WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM
November 11, 1920.
Dear Miss Addams,
After all a long letter from you (date Oct. 26) has come before I have posted a long contemplated letter to you which I began long ago and have never found time to finish.
We are excessively busy just now with preparations for lobbying on behalf of our [program] in connection with the Assembly of the League of Nations. I think you would be interested to see how great an opportunity is opening before us. Miss Catherine Marshall who is a wizard for this sort of work is with me.
I am delighted that you have had this contact with Frau Hertzka and that she made a good impression in Chicago. Most of all I am happier than I can say that you are coming over next summer. You say that Frau Hertzka seems quite clear that the Congress should be in Vienna. I had not yet had an answer from her on this point and ↑[had]↓ thought it might be better to have the Congress as well as the Summer School in Salzburg. Our English friends write that they may extend the Summer School to a three weeks session. I think in this case we should ↑however↓ make no change in dates of beginning, (namely Congress last week of July, Summer School first two (or three) weeks of August). How good that Miss Smith, and as I hope Dr. Hamilton, will be coming and that we shall have the three Hull House workers now in Vienna. With regard to our relations to Dr. Arnesen and her plan the thing is working out without friction through the sad solution that she herself is completely exhausted and in a hospital, (a fact which we are asked not to make known) and that she agrees that her educational congress cannot be undertaken before the following year, 1922. So there is no conflict of dates. Mr. Gould, Hon. Sec. of International Moral Education Society, Amorel, Woodfield Ave Ealing, London W. 5. is talking of an educational congress in Geneva in 1921 and I have written him to try not to conflict with our dates. The Adult Education Association is talking of an international congress along their lines for 1923.
You ask about the House. It is working out unexpectedly [page 2] well. When Mrs. Swanwick was in [favor] of the experiment last June I was fearful of the financial and other complications, but now see that I did not half realize the advantages and I cannot be too thankful that we have been able to make our move. Miss Thornton, the most unselfish person in the world, is an excellent housekeeper, pays for a room, furnishes it herself and gives all her time as very effective head of the house. We have had furniture given now for all the rooms except the two which the landlord reserved for himself for some months, (perhaps for a year) and we have had small gifts of money for incidental expenses. [Moreover] of the 1200 francs which we paid for old furniture in the house (which substantially provided for our 4 offices and a bed room) 1000 [francs] have been given by Helen Cheever. On the other hand the expenses of service, care of furnace and cleaning etc. are more than I foresaw. ↑[I know] I [illegible]↓ The income from rental will be less on our present plan of letting rooms ↑than it might have been by the plan I first had in mind↓. My original idea had been to let rooms for people staying on permanently, but it seems [well] worth while to keep them for people coming and going which of course means a much less steady income. My iridescent dream of the house being any considerable source of income I think will not be realized. We pay a less rent than we did for our offices before, but heating, service etc. make it a much more expensive proposition and I do not believe that the income from rooms [will] wipe out the difference. On the other hand the house gives us a quite different standing in Geneva, as I find to my surprise, and brings us many friends.
We have now in hand frs. ↑793.↓ toward our Balkan trip and I will write you more about that later. Miss Cheever gives $200. -- toward our "Congress and Progress" fund of frs. 100,000. -- and wants this to count as part of the American contribution. The only people who have made any positive reply to my financial appeal are Mrs. Larsen of Norway and Madame Duchêne of Paris, both of whom think that their respective sections can make the rather modest contribution which we ask of them.
We are of course most happy to send you the things for which you ask: 50 pictures of the Maison Internationale and 25 ↑Zurich↓ reports, sent to you at Hull House. The total amount of this will be frs. 130.--. The easiest way to pay for it would be to send a [check] to our account to the National Park Bank of New York.
Thank you for the papers in regard to the Athens ladies with whom we are also in correspondence. Is it not nice to have them [organizing]?
I am very glad to have a copy of the letter that you are sending to international members and reciprocate by sending you herewith a copy of the letter which we also send to each new member. We try to be very [punctual] about sending the Zürich reports to each one. As to the question of whether the fee should cover 1 year or two we have no desire to press the matter. I hate to do what might seem ungracious about it. As I wrote [page 3] to Mrs. Cothren I did not think ↑see↓ how we could formally extend the payment to cover 2 years when the rules were laid down by international vote and the Executive Committee had expressly the refused to sanction that plan. In any case we could hardly make different arrangements for members in different countries. At the same time I am perfectly willing to delay sending out reminders to American members till after the Vienna Congress if you desire that arrangement. Unless I hear from you to that effect I should like to send out a reminder not long after the expiration of the first year. Many of the American members only date from July 1st, 1920.
In regard to the statement of the objects I think the ground is sufficiently covered in recent letters from me. For As you see we ↑have↓ simply omitted the "objects" from our letter paper. I have not yet written to our Executive Committee in regard to the American protest, but I will do so.
With regard to the Mexican situation I never answered Mrs. Gale's letter being afraid of doing more [harm] than good if I did so. I hope that Miss Nichols' Committee may get something started on the right lines. The Mexican problem may loom as the most important task of our American members if the Republicans should do all the things that we hope that they will not do. That and Japan seem the two special clouds on our horizon. I enclose a copy of a communication from the Australian Peace Alliance, of which our Australian Section makes part as I understand the arrangement. Miss Marshall and I are going to see what we can do here to further the plan for a meeting as suggested in the paragraph marked in red. -- Dr. Nitobe and his wife are most cordial. She is a Quaker and she is a member of the British Section. ↑She was an Elkinton.↓ So also There is a very nice Mr. Yen, a Chinese Secretary of the League of Nations Secretariat ↑here also↓.
I am very glad that you are on the Irish Commission started by the Nation. I trust that you have before this received a letter from me on the subject enclosing Miss Bennett's request. It is a shocking situation. I enclose a copy of a very interesting statement of Miss Bennett on passive resistance under such conditions. I was interested in what she said about the Catholic Church.
This is quite as long a letter as you will want to read and I do not need to take much ↑time↓ to tell you with what affection and gratitude, I am,
Always yours,
Emily G Balch [signed]
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