By Louise Bernikow Friday, July 18, 2003 (WOMENSENEWS)--The year
1915 saw militant suffrage activism escalate. Outside the White
House, mobs howled and picketers were hauled off to jail. In
this atmosphere, President Woodrow Wilson declared a national
holiday to honor the country's mothers. Why then? A bone thrown
to women? A distraction from carnage of World War I? Whatever
Wilson's motives, the current holiday, awash in commercialism
and sentimentality, has lost its original connection between
motherhood and pacifism. There are two versions of the holiday's
history: Mother's Work Days were a southern tradition, meant to
improve community sanitation, carried out by female brigades
during the Civil War. In 1868, Anna M. ("Mother") Jarvis of West
Virginia transformed the tradition into Mother's Friendship Day,
aiming to use women to ease tensions between North and South.
After she died, her daughter held a church service honoring
mothers and distributing the white carnations that have endured
as a symbol of pu