A ROOM OF OUR OWN

...I'm going to work easy, and when something goes wrong I'm just going to laugh...

...There are many straws in the wind to show that the people resent the ever-increasing inroads of government on their personal lives, and I was not surprised to see that the recent meeting of Governors emphatically demanded a return to the states of powers usurped by the Federal Government...

...You don't know how hard work this is...

...So, instead of straining forward blindly with the bit in their teeth, those who sincerely desire a sound peace would do well at this period, as Sherry put it, to "work easy, and just laugh if something goes wrong...

...Failure Of The League President Wilson, with his ideal of the League of Nations (no new idea in world organization), found himself pitted against the historic and immediate background of the exhausted statesmen of Europe and according to those who were around him, quite naturally exhibited personal idiosyncrasies of his own...

...Those of us who through the years have spent thought and energy attempting to avoid the horrors of war are well-aware of the shortcomings of human nature...

...In the school of thought to which I belong, the leader must not only know the goal toward which he is working, but how fast he can proceed with public support...

...A Room Of Our Own By Isabel B. La Follette THE other morning as I sat at the sewing machine, eight-year-old Sherry worked industriously at a pair of play shoes—cardboard soles with strips of cotton cloth which she colored with crayon to suit her taste...

...After the duration," we tell ourselves arid each other, we will move forward again...

...mother...

...Although the Government keeps cautioning us about too much optimism, we cannot help letting our imaginations, follow the steps of our men on the European invasion fronts, wondering fearfully about the opposition ahead of them, how...

...This produces a tension in all of us which shows up in our relation to our work and each other...

...If we step out too far ahead, we find the limb sawed off under us...

...What a boon it would be for ourselves and those about us if we could suddenly relax and laugh about our tasks...

...That was what happened to President Wilson, and there are already signs that the same thing may happen after this war if those in power do not assess the situation accurately...

...As I see it, underlying the differences and conflicts was the fundamental division between those who were captivated by a disembodied ideal and those who felt the responsibilities of trying to carry it out...

...The more of us who can buoyantly swing our responsibilities and laugh off our disappointments, the better basis we will have for living up to our ideals for ourselves and for others...

...I know of no one who does not appreciate the necessity and val le of cooperation with other nations, as expressed in the Progressive Declaration of Principles...

...As leaders from all over the world met in Paris after the last war, there can be no doubt but that they all sincerely wanted peace...

...I'm not going to work hard any more...

...Most of us are aware in times of prolonged strain such as this, that our nerves are taut, our patience short, and our judgment not of the best...

...A Fundamental Division And yet much as we deplore it, the physical, and nervous depletion of the peoples of the world is just as much a fact to be considered as any other factor in postwar plans...

...Just as war kills and maims soldiers physically and mentally, so the stresses and strains of wartime responsibilities limit the energies and confidence of civilian populations...

...I have thought so many times in the past two years what a pity it is that some of our most important work must be done while we ourselves are not at our best...

...Skilled and highly-trained diplomats like the British Harold Nicolson speak highly of the caliber of the experts assembled and make it clear it was not for want of knowledge of the facts involved that a lasting peace machinery could not be achieved...

...She had worked an hour and a half—quite a period for her age—and was beginning to mutter complaints about her lot and how the shoes wouldn't go the way -she wanted them to...

...The professors, the publicists, the dealers in ideas are quick to sneer at the politician...

...What a gift she will have if she can maintain this attitude through life, thought I to myself...

...Of course the politician, like everyone else, represents a variety of human types, but the experienced political leader who has worked his way up from the ranks is second to none in his knowledge of human nature...

...Most of us recognize, however, that the cornerstone of our responsibility toward others rests on meeting our own responsibilities...

...Talk of "world organization" or "machinery," however, raises uneasiness or downright resentment among hundreds of thousands who are bitterly aware of the cost...

...Whereupon she laughed gaily and hummed at her work...

...The easy tendency (which survives to this day) to blame the failure of the League on a group of individuals in the United States Senate, refuses to look beneath the surface to the real cause...

...long the task will take, and what will come after...

...When it came to the method of obtaining and preserving it, they were irreconcilable...

...Instead Of Blind Straining This "limited vision" may distress and anger the professional idealist, but perhaps some day we will recognize that it is an inevitable part of war psychosis...

...Reading the many notes and memoirs of men who worked at the peace table after World War I, I at least cannot escape the fact that the destiny of nations hinges not so much on what the leaders 'think but on what they are...

...Finally she exploded: "I'm sick of this hard work...

...How many of us do not hear or ourselves express regret that we are unable to follow our desires for wider participation in friendships, group activities, and other worthwhile values...