Truce

At Columbus, Ohio, a Princeton Theological Seminary professor, Dr. Charles R. Erdman, received, by election, the post of Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly. It was the happy ending of a year of personal unpleasantness.* When the General Assembly of the Church met at Grand Rapids, Mich., a year ago, Dr. Erdman was the leading candidate. A Conservative, he was supported by Conservatives. He was also supported by Liberals -- for it is the strategy of Liberals not to seek the office of Moderator for one of 'themselves, but to have the office filled by a man who will maintain the unity of the Church and who will abstain from heresy-hunting, except as provided under the Church laws. But there was another candidate last year, Dr. Macartney of Philadelphia. He was not a mild, sweet-tempered, retiring, well-beloved professor. He was a vigorous younger preacher, ready to become a Lion of the Lord. His platform was a war a outrance upon all Liberals. And he was elected by a slim margin. This was due, partly, to William J. Bryan's advocacy. An important factor was that the attitude of many good church folk toward new ideas in religion had shifted from one of indifferent uneasiness to one of militant fear. They responded to the war cry. No sooner was Dr. Macartney elected than his following turned upon Dr. Erdman. They began to regard a refusal to fight Liberals as an almost greater sin than being a Liberal. In the pages of The Presbyterian and in the faculty rooms of the seminary at Princeton, war was waged. Dr. Erdman was ejected from a long-held post of Student Advisor. It was even recorded that Dr. Erdman had been seen walking with Henry Sloane Coffin, Liberal leader. But somehow, war lost its glamor; and. last week, Dr. Erdman was elected Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly, succeeding Dr. Macartney, signifying truce. The General Assembly set to work: An overture to excind from the Church the liberally inclined Presbytery of New York was withdrawn. Resolutions for the Volstead Act, against crime, were passed. Unanimous encouragement was given to a plan to erect a magnificent church in Washington to be the centre of the faith. Said Mr. Bryan: "It is a great pleasure to endorse something that will pass this Assembly unanimously." He added that he had had two residences at the Capital as well as "frequently anticipated ones." Will H. Hayes, elder, reported prog-ress in his $5,000,000 campaign for pensions for ministers. Such men as Andrew W. and Richard B. Mellon, Frederick E. Weyerhauser, Robert Lansing, Senator McKinley have been included on his committee. Said he: "To keep him [the minister], his wife and his family clothed, fed and educated, we pay him $30 a week, scarcely more than the wage of the garbage-collector, one half the wage of a carpenter, one third the wage of a mason --for the builders of walls of the temple--one third the wage of the bricklayers on an apartment house." The Presbyterian pension system, to be inaugurated next year, provides for annual payment by the beneficiary of 2 1/2% and by the employing organization 7 1/2% of the premium.

*A pleasant postlude will be the marriage of his daughter, Alice, to Francis Grover Cleveland, son of Grover.