Albuquerque morning journal., 1915-04-29
WOMEN AND WAR

Nearly . thousand womon arc as
aomhied "a The Ilngue for the puf-
pose Of devniuR means Of bringing
this war to an end aud IN the hope
Of finding hasis for permanent
poaee. There are delegations from
Auslria. Germany. Great Britain ana
Belgium. of the warning nations.
Holland has nearly nine hundred del
eRates present. nfty.one American
women are on the ground and forty
Two others en- route. Armenia, Italy
ana the scandinavian countries are
represented.
The British and German DELEGATES
extended warm Greetings TO each
other Notwithstanding the fact that
their respective countries hate each
other with an unhoy hatred and are
making war AGAINST each other with
sayage disfegard Of the rules Of civil
lzed nations
II Is 10 be noted that there Is. not a
single French woman present,
though Allegation from France
might easily have reached The
Hague. Also there Is no representa-
tive from Russia possibly for the
reason that travel from Russia to the
west Is now most difficult
There Is every indication that the
Iron has entered the souls Of the
women Of France Meetings of their
clubs and peace societies were held
and the decision was unanimous that
NO peace talk could be indulged by
them go long az an invader remained
within the boundaries Of France,
All Of which recalls the lecture on
war delivered hy John Ruskin at The
Royal Military academy at WOOL
wich in 1865, Turning TO the women
ia the audience. he declared that
war "is not the fault Of us men" "lt
~ your fault Wholly yours he eS-
claimed
Like thousand other things suld
brilliantly by Ruskin, the charge
that women are responsible for war
" not true. II is equally untrue that
women could end this or any other
war in which the feeling is deep.
Buskln said further, still addressing
The women
And the real. final reason for all
the poverty misery, and rage of bat
tle throughout Europe. Is simply that
you women. however good however
religious. however aelf-sacrifielng for
those whom YOU love. are too selfish
and too thouHhtless to take pains for
amy creature out of your own imme-
diate circles. You fancy that YOU are
sorry for the pain of others. Now
just tell sou thie, that lf the usual
course of war. instead of unroofing
peasants houses. and faNnging peas
ants fields. merely broke the china
upon your own drawing room tables
no war 81 civilized countries would
last a week ] tell YOU more. that at
whatever moment you chose 90 put a
period 90 war. you could de- n with
less trouble than you take any day to
ao out 20 dinner
AS a matter of fact women have
had little 60 do with bringing on the
wars Of the world and not much to
dc with ending them. should the
women unitedly oppose war il Is quite
possible there weuld be no war Also
" al The women Of all the countries
~ war should unite In opposition to
its continuance II is quite possible Il
would b. ended sooner than if they,
like the spartan mothers. told theh
husbands and sons 60 return with
their shields of upon them.
But except at rare Intervals in the
worlds history tho voice OF women
has not been for war The "tumult
and lh6 shouting Is not theirs Ii is
theirs 10 suffer and bear the suffer-
ing aloue.
The world Viii watch with interest
the conference Of the women at The
Hague. and every American. except
Colonel Roosevelt, viii hope that
they may fan ppon some plan that
will hasten the end of the murder
ihst il being perpetrated in Europe.