Page:Women and war, an appeal to the women of all nations.djvu/8

 6 "In war, the youngest and strongest of the nation is destroyed, leaving the weaker members to carry on the race."—(Dr. Starr Jordan.)

Not only by the destruction of men in war, but by the law of "regulation" introduced by Napoleon I., whereby vice has been protected for the sake of unmarried armies, have women suffered. And not alone the degraded have paid the toll, but the health and vitality of countless innocent women and children in Europe and throughout the world has been sapped. And so far from fostering chivalry as is claimed, war appears to destroy it, and to substitute sordid selfishness.

in a very real sense. She is not responsible for it, for up to the present time she has not been allowed a voice in the affairs of the nations. Man suffers horribly and gives up his life among miseries indescribable, or dies of disease, that nemesis of war; but he is to a great extent responsible. He possesses the political power to prevent it. True that governments often declare war without appealing to the people, but no Government would care to rush into war if it were not pretty sure of the temper of its supporters.

As it is, men on the whole like war, and welcome the excitement of a quarrel with another country. Mrs. St. Clair Stobart has finely phrased it: "Two sets of men with no grudge or personal animosity towards each other have to kill because the statesmen of their respective countries are such thickheads, so dull of wit, or lacking in imagination, that they can devise no better way of securing justice. The most successful at blowing out another's brains are reckoned to have justice on their side and the world will accept the decision with applause." Man allows the carnage "according to rules" and exalts the military profession as the highest. To man comes the activity and promotion which war brings. Armament firms are run by men greedy of big dividends;