In Cleveland

The question of enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment has become an outstanding moral issue in America today and has raised the question of obedience to the fundamental law of our land, including all amendments to the Constitution, particularly the Fourteenth* and Fifteenth+-

"We therefore recommend . . . honest enforcement of the amendments ... es- pecially the Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Eighteenth."

Immediately, "this body," the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, which, with official delegations from 28 denominations, was holding annual session in Cleveland, became an uproar. Said the Rev. Dr. George Summey of New Orleans: "Now let's be careful lest we touch matters of a political nature and commit ourselves to something that will soil the garments of the Bride of Christ. . . . There is a wide difference of opinion. Now, let's go carefully." Colored Baptist Dr. W. H. Jernagin pleaded in its favor on the grounds that it would give the Negro church confidence in white church cooperation on one of their major problems. After the afternoon's argumentation, the Federal Council next day ratified two separate resolutions. The first demanded, "effective enforcement of the Prohibition law." The second urged "honest enforcement of the Constitution, including all amendments."

On other points, the Federal Council voted with comparative unanimity. Advocated by Dr. Charles Stedman MacFar-land, general secretary of the executive committee, sex education was encouraged by the council--"in view of the influences tending to lower the ideals of marriage, weaken the sense of marital, parental, and social responsibility and undermine the home. . . ."

No resolutions were passed concerning U. S. policy toward Mexico but approval was given to a good-will movement, by which U. S. brats would send "friendship schoolbags" to the brats of Mexico, as a year ago, "goodwill dolls" were sent to Japan.

Cleveland, Ohio, was proposed as the site of a 1930 interdenominational church congress to develop a spiritual and evan- gelical program that would "recapture the imagination" of U. S. youth. Said the Rev. Dr. William Robert King, executive secretary of the Home Missions Council: "We, the churches of the United States, must do something big and adventurous to appeal to the spirit of youth." Six committees will spend the next two years working out a program to accomplish this end.

The Home Missions Council found itself sharply divided on the advisability of converting young Jews who regard their own religion with apathy. Said Dr. Ernest Milton Halliday: "... I would say to a young Jew who has left his synagog: 'go back to your rabbi and your synagog and the God you and I hold in common.'"

The merit of Protestant churches is their individualism; balancing this merit and springing from it, is the lack of central power, an effective and coherent administrative instrument. The Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, in a sense, supplies this want. Last week, while its representatives were meeting in Cleveland, a measure sponsored by the Federal Council and the Interna-tiona] Council of Religious Education came before the New York State Legislature at Albany. This was a bill of incorporation for the Religious Education Foundation, an organization representing 22,000.000 Protestants. Its purpose would be to act as a clearing house for funds donated for the dissemination of Protestant religious education. It would be in the control of trustees appointed by various interdenominational organizations and by the American Bankers' Association; funds would be distributed to approved teaching organiza- tions without denominational discrimination.

Discernible in the activities of the National Council and other interdenominational organizations is the definite trend toward Protestant church unity. Notable in this respect was the session, held in Cleveland a few days before the meeting of the Federal Council, of the National Church Comity Council. Finding few points of dissension, the 500 delegates from 30 denominations agreed upon a definition of competitive denominationalism in small communities, a competition which leads to poor sermons, impoverished churches, shabby rivalries between small congregations. They agreed that communities of 1,000 persons, if provided with more than one Protestant edifice, were "overchurched." Per contra, every 1,000 persons should support one Protestant edi- fice, one resident pastor, one Sunday School, a regular weekly service.

*"No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States."

Equal rights for white and colored citizens.