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bishop of Texas, which was to be prayed every Sunday in every church of his diocese. These simple documents had weight. The Germans removed their difficulties and the work went on at The Hague to its brilliant consummation.

As a result of the Conference of 1899, though the limitation of armaments which the Czar desired was postponed, its logical precedent, a Permanent International Tribunal, was established, and in April, 1901, the doors of a fine brick mansion at The Hague, owned by the signatory powers, were opened for the admission of any cases that they chose to bring to this World Court. A little later the generous gift of Mr. Carnegie of $1,500,000 for a magnificent building and law library for it gave the Tribunal additional prestige. Of its more than seventy judges, from which five are to be chosen for each case, the United States has appointed four, two of whom-Judge Gray and Hon. Oscar Straus-honor this Congress by their participation in it.

Since the Tribunal was opened more than a dozen nations have carried cases there and forty-four treaties between different nations-two by two-have been made to refer cases to it. Holland and Denmark, Chili and Argentina have agreed to arbitrate every case with each other, showing that questions of honor can be arbitrated between nations as well as between individuals. Norway and Sweden in their recent peaceful separation have agreed to refer to the Hague Court any difficulties that may arise claimed by either to be questions of honor.

Moreover, the Hague Conference provided for impartial investigation before declaring war issues in which diplomacy had failed. When the attack by the Russian battleships was made upon the British fishing fleet in the North sea in 1905, and all Great Britain seemed inflamed with a wild demand for vengeance, the whole controversy was quietly transferred to an impartial commission sitting in Paris. This finally decided that the Russians had merely blundered and asked them to pay $300,000 to the widows and orphans; which they gladly did. Thus was war prevented between Russia and Great Britain. Another provision of that Conference of 1899 was for mediation. This enabled President Roosevelt without danger of being criticised for interference to invite Russia and Japan to end at Portsmouth one of the most terrible wars of modern times.

The International Postal Union with headquarters at Berne,

in Switzerland; the new International Institute of Agriculture with headquarters in Rome; the International Law Association, an outcome of the American Peace Society; the New International Law Quarterly-an outcome of Mr. Smiley's Arbitration Conferences at Mohonk-are only a few of the more important of the hundred international agencies which are promoting such co-operation as the world our fathers knew could never have attained. Especially we note the growth of the Interparliamentary Union, founded by Hon. William Cremer, M. P., one of the winners of the Nobel prize. At its fourteenth session, held in London last summer, this august body, composed of about 2,500 members of the nations' congresses, devoted their whole time to marking out their recommendations for the subjects to be considered at the second Hague Conference, which convenes next June. It is to support their recommendations that this first National American Congress has been called. Since 1899, two new agencies for peace are slowly being recognized as of mighty potency-neutralization of weak peoples like the Filipinos, and the boycott employed upon a recalcitrant nation. Of these there is no time to speak.

The second Hague Conference which this time includes, not merely twenty-six nations, but all of the forty-six nations of the globe, offers the greatest opportunity in human history to lessen the world's poverty and misery. Let every teacher tell her pupils of it. Let every woman who believes in prayer, pray for it. Let every mother, wife and daughter speak words of wisdom about it in their households. Let not the women of America be childish and inert when such stupendous issues hang in the bal

ance.

MRS. SPENCER:

One of our leading sociologists says: "In the individual, the social unit, reside the seeds of health or disease in the social organism; and the home, the family, is the agency by which the individual is socialized." We begin our consideration of women's present relation to the Peace Movement with a discussion of the Home versus War. I have great pleasure in presenting to you, as the speaker for that subject, one who peculiarly represents all that we mean when we speak the words "complete womanhood," Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin, formerly President of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, and now the National President of the Women's Trade Union League.

The Home and the Economic Waste of War

MRS. ELLEN M. HENROTIN.

When in the past a question of international or national adjustment arose it was vain to ask what influence pro or con woman exerted over the decision; for in truth, her voice was unheard her non-success as a promoter of peace among nations is the best answer to the oft-repeated argument against extending her civil and political influence "that it is woman's indirect influence which counts in political and civil matters." When a war issue is raised the family or economic interests of women or children are, and have always been, completely ignored; though this disregard of home interests is usually disguised to both men and women, by an appeal to love of country, or to express it in the war language, "For home and native land." If by chance. women do not respond immediately to so impersonal an issue, when it affects such precious interests, they are cited as poor creatures not worthy of their great opportunities. Woman has in the past accepted this role of passivity, has cherished it, even made a fetich of it; she has concurred with man in the dictum "Might makes right." Thus in those countries where the military form of government prevails it goes without saying, that the part which woman, by her labor, contributes to the fund which makes for civilization, is held in light esteem, though so essential in reality, and that even her "indirect influence" is not acknowledged.

Woman conceives of the ideal man as expressing towards his country physical energy and forceful high spirits; while man conceives of woman towards the same demand as expressing passive endurance-as these two ideals permeate society the influence on the home is so great that in political matters woman has become practically non-expressive; false conceptions of patriotism which pervade all nations have done their part towards rendering her voiceless, while the splendid trappings of war, the rewards meted out to its heroes, in which their women share, have dazzled the eyes and excited the imagination so that it is not surprising that women, as a group, have accepted the rôle of abettor and aider, in so far as a non-combatant possibly could do.

During the Civil War the women on both sides, instead of restraining, urged on the men; in the Austrian-Prussian and

Franco-Prussian wars, the same phenomenon was observedas it was also in the South African and Russian-Japanese warsperhaps slightly less in the Spanish-American war. When all the considerations are taken into account which should operate to influence women in favor of peace and arbitration, the attitude towards war which she has taken in the past is difficult to comprehend, for death or inevitable suffering come to those she calls her own as its result, and even her own share is hard to bear, meaning, if she is the mother of a family, the uncertainty of her economic position, being deprived by absence or death of the one who should share the support and care of the children. The contending armies often sweep away her home, which involves the disintegration of its members; or as in Cuba or South Africa as an inmate of a reconcentrado camp, she and her little ones are exposed to privation, disease and death. The suffering of the women and children of Germany, France and the Netherlands, even since the Reformation, are almost beyond belief; thus her acquiescence is one of the most astounding results of the potency of the group opinion and its expression.

It is the more noticeable as woman has had the practical experience of her own rise in the social and industrial world, of her own progress from slavery and wardship to a condition of comparative freedom and the recognition which is slowly but surely being awarded her in the home and in society, all of which has been won by non-resistence. It is the only cause that has progressed without the shedding of blood; all other great reforms have had their battles, as nationality, religion and politics. Human victims have been offered upon all their altars, but woman's progress has been won by almost silent insistence on the value of the peaceful arts and the principles of conciliation, until to-day the entire industrial world is busy supplying her demands.

There are certain tendencies in present-day society that evince the fact that all nations are being aroused to a new conception of their responsibility towards war's waste, and among women it is natural, as it affects the home, and they chiefly are interested, though men and women alike are convinced that war is now too costly a game for nations to play. The self-supporting woman is more impressed by this thought, for she meets the realities of life and thus becomes a judge of relative values; being

obliged to take her part in the competitive struggle for her daily bread, she learns the value of life and work; thus she understands economic waste. When the wage-earning woman marries and becomes a mother, she realizes the economic importance of the life of the husband and father, as she knows actual conditions she is increasingly unwilling to give up that life to the country; she desires to retain it for the benefit of the family. If the actual facts could be ascertained it would be found that a much smaller percentage of married men enlisted, or offered to enlist, in the late Spanish-American War than did in the Civil War-largely due to the fact of the present changed point of view of women. As opportunities to secure a competency decrease from stress of population or otherwise, this tendency will increase. Perhaps one of the most convincing proofs of the subtle working of this influence was given in England when, after the South African War, the advisability of establishing the conscription was discussed. It was evident at once that the English people would no longer tolerate such a measure.

The education of children in this country has been free from the influence of military training; this is notably true of the spirit of the public school teachings. After each war there inevitably arises a hysterical demand for more military training in public and private schools, but the practical, common sense of an industrial democracy soon asserts itself and the children are, in most instances, left to follow the ways of peace-at least until the boys reach the football age.

Woman is every day 'learning new methods of expressing herself either as a member of a group or as an individual; one of the first efforts of her expression of what is to her a new-found truth, is found in the falling birth-rate among those nations which make large demands on the family to maintain standing armies or great armaments. Among those nations, the women best fitted to bear and care for children refuse to bear sons at the call of what has become for them an absolute duty. The claim of the army on family life has seriously affected the birth-rate in France, where the women are notably intelligent and far-sighted observers of economic conditions. The Government has offered prizes for large families, but the French women, with the Napoleonic wars of the past and the large standing army of to-day, will not be tempted by such a bribe. Were the United States to

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