Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-08-15
THERE'L BE NO WARS
WHEN WOMEN VOTE


lie so lightly, that CIVILIZATION Snoulu,
after all these years of constructive
work. prove to be so thin a film over
barbarity
I'VE feel an imperative need for ex-
preston at this time when the hor-
rifying spectacle of a world engaged
in slaughter fairly unhinges reason"
said Miss Lillian d. Wald, the parade
chairman. "It may seem like feeble
thing for US to come together to pa
rade against such a thing, but only
woman can strip war of its glamor, its
out-of-date heroisms, see in 1t de-
mon of destruction and hideous wrong,
murder enthroned.
by our parade we shall be reaffirm-
ing our belief in the righteousness of
peace and the practicability of arbi-
tration. We shall be stretching our
hands across the water to the men
drafted into service. to the mothers
and wives and children who are the
final victims"
1t is believed that the women will
ask the President to call all neutral
nations to unite in stopping the war.
They will issue a woman's proclama-
tion that this war m-y we'll be the
death knell of Christian civilization.
for if the nations of Europe bleed each
other to death the way Will be open
to the yellow peril.
ocal Women Quizzed With Unanimous
Result
Prominent women of this city to-
day declared if they had voice in the
declaration of war there would be no
wars.
Mrs. Lyman Gilbert said: IF l had
q vote 1 would declare for peace al
ways. War is as illogical as a street
fight. In this age all matters of dis
agreement should be arbitrated."
Miss Helen Mcfarland, who is at
Eaglesmere, said in response to the
long distance query: Should women
have a voice in declaring for or
against war;" responded. II read in
the paper this morning that with every
male person between the ages of 10
and so drafted into the army, and
with food prices soaring away above
the heads of those even comfortably
situated, Austria Hungary faces desc
lation, starvation and misery. Surely
there can be but little less suffering
in other countries; even in our own
Central America. This winter cannot
help but be one of terrible hardship
for the mass of people who must bear
the full burden of the crisis in the
enormous increase in the cost of the
actual necessities of life. With babies
already dying, cholera plague being
deliberately started to affect whom it
will-men, women and children-what
woman lives but would raise her
voice against war"
Mrs. Elizabeth Kunkel said: Be
cause the burdens of life fall upon wo-
men they should have a voice in dec
laration of war. Devastation left by
war is felt most by women whose sup
port is taken away"
Mrs. Gilbert McCauley, regent of the
D. A. r.: II believe that 1t is only just
and right that women, who suffer so
much through war should have voice
| in the declaration of war. This could
only come through suffrage. 1 have
taken no definite stand on the latter
question, although l believe it is COM
ling. The voice of women would be
unanimously against war"
Mrs. Thomas VI. Jones, regent of the
Daughters of 1912. said when the same
question was put to her: War Is a
matter that affects women vitality. At
a moments notice their husbands,
| brothers and sons are ordered from
home to kill-perhaps to be killed
| The money-earner is removed and on
women during wartime falls the bur-
den of sustaining the home. They
must reap the harvests till the soil.
keep the wolf from the door and also
pay taxes for prolonging the conflict
which they do not understand and
which they abhor-for II must be re-
membered that the great mass of any
working class. The women whose hus-
band has been sent to the front must
do this work in addition to her own
although her heart be breaking with
anguish. When peace comes even
Itually, the women are either left wild
owed or with husbands weakened by
| the awful hardships through which
they have passed. They are no long
er able to he the chief wage producers
lnF ,a fa
ton their families must pay toll for
the war which they had no part in de-
claring and no power to prevent. A
flew months since one foreigner in
Steelton killed another. That was
called murder. Had the same man
killed his victim on Austrian soil dur
ing the last few days, it would have
been considered glorious-at least by
those whose ambitions have plunged
three continents in bloodshed Women,
| however, the world over still call such
deeds murder-and they decline TO
/ recognize any such thing as legaliZed
murder. In every war that has ever
been declared the chief sufferers after
all are the women; therefore they
should crtainly have voice in saying
whether war shall or shall not be
lwaged."
Mrs. Frank Bell, when interviewed,
expressed the belief that women
should have a voice in determining
whether or not war should be de-
clared, which could only come through
the power of the ballot. The question
of war is, she said, of course, not
referred directly to the people. but as
one of the reasons for war is prepara-
tion for conflict, the vote of women
would be the most potent force in
promoting peace and the arbitration of
international disputes, because the
money in war chests the world over
would be spent in bettering living,
educational and moral conditions.
DIR. Maud Conycrs ExIcy gave her
views of the question from the stand
point of the medical world by saying:
IF any class of men be destroyed by
any force they leave no offspring and
their line ceases, and the men who are
chosen for army service are above the
, leverage of their fellows in physique
and fitness. The call is always to send
forth the best ye breed With the
strongest and healthiest on the battle
fields, a large number of unfit, for one
reason or another, are left to carry
on affairs and the human race. Those
who are left make history for the fu-
. ture; and alas in the machine warfare
of to-day 1t is not the fittest who will
survive, as in time of hand to hand
, conflicts. A noted Frenchman has said
! that it will take long periods of peace