A Bishop's Business (Cont.)

James Cannon Jr., militant dry, Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was lately revealed to have had extensive stock transactions with a bankrupt Manhattan bucketshop (TIME, July 1). Cannon critics questioned whether such dealings were worthy of a Churchman.

Last week Bishop Cannon fired back. He sent a telegram to ecclesiastical journals, widely reprinted. Excerpts: "I DESIRE THE CHURCH TO KNOW THAT I SHALL AT THE PROPER TIME ASK FOR FULL INVESTIGATION OF ALL CHARGES BROUGHT AGAINST ME, EVEN THOUGH INSTIGATED BY ENEMIES, AND DISTORTED, AND MISREPRESENTED BY HOSTILE WET PRESS. FRIENDS CONFERRED WITH THINK IT UNWISE TO ASK FOR SUCH CHURCH ACTION UNTIL COMPLETION OF THE BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS. . . . MEANTIME, I SIMPLY STATE TO MY BRETHREN THAT I HAVE NOT VIOLATED ANY CIVIL OR MORAL LAW."

Meanwhile cannonading began from another side. The New York World, famed capital wetpaper, detailed the following history, calculated further to embarrass Bishop Cannon: In 1917 (just before the Food Administration Law went into effect) Bishop Cannon bought 650 barrels of flour in the name of Blackstone College for girls, a Virginia Methodist College of which he was president. The purchase was brought to the attention of Food Administrator Herbert Hoover who referred the matter to Roland William Boyden, Chief Food Administration enforcement officer.

Mr. Hoover approved the Boyden report which read: "The man [Bishop Cannon] is clearly a hoarder . . . because he held flour in a quantity in excess of his reasonable requirements. . . . Even if we assume that he really bought the flour for the benefit of the college, he is still a hoarder, for he held enough for three years' supply. ... He is, by so doing, depriving some portion of the community of its fair share of a scarce food product. The better educated a man is the more clearly he ought to see this moral principle."