The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-09-20
WHY WOMEN SHOULD AROUSE.

we Ieel sure LiiAt the dutI~Wa ere 4
ment would have little support from
the women of this country If there
was run understanding Of the Ger.
man attitude IN general toward WON. !
en-. and especially OF the treatment OF
women by army officers and soldiers. |
The horror of war naturally comes
very close to the wives ana mothers
who must sacrifice their husbands and
sons. They, indeed, are the greatest
sufferers of ALL yet for that reason
they are the ones who should most
carefully weigh the cost and results.
war Is lost all the rights which the
women Of this country have gained
after heroic struggles will be lost too
We should not live in the pleasant
dream that Germany. ii victorious
win permit the United States to con
time To run its own affairs. as it haa
since July 4. l7;G. Germany is not
! built along those lines.
Suppose. for instance. in Missonia
where an army post has been main.
! tanned for many years, a woman about
| to get on n street car was obliged to
step back 10 permit a German officer
| to pass before her II he were also
| boarding the car. All German women
do that, but how would the Missoula
women like it, Also. suppose that
one or two of our aIissoula women
| encountered soldiers who iostled them
or stepped on their feet or pushed
them from the walk and then went on
| without so much as an apology. How
| many women think that would be at
all pleasant? Yet in German cities it
thrust aside when officers or soldiers
come along.
There has lately arrived IN this
country Marie Bonini Brown. an opera
singer. who talks interestingly OF her
experiences in Germany before and
after the declaration of war. An
! American girl whom she knew slapped
the face of a German soldier who in
suited her outragcously while She was
walking through an avenue OF Berlin.
These insults in America would have
landed him in Jail whether he was II
soldier or not. The man, after he had
been slapped. called n policeman and
this American girl was sent to police
court and allowed twelve days in
| which to leave the country for insult
ing tho kaiser by slapping one of his
soldiers.
The long and horrible story OF as.
satllts upon Belgian and French wom-
en- and girls has been told with such
detail as to leave no doubt of the truth.
1t is known also that these deeds were
done with the permission and author
. ity Of tho highest military officers. We
have We, to see a single record of
the German soldiers having been dis
f ciplined or punished for these horrors.
2, 1t may be said that these things hap
!, pen III wars when restraint TO some
= degree is lcssencd. but on the other
hand. is il not strange that the Ger
q man government. with its boosted
! discipline. has no means of controlling
= its army in an invaded country?
There viii b, no votes for women
, in Montana or elsewhere in the United
o states within a few years if Germany
q wins. The conditions so far as women
are concerned that prevail in Germany.
viii be worse in the United States
/ WomanhoOd has everything at stake in
1 this war, and 1t Is earnestly hoped that
n the women as well as the men will hs
:. aroused fully to the necessity Of fight
: ing II out to a full decision.
n Remembering the foolish things h,
had done should serve the ayevag,
man as a preventive Of sWeiled head
" -TnInAn RloAA E+#.--