CONGRESS OF WOMEN FAVORS ARBITRATION
RESOLUTION URGES NULLIFICATION OF ALL SECRET TREATIES.
BY JANE ADDAMS
Presiding Officer of the International Congress of Women.
Special Cable to Chicago Herald and Galveston-Dallas News. Copyright 1915, by Chicago Herald. Reproduction prohibited.
The Hague, April 29 -- The adoption of a ringing resolution urging that moral, social and economic pressure be brought to bear upon all Nations failing to refer their disagreements to arbitration marked the opening of the second day of the International Congress of Women. That all secret treaties shall be void was a further conviction of the congress, expressed in resolution form.
Mrs. Glendower Evans of Boston and Mrs. Louis F. Post of Washington addressed the congress in support of this plank. Mrs. Evans at first, in behalf of the American delegation, urged the immediate publication by each Nation of all existing treaties and conventions, but was glad to accept the more drastic statement proposed by a Dutch delegate and supported by German delegates.
Transference of Territory.
Much discussion, not criticism, but by way of elucidation, ensued over the resolution affirming that there should be no transference of territory without consent of men and women residing therein. It was introduced by Prof. Emily Greene Balch of Wellesley College, in a speech pointing out that it is as unjust for the population arbitrarily to be transferred to another political unit as it was in the time of religious warfare for a Prince to determine what was to be the religion of his subjects. Her remarks brought forth stirring illustrations of the wrongs committed by such arbitrary transference from Belgian, Polish and Italian delegates.
Emily Napieralski of Chicago, representing 200,000 Polish-American women, moved the congress by her plea, for restitution of a united Poland. The resolution prevailed unanimously.
Popular Questions of Evenings.
The evening sessions are taken up with addresses of a popular nature. Florence Holbrook of Chicago last night pointed out the desirability of re-writing school histories, with a view of making them less distorted in favor of the military, and of introducing peace education in schools. Tonight's session was devoted to the topic of suffrage and the war. Alice Carpenter of New York spoke.
While at times the business of the convention must needs progress slowly, because of difficulty understanding our languages, and [while] at times slight misunderstandings occur due to extreme caution with which representatives of warring Nations and of Nations nearest the theater of war must necessarily express themselves, yet, the prevailing spirit is excellent and the gathering demonstrates that solidarity of women has held firmly in the midst of the present cataclysm.
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