four hights AN ADVENTURE IN INTERNATIONALISM

"Then he showed four lights when he wished them to set full sail and follow in his wake/'

From "Firat Voyage 'Roaad the World by MageUu."

JULY 14, 1917. U I u B VoL. I No. 13

WHAT ARE THE WAR AIMS AND PEACE TERMS OF THE AMERICAN WOMEN?

Why have we American women declared war on German women?

What do we demand?

Upon what terms will w e make peace?

THE "SISTER SUSIE" PERIL. The self-supporting and family-supporting women

of the country are threatened by a deluge of volunteers, amateurs, and underbidding competitors. Even in ante-bellum days, there was but frail protection for the minority of women wage-earners against the ma­jority who did not earn but formed a large labor re­serve which helped employers to keep down the wages of both women and men. Now, the danger has been suddenly intensified by the peculiarly infantile form of patriotism of those who have been dubbed "Sister Susies" in England and who now threaten to dump their unskill and inexperience on the disturbed labor market of this country.

Inn~cent of economics, societies of well-to-do women,-"militias of mercy" and the like,-are dis­tributing wool and urging women to knit and sew for the soldiers. In spite of the common report that the sailors use the knitted garments for cleaning gun~ and swabbing decks; in spite of ·the statement of a British officer who openly advised the guardsmen for the good of their feet to refuse to wear home-knit socks ; in spite of the fact that the government has ordered three and a half million pairs of socks ;-the knitting goes m errily on. (So merrily, indeed, that a psycho-analyst was heard to remark the other day that much of the Red Cross zeal must be sex-antagonism released.)

One. can only hope that the productive capacity of this sentimental army of knitters will not amount to a great deal; otherwise, in the interest of the thousands of women massed in the garment factories and knit­ting mills, · they ought to be legally restrained.

The story of the amateur census-takers in New York is now on old one. The confusion and incompe­tence of the census were such as to require some public explanation. The director came forward with the theory that the traditional unwillingness of women to tell their ages was to blame. As· a matter of fact, the last Federal census proves that men, rather than wom­en, withhold their ages from the census taker. In New York City, 5,196 men got by with unknown ages as compared with 1,606 women. The theory offered by the New York " Times" for the inefficiency of the cen- · sus is a better one: "The knowledge obtained by the state census will be of some value, though it would have been of more worth had it not been gathered by unpaid agents."

Let us hope that such statements may be pondered by the women who yearn to give unpaid service. It may help them to think twice before launching projects which must finally result in throwing other women out of work.

KATHARINE ANTHONY.

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN PERIL.

If the Germans should invade New York, women couldn't vote any more.

Any more than what? Any more than now.

TURN YOUR OLD TH'RONES INTO ROCKING­CHAIRS.

According to a press dispatch from Helsingfors the Finnish throne of the late Russian dynasty has been placed in the National Museum there.

This is only one of many thrones that are going to be discarded. Soon the museums will be crowded and rummage sales are not very profitable, after all. If a throne is new and in good condition it can be easily turned into a Gloucester hammock or if of the older type may be made into a comfortable rocking­chair with arms and an antimacassar.

Old crowns may be used as cake baskets, and seep~ tres as back scratchers. With the cost of living so high, every little economy counts.

WE THOUGHT IT WAS A GIRL.

"The American Red Cross is the big brother of the army and the navy."-News item.

OF ONE USE ONLY.

"Another young girl is ruined by the premeditated action of a procurer. For her own sake she had better, in the majority of cases, be dead. From the standpoint of the interests of society, she had much better be dead."- The Nation.

Similar "better death than dishonor" statements are being constantly made in regard to the unfortunate women outraged by invading armies. This attitude assumes as self-evident that a woman's honor concerns only this one function. Men seem to be unanimous on this point. It would be enlightening to learn what proportion of women agree that "From the standpoint of the interests of society she had much better be dead."

WOMAN'S BROADENING SPHERE.

A manufacturer whose identity is not stated further than that he employs 175 men in a small town in Penn­sylvania was lecturing to his employes on the advan­tages of raising potatoes. He generously offered to plough up the men's baseball field and give a prize of three dollars to the man who raised the most.

"Can the women help?" ask~d one of the wives anx­iously.

"Certainly," answered the speaker. "They can kill potato bugs."

INCOMPREHENSIBLE WOMAN!

A recent visitor to one of the Southern States, ac­cording to a New York "Times" editorial of July 4, reports the existence in the State he visited of a curi­ous and mystifying condition of affairs among women. The men were ardently for war. The women were not. "Not only did most of them reveal themselves as vehement pacifists, but they were characterized by a see_mingly complete lack of information as to the facts of the war, and an indifference, also seemingly com­plete, as to its outcome in victory or defeat for the Allies. Between the different antagonists they mani­fested no preferences, but instead a vehement inclina­tion to join them all in a common condemnation for fighting at all for any reason. And it was impossible to convince them that Americans were under any obli­gation to join either side in carrying on the "wicked slaughter."

WHAT LESSON DOES THIS TEACH US?

A crippled veteran talked to the school children of a New York school on the duties and glori.es of war. After he had gone, one of the women teachers, fearing, perhaps, that the children's eyes were sharper than their ears, said to them:

"Of course, some soldiers get wounded, but they get pensions. If a soldier gets wounded he will be taken care of all the rest of his life. He will never have to work again! Think of it, children, he will . never have to work again!"

HOOVER, HOW CAN YOU? .

Evidently the women of the country are of two minds on the subject of food economy. For lack of more dignified designations they might be called the "Hoover Helpers" and the "Hoover Hooters"-the first being those who accept their position beside the garbage cans as they have always accepted what God and man has put upon them to endure ;-the second, those who fail to see the crux of the food situation in the gospel of the clean plate, while bushels of peas and rows of lettuce are being plowed under be­cause their price is too low to satisfy the food specu­lators.

It is so nice that Mr. Hoover has been frank with us from the start. This helps a lot of us to decide where we stand on the matter. He seems to be una­ware that, as girls, we did not have the advantages of military training and therefore, as women, we are not as well versed as our brothers in the art of tacit obedi­ence to arbitrary authority. He seems to resent the rather obvious connections which we make in reading our morning papers betwe~n the story on one page headed, "Dillon Tells of Milk Dumped by the Road­side,'' and the story on another, "Hoover Urges Econ-

omy on Housewives." Recently, in referring to the just protest of Mrs. Rogers against blaming women for the wholesale waste of the food manipulators, he reveals the cloven hoof of the military dictator, thus:

"In any event, this woman's attitude is one that we simply cannot stand for .... "

Is this the language of one who is seeking to enlist the voluntary co-operation of all the women of the country?

In the same statement, to be sure, he did show his broadmindedness by saying that he did not believe Mrs. Rogers to be in the employ of the German govern­ment. But even this does not cover the show of a naughty little temper, which is bound to be encoun­tered by any of his co-operators except the most docile plate-lickers and unremitting garbage-guarders.

As to the facts, the present price of food would seem to be a111-ple insurance against wanton waste. To the women whose families have barely enough to eat, let alone waste, Mr. Hoover's admonitions are lit­tle short of satire. A wise official should know that the housewives of the country are in no mood to be taunted. ELISABETH IRWIN.

EVENTS THAT PASS WHILE SUSIE SEWS

THE PATIENT RICH.

The rise in the cost of living hits the rich as well as the poor. Onions advanced in price 180 per cent. and potatoes 113 per cent. between March, 1916, and March, 1917. The advance in objects of art appears to have been yet greater. In January, 1917, Henry C. Frick paid $200,000 for the four Boucher paintings of the seasons, but in February he was obliged to pay $250,000 for only one painting by Van Dyke. Yet how patient are the rich I Mr. Frick never goes on a steel strike.

Pht:ito by L ewis W. Rine.

These involuntary scabettes of the war range in age from ten to five. They are paid three cents per 144, for sticking a pin into a tiny flag emblem to be worn in the buttonhole. The earnings of all, including the mother, come to two dollars a week. The baby is a slacker.

INSULTING THE FLAG.

Samuel Abels, convicted June 18th on a charge of desecrating the nation's emblem, appealed to the su­preme court June 20th.

The charge against Abels resulted from his wearing a small button showing the American flag, around which was printed the words, "Our rights, but no war."

THE COURT DIDN'T RECOGNIZE THIS GOD.

John Allen, of Clay Co., Ky., was arrested on the charge of refusing to register for conscription. The newspapers report that the judge ordered him exam­ined by an alienist. Young Allen told the alienist that he had no religion but to him God was wisdom and justice. The alienist said he was insane. Judge Mayer, of the Federal Court ordered the father notified. The father came to New York and said that he would have the boy lynched if he. didn't register. The insane boy who believed God to be wisdom and justice was turned over to the sane father who believed in lynching.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON.

The "Clutching Hand" band is a gang of London boys whose leader is barely twelve years old. They

steal parcels from delivery wagons and spend the money they get for them for pistols, knives, torches and swords. An unappreciative government is sending the youngsters to reformatories.

SAVE SOILEU NAPKINS.

Sidney Prager, of Brooklyn, a student at the College of Liberal Arts, Syracuse University, was taken from his room in Sims Hall, one of the dormitories, May 18, by a mob of students, who declared he had committed an unpatriotic act when he burned a paper napkin on which was printed an American flag. He was thrown into an automobile, driven to the outskirts of the city and then pummelled until insensible. He was left at the ~ospital without explanation.

WHAT SACRIFICES WOMEN DO MAKE I

Mrs. 0. H. P. Belmont, Mrs. George J. Gould, Mrs. Hermann Oelrichs, Mrs. Charles S. Whitman, Mrs. E. H. Gary, Mrs. J. B. Haggin and Mrs. Oliver Harriman, and other prominent women, according to an announce­ment of May 16, will cut their midday meals to two cours.es and their evening meals to three.

WE'D LIKE THE ADDRESS OF THIS GARBAGE BUCKET, PJ_.EASE.

"The following," he said, "represents a half day's garbage from a representative sixty-family apartment house: Ten loaves of bread and a large assorttnent of buns, toast and waffles, five pounds of &neat, three pounds of soup meat, four lamb chops, two heads of lettuce and loose lettuce leaves, six bundles of aspara­gus with the tops cut off, three pounds of cake and one pound of cereal."-Dr. Lucius P. Brown, Director of Foods and Drugs of the Department of Health.

I WANT TO RAISE MY GIRL TO BE A SOLDIER.

The Association of Collegiate Alumnre has submit­ted to the Woman's Committee of the Defence Council a plan to enroll for training all girls between sixteen and twenty-one years of age.

How Men's Minds Work ~ermany has not restricted alcoholic beverages in

any way, while France gives her soldiers regular wine rations. And I think nobody will dispute that the Ger­man and French soldiers are of good fighting quality.­Senator Lodge, June 28.

The time has come for every such traitor instantly to be seized and punished according to his deserts. In Germany, for a show of one-tenth the lack of loyalty that has been demonstrated by some persons here, they would hang the offenders higher than Haman.-Theo­dore Roosevelt, at the mass meeting of welcome to the Russian Embassy.

German soldiers sing while they march. I want you to see that our army beats them at their own game, for singing men are fighting men.-Major~General J. Franklin Bell, Commander of the Eastern Department, at Plattsburg, May 13th.

WHY WOMEN DON'T FIGHT. WHAT did American women win in the Revolutionary War?

The right of American men to chose their government.

WHAT did American wqmen win in the War of 1812? The right of men to trade as they chose.

WHAT did American women win in the Civil War? The right of -Negro men to vote.

WHAT are- American women going to win in the Great War? Child labor, long hours, scant food, high , prices, lowered standard of living, loss of ·constitutional guarantees of freedom, martial law, syphilis, infant mortality, bereavement, and desolati_on.

WOMEN'S TONGUES.

"And I have the impression that even the women of the warring countries feel for each other. . . . . . The women of the warring countries not only sorrow with their personal grief. They sorrow foJ;" their labors, that are buried with the millions of bodies that fill the battlefields, the trenches, roads, and streams."

-Ellen Key.

"We, the bearers of men's bodies, who supply its most valuable munition, who ... shed our blood and face death that ·the battlefield may have its food, a food more precious to us than our heart's blood,-it is we especially who, in the domain of war, have our word to say, a word no man can say for us."

-Olive Schreiner.

"So long as words can pass my lips, so long as blood flows in ·my veins, I shall work for the cause of peace, even though the work should rob me of happi­ness and blessings."

-Selma Lagerlof.

"Armies do, indeed, fight to protect children-their own, by destroying other people's children. Organized warfare claims to protect women-each nation its own by starving or ruining the women of another nation.

"To gain political equality is, therefore, the most urgent, vital and irrepressible need of our times, and those women who, disregarding all war cries and les­sons of hatred, press forward to grasp it may well be

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acknowledged by a later generation to have had a truer perception of patriotism in the loftiest sense than those who believed they were serving the nation by meek self-abnegation in palliative services."

-Lavinia L. Dock.

"On that day, when we shall have brought it to pass that the horror of killing men, in the interest of the State, has become as strong as the horror now felt by the normal man as a matter of course against the killing of an individual in private life, this horror will find expression in the constitutions of . the states. On that day the killing of human beings "in defense of the fatherland" will be made as impossible and forgotten as is for us to-day the eating of human flesh."

-Helene Stocker.

"Wars are at the present time a result of the com­petition of various ca.pitalist groups and of the neces­sity of capitalist expansion. Now, these two forces are not operative only while the cannon are booming; they are-active in peace as well, and it is precisely in time of peace that they influence our life in such · a way as to make the outbreak of war inevitable. For war is, as Kautsky loves to quote fr...om Clausewitz the con-. tinuation of politics by other means." '

-Rosa Luxemburg.

"I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war."

-Jeannette Rankin.

Editors of this Issue :

ELISABETH IRWIN MARY ALDEN HOPKINS

Owned and Published fortnightly by the Woman•a Peace Party of New York City, 70 Fifth Ave., New York, N.Y., who are glad to have contents reprinted, with due acknewled&"ment. MARGARET LANE, Managing Editor.

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