Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 217, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1918 — THE WOMAN’S PART [ARTICLE]

THE WOMAN’S PART

By KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN.

Of The Vigilantes

Perhaps because my life has been very much occupied with children and their various needs and interests, the child always looms large in my horizon —the child —that “brings hope with it, and forward looking thoughts." God knows how many war babies bring fear with them in place of hope, end the “forward-looking thoughts” must often he fraught with misgiving. One thing is certain, however, that though Individual mothers here 'and there must of necessity have hearts laden with doubts of the immediate future, there never was a time when child life ought to be so carefully preserved, nourished, guarded, and guided. This is pre-eminently woman’s “part.” Not her only one, for she is proving again and ’again her ability to take, a man’s work when needful, and do it with an unexpected strength and skill and staying power. There are few things left Indeed, that she cannot do, and her activities might be practically boundless were it not for the fact that in the shuffle bf the sexes men cannot perform similar feats of flexibility and become mothers I What Women Are Doing. A great many of our tasks are performed as they have always b.een, rather in the background, though we are more or less dragged into the limelight of responsibility nowadays. (I almost jjppe that we shall not like it so well that we shall never want td work in the quiet places again!) The bearing and regring and saving of children, the conservation of this great life force that the dreary, blood-stained world needs for its hope, its comfort and refreshment, the literal staff on which the future is to lean, this is woman’s most practical contribution to the service of humanity. Make munitions, drive cars, nurse, and succor the wounded, mother the soldier in the camps and canteens —all this must be done, but the child must be kept in mind at every turn. He has a right to be born, to be welcomed, to be loVed and wished for, that homes and hearth fires may not vanish from the earth, and that men and women shall not lack the greatest driving force in the universe, fatherhood and motherhood —the love and care of children. There may come a time when the service flags are taken down because there are no armies battling on the field, no gold stars needed to mark pa-

rental sacrifices, but if a new banner should one day be hung in windows here and there with a star meaning: “Unto us a child is born,' unto us a son is given,” it would be not a flag of sacrifice but still a flag of service and honor. Let us save the children, then, even if the task be carried on humbly, patiently, unostentatiously. All we own, and wear, and are, all that is the outer husk of us, all that is the inner kernel, is being tested in these days. It is as if there were a universal “wash” and only the “fast colors” in life and character were coming out clear and true. In all this the mothers and the fathers, the preachers and the teachers are. a great factor. It is the children who are the seed corn of the future; it is.the boys and girls of today that will -have to endure the terrible reactions of this war and settle the problems that will vex us for years after peace is formally declared. Every man or woman who lends his money to the government in this crisis protects the future of his children; -makes it more certain that America will never repudiate its debts, but pay them as it did after the Civil war, with a speed that gained the world’s applause. All Put Shoulders to Wheel. The children are a definite factor in all our campaigns nowadays. Boy Scouts, Junior Guards, Camp Fire Girls, school children, have all put their shoulders to tha wheel and in being an active part of the movement have grown In wisdom and understanding, self-denial and right use of their slender powers. These are our own American. children, for the most part sheltered, not always indeed from poverty, but at least from more terrible evils. Whenever I buy bonds or War Saving stamps or subscribe to the dozen and one causes forever knocking at the door, I long to give more and more because of the lives of women and children across the seas, innocent lives sacrificed to the relentless war god! —mothers, potential and actual —the mothers who would have replenished the standing armies of the world —and blameless little children who were the hope of the future. Then let us work, sacrifice, give, in memory of their sufferings and the unspeakable anguish in which they groped and bled and starved to death. I do not speak of repaying slaughter with slaughter-vengeance is the Lord’s part —I speak of giving as if we were laying a “sprig of rosemary for remembrance” on those hundreds of little pitiful, upcofflned bodies, that their ihore fortunate brothers and sisters may be saved, fed, clothed, sheltered and educated. Whoever loves a child loves his country; whoever helps a child holds a stake 4n the future of his country; whoever saves a child sits on the seat with Jhe builders of cities and the prophets of lasting peace.