The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-08-10

your nation, and therefore response
BILE for the cowardly outrages. But
motherhood is the supreme power IN
state, always has been, always will
be, always must be, and If you, moth
ers of Germany, had set your faces
against the doing Of such things, they
would never have been done.
Were they worth while?. Has the
military advantage gained to the
arms of Germany by all her air-raids
put together been worth the golden
head of one darling child? It has not!
You could walk for week through
the thousands of miles of the streets
of London without seeing a trace of
Zeppelin damage. Only one real re-
suit has come of these barbarities
from first to last-a hundred and fiji
ty little collins have been carried to
the cemeteries of South London and
Poplar, and the hearts of English
mothers are Attire as with burning
coal.
II will not attempt to- answer the
arguments with which, when your
mother hearts have been troubled by
reports Of the hideous calamities that
have fallen on our children from the
kingdom of death and hell, your mill
tary leaders have put you on-that
knGy were dCCIu6HIS, military nGC0SSl-
ties, that London is a fortress which
it is imperative to subdues that what
Germany has done in London lis less
than what Frsnchmen did at Frei-]
burg, that war is war and the only
mercy is to make it terrible, so that
1t may be the sooner ended and the
peace Of the world restored. You
are mothers, and will only ask you
some simple questions out of the soul
of your motherhood-they will be
easier answered.
Have you considered what a crime
against childhood is involved in these
unnecessary atrocities. whereof the
only accident is that they should do
military damage. and the only GER
tainty that they should kill children.
We come into the world through
pain; most of us leave it in pain.
Birth is great agony; death may be
an agony also. But between these
two there is nearly always one gol-
den strip of life. full of joy and peace
and MISUNDERSTANDING To black
en- out that sweet period altogether,
to snatch the little happy soul from
the light Of the sun-what an iniqui-
ty!
Have you thought Of the sin against
motherhood? When a woman bears a
child she is a creator. God grants her
the right, highest and proudest OF His
creatures, to give the gift of life, to
repeat the miracle of creation. IN
becoming a mother she enters into
the greatest Of all empires. the holy
enpir OF Motherhood, whereof the
only King, the only Kaiser, is God,
and therefore her fealty is first to !
Him. When, out of the valley of the
shadow of childbirth. she comes back
with the new life, the light of great
joy is upon her, and neither the fear
of poverty nor yet the dread or shame
can quench it. To put out that light
by putting out the life of her child
what crime against motherhood!
Have you thought, too, of the right
which Nature gives to a mother to
protect her child? That is a greater
right than has ever yet been written
in any law-book. Deep down in every
mothers heart it lies, and 1t is sac
mothers duties is to protect the little
body she brings into the world and
the living soul it shelters. The moth
err who would lets harm befall to her
child, even to save herself, would be
more guilty than the most savage Of
the lower animals. The animal
mother will fight the felon sire for
her young, and because of her moth
erhood the male partner gives place
to her. An eternal law seems to grant
to the mother of all species the right
to kill, If need be, that her offspring
may not be killed. sly the measure
of that right we may judge of the
wickedness of taking it away from
her. To outrage the sanctuary of the
mothers breast by robbing it of the
- ~ c,.a to y, ori, -
1t is a crime that shames both the
world and God
And have you thought. also, that if
our Christian faith counts for any
thing, these helpless little ones who
have been so cruelty done to death
are mightier far than the whole of the
German Empire now? OF such is the
Kingdom Of Heaven! If it is to God
only that they can look for Justice
their victory is sure. He who is too
weak to fight for himself has God
to fight for him. Is it only an idle
thought, a foolish superstition, that
until the trump of doom they will be
waiting at the bar of God, at the feet
Of the Mother of all Mothers-these
slaughtered innocents, with eyes that
are as the eyes of your own children?
will not speak of reprisals, ex-
cept to say that logically or illogical
ly, nearly all that is best in our coun-
try is against them. But it is a fear
fui thing to play with the human soul,
and of all souls the mother-soul is
at once the sweetest and most ter
rible. Therefore, not as threat, nor
even as a warning, but only as a fight
to light up the heart of the British
mother, tell you, mothers of Ger
many that If further air-raids over
England should kill still more Eng
lish children, no Church, or Press. or
Parliam emit, or Government, or back
ward thought of Freiburg, of fear of
what Germany may do in return, will
be able to Withstand the demand of
British motherhood (bleeding for the
loss Of its dead and trembling for the
safety sof it's 1iving) for Justice and re-
tribution, and that the only result
will be that thousands of your Ger
man children, just as sweet and limo
cent as our own, and living now in the
fulness of their childish joy, will soon
(God knows how soon) be carried to
their graves.
Mothers of Germany, let us stop the
madness and delirium of such an I'M