The Washington times., 1906-03-04

Baroness Won Suttner Put
Much Study in 1t.
BARELY FOUND PUBLISHER
Only One Would Take Risk of Issuing
Anti-War Composition in
Germany.
BERTHA Won SUIT
NER.

NER.
the end of the eighties
udied natural history,
istOry for year. con
ce. which soon grew 10
he N, that war is a bar
barrie inh> which must he abo'-
Ished by Civl. n.
The problem k my interest more
and more and I decided to give my mite
toward the propagation of universal
peace. Being an authoress I thought
that ] could do this with most effect
by writing a book, and l decided to
describe in a realistic novel the suffer
ings OF a young wife who loses her hus-
band on the battlefield and who imper-
ceptibly learns TO condemn war.
Heroine Must Learn.
had come to condemn war through
study. but wanted my heroine to come
to the same conclusion by practical ex4
perienee.
While 1 thought of the general plan OF
my book the material on hand grew so
that instead of merely writing a short
story wrote a book of two volumes.
Wanting TO be as exact as possible in
all historic details, l studied thoroughly
the works of the general STATS in the
wars of 1859, 1864, 1866. and 1S70-1. as
well as the reports of the surgeons gen.
eral and of the Red Cross Society. 1
spent months in libraries and approach
ed many men who had taken part in
these wars.
When / had finished my manuscript
and written on the cover the title, Lay
Down Your Arms I felt stronger than
In, Haf condemnation Of
war. 1 sent my work TO a house at
stuttgart which heretofore had publish
ed everything that I had written and
some :sme previously had asked me TO
write another book
In a very short time my manuscript
was returned with a letter from the
publishers that the subject was not
one tit for a novel"
Volumes Often Rejected.
Surprised. but by no means dis
uouraged. / sent the manuscript out
again and again, but no publisher
Jared 70 have anything to do with it.
The subject is Of no interest to the
reading public'-''the book would hurt
the feelings of thousands of people
n book of this kind cannot be pub
Iished in Il military state like ours.
These were the remarks of the pub
lIshers who declined my work.
Al last l took the manuscript TO Z.
Pierson at Dresden, whom I had
known in business way for many
years. He also hesitated and advised
me TO change the title and to cut out
many parts OF the book which were
apt To displease prominent diplomats
and statesmen.
refused most positively The title
OF the book, and the parts which I was
advised to cut out were just those
which constituted the principle raison
oetre of the story.
Publisher Accepts Risk.
The book must bc published just
as I wrote it," I replied, or not at
all" Pierson consented 10 take the
risk
When later 1 took active part in the
peace movement, many thought
wrote the book to further my plans.
This is a mistake. 1 did not write
the book intending to become an ad-
l-ocate of peace 1 was influenced to
take up active work by my own book
All this happened many years ago.
At that time novels could still be con
sidered valuable arguments in the uni
versal peace movement Today that
movement has grown to such proper
ttons that a book like mine has been
completely overshadOwed by many
weightier and more powerful arsu-
ments-
No question is today of greater i'm
portance. The first steps have been
taken and the task of the friends OF
peace is to support and develop exist
ing organizations tthe Peace Tribunal
at The Hague, the Interparliamentary
Union) and they have every reason
TO expect success. especially once the
American members of the Interparlia-
mentary Union have tackled the prob
lem in the most practical manner.
At the next conference at The
Hague, for which the world must
thank President Roosevelt. the plans
of Mr.. Bartholdt and the other Amer
lean delegates Will be taken up and
undoubtedly adopted, and another
mighty step forward shall then have
been taken.
W0nDEN I[G0 [0R D0G0