My dear Miss Addams,
I was relieved to see the statement which was so carefully edited. The only comment that I have heard is that it was somewhat disappointing as it said nothing about loyalty and standing behind the President.
I hoped to have Mrs. Andrews speak at the dinner but she is responsible for a Washington educational convention coming on Dec. 8 and did not feel that she could. I am not sure [page 2] that Mrs. Forbes will go. She feels that her ideas are not popular and that if the national organization is so broad as to take in the kind of people who enjoy [Four Lights] and want to urge a nagging policy about the President, anything she could say would do little good. She is tired and questions whether the strain of a contest will be worthwhile. I think if the Massachusetts' branch's and Mrs. Forbe's powerful assistance in our organization is to be retained we must in [some way] prevent the New Yorkers putting Mrs. Eastman on the board.
I wish that the New York [page 3] branch would choose a new name for that would settle the difficulty about [Four Lights].
Germany is winning, the time has passed when any ally can talk about indemnities. We shall be thankful if we can ever get Germany back on her own soil without annexations. The situation has changed so rapidly that I am in favor of modifying our short statement, as I believe I wrote to you. Dr. Lynch writes that Balfour thinks the idea of a League of Nations is so revolutionary that it would need to be debated a long time and with undistracted, rational mind "With Congress as it is now, most of them never having [page 4] given a League of Nations a thought, it would be opposed on every hand."
Have you considered what resolutions are advisable? I wish we could say something that would be appreciative of the President's aims and ideals, that would not be opposed by the Washington group who are so hostile to him. We need to make it very plain that we are not only not Pro German -- but ↑are↓ absolutely hostile to Prussian policy. I shall express this to some extent in my report.
I shall plan to go on to New York to Dr. Lynch's luncheon for the Committee on Durable Peace.
I am glad to know of Miss Balch's book. It sounds as if it would be most useful.
Yours cordially
Lucia Ames Mead
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