↑Grand Rapids Mich.↓
MRS. DAWES SCORES PEACE SOCIETY IN ARMISTICE DAY TALK
Women's Organization Called Disloyal in Address Before Club Women
CHICAGO WOMAN MAKES JANE ADDAMS TARGET
"If we're going to destroy civilization to indulge our instincts, it's time to think about improving our instincts," Mrs. Rufus A. Dawes of Evanston, Ill., chairman of international relations of the National Federation of Women's Clubs, said yesterday in an Armistice day address on international relations before the meeting of the Grand Rapids Federation of Women's Clubs in the St. Cecilia building.
"That is the answer I make," said Mrs. Dawes, "to the man who says, 'You're fighting against the course of nature when you oppose war. Men always have fought and always will.' That is true, but whether it was intended that men should fight by actual butchery I don't know.
"A hundred years ago, when cholera came to this country, there was little that could be done to stop its course. Who would have believed that within a century people would rise up and demand successfully that the disease be stamped out if a single case developed here? The measure of our civilization is not to oppose the forces of nature, but to bring them into subjection and make them do our will. We have done it in medicine. We can do it in war."
Condemns Peace Society
Mrs. Dawes unqualifiedly condemned activities of the "Women's International Society for Peace and Freedom," with which Jane Addams is connected, characterizing it as "unquestionably a very disloyal organization." She urged the club women to beware of peace societies with communistic leanings or connections with Russia, and declared that it was an established policy with such organizations to "work through clubwomen, universities and colleges."
"I speak so freely of this," said Mrs. Dawes, "because Miss Addams herself does not conceal the fact that she does not believe in our ideas of American loyalty.
"Patriotism should be a matter of principle," Mrs. Dawes told the club women. "If patriotism is emotionalism alone, it is too easily taken away from us."
Sees Changing Viewpoint.
Mrs. Dawes urged intelligent study of international relations by the club women as the way toward peace. "Already," she said, "the viewpoint is improved. We used to think of war when we thought of international relations. Now we think of peace."
Mrs. Frances Morton Crume, contralto, accompanied by Mrs. W. H. Wismer, sang a group of songs by Italian, French, English and American composers, following each with a verse of the national anthem of the composer's country, closing with "The Star Spangled Banner."
Mrs. A. E. Driscoll, chairman of the department of international relations in the Grand Rapids federation, was in charge of the program. Mrs. F. W. Longyear, president, presided and called for department reports during the business session.
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