Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-05-11


LEDGER in France,
PARIS, April IL,
As WIVES and guardians of the sacred
Aness of homes, the women Of the United
States and Of France must have collectively,
according to Auguste Rodin. classified the
German Empress in the same category
all men today classify her imperial hus-
band since she has raised no womanly
wifely. motherly voice in protest against
the horrors i'm Belgium nor the recent
greater horrors in northern France.
The venerable sculptor whose head is as
that Of an ancient god and who received
me for a few moments today at Meudon is
Of the opinion that in their several ways
the roles played by the gentler sex of the
United States and France since the wars
outbreak is composite of exceeding rare
beauty due in no small measure to the
fact that French and American women live
in countries where Difference to womankind
is mans first law and as such is prac-
ticed more generally and genuinely than
elsewhere in the world.
II have never been in America and
never expect to go" said NJ. Rodin, but
l have been struck by its ideals and the
high chivalry of its men toward its women.
! know of no other nation in the world
where this chivalry exists in equal extent.
save in our France
And am sure express the unexpressed
collective thought Of your women and ours
when I say they must vision the silent at
loathnG, in the light OF that which has
occurred in Belgium and evacuated terri
tory in northern France. For this imperial
wife Of an imperial monster has raised no
wifely, womanly. motherly voice against
the first or the recent horrors I have
mentioned AS wife, a mother. what
can be her thoughts? She is represented
as imbued with Christian sentiments. a
jealous and fervent Protestant who, accord
ing to reports prays earnestly TO the Al
mighty in favor of her country and her
people If so, what must pass through her
mind at the treatment of French wives and
mothers of the Somme department by the
soldiers who serve her husband and
whose acts of violation and vandalism are
publicly proclaimed by him as 'glories to
the arms Of Germany?
Her Womanhood Should Revolt
How can she, mother and grandmother
have remained silent at the tearing away
from their mothers and grandmothers OF
more than 400 young French women to
serve as slaves, or for unmentionable pur-
poses, to the uniformed officer barbarians of
the German army?
NO American woman nor no French
woman. were her husband the Emperor
Of all the Asias, would have remained silent
under like circumstance and thus given
tacit approval to the practices of her Attila-
like husband and his Attla-lke followers,
who disgrace civilization.
In France We have witnessed with emo
tion and gratitude the spontaneous sympa-
thy and aid given by the women Of the
United states in assuaging the sufferings
Of our people and our soldiers. We know
that all over your country for nearly three
years past women in all walks of life have
knitted and sewn for us, have collected
countless quantities of countless things to
be distributed in and out of our hospitals
here one of the most impressive things
! have ever heard, a thing that moved me
to the heart was the telling by friend of
visit to the American Fund Building in
the Champs Elysees, where he saw forty
or more sweet young American girls busiIy
marking and packing supplies and COM
forts for the wounded in our hospitals
1T rs only from a nation where chivalry
toward the fair sex reigns that such women