WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM
Dear Miss Addams,
I was very glad to hear from you, but sorry of course that the decision of the Executive Committee at Freiburg makes so many difficulties.
About next summer, I hope very much that you will plan to come over in any case. I feel sure that it will be worth while, even in case the Executive Committee at its December meeting decides not to attempt a second International Meeting only half a year later. The argument on the other side is, of course, that if it is decided to hold the Congress in 1924, it might be impossible for you to come two years in succession, and it is impossible to imagine one of our Congresses without you.
The international situation does not feel quite so immediately menacing as it did at the time of our meeting in Freiburg and especially shortly thereafter when it looked as though we were back again in August 1914, with Constantinople as the [center] of a conflagration. I have been very deeply concerned, as you know, but now matters look better in the Near East. The German-French tension and the economic situation in Germany do not alarm me quite as much as they did either, but it is hard to tell how far this is because I am remote here from the German sense of terror which we felt when in that country.
As I said before, the Executive Committee will meet at the time of The Hague Conference, and will then decide with regard to next summer’s plans. The interview between Mrs. Catt and our representatives in London will then have taken place, and more will be known about that situation, but of course you cannot wait until December to begin to make plans.
The plans for next year’s Summer School are developing. Mlle. Rolland, Madame Duchêne and I had a good conference on the subject, and we agreed as to choice ↑place↓ the best place ↑choice↓ [page 2] would be [Czechoslovakia], and as to subject Social Peace. We have asked Frau Ragaz if she will do what Mlle. Rolland’s Committee did this year and arrange the [program]. I enclose ↑will send↓ copy of a draft of a circular letter to be sent to the National Sections. Miss [McDowell] is now in [Czechoslovakia], and I had a letter from her this morning saying that she will see some of our Prague friends to discuss the Summer School. Miss Molnárová, whom you may remember at Salzburg, has “expressed pleasure and hope for such a school.” Alice Masaryk's ↑Secretary↓ also was very responsive and believes it would not be hard to secure a castle or palace for the use of the school. Miss [McDowell] also writes that “Mrs. Masaryk’s condition is such that Alice has given up her plan of going to the United States and will not go away from her father or mother.” She is wise, for both need her. At the Red Cross Meeting in Paris, when the subject of printing their report in different languages came up and there was an objection to German, it was Alice who insisted “that it must be in German as well as French and English.”
To return to the Summer School, I think it would be perfectly delightful if you could not only be there but lecture as well. Of course this does not seem so great an objective as presiding at International Congresses, but it would be combined with other things, such as seeing for yourself the work of the Geneva University International Courses, (where I think you ought to speak also if possible) and attendance at the Assembly. Do you not think that you and I might travel together and do something towards extending the [organization] of the League? Of course the difficulty is that in all countries, North as well as South, people are scattered during the summer months, much as they are at home.
I have been working hard over the matter of international courses, and have seen this week M. Wm. Fatio (the prime [organizer] of the University Summer Courses), M. Wm. Rappard (of the Secretariat and also of the Geneva University faculty), M. Christian Lange (of the Inter-Parliamentary Union), M. Wm. Martin, (formerly of the “Journal de Genève,” one of the earliest personalities appealed to to help [organize] the League of Nations. He was in London when their office was there before it moved to Geneva, and is now in the International Labour Office.) I have also seen M. Gustav Spiller, M. Royal Meeker, also of the I.L.O. I have talked with Mr. Nitobe, who is in charge of the work for intellectual [cooperation] of the League of Nations, and am hoping to see a very nice American, Mr. Rockwell, who not only attended the summer courses of the Geneva University, but also helped a lot with the running of them. I also had a good talk with Madame Walther, of the Ecole d’Etudes Sociales pour Femmes. This is merely a preliminary statement. I will write a second letter later about the matter of the international courses. I hope it is going to be possible to make a fairly definite proposition.
Madame Métral, who does the auditing of our accounts, was here yesterday, and began to put in order the accounts of our Summer [page 3] School. They are rather complicated, but I trust will present no real difficulty.
Our nice Bertha Schulthess, who used to live with Mlle. Gobat and who is ↑has been↓ here in the Maison Internationale since last spring, doing the work of six people, is going to America with Miss [McDowell’s] friend, Miss Dummer. She has long been saving up money to go to the United States, and I cannot imagine that short of some extraordinary misfortune she will have any difficulty in succeeding there, in fact, I presume the next news will be that she is marrying and settling down. If so, I hope she will get as good a man as she deserves. She would make a wonderful wife for a nice American man on a farm. She loves gardening, all growing things and animals.
I enclose a copy of a letter that I have given her. I hope you will not feel I have made any undue use of your name.
I have been having a very heavy cold. I stayed in bed for 4 days, and wish now that I had stayed longer, as it has come back upon me and makes it hard for me to finish up this office work and packing. Miss Glücklich is anxious to have me go, as she feels that she can take hold better when the responsibility is completely hers, so that for her sake as well as my own, I shall be glad to start. Helen Cheever is coming over on the “Arabic” arriving at Naples the 31st October, and I hope to be more rested then than I am now, when I join her there.
Affectionately yours always,
Emily G. Balch [signed]
↑Our two vice-presidents agree that if there seems any occasion to do so you should take any take possible steps toward American mediator in the Near East in the name of the League if you will↓
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