Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1922-02-19
WC-len's Great Part
In arms Conference
Historic References to Trouble Making Not
withstanding, Position of Sex Is Recog-
nized as Always Against War

'A'AAN
millions upon millions Of unhonored and
unsung women whose grief because of war
would have filled the Mississippi River bank
full for century-you don't read about in
the 'Iliad" or the "Odessey" or in the "Tales
Of Ancient Rome" or see in the movies for
that matter. They have always been for
peace. If you want a reason, 1t Is because
women have always had clearer apprecia-
ton of the value of life than men have had.
Only recently have they been permitted
by man, vain, barbarously sensitive, to give
voice to their instincts. Man has gone along
cherishing the notion that war makes
rafting good history. Woman knows that it
makes widows and orphans and misery that
they must live to endure. Man may die in
ar odor Of glory. Woman must live to pay
the taxgatherer after the flags have been
furled and the streets are dark 1t is in
"Hiawatha" that Longfellow muses.
1t Is the fate of woman
Long to be patient and silent, to wait
Like ghost that is speechess
Women'S Creed Is a Bad War
And Good Peace
The real women-not the big eyed van.ps
anticipated Ben Franklin thousands of years
ago in the conviction that there never was
good war or bad peace But what could
they do about it? The twentieth century
had to come along before they dared raise
their voices and utter even few words of
common sense. Women have known since
the days of the mammoths and the saber
tooth tiger that war, like dueling, settles
nothing, is as likely to favor the unjust as
the just. God and the heaviest artillery
isn't mere epgram. Study why the Ger
mans lost, study the chapter of accidents
which cost them the world, and ponder over
war as resolvent of justice.
There have been any number Of peace
conferences before the extraordinary parlia-
ment which is being held In Washington.
Peace conferences have been fashionable as
long as war. Did you ever read about
peace conference before which bothered to
lean its august ear toward the feelings and
wishes of women? l think not. Go back only
little way, not far enough to strain imag-
nation, and what do we have? A glttering
assembly Of important males met to carve
up Europe for the gain and glory of the
masculine sex. Were women invited to sit
In? Not SO it could be noticed then or there
after. What happened was something like
this: The Right Hon. Lord Jiggsteps, re-
turning to the manor and being asked tim
idly, by Lady Jiggsteps If any progress had
been made at the days plenary session
toward wiping out war, replied: odds bod
kins, fairest love- Such coarse matters are
not for thee, daintykins! Bother not thy
lovely head with affairs so rude and blunt.
Come, strum me thy zitherl"
That was the kind Of communicate tho
ladies got not so long ago when they re-
quested news of a peace conference. Some
thing seems to tell me that Daintykins, even
In those suffrageless days, must have gritted
her pearly teeth, swallowed hard and prayed
for help to stay her hand against the chump
that the good God and Father Bonifacc had
tied her to-! Welladay a womans place
was in the home then.
No, the sex we are worrying our heads
about. specializing as to whether they will
like the Christmas present we have tucked
away under the rack where she knows we
keep nothing but horrid old home brew
didn't cut much ice in the peace conferences
antecedent to the conference of Washington
They were scarcely among those present in
any sense. But Washington Is something
else again. A change has come over the
shall we say the spirit of mankind? Women
count for something in this parliament
Their influence is both direct and indirect
and very potent. 1t is true that men,
Hughes Balfour. BRAND, Kato Schanzer
and their associates get the credit as of ole
and the front pages. but nothing In this
world Is a solder fact than the woman III
fluence which not only precipitated the con-
ference but held it steady toward !rs
destined end
The Work for Peace Was
III
This is not a catalogue of notable women"
If you please. There are women here who
are not at all notable or distinguished hut
that have exerted a very powerful influence
TO Keep the conference off the rocks. You
can't say that Lady This or the Countess OF
That or Mrs. Secretary So and So is respcn-
slple Tor the good work. Not at all. The
good has been furthered by the res.stless
momentum OF women the world over, acting
IN thousand subtle but mandatory wavs
ever the statesmen responsible for perform-
ance. When the real story of the Washing
ton conference is told, If ever there will be
fascinating chapter devoted to this. There
VIII be chapter or two devoted to the
benevolent, wise persistency Of the right
KIND or women who kept the peacemakers
up to their job, smiling away at dinners tho
mountainlike obstacles that had been raised
in the secret sessions, smoothing ruffled SEN
sibilities, placating injured vanities, bolster
ing up faint hopes and always keeping before
the peacemakers. like an ikon stamped with
gold, the vision of the peace that the People
silently. implacably waited for
AS | say, this is not a catalogue Of
women's names. Possibly you may have dis
cerned in the news reports or even in the
columns Of society reports some achieving
Identities There are literally scores of
women. so fortunately situated as to be the
battalion of life for their sex the world over.
concerned in this modest victory Among
them are the women Of American official
life some British women. French woman
or two, very. very old Japanese lady, sew
eral sprightly Italians and at least two Chi
nese ladies who find their frocks on the rue
de la Paix and in Paris. Neither the indi-
vduals nor the natonalities count for much
in the sum total of what the sex has done
here. There is one man who knows pretty
much all the story. That is the President Of