The Wrangell sentinel., 1936-11-20
PLEA FOR PEACE

" 0lle the nation mOuluS LOudy the passing of one of it's finest clt- izens-Ernestine Scnumanu-nelnke, it is well to ponder the wisdom and beauty Of her last piece Of public writing, "So They're Talking War Again" which appeared in the Mo- vember issue ot Good housekeeping The article follows:
 They said there would never be another war-eighteen years ago, when the world was running red with blood, and echoing with the sobs and prayers ot broken-hearted women. That was a war to end war, they said; it was so terrible that no one would ever dare to start another. And finally 1t ended and we took up the task of mendIng the loss and ruin and suffering It had caused.
 Eighteen years! Mother Earth has not had tune 10 spread a green cloak over all the shelI-torn fields, many hearthstOnes stIlI lie broken and shattered. Soldiers who tougn! that last war to end wars sull live with shattered DraIns and pod les tor when there Will never be any healing. And tor eacn oI these Iiylng dead, as for eacn ot the Dless- ed dead, there IS a broken nome, q broken heart.
 And they are talking war again!
 NO woman on earth hates wal | only known the grIeI or every moIu- CT who has nau sons go down to ueath on the battlefield, put 1 nave endured the agony Ot seeing my family dlVIueu, my Doys ugnGIng ea0n other, tIgnung To knl-Oue With the country oI my DIrtn, four With this country, WHICH love more than ever Ioyeu my uomeIanu. Anu 1 say to you-I wno Know, 1 Wno am called the Mother or the American Legion, that war Is the greatest curse on earth. From It nothing, anywhere, is safe.
 We must stop this thIng-we women. For it Is men, not women, who make war. There would never be a war if 1t was left to women 10 start it for all women want the world to be a nice place for little children, and there is no place nice for little children in war.
 First of all we women should de- mand that only with our consent shall country take our fathers and our husbands and our brothers and our sons from us and send them into a hell that is more than humans can bear to think of.
 Next we ought to insist that our country be prepared for war-pre- pared so well that nobody would dare to attack us. We are a rich country; we can be sufficient to our selves. We do not wish to offend any other. Only we ask that they leave Us in peace. But we should be so thoughtful of our position that If any one set foot across our boun- daries, We could take our part.
 We should have trained officers too. You cant learn to make a war in three months. God knows how many thousands of our boys died in the first months of that last war because neither officers nor men were prepared. l want my country to have the finest and biggest de- fense army on earth. If airplanes are the thing that will win if we are forced into another war; let's have more airplanes than any one else-and better ones!
 And another thing. I'd make the world realize what war does to men the broken bodies, the blinded eyes, the groping wits. The public sees only the men who look nice, on parades and at the big war hospitals but when you go through the doors marked No Admittance, you see different sights. Those are the doors 1 go through when l visit the hospit- als-and I never announce my com ing. Oh, God, what horrors a war can cause! Worst of all the horrors to me is the shell-shocked-men who are healthy, strong animals. They look at you-they listen to you-but in their eyes there is no life. The thing that makes a human soul is gone from them.
 Armistice Day comes, and I hear people planning for a holiday. And there will be parades, and the bands will play, and we shall cheer and praise and applaud. But on Armis-