The Washington herald., 1914-11-28

changed 1t had grown used to women's express
ing themselves 1t had come to recognize that
women had right to have their say
Now those who find the militant movement in
England so hard to understand may see clue.
Those violent women, whether they knew it or not,
were not merely fighting for the right to vote.
They were fighting for the right to stand on an
equality with men in all living. They were pressed
forward by an urge stronger than any mere in
teIlectual conception of justice, far important
to the race
What is most significant about the public ag-
tation of women is that it represents the highest
intelligence, the finest ability and character What
King George said in praise of the qualities of the
seditious Ulster men might have applied to the
militant suffragettes and with far more reason In
several of our cities where suffrage parades have
taken place, for the past few months, women and
men with special interest in suffrage have been
respectfully speaking Of the extraordinary showing
"It's a high-class movement all right" recently
heard man remark, one OF those stern believers
that women ought to be at home" Like many
another, he had come to think there must be some
thing worth thinking about in all this unrest
The war startIngly emphasizes the changed po-
sition of women. Not long ago it was taken for
granted that women should accept war and have
nothing to do with it, they could be OF
service in succoring the wounded and the sick and
in helping out in such small ways they could
OF all the silence of history there is none so pa
thetic as the silence of women in their attitude
toward war. Back through the generations there
is hardly protest. Such clamoring as the women
have made has expressed their grief over the
in tbeir rede rted tb
wounds on the bodies OF those to them and
dear. War, a masculine institution, they were
taught to revere. II was even made reproach to
them that they could not go out and fight them
selves, inferior that they were incapaci-
tated for this high service by their weakness. The
best they could do to bear male children and
to send them with noble courage to the field of
battle. On this theme the utterances of the first
Napoleon OF an mpudence fairly colossal. He
regarded marriage institution mainly de-
signed for the legitimate bringing OF children into
the world to fight his battles The marvel is that
the women of France did not get together one
woman and tear him limb from limb.
Now some women have learned better. They
are teaching the others. The movement has only
just begun. 1t never will be stopped. The time is
surely near at hand when women will clamor for
there shall or shall not be war. And their clamor-
ing is likely to be far effective than the weak
that is now going on among men all
over the world.
When God wipes the slate clean," said Bossuet
"He is beginning to write" He is writing now in
letters large that any can read. He is telling
mankind that the only plaques not those that
result from physical disease, expressions OF filth
and squalor. There are other plaques that result
from causes even deeper, reaching back into the
soul of the world, from the wanton disregard OF
those simple human principles which are the only
security OF social relations, which we accept in
theory but not in fact, which deny, boldly and
hagrantly, by long-established habits and Gus
toms. Hitherto, women have stood apart and felt
that all these violations must be right because men
think so and say SO. With tear-stained eyes they
have sent their sons to kill the sons of other
women. 1t has seemed to them the only thing to
do Will they go doing it after they have learned
better?
The Happy Medium.