The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-04-03
MRS. HENRoTIN FOR PEACE.
Mrs. Isaac Shtllington Is Not, ard
She Tells Why Not.

Mrs: Isaac Shilington, of Chicago. whose
son Harry was a victim Of the Maine disas-
Yer, makes stirring comment upon Mrs.
Henrot1n's letter to President Mckinley. Mrs.
Henrotin, in behalf of the National Fedora
ton Of Womens clubs, extends to the ex-
ecutive sympathy and commentator for his
maintenance of peace at any price save that
OF honor. She guarantees him the moral sup
port OF the federation in the war is in
evitable, but denounces struggle for ma
tional ACKNOWLEDGMENT, for" she says, ION
us (the mothers) war will fall the heaviest.
We must give our sons
II have already given one of mine" Is Mrs.
Shilington's answer.
My Harry. But with one boy buried in the
mud OF Havana harbor and another on boal d
a United States cruiser that may be the first
to sink in case of war. 1 have appeal to
make to the president for peace. l am a
| mother. and l have suffered as perhaps not
many Of the mothers who have Joined in Mrs.
Henrotin's appeal have suffered but / do
not shrink at the notion of war. We must
think of our own, and heaven knows no one
could have thought more of her boy than
/ did of the one who died the Maine, but
thought of-mothers who have seen their little
ones starve 10 death by their sides Their
homes have been DESTROYED and families
sundered and men and women and children
| permitted to die like cattle. | have to think
of those things.
You see l believe there are other things
in the world besides business interests. or
course, I know the money interests of the
country are entitled to full share of con-
sideration. but | believe. too. in honor.
believe it and 1 taught. it to my children.
and 1 think they learned the lesson, for the
| officers Of the Maine have written to me that
Harry never swerved from the strict line
of his duty, that he never did a thing that
his mother could not have known, and that
he loved his country and wanted to fight for
shrank from what was right and neither
will /. and can give my other boy to my
cOnunntSry If need be- as l did my oldestson
Alliance today. His last letter to me said
that row he had but one thought and that
II and the death of his brother filled him
with hate for those who caused 1t. l do OF
feel, of course. the same about 1t that he
does. do not feel any spirit OF revenge.
Il only want to see the honor of the coun-
try vindicated so that my boy, who is a
sailor on board United States ship, can
walk the streets of a foreign city and feel
that the blue uniform he is
spected, and that IL he dies his government
will demand atonement and that he is some
thing more than the iron guns or the plating
on the side of the ship that be left buried
in the muddy bottom of harbor and forgot
81 have no criticism to make on the wom-
en- who have joined in Mrs. Henrotin's pc
ttion. They want to be spared the loss
of their loved ones and l pray God that
they may be. But if He should let them
suffer even 1 have suffered, STILL if 1t is
for the sake of the dead and dying in Cuba.
flag, and for the sake of the boys who were
, killed on the Maine, can only say to
them as l say to myself a. hundred and
thousand times a day, 1t had to be, it had to
be. There other way.
II have given one boy to his country.
I offer another one. If it were possible I
would go myself, but for us women, we can
only wait at home while the days drag by
and hope against hope. But if I could
would go myself and fight the Spaniards.
And 1 would never stop fighting until our
country won or l was still as the men
! who lie in the new-made graves in the
|, Havana cemetery
THAT is the wey I feel. I think more
OF the flag, more of honor, and more of suf-
fering humanity than l do of business inter-
ests.'