Religion: Primitive Viscountess

For Viscountess Snowden of Ickornshaw, speechmaking, even by radio, is no novelty. Back in 1905 when she was the clever, young, pretty wife of a struggling Socialist journalist named Philip Snowden, she was very busy speechmaking for Women's Suffrage and Temperance. Today Lady Snowden is a governor of the British Broadcasting Corp., patroness of opera and theatre, a justice of peace herself, a valiant opponent of Bolshevism. To the U. S. last week she spoke, over a transatlantic hookup, on another subject which has occupied much of her time: Religion. Lady Snowden is a Primitive Methodist, former Sunday School teacher and choir singer.

Next September is to be consummated the union, planned in 1913 and ratified last year, of Great Britain's three largest Methodist branches; Wesleyan, Primitive and United. Last week Lady Snowden pointed out that in the united church will be 1,241,303 church members, 5,234 ministers, 2,800 church buildings, $400,000,000 worth of property. Methodism, said she, stands for evangelism, social work, salvation. "The union of British Methodism will give a new emphasis to the great spiritual experiences to which Methodism has testified from the beginning, ever since the experience of John Wesley which came to him in May, 1738 in London and which marked an epoch in the history of the world for its demonstration of the moving power of the Spirit."*