Evening star., 1937-04-06
MISS RANKIN SEES
PEACE PROGRESS
Will Stronger, But Must Be
Modified, Anti-War
Leader Says.

Just as Congress did 20 years ago
unless the people speak their will
more forcibly than they are speaking
1t today"
This arresting pronouncement fell
gently from the lips of vivacious,
gray-haired woman who two decades
ago suffered all the vituperation and
ridicule that war-mad Nation could
muster-Jeannette Rankin of Mon
tana, first woman elected to Congress.
Today, as you talk to Miss Rankin
in her modest and tastefully fur
nished apartment in Georgetown, one
finds her not bitter but wise. Wise
with an experience that has hardened
her ideals into practical philosophy
and taught her how to make votes for
peace count more than the one she
cast against Americas entrance into
the World War on that stormy April
day in 1917.
In Miss Rankin's lexicon, realism
and pessimism are by no means
synonymous. America, she says, has
gone long way on the winding road
to peace. But she isn't carried away
by the peace pledges from pulpits
that once echoed the bugles, or by
the pronouncement sounded in every
political forum, echoed by even the
most cynical of columnistS, shouted
impertinently by college sophomores,
murmured by club women or threat
ened by labor.
And that's why Miss Rankin spends
her time these days in the cloak rooms
and lobbies of the Capitol, and like
wise out in the highways and by
ways, rustling the votes that are
needed to turn hazy hopes into
reality.
Will to Peace Stronger.
The will to peace is stronger to-
day, she says, than it ever has been,
but it has to be mobilized.
These are her reasons for believ-
ing it:
First, she says, governments (our
own includeO realize that war will
obliterate them as they stand-oblit-
crate the form of government as well
as the leaders who represent it.
Second, there is a real peace nu-
cleus in Congress. Watch them ap-
plaud a real peace move, she says.
Third, the people have been think
ing. Since the depression they have
figured out what the war cost not
only in terms of the material loss,
but moral loss as we'll And that,
she believes, is the important thing.
War is habit" she tells you,
"and habit is something you use in
an emergency when you haven't time
to think. More people are accepting
the peace habit of thought
The World War came as a sur
prise. Americans could hardly be-
lieve it had actually happened when
| they read their newspapers. And to
the very last minute people refused
| to accept the possibility that we
| would be drawn into it. Now, says
| Miss Rankin, at least we realize that
another war may be upon us. That
foreknowledge, she declares, is an
advantage.
scene on April o, lSl
It's hard to turn back the pages
and picture the scene in the House
Of Representatives on April 6, 1911
Miss Rankin had just returned from
trip to New Zealand.
When she entered the House it
was to face an ordeal that few would
care to meet. She had been the
| first woman to enter that group as
member. Woman suffrage was a
bitterly contested question. Her
pacifstic predictions were known
The newspaper reports of the scene
that followed left little sympathy for
her conduct. Fear that she might
influence others, she believes, prompt
ed it. Her own story differs. When
she entered, instead of the usua
buzz of voices there was a dead
silence. The galleries were filled
She could feel every eye on her.
When the second roll call wa!
reached she rose and spoke one sen.
tence: Il want to stand by my coun.
try, but I cannot vote for war" I'm
mediately there was a confusion O.
voices and her vote 'No" could no
be heard. 1t was reported that sht
did not vote, and that the clerk hae
to come to her seat to get the vote.
Much was made of the fact tina
she wept. But, as she points out
whole flood of masculine tears hae
preceded hers. Chief Justice Taft
wide cheeks had been dampened will
generous flood when President
Wilson delivered his war massage
Representative Kitchin wept openl.
and unashamed. So did others. Blu
in the ridicule that followed her tear
were the only ones that were analyze'
as less than 80 patriotic.
There were probably three thing
that dictated her NO: A belief u