . . 2, 10
Mills, Seth 2, 10, 281
Minard, Elias G. ... .1,9
Mitchell, Andrew F. . . .2,10
Morrison, Edwin 10
Moore, William I. . .2, 12, 346
Mott, Edward 2
Murray, Robert I. . . 1, 9. 2S8
Naylor, Rebecca 11
Neave, Samuel R 1,9
Neville, Rhoda 2, 10
Newlin, S3dvester .... 2, 10
Newson, Ruth W 2, 10
Nicholson, Josiah 10
Nicholson, Timothv . 2, 10, 75,
77, 83, 84, 87, 88, 93, 109,
120, 150, 205, 213, 214, 267,.
309. 3io, 352, 353. 354, 356,
360, 363, 388, 390, 398, 399,
400, 402
Osborne, Catharine H. . . 2, 11
Osborne, Charles W. . . 2, 10
Overman, David .... 2, 10
Paige, J. Ellwood . . 1, 9, 262
Painter, Lydia Tavlor ... 10
Parker, Eli G. .".... 11
Pearson, Morton C 10
Peelle, John B 3, 11
Pinkham, William P. . . 2, 12,
200, 270
Pitts, James 11
Potts, Joseph 9, 305
Pretlow, Robert E. . 3, n, 80,
Si, 82. 91, 123, 154, 190, 225,
231, 311, 330, 391
Purdy, Ellison R 10
Pyle, William L. . . 2, 10,342,
35i, 405
Raidabaugh, Peter W. . . 2, 10
322, 395, 401
Rhoads, Edward G 12
Rich, Isaac N 2, 10
Rogers, Elias 2, 12
Romick, Lida M 2, 12
Rosenberger, Absalom, 2, 10, 191
Rounds, Louisa Painter . 3,11
Rowntree, Wilfred . . . .172
Rowntree, Delia 173
Sampson, David E. . . . 1,9,
239. 271
Scott, Thomas L. .... 3, n
Scull, Sarah M 12
Sibbitt. Mary A. . . .2, II, 327
vSlack, Philip 11
Smith, Hannah Lewis . . 2, 10
Smith, R. Esther . . , . 3, 11
Smith, Viola 11
Sopher, Joseph 2, 10
Stabler, Annie D., 1, 9, 307, 347
Stanley, Edmund . . 2, 11, 75
106, 114, 227, 394
Stanley, Sarah T 3, 11
Starbuck, William A. . . ."II
Stout, Lewis E. ,10, 169, 202, 310
Stranahan, Edgar H. ... 11
Stribling, John W. ... 2, 10
Stubbs, Bertha 10
Sweet, Charles W. . . 2, 10, 113
330, 351, 391
Swift, D. Wheeler . . . . 9
Swift, Sarah J )
Tatum, Mary, T 12
Tebbetts, Charles E. . 3, 11, 92,
no, 113, 19S, 211, 231, 253,
329. 352, 363
Terrell, Paul Tasso . . . 3,11
Thomas, Allen C. . . 1, 9, 149,
325, 3 8 9> 39°. 403.406
Thomas, Anna B. . . . 189, 301
Thomas, Francis W. . . 2, 10,
136, 152, 171, 229, 328, 341,
350, 360, 378, 393
Thomas, Mary T 10
Thomas, Richard H. . 1,9, 80,
86, 93, 150, 246, 251, 285,
2S9, 304, 307, 344, 345, 361,
392, 397
Thorndike, Anna G II
Tomlinson, Anna 10
INDEX
415
Townsend, Emma S. . . 3, 11
Townsend, Esther 11
Townsend, Laura P. . . 2, 10
Trueblood, Alpheus . 2, 10, 236
Trueblood, Benjamin F. . 1,9,
81, 84, 90, 108, 140, 152, 188,
203, 212, 213, 215, 252, 271,
302, 329, 331, 345, 356, 360,
3 61 , 3 6 3> 395. 404
Trueblood, Ransom .... 10
Trueblood, William . . . 2, 10
Tylor, Rachel's 12
Ufford, E- S 249
Wall, Anna C 11
Warder, Anna A 2, 10
Ware, Alfred T 9
Watts, M. Elizabeth .... 11
Wells, Lindley A. . . 10, 391
West, Eliza A 3, 11
White, Charles S 11
White, Mary J 10
White, Miles, Jr. . . 1,9,114,
213. 355. 358
White, Thomas W. . . . 2, 10
White, W. Alpheus . . . 1, 10
Winslow, Orestes A 11
Winston, Johu C. ... 12, 126
Wood, Carolena M.,i, 9, 174, 310
Wood, Daniel H 12
Wood, James . . 1, 9, 77, 78, 79,
80, 81, S4, 85, 87, 89, 92, 94,
95, 108, 124, 137, 141, 150,
152, 198, 212, 215, 229, 250,
251, 252, 267, 323, 335, 388,
389, 404, 407
Wood, S. Adelbert . . 2, 12, 204,
269, 338
Woodard, Isaac A. . . . 2, 11
Woodard, Solomon B. . . 2, 10,
248, 354
Woody, John W. . . 1,9,124,
141, 151, 251, 267, 405
Woody, Mary C. . . 1,9, 107
16S, 389, 405
Wooton, Isom P. . .2, 10, 243,
268, 289, 309, 332, 354, 355,
4°5
Wooton, William S 11
Wright, Ellen C 3, 11
Wright, Francis A. . 2, 11, 80,
84,87,89,212,231, 328,354,
355. 356, 390, 395
GENERAL INDEX
Arrangements for Meeting in 1907 39, 55, 73, 399
Associate Members, Discussion, relative to 359, 364
Bible School Quarterly, proposed 230, 382, 384
Boards, List of Standing . , 67
Catechism proposed 230, 382
discussed 384
Committees and Boards, Appointment of —
Business Committee 15
On Publication 17
On Amendments . . 17
Evangelistic and Church Extension Board 21
Legislation 22
Education 23
Disciplinary Provisions 23
Foreign Missions 23
Finances 25
Arrangements for Meeting in 1907 39
Condition and Welfare of the Negroes 41
Hymnal 51
Committees, List of Standing 67
Committees, Reports of (See Reports.)
Cuba, Mission -work in 335
Delegates —
To Quinquennial Conference 1
" Five Years Meeting 9
Fraternal Delegates 12, 40
Five Years Meeting in 1907, where to be held 57, 408
Hymnal proposed 230
Discussed 382, 389
Committee on 51, 396
Resolution on 397
Legislative Committee empowered to act 250
Liquor Traffic, Discussion on plans for —
Suppression of 26, 215-229
Address to other Christian Bodies 37
Relative to Conference 36
Delegates to Conference 52, 397
London Yearly Meeting —
Epistle from 13
Members present from 12
Epistle to 53, 398
Negro, Board on Welfare of, etc., discussed .......... 251
Organization of Five Years Meeting 16
416
GENERAL INDEX 417
Papers read —
" Scope and Work of the Evangelistic and Church Exten-
sion Board of Five Years Meeting," Isom P. Wooton 96
Do., Allen Jay 99
"Scope and Work of the Committee on Legislation, "
Edmund Stanley 114
Do., Timothy Nicholson 120
"Friends' Associated Work for Indians," Edward M.
Wistar 126
Do., Rachel Kirk 134
" Present Condition of the Negroes and the Work to be
Done for Them," John W. Woody 141
' ' Present Condition of Foreign Missionary Work of
American Friends," Mahalah Jay ...."•... 155
"Scope and Work of the Board of Foreign Missions,"
Carolena M. Wood 174
" Organic Development of Friends' Foreign Mission
Work," James Carey, Jr 179
"Scope and Work of the Board of Foreign Missions,"
Thomas C. Brown 1S5
" Scope and Work of Committee on Education," Absalom
Rosenberger 191
" Finances of Five Years Meeting," Timothy Nicholson . 205
" Systematic Giving, " Phebe S. Aydelott 207
"Methods of Practical Work Among Rural and Urban
Communities," Ellwood O. Ellis 232
Do., Alpheus Trueblood 236
" Practical Aspects of the Present Trend of Religious
Thought," Charles E. Tebbetts 253
Do., John Ellwood Paige 262
" How Can We Develop a More Efficient Ministry ? " Ben-
jamin F. Trueblood 272
Do., Seth Mills 2S1
"Our Present Duty to the Cause o Peace and Arbitra-
tion," Richard H. Thomas 289
Do., Cyrus Hodgin 296
" Our Church Literature," Robert E. Pretlow 311
"Place and Function of Our Church Organization,"
James Wood and others 338
" The Theory and Practice of Public Worship," Rufus M.
Jones 365
Do., Edwin H. McGrew 372
Peace Association of Friends in America endorsed and adopted
3 2 . 304
Prayer, On tbe Value of 378
" Resolution regarding 57, 379
Propositions from Yearly Meetings 15, 27, 230
41 8 GENERAL INDEX
Quinquennial Conference —
Organization i
Proceedings of 8
Adjournment sine die 8
Railroad Secretary appointed 57
Reports of Committees and Boards —
American Friends' Board of Foreign Missions . . .50,54, 382
Bible School Quarterly 50, 382
Catechism 50, 382
Condition and Welfare of Negroes 49, 381
Disciplinary Provisions 45, 358
Education 52, 397
Evangelistic and Church Extension Board 48, 380
Finances, Plans 41, 288, 352, 396
Organization, etc 32, 49
Hymnal (See also Hymnal) 4, 27, 50
Organization 16, 106
Uniform Discipline ... 3
Resolutions, Summary of 58
On Lawlessness 29, 250
Lynching 30, 250
Condition of Negroes 30, 251
Associated Executive Committee on Indian Affairs .
30, 141, 152
Peace Association of Friends 304
Vacancies 36, 333
Biblical and Religious Study 36
Conference on Liquor Traffic 36
Endorsing American Friend and Missionary Advo-
cate 40, 350
Uniform Blanks and Uniform Records 40, 352
The Sabbath 56, 399
Publishing Proceedings 56, 400
Prayer 57, 405
Book of Meetings 57
Place of Meeting in 1907 57^408
Thanks 57, 40S, 409
Acknowledgment of Ministers 350
" Throw Out the Life Line " sung by author 29,250
Treasurer's Report (Quinquennial Conference) 4
Treasurer, Duties of 43, 56, 399
Vacancy, how filled 56, 399
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Greeting from, and
reply 3 6
MINUTES
OF THE
Five Years Meeting
of the
AMERICAN YEARLY MEETINGS
OF FRIENDS
HELD IN RICHMOND, INDIANA
Tenth Mo. 15, to Tenth Mo. 21, 1907
PUBLISHED BY DIRECTION OF THE FIVE YEARS MEETING
PHILADELPHIA
THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO.
1908
NOTICE.
The attention of Clerks and members of the different
Yearly Meetings is called to the following Minutes:
Minute 18. — Information from Five Years Meeting.
Minute 52. — Amendment of the Constitution and Dis-
cipline.
Minute 70. — Inter- Yearly Meeting Correspondence.
Minute 86. — Associate Membership.
Minute 97. — Raising funds for American Friends Board
of Foreign Missions, and for the Board on Evange-
listic and Church Extension work.
Minute 99. — Printing of Papers in the Proceedings.
Minute 121 . — Nebraska Yearly Meeting.
Minute 121. — Proposed changes in the Constitution and
Discipline regarding the Meetings on Ministry and
Oversight.
Minute 127. — Regarding Membership on the Boards and
Committees of the Five Years Meeting.
MINUTES
OF THE
Five Years Meeting
OF THE
AMERICAN YEARLY MEETINGS
OF FRIENDS
HELD IN RICHMOND, INDIANA
Tenth Mo. 15, to Tenth Mo. 21, 1907
PUBLISHED BY DIRECTION OF THE FIVE YEARS MEETING
PHILADELPHIA
THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO.
1908
"
MINUTES OF THE FIVE YEARS, MEETING, 1907.
1. The Second Five Years Meeting of Friends con-
vened in Richmond, Indiana, Tenth month 15, 1907, at
7.30 p. m. The meeting was called to order by Ed-
mund Stanley, clerk. In the solemn silence which char-
acterized the devotional period, many prayers ascend-
ed to our Heavenly Father for wisdom and guidance
during the coming sessions. Dr. J. J. Mills, read a pas-
sage from the Hebrews, emphasizing the fact that "we
must run with patience the race that is set before us."
2. In the absence of the assistant clerk, Mabel H.
Douglas, of Oregon, was appointed clerk for the evening.
3. The following named delegates were present
from their respective Yearly Meetings :
New England. — John Elwood Paige, Rufus M.
Jones, Phebe S. Aydelott, Charles M. Woodman, Ben-
jamin F. Trueblood, Mary Amy Gifford, Hannah J.
Bailey, Thomas J. Battey, Thomas Wood.
New York.- — James Wood, Robert E. Pretlow,
William H. S. Wood, Abijah J. Weaver, J. Lindley
Spicer, Willard O. Trueblood, Mary J. Weaver, Anna
P. Birdsall, Eliza Heaton Taber.
Baltimore. — Allen C. Thomas, Miles White, Jr.,
Samuel R. Neave, Lindley D. Clark, Sara H. Hoge,
Margaret T. Carey.
North Carolina. — J. Elwood Cox, George W. White,
Mary M. Hobbs, Mary C. Woody, Jabez R. Mendenhall,
Joseph H. Peele, Annie E. Williams, L. Lyndon Hobbs,
Alice N. White, Eula Dixon, David Farlow, Jr., Eli Reece.
Wilmington. — Albert J. Brown, Emma S. Town-
(3)
4 Minutes
send, Samuel Haworth, Nannie C. Hawkins, Richard
R. Newby, Thomas C. Hiatt, Jesse Hawkins, Levi
Mills, Lavinia Barrett, Laura P. Dunham, Josephus
Ho skins.
Indiana. — Timothy Nicholson, Allen Jay, Francis
W. Thomas, Robert W. Douglas, Mahalah Jay, Joseph
O. Binford, Luke Woodard, Elizabeth P. Hill, H. R.
Pearson, Robert L. Kelly, Joseph Goddard, L. Ella
Hartley, William Taylor, Emma Hedges, Elisha B. Rat-
liff, Mary E. Baldwin, Edward Gardner, Alfred T. Ware,
Flora Sayers, Charles E. Hiatt, Alpheus Trueblood,
Charles 0. Whiteley, Elbert Russell, Clarence M. Case,
Daisy Barr.
Western. — Josiah Morris, George H, Moore, Charlotte
E. Vickers, Lewis McFarland, David Hadley, Seth Mills,
Richard Haworth, Eliz. C. Armstrong, Nereus M. Hod-
gin, Theodore Reynolds, Joseph R. Cox, Perry Kendall,
John Henderson, Margaret E. Cox, Lydia Taylor Painter,
Julia Macy Woodward, Thomas C. Brown, Peter W.
Raidabaugh, Amos K. Hollowell, Sylvester Newlin,
Murray S. Kenworthy.
Iowa. — Absalom Rosenberger, William Jasper Had-
ley, Charles W. Sweet, Albert F. N. Hambleton, Charles
S. White, E. Howard Brown, Susan B. Sisson, N.
Blanche Ford, Harlan C. Carter, Ellison R. Purdy ;
Philip Slack, William I. Kent, Alfred J. Hanson, Rebecca
Lewis, Herbert J. Mott, Lester Kersey, William Mather.
Kansas. — Calvin C. Kesinger, Edmund Stanley,
Elvira H. Parker, Rachel Kirk, L. Clarkson Hinshaw,
James Pitts, Eliza H. Carey, Mary A. Brown, Edgar H.
Stranahan, Thomas Folger, Francis A.Wright, Orestes A.
Winslow, Achsa C. Kenyon, Abigail C. Haworth, Eusebia
Haworth, Richard A. Cox.
MINUTES 5
California. — Charles E. Tebbetts, R. W. Kelsey,
Addison W. Naylor, George Taylor, John Chawner,
Andrew F. Mitchell, Lydia J. Jackson, Rhoda M. Hare,
William H. Coffin.
Oregon. — John F. Hanson, Edwin McGrew, E. H.
Woodward, Mabel H. Douglas, H. Elmer Pemberton,
Isabel Kenworthy, Aaron M. Bray.
4. A delegation from Canada Yearly Meeting pre-
sented the following communication and it was the
ruling of the Chair that Canada Yearly Meeting came
into this Meeting as all the others had done, simply by
her own act and that no farther action was necessary.
The delegates are Elias Rogers, Joseph J. Mills,
Joseph A. Cody, Edith A. Harris, Abram B. Saylor,
Albert S. Rogers.
The following are extracts from the Minutes of
Canada Yearly Meeting of Friends, held by adjournment
from Sixth month 28 to Seventh month 2, inclusive, 1907 :
Minute XXXVI. — After discussion, this Meeting
is united in recommending the appointment of delegates
to the Five Years Conference with power to commit the
Yearly Meeting to the adoption of the Uniform Disci-
pline, if after conference with the Five Years Meeting
they deem such action desirable and find no obstacle in
the way.
The following names as delegates and alternatives
to the Five Years Meeting at Richmond, Indiana, com-
mencing Tenth month 15th, next, were appointed:
Elias Rogers, Joseph J. Mills, Joseph A. Cody,
Phebe D. Manning, Edith A. Harris, Abram B. Saylor.
Alternatives. — William P. Firth, Albert S. Rogers,
Cinderella Saylor, Albert A. Colquhoun.
Signed on behalf of the Meeting,
William Harris, Clerk.
6 MINUTES
At a Meeting of the Delegates of Canada Yearly-
Meeting of Friends, held at Richmond, Indiana, Tenth
month 15, 1907, at which there were present the fol-
lowing delegates :
Elias Rogers, Joseph J. Mills, Joseph A. Cody,
Edith A. Harris, Abram Saylor, and Albert S. Rogers
(being the full delegation) : After Conference with the
Committee of Arrangements of the Five Years Meet-
ing, it was unanimously decided to adopt the Uniform
discipline of the Five Years Meeting, in accordance with
the authority conferred by Canada Yearly Meeting.
Elias Rogers, Chairman.
The delegation was presented and received a most
hearty welcome.
5. Cordial greetings from London and Dublin
Yearly Meetings containing a list of their fraternal dele-
gates to this body, were read at this time and are printed
below:
MINUTE OF THE MEETING FOR SUFFERINGS OF LONDON
YEARLY MEETING HELD SECOND OF 8TH MONTH 1907.
We rejoice to learn that our dear friends John
Morland, Albert J. and Gulielma Crosfield, Edward
Grubb and Edith M. Morland, have expressed their
readiness to attend the Five Years Meeting at Rich-
mond, Indiana, in Tenth month next. In accordance
with the direction of our Yearly Meeting we thankfully
appoint them to represent Friends in Great Britain, as
Fraternal Delegates at that Meeting. We also appoint
our dear sisters Sarah Jane Lury and Elizabeth B.
Rutter, who are visiting America and some of our
Colonies with separate certificates.
It is our desire that all these Friends, during their
visit, may be used of the Lord and may be found faithful
in any service to which He may call them. They are
requested to convey to our brethren who assemble at
Richmond a message of warm brotherly greeting and an
assurance of our prayers that their gathering may be
MINUTES 7
enriched by a deepening unity in our spiritual faith,
and an increasing knowledge of the Son of God, unto the
glory of His Name and the extension of His Kingdom
in the hearts of men.
We commend our delegates to the kindly care of
those amongst whom they may go, and we commit them
to the keeping and guidance of Almighty God.
"Peace be with all our brethren, and love with
faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. "
Signed in and on behalf of the Meeting for Sufferings,
Robert A. Penney, Clerk.
MINUTE OF DUBLIN YEARLY MEETING, HELD FIFTH
MONTH, 1907.
The Committee appointed to propose the names of
suitable Friends to attend as Fraternal Delegates, the
next Session of the Five Years Meeting of Yearly
Meetings of America, at Richmond, Indiana, in Tenth
month next, in response to an invitation received last
year from them, report, that after prayerful considera-
tion, they agreed to propose the following for this ser-
vice: William Frederick Bewley, Sarah R. Barcroft,
Arthur Pirn, Henry J. Allen and Samuel H. Newsom.
We cordially adopt the nomination of the Com-
mittee, and commend our dear friends to the guidance
and care of the Great Head of the Church. We en-
courage them to engage in such other service for which
way may open, in addition to attending the Conference.
A copy of this Minute is to be handed to each delegate.
Signed on our behalf by the Clerks, and also by the
Assistant Clerks.
William F. Rawley,
Sarah R. Barcroft,
Clerks.
Edgar A. Pim,
Samuel A. Bell,
Assistant Clerks.
8 MINUTES
At a meeting of the Yearly Meeting's Committee
held Eighth month 12, 1907, specially summoned for
the purpose, as directed by last Yearly Meeting, in the
event of any of the above named Friends being prevented
attending the Conference, report was made that, owing
to ill health Henry J. Allen requested to be released from
the appointment. After mature consideration, and
acting in accordance with the directions of the Yearly
Meeting, Thomas Edmondson was appointed to fill the
vacancy.
Signed on behalf of the Committee.
C. Frederic Allen, Clerk.
Fraternal Delegates.
London. — John Morland, Albert J. Crosfield, Guliel-
ma Crosfield, Edward Grubb, Edith M. Morland, Sarah
J. Lury, Elizabeth B. Rutter.
Dublin. — William Frederick Bewley, Sarah R.
Barcroft, Arthur Pirn, Samuel H. Newsom, Thomas
Edmondson.
6. The Committee on Arrangements made the fol-
lowing report which was adopted :
To the Five Years' Meeting:
The loving message of fellowship and cheer received
five years ago from our dear Friends of London Yearly
Meeting, and the cordial response thereto by the Five
Years Meeting, led your Committee to believe a still
closer fellowship with our brethren on the other side of
the Atlantic would be very helpful to us, and might
prove profitable to them.
Under this feeling, we forwarded, in 1906, to London
and Dublin Yearly Meetings, an invitation to send fra-
ternal delegates to the Five Years Meeting. This invi-
tation was well received by both Yearly Meetings, and,
after careful consideration, accepted this year without
dissent, and we rejoice to welcome their appointees,
who are now-present.
MINUTES 9
Five years ago, Friends of the eleven American
Yearly Meetings, which had adopted the Uniform Disci-
pline, and thereby united in an organization, regretted
that Ohio and Canada Yearly Meetings had not yet
accepted the constitution and discipline. They had,
however, shown their good feeling by sending volun-
tarily, without invitation, fraternal delegates, and as
the minutes then made by this meeting state, a cordial
welcome was extended to these delegates, and an invita-
tion given to participate in the discussions.
There was also a general desire and expectation that
before another session of this Meeting, they should have
become members of the organization. After three
annual sessions of these Yearly Meetings had been held,
and no action taken upon this very important matter,
the Committee of Arrangements sent a communication
to the clerk of Canada Yearly Meeting, previous to its
session in 1906, suggesting the subject be introduced at
its approaching session. This was done and the matter
referred to the Representative Meeting to report upon
at the next Yearly Meeting.
The Committee of Arrangements, through its chair-
man, also sent a letter to the clerk of the Ohio Yearly
Meeting, suggesting that the Yearly Meeting, at its
approaching session, should become a component part
of the Five Years Meeting. Ohio Yearly Meeting,
however, did not see the way open for this action.
To facilitate the proceedings of this Meeting, the
enclosed program has been prepared by members of
our committee, appointed by the chairman. This was
published in "The American Friend, " and four hundred
copies have been printed for the convenience of the dele-
gates and others.
We have also employed a stenographer, Emma
Newlin, of Indianapolis, who reported the proceedings
five years ago. As a Friend she is familiar with the
expressions, phraseology, and conventional terms of
Friends.
We have prepared cards for the convenience of the
10 MINUTES
chairmen of delegations in arranging the amount of rail-
road fare and other expenses of the delegates, as directed
by minute 94, pages 41, 42 and 43 in the Minutes of 1902.
A statement of the amount of the railroad fare of the
delegates to be made in duplicate by the chairman of
each delegation, one to be sent by him to the Treasurer
of his own Yearly Meeting, and the other to be sent to
the Treasurer of the Five Years Meeting.
The Committee has given careful consideration to
the subject of inviting any Friends who are not delegates
to participate in the business of the Meeting, and it was
concluded that as an officially delegated body, repre-
senting independent Yearly Meetings, it is not proper
for any to take part in its proceedings who are not duly
accredited by a Yearly Meeting, either as full or fraternal
delegates. The Committee recommends that all con-
cerned Friends who desire to be present at the delibera-
tions of the Meeting, be cordially invited to do so.
Respectfully submitted,
Timothy Nicholson,
Chairman of Committee,
7. A full and most heartfelt expression of welcome
was given to our London, Dublin and Canada Friends )
to which they very fittingly responded.
8. After a five-minutes' recess, the organization of
the separate delegations was reported, and is inserted
below:
New England. — John Elwood Paige, Chairman;
Mary Amy Gifford, Secretary.
New York. — Mary Jane Weaver, Chairman; Wil-
lard O. Trueblood, Secretary.
Baltimore. — Samuel R. Neave, Chairman; Mar-
garet T. Carey, Secretary.
North Carolina. — J. Elwood Cox, Chairman ; Alice N,
White, Secretary.
MINUTES II
Canada. — Elias Rogers, Chairman; Edith A. Harris,
Secretary.
Wilmington. — Albert J. Brown, Chairman; Emma
S. Townsend, Secretary.
Indiana. — Timothy Nicholson, Chairman; Emma
Hedges, Secretary.
Western. — George H. Moore, Chairman; Lydia
Taylor Painter, Secretary.
Iowa. — Absalom Rosenberger, Chairman; Albert F.
N. Hambleton, Secretary.
Kansas. — Calvin C. Kesinger, Chairman; Francis
A. Wright, Secretary.
Oregon. — John F. Hanson, Chairman; Isabella
Kenworthy, Secretary.
California. — Charles E. Tebbetts, Chairman; Lydia
J. Jackson, Secretary.
9. Each delegation was instructed to report through
its chairman to the Nominating Committee before 8.30
a. m., on the following day, the name of one of their
number to act as a member of the Business Committee.
10. The meeting adjourned to meet at 9 a. m. on
the following day.
FOURTH-DAY, MORNING, TENTH MONTH 16.
11. The meeting convened according to adjourn-
ment. The devotional exercises were conducted by
Robert W. Douglas.
12. The minutes were read and with slight change,
approved.
13. The following report of the chairmen of the
delegations was read, the nominations therein becoming
the appointment of this meeting.
12 MINUTES
The Chairmen of the several delegations to the Five
Years Meeting, as directed, present nominations as
follows :
Clerk. — James Wood.
First Assistant. — Lewis Lyndon Hobbs.
Second Assistant. — Mabel H. Douglas.
Treasurer. — Miles White, Jr.
Business Committee.
New England, Rufus M. Jones, Haverford, Pa.;
New York, Robert E. Pretlow, Brooklyn, N. Y. ; North
Carolina, George W.White, Guilford College, N. C. ; Balti-
more,. Allen C. Thomas, Haverford, Pa.; Indiana, Allen
Jay, Richmond, Ind. ; Iowa, Ellison R. Purdy, Oskaloosa,
Iowa; Western, Richard Haworth, Wabash, Ind.; Kan-
sas, Edmund Stanley, Wichita, Ivan. ; Wilmington,
Samuel Haworth, Friendsville, Tenn. ; Canada, Joseph
J. Mills, Toronto, Can.; California, Addison W. Naylor,
Berkeley, Cal. ; Oregon, Edwin McGrew, Caldwell, Idaho.
They recommended that the Clerk of the Meeting
be a member of the Committee ex-officio, without the
privilege of a vote.
Auditors. — Timothy Nichloson, Levi Mills, Amos
K. Hollowell.
For the Committee.
(Signed) A. Rosenberger, Clerk.
J. E. Paige, Secretary.
The incoming clerks were accordingly installed.
14. The Friends in attendance from Philadelphia
and Ohio Yearly Meetings were heartily welcomed and
the Meeting was unanimous in its feeling of deep appre -
ciation of their presence with us.
15. The announcement was made that Charles M.
MINUTES 13
Woodman had been appointed to fill the place left
vacant by the absence of Charles H. Jones, delegate from
New England; Josephus Hoskins, the place of Laura
Townsend, of Wilmington Yearly Meeting; Anna Petty,
temporarily, the place of Mary C. Woody, of North
Carolina Yearly Meeting; in Iowa Yearly Meeting the
following: Alfred J. Hanson, the place of Roscoe C.
Coffin; Rebecca G. Lewis, the place of Emma F. Coffin;
Herbert J. Mott, the place of Eli Perisho; Lester Ker-
sey, the place of Richard R. Newby; William Mather,
the place of Martha R. Harnaday; in Kansas Yearly
Meeting, Richard A. Cox, the place of Eber N. Cause; in
California Yearly Meeting, William H. Coffin, the place
of Harry R. Keates.
16. It was moved and carried that the Business
Committee be directed to nominate a Committee of three
to act as Press Committee.
17. The following propositions from Yearly Meet-
ings were read and referred for consideration to the
Business Committee, to report at such time as they
deemed suitable. Privilege was granted Iowa and Kan-
sas Yearly Meetings to introduce at a later session, prop-
ositions that in some way had miscarried.
From Baltimore Yearly Meeting of Friends held in Bal-
timore, Maryland, by adjournments from the gth of
Eleventh month to the 14th of the same, inclusive,
1906.
To the next Five Years Meeting :
Dear Friends:
The subject of interyearly meeting correspondence
by means of annual epistles has been brought before us
this year (1906) by our Committee on Correspondence.
The fact that some of the Yearly Meetings have ceased
14 MINUTES
to read the epistles addressed to them, except in brief
extracts, indicates that to a large extent, such corres-
pondence does not fulfil its object. After consideration
this Meeting has concluded to present the subject of
interyearly meeting correspondence before the Five
Years Meeting in the hope that that body will take the
subject into consideration to see whether it cannot
recommend some modification of the present method,
or some new system better adapted to the needs and
conditions of to-day.
Our clerks are directed to sign two copies of this
Minute on our behalf and forward one to the Five Years
Meeting, and one to the chairman of the Committee on
Arrangements.
Signed by direction and on behalf of the Meeting.
Allen C. Thomas,
Anna King Carey,
Clerks.
To the Five Years Meeting to be held at Richmond,
Indiana, commencing the 15th of the Tenth Month,
1807:
The committee appointed in 1904 on the request
for a new Yearly Meeting in Nebraska, made the fol-
lowing report, accompanied by explanatory remarks
from the chairman of the committee, and, after con-
sideration, the report was unanimously approved:
To the Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends: — -
With the approbation of the committee appointed
two years ago to investigate the request from Platte
Valley Quarterly for a Yearly Meeting in Nebraska, the
chairman and secretary of said committee attended the
Eighth Annual Meeting of the Church and Educational
Association of Friends, held at Central City, Nebraska,
Sixth month, 7th to 10th, 1906. After carefully looking
MINUTES 15
the field over they made their report to the committee
and the secretary was instructed to send a favorable
report to the Yearly Meeting.
Isom P. Wooton, Chairman.
Ida K. Johnson, Secretary.
According to the provisions of Discipline, the clerk
was directed to forward to the Five Years Meeting,
information of this Meeting's approval of the proposition
to establish a Yearly Meeting in Nebraska, this informa-
tion to be accompanied by the statement below regard-
ing the various Quarterly Meetings and the extent of
territory to be included in the proposed Yearly Meeting.
The proposed new Yearly Meeting is to be composed
of five Quarterly Meetings now belonging to Iowa Yearly
Meeting, viz: Hiawatha Quarterly Meeting, in south-
western Nebraska, with a membership of 112; Platte
Valley Quarterly Meeting, in central Nebraska, with a
membership of 633; Union Quarterly Meeting, in
northern Nebraska with a membership of 121; Spring
Bank Quarterly Meeting, in northeastern Nebraska, with
a membership of 336; and Mt. Vernon Quarterly Meet-
ing, in southern South Dakota, with a membership of 108.
The total membership of the five Quarterly Meetings
amounts to 1,310.
The Friends of these Quarterly Meetings have been
for some time organized into an association for the
purpose of carrying on religious and educational work,
and they maintain a school known as Nebraska Central
College, located at Central City, Nebraska, with an en-
rolment the year 1906 of 115 in all departments.
In the territory of the proposed Yearly Meeting are
22 recorded ministers and a number of other Christian
workers.
Taken from the minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of
Friends held by adjournments from the 28th of Eighth
month to the 1st of Ninth month, 1906.
Stephen M. Hadley, Clerk.
l6 MINUTES
To the Five Years Meeting to be held at Richmond, Ind.,
commencing Tenth month 15, 1907 :
A communication from the Nebraska Church and
Education Association contained a request that if the
Five Years Meeting should see fit to establish a Yearly
Meeting in Nebraska it should open on Sixth month
5, 1908.
The request was directed forwarded to the Five
Years Meeting.
Taken from the minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of
Friends held Eighth month 31, 1907.
Stephen M. Hadley, Clerk.
New York Yearly Meeting, 1907.
Minute 54. — The delegates to the Five Years
Meeting were instructed to propose to that body that
uniform regulations be established for maintaining
records of the whereabouts of absent members and for
extending such care to them as may be practicable.
They were also instructed to request the Five Years'
Meeting to determine the accuracy of sundry details of
the Uniform Discipline.
Taken from the Minutes. James Wood> ckrk
The following proposition is submitted to the Five
Years Meeting by direction of North Carolina Yearly
Meeting, held at Guilford College, N. C, in Eighth month
this year. Lewis Lyndon Hobbs, Clerk.
Tenth Month 12, 1907.
The committee appointed to consider the subject
of Bible School Literature was united in the opinion that
the subject needs the united action of Friends in Amer-
ica. Therefore, we deem it wise to request the Five
Years Meeting to give the matter a thorough investiga-
tion and recommend or institute a course which shall
give us a more satisfactory system.
On behalf of the Committee,
Mary M. Hobbs.
MINUTES 17
Yearly Meetings of Friends for New England, Sixth
month, 1907.
The Yearly Meeting requests the Five Years Meet-
ing to draft a plan by which the functions of the present
Meetings on Ministry and Oversight should be absorbed
by the Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly Meetings at large,
and carried on by ministry and oversight committees of
these several Meetings. The plan is intended to provide
for a deeper consideration of the state of the church and
its pastoral needs in the several Meetings named above,
and for a closer co-relation of the work of ministry and
oversight with the evangelistic and church extension
work. Further that it include the extension of the time
of the Yearly Meeting so that the entire Meeting may
consider the spiritual needs of the Church.
The plan for the union of all Foreign Mission work
of Friends in America under one strong central board
has been considered. It is the feeling of the Meeting
that good results would follow such a course when the
time shall be ripe for it. The peculiar condition of our
own work at present, particularly at Ram Allah, how-
ever, is such that we feel it should remain in our own
immediate charge until plans now under way shall be
brought to completion.
It is the conclusion of the Meeting to bring before
the Five Years Meeting through our delegates the sub-
ject of a Bible School Quarterly distinctly our own.
Extracts from the Minutes of New England Yearly
Meeting.
John Ellwood Paige, Clerk.
FROM WESTERN YEARLY MEETING.
To the Five Years Meeting to be held at Richmond, Ind.,
beginning Tenth month 15, 1907:
Minute 35 from Minutes of Western Yearly Meeting of
Friends Church, held iqo6.
The following appears on the reports from Plain-
field Quarterly Meeting, which is referred to the following
l8 MINUTES
named committee who are directed to report to a future
session :
John E. Woodard, Ruth E. Trueblood, Samuel C.
Hill, Nereus M. Hodgin, Elizabeth C. Symons, Morton
C. Pearson, William Henry Matchett, Theodore Rey-
nolds, David Hadley, Joseph Hall, Horace Reeve,
J. Farland Randolph, Richard Mills, Ellen Mendenhall,
Abbie Carey, William C. Pidgeon.
Petition from Plainfield Quarterly Meeting on birth-
right and associate membership as set forth in the Uni-
form Discipline.
This Meeting respectfully asks the Yearly Meeting
to petition the Five Years Meeting to eliminate from
the Uniform Discipline the paragraph providing for
associate membership.
Reasons: ist. Associate membership is unscrip-
tural. for the reason that all children are provided for in
the atonement of Jesus Christ and are saved members
of the invisible Church until they have sinned by actual
transgressions. The promise of Christ extended to
believers and their households.
2d. Associate membership provides for a relation-
ship to the Church which will be lightly esteemed by
persons holding it, inasmuch as it confers no obligations
or responsibilities, and has practically no binding force
to the Church.
3d. Associate membership opens a wider door for
leakage in membership than any system the Church has
ever adopted.
4th. Associate membership has already and will
continue to lead to a very serious complication of our
record books, since two separate lists must be kept,
together with transfers of names from one to the other.
This will lead to endless confusion.
5th. The idea of associate membership, and the
paragraph referring thereto, are ambiguous. The
age when a child should join as an active member;
whether adults may or may not join as associate mem-
bers; the rights and privileges granted such members;
MINUTES 19
whether persons may have a transfer to another Church ;
all these are left to the discretion of each Monthly Meet-
ing, and will result in such a variety of action as will
weaken the Church.
By authority of Plainfield Quarterly Meeting, held
Eighth month 4, 1906.
Calvin Stanley, Clerk.
Minute 67 from Minutes of WesternY early Meeting, iqo6.
The committee to whom was referred the matter
on the reports from Plainfield and Chicago Quarterly
Meetings in reference to birthright and associate member-
ship and a change in discipline, presents a report as below.
The matter is referred to the Permanent Board which,
having adjourned, is instructed to meet during the ses-
sions of this meeting and report to next Yearly Meeting :
To Western Yearly Meeting:
1 st. After careful consideration of the subject
referred to us, we desire to report that it is our convic-
tion that Western Yearly Meeting has the right to elimi-
nate from its own discipline all sections referring to
associate membership and to substitute therefor the
section from former Discipline establishing birthright
membership.
2d. If the Yearly Meeting does not so decide, it is
our united judgment that the Yearly Meeting should
petition the Five Years Meeting in proper form for such
a change, as indicated in the request of Plainfield Quar-
terly Meeting. We express it as our judgment that
birthright membership should be re-established and
that we so petition.
3d. Chicago Quarterly Meetings' request for an
interpretation of Discipline on associate membership,
need not be considered if the above action is taken.
4th. We leave the final decision on matters of
Request and Estates with the Yearly Meeting.
On behalf of the Committee,
John E. Woodard, Chairman.
20 MINUTES
Minute 104 from Minutes of 1906:
A supplementary report of the Permanent Board
has been read as follows which has the approval of the
meeting :
Supplemental report of the Permanent Board.
Board met Ninth month 19, 1906.
The proposition from Plainfield Quarterly Meeting
and referred to this Board by the Yearly Meeting, in
reference to a change of Discipline, was taken up by the
Board and referred to a special committee for their care-
ful consideration.
We interpret Article IV, Section I, Chapter II,
Part III, of our Book of Discipline as follows:
The}'' may be received as associate members at the
discretion of the Monthly Meeting.
Amos Carson, Clerk.
Minute 78 from Western Yearly Meeting's Minutes of 1907.
Extract from the Minutes of the Permanent Board.
The action of the Board on the matter of associate
membership, referred to it last year is presented as
follows :
The committee appointed last year to consider the
proposition from Plainfield Quarterly Meeting, asking
the Yearly Meeting to petition the Five Years Meeting
to eliminate from the Uniform Discipline the paragraph
providing for associate membership, and referred to the
Permanent Board for consideration, report that in their
judgment it would not be best to endorse the petition at
the present time, believing that further time should be
given to test the wisdom, working, and effect of the
associate plan, which the Board accepts and directs
such information to be forwarded to the Yearly Meeting.
(Signed) Arthur K. Tomlinson, Clerk.
The matter has again been considered and the
Meeting directs that it be forwarded to the Five Years
Meeting as a request from this Yearly Meeting,
(Signed) Thos. C. Brown, Presiding Clerk.
MINUTES 21
1 8. The clerk was instructed to inform all Yearly
Meetings here represented concerning any action affect-
ing said Yearly Meetings.
19. The proposition from Iowa Yearly Meeting,
regarding the establishment of a Yearly Meeting in
Nebraska, was read, and it was moved and carried that
the delegations shall each propose the names of two
Friends as members of a committee to farther consider
the matter and report to this Meeting; if the report be
favorable it should also include nominations for a com-
mittee — number not to exceed ten — to attend the
opening of said Yearly Meeting.
20. The following report of the Treasurer of the
Five Years Meeting was read, and also that of the Auditor
The delegations were each requested to report at the
afternoon session the name of one from each delegation
to form a committee to whom these reports might be
referred :
To the Five Years Meeting :
Your Treasurer reports that as provided in the plan
adopted in 1902, the financial affairs of the Meeting have
at all times been conducted on a cash basis, and no bills
have remained unpaid after being presented properly
authenticated.
The Finance Committee has annually notified the
Treasurer of the amounts apportioned by said Com-
mittee among the several Yearly Meetings for estimated
expenses for the ensuing fiscal year, and though remit-
tances of these amounts have not all been received within
the time specified in the financial plan, there has always
been sufficient in hand to meet every proper demand.
The Treasurer, early in the year 1903, adjusted with
the Treasurer of each Yearly Meeting the balance due to
or from him for the railroad fares of his Meeting's dele-
gates to the Meeting of 1902.
22 MINUTES
The financial plan provided (see page 43 of the
Minutes) that the Treasurer shall receive from various
sources "all moneys for the use of the Five Years Meet-
ing and the various Boards thereof," it being intended
that his books should show the total amounts received
from all sources for the needs of the several forms of
Christian and philanthropic effort represented by the
various Boards and Committees of this Meeting, and also
should indicate the exact amount each Board would be
called upon to account for. It was further recommended
(pages 42-43 of Minutes) "that voluntary contributions
shall be made every year in each particular Meeting of
the several Yearly Meetings, comprising the Five Years
Meeting, of funds for the use of the Boards of the Meet-
ing" and forwarded to the Treasurer; and that these
funds "shall, when received by the Treasurer, be paid
over to the Treasurer of these respective Boards and
Committees" (page 44).
These two provisions have not been fully carried
out, for only a few voluntary contributions, amounting
in the aggregate to $464.03, have been received during
the past five years for the uses of all the Boards of the
Meetings, although the Treasurer, in Tenth month, 1904,
sent a circular to the Clerks and Treasurers of the various
Yearly Meetings and to the officers of the various Boards
of the Five Years Meeting, calling their attention to
these provisions and suggesting that they take steps to
have them carried out.
From an appeal in the "American Friend" some
months ago, it appeared that at least one Board" was
asking for funds and requesting that they be sent directly
to the Treasurer of that Board instead of through the
Treasurer of this Meeting. If the financial plan adopted
is to be successfully carried out, such requests should
not be continued.
If the Boards are to do effective work, it is evident
that very much larger contributions must be secured
than passed through the hands of your Treasurer. All
such funds, amounting to $464.03, have been paid over
MINUTES 23
to the officers of various Boards, but in some cases those
making the remittances merely stated that they were
sent for the use of the Boards, and upon further inquiry
were unable to specify which particular Board the spe-
cific remittance was intended for. Under this condition,
the Treasurer, after corresponding with the chairmen of
the various Boards, sent the funds to the Board at that
time in greatest need. If (as provided on page 43) the
collection for each form of work is taken on the same day
throughout a Yearly Meeting, and kept separate from
other collections, the funds contributed would be sure
to go where the donors intended them.
The funds raised by apportionment from the several
Yearly Meetings were paid out in the manner described
under "Duties of the Treasurer" (page 44), and the
auditors have so certified upon the Treasurer's books,
yet as one auditor has in his certificate stated that he
does "not wish to be understood as approving of the
items of expenditure covered by the receipts," it is
suggested that the Meeting define more specifically what
items are properly administrative expenses, and whether
or not the certificate of the Chairman and Secretary of a
Board shall be conclusive as to the propriety of the
expense so certified being paid, if within the amount
appropriated for that Board by the Finance Committee;
especially is this desirable as some of the Boards have
requested payment of items which the Treasurer con-
sidered not as administrative expenses but rather such
as were intended to be provided for by voluntary con-
tributions and his declining to pay same caused disap-
pointment to the Boards.
At the close of each fiscal year any unused balance
of the appropriation for any Board for that year has
been returned to general expense account and not con-
tinued to the credit of that particular Board. This has
seemed very desirable, especially as the estimated need
of each Board is provided for by the Finance Committee
each year, and if a larger amount than the unused
balance is required the whole of it will be levied for,
24
MINUTES
whereas if a smaller amount is required, the difference
should not be tied up and kept from use, as would be the
case if it remained to the credit of that Board.
The Treasurer has not been called upon to receipt
for any legacies, donations, or funds, requiring a formal
legal acknowledgment. He procured and forwarded to
the chairman of the Finance Committee a bond of the
Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland, in the sum
of three thousand dollars, the amount named by the
Finance Committee. He has received from the Com-
mittee on Legislation a certified copy of the articles of
incorporation of the Five Years Meeting, which he will
turn over to his successor, unless otherwise instructed
by the Meeting.
The following is a condensed statement of the
moneys received and disbursed during the past five
years :
Receipts. Payments.
Quinquennial Conference balance. $50 04 $88 99
Expense Five Years Meeting, 1902 173 37
Interest and exchange 89 36
Publication Proceedings, 1902. ... 305 92
Yearly Meetings pro rata asses-
ments 4,961 80
Railroad fares of delegates, 1902 . . 1,089 °6 1,089 °6
Foreign Mission Board 3,393 7 1
Board of Legislation 99 39
Board Condition of Negro, ex-
penses 14. 08
Board Condition of Negro, volun-
tary contributions 7261 7261
Evangelistic and Church Exten-
sion Committee expenses 11 10
Evangelistic and church voluntary
contributions 21 41 21 41
Board of Education expenses .... 79 10
Board of Education voluntary
contribution 171 74 171 74
MINUTES 25
Receipts.
Board of Education special con-
tribution $198 27
Auditing Committee
Committee on Hymnal
Treasurer's bond
Committee on program meeting
1907 7 66
Cash on hand $710 46
Due by Kansas Yearly
Meeting 16596
- — 876 42
Payments.
|I98
27
12
21
9
25
3°
OO
,654 29 $6,654 29
A detailed statement of all receipts and expendi-
tures is attached hereto for the full information of the
Meeting, from which it will be seen that for the first year
a larger sum than was used was assessed upon the Yearly
Meetings and that in each of the subsequent years less
was assessed than required for current expenses so that
the surplus of the first year has been gradually reduced.
The balance now on hand will probably be sufficient to
pay the expenses of the Meeting of 1907 and diminish the
amount otherwise to be assessed in Tenth Month, 1907.
AH of which is respectfully submitted,
Miles White, Jr., Treasurer.
The above account has been audited and found to be
correct.
Francis A. Wright,
Timothy Nicholson.
treasurer's detailed statement of receipts and
payments of five years meeting of friends.
Receipts.
1902
10 mo. 27. From Quinquennia] Conference,
its balance $50 04
26 MINUTES
ii mo. 18. From Indiana Yearly Meeting,
balance pro rata share railroad
fares $447 4°
12 mo. io. From Wilmington Yearly Meet-
ing, balance pro rata share rail-
road fares 131 35
12 mo. 29. From Iowa Yearly Meeting, bal-
ance pro rata share railroad
fares 94 3 1
1903
1 mo. 1. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 122
2 mo. 11. From New England Yearly Meet-
ing, its proportionate share ex-
penses 1 10 00
" " From New York Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses 87 50
" " From Baltimore Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses 30 00
" " From Oregon Yearly Meeting, its
proportionate share expenses . 40 00
" " From California Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses 42 50
" " From Western Yearly Meeting,
balance pro rata share railroad
fares 401 30
3 mo. 17. From North Carolina Yearly
Meeting, its proportion share
expenses 135 00
4 mo. 1. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 282
4 mo. 21. From Wilmington Yearly Meet-
ing, its proportionate share ex-
penses 155 00
MINUTES 27
5 mo. 11. From Kansas Yearly Meeting,
balance pro rata share railroad
fares $14 70
5 mo. 25. From Western Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses 377 50
6 mo. 15. From Indiana Yearly Meeting, on
account proportionate share
expenses 142 69
6 mo. 30. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 60
9 mo. 19. From Kansas Yearly Meeting, on
account proportionate share 100 00
expenses
9 mo. 21. From Indiana Yearly Meeting,
balance proportionate share
expenses 362 31
9 mo. 30. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 116
Total receipts to Ninth
month 30, 1903 $2,727 40
Payments.
1903
1 mo. 28. For expenses Meeting 1902, paid
T. Nicholson for arrangements $2 30
For expenses Meeting 1902, paid
Daisy M. Thomas for type-
writing 10 00
" For expenses Meeting 1902, paid
E. O. Ellis for postage 1 50
" " For Quinquennial Conference,
paid Ferris & Leach for Uni-
form Discipline 88 99
For expenses Meeting 1902, paid
Ferris & Leach for pro-
grammes 3 00
28
MINUTES
i mo. 28. For expenses Meeting, 1902, paid
A. K. Hollowell for badges. . . .
For expenses Meeting 1902, paid
Emma Newlin for stenography
For expenses Meeting 1902, paid
Ella A. Shera for stenography..
For expenses Meeting 1902, paid
Lucas Bros, for books and re-
ceipts
For expenses Meeting 1902, paid
E. D. Evans, Treasurer, for gas
and janitor
For New England Yearly Meet-
ing, paid balance pro rata share
railroad fares
For New York Yearly Meeting,
paid balance pro rata share
railroad fares
For Baltimore Yearly Meeting,
paid balance pro rata share
railroad fares
For Oregon Yearly Meeting, paid
balance pro rata share railroad
fares
For California Yearly Meeting,
paid balance pro rata share
railroad fares
3 mo. 7. For Board of Legislation, paid S.
E. Nicholson, account militia
bill
" For Board of Legislation, paid S.
Nicholson, account militia bill
3 mo. 17. For Board of Legislation, paid T.
Nicholson, account Sunday
base ball
" " For North Carolina Yearly Meet-
ing, balance pro rata share
railroad fares
$8 15
62 22
5 6 50
14 20
12 00
185 08
137 08
78 16
138 75
437 05
3 15
10 14
16 20
112 94
MINUTES 29
5 mo. 20. For Committee Publication Pro-
ceedings, paid A. C. Thomas for
editorial work $53 iq
5 mo. 25. For Committee Publication Pro-
ceedings, paid J. C. Winston &
Co., for printing 228 00
5 mo. 27. For Board Foreign Missions, paid
J. Carey, Jr., Treasurer, admin-
istration expenses 450 00
9 mo. 26. For Board Condition of Negroes,
paid R. H. Thomas for postage 4 oS
Total payments to Ninth
month 30, 1903 $2,112 68
9 mo. 30. Balance in Union Trust Company 614 72
$2,727 40
Receipts.
1903
10 mo. 1. From balance of last year $614 72
1904
1 mo. 1. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 7 64
1 mo. 26. From voluntary contributions of
Baltimore Yearly Meeting for
Board of Education 25 00
2 mo. 13. From Iowa Yearly Meeting, its
proportionate share expenses,
1903 • 275 00
4 mo. 1. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 420
4 mo. 25. From New York Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1904 35 00
5 mo. 4. From Wilmington Yearly Meet-
ing, its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1904 ; 63 00
30 MINUTES
5 mo. 4. From New England Yearly Meet-
ing, its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1904 $44 00
5 mo. 11. From Baltimore Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1904 12 00
6 mo. 7. From voluntary contributions of
Paonia, Col. Iowa Yearly Meet- .
ing for use of Boards 3 41
6 mo. 14. From Iowa Yearly Meeting, its
proportionate share expenses,
1904 no 00
7 mo. 1. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 387
7 mo. 13. From Oregon Yearly Meeting, its
proportionate share expenses,
1904 16 00
7 mo. 25. From Western Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1904 152 00
8 rno. 16. From North Carolina Yearly
Meeting, its proportionate
share expenses, 1904 55 00
8 mo. 17. From Indiana Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1904 203 00
9 mo. 7. From Kansas Yearly Meeting,
on account proportionate share
expenses, 1904 6q 00
9 mo. 30. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 580
Cash on hand Tenth
month 1, 1903 $614 72
Total receipts for year
ending Ninth month
30, 1904 1,074 92
$1,689 64
MINUTES 31
Payments.
1903
10 mo. 17. For Evangelical and Church Ex-
tension Board, paid J. T.
Hadley, Treasurer, for Book
of Meetings $8 10
1904
2 mo. 1. For Auditing Committee, paid
T. Nicholson, Chairman, ex-
pressage on books 301
2 mo. 27. For Board Foreign Missions, paid
J. Carey, Jr., Treasurer, admin-
istration expenses 450 00
3 mo. 16. For Committee Publication Pro-
ceedings, paid J. C. Winston &
Co., for Conference Reports. . . 24 73
5 mo. 4. For voluntary contributions for
Board of Education, paid A.
Rosenberger, Chairman 25 00
9 mo. 26. For Board Foreign Missions, paid
J. Carey, Jr., Treasurer, admin-
istration expenses 450 00
9 mo. 26. For Board Condition of Negroes,
paid J. W. Woody, Agent
Slater Normal School 10 00
9 mo. 30. For Committee on Hymnal, paid
R. E. Pretlow, administration
expenses 925
For Board of Education, paid R.
E. Pretlow, administration ex-
penses 12 50
" For voluntary contributions for
Evangelistic and Church Exten-
sion Board, paid J. T. Hadley,
Treasurer 3 41
32 MINUTES
9 mo. 30. For Board of Legislation, paid T.
Nicholson, for copies of charter. $21 50
Total payments for year end-
ing Ninth month 30, 1904. . . $1,017 50
" Balance in Union Trust Company 672 14
$1,689 64
Receipts.
1904
10 mo. 1. From balance of last year $672 14
10 mo. 31. From voluntary contributions of
Baltimore Yearly . Meeting for
Board of Education 25 00
1 mo. 1. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 5 o 1
1 mo. 23. From voluntary contributions of
Long Beach and Elmodena
Meetings, Cal., to Evangelistic
and Church Extension Board.. 18 00
1 mo. 27. From California Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1904 1 7 00
2 mo. 28. From voluntary contributions to
Educational Conference, J. R.
Cary, Baltimore, $10; Samuel
Dickinson, Richmond, $10. ... 20 00
3 mo. 21. From voluntary contributions to
Educational Conference, Maria
Willetts, New York, $25; H.J.
Bailey, Maine, $5 30 00
4 mo. 1. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 5 20
4 mo. 4. From voluntary contributions to
Educational Conference, James
Carey, Jr., Baltimore, $10; S.
8th St. mtg. Richmond, $10. .. 20 00
MINUTES 33
4 mo. 21. From voluntary contributions to
Educational Conference, Miles
White, Jr., Baltimore $20 00
4 mo. 22. From voluntary contributions to
Educational Conference, James
Wood, Treasurer, 1900 Con-
ference, balance on hand 48 27
4 mo. 29. From Baltimore Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1905 12 00
5 mo. 10. From voluntary contributions to
Educational Conference, R. J.
White, Baltimore, $10; Albert
K. Smiley, New York, $25. . . . 35 00
5 mo. 12. From Iowa Yearly Meeting, its
proportionate share expenses,
*9°5 IIJ 35
5 mo. 18. From Oregon Yearly Meeting, its
proportionate share expenses,
!9°5 l6 35
6 mo. 9. From New England Yearly Meet-
ing, on account proportionate
share expenses, 1905 2838
6 mo. 19. From voluntary contributions of
particular Meetings of New
York Yearly Meeting, for use
of the Boards 19 01
6 mo. 22. From voluntary eontributions to
Educational Conference, Joseph
A. Goddard, Indiana 25 00
6 mo. 28. From Wilmington Yearly Meet-
ing, its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1905 62 91
7 mo. 1. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 3 08
7 mo. 5. From New York Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1905 33 39
3
34 MINUTES
7 mo. 5. From voluntary contributions of
particular Meetings of New
York Yearly Meeting, for use
of the Boards $7 90
8 mo. 28. From Western Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1905 152 50
9 mo. 13. From Kansas Yearly Meeting, on
account proportionate share
expenses, 1905 60 00
9 mo. 15. From New England Yearly Meet-
ing, balance proportionate
share expenses, 1905 15 77
9 mo. 16. From North Carolina Yearly
Meeting, its proportionate share
expenses, 1905 56 19
9 mo. 18. From Indiana Yearly Meeting, its
proportionate share expenses,
1905 206 09
9 mo 30. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 5 01
Cash on hand, Tenth
month 1, 1904 $672 14
Total receipts for year
ending Ninth month
3°> 1905 1 ^°5 8 4i
$1,730 55
Payments.
1904
11 mo. 17. For expenses Five Years Meet-
ing, paid J. D. Lucas Co., print-
ing circular of Treasurer. ... $3 50
11 mo. 17. For voluntary contributions for
Board of Education, paid A.
Rosenberger, Chairman 25 00
MINUTES 35
i mo. 6. For Auditing Committee, paid T.
Nicholson, expressage on books $3 55
2 mo. 1. For Board of Legislation, paid T.
Nicholson, fees, etc., for char-
ter 9 50
3 mo. 31. For Board Foreign Missions, paid
J Carey, Jr., Treasurer, admin-
istration expenses 443 32
5 mo. 5 . For Finance Committee and Treas-
urer, paid premium for Treas-
urer's bond 10 00
7 mo. 27. For voluntary contributions to
Educational Conference, paid
R. E. Pretlow, Chairman 198 27
9 mo. 30. For Board Foreign Missions, paid
J. Carey, Jr., Treasurer, admin-
istration expenses 325 34
9 mo. 30. For voluntary contributions for
use of the Boards, paid A.
Rosenberger, Chairman 2691
" " For voluntary contributions for
Evangelistic and Church Ex-
tension Board, paid J. T. Had-
ley, Treasurer 18 00
For Board of Education, paid A.
Rosenberger, Chairman, for ex-
penses and railroad fares, Ex-
ecutive Committee 60 60
Total payments for year ending
Ninth month 30, 1905 $1,123 99
Balance in Union Trust Company 606 56
$i,73° 55
2,6 MINUTES
Receipts.
190S
10 mo. 2. From balance of last year $606 56
11 mo. 1. From voluntary contributions of
Baltimore Yearly Meeting, for
Board of Education 50 00
1906
1 1110. 1. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 4 81
1 mo. 19. From California Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1905 20 43
1 mo. 25. From Wilmington Yearly Meet-
ing, its estimated share ex-
penses, 1906 61 98
1 mo. 26. From Iowa Yearly Meeting, its
estimated share expenses, 1906. 114 74
1 mo. 29. From New England Yearly Meet-
ing, estimated proportionate
share expenses, 1906 43 3 7
2 mo. 28. From Oregon Yearly Meeting, its
proportionate share expenses,
1906 13 30
3 mo. 7. From Western Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1906 109 73
3 mo. 30. From Baltimore Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1906 8 66
3 mo. 31. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 617
5 mo. 23. From voluntary contributions of
particular Meetings of New
York Yearly Meeting, for use
of the Boards 19 83
5 mo. 29. From New York Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1906 24 90
MINUTES yj
6 mo. ii. From Indiana Yearly Meeting, its
proportionate share expenses,
1906 $154 73
6 mo. 30. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 5 21
9 mo. 22. From Kansas Yearly Meeting,
balance proportionate share ex-
penses, 1903 60 00
9 mo. 22. From Kansas Yearly Meeting, on
account proportionate share ex-
penses, 1904 40 00
9 mo. 25. From North Carolina Yearly
Meeting, its proportionate share
expenses, 1906 46 59
9 mo. 29. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 6 63
Cash on hand, Tenth
month 1, 1905 $606 56
Total receipts for year
ending Ninth month
30, 1906 791 08
$i,397 6 4
Payments.
1906
1 mo. S. For Auditing Committee, paid T.
Nicholson for expressage on
books $3 20
2 mo. 5. For New England Yearly Meeting,
refund excess payment for ex-
penses, 1906 10 85
2 mo. 5. For Wilmington Yearly Meeting,
for expenses, 1906 15 51
2 mo. 5. For Iowa Yearly Meeting, refund
excess payment for expenses,
1906 28 69
38 MINUTES
3 mo. 30. For Board Foreign Missions, paid
J. Carey, Jr., Treasurer, admin-
istration expenses $289 88
4 mo. 5. For Finance Committee and
Treasurer, paid premium for
Treasurer's bond 10 00
9 mo. 29. For Board Foreign Missions, paid
J. Carey, Treasurer, adminis-
tration expenses 342 42
9 mo. 29. For voluntary contributions for
Board of Education, paid A.
Rosenberger, Chairman 69 83
Total payments for year ending
Ninth month 29, 1906 $770 38
9 mo. 29. For balance in Union Trust
Company 627 26
$i,397 6 4
Receipts.
1906
10 mo. 1. From balance of last year $627 26
10 mo. 15. From voluntary contributions of
Baltimore Yearly Meeting, for
Board of Education 25 00
1907
1 mo. 2. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 481
1 mo. 18. From California Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1906 23 43
3 mo. 16. From Baltimore Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1907 9 00
3 mo. 18. From Western Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1907 114 22
MINUTE 39
3 mo. 22. From Iowa Yearly Meeting, its
proportionate share expenses,
1907 $93 10
3 mo. 26. From New England Yearly Meet-
ing, its proportionate share
expenses, 1907 33 16
4 mo. 1. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 503
4 mo. 11. From Oregon Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1907 1458
4 mo. 12. From Wilmington Yearly Meet-
ing, its proportionate share
expenses, 1 907 48 64
4 mo. 16. From New York Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1907 25 61
4 mo. 29. From California Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1907 26 00
5 mo. 1. From voluntary contributions of
particular Meetings of New
York Yearly Meeting, for use of
the Boards S36
5 mo. 28. From voluntary contributions of
particular Meetings of New
York Yearly Meeting, for use of
the Boards 64 25
7 mo. 1. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 5 06
7 mo. 22. From Kansas Yearly Meeting,
balance proportionate share
expenses, 1 904 7200
7 mo. 22. From Kansas Yearly Meeting, its
proportionate share expenses,
1905 112 64
9 mo. 9. From North Carolina Yearly
Meeting, its proportionate share
expenses, 1907 48 52
40 MINUTES
g mo. 1 8. From Indiana Yearly Meeting,
its proportionate share ex-
penses, 1907 $152 13
9 mo. 30. From interest to date on balance
in trust company 6 03
Cash on hand, Tenth
month 1, 1906 $627 26
Total receipts for year
ending Ninth month
3°. 1907 891 57
$1,518 83
Payments.
1907
1 mo. 14. For Auditing Committee, paid T.
Nicholson, expressage on
books $2 45
2 mo. 19. For Board of Legislation, paid T.
Nicholson, expenses attending
Inter-Church Conference on
Temperance 22 90
3 mo. 28. For Board Foreign Missions, paid
J. Carey, Jr., Treasurer, admin-
istration expenses 293 89
4 mo. 3. For Finance Committee and
Treasurer, paid premium for
Treasurer's bond 10 00
4 mo. 10. For voluntary contributions for
Board of Education, paid A.
Rosenberger, Chairman 25 00
4 mo. 23. For Board of Legislation, paid S.
E. Nicholson, expenses attend-
ing Inter-Church Conference on
Temperance 16 00
7 mo. 5. For Committee on Program for
next Five Years Meeting, paid
J. B. Wright, expense attending
meeting of Committee.... 7 66
MINUTES 41
8 mo. 22. For voluntary contributions for
use of the Boards, paid Allen
Jay, Chairman, Board Condi-
tion of Negroes $72 61
9 mo. 26. For Evangelistic and Church Ex-
tension Board, paid C. H. Jones,
Chairman, account expenses
Book of Meetings 3 00
9 mo. 28. For Board of Education, paid R.
E. Pretlow for postage, etc 6 00
9 mo. 30. For Board Foreign Missions, paid
J. Carey, Jr., Treasurer, admin-
istration expenses 348 86
Total payments for year ending
Ninth month 30, 1907 $80837
9 mo. 30. For balance in Union Trust Com-
pany 710 46
$1,518 83
Balance sheet Ninth month 30, 1907.
Dr. Dr.
Kansas Yearly Meeting $165 96
Expenses Five Years Meeting.... 710 46 $876 42
Cash $876 42 $876 42
REPORT OF AUDITING COMMITTEE.
To the Five Years Meeting:
We have given attention to the object of our
appointment, and have audited the accounts of the
Treasurer at the close of each fiscal year. We have also
examined the Treasurer's report and find it is a correct
statement of the amounts received and paid out by him
during the past five years.
We have been unable to arrive at a basis entirely
satisfactory to all of our Committee by which to deter-
42 MINUTES
mine what items should be paid out of the treasury of
the Five Years Meeting. In the plan adopted by the
Meeting in 1902, for controlling its finances, it is pro-
vided (see page 42 of Minutes) that the Finance Com-
mittee shall ascertain "the probable expenses * * *
for administration of the Board of Foreign Missions not
otherwise provided for; of the Evangelistic Board for
correspondence, and of such other committees as may
have been specifically authorized by the Five Years
Meeting." It is further provided (see page 44) for the
payment of funds as follows:
First. Upon the certification of the clerk and first
assistant clerk of the Five Years Meeting, the expenses,
etc., * * * of the Five Years Meeting and any special
expenses of committees or others authorized by the
Five Years Meeting.
Second. "Upon the certification of the chairmen and
secretaries of the Board of Foreign Missions and of the
Evangelistic and Church Extension Board, and the
expenses of administration and correspondence of said
respective boards authorized by the Discipline."
The action first provided for requires the approval
of the Finance Committee of the Five Years Meeting,
but as they are only directed to estimate the probable
expenses their action does not constitute an appropria-
tion. The actual disbursement of funds then apparently
depends solely upon the certification of the chairmen
and secretaries of the two boards. We do not find the
Five Years Meeting specifically authorized any other
committees to draw funds. No one seems to be con-
stituted with authority to decide whether the amounts
drawn by these boards and other committees are in
accordance with the wishes of the Five Years Meeting.
The second clause of first extract would apparently limit
such drawings to actual expenses of administration and
correspondence. The Board of Foreign Missions at first
considered itself entitled to draw the amount estimated
by the Finance Committee for each year, as though that
were a definite appropriation, irrespective of the actual
MINUTES 43
amount of its administration expenses. Some of the
committees have drawn for expenses which, in the judg-
ment of some Friends, were not strictly expenses of ad-
ministration and correspondence. During the later years
these committees have obtained the signature of the
presiding clerk as an authority on which to draw upon
the treasury. We question whether it was the intention
of the Five Years Meeting to constitute its presiding
clerk as the sole authority to decide whether funds
should be drawn by these committees or not. We
think the clause requiring "the certification of the clerk
and first assistant clerk" was intended to apply to the
transactions occurring at or near the time of the Five
Years Meeting, and not to confer special authority on
the presiding clerk to pass on expenses throughout the
ensuing five years.
The Auditors, under the circumstances, did not feel
that they had authority to refuse to honor any vouchers
paid by the Treasurer, on the certification of the chair-
men, secretaries or clerk as above noted.
We would recommend that the Five Years Meeting
provide for the making of specific appropriations for the
use of the various boards and committees, either directly
or through its Finance Committee. The Finance Com-
mittee could easily pass an appropriation when it makes
the estimates of "probable expenses" each year, if the
Five Years Meeting sees fit to authorize them to do so.
The amount of such appropriations unexpended each
year, should either be returned to the treasury, or con-
sidered in the amount of the next year's appropriation.
Timothy Nicholson,
Francis A. Wright.
21. The report of the Evangelistic Board next
claimed our attention, together with that of the Treas-
urer of the Board.
44 MINUTES
REPORT OF EVANGELISTIC AND CHURCH EXTENSION
BOARD.
To the Five Years Meeting to be held at Richmond, Ind.,
Tenth month 15, 1907:
Dear Friends:
There seems to be but little to be reported from the
Board as way has not opened for any special service
along the lines indicated by the Uniform Discipline.
There are neglected fields in all of the Yearly Meetings;
but each Yearly Meeting is striving to meet the needs
within its own borders, and the workers and the finances
are being taxed to the utmost in the efforts that are
made. Under such circumstances, suggestions or infor-
mation from this Board to any Yearly Meeting Board
would seem to be unwarranted. No application for
financial assistance has been received.
Ministers recorded in different Yearly Meetings:
Indiana, 13; Iowa, 10: Kansas, 10; North Carolina, 2;
New England, 5 ; New York, 8 ; Oregon, 3 ; Western, .5 ;
Wilmington, 3.
Regarding a publication of a "Book of Meetings,"
which was referred to this Board by the Five Years
Meeting, we can only report that we have not been neg-
lectful of our duty. Very soon after the subject was
referred to us, we commenced to gather the necessary
information for such a book. Carefully prepared ques-
tions were printed and a large number of slips were sent
to the different Yearly Meetings addressed either to
members of this Board or to the clerks of the Meetings,
requesting prompt and explicit replies to the same. The
responses were few in number and many were very
incomplete. Realizing that the value of such a book
depended upon its completeness and accuracy, we sent
out another supply of slips of questions to the Yearly
Meetings and to many of the Quarterly Meetings, at the
same time sending personal letters to prominent Friends
in the different Yearly Meetings, soliciting their aid in
seeing that the necessary information was obtained and
MINUTES 45
forwarded to us. We also, at different times, through the
columns of the "American Friend," called the attention
of Friends generally to what we were endeavoring to
accomplish and requested the aid of all interested in the
matter.
These efforts extended over a period of more than
three years. Arrangements had been made with the
"Friends Publishing Association" to publish the book
as soon as the copy could be secured. We regret to be
obliged to report, however, that only from California,
Canada, New York, New England, Philadelphia and
Wilmington were we able to obtain complete returns.
Indiana with fifteen Quarterly Meetings reported
from only thirteen.
Western with sixteen Quarters reported from only
six.
Iowa with twenty Quarters reported from nine
complete and from seven partially.
Kansas with fifteen Quarters reported from two
complete and from twelve partially.
North Carolina with eight Quarters reported from
three only.
Ohio reported from three only, while Oregon did not
report at all. After all this unavailing effort it did not
seem wise to this Board to carry the matter any farther.
We desire to acknowledge our appreciation of the
kindness of the "American Friend" in supplying much
information in regard to location, statistics, etc., of dif-
ferent Meetings, also in allowing us the use of its columns
from time to time for our appeals for the material needed,
to enable us to accomplish what we had undertaken.
We also extend our thanks to Friends everywhere
who have rendered us aid in any way.
Signed on behalf of the Evangelistic and Church
Extension Board.
Charles H. Jones, Chairman.
Emma Hedges, Secretary.
46 MINUTES
treasurer's report of evangelistic and church
extension board.
Receipts.
1903.
9 mo. 16. From Rachel Kirk $10 00
10 mo. 12, From Treasurer, Five Years Meet-
ing 8 10
1904.
1 mo. 21. From Chicago Meeting 12 20
" From Chicago West Side Meeting 3 09
2 mo. 23. From Chicago Western Springs
Meeting 1 67
" From Salem Meeting (Western
Yearly Meeting) 338
5 mo. 25. From West Union Meeting, (West-
ern Yearly Meeting) 382
7 mo. 14. From Cottonwood Quarterly Meet-
ing (Kansas Yearly Meeting).. . 1 00
10 mo. 17. From Paonia Meeting, collected
by Miles J. White 341
10 mo. 2. From Kansas Yearly Meeting, by
Josiah Binford 34 85
10 mo. 16. From M. J. White 18 00
1906
10 mo. 10. From Kansas Yearly Meeting, by
Josiah Binford t,^ 54
1904
10 mo. 17. From Alimatos Meeting, collected
by Levi Gregory 2 50
Total $135 56
Disbursements.
1903.
11 mo. 2. To C. H. Jones, Chairman, post-
age, etc $1 20
" " To Levi Gregory, expense in the
work 6 90
MINUTES 47
1904.
10 mo. 17. To Levi Gregory, expense in the
work $247
Postage and exchange to date by
Treasurer 99
Total $11 56
Cash to balance $124 00
Respectfully submitted,
John T. Hadley, Treasurer.
Plainfield, Tenth month 14, 1907.
It was moved and carried that the Secretary of the
Board amend her report before publication, by the addi-
tion of a summary of work done in the various Yearly
Meetings during the past five years. The chairmen of
the delegations were held responsible for supplying her
with the minutes of their respective Meetings. The
report of the Treasurer was referred to the Auditing
Committee.
22. It was decided that this sitting close at twelve
and the afternoon sessions convene at half-past two.
23. The report of the Board of Education was read
and with slight additions is printed below:
REPORT OF BOARD OF EDUCATION OF FIVE YEARS MEETING
TO THE SESSION HELD OCTOBER, I907.
The Board of Education has endeavored to faith-
fully carry out the instructions given at the sessions of
1902. Meetings of the entire Board were held at the
time of the last Five Years Meeting in 1902 and in 1905
during sessions of the Educational Conference, and
Tenth month 15, 1907. In these meetings the general
work was discussed. The subject of a lectureship on
48 MINUTES
the "History and Interpretation of Christian Truth as
held by Friends," was carefully considered and further
endorsed by the Educational Conference. The Execu-
tive Committee has had the responsibility of carrying
this resolution into effect. They made provision for one
course. Through the generosity of Haverford College
the services of Rufus M. Jones were secured. He pre-
pared a series of four lectures upon the following sub-
jects, viz:
(i) The Birth of Quakerism and Its Prophet.
(2) The Message of Early Quakerism.
(3) The Contributions of Ouakerism to the Progress
of the World.
(4) The Message of Ouakerism to the World of
To-day.
These lectures were delivered at Wilmington, Ohio,
Wichita, Kansas, Oskaloosa, Iowa, and Richmond,
Indiana. Expressions from all those places were to the
effect that the work was exceedingly valuable, and the
kind of work ought to be perpetuated covering a broader
field. The Executive Committee adhered to the policy,
not to contract for any service for which the means was
not actually in hand, and to make each series of lectures
provide the financial support for the next one. Each
college located where lectures were given pledged in
advance a sum proportional to its then productive
endowment fund and has paid such pledge to the Board.
The traveling expenses of Rufus M. Jones were paid,
and in addition one hundred dollars for the extra labor
performed.
As the Board goes out of office at this time it has
made no contracts for future work which would have to
be carried out by a new Board, but stands ready to turn
over to its successors its balance of $440.00 to be used
by them in the future conduct of the lectureship. The
Board strongly recommends that at least twice in every
five-year period, series of lectures should be given, and
that as wide a scope of territory should be covered as is
possible.
MINUTES 49
The Executive Committee also made provision for
an Educational Conference which was held Seventh
month 31, to Eighth month 3, 1905. The Secretary of
that Conference reports as follows:
" The Educational Conference held at Earlham Col-
lege in the summer of 1905 was a time of much benefit.
"The program, which contained many topics of
interest, was well prepared and the papers and addresses
led to discussions concerning educational methods which
were very helpful. The occasion was profitable also
because of the mingling together of educators from all
parts of the country and the acquaintances thus formed
and the views exchanged will be helpful, we trust, in
bringing about a larger degree of unity and co-operation
in our educational work.
"Lucy Francisco,
"Secretary of the Conference."
Her statement will, I am sure, be most heartily
endorsed by all who attended.
Nine sessions were held, each being opened with a
season of devotion.
The program was as follows:
Welcome Address — William Dudley Foulke, Richmond,
Ind.
Reports from our Educational Institutions — Robert E.
Pretlow, Wilmington, Ohio, Chairman Executive
Committee.
Ljeader in Discussion — William F. Overman, Friends
Academy, Moorestown, N. J.
The Educational Situation:
(a) The Material Forces — A. Rosenberger, Presi-
ident Penn College, Oskaloosa, Iowa.
(b) The Spiritual Forces— Charles E. Tebbetts,
President Whittier College, Whittier, Cal.
(c) The Outlook — Robert L. Kelly, President
Earlham College, Richmond, Ind.
Discussion—Leader: Clarence M. Case, Pastor
50 MINUTES
South Eighth Street Friends Church, Rich-
mond, Ind.
The Articulation of our Educational Agencies:
(a) Secondary Schools and Colleges — Charles E.
Cosand, Principal Central Academy, Plainfield,
Ind.; Edwin Morrison, Professor of Physics,
Penn College.
(6) The Needs of a Friends' Graduate School —
Thomas Newlin, The University of Chicago.
Discussion — Leaders: Royal J. Davis, Professor
of English, Guilford College, N. C; Murray S.
Wildman, Professor of History, Central College,
Fayette, Mo.
The School and Society:
(a) Denominational and Public Education —
Edwin D. Starbuck, Professor of Education,
Earlham College.
(b) The College as an Agent for Developing Citi-
zenship, Don C. Barrett, Dean Haverford Col-
lege, Pennsylvania.
Discussion — Leaders: Elwood C. Perisho, Pro-
fessor of Geology, University South Dakota,
Vermilion, S. D. ; William C. Dennis, Instructor
in Department of Law, Columbia University.
The School and The Church :
(a) The Method of Religious Education— Irving
King, Professor of Psychology, Pratt Institute,
Brooklyn, N. Y.
(b) The School and the College as Evangelizing
Agencies, William P. Pinkham, Instructor in
the Bible Training School, Cleveland, Ohio;
Albert J. Brown, President of Wilmington Col-
lege, Wilmington, Ohio.
Discussion — Leader: Rufus M.Jones, Professor of
Philosophy, Haverford College.
The School and The Church—
The Development of Religious Leaders:
(a) Pastors: J. Edwin Jay, Professor of Biblical
Literature, Friends University, Wichita, Kans.
MINUTES 51
(b) Teachers: L. L. Hobbs, President Guilford
College, N. C.
(c) Missionaries: Eliza C. Armstrong, Editor of
"Friends Missionary Advocate," Plainfield,
Ind.
Discussion— Leaders: Carolena M. Wood, Mt.
Kisco, N. Y. ;Emma S. Townsend, Martinsville,
Ohio.
The School and The Church — Continued :
The Use of Our Literature — George A. Barton,
Professor of Biblical Literature, Bryn Mawr
College, Pa.
The Production of Quaker Literature— T. Harvey
Haines, Professor of Philosophy, Ohio State
University.
Discussion— Leader: Anna M. Moore, Westtown
Boarding School, Pa.
The School and The Church — Continued:
(a) Doctrinal Teachings in our Schools — Elbert
Russell, Professor of Biblical Literature, Earl-
ham College.
(&) The Relation of Our Doctrine to the Modern
Thought AVorld — James Wood, Mt. Kisco,
N. Y.
(c) The Problems of Method — Rufus M. Jones.
Haverford College.
Discussion — Leader: Allen C. Thomas, Professor
of History, Haverford College.
The School and The Church — Our Educational Ideas:
(a) The Physical Phases — Leon L. Tyler, Prin-
cipal Fairmount Academy.
(6) The Intellectual Phases — Edmund Stanley,
President Friends University.
(c) The Social Phases — Walter C. Wood, Princi-
pal Oakwood Seminary, Union Springs, N. Y.
(d) The Spiritual Phases, Mary M. Hobbs, Guil-
ford College, N. C.
52 MINUTES
The comparatively small cost of the Conference was
made possible by co-operation with the Committee of the
Friends Bible Institute of Indiana, Western, and Wil-
mington Yearly Meetings.
The administrative expenses of the Board have been
met through the Treasurer of the Five Years Meeting,
and will appear in his report. The further financial
statement follows:
Receipts:
From voluntary contributions $392 26
From college boards 350 00
From interest on deposit 247
Total $744 73
Disbursements:
Partial expenses speakers at Educa-
tional Conference $93 80
Traveling expenses Rufus M. Jones no 00
Rufus M. Jones for services 100 00
Deposit in Savings Bank, Brooklyn,
N. Y . 440 93
Total. $744 73
The balance, $440.93 is drawing interest at 4 per
cent.
At the last Five Years Meeting the attention of
Friends was called to the importance of increased
opportunity for Biblical instruction. This has been
receiving much greater attention in all our colleges and
academies and increased facilities are being offered.
Courses are now offered as follows :
Haverford, 7 ; Earlham, 21; Penn, 10; Guilford, 16;
Wilmington, ; Pacific, 2; Whittier, 6; Friends Uni-
versity, 17.
MINUTES 53
In the above enumeration three courses make a
complete year's work with one hour per day in the class
room.
These courses are designed to give a practical
knowledge of the history, literary forms and thought of
the books of the Bible, and to train students in methods
of Bible study and interpretation. They also include
the study of Ancient Oriental History, New Testament
Times, Church History including special attention to
History of Friends.
At present we see no better way of increasing the
efficiency of our young people who are to be the future
workers in the Church than by sustaining and strength-
ening these courses in our colleges and academies.
The past five-year period has been one of growth
in nearly all our colleges, in buildings and equipment,
in enlarged courses of instruction and stronger faculties,
and in largely increased endowment funds. There can
be no better way of insuring the efficiency and per-
manency of the Church of the future than by increasing
the permanent funds of these institutions. Especially
is this true of the pioneer fields of the west. In this
connection we desire to call attention to the present
effort of Pacific College to secure an endowment of
$50,000. They have a large field of usefulness in a new
country. They have maintained a leading place among
the educational institutions of the northwest with very
limited means. We most heartily commend them to all
friends who have at heart the interests of our Church in
that great field. We call attention to Pacific College at
this time, because they are now in the field with $14,000
pledged in their own locality on condition the en-
tire amount of $50,000 is secured before First month
1, 1908.
The Executive Committee a year ago authorized
the establishment of a Teachers' Agency in connection
with Earlham College. A considerable number of
Friend teachers have filed their application, but thus
far few Friends Schools have made any use of it. No
54 MINUTES
charge is made to schools seeking teachers. A charge of
two dollars is required of teachers applying, to cover
postage and clerical work.
The Board has not seen its way clear to appoint a
Financial Board, as recommended in section 4, page 53,
of Minutes of 1902, during our period of service. But
we now strongly advise such appointment by the new
Board.
Buildings and r-„j„„™,„„4.'Members c,„j„ tr
equipments. E .™£ £m ent. Facul Studies
Increase. increase. Increase> increase.
Haverford $167,000 $350,000 3 21%
Earlham 105,000 116,000 9 . 51%
Penn 18,000 8,000 2 17%
Guilford 20,000 115,000 2 20%
Wilmington 5,000 25,000 43%
Pacific Held its own
Friends University. .None 110,000 5 50%
Whittier 16,000 150,000 5 50%
friends' seminary of ontario (known as pickering
college).
Sessions discontinued since the main building was
destroyed by fire Twelfth month 30, 1905.
Prior to the fire the school was filled to its capacity
with about ninety residents, besides day students, or a
total of about 105, with a teaching staff of nine resident
teachers, including the Principal, William P. Firth,
M. A., D. S.
The school was located at Pickering, Ontario, on
G. T. R., about twenty miles east of Toronto, on ten
acres of land.
Buildings, Main, including dormitories, schoolroom,
class-room, dining-room, etc.
Other buildings: Brick gymnasium, frame stables,
frame cottage.
Present situation: Ruins of main building of no
value except old brick, etc.
MINUTES 55
The Yearly Meeting has decided, for substantial
reasons, to rebuild the institution at Newmarket, Ont.,
about twenty-six miles north of Toronto. There is
an active Friends Meeting at this place, and it is the
center of a large Friends settlement; also the local
citizens have subscribed specially for that purpose,
amounts totaling more than the value of the assets now
at Pickering.
The College Committee have on hand, and sub-
scribed towards rebuilding, about $54,000 and require
about $25,000 additional to rebuild on a moderate plan,
with accommodation for about 100 to no resident
pupils.
Scope of school is secondary residential for boys
and girls.
Albert S. Rogers, 6 King street, W. Toronto, Chair-
man of Committe and Board.
Other members of Committee ; any of whom would
be glad to give information : Elias Rogers, Toronto, Ont. ;
Dr. J. J. Mills, Toronto, Ont.; James A. Cody, New-
market, Ont.; William Harris, Rockwood, Ont.; W.
K. Bowerman, Bloomfield, Ont.
24. The delegations were instructed to present the
names of those to act on the various boards, as soon as
possible, in order to facilitate the organization of the
work for the coming five years.
25. The minutes were read and, with slight change,
approved.
26. The meeting adjourned to meet at 2.30 p. m.
Fourth-Day, Afternoon, Tenth Month i6th.
27. The meeting opened according to adjournment.
Bunji Kida, an evangelist from Japan, was welcomed
to our gathering.
56 MINUTES
28. The following proposal from Iowa Yearly Meet-
ing was read and referred to the business Committee :
COMMUNICATION FROM IOWA YEARLY MEETING.
Minute 21, of Iowa Yearly Meeting of IQOJ.
The subject involved in the following request from
Pleasant Plain Quarterly Meeting was endorsed by the
Meeting, and the delegates from this Yearly Meeting to
the Five Years Meeting, were accordingly instructed to
present to the Five Years Meeting, the matter of the
establishment of a Friends publishing house.
"As a Quarterly Meeting, we request the Yearly
Meeting to instruct its delegates to the Five Years' Meet-
ing to present to that Meeting for its consideration, the
advisability of establishing a Friends publishing house.
Taken from the Minutes of Pleasant Plain Quarterly
Meeting of Friends, held at Woolson, Iowa, Fifth month
18, 1907."
Mahlon Roberts,
Anna K. Kitch,
Clerks.
All taken from the Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting
for 1907.
Stephen M. Hadley, Clerk.
29. The following report of the American Friends'
Board of Foreign Missions was read, together with that
of the Treasurer of the Board.
REPORT OF THE AMERICAN FRIENDS' BOARD OF FOREIGN
MISSIONS.
To the Five Years Meeting:
This report covers specially the time since 1902
when the American Friends' Board, then in the ninth
year of its existence, was adopted by the Five Years
Meeting as its Board of Foreign Missions.
Since then the Board has continued its work on the
lines marked out in the Discipline.
MINUTES 57
It has published two reports annually. Each
spring it has made a general report of its work, its pro-
gress, and its needs, to the Yearly Meetings belonging
to the Five Years Meeting. To this report, also all the
American Friends' Foreign Mission Boards have been
invited to contribute brief sketches of their work for
each last preceding year. The report has been enlarged
from a sixteen page pamphlet to thirty-two pages to
give room for these sketches from the other boards
Three thousand copies of it have been printed and dis-
tributed annually. It is frequently called for when a
brief synopsis of American Friends' work in foreign
Missions is desired.
The other report is the Statistical Report published
and distributed every fall.
In the year preceding the Ecumenical Missionary
Conference of 1900, the managers of that Conference
prepared a schedule of heads or items for a world-wide
statistical report on foreign missions, and sent it every-
where where Christian foreign mission work was being
carried on, to collect under these heads information of
all such work everywhere in the world. This schedule
has been the basis of such reports from the denomi-
nations in America generally since then.
The American Friends' Board eliminated some heads
from this schedule that were not applicable to any work
carried on by American Friends, modified a few to adapt
them to our forms and methods, and added two or three
new heads, thus forming a schedule of about forty-seven
heads or items, under which it has collected the informa-
tion it tabulates for the annual Statistical Report. The
boards have very kindly, and usually very carefully,
filled out these statistical blanks, and this report is a
compendium of missionary information, valuable for
answers to many inquiries from outside our Church.
The statistics for the report of 1907 are not yet all
received, and, therefore, the report is not now made out,
but from the reports in 1902 and 1906, it is seen that in
these four years Friends have kept all their old fields
58 MINUTES
and entered one new one in Central America, making ten
widely separated countries in which American Friends
have missions.
These reports show steady but not rapid gains in
the four years included :
We find the number of stations and In 1 ^ 02 In x 9° 6
out-stations 58 92
Number of foreign missionaries.... 78 91
Number of native church mem-
bers 2,140 3,578
Number of pupils in the missions
schools ' !,5o7 2 ,379
Annual contributions for foreign
missions passing through the
treasuries of Friends Boards
about $58,000 $78,000
More such comparisons might be drawn.
Other Publications.
In November, 1902, just after the Five Years Meet-
ing, the Board decided to send out a monthly news-
letter to keep its members informed and interested about
the work, chiefly its work in Cuba. These news-
letters, copied on mimeograph, have been sent out
since then with an increasing circulation among others
than Board members; between 250 and 300 copies have
been sent out of each issue for two or three years past.
In 1904, the American Friends' Board took the
initiative and was joined by other boards, specially those
of Indiana and Western Yearly Meetings, in having
the Discipline of American Friends translated into
Spanish and published for the use of Spanish-speaking
Friends. The translation, first made by Joseph M.
Purdie, then at Guilford College, North Carolina, was
critically examined and revised by Luciano Mascorro, a
competent Mexican Friend, and carefully compared with
the original English by William Irving Kelsey, the Super-
MINUTES 59
intendent of the Indiana Mexican Mission. The print-
ing was done in 1905, on Indiana Yearly Meeting's Mis-
sion Press in Victoria, Mexico. One thousand copies
were printed, and these and the cost of them divided
among the Boards concerned; 276 copies was the share
of the American Friends' Board under this division, the
cost was thirteen cents apiece. The printed sheets of
these were shipped to Richmond and bound, at a cost
of eight cents each. The Secretary has supplied them
to our missionaries in Cuba as they have called for them.
The remaining copies of them are stored in the fire-proof
vault in Indiana Yearly Meeting house. After their use
two years in Mexico, W. Irving Kelsey thus writes:
"The new Discipline has been a great aid in re-organiz-
ing the work, and out of the mission is slowly but surely
rising the Mexican Friends Church, with its congrega-
tions, and Monthly and Quarterly Meetings, adhering in
essentials to the established usages of Friends. "
In the summer of 1904, at the instance of the First
Friends Missionary Conference in Cuba, a Spanish
treatise on Christian Doctrine and the Duties and Privi-
leges of Church Members as taught by Friends, was com-
piled and prepared for the press by Sylvester Jones.
A translation of it into English was submitted for exam-
ination to the American Friends' Board and by it ap-
proved and its publication authorized. Eight hundred
copies were published and used chiefly in Cuba. A few
of them went to other countries.
In 1905 the Board was inquired of for authority
and funds to print a tract on "Romanism in Roman
Catholic Countries," containing also a brief account of
Friends Mission in Cuba. This tract was prepared by
Sylvester Jones and intended chiefly for distribution
among the Christian Endeavorers of Friends in America.
Fifteen hundred copies were printed in Richmond, Ind.,
under the care of the Secretary of the Board, and
promptly distributed, some going into every Yearly
Meeting. The cost of these was donated by the "Book
and Tract Committee" of Indiana Yearly Meeting.
60 MINUTES
Interdenominational Work.
The Five Years Meeting made it "the duty of this
Board to represent American Friends in matters per-
taining to the interdenominational aspect of foreign
mission work." Quite a number of occasions have
arisen for the exercise of this function. We mention
some of them.
As such central board the American Friends' Board
has co-operated with various international and inter-
denominational organizations in gathering and impart-
ing missionary information ; it has sent delegates to
some general and international conferences and con-
ventions; as the Annual Conference of Foreign Mission
Boards of the United States and Canada; the Inter-
national Convention at Nashville, 1906, of the Student
Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions; the Winona,
and Silver Bay Conferences of the Young People's Mis-
sionary Movement, etc., and, by a sympathetic attitude
towards young people's interdenominational organiza-
tions, it has endeavored to encourage their efforts for
promoting the cause of foreign missions. It has yearly
furnished the missionary information for the Friends in
America, chiefly statistical, to the "Missionary Review
of the World" and the "American Board's Almanac of
Missions." Also has furnished information to some
other periodicals and for some books that were being
written. It has voiced the views of American Friends
on several broad and practical subjects; one, the ap-
pointment, by the International Conference of Mission
Boards, of a Committee on Reference and Arbitration,
to which might be referred questions of missionary
comity on the field; suggestions regarding unoccupied
fields; negotiations with the government, and other
questions that might be referred to it from time to time.
In this connection we may relate that, in 1905, the
American Friends' Board, being applied to from one of
the Friends Missions to intervene, lodged a protest with
the Union Board of a denomination in the United States,
against a contemplated infraction of the generally
MINUTES 6T
accepted rules of missionary comity that foreboded
injury to the mission of one of the Yearly Meetings. The
protest was heeded, the proposed infraction was recon-
sidered, and a kindly letter in answer to our protest
withdrawing from such purpose was received by the
Board.
The Field Work in Cuba.
The field work of the American Friends' Board in
Cuba has been reported year by year to the Yearly Meet-
ings. To these annual reports we refer for the details of
this work, too long to recount here. The blessing of the
Lord has rested upon it, under which, through the faith-
ful services of our superintendent and missionaries, we
believe a good foundation is laid for its future develop-
ment, and some precious fruit in souls brought to Christ
has already been gathered. From the beginning of our
mission, in 1900, Zenas L. Martin, of Iowa Yearly Meet-
ing, has been the trusted and efficient Agent and the
Superintendent of Missions in Cuba of the American
Friends' Board; and much of the success of the work is
due to his good judgment and wise management, and to
his consecrated and self-sacrificing efforts, undiscouraged
though causes of discouragement abounded, leaning
always upon the Lord for strength and guidance.
The first missionaries of the Board were sent to
Cuba in the fall of 1900. They were Sylvester and May
M. Jones, of Iowa, graduated the summer before from
Penn College; Emma Phillips, of Indiana, with a quali-
fication of seven years of missionary experience in
Mexico, and a knowledge of the Spanish language;
Maria de Los Santos Trevino, a Mexican girl, converted
and educated in the Mission of Friends in Matamoros,
Mexico. These all remain in the work in Cuba. Emma
Phillips, now Martinez, was married in 1903, and is now
the head of Wilmington Yearly Meeting's Mission at
Puerto Padre. In the beginning of the year 1902, Ray-
mond S. Holding, of Indiana, was sent to the mission, and
a year later Minnie Cook, of Kansas, now Mrs. Holding,
62 MINUTES
came to Cuba. She was married to Raymond S. Hold-
ing on her arrival. He had charge of the Banes Mission,
opened directly after their marriage, until he returned
home on furlough the summer of 1906. Arthur E. L.
Pain also assisted in the work at Banes for several
months, when he married a missionary from . North
Carolina, and they are now the missionaries of North
Carolina Yearly Meeting, at Jaruco, Cuba. In the
spring of 1902 Charles C. Haworth, of Kansas, and wife,
Ruth Orpha, were sent to Cuba. Their work was at
Holguin most of the time. They are now at home on
furlough. Clotilde L. Pretlow, of Indiana, was sent to
Gibara as missionary school teacher in 1903; Mary L.
Ellis, of Iowa, was sent out in 1904, missionary school
teacher at Holguin; and Jennie E. Joyce, of Nebraska,
was sent out as teacher at Banes in 1905; Joseph M.
Purdie and wife were sent as missionaries to Holguin
in 1906. Of these missionaries Sylvester Jones and wife
and M. Santos Trevino have entered upon a second term
of five years' engagement.
Three Monthly Meetings of Cuban Friends have
been established; one at Gibara, opened in 1903; one
at Banes, opened in 1905; and one at Holguin, opened
in 1906; with a number of regular meetings in adjacent
villages. The aggregate of membership in the meetings
is about 120, i.e. of those in full membership. Half as
many more perhaps are applicants for membership and
are being instructed in candidates' classes.
Sabbath schools are conducted in connection with
most of the regular meetings. Day schools are estab-
lished at each of the three principal stations. A suitable
meeting-house, a school-house, and a residence for the
missionaries have been built at each of the principal
stations, Gibara, Banes and Holguin, under the direction
of Zenas L. Martin (only that the buildings at Holguin
are not yet quite finished), thus these three stations are
quite comfortably equipped with buildings.
Including the superintendent, nine missionaries
are now on the ground. The return soon of some of
MINUTES 63
those away on furlough is expected and desired. One
Cuban worker has been recorded a minister of the Gospel.
He has given almost five years of capable service to the
mission. Another native laborer has general charge
now at one of the stations, in the protracted absence of
the American missionaries.
With many doors opening before them and the
Macedonian cry from many places, "Come over and
help us," sounding in their ears, it has been a great
temptation to the missionaries to extend the work still
more widely, but an assured and enlarged income to sup-
port such extension has not been found.
Union in Foreign Mission Work.
It has been apparent for years that the trend of
thought in many of the foreign mission boards of Ameri-
can Friends is in the direction of closer union in the
administration of their work. In 1905, four boards
brought this matter before the American Friends' Board
at its annual meeting, suggesting that a plan of union be
sought by which the latter Board should take over the
general administration of the work of the other boards,
and unite much that is scattered and isolated into a
stronger and more effective organization.
Taking these requests under advisement, the Ameri-
can Friends' Board called a general missionary confer-
ence to meet in Tenth month, 1906, to which all the
foreign mission boards of American Friends, or their
Yearly Meetings, were invited to send delegates. All
accepted the invitation, and a conference so composed
was held and was united beyond expectation in approval
of such a union.
A committee was afterward appointed by the
American Friends' Board at its annual meeting just fol-
lowing the conference, to endeavor to advance the
movement by giving further thought to the developing
of the plan of union, and having something ready to
present to the new Board which shall be organized this
64 MINUTES
fall, for its consideration. The report of that committee
has been accepted, and has been passed on to the incom-
ing Board.
In the meantime, co-operation of boards is being
successfully tried in Cuba on a small scale. In 1902,
Wilmington Yearly Meeting's Foreign Mission Board,
having decided to open a mission in Cuba, proposed to
the American Friends' Board general co-operation with it,
while retaining most of the details of management in its
own hands. Such a plan was agreed upon, the relations
of the boards defined, and the Wilmington work has
gone on successfully and harmoniously with that of the
American Friends' Board, under the same general super-
intendency. More recently North Carolina Yearly
Meeting's Foreign Mission Board decided upon making
Cuba its mission field, and applied to the American
Friends' Board for an arrangement by which it should
come under the same general management. The Board
gave a cordial reception to this proposition, but thought,
as a general plan of union might soon be arranged, it
would be better to wait for this than to make a separate
plan for this one Board. Meanwhile, the American
or the North Carolina Friends' Board has regarded their
work as practically a part of the general Cuba field.
Its Superintendent, Zenas L. Martin, went at their re-
quest, only a few weeks ago, to their headquarters, to
look over the work and help them decide upon the
place to erect their first mission building.
Thus, naturally and quietly, the union is coming.
May the Lord's blessing rest on all the work and His
hand guide in all plans for its future development!
Thomas C. Brown, President.
Mahalah Jay, Secretary.
MINUTES 65
Summary of Receipts and Expenditures of American
Friends' Board of Foreign Missions for Five Years,
ending Third month 31, 1907.
James Carey, Jr., Treasurer, in account with American
Friends' Board of Foreign Missions.
1902.
4 mo. 1. To balance on hand by last report.. . $1,752 62
To receipts for five years as follows:
Administration ac-
count $3,984 85
Mission account:
Sundry re-
ceipts . .$16,140 76
School re-
ceipts . . 2,404 58
18,545 34
General building ac-
count 4,336 64
Holguin building loan. . 250 00
Special donation 2,644 43
Loan account, amount
borrowed 900 00
Sundry receipts 49 5 1
30,710 77
$32,463 39
By expenditures for same period:
Expenses of adminis-
tration $4,048 33
Mission expenses 20,130 66
Cost of property and
buildings in Cuba. . 7,972 03
1007
Loans returned 300 00
4 mo. 1. Balance on hand this
date 1237
$32,463 39
5
66 MINUTES
The reports were received and the plan of union
therein suggested referred to the new Board.
30. The Committee on Legislation made the fol-
lowing report which was greatly appreciated, and extracts
read from the "Congressional Record" were directed in-
corporated therein:
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON LEGISLATION TO THE
FIVE YEARS MEETING.
As directed by this Committee, a sub-committee had
Articles of Incorporation of the Five Years Meeting pre-
pared, and signed by all the members and filed as the
law requires — one copy in the office of the Secretary of
State, at Indianapolis, and the other in the County
Clerk's Office, in Richmond, Indiana— the incorporation
being under the statutes of that state. A third copy
was also filed with the Treasurer of the Five Years Meet-
ing. (For copy see Appendix.)
As provided by the Discipline, several members of
the Board have given attention to legislation in their
respective states, and the sub-committee of five mem-
bers has given attention to subjects before the National
Congress, affecting our denomination and its interests.
In 1902, just previous to the holiday recess of Con-
gress, we learned that a new militia bill had been
adopted by the House and its consideration almost com-
pleted by the Senate, and that the bill contained no
exemption from military service of those persons con-
scientiously opposed to all war; the first section of the
bill being, every able-bodied male citizen of the respec-
tive States, Territories and the District of Columbia,
over eighteen years of age and under forty-five years,
shall be a member of the militia.
During the holiday recess, Senator Albert J. Bev-
eridge was at his home in Indianapolis, and the chair-
man of the Board of Legislation, who is also a member of
the committee of five on National Legislation, with the
other Indiana members of the Board, and several other
MINUTES 67
Friends, met, by appointment, the Senator in his office.
The interview was very earnest and impressive. He had
not given much attention to the militia bill, and had not
discovered there was no section exempting Friends from
military service. He was very emphatic in his utter-
ance that such a provision ought to be in the bill, and he
felt sure if the attention of the Secretary of War, who
prepared the bill, had been called to it, he would have
inserted it without objection; but he described the very
great difficulty of securing the desired amendment. He
said Senator Proctor, of Vermont, the chairman of the
Committee on Military Affairs, had hoped to get the bill
passed by the Senate before the holiday adjournment,
as many state legislatures were in session and some of
them wanted to change the state militia laws to make
them conform to the new militia bill of Congress, and he
feared Senator Proctor would not consent to any such
amendment at this stage.
Senator Beveridge cheerfully promised to do his
utmost to get the committee in charge of the bill to
accept the desired amendment; and failing in this he
would offer it in the Senate and strive for its adoption.
He urged that all the members of our committee should
write to the Senators of our respective states, and urge
their support of the desired amendment. He also prom-
ised to keep the chairman of your committee advised,
and instructed by letters, and by wire, if needful.
All of his instructions were promptly executed by
the committee, and a large number of our leading Sena-
tors were thus written to, and our desires clearly stated,
and in almost every instance a favorable response was
received.
The secretary of the committee of five also sent an
official circular letter to every member of Congress.
Senator Proctor, however, considered such an amend-
ment unnecessary and gave no encouragement that he
would accept it. In their letters to Senators and mem-
bers of the House, each member of our committee could
claim to represent the entire membership of the Five
68 MINUTES
Years Meeting, and not, as formerly, only those of his
own Yearly Meeting; and in this way our influence was
greatly increased.
Consideration of the militia bill was resumed in the
Senate as in the committee of the whole, First month,
14, 1903, in charge of Senator Quarles of Wisconsin, as
Senator Proctor was ill. Senator Beveridge offered the
following amendment, as a proviso to the second section
of the bill, "Provided: That nothing in this act shall be
construed to require or compel any member of any
religious organization, whose creed forbids its members
to participate in war in any form, and whose religious
convictions are against war, or participation therein, in
accordance with the creed of said religious organizations,
to serve in the militia or any other armed or volunteer
force, under the jurisdiction and authority of the United
States. "
The very interesting debate that followed was
participated in by Senators Beveridge of Indiana, Quarles
of Wisconsin, Pettus of Alabama, Bate of Tennessee,
Hoar of Massachusetts, Aldrich of Rhode Island,
Spooner of Wisconsin, Depew of New York, and Clay of
Georgia; and at the conclusion of Senator Hoar's last
resistless argument, the amendment was agreed to with-
out a division or vote.
We thankfully acknowledge our Father's leading in
the matter and His evident blessing upon the efforts of
Senators Beveridge and Hoar, who were conspicuous
in their advocacy of the proviso, each being on his feet
at least a dozen times ; and yet the entire debate prob-
ably did not occupy more than forty-five minutes. But
for their great ability and tactful persistence, the amend-
ment might have been defeated.
Probably never before was the testimony of Friends
against war, brought out so prominently before Con-
gress ; and as a matter of history it would be well if the
entire discussion, as it appears in the "Congressional
Record," were made a part of this report.
The chief objection to this amendment was, that it
MINUTES 69
interfered with the right of the states to determine who
should serve in the militia. Senator Hoar clearly demon-
strated the necessity of adopting this proviso by Con-
gress, so as to prevent any state from requiring such
persons to perform military service.
The following are a few quotations from the "Con-
gressional Record:"
Mr. Quarles. — There are two pending amendments, Mr.
President, one introduced by the Senator from Indiana (Mr.
Beveridge) and the other by the Senator from Mississippi (Mr.
McLaurin).
Mr. Beveridge. — Mr. President, I offer the amendment
heretofore introduced by myself, with a change in the form in
which it is printed, by striking out the word "church" wherever
it appears and inserting "religious organization." I do that in
view of the suggestion of the senior Senator from Massachusetts
(Mr. Hoar) that it would more accurately meet the situation.
I offer it as it is there now, with those words stricken out and
the other words written in.
The President pro tempore. — The amendment as modi-
fied by the Senator from Indiana will be stated.
The Secretary. — It is proposed to add as a proviso to the
second section of the bill the following:
"Provided, That nothing in this act shall be construed to
require or compel any member of any religious organization,
whose creed forbids its members to participate in war in any
form, and whos Q religious convictions are against war or partici-
pation therein, in accordance with the creed of said religious
organization, to serve in the militia or any other armed or volun-
teer force under the jurisdiction and authority of the United
States."
Mr. Beveridge. — Mr. President, this amendment I offer
to cover two or three well known religious organizations in the
United States — particularly the Quakers and the Dunkards.
It is well known that it is one of the fundamental tenets of their
creed that war in any form is murder, and that they are con-
scientiously opposed to participate therein.
While I myself am not in favor of loading a bill with unnec-
essary provisions, yet I think it is perfectly right that when a
great and weighty and intelligent body of our fellow-citizens —
and there are no more intelligent and worthy citizens of this
United States than those known as the Quakers — ask for any-
thing of this kind in a bill like this, it should be granted. Cer-
tainly, if it be their opinion that when they go to war they are
participating in a species of murder, they should not be forced
to do so. Therefore*, upon that hypothesis the amendment
yo MINUTES
should be adopted. If, on the contrary, it does not compel
them to do so, then the amendment can do no harm. In either
event, it would be without injur}.-, meeting the wishes of one of
the very large and one of the very best elements of the citizen-
ship of this Republic.
I hope the amendment will be accepted; and if it is not
accepted, of course I shall want a vote upon it.
Mr. Ocari.es. — Mr. President, I certainly hope that the
amendment will not be adopted, because it is absolutely unneces-
sary and is not germane, and would constitute defective legisla-
tion. There is nothing compulsory connected with the militia
system ; but the organization of the militia is left entirely to the
states. Each state can regulate for itself the membership of
the militia. I cannot see why we ought to attach to the bill this
clause, wholly unnecessary and impertinent as it is, no matter
how worthy the people may be to whom the amendment refers.
Mr. Bate. — As to the pending amendment. I think it is
germane, and that the Senator from Wisconsin is mistaken as
to that. Like him, I do not see the necessity for the amendment,
but I do not desire to throw obstacles in the way of its adoption,
as it can do no mischief and will be a relief to such harmless and
law-abiding citizens as Quakers and Dunkards.
Mr. Beveridge. — There is a further consideration with
reference to this amendment, a consideration entertained in the
minds of this very large and very respectable body of our fellow-
citizens. They intend to present their opinions to the various
state legislatures when the question of militia legislation comes
up, and there is a very distinct fear upon their part that this bill,
having the scope that it has, will have influence upon state legis-
lation, and that this amendment will take off that i nf luence from
the state legislatures and leave them perfectly free.
Mr. President, I will not argue with the Senator whether
or not that fear and apprehension is well founded. I state
merely that it is •worthy of note and not to be neglected when it
comes from a body as large and as singularly intelligent as are
the Quakers, the Dunkards, and other people like them in the
United States. They are a people who read, a people who think,
and a people who constitute a very valuable element of our
;:: i zee -': it: Therefcre. I ;iy that their :'::.::r.£ ur_:r. a su'c;'ect
of this kind are in themselves entitled to consideration and
weight.
Since it is admitted on all hands that the amendment pre-
sented here can do no possible harm, and since the only objection
urged against it is that perhaps it is surplusage, I do not see why
it is that there is any objection to giving our concurrence to the
clearly defined objection of this very large and exceedingly and
unusually intelligent body of our fellow-citizens that they would
be injured, both directly and indirectly, by the bill as it now
stands.
MINUTES 71
I have nothing further to say upon the amendment, though
I shall surely call for a vote upon it if it be not accepted by the
committee.
Mr. Hoar. — Mr. President, it seems to me that the Senator
from Wisconsin does not give quite sufficient force to the lan-
guage of the bill. I make the suggestion to him with great
deference, because I am not, myself, as familiar with it as I ought
to be before undertaking to discuss it, for my attention has been
called to other matters which are pending. But, if I understand
it, the first section of the bill describes who are to be the militia:
"Every able-bodied male citizen of the respective states,
territories and the District of Columbia," etc.
All of those are now members of the militia by law. Whether
a man so desires or not, it is proposed to make him a soldier by
the law — the word "militia" means "soldiery," as I understand
it — and without exception, if a man be within the two ages
named in the bill, unless he be under the age of eighteen or over
the other limit, which is forty-five years, he is a member of the
militia. So a Quaker, who is conscientiously opposed to war,
is made by law a soldier against his will. It seems to me we
should not do that unless we wish to constrain a man against his
conscience. It does seem to me that the amendment of the
Senator from Indiana is germane and that it is proper, unless we
mean to make by law all these men soldiers against their con-
science.
Mr. Quarles. — That is simply following the old act.
Mr. Hoar. — I know; but I now understand the Senator
having departed from that reason is giving another; that is, that
we should not make this exception becaitse the states are to
determine who shall constitute the militia, and that it is not for
us to do it. I ask him, then, if that be the purpose, why it is
that he does not undertake to determine by act of Congress who
shall constitute the militia by saying that the militia shall consist
of so and so, and not leave it to the states?
Mr. Quarles. — I suppose, Mr. President, that the framer
of this bill took the old act as he found it on the statute book,
and undertook to define the two classes of militia, or the three
classes, as it stood when the bill was originally introduced, fol-
lowing the exact language of the old law. But I will call the
Senator's attention to the last part of section two, which recog-
nizes the power of the several states and territories to determine
the exemptions from militia duty by their own peculiar system of
laws. . Of course we recognize them, and have to recognize them;
but it seems to me that to say that no state should incorporate
into the militia a certain group of religious people, who live in the
State of Indiana, for instance, would be beyond the scope of our
jurisdiction. That, it seems to me, is a question purely for that
state to determine in its own way.
Mr. Depew. — Mr. President, in reference to the last remark
72 MINUTES
of the Senator from Wisconsin as to the interest there may be in
this amendment, there is a very large body of Quakers in the
State of New York. I have received many communications
from them, and they are very much alarmed as to the effect of the
bill upon their society or church. It seems to me that it is a
highly proper amendment to put on this bill, so as to quiet that
alarm among those very worthy and intelligent people and
excellent citizens.
Mr. Hoar. — Mr. President, I think there ought to be one
further, and perhaps a little more comprehensive, statement
made in answer to my honorable friend, the Senator from Wis-
consin, on my right, than what has been said already. He asks
why we do not leave the matter of exemption to the states.
We have said that anybody exempted by state authority should
be exempt from military duty without regard to age. That is
in the bill now. I understand that the policy of the people of
the United States is to secure bv national authority, against the
local opinion and action of the states, the fundamental rights of
religious and political freedom and of commercial integrity. We
prohibit the states from impairing the obligation of contracts;
Ave prohibit the states from trying a man twice for the same
offense; we prohibit the states from conducting trials except
with certain securities for fair trials, and the fourteenth amend-
ment has very much extended those provisions, so that no man
can be tried by any state without due process of law.
Now, suppose a state undertakes, against the conscience of
an individual, to compel him to be a member of the militia and
to enter into war. I think when the United States is dealing
with that subject we should by our authority exempt him, state
or no state. If it should happen that some state should exist
hereafter, in the far East, or the far West, or the far North, or
the far South, which had a very great prejudice against Quakers,
and a war came up, and their opposition to war excited the
popular feeling of the majority in the state, they should be pro-
tected.
Now, during the war of the Revolution the Quakers,
although as everybody in this debate has said, they are a worthy
and patriotic body of people, incurred great animosity by their
refusal to take part therein So it seems to me that
as we are declaring who shall constitute the militia, giving defi-
nition, we ought to put in our law the definition and not leave
it in the power of any state to force a man against his conscience
to go into battle.
Mr. Clay. — Mr. President, if I thought that the amend-
ment offered by the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Beveridge) went
as far as the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Hoar) says it
ought to go, I would not vote for it. I would not vote in favor
of an amendment exempting any religious organization from
MINUTES 73
military duty which provided that a state should not fix the
qualifications of those to be exempted from military duty.
Mr. Hoar. — Mr. President, I should be very sorry to have
the amendment which I favor lose the vote of the honorable
Senator from Georgia (Mr. Clay), or any other Senator, but I
think I ought to say that I cannot agree with him in his con-
struction of the amendment. If the soldiers be called into ser-
vice and be compelled to serve, it is in consequence of this bill
and of nothing else. The bill provides that the President shall
order the state militia into the service. For instance, in the
fourth section, it is provided that whenever the United States
is invaded or in danger of invasion or rebellion, the President
may call them forth and issue orders to them. That is com-
pulsion, and it is compulsion authorized by this bill, and it is
the only compulsion under which these soldiers are constrained
to go into the service and do the work.
Then the amendment says nothing in the act contained
shall be construed to compel Quakers to serve (I will use that
short phrase instead of the phraselog)" of the amendment) or
other persons like them who are described in it. To say that
there is nothing in the bill which compels them in any way does
not address itself favorably to my understanding. It seems to
me we ought to meet the important question of the right of con-
science in the proper way, and in the way in which it has been
met in the United States from the beginning of the government
of the United States, to wit: That persons belonging to religious
bodies who have conscientious scruples against military service
shall not be compelled to violate their conscience. It seems to
me the proper place for that, the righteous thing to do, is in the
act of Congress where we define the persons who shall be com-
pelled by the United States to do that service.
The President pro tempore. — The question is on agree-
ing to the amendment proposed by the Senator from Indiana
(Mr. Beveridge).
The amendment was agreed to.
As this House bill must be returned to the House
for its concurrence in the above and other amendments,
the committee continued its efforts with the members
of that body to secure their support of this important
provision, and it was adopted by the House with little
opposition.
Much attention was also given to other bills pending
in Congress, especially to those pertaining to temperance
legislation. Senator Beveridge was chairman of the
Senate Committee on Statehood, and he was urged to
at least retain in the bill to admit Oklahoma and Indian
74 MINUTES
territory as one state, the agreement between the gov-
ernment and the Indians, that no intoxicating liquors
should be manufactured or sold in the Indian territory,
and the Indian Reservation in Oklahoma, and, if possible,
to extend the prohibition to the entire state.
As the bill passed, the agreement between the
United States government and the Indians is to con-
tinue for twenty-one years, and thereafter until the peo-
ple should change the constitution of the new state.
It is cause for profound thankfulness that at the
recent election, a large majority voted in favor of the
prohibition of the manufacture and sale of intoxicating
liquors in the entire new state.
Other members of our committee have in their
respective states used their influence to promote legisla-
tion beneficial to their citizens, and to defeat whatever
they considered unwise or vicious. In some cases in
conjunction with a committee of their respective per-
manent boards, they have presented printed petitions
to the legislature, requesting the enactment of certain
laws, and the defeat of other pending measures. Among
these in several of the states, have been important
amendments to marriage and divorce laws ; more strin-
gent enactment against the liquor traffic, prison reform
measures, etc.
It may be added that a member of the committee,
at various times during the past five years, has appeared
at a number of Senate and House committee hearings
on temperance bills pending in Congress, and the record
shows that he was speaking in part as an official repre-
sentative of this Board. These bills include the anti-
canteen act, the interstate commerce liquor bill and
other important proposed legislation.
It is very gratifying to be able to report that at
least one member of our committee, A. F. N. Hambleton,
has been for three sessions a very prominent member of
the Iowa Legislature. In this position he has exerted
great influence in promoting and securing righteous
legislation.
MINUTES 75
We desire to encourage other Friends to prepare
themselves and seek opportunities for public service in
their respective states; for we have fallen far short of
our duty as well as of our privilege and sadly failed in
these respects to exercise that influence for good in our
respective communities which as Christian citizens we
should have done.
Timothy Nicholson, Chairman.
Amos K. Hollowell, Secretary.
Richmond, Ind., Tenth mo. 15, 1907.
31. It was decided that the afternoon session would
close not later than 5 p.m.; sooner if possible.
32. It was moved and carried that the thanks of
this Meeting be extended to Senator Beveridge and
other Senators for their services in the passage of the
amendment as described in the report of Minute 30.
33. The report on the Condition of the Negroes was
listened to with deep interest and is printed below.
REPORT OF THE BOARD ON CONDITION AND WELFARE OF
THE NEGROES.
Our Board has not been unmindful of the important
work assigned to its care. A work that is important,
and calls for immediate and wise action. The lack of
funds has prevented us from doing much successful work.
The decision of those having charge of the finances, that
money coming through the Five Years Meeting could
only be used for running expenses, such as office ex-
penses and clerical work, has prevented the Board from
entering the field and doing more efficient labor. We
sent out an appeal for voluntary subscriptions to enable
us to do more successful work, but in response only a
few dollars were sent to our Treasurer. This sum was
used in assisting young colored people to attend schools
already established. Much more could have been used
to great advantage in the same way. In looking over
y6 MINUTES
the work done among the negroes during and since the
war, it was felt by members of the Board that it would
be right to have a history of this labor preserved, that
future generations might know the interest taken by
Friends in this important work. So, after considerable
labor by Friends in several of the Yearly Meetings, we
have received condensed accounts of their work. Other
Yearly Meetings have not responded. We are aware
that those who did respond have only given a small
portion of the work done. We have at some expense
had this information put in shape so that we have it
nearly ready for the press; and we would suggest that
the Five Years Meeting provide for its publication in
suitable form, securing similar information from those
Yearly Meetings which have not reported.
While much has been done, there remains much
more to be done. Among the many things that should
claim the consideration of every friend of the negro, is
his present condition socially and politically; especially
would we call attention to the convict system that is
carried on in several states of our union which calls
loudly for a reformation. While this system is not con-
lined to the negro alone yet he appears to be a great
sufferer from its cruel practice, a practice that calls
loudly for every lover of humanity to labor for better and
wiser laws.
It is a delicate question to manage, and it is so
intimately connected with politics and there is great
sensitiveness on the part of one section of the country
in regard to the other part meddling with their political
affairs.
Our Board suggests the propriety of the Five Years
Meeting considering the proposition of taking steps to
see if this subject cannot be brought before the Gov-
ernors and legislatures of those states where such
reforms are needed. If the Governors and legislators
of the several states could be brought to see the import-
ance of such a movement and take it up on their own
motion it might result in good. We would recommend
MINUTES 77
that each state have a board of associated charities
appointed with power to act, similar to those who are
already acting in some of our states and which have
made great changes for the better in the prison and the
prison reform work, by this means the moral and physi-
cal condition of the unhappy convict who falls under
the discipline of the law have been greatly ameliorated,
and the law has, to some extent at least, been so admin-
istered as to become reformatory rather than executed
as a punishment upon the offenders. As at present con-
ducted, the convict system is demoralizing and has a
tendency to harden the poor criminal and turn him out
on society a far more dangerous citizen than he was
when he first violated the law. While recognizing the
great difficulty attending this movement, owing to the
prejudice against the negro and criminal in general,
we believe that it is a work that the future Board of this
Meeting should labor to bring before the proper authori-
ties in our several states, and especially before those
where the convict system, is most cruelly practiced.
We would commend to those who are interested in
this subject, to read a pamphlet entitled "The Crime of
Crimes, or the Convict System Unmasked," written by
Clarissa Oldkeeler, which brings out the dark side of
this picture in such a clear light that every one should
feel the necessity of doing something, and perhaps we
might say that while the convict system is an awful
disgrace in many states in our Union, yet, perhaps, it is
not much worse or more degrading than the horrible
condition of some of our jails and penitentiaries and the
inhuman manner in which they are managed. This is
another reform that calls loudly for action on the part
of every lover of the human race. Again we would call
the attention of the future Board to another means of
great blessing to the negro and others who may have
been in prison, to the society which has care of the dis-
charged convicts.
It is sad that there are not more organizations in
our own country. There are only four or five acting
78 MINUTES
societies of the kind in the United States, while in Eng-
land alone there are ninety ; in France, fifty. In Switzer-
land it is seen at its highest degree of efficiency ; the most
valuable feature of the Swiss system, says Mr. Barrows,
"is the appointment of a person called a patron, who
makes the acquaintance of a prisoner before he is dis-
charged and who becomes his guardian after his libera-
tion. "
These foreign societies are supported by govern-
ment aid as well as by private subscriptions. We are
conscious that what we have said applies to the criminal
class, both white and black, but we apprehend that the
blacks are the greater sufferers, owing to their ignorant
condition and the prejudice that may exist toward them
as a class. Therefore, we have referred to the subject
in connection with the negro and would quote from a
Southern editor, who has declared that no institution
is more needed, especially for the colored race, than
institutions for the training of the young, the developing
of the mind and turning it into the right channels.
Through the efforts of Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, of
Topeka, Kansas, a kindergarten school was started in a
negro settlement in that part of the city, where the
record for crime was notorious. Now, at the end of
fourteen years, about three hundred boys and girls have
been graduated and not one of the number has ever
appeared before a police court. The work among the
children resulted in greatly improving the condition of
the parents. Mr. Sheldon says: "When the country
shall learn this economic lesson, that it is cheaper in
every way to make good citizens than to punish bad
ones, we shall have made a long stride forward towards
the ethics of criminology. If this government would
spend as much money some one year as it now spends
for its battleships, in planting kindergartens over the
South for the negro, and in the northern cities for the
slum children, the results would economically pay for
the investment, I believe, twice over."
In view of all these facts, we would suggest that
MINUTES 79
this Meeting take some steps to bring this matter home
to our legislators and executive officers, and, at the same
time consider how we can best secure funds to educate
the negro and prepare him to become a useful citizen.
While much has been done, and their condition is
better to-day than it has been, yet there is much more
to do.
How can we enter this field and do our part, is the
question we would leave with this Meeting.
Allen Jay, Chairman.
Treasurer's Report — Board on the Condition and Welfare
of the Negroes.
Receipts :
Received from M. A. Marriage Allen fund,
Baltimore Yearly Meeting $25 00
From private subscriptions 10 00
From the Treasurer Five Years Meeting 7261
. Total $10761
Expenditures :
Postage and printing 10 75
Balance on hand Tenth month 15, 1907 $96 86
Joseph A. Goddard, Treasurer.
34. After the reading of the Minutes the Meeting
adjourned to meet at 7.30 p. m.
Fourth-Day, Evening, Tenth Month i6th.
35. The Meeting opened with a period of devotion.
36. Clarence M. Case of Indiana Yearly Meeting,
Benjamin F. Trueblood of New England, and E. H.
Woodward of Oregon, on nomination of the Business
Committee, were appointed as Press Committee.
8o MINUTES
37. The Business Committee made the following
recommendations, which were acceptable to the Meeting:
We propose that the morning session begin at 9.30
o'clock, with a short devotional meeting; the afternoon
session begin at 2.30, and the evening session at 8 o'clock,
and that the doors be closed during the devotional
period. J. J. Mills, Chairman.
38. The following proposition from Kansas Yearly
Meeting was read and referred to the Business Com-
mittee.
Kansas Yearly Meeting forwards to the Five Years
Meeting the following proposed amendment to the Disci-
pline, which was referred to its Permanent Board for one
year, and approved by that Board, viz:
Add to section n, chapter 10, part 2.
Yearly Meetings may provide for the appointment of
an auditing committee or auditors in advance of their
annual meetings, if they desire.
Edmund Stanley, Clerk.
39. The report of the Associated Executive Com-
mittee on Indian Affairs, together with an accompany-
ing statement, was read and both documents are here-
with inserted.
THE ASSOCIATED EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF FRIENDS ON
INDIAN AFFAIRS.
A Statement of Information to the Five Years Meeting, to
be held at Richmond, Indiana, in Tenth month, 1907.
The ten (10) mission stations which were in active
operation in the year 1902 have all been continued.
One other Friends' mission has also been established.
These eleven posts, together with a number of out sta-
tions and Meetings which have been opened from time
to time, include our active mission work on behalf of the
Indians. Six of the eleven are located in Indian Terri-
tory, and the remaining five are in Oklahoma.
MINUTES 8l
John M. and Rachel Ratcliff continue at Iowa
Mission, and Elizabeth Test and Lina Lunt, aided by our
valuable Friend Rachel Kirk, at Kickapoo. With these
exceptions all the resident mission Friends of five years
ago have left the field and others have been appointed in
their places. In one instance two changes have occurred.
It will be readily understood that such appointments
call for prayerful thought and much care, and very fre-
quently an extended correspondence on the part of the
two officers of the committee, upon whom the responsi-
bility of such matters has chiefly fallen of latter times.
To secure Friends who seem to have a live concern
for Indian mission work, and a call to the service, has
been a growing difficulty. It has been our practice to
ask for, and to receive minutes from the Monthly and
Quarterly Meetings of Friends under consideration
expressing sympathy and approval with the proposition
before appointments are closed. No station or regular
Meeting has been discontinued, however, except in one
instance for a few weeks within the last year.
With the close of ten (10) years of strenuous and
valued service our Friends George N. and L. Ella
Hartley resigned as superintendents and vacated the
mission house at Shawnee on first of Tenth month, 1904.
To fill this major vacancy, the committee, after very
deliberate consideration, proposed the matter to our
Friends William Perry and Abigail C. Haworth, then
resident at Noblesville, Indiana. In due course they
were appointed, and accepting the place, have con-
tinued earnest and faithful resident missionaries at
Shawnee, and as overseers and upholders of the several
other stations. However willing these Friends may be,
the duties they have to perform, at times, call for very
careful judgment and much tact, this is so at all of the
several posts, if best results are to be reached, but it is
peculiarly so with our superintendents, and it seems to
the writer not amiss to solemnly ask the earnest prayers
of all interested Friends on their account.
Just here it seems most fitting to mention a loss
82 MINUTES
which the Committee have recently sustained and which
has been keenly felt in a personal way. Our Friend,
John Nicholson, of Baltimore, until last winter had been,
for a number of years, the chairman of our standing
committee on Religious Interests and Education, and in
this capacity, as well as at our annual meetings, he had
always been most faithful, judicious and helpful, and
when, because of physical illness he found he must with-
draw from the active position he had held, a vacancy
not to be easily filled seemed to occur; it is, however,
mentioned with satisfaction that our Friend, Walter
Smedley, of Philadelphia, was chosen in Sixth month
last to succeed John Nicholson, and his deep and growing
interest in the work and other natural qualifications will
make him a most helpful officer.
The cordial relations heretofore had with the
Indian Bureau at Washington, and with those govern-
ment officers who are our neighbors in the vicinity of our
missions, have been maintained, and have added much
to our opportunities for service.
A report from each station, both statistical, advisory
and incidental, passes to our superintendents at the
close of each month. With a letter of general informa-
tion and suggestion, these monthly reports are then
received by the chairman of the standing committee on
Religious Interests and Education and by him com-
municated to each member of his committee. This has
been the practice for a number of years past, but since
our late annual meeting a copy of the superintendents'
letters and of the several reports with a summarized
statistical table goes to each member of the general com-
mittee for their information and use in their several
Yearly Meetings. It seems not out of place to say we
hope this monthly care will have some results in an
increase of interest and sympathy throughout our mem-
bership, as well as amongst those who are delegates to
the Associated Committee.
The printed minutes of our annual meetings,
together with the full reports therein presented, will
MINUTES 83
continue to be sent to all delegates in supply for distribu-
tion as heretofore.
The following brief statistics compiled from the
last five annual reports are submitted, viz:
Average total of regular meetings held per year,
1,306. First day meetings per year, 960; with an
average attendance from 50 to 60. From three to six
day schools have been under care and from nine to six-
teen Bible schools. The latter having an attendance
averaging 40 to 45. A number of school officers have,
from time to time, been Indians.
Penny collections for the five years total. $684.
Twenty-seven thousand one hundred and seventy-five
(27,175) religious papers have been distributed. Twenty-
six thousand nine hundred and twenty-nine (26,929)
texts have been recited. Eighteen thousand six hun-
dred and eighty-nine (18,689) family visits, many of
which are esteemed as very helpful, have been made.
All has not been progress, and all has not been for the
best interest of our work, we cannot claim so much;
but the monthly tidings bring much cheer and we feel
many have been refreshed and helped Heavenward.
Meetings of delegates regularly called have been
held each year. It seems proper in this connection to
let the Five Years Meeting know that of the eleven
Yearly Meetings that have assumed responsibilities of
aid and membership in our committee, four have had
delegations present each year, one had four years, one
had three years, two had two years, one had one year,
and the remaining two have not been represented at any
meeting or taken any active part. One of these latter
has had no delegate present for twenty or more years
and makes no contribution to our treasury.
Those who live in daily contact with this effort,
which as an organized and associated work is in its
thirty-ninth year, can but feel the responsibilities of
their position at times very much. We feel the need of
the moral and physical support which all the Meetings
in any wise connected with the committee can give, and
84 MINUTES
so submit this phase of the subject to this general meet-
ing for its advice and action. May we not ask for a few
more years, while yet the native American is becoming
obsolete and is being terribly tried and degraded in the
process, by the greed of the unchristian white man, may
we not ask, I say, that Friends shall still stand true to
the history of two and a quarter centuries of the Indian
and the Quaker and continue to help him with the simple
Gospel message of the Lord Jesus Christ through the aid
of the Holy Spirit. That which was given to our own
forefathers and given to us through trial and much afflic-
tion and the sufferings and death of the Great Testator.
E. M. Wistar, Chairman.
Philadelphia, Tenth month, 1907.
raper accompanying report of Chairman 0} the Associated
Executive Committee on Indian Affairs to the Five
Years Meeting of Friends, held at Richmond,
Indiana, Tenth month, 1907.
We have had presented to us to-day a picture of the
present day work for the Indian, in which the Yearly
Meetings, comprising this Meeting are directly and
unitedly concerned. As I have been privileged to fol-
low it within the past few years through the usual
reports and conferences as well as by a recent trip to
most of the mission stations, I am fully convinced it is
of the greatest value not only in the results attained
among the Indians, but in the reflex effect upon -those
who carry it upon their hearts.
From the time that Fox first realized, after his long
search, that the Light which filtered through the win-
dows of his soul, speaking so remarkably to his condi-
tion, came direct from God; he also realized that in its
universality it appeared unto all men, irrespective of
race or condition.
The movement of his co -laborers toward the shores
of the Delaware opened up new fields for spreading the
MINUTES 85
gospel, and he sought to inspire them to "instruct and
teach your Indians and negroes and all others how that
Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man, "
etc. Again, " and God hath poured out His spirit upon
all flesh, and so the Indians must receive God's spirit, *
* * * and so let them know that they have a day
of salvation, grace and favor of God offered unto them ;
if they will receive it, it will be their blessing. "
As this Gospel message came to be disseminated,
the Indians responded, as has been well said, "as if they
already knew the reality of the indwelling of the Great
Spirit," and beneath the Treaty Elm they proclaimed,
"We will live in love and peace with 'Onas' and his
children so long as the sun and moon shall endure. "
This great affinity between the Friend and the
Indian has enabled them to earry out their promises
with each other, and the pages of American history are
redolent with acts of mercy, fair dealing and good fellow-
ship between them, and down to the present time public
opinion does homage to the Quaker policy which wrought
such wondrous results, with such difficult problems con-
fronting them.
This opinion was fairly summarized in the familiar
statement of President Grant in his first message to Con-
gress. Few had followed more closely the development
of the plans of our national government with regard to
the Indians, or had had closer relations with them on
the western reservations than he, and subsequent to the
adoption of the new policy, which he inaugurated, no
less than ninety-four Friends, members of the Orthodox
bodies, were acting at one time as employees of the gov-
ernment in the Indian work; eight of these were Indian
agents, and one a superintendent of Indian affairs.
Far be it from me to advocate any policy or line of
work based upon traditionalism, or past records, or,
indeed, any line of evangelistic work not directly and
definitely called for at our hands! With this splendid
record of the past, however, starting with the earliest
days of our government, having the confidence and good
86 MINUTES
will of the Indians and the expressed recognition of the
value of our work by the public, I see but one path open
before us at the present time. We must face the prob-
lems that confront us in a calm and dispassionate spirit,
and just so long as we find a brother weaker than our-
selves, reach out and share with him the joys of God's
salvation.
As I view the situation, there is still a great work
to be done. The fields are white unto the harvest; the
laborers are few and the earnest sympathy and living
zeal of the initial bodies I fear, are at too low an ebb.
The present Indian population in the United States
is approximately estimated at 284,000. Most of these,
of course, are located on reservations throughout the
central and western part of our country, and notwith-
standing the many efforts made to protect and guard
them, they are constantly subject to influences from the
frontier white civilization, which are far from beneficial,
if indeed not positively degrading.
Our work, operating from the mission centers,
including the family visits, reaches directly about 1,500
of this number, irrespective, of course, of the wider
influence which such centers exert on the community
at large.
I believe this concern and the work of the various
Yearly Meetings is being cared for through the Asso-
ciated Executive Committee and through a superin-
tendent of missions located in the fields, in the right way.
The work is thoroughly systematized and dovetailed in
together as much as possible, and with the harmony
existing between the Friends of nearby stations an
interchange of interest, sympathy and assistance, tends
greatly to the improvement of the work.
As has been mentioned, the Associated Executive
Committee holds one meeting each year, usually in the
Fifth month and at a point as nearly accessible as possible
to the majority of the members expecting to attend.
The sessions, together with the various sub-commit-
tee meetings, occupy the greater portion of two days.
MINUTES 87
At these meetings the chief work of course, is the con-
sideration of existing conditions at the various mission
stations; this is taken up station by station and con-
sidered in detail, that the physical as well as the spiritual
conditions may be developed and maintained at as high
a standard as possible.
At our meeting this last spring, it was decided,
and the chairman of committee on Religious Interests
and Education was instructed, to duplicate the monthly
reports and statistics and forward a copy to each member
of the entire committee, instead of forwarding to the
members of the sub-committee only, as had been done
heretofore. This change emanated from an earnest
desire that each member of the committee from each
Yearly Meeting might be placed in direct monthly
touch with the work and the workers in the field, and
they in turn seek to build up and maintain a vitalizing
interest in the work throughout the Yearly Meetings.
We wish to impress upon Friends that this work,
as indeed every other, to be vital and of real value, must
emanate and be maintained in the life from the various
Meetings, that the committee is simply the agency
through which their work can be furthered and made
effective.
The same concern in the committee broadened also,
to encourage all members of the committee and others
who bear the work deeply upon their hearts, to com-
municate their love and sympathy to those who are
bearing the burden in the field, and as we are thus bound
together in the unity of the Spirit, earnestly desiring
to forward the cause of truth and righteousness among
these weaker brothers of the frontier, we shall richly
partake of that never failing reward that is so freely
bestowed upon those who do His commandments.
Walter Smedley, Chairman.
Philadelphia, Pa., Tenth Month 15, 1907.
56 MINUTES
40. The Finance Committee, appointed in 1902,
made the following report, which was referred to the
Auditing Committee arranged for in Minute No. 41.
To the Five Years Meeting:
The Finance Committee appointed in 1902 report as
follows :
On adjournment of the Five Years Meeting the
committee met and appointed A. K. Hollowell, of In-
dianapolis, chairman: W. P. Henley, Carthage, Ind.,
secretary; since which time there has been no meeting
of the committee in person, but the business of the com-
mittee has been conducted by means of circulating
letters, so that each member has had an opportunity of
an expression on matters which concerned the committee.
One member of the committee, Olney T. Meader,
of Boston, Mass., has deceased since our appointment.
The committee has annually ascertained the prob-
able needs of the several boards for " expenses of admin-
istration and correspondence" (as provided for in the
Minutes of the Five Years Meeting, page 42), by writ-
ing to the chairman of each board. When the amounts
for such purposes were ascertained the whole was then
submitted to each member of the committee in writing
for his approval or modification, and the total amount
to be raised has been agreed upon each year. The amount
to be raised has been pro-rated among the eleven
Yearly Meetings, according to their membership, as
provided in the minutes of the last meeting. Then
the Treasurer of each of the Yearly Meetings was notified
the amount his Yearly Meeting should pay, and re-
quested to remit the same to Miles White, Jr., Treasurer.
Some of the boards included in their estimates of
probable expenses for the first year items which subse-
quently were thought by some to be for expenses
intended to be provided for by voluntary contributions
rather than by assessment upon the Yearly Meetings,
and a protest against allowing such items was received
MINUTES 89
from, the officers of one meeting, and were thereafter not
included in the amounts pro-rated upon the various
Yearly Meetings.
The committee suggest that the Five Years Meeting
give more definite instruction as to what each of the
boards may include in its items of probable expenses
for administration account so that the committee may
know what items to allow and what to reject.
The boards, with one exception, have not generally
used the amount for which they made request and which
was appropriated for their specific use. Where amounts
were not used they have been carried forward by the
Treasurer into a general fund, so that an appropriation
for each board was made each year. The Treasurer's
report will show the amount expended by each of the
standing boards of the Five Years Meeting.
The amount requested to be raised for the various
boards for the year ending Ninth month 30, 1903, was
$2,041.65; the assessment was $2.50 for each one
hundred members; membership 82,071, producing
$2,037.50. Amount requested for the year ending
Ninth month 30, 1904, was 1,675.00; cash on hand,
$614,72; the assessment, $1.00 for each one hundred
members; membership, 82,095, producing $819.00.
Amount requested for the year ending Ninth month 30,
1905, was $1,370.00; cash on hand, $672.14; amount
assessed, $1.00 for each one hundred members; member-
ship, 82,800, producing $828.00. Amount requested
for the year ending Ninth month 30, 1906, was $1,135.00;
cash on hand, $606.56 ; assessment, 75 cents for each one
hundred members; membership, 83.842, producing
$628.99. Amount requested for the year ending Ninth
month 30, 1907, was $1,085.00; cash on hand, $627.26;
assessment, 75 cents for each one hundred members;
membership, 86,421, producing $648.31, making the
total amount assessed for the five years, $4,961.80.
The Treasurer's books will show how much of the
amount assessed has been collected. A smaller assess-
ment than seventy-five cents per one hundred members
90 MINUTES
would have secured the amount needed for year ending
Ninth month 30, 1907, but as this was a small assess-
ment and the expenses of the succeeding year would be
much increased by the Five Years Meeting of 1907, it
was deemed proper to assess the same amount as the
previous year, rather than to decrease it this year and
increase it the following one.
The committee, in conformity with instructions on
page 44 of the Minutes, determined that the amount of
the Treasurer's bond should be $3,000.00, and the chair-
man holds a satisfactory corporate bond in such
amount.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Committee.
Amos K. Hollowell, Chairman.
Tenth month, 10, 1907.
41. The delegations reported the names of the
following Friends to act on the committees which they
had been instructed to appoint in Minutes 19 and 20 :
Auditing Committee. — Thomas Wood, of New Eng-
land; William H. S. Wood, of New York; J. Elwood
Cox, of North Carolina; Margaret T. Carey, of Balti-
more; Joseph A. Goddard, of Indiana; Peter W. Raida-
baugh, of Western; Levi Mills, of Wilmington; Thomas
Folger, of Kansas; William Mather, of Iowa; E. H.
Woodward, of Oregon; John Chawner, of California;
John S. Rogers, of Canada.
Committee to Consider the Proposition to Establish
Nebraska Yearly Meeting. — Benjamin F. Trueblood and
Thomas J. Battey, of New England; Abijah J. Weaver
and Eliza Heaton Taber, of New York; Mary M. Hobbs
and Eli Reece, of North Carolina; Lindley D. Clark and
Sara H. Hoge, of Baltimore; Alpheus Trueblood and
Daisy Barr, of Indiana; David Hadley and Charlotte E.
Vickers, of Western; Richard Newby and Laura S.
MINUTES
91
0^000 to W)iON
1
\0 roio 0>0 -^-00 rON OiO
f °°
l^oj,
m 0\V)0 OO foh O "50
M
1-.cn f*. <N r-O^O *t O OC*-
M3
M VO « O <N CN co w O co
o>
^ M
1 -*
OO O ro^H\0 NW « rt
O O w m roo HiniONO
CO
^UTlOUiy
O-vO fO CN co 10 COCO ri- rfcO
CN av)00 N fOTj-H H -*
00
60= Hi H
VO
9^B^
m 10 to »o 10 10 10 10 in 10 ui
1 :
N'tnTtiflH 0\^i*0\in
O 'tMOO Hi w 1NVO "^ CN CO
s-iaquisw
CM Tj-TfrM H ^Tt tOM Tt
■*
h co n h co rj-vo m mo
H CN M H
00
O roiOfOH O CN OO co r-
a
i-o r^o o» *o 10 co r*- rt-
o>
^unoiuy
CO fO-O ^t - N rj- « \Q co 00
<N CO VjCO IN fO'+M O Tt
00
۩ H H
*c
a»«H
r*-i>r^r^e>.i>. t Ji>r^r*.r^
•
o»
:
lflV)Tj-HU5 0I-N TfMOO
iflfl NrOH f) com ^-COO
■*
sisqtuaj^
M M tJ-vO f0 J, CN £^vO M
•H CO M O HI CO ^\Q H ^-O
00
W « M ^ HI
■ 00
O rO^Oi^tOiiOO^O hi
O Tl-COOO rOH M COlOO
^tmotay
<N O H<0« tO'tvOvO W CN
H« HO Hf/TtlOM WO
00
V)
۩ M M M l-l
00
OOOOOOOOOOO
O
0%-e^
OOOOOOOOOOO
ro >o a Tf a v) cmo m
O tJ- to \o fOH h co m
SJ9qtU9J^
CN O HI VO CN tO^-VOVO CN CN
WCMOMCOTt-lOHl W^O
00
Ht W M H
00
OOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOO
^unouiy
Mt-O fOCN»OTj-lOVO <N CO
hi mmO h fOrj-iOH inO
a
<*
O
€# HI « H h
00
OOOOOOOOOOO
M
s;b^
OOOOOOOOOOO
V> O OCO «t lO <N M O <0 O
sjsquisj^
cn r>. CN CN 10 Tj- Tj-yD t^ CO
M M MO H fOrflOH 100
00
OOOOOOOOOOO
o^noooioooo»oo
3-un.ouiy
ejifliod t*o»od j>io
co^r-ocooo m coM-r-io
t^
^
OOOOOOOOOOO
a
*P*H
i/nov)i/iio>oini/)ioioi/i
«W«N«M«MN«M
CO O O\C0 ^- lO CN M OO CO
SJ9qUI3J^
oi rs M PI 10 Tj- -3-MD M CN
m m mo hicotJ-iom iovO
00
. . ni
•T) C
9> rt
^2
: c
.
h bim
.5,0 K
fflUn
Indiana
Kansas.
New Yo
New En
North C
Oregon.
Western
Wilminji
92 MINUTES
Dunbar, of Wilmington; Herbert J. Mott and Charles S.
White, of Iowa; John F. Hanson and Elmer Pemberton,
of Oregon; Elvira Parker and L. Clarkson Hinshaw, of
Kansas; Abram Saylor and Joseph A. Cody, of Canada.
42. The Meeting adjourned to meet at 9.30 a.m.
on the following day.
FIFTH-DAY, MORNING, TENTH MONTH 17TH.
43. The Meeting convened according to adjourn-
ment, and the devotional exercises were conducted by
Arthur Pirn of Dublin Yearly Meeting.
44. The following propositions originating in the
Business Committee were approved by the meeting:
REPORT OF BUSINESS COMMITTEE.
We recommend that arrangements be made for a
Devotional Meeting to be held from 8.00 to 9.00 a. m.,
and we nominate Daisy Barr, Harry R. Keates, Clarence
M. Case, William Jasper Hadley, Emma S. Townsend
and Mary M. Hobbs, as a committee to have care of
these meetings.
On the proposition to establish a Friends Publishing
House, it is the judgment of the committee that the way
is not open for such a move at this time.
45. The meeting approved of the following request
from the American Friends Board of Foreign Missions:
To the Five Years Meeting:
The American Friends Board of Foreign Missions
requests from the clerks of the Yearly Meetings, or the
Yearly Meetings' delegations, credentials for the new
MINUTES 93
Board of Foreign Missions, and that the Five Years
Meeting direct that hereafter the appointment for this
board be reported with the names of the delegates to
the meeting.
Morton C. Pearson, Chairman.
46. The Business Committee was instructed to
nominate names for the members at large for the care of
the Negroes and Indians.
47. The committee appointed by delegates to con-
sider the financial propositions in our reports, Minute 20,
was instructed to propose names for the Finance Com-
mittee.
48. The Business Committee was requested to pre-
pare a register of all Friends in attendance at these
sessions.
4Q. A paper was read by Rufus M. Jones, entitled,
"The Present Opportunity for Friends," and the dis-
cussion was opened by Rayner W. Kelsey, of California
Yearly Meeting. An interesting discussion followed.
50. The meeting adjourned to meet at 2.30 p. m.
Fifth-Day, Afternoon, Tenth Month 17TH.
51. The meeting opened according to adjournment.
52. The following report from the Business Com-
mittee was read. The propositions therein contained
were approved and the nominations became the appoint-
ment of this meeting :
REPORT OF THE BUSINESS COMMITTEE.
Referring to the proposition concerning Bible
School Literature, we propose that the matter be re-
ferred to a committee of five who shall give it careful
94 MINUTES
consideration and report to the next Five Years Meeting,
and we nominate:
Thomas Wood, New England Yearly Meeting;
J. Elwood Cox, North Carolina Yearly Meeting; Richard
Haworth, Western Yearly Meeting; J. Lindley Spicer,
New York Yearly Meeting; Albert J. Brown, Wilming-
ton Yearly Meeting.
We propose that the clause of Minute 98 of last
Five Years Meeting, referring to the amendment of the
Discipline, be sent by the clerk to the clerks of the
Yearly Meetings, asking for action thereupon.
53. A communication from a committee represent-
ing Indiana, Western and Wilmington Yearly Meetings,
was referred to the Evangelistic Board.
54. A paper entitled "Methods of Evangelization"
was read by Robert E. Pretlow and the discussion was
opened by Richard Haworth.
55. The report of the Peace Association of Friends
was received and is inserted below.
REPORT OF THE PEACE ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS IN
AMERICA TO THE FIVE YEARS MEETING.
At a meeting of the Peace Association of Friends
in America, held in Richmond, in Third month, 1900,
the following organization was effected :
President, Dr. Richard H. Thomas; Vice-President,
Professor Cyrus W. Hodgin; Secretary, H. Lavinia
Baily; Treasurer, Charles A. Francisco; Executive Com-
mittee, Allen Jay, Naomi Harrison, Mahalah Jay and
Professor Elbert Russell.
Anna B. Thomas was appointed editor of the "Mes-
senger of Peace," and for the three succeeding years
the paper was issued from Baltimore. In the summer
of 1904 the severe and continued illness of Dr. R. H.
Thomas rendered it necessary for his wife to be relieved
of the care of the paper, and for some months it was
edited by the secretary while still issued from Baltimore.
MINUTES 95
On the 3d of Tenth month, 1904, our beloved
Friend and President, Dr. Richard H. Thomas, was
removed from us by death. Our Association and work
have felt keenly this great loss, which has been shared by
Friends throughout the world. He was the embodiment
of peace : the sweet spirit of love was in his every word
and act. His finished scholarship, his wide acquaintance,
together with his deep interest in the work, made him
stand out almost alone.
We were most fortunate in having for our Vice-
President, Professor Cyrus W. Hodgin, who has since
filled the position of President.
More recently we have suffered the loss of our
Treasurer, Charles A. Francisco. He lived his Christian
life among men in a way to win the admiration due to all
the great principles of Christian teaching. His home
being in Richmond, he was readily available as an
adviser and helper, and his loss is greatly felt. Isaac
Wilson, a member of East Main Street Meeting in Rich-
mond, has succeeded as Treasurer.
On account of the absence from this country of
AnnaB. Thomas, occasioned by the death of her husband,
the "Messenger of Peace" was again issued from our
office at Richmond, the duty of editor being added to
those of the Secretary, H. Lavinia Baily. We believe
much might be gained to the cause by enlarging the
"Messenger of Peace" from eight to twelve pages,
adding a young people's department, with occasional
illustrations.
Beside the monthly circulation of the "Messenger
of Peace" through these years, other literature has been
circulated, either by sale or gratuitous distribution,, and
much of it through the agency of Peace committees
appointed by the Yearly Meetings. Copies of some of
our most valuable books and pamphlets have been sent
to several of the leading colleges in Indiana, Illinois and
Maryland, and by request of the Librarian, a selection
was sent to the city library of Ackworth, Iowa.
Thus a door of great usefulness and promise has been
96 MINUTES
opened into which our Association may enter and find
profitable use for unlimited funds. In the past two
years excellent results have attended the offering of
prizes for essays written b}^ college, academic and high
school students. A commendable spirit of emulation
and of investigation has been aroused in this way. The
consideration of the subjects of peace and war has
attracted the minds of the youth in a most gratifying
measure. The prizes, ranging from five to twenty-five
dollars, have been provided through the liberality of
Friends in different sections who count it a privilege to
take this generous part in extending the educational
phase of the Peace propaganda. Several of these prize
essays have been published in the "Messenger of Peace. "
We believe that one of the most promising methods
of propagating the principles for which the Association
exists is through the lecture field. The people are wil-
ling to hear this subject discussed as they never were
before. The inconsistencies of war in a civilization pro-
fessing to be Christian ; the dangers of misunderstand-
ings among nations always ready for war, and alert for
causes of conduct; the enormous tax on the people
required by the sharp competition of the great nations,
in keeping abreast of each other in warlike preparations ;
the political and moral degradation which inevitably
eat into the vitals of a nation that strives to build itself
up by conquest or by the bluff of military power; the
domestic sorrow that hangs like a pall over nations
engaged in bloody strife, all are subjects for which the
masses of thoughtful people have an open ear. On the
other hand the wonderful possibilities of material and
moral conquest under a regime of international peace
and good-will are even more attractive subjects of pub-
lic discussion.
We further believe that if there could be organized
by the Peace Association of Friends, with the counsel
and support of the Five Years Meeting, a Peace Lecture
Bureau, much good may be accomplished. If there can
be found one or more persons in the Yearly Meetings of
MINUTES 97
the Atlantic States, one or more in the Yearly Meetings
of the Central States, and a like number on the Paciffc
Slope, who will canvass their respective sections with
clear, convincing, statesman-like addresses, we feel
assured that new interest in the peace problem would
be awakened, and the people be educated, and that such
a course would prove financially helpful to the Associa-
tion.
Dr. Richard H. and Anna B. Thomas gave much
time to public addresses on Peace; the latter doing
effective service with stereopticon views in connection
with her addresses. The Association owns a good
stereopticon, and a set of peace slides, which have been
used by speakers in the Yearly Meetings of Indiana,
Wilmington, Iowa and elsewhere.
Professor Cyrus W. Hodgin, Professor Elbert Rus-
sell, Dr. William G. Hubbard and others in our several
Yearly Meetings have given addresses under the auspices
of the Association.
We submit the following suggestions :
The Five Years Meeting having adopted the Peace
Association as the channel through which to do its work
in this line of the Church's activity, we respectfully
request that the Meeting at this time appoint a repre-
sentative Peace Committee of one Friend from each of
the Yearly Meetings; and also that it appoint Friends
to fill the following offices in the Peace Association :
President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and
an Executive Committee of five members.
And we further request that the suggestion be
extended to each Yearly Meeting represented that the
fullest moral and financial support will conduce to the
success of our united work.
At least two thousand dollars annually is needed
for the work of this Association, and each Yearly Meet-
ing is earnestly desired to contribute its respective
proportion.
98 MINUTES
On behalf of the Representative Committee of the
Peace Association of Friends in America.
Cyrus W. Hodgin, President.
H. Lavinia Baily, Secretary.
The recommendations therein were referred to the
committee appointed in Minute 41.
56. The meeting adjourned to meet at S.00 p. m.
Fifth-Day, Evening, Tenth Month 17TH.
57. The Meeting opened according to adjournment.
58. Edward Grubb read a paper on the subject
"The Social Mission of the Society of Friends." Mar-
garet T. Carey opened the discussion.
59. The subject of Inter- Yearly Meeting Corres-
pondence was presented by Charles E. Tebbetts. Lind-
ley D. Clark opened the discussion.
60. The appointment of Trustees for the Five Years
Meeting was referred to the Business Committee.
61. The meeting adjourned to meet at 9.30 a. m. on
the following morning.
SIXTFI-DAY, MORNING, TENTH MONTFI iSth.
62. The meeting opened according to adjournment,
and the devotional exercises were conducted by Luke
Woodard.
63. The Minutes were read and approved.
64. It was moved and carried that the Business
Committee bring forward names of three Friends to act
as printing committee.
65. On nomination of the Business Committee, the
following named Friends were appointed Trustees of
MINUTES 99
this Meeting: D. William Edwards, Indianapolis, Ind. ;
John H. Johnson. Richmond, Ind.; John B. Peelle,
Sabina, Ohio; Edwin S. Jay, Richmond, Ind.; Robert
W. Furnas, Indianapolis, Ind.
66. The Board of Foreign Missions presented its
proposed constitution for the approval of this Meeting.*
The Board was instructed to have copies printed for the
use of the delegates.
67. Papers concerning "The Province and Duties
of Superintendents of Evangelistic Work" were read by
W. Jasper Hadley, J. Lindley Spicer, Lewis E. Stout,
Thomas Wood, Eliza H. Carey. Samuel R. Neave gave
a short and pithy address.
68. The Meeting adjourned to meet at 2.30 p. m.
Sixth-Day, Afternoon, Tenth Month iSth.
69. The Meeting convened according to adjourn-
ment and the discussion concerning Evangelistic Super-
intendents was resumed.
70. Mary C. Woody read the concluding paper on
Inter- Yearly Meeting Epistolary Correspondence. The
following recommendation from the Business Committee
was approved :
" On the matter of Inter- Yearly Meeting Corres-
pondence, we are united in recommending that epistles
be made brief, and covering matters of present vital
interest within the Yearly Meeting sending them; and
that the mode of presentation of the epistles be left
entirely to the judgment of the Yearly Meeting receiv-
ing them."
71. The proposed Constitution of the Board of
* Sections 9 and 1 1 were referred to the committee ap-
dointed hi Minute No. 41. (For Constitution see Appendix.)
100 MINUTES
Foreign Missions next claimed our attention. It was the
sense of the Meeting that the approval of the articles
submitted be given on condition of the necessary steps
being taken for the surrender or modification of the
incorporation of the American Friends Board of Foreign
Missions at as earl 3^ a date as ma}- be found practicable.
All action in reference to the surrender of said incorpora-
tion was deferred until proper legal advice be obtained.
Articles I, II, III, IV, V and VI of the proposed
Constitution were approved. Article VII was amended
by placing the period after the words "entrusted to it,"
and striking out the rest of the Article. Articles VIII,
IX and X were approved as recommended by the Board.
72. Consideration of the remaining articles was
postponed until after the consideration of a communica-
tion which is cited below as amended and approved by
the Meeting.
To the Five Years Meeting:
Your committee to whom was referred the sugges-
tions made in the reports of the Treasurer and the chair-
man of the Finance Committee, make the following
report, viz:
We construe the phrase "Costs of Administration"
of the respective boards of the Five Years Meeting, to
include expense of correspondence, including stationery
and postage, necessary printing, and the traveling
expenses of the members of the Executive Committees
of said boards, incurred in the attendance of the meet-
ings, deemed necessary and ordered by said respective
boards.
That the cost of administration of the Board of
Legislation may include the traveling expenses of its
members, not exceeding two, in their attendance at
Washington, D. C, and other places, when such visits
are made necessary, in order to secure and promote good
MINUTES 101
and useful legislation by the Congress of the United
States.
We recommend that the expenses incident to the
"costs of administration" of the respective Boards of
this Five Years Meeting be paid by the Treasurer upon
the certification of the chairman and secretary of the
boards, and the endorsed recommendation of the chair-
man of the Finance Committee of said Meetings.
We also recommend that the attention of the chair-
men of the various boards of this Meeting be called to
the method provided for raising voluntary contributions
for the use of the boards, and they be requested to carry
out the same.
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas Wood, Chairman.
Levi Mills, Secretary.
73. Article XI amended to read "The administra-
tive expenses of the board not otherwise provided for
shall be paid from general funds." Article XII was
approved.
Article XIII was amended to read "by consent of
the Five Years Meeting."
74. The constitution as a whole was approved,
provided the necessary steps be taken towards the
surrender of the charter of the American Friends Board
of Foreign Missions. (For Constitution see Appendix.)
75. The Meeting adjourned to meet at 8.00 p. m.
Sixth-Day, Evening, Tenth Month i8th. .
76. The meeting convened according to appoint-
ment.
77. The names of Friends constituting the new
Board of Foreign Missions were read and are printed
in the Appendix.
102 MINUTES
78. The following named Friends were appointed
as members of the Evangelistic and Church Extension
Board:
Evangelistic and Christian Extension Board. — New
England, Thomas Wood, Charles M. Woodman; New
York, Elmer D. Gildersleeve, J. Lindley Spicer; Balti-
more, Samuel R. Neave, A. Morris Carey; North Caro-
lina, Mary E. Cartland, Eli Reece, Josiah Nicholson;
Wilmington, Richard R. Newby, Emma S. Townsend,
Jesse Hawkins; Indiana, Alfred T. Ware, Emma Hedges,
Charles E. Hiatt, Daisy Barr; Western, Lewis E. Stout,
Thomas C. Brown, Lewis W T . McFarland, Charlotte E.
Vickers; Iowa, William Jasper Hadley, Charles W.
Sweet, N. Blanche Ford; Kansas, Edmund Stanley, L.
Clarkson Hinshaw, Eliza H. Carey, all of Wichita; Cali-
fornia, Levi Gregory, Lydia J. Jackson; Canada, Joseph
P. Rogers, Joseph Allen Cody.
79. The following named Friends were appointed
as our Education Committee:
Board on Education . — New England, Seth K. Gif-
ford; New York, Robert E. Pretlow; North Carolina,
Lewis Lyndon Hobbs; Baltimore, Margaret T. Carey;
Wilmington, Albert J. Brown; Indiana, Robert L. Kelly;
Western, Seth Mills; Iowa, Absalom Rosenberger;
Kansas, William L. Pearson, Wichita ; Calif ornia, Charles
E. Tebbetts; Oregon, W. Irving Kelsey : Canada, Joseph
J. Mills.
80. Benjamin F. Trueblood and Joseph J. Mills
presented the subject of "Friends in Public Affairs. "
81. The meeting adjourned to meet at 9.30 a. m.
on the following day.
MINUTES 103
SEVENTH-DAY, MORNING, TENTH MONTH i 9 th.
82. The Meeting opened according to adjourn-
ment and the devotional exercises were led by Margaret
T. Carey.
83. The subject referred to in Minute No. 71 in
reference to the surrender or modification of the charter
of American Friends Board of Foreign Missions was refer-
red for future consideration to the Trustees of the
Five Years Meeting with the power to act.
84. The following proposition from North Caro-
lina Yearly Meeting was referred to the Business Com-
mittee :
To the Five Years Meeting:
We would suggest to this Meeting that it recommend
to each Yearly Meeting comprising the Five Years
Meeting that the Discipline be so changed at the next
meeting as to admit of the appointment by the Five
Years Meeting of a Permanent Board (to represent this
Meeting during the interim) consisting of one member
from each Yearly Meeting and an additional member for
each eight thousand members and fractional part thereof
above five thousand, to serve for five years.
North Carolina Delegation.
85. The following recommendation from the Busi-
ness Committee became the action of this meeting :
The Business Committee recommends that the ar-
ticles of incorporation of the Five Years Meeting be
printed in the Proceedings of the Meeting this year.
86. The following proposition from the Business
Committee was approved :
The Business Committee does not see its way clear
to suggest any modification in the regulations of the
constitution and discipline regarding associate member-
ship.
The committee would, however, suggest that the
104 MINUTES
attention of the Yearly Meetings be called to the fact that
the regulations regarding membership place no time or
age limit upon the admission of associate members into
full membership. .
The admission into full membership as well as the
propriety of dropping the names of associate members
from the list under certain circumstances, is left entirely
to the judgment of the monthly meeting subject to such
regulations as its Yearly Meeting may adopt.
87. Allen C. Thomas, Robert E. Pretlow and
Rufus M. Jones were appointed as members of the print-
ing committee with authority to edit and publish.
88. Papers dealing with the subject "The Pastoral
Needs of our Congregations," were presented by James
Wood, Mary M. Hobbs and Clarence M. Case.
89. The meeting adjourned to meet at 2.30 p. m.
Seventh-Day, Afternoon, Tenth Month 19TH.
90. The meeting opened according to adjournment.
91. The following nominations became the appoint-
ment of this meeting:
Committee of Arrangements for Meeting in IQI2. —
New England, Rufus M. Jones; New York, James Wood;
Baltimore, Samuel R. Neave; North Carolina, L. Lyndon
Hobbs; Indiana, Elbert Russell; Western, Peter W.
Raidabaugh; Iowa, A. Rosenberger; Wilmington, Jo-
sephus Hoskins; Kansas, Edgar H. Stranahan; Califor-
nia, John Chawner; Oregon, Mabel H. Douglas; Canada,
Joseph J. Mills.
Board of Legislation, — New England, John H.
Meader, Hannah J. Bailey; Baltimore, Lindley D.
Clark, Sara H. Hoge; New York, James Wood, Albert
K. Smiley; Indiana, Timothy Nicholson, Benjamin F.
MINUTES 105
March; Iowa, Albert F. N. Hambleton, William Mather;
Kansas, Calvin C. Kesinger, Leavenworth, Kan., Al-
bert L. Cox, Lawrence, Kan.; North Carolina, J. Elwood
Cox, Delia N. Blair. Raleigh; Wilmington, Levi Mills,
Joseph I. Doan; Western, David Hadley, Murray S. Ken-
worthy; Oregon, Aaron M. Bray, Jesse Edwards; Can-
ada, Abram B. Saylor; California, John Chawner, William
V. Coffin.
On Negroes.— Baltimore, John C. Thomas; New
York, John R. Taber; Indiana, Joseph O. Goddard;
New England, Timothy B. Hussey; North Carolina,
John W. Woody, William A. Hollowell; Kansas,
Mary C. Wright; Iowa, Alfred J. Hanson, John Fry;
Wilmington, Isaac T. Johnson; Western, Solomon B.
Woodard; Oregon, H. Elmer Pemberton; Canada, ;
California, William V. Coffin.
92. The following report of the committee to con-
sider the founding of a Yearly Meeting in Nebraska.was
approved, and the committee therein nominated, was ap-
pointed by the meeting. The Treasurer was likewise
instructed to pay the traveling expenses of said com-
mittee.
To the Five Years Meeting:
The committee to consider the proposition from
Iowa Yearly Meeting in regard to the establishment of a
Yearly Meeting in Nebraska have considered the sub-
ject referred to us and we unite in recommending the es-
tablishment of the proposed Yearly Meeting.
We nominate the following named Friends to at-
tend the opening of said Meeting and assist therein:
Allen Jay, David Hadley, John F. Hanson, Eliza H.
Carey, Eliza C. Armstrong,
Signed on behalf of the committee,
Mary M. Hobbs, Secretary.
106 MINUTES
93. The nominations for Finance Committee, as
printed herewith, became the appointment of this meet-
ing:
To the Five Years Meeting:
Your committee to whom was referred the nomina-
tion of Friends to constitute the Finance Committee,
propose the following, viz., Amos K. Hollowell of West-
ern Yearly Meeting, William P. Herley of Indiana Yearly
Meeting, Albert F. N. Hambleton of Iowa Yearly Meet-
ing, Thomas Wood of New England Yearly Meeting,Miles
White, Jr., of Baltimore Yearly Meeting.
Respectfully submitted,
Thomas Wood, Chairman.
Levi Mills, Secretary,
94. The request of the Board of Foreign Missions
that the President of the Board might be ex-officio mem-
ber of the Five Years Meeting, was referred to the Busi-
ness Committee.
95. The subject of The Federation of Churches
was introduced by Robert L. Kelly, and it was decided
that Friends should unite with that organization. The
Business Committee were instructed to present six
names to represent us in the Federation.
96. The subject, "Ministry for the Present Day,"
was presented by Elbert Russell and Ellison R. Purdy.
97. Robert E. Pretlow presented the subject of
raising funds for the immediate use of the Foreign Mis-
sion and Evangelistic Board. A subscription was taken
of $4,443.50, of which $363.00 was in cash. It was the
sense of the Meeting that local Meetings be directed
to appoint a First-Day near Thanksgiving time in which
to continue similar subscriptions for the use of the two
boards already specified in this minute.
MINUTES 107
98. The problem of "A Friends Meeting in a Large
City," was discussed by Albert J. Brown and Charles
W. Sweet.
99. A discussion in regard to the printing of all
papers under the cover with the Minutes was partici-
pated in, and it was decided that no exception be made,
it being understood that this does not carry the en-
dorsement of this meeting of the contents of said papers.
100. The meeting adjourned to meet at 8 P. M.
Seventh-Day, Evening, Tenth Month 19TH.
10 1. The meeting opened according to adjourn-
ment.
102. A greeting was read from Salem Quarterly
Meeting, New England.
103. The following report was read and approved,
and the nominations therein contained became the ap-
pointment of the Meeting:
To the Five Years Meeting:
Your committee to whom was referred the recom-
mendation of the American Peace Association, makes
report :
We nominate and recommend the appointment of
the following Friends who have been suggested by the
delegates from the various Yearly Meetings, to consti-
tute the Representative Committee, of said Peace Asso-
ziation, viz., Mary Amy Gifford of New England Yearly
Meeting, Flannah Collins of New York Yearly Meeting,
Anna B. Thomas of Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Frank-
lin S. Blair of North Carolina Yearly Meeting, H.
Lavinia Baily of Indiana Yearly Meeting, Horace L.
Reeve of Western Yearly Meeting, E. Howard Brown
of Iowa Yearly Meeting, William P. Trueblood of Kansas
Yearly Meeting, Jonathan B. Wright of Wilmington
Yearly Meeting, John F. Flanson of Oregon Yearly Meet-
108 MINUTES
ing, Robert C. Root of California Yearly Meeting, Elias
Collins of Canada Yearly Meeting.
And that the following named Friends be appointed
members of the Peace Association from this meeting at
large, viz., Cyrus W. Hodgin, H. Lavinia Baily, Isaac
Wilson, Allen Jay, Elbert Russell, May Morrison, George
H. Moore, Laura S. Dunham and James B. Unthank.
We recommend that the committee thus consti-
tuted organize by the election of its own officers.,
And further that this Meeting endorse and carry
out the proposition suggested by the report of said Peace
Association as to its finances.
Respectfully submitted,
Levi Mills, Secretary.
104. A request from the Christian Endeavor Union
of Friends, that their work be recognized as a depart-
ment of the Five Years Meeting; also the selection of a
place for the next meeting, were referred to the Business
Committee.
105. The subject, "The Expansion of Quakerism,"
was presented by Isaac Sharpless,- J. Elwood Paige and
Alfred T. Ware.
106. The meeting adjourned to meet at 9.30 a. m.
on the following Second day.
SECOND-DAY, MORNING, TENTH MONTH 21ST.
107. The meeting opened according to adjourn-
ment. Joseph Elkinton of Philadelphia led the devo-
tional exercises.
108. The following proposition and nominations
MINUTES 109
from the Business Committee were approved by the
Meeting :
The Business Committee recommends that no pro-
vision be made for the appointment of ex-offlcio mem-
bers.
The committee has given careful consideration to
the proposition made by the delegation of North Caro-
lina Yearly Meeting in regard to a Permanent Board for
the Five Years Meeting, and it is concluded that the
Trustees of the Five Years Meeting, the Committee on
Legislation, and the several other boards and committees
provide the means for all the needs that may arise.
We nominate as members of the Board on the Con-
dition and Welfare of the Negroes, Allen Jay, John W.
Woody, J. Elwood Cox, Peter Raidabaugh, Carolena M.
Wood.
The following proposition of the Christian En-
deavor Union is approved by the Business Committee
and the names suggested by that proposition nominated.
To the Five Years' Meeting:
At a convention of the International Christian En-
deavor Union of Friends held at Wilmington, Ohio,
Seventh Month, 
TVNews
OpenLibrary