Mansfield mirror. (Mansfield, Wright County, Mo.) 1908-1957, 1919-10-23
WOMEN DEMAND
WARS SHALL END
Peace League Means More to
Them Than It Can Mean
to Men.
DR.. SHAW'S STIRRING PLEA.
10y the Late Or. Anna Howard shaw.)

10y the Late Or. Anna Howard shaw.l
Seven million one hundred thousand
men who had laid down their lives in
the great Il Think Of Il, Seven
million. II hundred thousand young
me had died on the field Of battle!
What does that mean 10 the women
OF the world? IL NEAR that sever
million hundred thousand women
walked day by day with ,hrir faces
toward an open grave that they might
give life to ii son. II means that
seven million n hundred thousand
little children lay in the arms OF a
mother whose love had made them
face even the terrNrS of death that
they might become the mothers of
men.
1t means that year after year these
Women had put up their lives into the
lives ~ their Sons until they had rear
ell them To- be men. For what? In
the hope that these sons of theirs could
give 10 TIE world the things for which
VII "''tA' az A'A'iA-~ ~ NiAtNk 4
women hope and pray and long. These
We're the things that the women had
in their hearts when they gave birth
to their SOUS.
Eut who can estimate the value of
seven million one hundred thousand
dead sons of the women of the world?
Who can estimate the price which the
women have paid for this war;; what
il has cost them. not only in the death
of their sons, because that is a phase
of Ii Val 10 which we look.
The Courage Of Women.
We hear u orators tell lis Of the
courage Of our men. How they wen
across the sea. Very few of them re-
member 10 tell US of the courage of
our women. who also went across the
sea Of the ONE who died nursing
the sick and wounded: the women
who died in the hospitals. where the
terrible bombs came and drove them
almost to madness. They tell us
nothing of the forty thousand English
women who Ven 10 work back of the
trenches in France.
They tell Us nothing of the thou.
sands upon thousands upon thousands
of women who not only toilod and
worked and shaved in order that the
war might be successful, but We do
not hear of the thousands of women,
not alone in Armenia, q alone in
Montenegro. . alone in Serbia. bu.
in Flanders, in belgium. in lslmania,
in kuSSia-the thousands of women
who lie in graves today, murdered,
so horribly murdered that men dare
not speak Of il.
And vet we wOmen are asked what
we know about the League of Ma
tons: asked what we can. understand
about a League of Nations. Oh men!
the horrible deaths; the horrible lives
of thousands upon thousands of wO.
men today in all these nations, who
must live, and who must look in the
faces of children unwelcomed, unde-
sired-of little c~hildrcn-and know
that these are the result of war.
And then ask women why they
should be Interested in q league of
peace?
Women Suffer Most From War.
If there is any body of citizens in
the world who ought to be Interested
in a league to ultimately bring to the
world peace 1t is the mothers of men,
and the women who suffered as only
women can suffer in the val and in
devastated countries.
And we call upon them, we women
of the world call upon the men who
have been fighting all these battles of
the years. the men who have led
armies, and led armies close to their
deaths.
We are now calling upon the men
of the world to in some way or an
other find a passage out Of the sea Of
death. We are asking them 10 form
a league which will bring hope to the
women OF the future. II women are
to bear sons only that they may die,
If women may not have hope
and aspirations for their children,
If women may not dream the dreams
that have In them the hope of the
highest civilizations, the highest moral
and spiritual life Of the p~eOple-if wO-
men may not have these in their
hearts as the mothers of men, then
women will cease TO desire to be the
mothers Of men. And why should
they uoti Why should they not?