14 copies
December 17-1918
My dear Mrs Miller,
As Chairman of the Philadelphia Branch of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, I was surprised with to receive a letter over the signature of the Vice President of the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association based upon two entirely erroneous premises:
First, that Miss Jane Addams has ↑already↓ called an International Peace Conference "to meet at The Hague in Amsterdam in February and has applied to Secretary Lansing for passports for delegates." Second, that at the last International meeting of this organization "the German ↑Council of↓ women were about to protest against [page 2] the cruelty and desecration in Belgium, and they made a formal refusal stating that they were German women and in sympathy with their men."
In regard to the first point, no decision has ↑yet↓ been made when or where to hold our [International] Conference ↑of the organization of which Miss Addams is President.↓ No call has been issued and no applications for passports have been made. This is authentic as according to the last meeting when such a conference is to be called I would have full information.
In regard to the second [page 3] point ↑since the letter came [from?] [illegible]↓ I have consulted reports, and have interviewed one of the women who attended the Conference at The Hague in 1915 to which reference was made. ↓referred to in the letter. ↑There was↓ No such request of the German women was made. The present war was not discussed in any way, and there ↑could not have been such a↓ statement could not have been made even in private, for the German women in attendance there were absolute pacifists and did not approve of Germany's entrance into the war at all. When the Belgian women arrived at the conference [page 4] twenty-four hours late, the German women came forward and shook hands with them.
I feel it my duty to present to you these facts with the hope that you will stop as soon as possible the untrue statements made under the name of the State Suffrage Association. They seem to be based upon some newspaper reports which, as you will know, are not reliable sources of information. I know that you would deprecate as much as I an action which places [page 5] the Suffrage Association in the position of dealing with matters without first-hand information ↑investigations↓. I know this has always been your policy. It is If the Germans barely possible of course that ↑some↓ German women of some other organization were asked by some other organization of French women to make the protest referred to. It might have been the "Council of Women" ↑(the term used in the [Penn?] State Suffrage Association [illegible)↓ which is not the organization of which Miss Addams is president. [illegible] I do not know
The whole letter from [page 6] the Suffrage Association is so confused as ↑in regard↓ to names ↑of organizations↓ that it is difficult to gather judge. I am only speaking for the organization of which Miss Addams is President and the meeting called ↑attended↓ by her in April ↑of↓ 1915 at The Hague under the [International] Committee of Women for Permanent Peace.
I should be glad at any time to do for you what I can in this or any other matter. [page 7]
With cordial greetings, I am
Most sincerely yours. [page 8]
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