Ellen Newbold LaMotte

Overview

Ellen Newbold La Motte born Louisville, KY November 27, 1873 (d. 1961). Nurse; anti-opium crusader; anti-imperialist; experienced World War I as nurse in France.

Quotations

"We are witnessing a phase in the evolution of humanity, a phase called War—and the slow, onward progress stirs up the slime in the shallows, and this is the Backwash of War. It is very ugly. There are many little lives foaming up in the backwash. They are loosened by the sweeping current, and float to the surface, detached from their environment, and one glimpses them, weak, hideous, repellent. After the war, they will consolidate again into the condition called Peace. After this war, there will be many other wars, and in the intervals there will be peace. So it will alternate for many generations. By examining the things cast up in the backwash, we can gauge the progress of humanity. When clean little lives, when clean little souls boil up in the backwash, they will consolidate, after the final war, into a peace that shall endure. But not till then." (Backwash of War, 1916, intro.; photo c. 1902 by Mesny in Johns Hopkins Med Archives)