Woman Triumphant: The story of her struggles for freedom, education and political rights.: Dedicated to all noble-minded women by an appreciative member of the other sex.Cronau, Rudolf
History
Woman Triumphant: The story of her struggles for freedom, education and political rights.: Dedicated to all noble-minded women by an appreciative member of the other sex.
Cronau, Rudolf
Women -- History
That all these efforts by noble-minded women, to secure the cessation of
hostilities, failed, is a grave reproach to those men who directed the
war. Blinded by hate and revenge they insisted that the murderous
struggle be carried on to the bitter end. And to do this unhindered and
unmolested, they decried all “pacifists” as despicable creatures to whom
no attention should be paid. To speak of peace was made a crime, equal
to illoyalty and sedition, and so the resolutions of the Woman’s Peace
Conference were drowned under waves of detraction and calumny.
One of the most glaring examples of this sort of warfare was that of
=Miss Jeanette Rankin=, who in 1917 had been sent by the State of
Montana as the first woman member to the House of Representatives. Her
first act in this body was very dramatic. When on the memorable April
6th, 1917, the House voted on the question, if the United States should
enter the World War, she answered the call with the words: “I love my
country and I want to stand by it. But I cannot vote for war! No!” After
these words she sank, tears in her eyes, into her chair. Although Miss
Rankin had without doubt expressed the feeling of the overwhelming
majority of American women, she nevertheless excited the wrath of the
notorious “National Security League,” who in 1918 defeated the
re-election of Miss Rankin by sending broadcast to Montana tons of
literature in which her vote against the declaration of war was
stigmatized as an “infamous and damning act.”
Undaunted by such persecutions the gallant women once more raised their
voices when it became evident that the so-called Peace Congress of the
allied delegates at Versailles, instead of giving quick relief to the
starving millions, and instead of promoting good will and better
understanding among the different nations, was degenerating into an orgy
of autocracy, merciless extortion and land-grabbing, repudiating all the
high-sounding phrases of humanity, democracy, self-government, political
and economic liberty, with which the war had been carried on.
On May 12th, 1919, delegates of the “International Women’s Party for
Permanent Peace” assembled at Zurich, Switzerland, to discuss the work
of the Peace Congress in Versailles and the movement for a League of
Nations. Sixteen countries were represented, the neutral with
thirty-five, the countries of the Entente with forty-nine, and the
Central Powers with thirty-six delegates. Among the twenty-three
delegates of the United States were Jane Addams, and Jeanette Rankin,
ex-member of Congress for Montana. Again Miss Addams acted as president.
The noble spirit, that had brought these women together, found
expression first in the following address of the French delegates to the
German women:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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