Evening star., 1940-04-16
D. A. R. Urged 10 Take
Vital Role in Fight
On Ruthless Hate
Mrs. Becker Stresses
Need for Moral and
Spiritual Revival
Continued From First Page)


the Resolutions Committee.
Highlighting the days events will
be the impressive president generals
reception at Constitution Hall to-
night, followed by the annual ball
at the Mayfower Hotel in honor of
the pages.
The Junior Assembly was to meet
In its opening session this afternoon
at Memorial Continental Hall, with
Miss Thelma L. Brown, assembly
chairman, presiding. The annual re-
ports of officers awarding of prizes
and presentation of a play, Martha
Washington's Dream" were among
the principal features of the pro-
gram.
Meetings of State delegations and
national committees, meanwhile
were being held this afternoon in
various sections of the city.
The delegates were told in the
report of their registrar general,
Mrs. Frank Leon Mason, that 6,209
applications for membership and
1882 supplemental papers have been
verified.
Mrs. William Kennedy Herrin, jr.,
corresponding secretary general,
said 342,743 more copies of the
D. A. R. manual for citizenship were
distributed this year than last, and
Mrs. Mrs. Loren Edgar Rex, chap
lain general described her activities
during the year.
Mrs. George D. Schermerhorn, Or
ganizlng secretary general, told the
delegates the responsibilities of each
individual member of the England
Society of the D. A. R. were grow
ing heavier each day.
AS national chairman of junior
membership, Mrs. Schermerhorn re-
ported that 772 juniors had joined
the society during the year, while
an appeal for more rare books for
the D. A. R. library here was made
by Mrs. Vinton Earl Sisson, librar-
ian general.
A balance in the D. A. R. current
fund of s182,577.47 as of March 81
was reported by the treasurer gen.
eral, Miss Page Schwarzwaelder, as
compared with 1889 balance of
S169, ,106.64. Disbursements this year
from the current fund totaled $223,-
653.24, the treasurer general re-
ported
Diplomats from three countries
one speaker at the opening of the
congress attack the "age-old feuds
which have predominated European
thought" while another speaker,
Chairman Norman H. Davis of the
American Red Cross. urged Ameri-
cans to be good neighbors" to the
hopeless pawns in the struggle"
Lord Lothian Present.
Members Of the diplomatic corps
attending were the Marquis of
Lothian, the British Ambassador;
Minister Hjalmar Procope of Fin
land and the Ambassador of Poland,
Count jerry Potocki.
The advice against "entangling
ourselves in European intrigues" was
voiced by Messmore Kendall, pres
ident general of the national society,
Sons of tie American Revolution.
ITO those who contend it is Amer
ica's duty to enter the war to save
the democratic principles. say that
the principles in which we believe
have never been defended or pre-
served outside America" Mr.. Ken
dali stated.
He recommended "subjugating
emotions to reason" and asserted
that the most important thing was
to refrain from succumbing to
propaganda"
Also punctuated by applause was
the brief talk made by Mrs. John l..
Whitehurst, first vice president of
the General Federation of Womens
Clubs, who urged the women to
establish public forums "to make
democracy safe in America and
America safe for democracy"
She advised the delegates to 'leave
your clubhouses and go out into the
highways and byways of the land to
teach the masses of the people who
control the electorate and who de-
termine whether we will preserve our
democracy"
Cites DemOCracy's Weaknesses.
At this particular time, she de-
clared, when every principle is chal-
lenged," it is necessary to obviate
some of the weaknesses of demo-
cracy. She cited unemployment, dis
satisfied youth and the spoils system
in public affairs as the weaknesses.
Mr.. Davis, principal speaker at the
opening, told the Daughters the Red
Cross has endeavored to maintain
the spirit of neighborly and unselfish
service which found expression on
our earliest frontiers and has per-
sisted as a distinctive characteristic
of the American way of life"
He termed it "the misfortune of
our generation to confront a great
and growing challenge to those ideals
and those institutions which no one
among us can ignore"
The challenge, ne asserted, was
that the neighborhood of early
America has become world neigh
borhood 'in which the spirit of the
good neighbor has not endured"
After reviewing the work of the
S,7O0 chapters of the Red Cross
within America, he tolG of the extern
sion of mercy to the people of other
lands, saying "seven months have
passed since the war began in
Europe, but the need of the helpless
civilian victims of modern warfare
has not diminished with the passing
months.
Denied Right to Peace.
"Fugitives or hopeless paWns in
the struggle, those who appeal to
us are, nevertheless, men, mothers
and children: human beings for
whom the right to live at peace and