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
“To-day for the first time our hands which have sought each other in the
night can be joined. We are a single humanity, we women. Our work, our
joys, our children, are the same. French and Germans! The soldiers which
have been killed between are for both of us alike victims. It is our
brothers and our sisters who have suffered. We do not want vengeance. We
hate all war. We push from us both the pride of victory and the rancor
of defeat. United by the same faith, by the same sense of service, we
agree to consecrate ourselves to the fight against war and to the
struggle for everlasting peace.
“All women against all wars!
“Come, to work! Publicly, in the face of those who have vowed eternal
hate, let us unite, let us love each other!”
To this address the German women made the following reply:
“We German women have heard the greetings of our French sisters with the
deepest joy, and we respond to them from the depths of our souls. We too
protest against the perpetuation of a hate which was always foreign to
women’s hearts. Our French sisters! It is with joy that we grasp your
extended hand. We will stand and march together, in common effort for
the good of mankind. On the ruins of a materialist world, founded by
force and violence, on misunderstanding and hate, we women will, through
death and sorrow, clear the road to the new humanity. As mothers of the
coming generations, we, women of all nations, want love and
understanding and peace. Despite the dark gloom of the present we
stumble, comforted, toward the sunshine of the future.”
On May the 14th the delegates passed the following resolution, which was
sent to the Congress at Versailles:
“This International Congress of Women expresses its deep regret that
the terms of peace proposed at Versailles should so seriously violate
the principles upon which alone a just and lasting peace can be
secured, and which the Democracies of the world had come to accept. By
guaranteeing the fruits of the secret treaties to the conquerors the
terms tacitly sanction secret diplomacy. They deny the principle of
self-determination, recognize the right of the victors to the spoils
of war, and create all over Europe discords and animosities, which can
lead only to future wars. By the demand for the disarmament of one set
of belligerents only, the principle of justice is violated and the
rule of force is continued. By the financial and economic proposals a
hundred million people of this generation in the heart of Europe are
condemned to poverty, disease and despair, which must result in the
spread of hatred and anarchy within each nation. With a deep sense of
responsibility this Congress strongly urges the Allied Governments to
accept such amendments of the terms as may be proposed to bring the
peace into harmony with those principles first enunciated by President
Wilson upon the faithful carrying out of which the honor of the Allied
peoples depends.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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