Catt, Carrie Chapman Speech, Article, Book File Speech "Scattered Thoughts About After-War Reconstruction"

Scattered Thoughts about After-War Reconstruction

For twenty-five years I have read, diligently, about peace
and war, trying to arrive at a settled conviction in my own mind
as to how war can be abolished and permanent peace substituted.
There are some problems which I feel certain must be solved or
a peace effected at the end of the present war will only last a
short time before being broken by another war. Among these
problems are the following.

I. What shall be done with the Germans who, for a generation,
have trained their young people to believe that the German race
is superior to all others and is destined to rule the world.
It won the first World War, and was cheated out of its victory
by the treachery of Jews and some others, they say. They will
continue to hold these views to get more guns and more military
training and more population and then start again unless that
procedure is checked in a reasonable way.

2. Precisely the same situation, in a more backward civilization,
exists among the Japanese. How shall they be checked and other
nations allowed to live in peace?

3. Great numbers of people have been driven from their homelands
and obliged to live a life of slavery elsewhere. How are these
people going to be collected, repatrioted, and given an opportunity
to earn their daily bread? Assyrians became refugees two thousand
odd years ago and they are still refugees. Civilization is not
built upon the relics of broken down nations.

4. The Jews should have an international guarantee of a homeland
and they should have a guarantee of other places in which to live
and if the world is not entirely broken down, some of them ought 

- 2 -

to have reparation for they were robbed of their property.

5. The mandates should be returned, either to the League of 
Nations or to a special commission for the purpose. A thorough
examination of their care should be made and a re-distribution
effected if it is necessary to continue the Mandate system.
Japan has used hers for the sole purpose of bases to make war
upon her neighbors.

6. The women of the world should not forget that very many of
their rights and privileges, established under former regimes,
have been literally taken away from them during the war and if
they do not ask for their return, those rights may not be 
returned, for men will be absorbed with their own problems and
will not ask for the restoration of the rights of women. For
example, in Canada and England, questions have arisen which
indicate that men are thinking that women should make themselves
useful to men after the war, but have no rights of their own.
I attach herewith a copy of a letter I received from England
which is well worth reading. I have received a printed protest
from Canada of which I have no copies. It is written by our
good friend, Mrs. Nellie McClung.

Peace

Concerning itself, there is something that women can
and I hope may do.

I. They might call a great international meeting of women.
In that meeting, they should demand the restoration of their
own rights and new ones, if they are necessary.

- 3 -

2. They should demand the abolition of war without any
reservations or restrictions. This was not done after the
World War. The League of Nations approached the matter
hopefully, but with no guarantees. Peace lovers took it for
granted that everybody wanted to make an end of war, but this
was not true. On the contrary, a great many peoples, such as
Mr. Hitler, Mr. Mussolini, and some of their followers, have 
thought war is the most wonderful thing in the world for the
development of manly virtues. We should begin a determined,
vigorous, aggressive education in the direction of the rejection
of war. It will take some time to get the people of any nation
to be willing to take a stand against war as a continued policy,
but it can be done and women will surely have to lead the way.

3. Men will undoubtedly attempt to resurrect the League of
Nations or build a new federated body. What that will be
depends not a little upon the outcome of the war. It does not
matter so much what nations unite in the new order as what the 
compact includes. It should include a definite, absolute
statement that the order prepares for the abolition of war and 
the punishment of world aggressors.
(a) That new order should certainly have an international
army whose business it should be to curtail and, if necessary, attack
a nation which is preparing for an aggressive war.
(b) Military preparation for war should be so curtailed
that the quantity allowed would be sufficient only for
the maintenance of national peace in case of local
revolutionary outbreaks.
(c) One large group of people believe that the cause of
war is economic and that an adjustment can be made so
as to avoid feelings of hostility. It is well to let

- 4 -

(c) (cont'd.)
them experiment. The truth is that the raw materials
for which they are now so fiercely quarreling are
those which are used in military equipment and it
would appear that the nation which is finally able
to control oil, tin, rubber, aluminum, coal,
is the nation which is likely to win and will
undoubtedly stand for the control of these commodities
with the promise that they do it in order to maintain
peace. They probably would do it with a great deal of
injustice to the nations denied free access to these
same utilities.

We may leave the geographical frontiers with the understanding 
that there will be long and hostile discussion over
them.

The number of problems which will arise for settlement
when war ends are more numerous than we need mention, but
underneath and above all else, let me repeat that the one
outstanding important thing, without which the world will
never attain a permanent peace, is an education to put war,
itself, out of existence among civilized nations.. All 
children in school, all men and women who go to church, of
whatever religion, should be taught one more commandment; - 
war does not exist among people who are really civilized.

Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.