Peace in the Nursery

In the Hotel Breslin in Manhattan something was going on that would have delighted. It was a toy fair at which the toy manufacturers were convened to display their tempting devices: kiddy cars, little red sleds, drums, dolls, waddling ducks, electric railroad trains, blocks, toy ships, toy soldiers and whatnot.

Into this paradise stepped a group of women. There were Mrs. John Jay White, Mrs. Henry Villard (wife of the journalist-financier Henry Villard, daughter of William Lloyd Garrison, famed abolitionist, mother of Oswald Garrison Villard, editor of the Nation), Mrs. J. Sergeant Cram, Mrs. Edward Thomas and many another. None of the ladies brought her children or any other children.

They came from the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. They came with a message from the League. The message which Mrs. White, Mrs. Villard and the others brought was this: War toys instil into a child's mind a militaristic spirit. Therefore the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom wishes to do away with war toys. It requests the toy manufacturers to aid it by ceasing to make the devices which prompt the young and innocent to devilish thoughts of war. If the toy manufacturers will cease, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, will thank them; if not, next fall the League will start a boycott on war toys.

The ladies were given an attentive hearing by the toy manufacturers, who replied:

"Boys began playing soldiers in the Stone Age, will continue to do so until the millennium, and we will continue to make and sell tin soldiers, toy guns, swords and war games."

Clarence Kinne, Chairman of the Toy Fair, went on to elaborate:

"It is your privilege to start a boycott if you wish, but there has always been war and there always will be. ... I've been selling toys for 40 years, and as long as we can sell war toys we are going to do it. ...

"As for the war toys, if there were a demand for them we should manufacture them. As a matter of fact, however, the demand has fallen off considerably of late and it is hard to find tin soldiers any more."

Even this last assurance did not please the delegation, and one of the ladies, Mrs. Edward Thomas, exclaimed:

"It is absurd to say that the manufacture of war toys is on the decline. You have only to walk along the streets to find children playing with them. A pistol is the worst of all war toys, because it teaches the child the idea of killing by his own hands. Ask any child in the street what he is going to do with his pistol, and he says 'I'm going to kill you.' Other pernicious forms of war toys are the trench games that teach children how to send troops over the top in mass formation."

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom has its headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland, and has branches in 26 countries. It is its intention to make its war-toy boycott worldwide. The press did not collect the opinions of the persons most affected by the issue--the children.