The Board of Trade issued its appeal to women just before Easter to
register their names as willing to do national service in any capacity
during the course of the war. I want to tell you tonight that I am very
proud of the women of the country. When the first recruiting appeals
were made to men, the hoardings were covered with placards and appeals
and they were making efforts by recruiting bands, in places of
pleasure--everywhere in the columns of the newspapers there were
recruiting appeals to men. Then the time came when the Board of Trade
wished to know to what extent it could depend upon the services of the
women of the country, and what was done in the case of women? There were
no posters for us; there were no recruiting meetings for us; there were
no appeals from great names to us; no attractive pictures, "Your King
and Country Want You"--nothing of that kind. And yet, in spite of that,
in one week 34,000 women sent in their names as volunteers for a
national service. [Loud applause.]

And now, something about this talk of peace, and the terms of peace.
Well, I consider it very sinister and very dangerous. Very dangerous,
indeed, because nothing heartens the Kaiser and his advisers so much as
weakness in any of the allied nations. It is no use expecting Germany to
understand that the people who are talking about peace are animated by a
genuine love for peace. I go further as regards peace movements. I think
that in this country, and in America, and in all the neutral countries,
there are a great many very well-meaning people who are genuine lovers
of peace. What woman does not dread the effects of war? Germans are
encouraging the call for peace. The Kaiser knows he is going to be
beaten, and he wants to get out of it on as easy terms as possible, and
so it is worth while for German-Americans to run a peace movement in
America. They want America, which is a great neutral country, to
intervene to try to force peace and to let the Germans down easily