Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-05-28
WOMEN AND WAR

At a recent reunion Of Confederate
veterans in Charleston, s. G., the
resolution declining President McKin-
ley's suggestion that the government
should care for the graves of Confed-
crate soldiers, closed with the declara-
ton that THE care of these final rest
ing places is sacred trust repOsed in
the women of the South and the duty
can safely be left with them" There
is no danger that ever they will forget
or neglect this duty. We are told that
it is the part of women to accept the
decisions of men upon these questions.
1t is our part to give up husbands,
fathers and sons, far dearer than lie
itself, to raise money, send supplies to
the absent, care for the sick and
wounded, weep over the graves of the
dead, to carry an aching heart forever,
and then are told that we must have
no voice in deciding the wars, which
cause the suffering, the death and the
graves, because we cannot serve our
country in time of need.
Our late war has demonstrated be-
You'd all shadow of doubt that women
are equally essential in time OF war
with men. Every department that was
conducted without the help OF women
has been for months writing under
the probe of an official investigation
and is still writhing under the lash OF
public opinion.
Mrs. Evelyn H. Belden, president OF
the Iowa Equal Suffrage Association,
spent some time in Chiekamauga Park,
where she had a son, and in an address
recently delivered at the National SUR
frage Convention in Grand Rapids, said
in part:
when the war broke out, the wo-
men of Iowa, with the suffragists at
their head, chaerfully consecrated
themselves to the service of State
that does no. recognize them as the
equals of their boys. | have one old
trunk that made six trips to Chicka-
manga Park, filled with delicacies for
the soldiers. About August l made up
my mind to go to Chickamauga to see
for myself | found the condition OF
things far worse than | had expected.
| found the boys yellow and hollow
eyed, who had left home strong and
rosy. There was no excuse for it. The
camp was at the end of railroad, IN
a land of abundance whose people were
eager to contribute to all the wants OF
the soldiers. There were plenty OF sup
plies on hand, but it was almost inn
possible to get an order to issue them.
Men lay for days delirious under
burning sum-, because it took several
days to get an ambulance to carry
sick soldier to the hospital. Do not
discount anything you may hear about
Chickamauga or the divisional hospi-
tails; the worst has never been told. |
asked the chaplain, several officers and
number of private soldiers whether
they would back me up if | made the
truth known through the papers, but
! they all said they could not; it would
bring too heavy penalties upon them.
| believe the real reason why Surgeon
General Sternberg did not want women
nurses was because they are not sub
ject to the severity of military rules,
and would be free to tell what they
saw. Only three women ever forced
the lines of the regiment to which my
son belonged. The two others stayed
two days, and then both fed. | stayed
a month, because | did not care how
unpleasant it was. If there had been
women on the commission, would they
have pitched the camp five miles from
water? Or provided only one horse
and one mule to bring the water for
two companies? Or order the soldiers
to boil and filter their drinking water,
without furnishing any filter or any
vessels to boil it in? 1t is said that
suffragists do not know how to keep
house. If so, the men who managed
the war must all be suffragists.'
q. I
nurses won golden opinions from every
one. If any man had given a 1.-THE of
what Helen Gould did, he could have
had any Office in the gift Of the adj
ministration. So could she, if she had
been voter. She might even have
been Secretary of War
We raise our sons to die, not for
their country-no woman grudges her
sons to her country-but to die un-
necessarily of disease and neglect of
bloody red tape.