ART. IV.-SUPPORT OF CONFERENCE CLAIMANTS.

In recent years much discussion has taken place throughout the Methodist Episcopal Church in regard to the better support of our worn-out ministers and the widows and orphans of such as have died in the ministry. Many plans have been formulated, and not a few experiments have been made; yet it remains a fact that throughout the larger portion of the Church no plan has yet been put in operation which will yield adequate results.

The profession of the ministry, when viewed from a business standpoint, is marked by certain peculiarities which make it imperative that some provision should be made for the above-named classes. The ministry is an unpaid profession. That Methodist minister is a rare man who, with his frequent removals and with the demands made upon him for maintenance of his social standing, for the proper education of his children, and for benevolence and charity, can live upon his salary and lay aside a competency for age. The work also requires the full powers of a man. There are no "easy jobs." True, in common parlance, the appointments are spoken of as "first class," "second class," etc., but this does not mean that the work upon the lower grades is easier. Each requires a whole man. Hence, when age or impaired health comes on, though the man may yet possess a clear mind and strength enough for moderate labors, still, because he is not in full strength, he feels constrained to retire from the work. A physician in like condition would turn over the night calls and the long rides to a younger man, while he would retain the cream of his practice and make a good living. A lawyer in like condition would turn over the drudgery of his profession to a younger partner, while his services as counselor would enable him to end his days in worldly ease and plenty. A farmer, a mechanic, a merchant, would utilize his boys in his business, while his ripened experience would enable him to retain a remunerative connection therewith. But a minister

must quit absolutely and at once. He has a charge to-day, and a living salary. To-morrow Conference meets, and ere it

1

adjourns he finds his name put upon the list of superannuates. He returns to his family, but not to his home, for home he has none. The house in which he has been living is the parsonage, and he must vacate it within a week to make room for his successor. Without employment, without income, with age and feebleness confronting him, he must rent a humble dwelling and turn his attention to some new field of enterprise for the purpose of meeting his necessary expenses. Possibly the Conference has given him a small sum from the fund at its disposal. Possibly he has been able to save something during his active years. But in the majority of cases his annual income will fail to furnish a comfortable support.

Impressed with these facts the Methodist Episcopal Church has legislated upon this subject throughout its history; but it must be confessed that the case has not been met. Omitting mention of earlier legislation, the action of the General Conference of 1888 gave us a somewhat elaborate system, and the promise was that something would be done. But the plan was foredoomed to failure, because it did not give the Conferences severally control of the funds raised within their own bounds. In 1896 another formal action was passed, but it has resulted in little that is practicable.

In order that our minds may be somewhat clarified upon this subject, that has confessedly puzzled the wisest among as, let us take a brief look at what some of the other great branches of Methodism are doing in the same direction :

1. The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Great Britain is the mother of us all. Her plan of support for claimants is the result of slow development. It is systematic and thorDugh, and yields fairly good results. It is of double organization, as follows:

(1) "The Worn-out Wesleyan Ministers' and Ministers' Widows' Auxiliary Fund." This is a pure charity. Its moneys are collected from the people, much as among us, but the work is more thoroughly done, and elaborate itemized reports are published. All superannuates and widows are claimants upon this fund, according to a graduated scale based on length of service, but cases of special need receive special treatment. (2) "The Itinerant Methodist Preachers' Annuitant Society."

This is a purely business association. It has had one hundred years of experience. Membership is voluntary. At the present time seventy-one per cent of the ministers belong to it. Its conditions of membership are iron-clad. Every member, during the four years of his probation, annually pays $26.25 into the fund, and, after he is received into full membership, $30 annually. There are also heavy payments as marriage premiums, in order to secure an annuity for the wife in case she should become a widow. The proceeds are distributed strictly according to a graduated scale depending on length of active service. The widow gets seven eighths as much as her husband would have gotten. The Auxiliary Fund before mentioned has about one million dollars of permanent investments, and the Annuitant Society about twice as much.

The Methodist Church of Canada has copied, modified, combined, and, in the judgment of the writer, greatly improved the plans of British Methodism. As the present Church in Canada has resulted from the combination of four smaller Methodist bodies, two systems for the support of claimants have been retained, one in use in the eastern section of the Church and the other in the western. Their difference is chiefly in minor details. What is said here is based on the system in force in the western section. They have a Board of Managers appointed under authority of the General Conference. Their invested funds, now amounting to about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, have come from donations and bequests. Their current funds are derived from: (1) Interest on investments. (2) Appropriations from the publishing house. (3) Subscriptions of ministers and probationers. These are compulsory and are three per cent of the salary received, but are in no case less than fifteen dollars. (4) Contributions from circuits. These are very positive assessments, for which the superintendent of the circuit is made financially responsible. To ascertain the amount due from any particular circuit they add together the amount paid the previous year for ministerial support and the amounts paid to the six principal benevolent causes, and take five per cent of this sum. (5) The Missionary Society is required to make payment in behalf of every missionary employed. The funds

are distributed to the claimants according to a graduated scale, based on active service, and ranging from five dollars per year to those who break down after five years' service up to ten dollars per year to those who have served thirty years or longer. Widows receive two thirds the amount their husbands would have received, and children under sixteen years of age get twenty dollars a year each. But necessitous orphans may be more liberally provided for by the board. Commutation of annuities is provided for in certain contingencies. Extra necessitous cases are provided for through another fund.

Such are the plans, in substance, which have been formulated by the two branches of Methodism best equipped for the care of its worn-out ministry, though the Australian branch has a system modeled after the same pattern. The results are very much better than in most of our own Conferences. Now, in both of these plans there enters the element of business as well as the element of benevolence. In Great Britain the business element is found in the Annuitant Society, where every man pays for all he gets. All pay alike, and all share alike in the proceeds. In Canada business and benevolence are merged together. By the compulsory assessments, or "subscriptions," the ministers are required to make some businesslike provisions for themselves, while the fact that the subscription is a percentage on the salary causes the strong to support the weak, and thus secure real benevolence. At the same time the benevolent feature is reinforced by turning the collections gathered from the people into this same fund.

In the management of this matter in the Methodist Episcopal Church-except so far as the dividends from the Book Concern go-we have relied entirely upon benevolence, and have never put any business into our methods. Bartimeus, the son of Timeus, has faithfully sat and begged, but he has never gotten his eyes open to the great fact that "the Lord helps those who help themselves." How shall the business element be introduced into our system? It is needless to review the many attempts that have been made in various Conferences looking toward that end, or to speak of the manifest failure that has overtaken very many of them. The best of them, because they are not connectional, are liable to be greatly 48-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. XV.

complicated by the transfer of preachers from one Conference to another. Now, while the British and Canadian systems have about them a sort of monarchical, crack-of-the-whip air which would not be popular in the United States, is it not possible to evolve out of them a system that will be practicable and give us great relief? The legislation of 1896 was good as far as it went. Let that part stand which refers to the (misnamed) Conference Claimant Fund (Discipline, ¶293). In the same paragraph an Annuity Fund is authorized but not provided for, and here is where additional legislation is needed. This should be the business end of our system. Many efforts have been made by various Conferences to secure a fund by annual payments from the ministers, but, as there is no authority anywhere to enforce such a regulation, some have refused to pay, and in the course of a few years the whole scheme has usually failed. But why not learn from our British and Canadian brethren? If in Britain the ministers can pay thirty dollars each and in Canada three per cent of their salaries to aid this fund, why cannot we in the United States do something of the same sort? What is needed is something that shall be mandatory upon all Methodist preachers and uniform throughout the Church.

We venture, then, to make some practical suggestions. Let the General Conference ordain that every effective minister and probationer shall pay, say, two per cent of his salary into the current funds of his Conference for annual distribution among the claimants thereof. This will relieve all difficulties about transfers. Then let each Conference seek to augment its own fund by securing gifts and bequests for permanent investment. Under the authority of the Discipline, as it now stands, so much as may seem prudent of the invested funds now in the hands of the several Conferences may be diverted to the Annuity Fund. The New York East Conference, with large endowments, now uses eighty per cent of all its receipts for annuities, and finds the remaining twenty per cent sufficient for cases of special necessity. Let the plan be duly adapted to the relief of worn-out foreign missionaries, a class who are now left absolutely without provision except as the Missionary Society shall continue them on its pay-roll after