Disarming the nursery Disarming the nursery (January 14, 2005)

Grannies' war toy protest dates to early 20th century

by Sue Dremann

This year's war toy protest is not the first for the Raging Grannies.

War toy protests began in 1922, when the Palo Alto branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom held its first demonstration. The international group formed in 1915, after a global congress of women met in The Hague, Netherlands to protest against World War I, then raging in Europe. They explored ways to prevent future wars.

The Peninsula/Palo Alto branch was formed in 1922 by the wife of then-president of Stanford University Ray Lyman Wilbur.

Following the devastation of World War I, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, which includes the Raging Grannies, defined itself as "a congress of mothers from 38 countries." They condemned war toys at the 1921 convention and urged all mothers to "disarm the nursery."

The fledgling Palo Alto chapter distributed a statement throughout Palo Alto and Stanford entitled "Disarm the Nursery," which called for the banishment of all war toys, and argued that "No store would put in stock a toy guillotine, or a headsman's ax and block, with puppets to be beheaded. Parents would revolt at the idea of their children playing games with such toys of violence and death."

The original document resides at Stanford University, according to local Granny Margaret Stein.

-- Sue Dremann

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