Catt, Carrie Chapman Article: "Our War Aims Demand A Pledge of Sincerity" 1918 Our War Aims Demand A Pledge of Sincerity. All the world around, the war has aroused dormant half formed hopes of a democracy to come into a living, active conviction. Many nations [motives] and many millions of people are resolved to make this the last world war and they know so bold an aim can only be accomplished when systems of government centered about Kings and Kaisers are gone forever. Republics do not seek world empire; they do not wage war for indemnities and gain; they do not deal in international intrigue and fill other lands with paid spies and plotters. Intelligent people of all lands are rapidly dividing into two classes; the progressives who having lost confidence in Kings look forward to [believe in] representative government, constitutions, elections, votes for the people as the safest form of government; and the reactionaries who, afraid of the people [of change], cling to Kings, edicts, dictation, caste, ceremony and a subservient population [people]. The issue is growing clearer every day. How far the impulse to democracy has permeated the peoples of the world no one knows but that it has gone far and will go further is proved by overwhelming evidence. Already the predictions are many that when the end of the war gives indications of a guarantee of permanent [continued] peace, an assurance that the world at last [is] has been made "safe for democracy", the nations big and little will make a clean sweep of thrones and Kings. How soon after the war, the last crown will fall, depends upon the degree of decisiveness of the final victory, but fall it will. For more than a century, the United States has been the world leader in democratic progress. It has pointed the way and "blazed the trial" for all the peoples of earth. Our forefathers had the foresight to conceive and to establish a representative government when most great men of all nations denounced the idea as visionary and impractical. They bravely led on, still in combat with world prejudice and made ours the first country to enfranchise the Jew, the Catholic, the non landholder, the alien, the working man. Our Republic gave the theory [that men would be trusted for self government] and also the proof of its trustworthiness in practice. It demonstrated that a Republic is a system of "checks and balances" wherein the virtuous, the wise, the temperate [over balance] neutralize the evil minded, the foolish, -2- the extremists and thus make a government of the people safe and sound. A despairing world would not now turn with rising [renewed] hope to the possible transformations of monarchies into republics as a safeguard against world war had not the United States lived down the world's doubts and objections and offered a proved example. The United States entered the war because its ideals were jeopardized . It bore insults and violation of treaties and witnessed the undoing of innocent peoples by "ruthless depredations, but it did not decide to fight until it was clear that the war [was] had resolved itself into a death grapple between the systems of autocracy and those of democracy. [It was clearly] It was a mere onlooker, until the evidence was overwhelming that the "powers of progress were desperately striving against the forces of darkness". The accumulating testimony made plain that one of two things was certain to happen; either German militarism commanded [by autocracy] by a Kaiser [with absolute power] whose will is law must surrender, or every other governments must set up universal military service, permanent conscription and oppressive taxes to support the system [or]. To do otherwise would mean to live in perpetual fear of the marauding hordes that have laid waste the lands and destroyed the peoples of Belgium, Northern France, Servia, Roumania, Poland, Armenia, Syria. So, to make "the world safe for democracy" to prevent one nation from governing the institutions of every other, [a decent place in which to live], our Republic went into war. [and] We entered it too with a will to give "all that we have and all that we are" and to see it through to its final victory if it takes a generation. But what is the democracy for which the world is battling and for which we offer our man power, our woman power, our money power, our all? Government of the world by consent of the individual nations; government of the nations by consent of the individual people. Nothing more, never less. The United States stands for the autonomy of the small nations, the little peoples that have been the pawns upon the royal chessboard of Kings for a thousand years. It stands for their incontestible right to govern themselves in their own way without fear of their neighbors. It stands for the right of dependent lands to decide for themselves whether they will be independent and if not to what larger power they will choose to [belong] be attached. These are our war aims, our ideals. They are worth fighting for and worth dying for; the future peace and welfare of the world depends upon the result. -3- All these aims call for votes, votes for whom, men or people? But pause; is the Republic sincere? Is our own nation government by consent of the people? No. The enfranchisement of women is far more obviously inevitable today than was the enfranchisement of the working man a hundred years ago, yet our Republic hesitates, flounders, avoids, and evades the issue while other nations apparently of clearer vision, and of braver temper have seized the banner of leadership so long borne by our country and they, not we, are now marching at the head of the world procession of democracy. Great Britain and Canada have each enfranchised their women within a year and have freed their suffrage armies from the burden of future campaigns while at the same time they have given to the world a pledge of their sincerity that they are [battling for] fighting democracy's battle. Great Britain gave the vote by the same bill to two millions of men who had never had the vote before. Years ago Australia and New Zealand had enfranchised men and women on equal terms and wherever the British flag flies there is some form of suffrage for women. The Scandinavian countries, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland have already given universal suffrage to men and women. The King of Sweden has recommended, and the majority party has pledged to make the partial suffrage long enjoyed by women in that country, a complete suffrage. The King of Belgium has said that if ever his land is restored, one of his first acts will be to give women the vote. The French Chamber of Deputies has promised women the vote. The Premier of Italy has eloquently espoused the cause of suffrage and has pledged his party to extend [them] women the vote. Processions of petitioners and even street riots in Hungary have demanded the vote for men and women and it has been partially promised (May 1, 1918). The provincial government of Russia, before it was overturned by anarchy, included women in the voting electorate as a matter of course. The question of votes for women has even been discussed in German Reichstag. These facts are but signs and symptoms of the [extensive] wide spread change in thought and theory of government throughout the world. Each new pronouncement of leaders or parties or nations for man or *It justifies the German claim that we pretend to lofty aims but those are only talk Graduates of our high schools & colleges mothers who are to send millions of sons to France women who are to pay the war taxes, buy the Liberty bonds, take the places of men in munition plants factories and fields. [Stranger?] exception *By what line of thinking does an American man justify the vote extended to an illiterate alien after a five years residence and deny it to a woman college president? Is there any other word than despotism which defines the procedure? -4- woman suffrage stimulates the further extension of democratic feeling everywhere and brings nearer the victims of the "powers of progress." No action has been taken by any allied country since the war began which has checked or discouraged the spread of democratic ideals. On the contrary after definite promises from the Kaiser of franchise reform for men, the Prussian Parliament (Diet.) defeated the proposal on May 2, 1918 by a vote of 235 to 181. It was an act characteristic of "the forces of darkness". The world expects America to be true to her ideals, to live up to the noble war aims she has set for herself. "In all governments truly republican, men are nothing - principle is everything," said Daniel Webster. The principle which has been the main stay of our progress is representative government, but ours will only become representative when all of the people give consent to the representatives entrusted with the law making and law enforcing power of the land. The only class left out is women. Women are already voters over a vast territory of the world. That they will vote everywhere no enlightened person questions. To deny them the vote longer in any part of this country makes of our war aims a travesty and a lie. As the Irish problem which should have been settled long ago, now rises to challenge the sincerity of Great Britain in its war aims of self determination for little nations, so the women question here with its settlement long overdue rises to make men and nations question our sincerity. As the Irish problem weakens the morale of war support in Great Britain, so the woman problem in America lessens the ardor of war supporters here. This nation will fight with its back to the wall for a clear cut ideal, but the ideal must have no flaws. Ours has. As a nation we profess to stand for the annihilation of world political despotism, but a nation does not think clearly nor act logically when upon one hand it declares against the "Divine Right of Kings" and makes war upon the "King business" as an intolerable usurpation of authority, yet on the other hand maintains the "Divine Right" of males to rule over all the people in a land pledged to self government. 5 The despotism on the right and on the left differ only in degree. The famed defender of militarism Treitsche said: "We Germans, who know both Germany and France, know what suits the Alsatians far better than that miserable people knows itself." So there an American so lacking in humor that he fails to see the insufferable impertinence of that point of view. A few days ago a United States Senator ejaculated: "I'm opposed to giving the vote to women. We men know far better than they do themselves what they want." Treitsche's [own?] soul in the U.S. Senate dealing with [aims?] in a war for democracy! May Heaven protect us! "To make us love our country our country ought to be lovely" said Edmund Burke. To make us love our country our country must be consistent. 6 3 [3. THE STRATEGY OF WAR CALLS FOR ACTION NOW] "Find out what your enemy wants you to do and then don't do it. Find out what he doesn't want you to do and then do it" is a saying credited to more than one great military strategist [general]. What does the Kaiser dread more than armies or navies? A democratic uprising in Germany which will have no place in its scheme of things for a King by Divine Right. What will induce such an uprising? The infection which will reach the Germans through the spread of such movements elsewhere. The German papers did not print the news that Great Britain had enfranchised its last class of men who heretofore had not had the vote, about two millions in number and that it had enfranchised its women, about six millions in number. Why? The Kaiser had planned to deny "one man, one vote" to Prussian men and he feared the infectious influence of such news and the censors cut it out of the days news. But the report will slowly seep into Germany through other channels and will do its work in time. [If] When the United States extends the vote to women, will Germany be permitted to get the news? No, not through the ordinary channels. If it refuses to extend the vote to women at this time, will Germany get the news? Certainly. Why? Because the Kaiser is fighting to make the world safe for autocracy [and] he knows that its only real menace is democracy. His censors will not let the German people know that in the United States the President, Congress and Legislatures have said once more that "government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from the earth". [We] That they place no trust in Kings or Kaisers, but [we] do trust [our] the people, yea even [our]the women. And the news "verboten" will creep through the bayonetted defenses slowly but surely and will [give renewed] revive hope and courage [to] in every believer in democracy [democratic progress] in Germany. The Kaiser stakes his all on the intimidation of the world through ruthless might of militarism led by autocracy. Why should our Republic hesitate while meeting might with might to plant in Germany the seeds of the only certain force which can permanently destroy autocracy and militarism - democracy? Great Britain and Canada have given the pledge of their sincerity in a war for democracy, why should the Great Republic balk? What [is it afraid?] does the Great Republic fear? "German men are military slaves and German women mere door mats" said an American man the other day contemptuously. Perhaps they were yesterday, but what of tomorrow? 4. 7 Germany is dependent upon her man power at the front, but she is dependent upon her women power [behind the trenches.] at home. [Not all are doormats. They are] Women doubtless [are] fooled by the Kaiser's carefully guided publicity and believe as do the men that they are engaged in a war of defense, but there are at least [a] two millions of German mothers and [a] two millions of German wives or sweethearts who, mourning the death of their loved ones, are [wondering] asking in the midst of their weary war service, whether there is no better way of running a world than by the murder of war. Send them a ray of hope and send it now. It will brighten one day into redemption from military enslavement with consequent for Germany and peace for the world. Democracy is the only possible enduring basis of the future peace of nations. Onward to Democracy. This mil and must, tomorrow be the battle cry of Europe, in general, and of Germany in particular" Herman Fernau, German author in the Coming Democracy Give the world the final pledge of sincerity in American war aims. Give women of this land the honor other nations have bestowed upon theirs. Make democracy triumphant at home, that the Republic may war upon its treacherous enemy Autocracy without a spot in the national escutcheon. Do it now. Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.