Mothers for Peace Day

Anguished by the carnage of the Civil War and distressed by the brutality and waste of human life in the Franco-Prussian War, Julia Ward Howe, an advocate for the better treatment of the disabled, prisoners, and the mentally ill, first suggested the idea of Mothers' Day in 1872 as a day dedicated to peace.

Julia Ward Howe dreamed of organizing women around the world to rally for peace. In 1870 in a call to action she wrote: "Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: ‘We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience.
We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.' From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says,'Disarm, Disarm!' The sword of murder is not the balance of justice! Blood does not wipe out dishonor..."

On May 14th, 1914, Senator Heflin of Alabama and Senator Sheppard of Texas sponsored a bill proposing that the 2nd Sunday in May be set aside for all to honor their mothers. Unfortunately, commercialism took over and turned Mothers' Day into something that it wasn't designed to be. The new advertising industry in the United States saw the possibilities. As the Florists' Review, the industry's trade journal put it, " This was a holiday that could be exploited." Carnations were sold at florists for the exorbitant price of $1.00, a full day's pay for many people at that time.

A law suit was filed by the founders of Mother's Day against those who "would undermine Mothers' Day with their greed."

Reverend Oleson writes, spring 2015: "In these uncertain times with wars and rumors of war, let us all work to make Julia Ward Howe's dream come true."

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/pressroom/news/2015/05/06/mothers-day-2015