It is very gratifying to note that at last Lithuanian women in America have started to unite their forces, and plan to work collectively for their uplift, advancement, and emancipation. The first national convention of Lithuanian-American women, which took place in June at Brooklyn, N. Y., was a forward step in the right direction. It is hoped that this movement to form a nation-wide organization of Lithuanian-American women will succeed.

Like all new movements, the effort to organize the Lithuanian women in America is receiving some opposition and harsh criticism. For some mysterious reasons, opponents of the movement are saying that it is merely a disguised attempt to form a Lithuanian Women's Socialist League. Some say the movement is not loyal to Lithuanianism, because a majority of the delegates at the convention voted against the establishment of relations with the Lithuanian Women's League in Lithuania. However, 2in spite of this unfair opposition and unwarranted criticism, the movement must, and shall go forward. There are enough Lithuanian-American women who are interested in the movement to make it a success.

Miss S. Aldona Rutkauskas, in the issue of July 24 of the Lietuva, censured the delegates of the convention for voting against an alliance with the Lithuanian Women's League in Lithuania. The latter move is interpreted as an effort to Americanize the Lithuanian women in America. However, the above decision was made only on the ground that the interests of Lithuanian women in America differ from the Lithuanian women in Lithuania. In my opinion, that difference is very plain, not in educational aims, but in the social and economic order. Our women in both lands are badly in need of the same kind of education, an education which promotes a higher standard of morality, ethics, lofty ideals, and more intelligent mothers and wives.

From the standpoint of political economy, there is a vast difference between 3Lithuania and America. In Lithuania, practically all people lead independent lives on farms. In America, our people are mostly factory workers and city dwellers. Therefore, the interests and needs of the people in Lithuania are necessarily far different from those of our people in this country.

Miss S. Aldona Rutkauskas also censured the delegates of the convention for making a decision to establish relations with the progressive women's organizations in America. This move is being interpreted as an effort to Americanize the Lithuanian women. I would like to ask Miss Rutkauskas how can it be a bad thing for working Lithuanian women to accept the program of working American women? In my opinion, if a Lithuanian woman works side by side in the same factory with an American woman at equal wages (in most cases at lower wages), then it is to her advantage to seek to better her position together with the American woman. Surely every woman would enjoy a higher standard of living.

Miss Rutkauskas laments the fact that an economical and political education is being offered to mothers with children, to housekeepers, and to moral women.

Apparently, she believes that politics can demoralize a moral woman. However, would a close examination of the subject substantiate such a theory? So far, women did not participate in politics, and what kind of morality do we see in society? We note a large number of murders, robberies, and an increasing number of girls being forced into prostitution in order to live. These conditions are existing in a period in which women do not participate in politics. In my opinion, when a moral woman will participate in politics, then she will use her influence to improve the moral standard of politics; she will, likewise, attempt to improve the present low, moral standard of society.

It is amazing to see how some of our women are afraid of an economical and political education, especially in view of the self-evident fact that these matters are a part of our daily lives; even the fate of our future generations is dependent upon political economy. Why should we be afraid to become acquainted with the social order which governs our daily lives? In my opinion, without a good knowledge concerning the existing social order, it is even impossible to make intelligent plans for the future. A better future depends to a large 5extent upon those women who are mothers, and raise children. It is a very sad state of affairs when we are unwilling to learn anything about the bad side of life, about the social order under which we live.

Lithuanian women! Let us make, at least, one effort to become acquainted with the plight of our friends and industrial slaves. It is not enough to look through the glasses of race consciousness. When our women, who have been drinking factory smoke all day long, come home cold and hungry, do not ask them to sing the Lithuanian national anthem, nor songs about the hills and beautiful rivers which we left behind across the sea. Instead, let us tear off the mask of pretense and strive to learn the causes of our tears and misery. Let us show our women the light which can lead them out from the mountain of tears. Our reward will be happiness, liberty, and full rights. However, we cannot achieve victory without a knowledge of economics and without participating in politics.

Mare Alyta