Cause and Cure

There opened in Washington a women's conference--an event not unusual. But it happened that it was a "peace" conference and yet none of the many women's peace organizations was represented. The meeting was called the "Women's Conference on the Cause and Cure of War"--a misleading title since "cause" and "cure" were not equal objects.

Nine national women's organizations were each represented by 100 delegates and 100 alternates. They were:

The American Association of University Women.

The Federation of Women's Boards of Foreign Missions in North America.

The General Federation of Women's Clubs.

The Council of Women for Home Missions.

The National Board of Young Women's Christian Associations.

The National Council of Jewish Women.

The National League of Women Voters.

The National Christian Temperance Union.

The National Women's Trade Union League of America.

Care was exercised in excluding professional peace societies and organizations of "pink" tendencies. This was to be a conference of "normal" women to undertake a common-sense study of the problem of preventing war, with a view of arriving at some common plank on which all could stand, which the delegates could take back to 5,000,000 women whom they represented to start a great wave of public opinion against war.

The chairman of the conference was the renowned Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Honorary President of the National League of Women Voters, and leader of many women's movements.