The Pittsburgh Press (November 28, 1944)
Ferguson: Returned veterans
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
The public is occupied these days with plans for the treatment of war veterans. Most of the advice is directed to women. It is taken for granted, as it should be, that mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts will have a big part to play in rehabilitation programs.
Usually, however, such advice touches only superficial questions. Our big fundamental job is overlooked. As I see it, that job is to restore the mother image to its old pedestal.
It isn’t really sensible, of course, for men to expect women to be better than they are – but they do. Boys revere their mothers even when such reverence is not deserved. And because all women are symbols of motherhood, the reverential feelings are carried over into adult life and form the pattern for their moral concepts.
Our first rehabilitation job is to straighten our own attitudes. The post-war world will need, and we should all demand of it, a set of moral codes that will once more classify chastity as a feminine virtue and restore the ideals of loyalty to marriage.
The soldier desires his sweetheart or his wife to be an inspiration for his spiritual yearnings.
For these boys have fought for spiritual gains – not material possessions. We can no longer satisfy them or ourselves with anything less than spiritual aspirations. Thousands died with the word “Mother” on their lips. For that reason, it is not sentimentalism to say the word has taken on again its sacred meaning.