HITS SPREADING OF PROPAGANDA BY MILITARISTS
Jane Addams Charges Radio And Movies Are Preparedness Sources.
DESCRIBES WORK OF LEAGUE FOR PEACE
Head Of International Body Speaks At Mt. Vernon Place Church.
Moving pictures and radio were designated as means of spreading militaristic propaganda by Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House, Chicago, who spoke last night at Mount Vernon Place Methodist Episcopal Church.
Miss Addams is international president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. The church was crowded.
Other speakers were Miss Millicent Carey and Miss Anna Graves. Miss Carey suggested that moving pictures may have an influence on children that will give them improper ideas regarding bloodshed. Miss Graves told of the pacifist work being done by the women of South America, as observed by her on a recent tour.
Cites Moving Pictures.
"There is no doubt that many moving pictures are sources of preparedness and militaristic propaganda," Miss Addams declared. "Some women's clubs here and there are taking up the question, but thus far little has been done about it.
"Even less has been done to offset the preparedness propaganda sent out by radio. This kind of propaganda is very difficult to combat."
Miss Addams told of the fourth international congress of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, which will open on May 1 in Washington.
The league was formed in 1915 "to promote that peace between nations, races and classes which is based on justice and good will, to outlaw war and to cooperate with women from other countries who are working for the same ends."
34 Nations Represented.
"Thirty-four nations are now represented in the league," Miss Addams said. "Thirty-two will be represented in Washington. Other organizations will send representatives. In all 10,000,000 women will be represented.
"These delegates will discuss reconstruction problems. Reports of commissions which have been investigating various affairs will be heard. The reparations commission, composed of Swedish women, for instance, has been sending members into the districts where war is most imminent, where it has never entirely ceased. They have been getting statements from all classes of both sides to disputes.
Belgians Aid Germans.
"These reports show remarkable disparity between the policies of governments and the wishes of the people in some cases. They show that blame falls now on one side, now on another, that blame balances in a remarkable fashion.
"Belgian women have been doing splendid work. A woman who was captured, taken inside the German lines and made to haul bricks and water until she suffered physical breakdown organized a society after the war. The society devoted itself to feeding starving German children. This kind of thing, from a moral standpoint, gives one courage and hope.
Says Europe Faces War.
"Yet the European women are facing the possibility of new wars. The fact that governments have apparently found no new way of settling controversies fills them with great moral indignation. It is well that women of the United States may have an opportunity to understand this, for this country, after all, was comparatively unaffected by the war.
"One of the most promising phases of the congress will be the presence of Oriental women. There will be a woman from Japan. She will hardly know what to say. She will not want to say the wrong thing. Her feelings have, of course, been hurt by the recent action of Congress, and she will try to understand our viewpoint and tell us the viewpoint of her own country, wherein an anti-militaristic movement has shown so much promise.
To Hold Meeting Tomorrow.
"We shall discuss, perhaps, the more human, social aspects, of international relations, of the peace movement, but we have no objection to the introduction of politics. Politics is interesting and apt to be touched on at any time."
A meeting will be held tomorrow at 5.15 P.M. at the College Club to organize a Maryland branch of the league of which Miss Addams is head.
"At a performance of the picture, 'America,' school children were numerous in the audience," Miss Carey said. "They shrieked and applauded whenever the flag was shown and whenever a British soldier was killed. Whenever a British flag was shown they hissed and groaned. I reflected that this is not, perhaps, the right way to instruct the youth of this country."
Says Youth Pays Cost.
Miss Carey spoke on "Youth and Peace."
"Youth pays the cost of war," she said. "That is obvious. At the same time youth is one of the causes of war. It is in the schools that the harm is done."
She quoted an editorial titled "Conscience," which appeared recently in THE EVENING SUN. War is made, was the gist of it, by those who instruct children.
Comments