HOME AND EDUCATION

...Vigilance, eternal and uncompromising, will be the price of liberty for the people from future wars...

...It is looking to an end of war...

...La Crosse, Saturday evening...

...And there is a decided trend in the interviews of very conservative men in public life of all political faiths to indicate a willingness to go further in the matter of disarmament than the plan proposed by Secretary Hughes...

...We are witnesses here this afternoon to the war's greatest failure...

...This is not now a question of party...

...In fact, it is to the great social agencies of religion, of labor, of whatever creative and constructive forces find expression in our life today to which world peace must look for its realization...

...Wilson's fourteen points * * * Mr...

...And especially the women of the world who now have the vote will not be satisfied with less—if I am not greatly misled by the fervor of the feeling which I found in Wisconsin...

...For this powerful objective, to set their children free from the superstition of war, to lift from the back of humanity the staggering burden of future wars, nations and individuals, and practically en masse the working people of the world had laid aside all their christian philosophy of peace on earth, and had gone into the war...

...Music was a feature of most of our meetings...

...Thomas G. Winters, Mrs...

...For a long time the public had been prepared "not to expect too much...

...And the elevator boys, the taxi drivers, and all my chums have said: You can't do it...

...And above all there was everywhere expressed profound interest in our theme—deep convictions and enthusiasm for Disarmament...

...Women's Mass Meeting ON SUNDAY afternoon, November 13th, women held a mass meeting at the new Masonic Temple in Washington, at which Mrs...

...It will not be satisfied with less...

...In the wake of the war, and added to the physical tortures of war itself, has come to the working peoples of the world a three year siege with unemployment, with all its accompanying cruelties...

...An accident just out of Chippewa Falls deprived us of the joy and distinction of being serenaded by the band...

...On Friday, Armistice Day, the body of the unknown was borne from the Capitol to its resting place at Arlington with all the military honor and glory which custom and tradition could express in the form of a moving pageant...

...It swept away the age-long traditions of American workers against war...

...Harding, the Vice-President, Justices of the Supreme Court and other high officials of the nation each paid homage and personal tribute...

...Resolutions were passed at the meeting pledging President Harding's support of millions of women of many nations in his proposal to eliminate war and endorsing Secretary Hughes' proposal for limitation of armament...

...Mayville, Monday afternoon...

...Secretary Hughes' practical proposition at a definite specified time and way to cut in half the navies of the world, will be seized upon by the war worn, tax-burdened, people of all lands as a demonstration that the whole business is an evil which can and should be finally scrapped altogether...

...The atmosphere created in Washington was that of glorification of war and submission to its inevitable fate...

...It is a commonplace of economics and of sociology that all the burdens which humanity has to bear falls first, and falls heaviest, upon the workers of the world...

...All that suffering, and hunger and poverty could teach had been taught the soldiers in those battles...

...Not more liberty exists as a result of the years of struggling and suffering, but less...

...With the abolition of navies, land warfare will be restricted...

...But I do not measure the influence of Secretary Hughes' proposal by any of these standards, I am thinking of the effect of his action on a watching world...

...Especially do I believe that women will use their ballot to this end...

...And it was especially gratifying and significant to me to learn that in many places farmers had left their work in order to attend our afternoon meeting's...

...I've been asking folks what they thought about the limitation of arms parley...

...But any temporary sacrifice was worth while...

...Even if the people were disposed to doze off or go to sleep at the first sign of the possible fulfillment of their desire to make an end of war, they will not be allowed to do so...

...All day Thursday continuous crowds of people passed by, some weeping, some awestruck and solemn, some thoughtful and reflective, some idly curious, some carelessly indifferent...

...Mrs...

...Labor could look these grim by-products of war in the eye...

...Wausau, Wednesday evening...

...No movement comes so deeply and so humanly into the lives of the working peoples as does the labor movement...

...When I was called on the telephone and told that Secretary Hughes in his opening address to the convention had proposed as a basis of negotiation the reduction of all the big navies one half, I was breathless...

...All the wounds of bitterness and hatred that tyranny and injustice could inflict had left their scars upon these warriors, and so labor went into the war with the contempt of strong men for its sufferings, and with the enthusiasm of thinking idealists for what it was to accomplish...

...People came from long distances...

...We can have limitation of armaments and we can have peace...

...Do you think I am too optimistic...

...Of all the ends for which the war was fought, the most vital, the most compelling, the most universally accepted was the abolishing of militarism, the end to wars...

...Madame Yajima, nearly ninety years young, representing an association of 50,000 Japanese women, was one of the speakers...

...Traditional haters of war, age-long victims of war's devastating reactions—the working people—thrust themselves into the late war, won against their will, their judgment and their philosophy...

...Sparta, Saturday afternoon...

...Then Isabella handed out her purse and the world became round...

...Fond du Lac, Monday evening...

...also Kate Manicon, of England, representing the International Congress of working women...

...A year ago no one other than an idealist could have been made to believe that in less than twelve months an international conference on limitation of armament would be in session in Washington...

...The prayer of the soul is everywhere for an assured and present peace— a people's peace...

...At Watertown a business man led the community singing...

...She had arranged what at first was to be a luncheon into an afternoon meeting, open to a large number of women who had expressed a desire to come...

...There was little more than time to reach Gimbel's Grill room where three of us—Mrs...

...And it was in that faith that all the women's groups united in a campaign to bring pressure of public opinion to bear on Congress and the Administration for an international disarmament conference and for radical reduction in appropriations for our army and navy...

...West Salem, Friday evening...

...Lloyd-George, Prime Minister of England, puts it in a recent interview: "Disarmament is the only road to safety for the human race...

...While many women's organizations and many women's activities were represented in this truly democratic assemblage, the idea of the mass meeting originated with the National Women's Trade Union League...

...It is near to the hearts of all the people—this undertaking to wipe out the destructive tragedy of war...

...To accomplish the economic reconstruction of a world devastated by war, the powerful nations of the earth gather together at the instance of America in a mission backed, if ever a mission was, "by the organized opinion of mankind...

...Other burdens, other disillusion-ments other war failures are being endured, but the horrible possibility of more war has stirred the people to action...

...These resolutions together with messages and cablegrams from every part of the world were presented to the President on Monday by a delegation of women appointed for the purpose...

...The National Women's Trade Union League of America presents its greetings to this meeting summoned in a great cause, and records its conviction that whether "the new social order, the new civilization, at the birth of whose era we stand, is going to be better or worse than the old will depend very largely upon the vision, the spirit, the valor and the wisdom of the women of the world...

...At each place there was local color, pleasant surprises, new acquaintances, old friends...

...Saturday I heard lords and Senators, and generals, and all sorts of folks say: 'It can't be done!' From Eve to Isabella, people thought the world was flat and that you couldn't go across it...

...Blaine and I campaigned Wisconsin together...

...And several times we went on the platform without having a chance to eat or drink...

...Losses were great on the battle-field...

...It was the Great Adventure...

...Mrs...

...Many times after our meetings while shaking hands and exchanging a few words personally, it occurred to me that an irresistible tide of feeling might ultimately prevail against preparation for war akin to that against slavery,—a rising tide that would no longer tolerate the evil...

...The tide has turned...

...Shawano, Wednesday afternoon...

...Industrial battles of great magnitude and for great issues had been fought in America previous to 1917...

...Reaction is in the saddle and we are striving not for the interpretation of new freedoms but for the restoration of the old...

...Every day people grasp the basic idea just as Mr...

...When I returned to Washington and viewed the reckless appropriation of a billion and a half dollars annually for military preparation—five times as much for Navy and three times as much for Army as before the world war,—I would say to myself, "It is not what the people want...

...it had met them all before...

...The promulgated war alms of this nation, and of the allied nations, articulated the hunger for liberty and the passion for political self expression so dear to the common peoples of the world, and particularly to the people of this land...

...Harriet Taylor Upton gave a characteristic talk which was no less convincing because it created laughter and applause...

...It would be ungenerous, as well as untrue, to suggest that the suffering and sorrow of the war itself was borne in greater measure by one group in our citizenship than another...

...Oshkosh, Tuesday afternoon...

...Indirectly the three days of impressive ceremonial had confirmed the general expectation at Washington, that the assembling about the council table of the representatives of the World's great powers would be a matter of slow and formal procedure occupying many days perhaps, in preliminary preparation before any line of action was agreed upon...

...And when later I read his concise, masterly address that the best augury for the success of the conference was that "WE SHOULD MEET THE REASONABLE EXPECTATION OF A WATCHING WORLD BY EFFECTIVE ACTION," I felt as though the world had taken at least one long sure step ahead...

...Madison, Sunday evening...

...It is probably true that the immediate representatives of the nations about the council table were not not so much surprised by Secretary Hughes' bold, frank proposition as was the general public...

...Senator Borah, interviewed on Secretary Hughes' proposal, is reported as having said, "Public opinion did it," but he warns, "Remember Mr...

...Philip Edson, Mrs...

...And today the proposition to scrap half the navies of the world is before such a conference...

...We must give the best that's in us for humanity...

...Everywhere in the world, save in those nations crushed by defeat, nations are engaged in building up huge military machines, and the talk is frankly of the next war...

...A Week In Washington THE pomp and ceremonial of burial of the unknown soldier occupied three days of Armistice Week in Washington...

...On the way to the meeting she told me if it had been a nice day they would have expected an audience of four or five hundred, but that on account of the storm there might not be more than two or three hundred...

...Charles Sumner Bird, the four women members of the advisory council of the International Conference on Limitation of Armament, spoke briefly and very well...

...Public opinion brought it about...

...Men have always fought and they always will...

...J. Borden Harriman presided...

...It may be perfectly logical to say that so long as the nations keep their ratio of ships they will be prepared to make war on each other...

...Medford, Thursday afternoon...

...In war and in the consequences of war every gesture is a destructive one...

...Except in two or three instances, where the meetings, as in Milwaukee, had been especially arranged for women, there were about as many men in attendance as women...

...But suffering, and cold, and hunger and want were no new emotions in the working world...

...Navies spread the contagion of war...

...Patzer, chairman of the Milwaukee branch of the W. W. P. A., under whose auspices the meeting was held, met me at the train...

...The disillusionment and hope deferred which grew out of the failure of the Great War to end war has been overshadowed and forgotten in the eternal hopelessness and inspiration with which the peoples of the world approach once more the task of ending war...

...These programs of armament are a challenge to the peace-hungry peoples of the world, and the peoples of the world have so accepted it...

...It may be as Ida Tarbell suggests that "limitation of armament" means little more than giving the God of war a rest...

...And the week in Wisconsin was one of the greatest experiences of my life because my hope and faith in the possibility of a warless world was so fortified by the spontaneous response of the people to the great cause of Disarmament,— the first step to end war...

...Already there are signs that from now on, the leaders of the political parties will vie with each other in their advocacy of disarmament...

...Wilson went to Paris * * * Public opinion dozed," and I notice other high authorities voice timely warning that public opinion should not go to sleep...

...They were fighting a crusade in a sense, and in a measure which no other group could experience, however noble their patriotism and their war motives...

...The Conference on Armaments Limitations sets to work an atmosphere tense with the bitter lessons of the war...

...It is nearest of all to the hearts of the working people...

...The hunger line is long, even in the victor countries...

...Often all the standing room was taken and in some instances many were turned away...

...In my judgment, however there is much more reason to believe that public opinion will be encouraged and enthused to ASK FOR MORE rather than that it will be easily satisfied and lulled to sleep with HALF A LOAF...

...Chippewa Falls, Thursday evening...

...So labor has a substantial stake in world peace, and the women of labor construe it as a privilege, both as workers and as women, to assist in this meeting so that the members of the Disarmament Conference may know, so that the whole world may know, America's working womanhood understands disarmament to be the first step toward ending war, the first step toward destroying the war psychology...

...In the political campaign of 1920 just after women had been given the vote, Mrs...

...Secretary Hughes' Proposal A Long Step Ahead YOU could hardly imagine a more dramatic setting for the opening event of the international conference on limitation of armament which met on Saturday...

...it set a dream-world of freedom and equality on a hilltop to be achieved only through blood and battle and suffering...

...The Flagship Olympia bearing the body arrived on Wednesday at the Navy Yard, whence it was carried amidst the watching throng to the rotunda of the Capitol, where President and Mrs...

...The motive power back of the Disarmament Conference is the supreme insistence of the peoples everywhere that what we have failed to do with war, we shall honestly and earnestly strive to do with peace...

...The issues for which the late war was reputed to have been waged were issues in principles and ideals destined to capture the imagination of the dispossessed of the earth...

...West Salem has a fine local band which played at our meeting and also at a reception tendered us afterward...

...It appeals to the plain common sense of the plain people...

...At Medford there was a boy's high school band and a high school girls' chorus...

...That is why public opinion is today so irresistible...

...Our schedule included Watertown, Sunday afternoon...

...But labor's contribution in this great issue, as in many others, will be on the firing line, crystallizing as only the labor movement can the demand for peace which comes from the masses of the workers ofthe world...

...The war had been won, and the sublime issues for which it had been fought would at once be translated into human terms and actualities...

...Blaine, wife of Governor Blaine, Gena Thompson, executive secretary of the Wisconsin Women's Progressive Association, and myself—were to hold the first of a series of thirteen meetings in Wisconsin for Disarmament...

...It is difficult to forget that the influence, if not the actual personnel, which now commits itself to the problem of world disarmament is very largely the influence responsible for the bad peace...

...Never have I spoken to such thoughtful, understanding audiences...

...She has a genius for organization and management...

...After the meeting I was told that the grill room had been provided with six hundred chairs and they had brought in two hundred more in order to seat the crowd...

...And everywhere we spoke we were impressed by the tremendous latent feeling against militarism,—against the policy of building up a great army and navy in preparation for war...

...But the watching world is not militaristic...

...And it is entirely possible that Secretary Hughes' porposal is based on "economic necessity,"—that the heads of governments realize that nations must be freed for a while from the burden of competitive armaments or go bankrupt...

...Former Secretary of the Treasury McAdoo is quoted as saying: "There never was a time when the abolition of navies was so nearly within our grasp as now...

...But "weep with me for the children of the people, they have suffered longest...

...There was no armistice to hunger, and the battle for bread began when the thunders of war had scarcely ceased...

...It would be fitting, therefore, to have granted labor a larger destiny in disarmament, rather than to have left the fateful future of world peace to diplomats...

...Labor would save itself, would save the world, from a repetition of these tragic formulas as inevitably produced by war, as are the more direct fatalities of the casualty lists...

...Disarmament is a simple, concrete issue— a means to an end...

...Miss Julia O'Connor spoke for the League as follows: Address by Julia O'Connor NEVER in the world's history has a world question come so closely into the minds and lives of the people as has the question of war prevention...

...Eleanor Franklin Egam Mrs...

...We cannot fail to accomplish it if the same zeal of the people to know enough, to care, and to care enough to know, perpetutates itself throughout the Conference...

...So when the call came to me to speak in Milwaukee and elsewhere in Wisconsin for Disarmament, while I am always reluctant to leave the family, it was with deep emotion and expectancy that I accepted the invitation...

...in the vanquished lands the spoils to the conquerors have been the starvation of little children...

...At home profiteers flourished and patriotism was exploited...

...Green Bay, Tuesday evening...

...We must not think in terms of Democrats and Republicans...

...If the watching world was militaristic and only asking for a respite—a chance to get ready to wage a still more terrible war—then it might indeed be silly to count so much on the offer to cut the world's navy in two, even though such a thing has never happened before in the world's history...

...We made most of the distance by automobile, kind friends at one place taking care that we reached the next, on schedule time...

...Who shall set a limit on what public opinion may accomplish once started on the right road, conscious of its power...

...Whatever I have been able to contribute since then to the cause of Disarmament, is due to the inspiration of that contact with home folks...

...At every place except one, where we spoke the size of the audience was a great surprise to those who had the meetings in charge...

...Whitehall, Friday afternoon...

...That fact has been brought about by public opinion...

...You can't do it...

...No fear casts its shadow so menacingly over the hearth-stone of the poor as does the dread of war...

...Suspicion, fears, misunderstandings, and even quarrels are as inevitable among nations as among individuals, and if deadly weapons are at hand, one day they will strike...

...The Washington Herald reports Senator Pomerene of Ohio saying that while he heartily endorses Secretary of State Hughes' proposal, he will continue to press his resolution requiring the President to immediately suspend all or part of the naval construction program as "an additional evidence of our good faith and a saving of millions to the people...

...Victory came...

...It was a glowing and inspiring standard of school-book Americanism transcended and spiritualized by beautiful phrases, and made applicable to the political future of all the oppressed peoples of the world...

...And however gloomy and discouraging the outlook might be at times here in Washington, in all our councils I would say, "I am sure the folks back home are heart and soul for disarmament...

...The war, with its exactions and its sacrifices, took heavy toll of the poor, not only because they were numerically the most important class, but because they were the class first spiritually won to the war...

...Sometimes, besides our two meetings a day, we made more than a hundred miles by auto...