New Britain herald., 1917-10-11

Is there any such animal! we nave heard lot about her, this new Wom- an, and many authorities have of fered their explanations of her sphere in life AS set forth before, the en- vironment has changed often ana comprised various forms Of actlVlty' from the shaking off of suffrage shacklcs to the savings of men called to the colors. The new women were accused of starting the slackers on the road to ruin. The mothers or boys called in the draft; the wives Of husbands fitted for service; the sis ters of brothers capable of leading troops into action; the sweethearts of men who might serve the country; all these were banded together under the head of the new women,, when they refused to see their men folk go forth and fight on the battlefield for democracy These same women. not realizing the fate that the women of Belgium and Northern France suf- fcred at the hands of brutal men in the uniforms of the Kaiser's army, stnyed with their own hands the men who should have willingly volunteered to go forth and crush the greatest enemy of civilization.
 They called these the new women. They were wrong who so labelled them. Such as these are not worthy of the name woman As an an- swer to the oft asked question, What is the natural stand for the woman hood of America to assume in this war; we offer the words of a great member of the so-called gentler sex, her own sisters and to those who mis- understand them, in these words: We are not new! If you would un- derstand us go back 2,000 years and study our descent; our breed is our ~ explanation. We are the daughters of our fathers as well as our moth CTS. In our dreams we still hear the clash of the shields of our forebears as they struck them together before the battle and raised the shout of 'Freedom!' In our dreams it is with us still, and when we wake it breaks from our own lips. We are the daughters of these men,
 We need not go back two thousand years to understand real women and fJ,nir lot fo go but to the period of our own Revolutionary war. Even later, we can look to the days of 1S61-5 and see there what the real women of the world did when the men were called forth to battle. Were it not for the women man would not be free today in the countries in which he enjoys liberty. Were it not for the women of '76 there would today be no United States of America. The mothers, and wives, and sisters, and sweethearts of men who fought and bled that this nation might be what it is never heard of "the new wom- en-" Unless she is the frail, sickly, weak thing that allows.a big, strong, healthy man to hide behind her skirts in the avoidance of military duty, we too have never heard of the thew woman" If there is such thing as the new woman, the quicker she is gotten rid of the bet ter it will be for ali concerned For any woman who allows man to use her as tool by which he might es- cape national service Is not worth the clothes on her back, or the time wasted in catering to her earthly wants. Were 1t not that she will reap the harvest of her own folly, in the way of neglect and abuse at the hands of the man she now pro- tects from the military law, there need be little sympathy for her.
 In dire contrast to what we might call the new women stand the women described by Olive Schreiner, and they are legion. For every new woman there are thousands who are the offspring of sturdy fathers and sensible mothers. These are the daughters of men and women, not the daughters of new men or new women. And, as such, they may be looked upon to save the honor of womankind in this war and to drive from the country all thoughts of the new woman and her sycophantic class. Hail to the daughters of men.