Evening star., 1925-05-12
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

cases-women of heart in all. They,
too, were ladies of the lamp All
hours were their duty hours They
were today's Florence Nightingales
all of them. They never pledged
not to knit a sock, or roll a band
age. or drive a truck, or make a
war speech, or buy a bond"
Could any follower of the age of
Florence Nightingale subscribe to
i that pledge? 1t was proposed in
1922 as a condition precedent" to
| membership in the Women's Inter-
national League for Peace and Free
dom, but a member of the executive
board explained in 1923: THE pledge
was not made q test of membership
in 1922 because the. prevailing opin-
ion was that such test would keep
possible new members out of the
w. l. L. You know that we all hold
the pledge in our hearts. If not,
what is the reason of our existence?'
Among all loved heroines, who has
stood 80 high as the Lady of
the Lamp? Is Joan of Arc loved as
Florence Nightingale? One fought
for a king and led in conquest; the
other smoothed the pillow of the
dying and nursed for humanity. We
have had our American heroines, but
none who so blazed the way into new
| realms of service as she did a CEN
| tury ago.
Here is what Florence Nightingale
| wrote 65 years ago for the inspira.
| ton of women of her day-and ours.
1t was before our own woman leaders
| in reform and service had come upon
| their stage.
II would earnestly ask my sisters
to keep clear of both jargons now
current everywhere (for they are
equally jargons)-of the jargon
namely, about the rights of women
which urges women to do all that
men do, including the medical pro-
fession, merely because men do 1t
and without regard to whether this
is the best that woman can do; and
of the other jargon, which urges
women to do nothing that men
| do, merely because they are women
and should be recalled to a sense
of their duty as women and these
are things which women should not
do which is all assertion and moth
| ing more.
| "Surely woman should bring the
| work of Gods world, without attend
| ing to either of these cries. For wha,
are they. both of them, the one just
as much as the other, but listening te
the what will people say? to opinion
| to the voices from Without And, as
a wise man has said, no one has evel
done anything great or useful by lis
| tening to the voices from without
IL Oh, leave these jargons, ant
go your way straight to Gods work, in
simplicity and singleness Of heart
| X X
| In the World War the heroines haG
| Ixro ,foc t10 IHa
| cause there was no drafting of women
all who served had the honor of being
volunteers. The Red Cross called fol
25,000 trained nurses, and that gave
opportunity for every able bodied train
1 ed nurse in the country. In an ap
peal published in 1918, in the st. Louis
| Dispatch, appeared this:
without a sufficient number oi
| trained nurses, Americas young mer
will languish and die. This will have
| the effect of prolonging the war, thu.
robbing the country of thousands o.
men who otherwise might not have t.
be sacrificed"
| It is said that more women served
and died behind the lines in the Worlt
] War than in any war before. More
ways of service were, found. More
ways OF service are found for after
war duty. More ties international have
been knit than mere pacifistic pledges
for the example set bvIFlorence Night
iingale can never be fd Jotten.
Copyright, 1S1H, h p3G T. Coiiins-l