298 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



educated and intelligent, and there is an air of familiar 

 independence about them that is in marked contrast with 

 the crowds you will see upon the trains in any other 

 country. 



And to the ladies of America it may be well said that 

 they do not fully realize and understand the position that 

 they enjoy. Every country's greatness and intelligence 

 must ultimately be measured by the standard of the 

 mothers of the land. No fountain rises above its source. 

 And in no land that the sun shines upon is woman placed 

 upon the exalted pedestal which she occupies in America. 



A few years ago I was standing in the garrison city of 

 Innsbruck, in the Tyrolese Alps. The city was being rap- 

 idly increased by its erection of immense new buildings. 

 On every hand from the broad and fertile plains rose the 

 beautiful Tyrolese Alps, one of the grandest panoramas 

 on earth. In the fields around the city the farms were 

 being tilled by the women, and in the city I saw women 

 with blue calico dresses, and hods of brick and mortar on 

 their shoulders, carrying the brick and mortar up long 

 flights of steps to the masons on the buildings, whilst in 

 the streets nearby the soldiers sat or stood smoking or 

 drinking their beer and taking the world easy, while the 

 women did the work. This is one of the curses of a great 

 standing army — which we happily escape. 



All wealth must be produced by labor. It may be gath- 

 ered together in other methods, but it must be created by 

 labor alone, and when half a million of men are taken 

 out of the field of producers and become idle consumers 

 at the expense of the public, we must expect in times of 

 peace the same results that we saw in 1864 in America, 

 when the women took up the farming tools and did the 

 land labor that the men ordinarily undertook. 



God grant that the day may be far distant when woman 

 shall come down from the place where she is enthroned 



