HOME AND EDUCATION

...The inscriptions were all dignified...

...In a great cause that concerns the masses, all kinds of honest appeal must be employed...

...1. Given the pacifist mood or character of the United States in the summer of 1914 and the present disposition of the country, it can hardly be questioned that of all the nations this nation has since the outbreak of the war covered the longest stretch of militarization...

...Herbert Parsons, was a member of Congress from 1905 to 1911 and during the period of our acquaintance I found her one of the most interesting women I have ever known...

...She gave freely of her time for suffrage work...

...But these fighters for democracy are not willing that the suffrage issue shall be shoved aside...

...It might declare that war against 'socialism' was a holier war than war against Germany, that the autocracy of socialism was more dangerous to civilization than the autocracy of any one government...

...After discussing with profound insight the danger that the Plutocratic class will develop and control its own militarist polity and that the military will be merely its tool, Mrs...

...To make the country safe for plutocracy would become more urgent than to make the world safe for democracy...

...A scries of "little wars" will also be of service...

...Although I have helped a little now and then, I have never been an active worker in the militant wing of the suffrage organization...

...Her husband, Mr...

...Who will pay the bill of the war, not the bill in terms of life or spiritual suffering, but the bill in economic terms, in terms of labor or property...

...Its constituency is mostly of a younger generation and my training has been in a different school...

...She says, "Will the plutocracy have learned its lesson for peace if it has to pay the bill...

...They kept the reporters busy...

...In this war, upon what class in America is the curtailment to press...

...In a remarkably short period a system that would suppress by physical means or quasi physical means minority opinion at home and conflicting opinion abroad has been adopted: and 2. In the very moment of making vast appropriations for armament or for war, of declaring war or condemning discussion of peace, of voting conscription or establishing military drill in the schools, Americans would reiterate, "Never shall we become a militarist people...

...They aroused public interest through parades and street meetings...

...Parsons says: "The effect of war upon business is the touchstone in this country for the desirability of war...

...Enough western states had been won to create a strong entering wedge in Congress...

...Science, the arts, experimental education, experimental government, may be damaged with impunity, their hold or appeal is so slight...

...If it had not been a part of my observation and experience, I could not believe so radical a change possible...

...The theory of militarism that physical compulsion should be the preferred way out of social misunderstanding or incompatibility has been fairly well acciMurated throughout the country...

...They got the front page of the newspapers...

...I confess to a feeling of impatience when first I heard this claim to what seemed like mystical immunity, and to making the obvious and futile retort, "But what are we nowf" Proceeding to examine this last assertion, an assertion so plainly comforting to its makers that it compelled examination, Dr...

...It might just as well be said that picketing at the Capitol is for the purpose of "annoying Senators and Representatives...

...Justice for Picketers AWRONGFUL impression has been given out over the country that the arrest and imprisonment of prominent suffragists in Washington, on the charge of "obstructing the traffic" is justifiable on the ground that picketing at the White House has been for the purpose of "annoying the President...

...The brilliant writer of this article concludes that to make the world safe for democracy, to fight for civilization or humanity, are ideals that may succeed as stimulants to war—at least for a time...

...Education," "patient waiting" have had no place in the plan of attack of the "Congressional Union" or the "National Suffrage Party," a3 the organization is now designated...

...Militarist theory we have already adopted, but have we made up our mind to practise the theory at all costs...

...Parsons is the daughter of Henry Clews, the widely known Wall Street banker...

...That sincere, purposeful, high-minde«l women should be arrested and imprisoned for peaceful picketing—for standing quietly and harmlessly, holding aloft banners on which are inscribed fundamental principles of democracy, is a strange commentary on our free institutions...

...Gregarious satisfactions war enhances, for other satisfactions war creates substitutes, it is only the economic satisfactions which are positively curtailed by war...

...Mind, I do not give them credit for the remarkable simultaneous growth of suffrage sentiment in tho States...

...It called for unyielding determination and power, for a Joan of Arc faith and enthusiasm...

...The only effect upon the penalized plutocracy would be to inspire it to preparedness, to preparedness against having to pay the bill for the next great war it might desire...

...They reached out for the society women with teas and receptions at the spacious, historic old house, where they have their headquarters...

...They have been aggressive, forceful, indefatigable, unafraid...

...The slogan, Peace for Democracy would dispossess the slogan, War for Democracy...

...I am of the opinion that Congressional Union interference with State work was a mistake...

...Parsons asks: "Are there, indeed, in this country any peace patterns that will prevail, at least in certain circumstances, against the militarist patterns—perhaps not in theory, but in practise...

...These standard bearers were personally silent and unobtrusive...

...Preserving the social order would seem more important than a war to end war...

...We may question the wisdom of the policy...

...They organized the City into units for meetings in private houses...

...An important part of that preparedness will be developing a nationalistic spirit...

...They will be wars to keep patriotism vigorous and distracted from anti-plutocratic home enterprises, wars to give an army and navy based on universal service something to do, and wars to benefit commerce and finance...

...Their leaders are largely women of education, experience,—writers, teachers, artists, business and working women and many have wealth and social position...

...Whatever are our views as to the war, we can not fail to find Dr...

...She has reputation as an economist and student of social conditions, and she stands bravely for her convictions although they may be in conflict with those of her class...

...But that peaceful picketing should be made the cause for imprisonment cannot be justified on any ground...

...Her beauty and social gift together with her rare intellectual power gave her a unique position in the official circle...

...It merits thorough reading and much reflection...

...Some cited recent events in Russia...

...Its peace patterns have been very successfully invaded by militarist patterns...

...In this the reconstructed military win be of service...

...There was a time when street parades and street meetings were assailed as bad suffrage tactics, but who now questions the valuable part they have played in the suffrage movement...

...But to correlate the scattered forces, revitalize the issue, bring it to the front and into the limelight, called for the highest order of generalship...

...They have not violated the law nor committed violance...

...It was the inscriptions on the banners that compelled attention...

...We may disapprove of women picketing for suffrage...

...Dread of socialism or of currents setting strongly towards socialism may end the present war for the United States—but what of future wars...

...Yet she so organized her life that each day she had a number of hours for study and writing...

...They wanted the vote...

...To be sure tho time was ripe for an awakening...

...More and inoro I grew to admire the courage, the strength of purpose and devotion to principle which sustained the picketcrs in their hard undertaking...

...They wanted to get It by the shortest :ut...

...Tuey are determined to keep the fires burning...

...No indeed—social lessons are not thus learned, learned for good, either by classes or by nations...

...THE transformation In sentiment that has taken place on the suffrago Issue since the 4th of March, 1913, at the Capital has been spectacular and extraordinary...

...Tbey were most carefully chosen,—terse messages that in their application, forced conviction that vote3 for women was fundamental to true democracy...

...But nearly every day I went to the Capitol...

...Will militarism be discredited in its eyes...

...And so they have stood in small relays for 150 and more odd days before the gates of the White House and at the entrances to the Capitol bearing aloft Inscriptions appealing to Congress and to the President for justice...

...Parson's article most suggestive and stimulating...

...DURING the several months I was in Washington this year I did not happen to enter the White House gates...

...after the war is over, perhaps—suffrage will be granted' to women by constitutional amendment...

...In the cold and the rain, in the heat and the dust, they stood there holding up well designed banners, which none who passed could fail to read...

...And in my judgment this wonderful result Is mostly duo to the brains, the energy, the martyr-like zeal and spirit that is back of the organization that has kept the picketers at the Capitol and the White House...

...Two paragraphs—the italics are mine— state troublesome truths over which we women folk must needs ponder...

...Indeed it might be alarmed enough to look instinctively for new ideals for peace...

...In this case American shrewdness may get the better of American ideals, or, rather, "common sense" may conclude that idealism, no longer its servant, must be repudiated...

...Home and Education Conducted by BELLE CASE LA FOLLETTE Patterns for War or Peace THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY for September, under the above title has a very keen analysis of the possible economic and social results of the war in the United States by Elsie Clews Parsons...

...Her home was perfect in all its appointments and was the center of social attraction...

...I never could get over the wonder of...

...As for the other activities or interests of life, many of them, like philanthropy, for example, will be merely diverted by war, many of them will be even stimulated, for example, parental and kinship interests, sociability at large...

...My conclusion as to the value of their service is that of an outside observer, WHEN Alice Faul and her associates came to Washington to prepare tho way for the great parade and demonstration which proved to be the most widely advertised feature of President Wilson's first inauguration, at that time—only five years ago—the Capital City of the United States was enjoying a veritable Rip Van Winkle sleep on the subject of suffrage...

...And this is what the Alice Paul leadership has meant to the cause of suffrage at the scat of government The five years of concentrated campaigning for the Susan B. Anthony Amendment has been carried on with intense fervor and drive such as party managers put into national election contests...

...Activities other than business, less valued activities or interests, war may injure without serious consequences to a militarist polity...

...A great issue must be familiarized and popularized before it can be grasped and understood and grow into a burning conviction...

...They bombarded Congress with hearings and appeals for hear-ings...

...But in a war'run on ideals she says: "There is peculiar danger of defection...

...They interviewed the President publicly and personally and appealed for more interviews...

...Where large groups," she continues, "seek in consequence to escape from under the war burden, perhaps to effect a radically different distribution of wealth, the plutocracy would be alarmed...

...But this does not lessen the credit and the admiration due their achievement in the District of Columbia, where a lethargic, scornful, incredulous attitude has been so revolutionized that the most reluctant and unwilling politicians now concede that in a short time...

...They kept up a continuous siege of personal interviews...

...The fact is, that picketing has been adopted as one means of keeping Congress and the President both reminded that the constitutional amendment—the Susan B. Anthony amendment—for the enfranchisement of women, has not yet been passed...

...Parsons in Washington...

...No Violation of Law IT SHOULD be remembered that the Congressional Union has never been militant in the English sense...

...Given a sharp enough experience of hardship or privation mysticism may give way to a sense of reality...

...She was the mother of several young children and very carefully looked after their health and education...

...I speak disinterestedly...

...Some were quotations from recent messages of President Wilson...

...It happens that I met Mrs...

...And at the entrances of the beautiful grounds, during most of the daylight hours, standing like sentinels at their posts, were groups of two or three young women decorated with suffrage colors...

...Furthermore as I studied the effect of their effort, the persistent conviction grew on me that they were pursuing a consistent and effective policy...