Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-06-14

will give very clever play called The
Council of the Gods" having for its
theme the rights of women. 1t was de-
cded to render this in English, and there
was no difficulty I'm finding enough god
desses' to take the required parts. but
the young woman who was managing 1t
declared the idea would have to be
abandoned. because they couldn't find
enough gods who spoke English" How
ever. the deities necessary tOg NIL the
quota were finally drafted from Amster-
dam.
One feature of the program seems
rather odd to those of us from the United
States, whole afternoon devoted to
discussion of Woman Suffrage From
the Standpoint of Christians an effort
to show that it is not antaSonlstlc TO
Christianity.
In our country the movement for en-
franch sing women embraces those OF
'every NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. Catholic and
Jew. while liberals or non-believerS have
equal standing. The president of the Ma
tional Suffrage Association. the Rev.
Anna Howard Shaw. is an ordained Meth
odst minister: one vice president Men
tai Scientist, one secretary a Unitarian,
the treasurer and first auditor devout
Episcopalians. one or two members verg-
ing toward agnosticism, the president of
the Philadelphia branch. the largest local
society. q strong Catholic. The question
IOf religious belief is absolutely ignored
by us; that battle has been fought and
Hollands Churchmen in Opposition.
In Holland they are still in the thick of
the contest, and the situation is acute.
For many years the suffrage movement
has been almost wholly in the hands of
those who are known as ''liberals' in re-
ligion, while the clergy, both Catholic and
Calvinist, have bitterly opposed it. The
women of their congregations. however
have come to see the necessity of the suf-
frage, and have grown FESTIVE under the
clerical prohibition TO take no part in the
movement. Many of them have already
gone into it and have found it possible to
work in entire harmony with the liberal
women. something which the two parties
of men have been wholly unable to do in
their own lines. The speakers at this re-
lgious meeting, which is really attracting
more interest than any other. are the
Rev Miss Shaw and Police Judge Catha-
rine Waugh McCulloch of the United
States, the latter a rigid Congrega tional-
list: Lady Balfour. president of the London
branch of the British National Suffrage
Association; Frau Pastorinde Blauenfeldt,
the very orthodox wife of a leading Lu-
theran clergyman of Denmark who IS or
ganizing suffrage clubs there within the
church: Countess van Hogendorp of Hol-
land. at the head of the social purity
work. They will try to demonstrate that
a woman may enter the political arena
and still remain Christian. Whether
they will try to prove this by pointing
with pride to the men of their respective
countries remains to be seen, but prob
ably the speakers from the United States
will have some other argument up their
sleeve.
American Women to Preach.
Another side of the picture has been
amusingly illustrated in the controversy
over having Miss Shaw preach on the
Sunday preceding the opening of the
congress. No ordained woman minister
has ever entered pulpit in Holland, and
some of the iconoclasts were determined
to smash the record. 1t was about the
only innovation that women had not
made. and they decided that the present
was the logical time to establish the prec
edent. But a difficulty arose. Not a
Calvnist or Lutheran church would grant
its pulpit for this purpose. At length
they succeeded in getting. for a financial
consideration. the large Walloon church,
where for several centuries the descend
ants of the French Huguenots have wor-
SHIPPED in the true Presbyterian faith. But
by this time disSension the subject
had arisen in the local committee of the
congress. The liberal and socialist men.
who oppose suffrage for women because
lit will forever establish the clericals in
power" We're now crying aloud, Just as
we Observation-Disclosures in the WOOdpile
the convention beginning with a sermon
by an orthodox minister in an orthodox
pulpit. Without the support of these
two parties women never could hope to
secure the franchise, and now just as
they had prepared to answer the charge
of infidelity' they were met by the coun-
ter charge of Orthodoxy Long and loud
was the discussion. but Miss Shaw and
the Walloon finally won ont, although
whether by the votes of ''infidels'' or
''clericals' it is difficult to say, as they
seemed pretty we'll mixed up on the fine
points at issue. Now, at o'clock Sunday
afternoon. June Il. a jolly little preacher
from the new world will he marking an
epoch in this small corner of the old
world famed throughout the centuries
for it's religious tolerance and yet never