A ROOM OF OUR OWN
Follette, Isabel B. La
A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette THE insistence of those who appear to regard peace as a static fact that can be "enforced" is usually bolstered by the comfortable conclusion that "times...
...The average woman knows human nature...
...If I assess the situation correctly, the average American today feels much this way toward international commitments...
...and keep repeating that "the world has changed now...
...She likewise knows that going without breakfast, staying up late at night, a quarrel with a friend, a disappointment in some little plan, will turn the most reasonable being into a "pudding stick" which can stir up the best regulated family...
...The family, or the nation, may live in an apartment or on a farm, in small or large groups, in the most varied environment and customs, but human nature asserts itself...
...To date both Democrats and Republicans are trying to garner in votes by avoiding basic issues, a policy well-understood by an increasingly critical and cynical electorate...
...That this is true of leaders as of the led we cannot underestimate as we read history to profit by the experience of the past as we make our way into the future...
...I think that for the same reason women are going to vote against the New Deal this time—because they no longer feel secure...
...That this fact improved the quality of life, most of us question as we observe that thus far man has been unable to harness and control mechanical "progress" for the benefit of mankind...
...Yet the sensitive and imaginative among us appreciate that the experience of millions of these men will mark them for life, just as the peoples of war-lacerated nations can never be the same in their life-time...
...Yet in self-defense to his ego the dealer in ideas refuses, even to himself, to acknowledge the differencs...
...The average person is forced to the lesson of "not biting off more than you can chew...
...we certainly would like to prevent future wars...
...The individual is still the product not only of his inheritance but of his experience...
...So long as elections are still held in this country, the astute politician will keep his ear to the ground, as witness Mr...
...It is not a pretty picture that faces us...
...Charles W. Tillett of the Democrats is just as certain of the opposite, of course...
...A general who makes a mistake pays with the lives of men...
...As a matter of fact, we are seeing the increase in speed and tension of living produced by the machine age advance to the point exemplified by our tragic aerial warriors whom the shattering strain of their work has rendered temporarily, if not permanently, unfit for normal living...
...None of us enjoys looking at the seamy side of life, but we make a bitter mistake if we do not take it into account and move on from there...
...but we don't want to take on further obligations until we know where we stand...
...Faced with the historical data of the past, they close their eyes, ears, and minds (I haven't the heart to use the three little Japanese monkeys who see no evil, hear no evil, think no evil, or the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will be after me since they have been belabored almost to death already...
...Women And The Ballot I don't like to be arbitrary, but I am certain that the blueprinters are in for a bitter disappointment...
...Mother Nature still punishes mankind for flouting her fundamental laws...
...We have ideals for the family as for the individual, but it is a constant struggle to avoid and iron out causes which prevent their achievement...
...The business and industrial man who over-expands, the farmer who takes on too much land, the professional man whose ambition exceeds his skill and industry, all have paid the price of poor judgment...
...Mrs...
...She appreciates causes because she sees them at work...
...We are fascinated and diverted by the peeks we are given into the mechanical future of home appliances, automobiles, autogiros, and so on, pushing to the back of our minds with dread and fear the human picture ahead...
...She has learned where her husband, son, or daughter will "give" and where she comes up against a stone wall...
...And of course from the mechanical aspect it has changed...
...We faculty people can change our ideas or our plans, and no one is the worse...
...Claiming that women put Roosevelt in office in response to his plea for security, Miss Marion Martin, heading the Women's Division of the Republican National Committee, is quoted as saying, "Opportunity is a clarion call for men but women want security...
...Political writers are prognosticating attention to the woman voter, since statistics suggest there should be more of them than ever before in proportion to men...
...They feel unstable and uncertain of the future...
...Those fortunate ones who by temperament or experience have not been forced to appreciate the close relations between cause and effect, are those who impatiently brush aside considerations for avoiding war by obviating its causes...
...We cannot but be impressed with countless examples of how the personal make-up of individuals in positions of power affects the destiny of nations...
...From my impressions I am frankly uncertain of the way women will mark the ballots, since for the most part as between Roosevelt and Dewey they are equally cynical...
...We must finish the war...
...Those more concerned with getting elected than in prescribing sound policy are in a most uncomfortable position...
...Because, blueprint idealists ,to the contrary, men are their actions as much or more than their thoughts...
...Get the machinery to enforce peace in motion," they cry, refusing to count the cost of such a program and dubbing anyone who dares to look before he leaps the cause of past, present, and future wars...
...Men Are Their Actions In other words, human nature has not changed...
...As a professor friend said to me recently, "You can't expect it...
...At home, at work, by air, land, and sea we live in a mechanical age...
...I do know that the wives of men in service reflect the attitude the correspondents report in the men themselves: they have borne the brunt of war on behalf of their country and if they are not given adequate consideration in postwar plans they intend to take it...
...Wives and mothers must believe that their loved ones will be among the fortunate who will return to "normal" living...
...A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette THE insistence of those who appear to regard peace as a static fact that can be "enforced" is usually bolstered by the comfortable conclusion that "times have changed...
...Peace" between nations requires the same careful balance...
...A Constant Struggle The blueprint idealists are shocked at this "selfish" attitude—shocked because they not only haven't experienced but cannot imagine the personal cost of war to those who wage it...
...Roosevelt's back-tracking on international policy as we approach election-time...
Vol. 8 • July 1944 • No. 28
