Women and War Work

by Helen Miller Moyes

RECONSTRUCTION

"The tumult and the shouting dies—

The captains and the Kings depart—

Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,

An humble and a contrite heart.

Lord God of Hosts; be with us yet,

Lest we forget, lest we forget."

—RUDYARD KIPLING.

"We shall not cease from mental fight,

Nor shall our sword sleep in our hand,

Till we have built Jerusalem,

In England's green and pleasant land."

—W. BLAKE.

And what is to come after? The first and the last and the greatest thing to do is to win the war and to get the right settlement. Unless we finish this struggle with the nations free, there can be no real reconstruction. The greatest work of reconstruction—the fundamental work—will be at the peace table. Those who are giving everything and doing everything to gain victory for the Allies, are the true reconstructors of the world.

The first great task of reconstruction is victory and the second is right peace settlements.

We cannot say that anything we can do will make future peace certain, but we can see that just and righteous settlements are made, so that the foundations are laid that ought to ensure peace in the future. There is no real peace possible while injustices exist.

There is no real peace possible while evil and good contend for mastery, and the spiritual conflicts of man are, and will be, as terrible as any physical conflicts. While mankind stands where it does now, it is well that against corruption of spirit and thought, we can use our bodies as shields.

The fact that we have had to fight Germany physically, shows clearly that spiritually and mentally we were unable to make them see truth and honour, and the meaning of freedom, and that the ideal of peace made no real appeal to them.

They built up in their nation great thought forces of aggression, of belief in militarism, of worship of might, of belief that war paid, and was in itself good, that there was no conscience higher than the state. They even worship God as a sort of tribal God whom they call upon to work with them—not a question as to whether they are on God's side—no—an assertion that God is on theirs.

That was their thought—and the thoughts of the other nations were bent on problems of freedom and growing democracy, of widening opportunities, of political and commercial interest, were, on the whole, the vaguely good thoughts of evolving democracies (with notable exceptions), but not the clear powerful thoughts needed to fight effectually those of Germany in the fields of intellect and spirit.

People did not see the full evil of Germany's thought—it was tied up with so much that was efficient and good and able, and we were only half articulate as to our own beliefs, and not even thoroughly clear or agreed about them, and Germany considered us slack and inefficient, and believed we might even be induced to consent to seeing Europe overrun and doing nothing. We did not believe, despite warning, that any nation thought as Germany did and we seemed, in their minds, to be people to be dominated and swept over.

One interesting fact to note is that Germany, despite its boasted knowledge of psychology, did not realise that England possesses a definite sub-conscious mind which always guides its actions. The sub-conscious mind of England is a desire for fair play, for justice, and a very definite sense of freedom. England is the creator of self-government and its sub-conscious mind, built up for centuries, is a very definite and real thing.

The sub-conscious mind of Germany, filled with these dominating ideas of power and Weltmacht and militarism, goes on, once set free, to its logical end, and it seems clearer and clearer that there is no real end to this struggle till we make the mind and soul of Germany realize its crimes and mistakes, till they are sane again and talk the A, B, C of civilization. The real reconstruction of the world begins there.

That end reached and settlements justly done, we may consider schemes for a League of Nations and practical possibilities of work in international organizations to prevent disputes leading to war.

The work of reconstruction must be international, as well as national, but the people who do, and will do, the best international work are the people who do the best national work. The individuals who are not prepared to spend time and service and effort to make their own country better and nobler, are going to do nothing for internationalism that is worth doing. The heart that finds nothing to love and work for in its neighbour is the heart that has nothing to bring to the whole world.

Again, there must be reparation by the enemy. We cannot reconstruct this world rightly if we do not enforce justice. A nation that has broken every international and human law is a nation that must be made to pay for its crimes as far as human justice can secure it.

Our six thousand murdered merchant seamen, the thousands of passengers they have killed, the civilians they have bombed, are marshalled against them, and the horrors of their frightfulness, deliberately planned and carried out against the peoples they have held in bondage, their refusal to even feed properly their prisoners and captive people—are we to be told to reconstruct a world without reparation for these and their other crimes?

We shall have a reconstructed world with right foundations, only when the nations know that justice is throned internationally, and that every crime is to be judged and punished. There can be no new world without living faith, without real religion. A cheap and sentimental humanitarism is no substitute for real faith—philosophies that seem adequate in ordinary times are poor things when the soul of man stands stripped of all its trappings and faces death and suffering and watches agonies. Then the abiding eternal soul knows its own reality and its oneness with the Divine and eternal, and the sacrifice of Christ is a real living thing—and in the men's sacrifice they are very near to Him.

So the Churches are being tested, too, in this great crisis, and in a reconstructed world we shall want Churches that carry the message of Christianity with a clearer and firmer voice, but that is the task of all believers. We cannot cast the duty of making the Church a living witness on our priests alone—it is our work, and unless our faith goes into everything we do, it is no use. People who profess a faith, and carefully shut it up in a compartment of their lives, so that it has no real connection with their work, are worse than honest doubters—because they betray what they profess.

So reconstruction rests upon great spiritual tasks and values, and upon the willingness and ability of the nations to carry these out.

In our country, our political parties are going to be changed and reconstructed. The Labour Party has already made a big appeal to "brain and hand workers," and has announced its scheme of re-organization.

One definite result of the war in the minds of the people of our country is the definite mental discarding of state socialism of the bureaucratic kind as a conceivable system of government. We have seen bureaucracy at work to a great extent, and shall undoubtedly have to continue control in many ways after peace comes, but we do not like it. Socialism will have to go on to new lines of thought and development if it wishes to achieve anything—and the most interesting thought and schemes are on the lines of Guild Socialism.

How the great Liberal and Unionist Parties will emerge, we cannot say—but this we know, they will be different. We have a new electorate, more men and the women, and the opinion and needs of the women will undoubtedly affect our political reconstruction. Most of us, in the war, have entirely ceased to care for party; even the most fierce of partisans have changed, and the "party appeal," in itself, will be of little account in our country.

I feel sure we shall scrutinize measures and men and programmes more carefully, and the work of educating our women will be part of the women's great tasks in reconstruction.

Our ability to reconstruct and renew rests fundamentally upon our financial condition—even the power to make the best peace terms rests upon it. Crippled countries cannot stand out for the best terms, so finance is all-important.

The democratic nature of our loans is all-important, too. We have had people suggesting that these loans would be repudiated—a suggestion that is not only absurd, but is humorous when one realizes that about ten million of our people have invested in them. To get a House of Commons elected that would repudiate these loans would be a difficult task.

The widespread nature of the loans is sound for the people and the Government, and will help us not only to win the war, but, what is still more important, "to win the peace." We have in this struggle paid more and better wages to our people than ever before, conditions have been improved, masses of our people have led a fuller existence than ever before. We want to make these and still better conditions permanent. We cannot do that by a military victory only—we can only do it by finishing financially sound, and the man or woman who saves now and invests is one of our soundest reconstructors.

In the readjustments in industry that must come there will be temporary displacements, and the money invested will be invaluable to those affected. In our great task of reorganizing industries, of renovating and repairing, of building up new works and adding to our productiveness, finance is all-important. We shall need large sums for the development of our industry, for the transferring of war work back to peace pursuits, for the opening up of new industries and work, for the development of trade abroad and the selfish using up of resources that could be conserved, makes the work harder—might even, if extravagantly large, cripple us seriously at the end of this struggle.

The sacrifices of our men can achieve military victory, but weakness and self-indulgence at home can take the fruits of their victories away.

Those who are working and saving in our War Savings Movement are so convinced of its value, not only to the state, but to the individual, and for the character of our people, that they have expressed the very strongest conviction that it should go on after the War, and it will probably remain in our reconstruction.

We have also urged the wisdom of saving for the children's education and for dots for daughters, so that our young women may have some money in emergencies, or something of their own on marriage, and both of these are being done.

The great problem of education bulks very large in our reconstruction schemes. A new Education Bill for England and Wales has been prepared by Mr. Fisher—and his appointment is in itself a sign of our new attitude. He is Minister of Education and is really an educationist, having been Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University when given the appointment. His Bill puts an end to that stigma on English education, the half-time system in Lancashire, and raises the age for leaving school to what it has been in Scotland for some years—sixteen years of age. It provides greater opportunities for secondary and technical training and improves education in every way. Its passage, or the passage of a still better Bill, is essential for any real work in reconstruction.

There are other schemes of education being planned and considered, and women are working with men on the education committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction.

The land question is all-important in reconstruction. We have fixed a minimum price for wheat for five years, as well as minimum wages for the labourers on land, men and women, and we have schemes and land for the settlement of soldiers. It is safe to predict that agriculture will be better looked after than it was before the war, and that we have learned a valuable lesson on food production, and the value of being more self-supporting.

There are people who talk airily and foolishly of "revolutions after the war"—of great labour troubles, of exorbitant and impossible demands, of irreconcilable quarrels. These people are themselves the creators and begettors of trouble, and mischievous in the highest degree. They belong, though they are much less attractive, to the same category as the person who tells you that the moral regeneration of the world is coming from this great war.

The "revolutionists" have to learn that there is no need to have any such crises happen, that they can only happen if we are foolish beyond belief and conception—for we have learned in this war how great and ample is the common meeting ground of all of us, how impossible it is for anyone to believe that we, who have fought together, suffered and lost together, while our men have died together, cannot find in consideration of claims enough common sense and wisdom to prevent any such disaster.

And one wonders where the people are going to be found who are going to be so unjust to the workers as to provide any reason for such dangers to be feared, for we know one thing in the war, that in the trenches, on the sea, behind the trenches and carrying on at home, the workers have done the greater part—and they, in their turn, know all others have borne their share. Out of such common knowledge and the consciousness that the practical work of democracy is to raise its people more and more, we shall have not revolution, but evolution of the best kind. And the moral regeneration of the world will come if we reconstruct the one thing that matters most and that is fundamental to all—ourselves—and it will not come if we do not. When one has said everything there is to be said of schemes and hopes of reconstruction—about the schemes for better homes, and a great housing scheme is wisely one of the foundation schemes of our reconstruction, for which plans are now being prepared, about schemes for the care of children, about schemes for endowment of motherhood, which are exercising the minds of many of our women, you are back again to the individual. When you think of education schemes, and schemes for teaching national service to the young, of work to teach care and thrift, you are back again to the problem of creating character.

When you go into the great world of industry and its problems, of care of the workers in health and sickness, of securing justice and full opportunities, of developing and wisely using our resources, again you return to the individual.

When you want to make the art and beauty of life accessible to all, you come back to the question as to the individual's desire for it and appreciation of it.

Schemes in theory may be perfect—reconstruction may be planned without a flaw—but what does that help if we as individuals are blind and selfish?

The regeneration of the world cannot come from the sacrifice of our men alone, or even of some of us at home. The few may save countries and do great things, but the work of reconstruction rests on everybody. Nations are made up of individuals, and a nation cannot hope for moral and social regeneration except through individual self-denial, self-sacrifice and service.

It is in our own hearts and our own minds that the great task of reconstruction must be done.

The greatest task of reconstruction for most of us is to make all our actions worthy of our highest self—to bring to the problems that confront us, not one detached and prejudiced bit of us, but the whole mind and spirit of ourselves—the best of us always in unity.

That is life's greatest task, and calls for all we have to give, and all we are. There lies true reconstruction and the hope of all the world.