Dear Friends: --
Two of us, Emily Balch and Jane Addams, are spending several days together getting ready the accounts and some other material to be sent to Mrs. Post at Washington for printing in the Congress Report. We are writing this letter both to Miss [Glücklich] and to Mde. Ramondt, and are having sent to both of you from Washington a copy of the accounts that we have been preparing for the Proceedings, except the purely American accounts of the Congress and Summer School, which will be completed later. We made an explanatory statement to accompany the publication of the accounts ↑saying↓ that we had combined two of the available accounts, one from Geneva in Swiss francs, and one from Holland in Dutch florins in order to make them simpler in form. We signed our names to this statement with the information that the original copies were on file at the Geneva office for comparison and reference. We hope that both you and the Executive Committee will find them quite clear.
Working over these accounts has made us realize how much need there is to systematize our arrangements. We should be very grateful to have your advice in the matter, and also to have our suggestions presented to the next meeting of the Board.
It seems rather unreasonable to go to the double expense of exchanges, to send money that is now in the U.S.A. to Holland and thence to Switzerland to be spent there. If this strikes you in the same way, we therefore advise keeping the money in the Chicago bank, where it is now, and where it draws interest, and [page 2] transmitting the necessary amounts to Geneva ↑from Chicago↓ month by month, closing out the Amsterdam deposit altogether when the final payment of the money now there has been sent to Geneva.
The present arrangement of keeping the accounts has been difficult. Miss [Glücklich] has really only the data of Geneva receipts and disbursements and not those of the funds banked elsewhere either in the U.S.A., where it is constantly changing as new Associate Membership fees come in, or that in the Holland bank. This has made difficulties for her and for the expert accountant in Switzerland. It would be simpler if she kept account only of the Geneva items -- incoming and outgoing -- and [someone] else should present the account of the whole as we (Balch and Addams) have been forced to do this time for the Report. The arrangements last year were unsatisfactory because of lack of understanding of just what was done in December, 1922 and just what was intended by the title of "Financial Secretary." The mutual responsibilities were not made clear and the situation was complicated by the fact that Miss [Glücklich] happened to be out of the Committee Room when the action of the Executive Board was taken.
We both think that it would be best is Miss [Glücklich] sent a half yearly audited report of the Geneva expenses to Mde. Ramondt (and also to the International President, if she will be so kind in order to keep her in touch with the situation) Mde. Ramondt to accept these Geneva accounts as an audited item and incorporate them in her own report for ↑of↓ the situation as a whole to be presented to the Executive Board at its Annual Meetings.
The U.S.A. would promise to send a definite sum each month to the Geneva office for the fixed expenses and would keep for that purpose in the Chicago bank the sum now in hand plus the fees collected [page 3] from the Associate Members living in the U.S.A. plus any other gifts for the International received in the U.S.A. On the other hand [they] would be kept in the Geneva bank fees from the Associate Members living in all other countries, dues from all the National Sections and all other gifts. From this fund would be paid any extra things like the expenses involved in the meetings of the Executive Board, peace missions, Summer School funds and such other matters as would from time to time be voted by the Executive Board. It seems like a division between the two continents but it really is not, and only carries on more methodically what has always been done save that at this moment the U.S.A. Section is not able to deposit the same sum in Europe which it did after other Congresses because we have exhausted our resources carrying on the Washington Congress and the Chicago Summer School.
In the financial statement made by the Financial Secretary to the Executive Committee you ↑she↓ could carry ↑report,↓ as of August 1st, in the Chicago bank, $5,000.00. We will send you a bank statement of it and it should be entered into the account "as Associate Membership fees and gifts from the U.S.A. Section deposited in the First National Bank of Chicago." While this sum is carried in the resources of the W.I.L.P.F. it is to be available only in monthly payments transmitted from Chicago to Geneva. We will send you ↑a↓ semi-annual statement of this account and each time we send the monthly check to Geneva we will also send a duplicate statement of the amount to the Financial Secretary so that there may be no confusion between the two accounts.
We are enclosing herewith a copy of the budget for two years which Emily Balch has just made out from the data which the budget committee considered in Washington last May. According to this [page 4] the League will require at least 34,000 Swiss francs a year. If the U.S.A. sends 2500 Swiss francs each month this will take care of 30,000. It leaves 4000 francs for ↑[illegible words]↓ the Geneva office plus the ↑any↓ extra expenses, to be paid for by all the other National Sections. To meet this amount there are available the following items:
Contributions, sales and gifts at Geneva, estimated 1000 fr.
Contributions of all other ↑[illegible]↓ Sections, estimated 1000 fr.
Associate Membership fees outside U.S.A. no estimate
Return from Maison Internationale estimated 800 fr.
The estimates of the sums were taken from previous years.
If you agree to these plans, will the Financial Secretary continue to send to Geneva the monthly 2500 ↑Swiss francs↓ until the Holland account is exhausted and then let us know when we will begin to send from the United States.
The $5,000 is deposited in the Savings Department of the First National Bank of Chicago in the home of the Woman's International League for Peace and Freedom per Jane Addams, Pres. and is to be withdrawn on the signature of Jane Addams or Emily Balch the two members of the Executive Committee from the U.S.A.
When the regular congresses are held we will try of course to bring special funds but for the expenses between congresses we hope to depend more and more upon the fees of Associate Members as we tried to make the start ↑to do↓ at the meeting in the Washington Congress when we talked [finances].
This is a fearfully long letter but we were very anxious indeed to make clear our plan which we very much hope will meet with your approval. With affectionate greetings to you both, we are,
Devotedly yours,
Jane Addams [signed]
Emily G Balch [signed]
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