Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-18
BY CONTANCE DREXEL.

from the fact that their
sixth annual Conference on Cause and
Cure of War" is about to meet in
Washington (January 1920, with IL
of the largest Nationwide women'S or
carnations participating, it looks as If
women are going about the task very
carefully and very humbly.
Even now they are again coming to-
gether for the purpose of discussion
and study rather than with any fixed
ideas "aS to cause and cure OF war.
They have asked experts to come before
them. Among other speakers on this
| weeks program are two leading admt-
rails of our Navy-Admiral Pratt and
Admiral Bristol-Senator David Reed,
delegate to the London Naval Confer
ence; Joseph P. Cotton, Under Secre-
| tary of State; Charles P. Warner, Sec
rotary for Aviation in the Department
of Commerce, and Jane Adams. After
every address delegates are given time
| to ask questions that have been rum
| bling around in their minds during the
| past year.
For not only these delegates but the
members of their organizations back
home in clubs and meetings are sup
posed to have been studying up on the
program. Announced months ago by
| the Steering Committee" comprising
representatives of all the affiliated or
| ID JAlC BCu-
eral topic decided upon for this con-
ference. And now the preliminary pro-
gram calls it "demobilizing the war
machine. especially in relation to the
developments Of the London Naval Con-
| ference"
The Women Back Home.
1t is a question how much of these
conferences and discussions get back
to the homes and individual woman
voters. Perhaps times have changed,
however, since the first conference in
1925, when Mrs. Reyes was able to re-
preach the women for blaming it on
the Senate" because the United States
had not joined the World Court. Mrs.
! Reyes, wife of Senator Henry Keyes,
Republican, of New Hampshire, and
well known as the writer Frances Park
inson Reyes, was delegate for the
Y. w. C.. A.
Interventions from the floor are in
order. Often they are Illuminating
comments and questions hitting the nail
on the head. Mrs. Franklin d. RooSe-
welt, delegate of the General Fedora
ton of Women's Clubs, had just asked
a pertinent question Of the speakers,
former Attorney General Wickersham
and Judge Florence Allen, regarding
the outlawry Of war. Mrs. Keyes fol-
lowed.
st have been in Washington six years
and have never had letter from a
constituent saying she wished would
use such influence as I had, If had
any, to call the attention of my hus-
band to the fact that it would be a
good thing to go into the World Court.
I have had hundreds and hundreds OF
letters from constituents giving their
opinion on prohibition and the bonus,
and when the question of the bonus
lcame up last Spring kilograms and let
tiers and messages of every sort poured
into the Senate Office Building so rap
idly that they had to break rule,
which never had been broken before
that no kilograms should be signed for,
for there was not time.
'I would like to ask Mr.. Wickersham
if he does not feel that possibly If the
constituents gave voice to their feelings
about the World Court in the same
proportion that they have particularly
to the bonus and to prohibition, that
the result might be something diff
ferent."
Up on the Hill.
Last year on the program a whole
morning was left blank. 1t was de-
voted to an invasion of Capitol Hill.
Armed with good intentions, hopes and
resolutions, the delegates went to call
on their respective Senators. But they
came back a discouraged lot.
Tariff, tariff, tariff was all we
heard" walled those who we're not too
proud to admit rebuff. Many Senators
could not see them; others were too
busy to hear anything about that
World Court" THE tariff IS on our
minds" was the plea. Perhaps frus-
trated by this experience, this years
program does not seem to allow any
time for an invasion OF Capitol Hill.
Or perhaps the women think they have
done enough in joining up with the
World Court Committee, organized as
an S o S, which has sent resolution
to the Senate urging immediate action
in this or a special session, in spite OF
the adverse vote Of the Foreign Rela-
lions Committee.
President Coolidge gave the women a
great send-off at the first conference.
He and Mrs. Coolidge received them
all of them meaning several hundred
| at the White House on Saturday after
the weeks discussions had been re-
ported in the press. He thought the
occasion of sufficient Importance to ao-
dress the women in 15-mlnute speech.
He commended their efforts, Stressing
the responsibility of this generation,
which lived through the greatest OF all
wars, in formulating programs to pre-
vent its repetition" And he said:
ct am convinced that If our civiliza-
ton is worthy of its name, then physi-
cal force is not the only authority
which may enforce an anti-war policy.
I feel strongly that public opinion.
based on proper information, working
through agencies that the common man
may see and understand may be made
the ultimate authority among the ma
tons"
Yet in spite of these words of encour-
agement from the head Of our Govern
ment, duly elected by a majority OF the
| votes of our people, the women were
called all sorts of names, and at the
second conference it was necessary Tor
Mrs. Gait hardened to that sort OF
thing in the suffrage cause, to say to
the women, on the opening day. IKE a
teacher to her children:
There, there, little girl, don't cry:
don't mind If they call you names; 1t
will all come out right in the end" (or
words to that effect.
No Peace Societies.
| In this connection attention might be
| directed to the fact that these delegates
do not represent any of the peace Or
CARNATIONS. They were not invited TO
cooperate. The IL organizations In
volved are American Association Of Uni
versity Women, Council of Women for
Home Missions, Federation of Women,s
Boards of Foreign Missions OF North
America, Geneva Federation Of Wom-
ems Clubs, National Board Of the Y.
w. C. A., National Council OF Jewish
Women National Federation of Bust
ness and Professional Women's Clubs,
National League of Women Voters, Ma
tional Women's Christian temperance
Union, National Woman'S Conference