1914-09-26a

The outburst of fervent patriotism that had swept over Hamilton upon the news that war had been declared was a distant memory by the end of September, 1914 .

Total and absolute commitment to war had been eroded for many reasons, not least the dreadful casualty numbers resulting from action in Belgium and France.

An example of the decided change in opinion by some of the population was shown by the following letter to the editor which appeared in the Hamilton Spectator on September 26, 1914:

“Not long ago there appeared in the paper a letter written by a lady in which she censured mothers for not being more enthusiastic about giving their sons to war, and the sons for not being more eager to volunteer for the service of their country.

“Brave words, noble sentiment, but –

“She said she had no son. Why ? Was it because like so many great ladies, she feared her maternal duties would interfere too largely with her social ones and personal pleasure?

“There are many such one we know who would be very indignant if they were called upon to do anything so unaristocratic, so plebian as to raise sons. How could they be expected to realize the feelings of a mother who really had; who had bent, perhaps, in anguish, over the sick bed of a tiny man-child, and hour after hour, day by day, fought the grim destroyer an inch at a time, to keep her darling?

“There are many women who have done this? From such a one those sentiments of noble self-sacrifice would ring true.

“Let them speak; if they will not, let there be silence.

“Who can blame them if their hands cling lingeringly over their loved one, loath to part with them after they have won him to a semblance of robust manhood. Sooner or later they may be forced to loose their hold.

“Thank God, my sons are not of eligible age for war, and I pray their time on earth may have passed ere they are called upon to do their duty in such wholesale human slaughter as this, into which the domineering, inflated pride of a Kaiser and the dueling instincts of Frenchmen have drawn our Britain.

“ Would not any Christian mother shudder to think of her boy dying in a frenzied, perhaps blaspheming attempt to kill his fellow man?

“Oh, would it not be more becoming for every mother of every nation involved to go (upon their knees if necessary) to the higher powers, to sue until they are granted peace!

                                                                                                MATER

¹  “ A To the Editor : A Mother’s Feelings”

Hamilton Spectator.   September 26, 1914