Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-08-24

ton which ought to support. / Will say to
you, with tears in my eyes: Go-and God
be with you! 1t will be a hard wrench for
me and a bitter sacrifice, and / will shed
many tears and pass many seepless nights.
but I will still say, with all my heart. Go"
IF necessary, / would rather go out into
the world and make my own living. If you
are willing to risk your life for our coun-
try. 1t Is the least l can do to work with
my hands for my own bread and butter.
And when you come back, you will find me
waiting for you with outstretched hands, to
welcome my hero-who commands respect
and has done his duty--and he may find
that the girl he has left behind him to bat
tie with the world Is a truer wife and
more purified and more noble woman than
the on to whom he said good-by. Go, my
husband, and may the good Lord bring you
back to the woman who will always be
praying for your safe return
Yes. know this is what the average wife
who thinks at all about the big problem of
America would say to her husband-if he
put the big question up to her.
But he doesn't put it up to her. He tries
to answer II for himself. and in doing so he
is doing neither her nor himself justice.
Our women of today are not the helpless,
dependent creatures that their grandmothers
were 1t is no longer a loss of womanly
charm or even of social position for her to
make her own living. The world has
changed more in the last ten years than In
the fifty years before. 1t recognizes women
now as real human bengs--not as beauti-
fed dolls to charm men, II our women are
coming into their own and recognizing this
fact for themselves, why can't our men rec
ognize the fact also?
And surely never was greater or nober
opportunity given to them to do so than
that of the present world war, the extent of
which and the depth Of which we, as q
nation, have not grasped-as yet. We will
| before long, when the first list of dead and
| wounded comes from the front. But that
| list hasn't been cabled across the ocean yet.
| In the meantime most of us are regarding
| the war only as something that occupies the
| space of the ewspapers--something in
which we, as women Of America, have nc
| real personal interest, for ourselves, or for
| our homes or for our flag This will all
| be changed before we are many months
| older We shall have to wake up-or per-
| ish. But in the meantime, we are drifting
| with the tide And that is the most fata
| thing that we can allow ourselves to do al
| this time Of national stress and peril
War is the most serious proposition OF
| history. world war may be calamity
| unless we throw into that war the right
| force to win It. We are confronted by just
| such a calamity at the present time. 1t Is
| victory-or death. We are facing the great
| est danger that ever confronted the globe
| And we are going on our own narrow, petty
| ways and trying to forget about the CHASTITY
| menace that Is looming nearer and nearer
| to us. We are not yet cognizant Of our ma
| tional peril as a nation And we are ever
| less cognizant of 1t as women of a warrins
| nation, who either have to make the suprem,
| sacrifice or suffer the supreme surrender
| And we are forgetting our duties to God ii
| it all, for If ever the combined armies OF
| right were fighting for the cause Of God, tn,
| armies of the Allies, in which we are en-
rolled, are fighting for that cause today, il
spite of what the Kaiser says.
| Therefore, when hear a man saying tha
| the reason he falls to enlist is because hi.
| wife at home will have to shift for herself
| cannot help feeling a doubt of that man.
patriotism, and perhaps Of his honesty. Fol
there was never a real American woman
since the days of the Plymouth Fathers
who would not say, even to her best-beloved
when her country called
Go, dear one-I shall pray that the goot
Lord brings you back to me safe and sount
but the Flag needs you more now thar
dol"
The average man At for service neye,
puts the question up in this way. Why? IL
his refusal he Is doing an injustice to him
self, his wife, his home and his flag
Copyright. 1917. by the Bell Syndicate, Incl
| ~