xt70rx937t9n_428 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/46m4.dao.xml unknown 13.63 Cubic Feet 34 boxes, 2 folders, 3 items In safe - drawer 3 archival material 46m4 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Laura Clay papers Temperance. Women -- Political activity -- Kentucky. Women's rights -- Kentucky. Women's rights -- United States -- History. Women -- Suffrage -- Kentucky. Women -- Suffrage -- United States. Ford Hall Folks text Ford Hall Folks 2020 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt70rx937t9n/data/46m4/Box_17/Folder_13/Multipage18841.pdf 1915 March 28 1915 1915 March 28 section false xt70rx937t9n_428 xt70rx937t9n FORD , HALL FOLKS .;

A MACAZI

Entered

as Second-Class Matter

EDITED BY THOMAS DREIER

NE OF NEIGHBORLINES‘S

October 18, mt t, :it the Post Office at Boston, Mass, under the Act of March 3, 1879.

 

 

VOLUME III NUMBER 24

MARCH 28, 1915

PRICE FIVE CENT

 

 

WOMEN

CANNOT speak English very well.
But when on the last of July, 1914,
tlhis unspeakable war began, and
when the women of sixteen Eu-
4 pean countries chose me to come
over to this country and speak for them, I
(lid not think for One moment whether I
knew English or not. I knew I had to
come. I have been made to speak English.
I am not sor-
ry that I was
made to speak
it, for it has
111 a d e m e
1'ealize the
wonderful
spirit of your
people.

In Europe,
we have such
strange ideas
of America!
I have met
your society
people, your
capitalists,
yOur social-
ists. your

teachers, and professors, and doctors, and
preachers, some who care for nothing but.
intellect, some who care for nothing but
money, some who care for nothing but
serving others. And when in a few days I
go back, I can go with the conviction that
you have a wonderful nation—that you
have civilization in this terrible time when
we almost begin to feel that there is no such
thing as civilization. 111 the midst of this
desperate feeling among European women I
can bring home the consolation of telling
them that there is one spot on earth where
there is really civilization, and that is your
country.

I do not think that we are altogether to
blame for being mistaken about you, for I
find that you yourselves do not know your-
selves. I find people who say, “We are a
nation that cares for nothing but dollars."
I have met people like that, and I have met
people who say, “Don’t tell us about the
horrors of war. We don‘t like‘ that. We.
like only the intellectual appeal.”

I have found that the people who say
these things are mistaken. They are mis-
taken in the idea that the intellect is some-
thing absolutely theoretical, academical.
That is not my conception of the intellect.
I have found a Wonderful response to my
conception of the intellect, and I have
found that people understand it as I under—
stand it—that if one brings new facts
which cannot be learned from books, or
taught in universities, these facts appeal to
the intellect. They touch the emotions, too,
and I do not feel that you people are so
cold, so full of a chilly intellectualism dis-
connected from life. Life is emotion and

*Speeeh and questions and answers

reported
by Sara H. Birchall.

BY FRAU ROSIKA SCHWIMMER

intellect, and I am glad to have had the
chance to see for myself that you are
human.

These facts which I have to bring to you
of the present world tragedy are not facts
which can be taught in universities or in
books, because the world has never before
produced such facts. These facts which I
have been called to tell you are facts which
show that all our conceptions of nations and
honor and justice and patriotism are all
based on lies and illusions and suggestions
which interested parties have given us to
make us think along wrong lines.

One of our illusions was that we had in-
ternationalism. In July, 1914, we learned
that there was no internationalism—or that
the internationalism we thought we knew
did not exist. The socialists, the churches,
the educated people, the artists, and doc-
tors, and professors used to tell us that
there were no national boundaries any
more. It was those very people who, when
they came to face the supreme test of inter-
nationalism, failed. Internationalism! On
the 27th of July, all Europe was divided
into two camps—our side and the other
side. On that day, the men who had talked
so loudly of internationalism dropped their
ideals, and started to hate each other, and
kill each other. And it was a very wonder-
ful thing that we women did not know how
strongly we felt about it until this critical
hour.

Women rose, and women said, “We do not
want this war. We do not want to hate.
It is too great a change for us. We who
have grown through internationalism do
not believe in this war. We declare that
we resent the spirit of hatred, and that this
war shall not divide us, but shall bring the
women of every country closer together
than they haVe ever been before.”

We spoke about women being the mothers
of the race. So far, it had been theoretical
knowledge. When the war broke out, and
when twenty-eight millions of able—bodied
and able-minded men between eighteen and
forty-eight had to drop everything in their
own land—had to stop being teachers, and
preachers, and business men, and whatever
they were and had to be nothing but a gi-
gantic horde of murderers and destroyers——
at that time we felt that it was not only
theory that we women were the mothers of
the race. Each of us, whether physically a
mother or not, felt that each of those twen-
ty-eight millions of men was the son of a
mother, and the life of each of those sons
was asked of each of us. An overwhelming
feeling of motherhood swept over us, and
this feeling united us and made women of
all nations and all faiths cry out, “We have
nothing to say in the making of war, but
we must and shall have our say in the mak-
ing of peace.”

From the first moment of the war, we
tried everything in our power to stop it.
Power is a very bad word. We women had
no power, We European women are noth-.

AND WAR

ing but females, and our wishes do not
amount to the snap of my finger.
When the war came, we said, “Let us go

’ to the trenches, and fling ourselves between

the armies and say, ‘Shoot us, if you must!’
and keep them from killing each other.”

We found that we could not do- it. Mod-
ern warfare is an affair of engineers. We
found out that war is conducted so that if
the conductors do not wish you to go to the
armies, and do not provide ways for you to
reach the armies, you have no means of get-
ting there, and do not even know where the
armles are.

When we found that we could not go any-
where near the armies and cry out and
shout that we did not want this war, we
said, “Let us go home.”

Peace Projects Censored.

We went home. We found that at home
we could not even speak to each other of
peace. Three people on the street could not
talk to each other. At seven o’clock, we
had to be in our houses and doors had to be
closed and lights lowered. Letters could
not be used to spread our wish that there
should be peace. Every letter was read by
the military censor. There was no privacy
anywhere. The censors would not pass a
letter about peace in France, and women
were imprisoned for trying to speak about
peace.

Then We said, “Let us have meetings.”
We could not have meetings. The military
authorities were present and one could not
mention the word peace. We found that
we were absolutely helpless, and we felt
that there was nothing left for us to do but
to come to you who are free and civilized
and tell you what is happening in Europe
and beg of you to do what we want you to
do, and what you can dO—to stop this war.
And we have come over to tell you why we
want you to stop it. We want you to stop
it because we know that if it should go as
far as those who are in control want it to
go, this world catastrophe will mean the
beginning of the end of Europe and that
the destruction of life and property will
then be so immense that the reconstruction
of Europe will be impossible.

When these twenty~eight millions of men
were called out, the women were told to do
the work. These same women who, when
they asked for equal rights and mentioned
the awful word suffrage. Were reminded
that they were the weaker sex. There are
people, you know, who can bear the horrors
of war much better than they can bear the
word suffrage. When we asked for equal
rights, our rulers told us to go home and
make the home and mind the baby. We
women went home and made the home and
minded the baby. And we were so stupid
as to believe what those men told us. We
did not see that our home is the whole
world, that it is broader than four walls.

(Continued on Page 2.)

 

 ,--... .

FORD HALL FOLKS

 

 

WOMEN AND WAR.
(Continued from Page 1.)

We did not see that it was no use to be
child bearers and home makers as long as
we allowed the men to be child murderers
and home destroyers.

Now these same rulers say, “Out of the
borne! The men are at the front, and you
women have to do the work.” They call us
to do the work that a little while ago they
said only men could do. It was usually the
better-paid work that only men could do,
one noticed. So we were called on to do
the work that a little while ago they said
was unwomanly. Today we have women
doctors and women surgeons in the military
hospitals. We have women running the
street-cars where a year or two ago one did
not dare to employ a woman to run an ele-
vator. It was considered extremely dan-
gerous for a woman to operate an elevator.
Somebody might be killed! That is very
strange. But on thinking it over, perhaps
it is that now all the men are gone to the
front to he killed there, and as only the
women remain, the danger from the eleva-
tors is not of so much importance.

We have rights now, when we don't want,
them. We can have rights in times when
we cannot use those rights to build up the
world as we wanted to build it. What shall
we do with those rights? They tell us we
are going to have the right of suffrage. In.
Germany, in England, in all the other coun-
tries. And they say, “Now, ladies you have
it. What are you going to do with it?"
Now—"when they have spent money that

"twelve generations will not he able to pay

back. Now——when they have wasted in
destruction the material with which we
wanted to build 111) a new world.

Man-Made World Not Good.

We women know that. a merely man-made
world cannot be good. We know that a
merely woman-made world cannot be good.
The human race is not represented by man
or woman alone, and if we want a human
world, with human institutions, men and
women together must build it. And now
that. they ask us what we are going to do
with our equal rights, we ask them, “What
human material will there be to build
with?" Let’s forget the wasted money.
[let‘s forget the destroyed property. What
human material is there?

There will be those women of Europe who
are carrying on the whole burden of eco-
nomic production, and living under such
terrible mental agony as nobody who has
not lived through it can imagine. They do
not rven know where. their sons and broth-
ers and husbands may be, or on what frozen
battlefield they die. One of the illusions
lostered in us is that we are the protected
sex. We are not to have equal rights be-
rause we have. not equal duties. Men have
said that we have to pay taxes and obey
the lawns, and so on, but We mustn‘t forget
that they fight for us and thattherefore We
cannot. have the privilege of deciding ques-
tions of life or death or peace or war. To-
day, we. know better. Today We know that.
we are not the protected sex. Today we
know that men do not protect their homes.
There are soldiers in every nation for every
nation, but they are not protecting their
homes. Today we know that war does not
mean that they are to protect their homes.
War means that they are to destroy other
people‘s homes. And the burdens of eco-
nomic production and the protection of the
homes are left to the women, and they do
it, where there are still homes to protect.

And these women who have done the
work and protected the home and seen their
homes destroyed are searching in an alien
world for shelter for their children and
safety for their family. Women are being
tortured as women have never been tor-
tured before. There are the hosts of ref-
ugees in Belgium and in Poland and wher-
ever war has set its feet. Women have
dropped down by the roadside and borne
children and gathered their babies up in
their handkerchiefs and gone on, running
away from the advancing armies. Women
have lost their entire families in the mad
scramble for something resembling safety.
Women have gathered the remnants to-
gether again and run on.

War Brides Not the Worst.

Womanhood has been humiliated as it
has never been humiliated in the world be-
fore,—and we have suffered a great deal
already. We hear of the war—brides. That
is awful, but it is not the worst. Women
like Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt and myself
have evidence that children of five years
and women above eighty are not spared,
and evidence that all along the border line
of the war violated and tortured women are
committing suicide by thousands and going
insane by thousands; and that tens of thou-
sands are pregnant by soldiers.

I have seen the letter of an American
woman, written to an American friend, in
which she says they are caring for eighteen
Belgian women pregnant by Germans and
Hindus. A letter in which a friend of hers
tells that when he was sent home from the
lighting line, wounded so badly that he was
useless, he found his wife, his daughter of
eighteen and his niece of fourteen pregnant
by Russians. lhave letters from Buda
Pesth from friends of my own. Among
these I have a letter telling of a. successful
Russian general. It was a wonderful thing.
quite unexpected, that this general kept his
soldiers in strict discipline in regard to
property. When complaints came to him
of stealing, he punished the offenders so
severely that the complainants almost
wished they had said nothing. To this man
who had such a sacred sense of property
came a father whose complaint was the
first one unheeded. He came to complain
that his wife had been violated by fifteen
Russian soldiers. The general shouted at
him, “Serve you right! Why did all the
women of the country flee? Why did you
not leave enough for my soldiers?”

If this does not appeal to your intellect,
I do not know what intellect is. If you say
that this does not appeal to you, then you
are not intellectual, and it is a mistake to
call you intellectual. If you can bear to let
these thir gs go on, and not try to do every—
thing in your power to stop them, you are
not to be called civilized, and there is no
civilization in the world.

They talk about democratic control of
foreign policies. What are you to do? If
you wait until the war is over it will be
too late. Why wait to begin the democratic
control of foreign policies? You cannot
wait. until they make a diplomatic peace—a
peace of graveyards. What we women of
Europe beg of you to do is to show that
you don’t want to wait. until the diplomats
tell you that they have had enough. They
never can have enough. They will not end
this war until the last sacrifice is made.

You remember at the beginning of the
war, they all said, “The war will go on
until our side conquers." You remember

the Czar said he must get to Berlin and he
didn‘t mind if it took his last beloved Jew
and his last beloved moujik. You remem-
ber the Kaiser said he must enter Paris,

and he didn’t mind if he lost his last he-
loved Uhlan. Our OWn old king offered his
last Austrian and Hungarian, and King
Peter offered his last Servian, and Kitch-
ener offered his last Englishman. The
tragedy of it is that we listened and could
not say one word when Kaisers and Czars
and Kitcheners and Franz-Josephs made
these offers—that we could not say, “They
are not your men. They are our men!”

And because they are our men, physical-
ly, mentally, morally, we want to save those
who are not yet killed. We want to save
those women who are not yet driven in-
sane. We want to save our babies and our
children. We want to save those nations
who do not want to fight from being drawn
into this war. Because we want to do this,
we bid you arise and take your foreign pol-
icy out of the hands of diplomats and take
it into your own hands. You cannot do it
as individuals. It is a question of organi-
zation, and I am so happy to know that
you have a woman’s peace party that is
standing for peace. There is a way that
you can act. It is through the newly-
formed National Federation of Peace, :1
force which unites capitalists and socialists
and all churches alike, and these two organ-
izations propose to express the will and
wish of the nation to stop this senseless and
endless slaughter. I beg of you to join
these forces. I beg of you to do it because
I want these peace forces to be big enough
to counteract the military forces which are
so wonderfully powerful. We must have
peace. We cannot do it if we sit at home
with our hearts full of sympathy but don’t
put our forces into action. Because my
heart is aching for my brothers and sisters,
because my heart is aching lest you, too, be
dominated by the military spirit that a few
of your people are aging upon the nation,
because I do not want you to follow the
morbid example of Europe, I beg of you to
join these new peace forces to help save us
and to save yourselves.

We European women feel that we cannot
wait much longer. In April we are going

to have a meeting at The Hague where

women of all lands will meet the women of
the neutral countries to consider-carefully
what We can do to save these men in the
trenches, who do notreally want to kill
one another at all. If you take your part
in stopping this fearful war, you can look
your children in the face, and say, “We did
what we could.” But if you sit silent at
home, you cannot answer 'your children
when they ask of you, “What did you do to
bring peace to the world?”

MYSTERIES.

In this world we find what we look for.
It is good to remember what Webster Ford
makes one of his Spoon River characters
say:

Ye who are kicking against Fate,

Tell me how it is that on this hillside,

Running down to the river,

Which fronts the sun and the south-wind,

This plant draws from the air and soil

Poison and becomes poison ivy?

And this plant draws from the same air and
soil

Sweet elixirs and colors and becomes arbu-
tus?

And both flourish?

You may blame Spoon River for what it is,

But whom do you blame for the will inyou

That feeds itself and makes you dock-weed.

Jimpson, dandelion or mullen

And which can never use any soil or air

So as to make you jessamine or wistaria?

 

 

-—._-uaa—‘ “A“ __.-‘_._ W—_—. __ an

 

_..__.._.

 

  

s *3.

_._._..«=__ ”A“ 4—6...

 

.— _._.._..._.____ __ A-.-”

i

 

FORD HALL FOLKS

 

 

THE QUESTIONS

 

Q: Why do you give us the credit of
being civilized when we send arms and am-
munition to the belligerent countries?

A: Because I know your people are
against it.

Q (Mr. Bernard): Inasmuch as the capi-
talists are the only ones to profit by this
war, why not send them to the front and
let them do the fighting?

A: If we had any power to select whom
we wanted to send to the front, we would
not send anybody. .

Q (Mrs. Sonnemann): How can we ever
get rid of war while we have a society
based on the idea that we must obey the
king and the king obeys God?

A: You have a hymn, “The Day of the
People Is Dawning.” When it dawns, you
will have a day free of war.

Q (Mr. Meltzer, Jr.): Won’t co-operative
control and democratic ownership of indus-
tries make warfare impossible?

A: That is not enough. As long as you
have the institution of militarism, you will
have war.

Q (Mr. Meltzer, Sr.): What are we to do
to stop war besides talking peace?

A: Unite with the neutral countries of
Europe to demand that the belligerent coun-
tries all stop the war. Representatives of
all the beligerent countries have stated that
each country was fighting for its life. If
they will all stop fighting, no one of them
will have to fight to defend itself against
anybody.

Q: If the men who are in the trenches
were good fathers and husbands and sons,
why did they not refuse to go and fight?

A: Because they were all too weak to do
away with compulsory military service.
They did not stop militarism in time, and
when the war came it was too late.

Q: If Germany had not had such a tre-
mendous army as she has today, could we
not have avoided this war?

A: It’s not the question of how great
the army is. It’s the question of having
any army at all. The only way to avoid
war is to do away with armaments.

Q (Mr. Margolis): If you are concerned
with this phase of the question, do you
share the belief of others that the outcome
of the war will be a United States of
lEurope?

A: If the war is not stopped unofficially,
we will have the United Graveyards of
Europe.

Q: Was not the fact that the armies and
navies of all the countries were so great
and the taxation of the people was so heavy
that the only outcome of the muddle was
to have a war?

A: That is one of the reasons, but not
all of them.

Q (Mr. Brown): Is it true that of the six
demands which Austria sent to Servia, she
complied with five, and was willing to arbi-
trate the sixth at The Hague, and neverthe-
less the Austrian government gave the Ser-
vian minister his passports?

A: I am here on a neutral mission, and
cannot touch political questions. I shall
be glad to answer that question privately.

Q: Do you mean to say that the Social-
ists are responsible for this war, and is that
quite fair in view of the fact that they were
in so large a minority as compared to the
official church of Europe, which made even
less effort than the Socialists at the begin-
ning of the-war?

A: I did not mean to say that the So-
cialists were responsible. Everybody is .1‘e-

sponsible. The Socialists' part of the re-
sponsibility lies in the fact that at the in-
ternational convention at Stuttgart in 1907
the committee who discussed the resolution
that the socialists should refuse to take
part in any fighting did not let it come, be-
fore the convention l'or discussion because
they feared it would damage the movement.
it might have damaged the movement; but
it would have helped humanity.

Q: If the woman suffragists are against
war, why do they teach their children pat-
riotism?

A: Our patriotism is different from the
official sort of patriotism, but our teachings
are nullified by the fact that our schools are
managed by politics and politicians who
teach the other kind.

Q: What response did the authorities in
Washington make to your mission?

A: The answer I received made me
think that some action was going to be
taken shortly. None followed. Then I
learned that a group of idealistic people had
made representations to President Wilson
urging that no action be taken until
the Germans were driven out of Belgium.
The pressure was not commercial, as many
people have supposed.

Q: Isn’t the only real way to stop war
by stopping the production of arms and am-
munition?

A: You are unable to stop their manu~
facture in Europe. .

Q: Isn’t the real cause of the war the
philosophy that Treitschke preaches?

A: I don’t know anyone in Germany 01'
Austria-Hungary who takes Treitschke's
philosophy as his own. We (lid not know
that he was so great a man. No, it was
not the philosophy of any one man. it was
the idea that might makes right. if the
gentleman thinks that to fight for democ-
racy and liberty is to kill men, then I do
not understand democracy.

Q: When the authority is in the hands
of a few war lords, how can we hope for
peace as long as we continue to obey them '3

A: If you want to check the authority of
the war lords, you must stop the war now.
If you kill off all the young men, then you
will only leave the weak men who are un-
able to defy the war lords.

Q (Mr. Hogan): If you urge disarma-
ment, and yet are willing to let private
property exist, are you not giving the same
futile advice that the Pope gave in his
encyclical?

A: I do not think that follows. i will
remind you that the system of private prop-
erty still remains in Chili and Argentine,
but they have melted down their guns and
bullet-metal to make a statue of the Prince
of Peace, and they fight no more.

Q: By what method can this country
use its influence to pacify Mexico?

A: I know nothing of the Mexican situ-
ation.

Q (Mr, Cosgrove): How do you account
for so many foreign residents of the United
States returning across the water to fight
for their respective countries?

A: They had to do it, if they had not
resigned their citizenship. Otherwise they
could never return to their country, or own
property there.

Q: How long do you think the war will
last, if the United States does not inter-
fere? ' .

A: It is impossible to estimate it in
time. Until one side or the other is abso.
lutely exhausted.

Q (Mr. Fraser): Do you think that if
Russia wins and secures a commercial out—
let it. will make Russia a liberal country?

A: i will answer that question privately

Q: If the secialist party could carry its
progrannne into effect, would it not prevent
war s00ner than suffrage could do it?

A: The socialists had their chance and
didn't take it.

Q: Would not the socialists haVe, had a
better opportunity to bring their influence
to bear if the convention called in Vienna
had been called before the war broke out"

.»\: Yes.

Q: How ran a neutral country go to
the warring countries and demand peace?
Would not the warring nations regard it. as
an intrusion and drag the United States
into the light?

A: Who will drag you into it? llotb
sides?

Q: Would not we be just as effectiVe in
preventing war if we did away with capital
as if we destroyed guns and armaments‘.’

A: You can shoot and kill with a gun,
and a rifle, and a shell, and a bomb, but
you can’t kill anybody with a hundred-do!-
lar note.

Q: is the Christian religion helping to
prevent war?

A: it can help to prevent it if it does
not compromise.

Q: Would it be, possible for us to en-
i'orce. our neutrality if We. did not; have a
large navy?

A: I do not think that is necessary. You
have not a large army. .lust because you
dare to have a small army, the European
nations are afraid of your moral superior-
ity. ,

Q: What do you think of Mr. l'iearst’s
policies in the war?

A: i do not know Mr. Hearst.

Q (Mrs. Hopkins): Are there any ef-
forts on foot to prevent the meeting of the
women at The Hague?

A: Nothing can be done to prevent. it.
I do not know what will happen after the,
women go home.

Q: How can one get in touch with the
peace organization you inentioned‘.’

A: The organization is the National
Peace Federation. The secretary is Mr.
Louis Lochiner, lit; South Michigan Ave-
nue, Chicago.

Q: Why is the suffrage plank in the
Woman’s Peace i’arty platform?

A: Because, the peace people realize
that the idea of right instead of might is
just as true between men and women as it
is between the strong and the weak. And
because they know women are powerful
peace forces.

A PICTURE OF WAR.

Rain through the roof of the cottage,
Fields that are barren with blight,

Waiting and fearing till daytime,
Fearing and waiting till night;

Slaughter and ruin for labor,
Hunger and thirst for a wage,
Death for the promise of youth-time,
Death for the comfort of age;

Calvary's sacrifice wasted,
Flames burning future and past,
Life that is pallid and pulseless,
Famine that’s striding the blast;

Cruelty fierce and insatiate,
Hope that sees never a star,
Night on the world and the future
Filled with the Terror—is War!

 

 FORD HALL FOLKS

 

 

 

AS IT LOOKS TO ME

By GEORGE W. COLEMAN

 

.3 There were many who felt that Frau
Schwimmer capped the climax of
Ford Hall lecturers. She certainly made a
tremendous impression on her audience.
Professor Zueblin’s testimony as to the
pOWer of her message was abundantly justi-
fied. l-ler mental and physical vigor is ex-
traordinary. She had spoken the previous
evening at 'Brookline and again, that very
afternoon, at the Brockton Forum, but gave
no evidence whatever, Sunday evening, of
the slightest weariness. She held her audi<
ence spellbound for an hour and fifty-five
minutes, including the time spent in an-
swering questions, and when we finished at
ten o’clock there were many still eager to
put further questions to her.

Although Mme. Schwimmer told us faith-
fully some of the most terrible facts that
are doubtless of daily occurrence all along
the fighting lines, she did not stress them
at all. They gave the deepest insight into
the utter horrors of war and added tremen-
dous force to all her conclusions.

T
2.59 It is a significant fact in itself that
millions of European women send a
woman to urge the women of the United
States to organize a demand for peace. It
is a prophecy, l believe, of great changes in
the status of women in civilized countries
throughout the world that are bound to
come as the result of this war. The time
is very near ripe for women to enter into a
]))".‘11u'\;1' life. The door is open. Women
are beginning to find themselves. Enor-
mous consequences will follow. Even the
most conservative cannot cry out against
these impending changes in view of the
catastrophe which has come upon humanity
through the exclusive guidance -and control
of the masculine mind. Women could
hardly do worse than the men have done in
Europe!
T “r 't

.58 And are we in this democratic coun-
try so very different from the peoples
of Europe in our attitude toward the great
questions of militarism, navalism, war and
peace? Very probably it is the mind and
character of one man, the President of the
United States, that has kept us from being
at war with our southern neighbor right
now, and we may yet be drawn into the tel"
rible maelstrom of the European war. We
have for so long been taught that it is nec-
essary to fight to avoid destruction that we
have had no chance to learn the equally
obvious fact that all civilization can be de-
stroyed by fighting, and that we are right
now approaching perilously near to such a
possibility.
i t i‘

.5: Many of our most faithful friends
and supporters were disappointed
last Sunday evening that the chairman
could not give them the opportunity they
sought to ask a question. But it is abso-
lutely necessary for us to close the meeting
at ten o’c10ck, and if there is not time for
every one who wishes to present his ques-
tion, the chairman, when he can, gives the
preference to those who have not recently
participated in the question period. Our
object is to hear from as many different
people as possible and as near as may be
to give every one a chance, even though the
new questioner may not be able to bring
out as clever a point as one who has had
more experience in framing an interroga-
tion. ‘

.3 Mr. Franklin P. Daly, one of the Over-
seers of the Poor, who has been in di-
rect charge of the municipal lodging facili-
ties of the city of Boston this winter, was on
the platform last Sunday evening. He is a
member of the Boston Baptist Social Union
and a warm friend of our Ford Hall meet-
ings. After the meeting he took me on a
tour of inspection of the city’s lodging
houses on Hawkins street, Blossom street,
Commonwealth Dock, Way street and Tyler
street. In these various places I found
over a thousand men taking advantage of
the city’s hospitality. It was a terrible
sight as illustrating the desperate need and
utter destitution of so many men, most of
whom looked as though they deserved a
better fortune. And it was, on the other
hand, an immensely comforting thought
that, terribly insufficient and unsatisfactory
as the conditions were in some of the
places, these men were able at least to lie
down in a warm, dry place. If you were
to apply at the Wayfarers’ Lodge on Haw-
kins street for a night’s lodging at half-past
ten at night, after a day of discouragement
and fatigue, you would think it pretty hard
to have to tramp a mile and three-quarters
across the city to the Commonwealth Dock
and then find only a hard floor on which to
rest your weary bones. But I did not hear
a complaint from one of the more than
three hundred men who underwent that ex-
perience last Sunday night.

Mr. Daly deserves a great deal of credit
for what he has been able to accomplish in
a trying and difficult situation. He has
devoted night after night to this work for
weeks at a time, an