Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-08

"A European caplVdlS IeCuiheu W
"A California the other day, and
has been telling every one VINO
would listen, even since, that Europe is
on the eve of another great war. -Four
countries, according to this man, are
arming, ready to mobilize.
He has all the details quite pat;
what this country will do, what that
country will do; who can depend upon
whom as an ally.
It reminded me-his wild and fear
full talk-of our panics of 1915. when
every person with a trace OF foreign
?ccent was a spy, every ripple upon
the waters of Long Island Sound was
made by an enemy submarine, ana
when Germany, opposed by all her
neighbors-France Belgium. Russia,
Ualy. England-was nevertheless some
how going to come over here and cap
ture us too, and put us all into pond
age.
microscopic Luxembourg, right in the
smoke and the noise OF battles. sat
tight. and came out with currency un-
impaired. and international integrity
sound. But we-great and powerful
and distant America. with an ocean De-
tween us and the fighting-trembled In
our shoes. Ignorance and fear ruled
us, as they always must, or there could
be no wars
Now perhaps they are organizing
called propaganda" 1T seems little
soon; usually a generation has to pass
before men are ready for war again.
But thinrs move fast in these days,
and there really may be four Euro
pean nations already discussing the
new war. Sometimes demoralized So
cial conditions, hard times, drive
countries into wars; wars kin of thou
sands of the unemployed, and create
employment for thousands more.
d UI Frs who are embarrassed by the
N present painful afte--war problems
nigh WI hope to distract their peo-
pies by fresh bursts of martial music,
fresh foundations of flags and khaki,
fresh material and wifely extra agances
in the shape OF wrist watches AMI
sleeping bags. 1t has happened before;
it may happen again.
We women look on in sorrowful sur
prise-and sometimes, if we are middle
aged, as / am, and remember several
wars, as 1 do-in bitter amusement
Life has handed its best plumS to the
male sex, by all the biological laws.
And the stupid male So, plunging
gayly into wars, and more Was, more
than re-eStablishes the balance, and
g4res the women the best of it, in the
long run.
Because, nowadays, women do gain
something by wars. They hate ana
fear them. they protest against them
but Just the same, when the machinery
starts, 1t is the women who come out
the best.
They gain jobs and independence.
They gain self-confidence and freedom
for sen-eXpresSion. They run the world,
when the men are away. Women are
no longer afraid of hunger, just because
a husband drops out of the scheme.
There are manifold positions for them,
as soon as a war starts; the dull round
of housekeeping ends. There are al
ways other men, dances, war bazaars,
excitementS, possibilities. Thousands
of men perfectly capable of fighting al
ways stay home and make things
agreeable for the war widows. Four
men of my acquaintance were met at
the dock when they returned in 1919
from Is months of cold, hunger. fear,
pain, petty officialdom, privatlons, hui
mutations, and in two cases, casing
and wounds in the war zone, by cheer
full well-fed women who promptly an
nounced a change of mate. They had
not been entirely idle, during those
months of widowhood and war.
DERHAPS it was different few hun
dred years ago, when King Louis
tcoS two provinces from Aust la, Sc
that Napoleon could win them back
fer France, SO that William I could re-
win them to the new Germany, in 1870
and France gain thcm still again, to
the enormous delight OF Monsieur Poin-
care, in 1918.
Perhaps in these earlier wars women
did really sit at home and weep, and
pack comfort kits, and praise the noble
men who were defending them and
their homes and children.
But nowadays women know that
there is no glory and no real reason in
war: chauvinists make it, profiteers put
frighten nations into it. Women know
that the only winners of today's wars
are the noncombatants: winner and
loser alike are paying the cruel cost
OF the 1914-l918 madness. Property
values in Alsace-Lorraine were not
shaken by Louis Treize, by Napoleon
by William /, by Field Marshal Foch
but marks and lire and francs all went
down in the after-war crashes together
So that the modern woman-afteT
she has done her desperate best to dis
suade her beloved son and husband
from this inSanity-may feel herself
justified i'll reaping whatever harvest
war brings her, If war comes again
The men who will enlist. who will not
think nor reason nor wait for exp-ana-
items, will come back TO her broken
aged, disillusioned, or in those collins
that the flu epidemic piled like fire.
wood in our camps. But she, freed
from housekeeping, from childbearing
from constant loyal wifely care of, anc
help of. her man, will flr1 herself g
successful manager, writer, actress
buyer, Seller
THE last great war, according TO al
eminent English authority, sd
vanced the cause of won,A" 100 year.
in So short months business, from
che -5a!e point of view, never has re
covered Women are intrenched a!
money-earners; they have become al
but completely Independent where mar
rage and divorce are concerned.
What men got out of war. wha
permanent gain accrues even from tn
most righteous" war, women neve
can see. But what women gain i
plainly to be seen on all sides.
Churches ought to thunder denuncia
tons against war-not this or that one
but all wars. Moral leaders ought t
dust of that long-ago command: For
give your enemies; do good to then
that hate you" Love is an irresistibl
weapon: we women know that.
works in the nursery, with the babies
It works with the tired. weary man o
h.