A Bishop's House

''God himself kept those lots vacant for Clarence True Wilson. . . ."

So declared Bishop William Fraser McDowell, President of the Board of Temperance, Prohibition & Public Morals of the Methodist Episcopal Church last year in describing the selection of the site of the Methodist Building on Capitol Hill.

Upon "those lots" Dr. Wilson, the board's secretary, caused to be erected a structure which many have charged is the Capital's busiest beehive of lobbying.

Last week God failed to preserve other Methodist lots on the opposite side of the street. These and the house on them were the property of Bishop James Cannon Jr. of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The government wanted the site for the new home of the Supreme Court of the U. S. A federal board condemned it and Bishop Cannon was obliged to sell. His Virginia admirers in 1925 had given him this $12,500 abode believing he had pauperized himself in the cause of Prohibition. In Washington he lived at the Driscoll Hotel, on the opposite side of Capitol Hill, rented out his gift home. Though he said he would not take $20,000 for the property because of its proximity to the Capitol, Library of Congress, Union Station, nevertheless as a "loyal citizen" he consented to sell it to the U. S. for $16,000.

His house disposed of, Bishop Cannon last week hastened to Manhattan, caught the S. S. Olympic to Europe "to get as far away from politics as possible." Abroad he will attend: Universal Religious Peace Conference at Frankfurt-am-Main; Faith & Order Conference at Maloja; Life Work Conference at Eisenack. He will return in time to work in the Virginia election campaign in October.