July 22, 1915.
Dear Miss Addams: --
I was, of course, very sorry not have had the opportunity of seeing you before you returned to Chicago. It is more satisfactory to talk about a plan than to write about it, especially when it is one that needs constructive help like the one I have in mind. To give you a clearer idea of my friends and my own frame of mind, I ask you kindly to read the enclosed copy of a letter which I wrote yesterday to a man prominently identified with the English cause in this country. I also enclose his own letter and copy of our original letter to him.
While it is of the utmost importance, as I see it, to have some council of neutrals such as contemplated by you, it seems to be of equal importance to do everything possible to overcome that terrible feeling of hatred now at large in Europe. There are a good many high-minded intelligent and well informed people in this country who sympathize in a more than merely platonic way with the respective country of their birth or their descent. Unfortunately even among these men animosities like those prevailing in Europe have been and still are frequent.
Yet I feel sufficiently optimistic about human nature to believe that quite a number of representative men could be gathered together -- just as you managed to gather together many representative women at The Hague -- not, to meet on the strength of their sympathies but on the strength of some intellectual basis to be outlined. They might meet at Washington or at any other city to be agreed upon. Should these men of the most divergent sympathies succeed in reaching some sort of a conclusion in proceedings arising from such an intellectual basis, do you not think that the reaction on leaders of thoughts in the warring countries would be a desirable one? Do you not think that such a meeting would have in this country the result of promoting that spirit of neutrality which every fair-minded American has been desirous of maintaining, but which has under the stress of great emotions, so frequently been disregarded, practically on all sides?
In trying to find such an intellectual basis it has occurred to me -- and this is merely a preliminary suggestion -- that the countries of Europe in the past centuries and possibly more so in the past 50 years have all profited from <by> each other by <through the> exchange of thought and work to such an extent that it would, for [page 2] instance, not be difficult for a German to mention the many things he had to be thankful for to the French, to the English, to the Italians, etc., nor would it be difficult for a representative of one <any> of the countries of the allies to reciprocate. I have personally no doubt that men competent to speak about such interchange of influences could readily be found in this country and that at a meeting, such as I have in mind someone for every <each> warring nation <could bring out> such a gracious [acknowledgment] of indebtedness. It could then be emphasized how important it would be in the interest of humanity to have this interchange of thought and work fully preserved in the future and resolutions to that effect could be adopted and spread widely.
My dear Miss Addams, we, as the German University League, should love to be the ones taking the first step in the direction of such a meeting. But I cannot deceive myself about the fact that so much prejudice has been created in this country against things German that a good idea might easily be handicapped by being apparently sponsored by those who sympathize with Germany. It will therefore be necessary, I believe, to have say yourself and Mr. Taft and some other people who have like you two managed to keep out of the strife of over zealous sympathizers, undertake the calling of such a meeting. Early in September would seem to be the proper time. It therefore is necessary to move rather quickly.
If anything in this letter appeals to you, use it, as you see fit. If I or any member of our League -- and we have over 600 -- can be of any assistance, command us. A good many detailed suggestions may easily be brought forward, if the idea as a whole seems desirable.
Thanking you for troubling about this, I remain
Sincerely yours,
Exec. Sec'y.
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