The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1936-02-07
ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON CAUSE
AND CURE OF WAR

the Cause and Cure of War held in
washington January 81 to "a in
elusive: President Mrs. Ida B. Wise
Smith, Vice President, Mrs. D.
Leigh Colvin, Legislative Director,
DIR. Izora Scott, and Director OF In
ternational Relations, Miss May
Belle Harper. Beside these twelve
other state leaders registered as dele
gates along with the more than 500
women from ten other organizations
which make up the National Confer
ence.
This group of women under the
leadership of Carrie Chapman Gait
have been studying the complex prob
lens of peace and war tor the past
ten years and have won a place OF
leadership in the thoughtful solu-
tions of some of the problems involv-
ed. Their method of approach is
through discussion groups known as
Marathon Round Tables, 900 OF
which were conducted during the
past year in forty different states.
Reports of these are given at the
convention as well as addresses by
men and women we'll qualified to dis
cuss subjects like National Defense,
Neutrality, Trade Barriers, etc.
On the first day part of one ses-
sion was devoted to the dramatiza-
ton of the Senate of Utopia when
ten senators after an interesting and
heated discussion of the causes Oh
war agreed upon the following five:
/. Aroused primitive Instincts and
emotions, hate, fear, suspicion, greed,
etc.
Q, The traditional use of war to
which we are so accustomed and that
not to use it requires more use OF
reason than nations possess.
8. Failure to utilize the possibili-
ties of the international machinery
for collective action.
4. The lack of goodneighborli-
ness.
S. The heavy armament which
makes it possible to engage in war.
Small unarmed nations have to resore
to reason to control their passions.
One senator remarked, Everybody
says It's up to the women Men
ought to know the cause of war fol-
1t is they who have been doing the
fighting.' Another notes that mil
lions of women are as stubbornly for
war as are men; war is not a prob
lem, but predicament.
That evening at a banquet spread
for about 900 delegates and visitors
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt was guess
Of honor. She was introduced by DR..
Mary E. Wooley as POSTMASTER and
spoke to the theme of the confer
ence Roads to Peace" stressing
the need for education of public
opinion so that intelligent action can
be taken.
Following her Mrs Gait, who has
just been celebrating the anniversary
of fifty years of work for suffrage
and for peace, expressed her thoughts
along this line,-"Every good cause
has come to it's victory much over
due. When someone invents an au-
tomobile, people give up horses over
night. But if someone urges us to
give up coffee for breakfast, we rebel
for that new idea means that some
thing will be taken away from us.
Thus it is with the cause to do away
with war. We know that our cause
will prevail as certainly as the sun
will rise tomorrow. We just don't
know the date, that is ALL
Miss Kathleen D. Courtney, Hon.
Secretary of the British Women's
Peace Crusade, called attention to
forward steps which have been made,
which are so easily lost sight of in
the general Encouragement of the
present time. The world is in transit
ton. The risks of peace are just as
great as the risks of war, and for
some strange reason. people are less
willing to take them, less willing to
face the unknown risks of peace than
to face the horrible risks of war.
Wednesday eve the delegates were
entertained at tea at the White
House. On Thursday morn they
visited congressman to discuss with
them the problems which they shall
have to decide. In an international
broadcast, Mrs. Gait talked with
Lady Astor of England on problems
of mutual interest.