Hull-House, Chicago.
My dear Miss Surles:
You know at the Washington Conference we all agreed that instead of raising extra sums as gifts that we would try to support the International office at Geneva by securing a large number of international members. The dues from the U.S.A. members were all to go toward the $500 a month which the Section for the U.S.A. pledged to send each month to Geneva. We said we would make a great effort to secure 1200 members which would mean $500 per month or $6000 a year, the amount of the pledge. I made myself responsible for the balance above the dues and whatever happened, promised to send to Geneva a check for $500 each month.
When the money is sent directly to Geneva by an American Branch, it means that I duplicate the amount in my next check and this wrong in two ways; (1) it throws a burden on me to raise an amount which the U.S.A. membership has already sent and (2) the Geneva office receives more from the U.S.A. than we pledged in the carefully prepared budget. I thought that everyone at the Washington Congress understood but apparently you did not, Miss Glücklich did not and neither did Mrs. [Meyers], the treasurer of the Chicago Branch, perhaps there are others. Miss Glücklich ought not to be bothered with the individual dues for the U.S.A. She should receive the monthly check of $500 from me and the cards from you indicating to whom the literature should be sent from the Geneva office.
It is not [so much] a matter of bookkeeping, [although] I should be glad to have indicated on the annual account as you suggest how much the U.S.A. membership had sent to Geneva.
I am enclosing my account of the international money received and spent up to date. As you see I did not claim credit for any of Mrs. [Meyers'] money in 1924 but I [page 2] did deduct in 1925 what Mrs. Mayer had sent. It was Miss Glücklich herself who wrote me that she received $145 in one month from Chicago which was my first intimation that the plan adopted at the Washington Congress was not working.
It always takes a long time to work out a new international scheme but this one was so simple that I thought it was going well, as nearly as I can make out, the other national Sections are keeping to it and I am sure that we will get at it in time.
If you will send me the names and addresses of all the presidents and treasurers of the U.S.A. Branches I will write and sign a letter to each one explaining the plan which I am sure is the very best one we can adopt, and will you please write me in the meantime how much money had been sent by U.S.A. members since the Washington Congress? It will afford some sort of a basis for next year’s expectations.
I am sorry to have bothered Miss Glücklich, but I wrote her at the same time that I wrote you and of course, she is most anxious of anyone to have the matter quite clear. She should not be bothered with any account from the U.S.A. save the one check of $500 a month. Of course, it is our ↑my↓ fault not to have made it perfectly clear to our own Branches. ↑I am sure we are on the right road now!↓
↑P. S. I am sending a copy of this to Miss Glücklich. Your accounts are always so clear that it is a great pleasure to work with you.↓
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