New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-02-17
WOMEN AS PACIFISTS
Wy Mrs Mary Constrained to Resign from the women
Party-Feminism Society Whole
BY MARY AUSTIN

felt informing all their propaganda, Just as
the special limitations oil wome" s"sN'
their judgments. Hi.
This is the time of all others to ADMIT
that women have special limitations. Even
while we assert that these limitations are
;mposed and not inherent, it would be form
Of treason now TO offer the judgment OF
women without admitting the points at which
il is likely TO miss hre.
The peace that is desired by everybody Is
a condition, not sentiment But women %
a class have no experience IN establishing
international conditions; they have no pasis
in experience for judging such condluohs'
During the last two years l nave pee"
more or less associated with women WORKING
for peace In order, as l believed, 20 IN
crease nv usefulness | kept closely In touch
with several men Of the capacity to under
stand and in a position to know the true
inwardness of the European situation But
gradually as went TO and fro between these
two groups I discovered that though they
both desired the same end they were Ira'e'-
ling two separate paths.
Probably it is inevitable it should be So
In the long road which the mind OF man
has travelled through warfare since the De-
ginning of things he has explored tracts OF
experience still untouched by woman. oh
this subject, if on no other, men range
further afield, take wider sweeps, ADMIT CON
tingencies that never occur to women No"
and then, of course, one finds a man pro-
claiming himself prophet OF peace on 'he
basis of a woman's limitations, and plenty ol
women who feel with their men and so ac-
cent their conclusions; but, measure LOT
measure. the mans representation about
the war, its progress and eventuaiity
"nroved I'D" oftener than the woman's
One regrets to make this admission, since
there was never time when our country so
much needed well-grounded woman thought
But one has only to recall Jane Adams 70
realize how far astray woman mlndedness
can lead even so great personality.
II is this incapacity of woman to take IN
the trend and the ultimate contingencies OF
war that gives occasion to doubt her eholce
of the determining agent in establishing
peace.
am sure at least that not much is to be
gained, and probably a great deal lost, ny
the present method of pursuing the dove OF
peace with the salt of propaganda. II shows
. that women have not yet altered their rela-
ton to war; they have only altered their
! feeling about it, In the past all that was
required of them was sentiment and one
concludes from the literature of peace wnlch
reaches one daily through the mails that all
women have required of themselves so far is
merely a different kind of sentiment and
more of IT, No doubt a certain amount OF
/ peace sentiment has to precede its establish
ment, but one does not arrive at the pur-
pose of the play by repeating the overture
. indefinitely. Can it be possible that the rea-
son the curtain does not go up and the per-
unrehearsed in the necessities of interna-
tional peace as we are said to be In war
How else can we interpret the action of
notable pacifst like Mr.. Bryan when he
turns squarely away from an opportunity to
establish peace as a world procedure 10
drown himself in a food of peace propa-
panda? Do we need any better illustra-
ton Of the disintegraton which overtakes
man or group who choose talking great
deal about anything rather than doing it?
These are the sort of things which II be-
comes American women who are also paci-
fists 70 consider. II would be a woful thing
for feminism if we found in the end that we
had neglected an opportunity to declare
peace as an affirmative condition on the
highways of the world and succeeded only
in lodging a war
For they are not the same thing-evasion
and accomplishment. Perhaps the best rea-
son for women to seek to avoid the former
is the long line of precedent which estab-
fishes evasion as a purely feminine method
This is no time at all for woman to be femi-
nine. or to take refuge in our special horror
of war at the moment we are reproving men
for their special male pride in it.
II is a time before all else TO be steadfast-
ly human.