Also Peter met the Pacifists; the "Peoples' Council," as they called
themselves. Many of these were religious people, two or three
clergymen, and Donald Gordon, the Quaker, and a varied assortment of
women--sentimental young girls who shrunk from the thought of
bloodshed, and mothers with tear-stained cheeks who did not want
their darlings to be drafted. Peter saw right away that these
mothers had no "conscientious objections." Each mother was thinking
about her own son and about nothing else. Peter was irritated at
this, and took it for his special job to see that those mother's
darlings did their duty.
He attended a gathering of Pacifists in the home of a
school-teacher. They made heart-breaking speeches, and finally
little Ada Ruth, the poetess, got up and wanted to know, was it all
to end in talk, or would they organize and prepare to take some
action against the draft? Would they not at least go out on the
street, get up a parade with banners of protest, and go to jail as
Comrade Peter Gudge had so nobly done?
Comrade Peter was called on for "a few words." Comrade Peter
explained that he was no speaker; after all, actions spoke louder
than words, and he had tried to show what he believed.
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