The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1917-11-09
Bruce and the Black Douglas, Prince

Hal at Agincourt, Desaix in Napo-
Icons battlefront, Nelson at Trafalgar
and John Paul Jones on the Bon
Homme Richard, Stuart with his bat
tie song, and Stonewall jackson,
with the uplifted hand of prayer, these
and all the rest of the gallant, death
less, dauntless hero list of them, down
to albert the Landless," of our own
sad day, do you love and honor. and
pass on to new hearts to love and
honor again, generation after genera
ton, age after age.
Men are what their mothers make
them. We do not teach our sons to-
love peace without honor, nor to stand
aside and look on when helpless hui
mainly calls for aid"
The following is the conclusion OF
Annie Rankin's splendidly written ar
ticle on Woman and War;" which ap-
peared as the leading editorial article
in the Southern Woman's Magazine
for November:
Through some six thousand years
or more of upward progress we hui
man beings have GENE to the Age of
Woman. We have passed the stone
age, the iron age and the gold; we
have passed the dark ages, the age of
rebirth, the age of hero worship, the
age of democratic awakenings and the
age of inherited leadership. We are
come now to the Age of Woman, and
with the ready eagerness of new COM
radeships with men and of new liber-
ties, we are falling now and then into
exaggerations in both deeds and
words. For one thing we are being
told over and over again that never
before has the world realized the des-
olation that war brings to women,
and over and over again we are being
told, too, that had women the power,
they would put an end to war; These
are foolish sayings, both of them. Men
have always known that women were
the chief sufferers by war, and women
suffering so, have cheered their men
into battle throughout every war that
has racked the world since history be-
gan.
Ideals says Carlyle, fever lie a |
great way off," And it may be that
woman, who is by nature and instinct |
creative who cherishes all things that
stand for toll and labor either of head |
or heart or hand knowing of her own |
pain the sorrow and the travail of Gre
alton, and who is held fast by love tol
some one spot that she calls home
1T may be that from its very remote |
ness, its destructiveness, its ruthless
horrors, she chooses the battlefield |
as the theater of her ideals. For in
spirit always and when God is good
to her in fact also, a battlefield ever
lies "a great way off,
Cor it may be that because wom-
ans life, whatever be it's visible la
bors, is at heart passionate living
out of the verb to be, she chooses the
opposite ideal and worships most de-
voutly the man of battle and of war
as the supreme exponent of the verb
to do. What was done, what is do
ing, and what will be done,' without
the hindering dream of kinship or of |
kindness, is the soldiers perfect code |
Of duty, truly "a great way Off from
woman's dream of love and happiness.
THAT women bear the brunt of war
is an age-old truism. That to. women,
and not to men, is the heart-break and
the agony, the unnameable fear and |
the desolation of war is matter too
long accepted to be question for de-!
bate. But that woman uses her infiu- |
ence against war is an unproveable |
statement in spite of its reasonable |
ness. The real truth is that woman
is wars chief alder and abettor. His
tory bears witness to her courage, herl
and her devotion to her
own country's armies through every
that has torn the heart OF
since the creation of the
world. But she has not gone on rec
ord as ever making practical protest
against the foolishness of war.
'It is but repeating an old story to /
tell of the miseries and the heroism
of woman in our present war. Not
only is she once against the helpless
victim, but she is also, once more, the
and the help of each sepa-
rate army as it enters the tragic |
melee. Not only does she live and die |
for the little ones left at home, doing |
the work of men, sowing and gather
ing in the harvests. toiling at tasks to |
which her strength and training are