River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1919-10-02
WOMEN DEMAND
WARS SHALL END
Peace League Means More to
Them Than 1t Can Mean
to Men.
DR.. SHAW'S STIRRING PLEA.

(By the Late Or. Anna Howard shaw.)
Seven million one hundred thousand
men who had laid down their lives in
the great war. Think Of it! Seven
million, one hundred thousand young
men had died on the field of battle!
what does that mean to the women
of the world? It means that seven
million one hundred thousand women
walked day by day with their faces
toward an open grave that they might
give life to son. 1t means that
seven million one hundred thousand
little children lay in the arms of a
mother whose love had made them
face even the terrors 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 OF their sons until they had rear
ed them to be men. For what? In
the hope that these sons of theirs could
give to the world the things for which
women dream, the things for which
women hope and pray and long. These
were the things that the women had
in their hearts when they gave birth
to their sons.
But 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
it has cost them, not only in the death
OF their sons, because that is phase
of our war to which we look.
The Courage Of Women.
We hear our orators tell us Of the
courage of our men. How they went
across the sea. Very few of them re-
member to tell us Of the courage Of
our women, who also went across the
sea; Of the women 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 went to work back of the
trenches in France.
They tell us nothing Of the thou
sands upon thousands upon thousands
OF women who not only toiled 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, not alone in
Montenegro, not alone in Serbia, but
IN Flanders, in Belgium, in Rumania,
In Russia-the thousands of women
hn Iin Tor
so horribly murdered that men dare
not speak Of it.
And yet 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 children-and know
that these are the result Of war.
And then ask women why they
should be interested in a 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 it is the mothers of men,
and the women who suffered as only
women can suffer in the war 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 passage out of the sea of
death. We are asking them to form
a league which will bring hope to the
women of the future. If women are
to bear sons only that they may die,
If women may not have hope
and aspirations for their children,
II women may not dream the dreams
that have in them the hope of the
highest civilizations the highest moral
and spiritual life of the people-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 rnan. And why should
they not7 Vhg should they not1 2