HEARTH AND HOME

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 2, 8 December 1911, Page 8

HEARTH AND HOME

" Hear everything that speaks the language of your Hearth and Home."—Dickens.

Letters to Women.

Barbaric War.

By DORA B. MONTEFIORE.

An Australian daily has an article headed "Barbaric War." The adjective used io qualify war is just as unnecessary as it would be to use the adjective "wet" to qualify water, or the adjective "cold" to qualify ice.. , War is essentially barbaric, and must be so in ever-increasing ratio "as man discovers and adapts ever more and moredeadly'•appliances for the destruction oflife. Nay, further, in proportion as we win' into an environment whe-re thereis less daily struggle against the primal forces of nature, and as a consequence, the possibility of a greater intellectual and emotional growth for the individual, so the grim horrors and surprises which are crashed and battered into the brain aud senses of those exposed to modern warfare lacerate' and break 'down, the, nervous..tissue. :of. the \ combatants • and temporary madness ,too often turns the conscript with a "rifle into a terror to friend as well as ; : "be. ■ .■•....,..-■ ..-,-.- ---; Why, then, do astute capitalist pap- ' era, whose editors- only go : out "of their way to "write piffle when there is some supreme -reason for gulling the too easily gulled public, hold up hands in holy horror at what is going on in Tripoli, whero the blood lust is running riot in the veins of the Turks, Italians'-'and Arabs? It is because these capitalist dailies stand for church as well as for State, and when they observe that clotted human blood is weighing down one scale they promptly tip. the balance, with a shovelful of hypocrisy and cant in the other scale. Thus they propitiate holy stepmother Church, and induce her to continue to give her blessing to the war standards' of "Christian" nations. They know, none better, these gentlemen who sit at home and "write armchair articles about "a pitiful story, the gruesomencss of which belongs "to a condition, of savagery such as might have been expected from an untamed., fanatical host out upon a fierce foray, but should have no place in tlie plan of campaign of a European Power"—-they know that conscripts are not trained and <*_nlled and placed on the field of battle to practise restraint and gentleness, but that they are there to destroy their fellowmen with the arms capitalists have placed in their hands, and to obey without questioning the oath of military obedience un.hr which each one of them serves. They know, these armchair militarists, "who are content to have little, boys trained to do the fighting and murdering they are not themselves willing to do, -I hat, just as omelets cannot be made without breaking eggs, so wars cannot be made without" letting loose 'on the country which is, tho scene of the war, rapine, tire, lust, uncleanness and cruelty in every form. And yet, as I review the situation, and think of the wars I can remember, in my lifetime —the FrancoRerman War, the various Afghan wars, got up to "blood" the English recruits, and teach them to face fire • the 80-er War", with its lyddite, its typhoid, its concentration camps.--the two wars of Japan—one with China and one with Russia; and now the Italian-Turkish War —I confess, as a -woman, .and the mother of -men, I have more with the fighters, .who are. least taking.. risks, than with the hypocrites., who Bit at. ease and w rite of : ' 'the accepted, normal of modern or, with the' stupid ''public./who. gloat' over -the cablegrams, and-pretend to be shocked at;-what is. going on. . .-■;. Lot us divest our minds of cant.. Now,''what is tlie lesson for us women to,;-.be .gathered from tlie conduct; of. these various-wars, and from the results of; all the carnage they have involved ? What is "the message that I, asa woman, feel constrained to deliver* to. my. sister women in ..New , Zealand. aiid Australia? Ay, though mine may be the. only w.oman's voice uplifted in the,..wilderness tA, hnpeach and to .con-■ deinn the madness of ..militarism, which is sweeping like a sirocco through the land. Women throughout the world are the givers, the n'urturers, the guardians, of LIFE. Militarism,, under whatever guise it appears, is the enemy, the maimer, the destroyer of LIFE. MOTHERHOOD AND MILITARISM MUST BE ETERNALLY IN OPPOSITION. The mother's function is to protect. cherish (and. as knowledge extends) scientifically nurture, both pre-nataily and. post-natally,- the beloved fruit of |ier womb. The function of militarism is to obtain possession of the male, iihild, to mould its physical, intellectual and moral nature to its own purposes, _ to niake of him a machine without will or conscience, to impose on him an oath which removes him from the protection of the civil authority and bands him.over to a military tribunal — a part of the dread war n'iouster itself. Militarism is there to undo, to stultify, to make a thing of .naught of the long months; and years of the mother's fostering care, aiid to. manure the ground with the mangled hones and blood of tbo fruit of the mother's womb. "Food for cannon." That is tlie horror; which th-e .mother has 'ever 'beFore her eyes, in -a; country where •comconscription is the law of the land! "Food for cannon." Ig it worth while, ye mothers, to bear sons,

who at the command of the capitalist, have to go down into the hell oi modern warfare, and kill the sons of other mothers ? " "Food-for cannon." Is it worth while, bearing for nine months the unborn son, feeding him after birth at the breast, .watching the growth of his sturdy limbs, teaching him. gentleness, forbearance, and love for his neighbour, and then handing him over to the military authorities, who will deliberately and scientifically undermine what the mother has taught, and turn out the r finishedconscript; in the place of what would have been a peaceful citizen ? And what purpose .is this waste -of moimerhdod,' this pouring out of life -wealth!, which John Ruskin has ,tr>ld us vis- I ''flie only wealth ?" Have wars oyer"'settled any question which could not have been settled without the capitalist., call to arms ? H as any country which considers itself the victor in modern .'warfare improved, through war, the. condition of its workers, brightened its homes, or relieved parenthood of'the material burdens which in modern States check the natural impulses; qf.» '.youth towards early.' marriage and. legal, parenthood? . Have these- modern wars placed the victorious countries in a sounder financial position?. . -statistics collected by -Mr. the author or "The Great Illusion.'' dispel even that .fallacy, "and. Aye find the smaller nations "of ; Eu ropey who possess practically Ho ai'hijt' or -navy, with .better developed agricultural and emnmeieia-l ■ resources, and with a; standing higher than that of tions who are armed to: the teethr.l« the physical training and discipline which conscription and militarism demand of value, to. our 'sons? Listen, you mothers, to what Dr. Saleeby, the great English writer arid. specialist on rr.ee culture: has to say on that subject. "It is in the barrack yard that tlie pitiable confusing between. + he survival value of mind and muscle respectively in .man is most ludicrously and disastrously exemplified. .Every year, hundreds of young'soldiers, originally "boa'thy, "have th; ir hearts and lung:? and othrr. vital organs permanently injured by the imbecile attitude of chest —that of abnormal ex-pansion—wlih-h they are r-'•quired to adopt during hard work/ Does' military training cenduce to raise the moral standing of the recruit?. Any mother who has: read and thought will know that "where largo bodies of 'iii.en are kept fit and idle in military ' training,'' there a band of women camp followers degraded for the special sex uses of these fighting men is organised', and' "'regulated* 5 by military authorities. I affirm, and will continue to affirm, that this slur of prostitution for a livelihood cast on members of onr sex is a slur on the whole sex. That if these'women are indeed degraded "by ; -their calling, then we women . who. arc not forced to such stra-its to earu, a. livi.rii_ are degraded for ALLOWING THE DEGRADA'JTON OF O'Ult SISTERS. Nay, further. I affirm tii at if, as sonic argue, there MUST be in our-society women set aside to fulfil this function in'• the State, then it 'should bo as is any other calling for ...the State, as an honorable calling, because a .necessary, one; and the State, which, througll tlie bodies of these" nnfor-tu'nate 'women,- protects the. bodies-of more'fortunate women, should, after a certain number of years' service, pension the unfortunates., instead of allowing them to die in the gutter. These ' questions are "vitally „b,ound .■ up with militarism and .\* ith mo|feei,'hofj.d. for militarism strikes a vital'nlctW .athoine life, -liome vir- ; "h.Qni# affections. - And' nfu'stilipeak heart to heart '■■ with .thG':v.Wdmeh Of Australasia., and : mVi;s^ti L that they have nq-t..beeir'.fQi3jul'':f-aifhful to their ivom.an- !-. -Woine.}i ; -j-n •most-Vpther lands-are still j"politida:lly ; '"en"vlav They have no |- voice.j*-l^tjh'g-. : that impose milior that, de~ iohVre "^^rl'''" are still politically l f ,sons are taken as money is taken their homes are i destrQ^d'^f ; .the! .'lawlessness aiid raywomen of Aus-traitaja^%;i-e F ' noii' politically dumb ; to '.theni-ihas^/been' enjtrusted the- right to think", to study and'to act on the result of their thought. : . And they have bartered their inheritance pf freedom for*a mess of military pottage j ■■■■■ • They have allowed the capitalist to take their sons and train them to fight for him and his. band of cosmopolitan' financiers •; they have helped to pass- air Act' their sons to take a military oath,' under wliich they maybe shot' : dchfn.its traitors if they refuse to shoot/thei-i- own relatives or comrades in. ' ; 't.h)*es of domestic ;violerico.?*They, as working women, as the mothers, wives.,aiul sisters of working-men,-ha-ve proved .themselves' no moreclas'Sconsei'o'us 'than are the men, and.tbey havo -believed the ' suggestions-. and statements-.'.of -the capitalist press thattheir enemies were the workers of other countries,'-when; in reality their- only enemy ; is cosmopolitan capitalism/ 'Tim-function ■ ; of politically emancipated ■■■■■motherhood should bo the scientific study of race culture, of education, and. of the nurturing and saving of life in every form. AND THIS "FUNCTION SHOULD BE EXPRESSED AT THE BALLOT BOX. . ~. -,-.:. Biit; iiv sorrow be it-written, almost ■■the fii'st thing-the -politically" emancipated - mothers ,of Austiialasia agreed on .was•'specialising'.in-the scientific maimjhgan;d destruction of life. 00-iovei'siiion; solidarity with the

mothers of other countries should li&ve been the watchword of; jthe fortunate politically freed women-J. of Australasia. Instead of which they have used their new freedom for casting down tlie gage of. battle before the less fortuii'ate mothers of the world;, and have, in effect declared: "We place the solidarity of capitalistic militarism before the solidarity of motherhood)" In the Old Country, where I have been standing for years; with other women in the thick of the 'fight for ..political freedom, I have often, as I walked down Whitehall, and. glanced at the huge departments of the War Office, and the Admiralty, which are the brain and nervous system of the. forces organised to deal out DEATH, said,to mYself: "When we women have political power'we will raise buildings and organise departments for the study and nurture and care of LIFE. And, gradually, through the strength ot conscious motherhood these death-deal-ing departments shall' be "blotted out, for there will be no further use for them when the solidarity of -mother ■ hood shall'be triumphant." .. And when I set foot a year ago* in this new land, where I- believed and Hoped that women, armed: with theiT ■• new ecu sti'tut ion al power, ' would . be moulding conditions .foil*, -the'■-.true honoring and glorification ,*. of. v life and of motherhood y I found''tliehi following in the old and fcolish reasonings of - mem, and, forgetting their great" supreme function' as the- givers- : and : huftufe-rs of life, they /were shrieking for. armaments "-wherewith"to destroy-life, .and to maim and mangle '-the-"soils of- other, mothers. And my heart,, "during; these twelve: months,'■.hnfr.'l.buriit'.'..within, mc he-can so', of 'these u thiirgs : j"and I have ■sat down; to write this fetter with, my heart's blood to the '■ wbhien',' who"; themselves, by; their owivedeliberatc' act at 'the political hustings,vate sending little,; sons. ■• their..a^e^-cjhuch'en^-into-®OD"ER{N^fLiTAR t ; j.&ir. -- -r ■*: £# -v ; i z:s.% $:-r.- x r: ■■