WHAT JANE ADDAMS REALLY DID
To the Editor of the Herald:
Will you give to me, chairman of the Massachusetts branch of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, space to correct some of the false statements made by Miss [Hermine] Schwed and Mrs. John [Laidlaw] Buel at the meeting of the D.A.R. on March 18, in Boston.
If these two women attended the international congress held in Washington last May they know perfectly well that the hisses at an evening meeting were not for our flag, but were for a certain Mrs. Potts, who very rudely and without right interrupted Miss Addams in a public meeting by asking certain questions entirely irrelevant to the subject. Miss Addams answered her perfectly quietly and courteously that she would be glad to make an appointment to meet her at any time and discuss her questions with her, and then went on with the meeting. As to a salute to the flag on such an occasion, international in its attendance, with women of many of the countries of the world, it would be like a suggestion that before each session of the League of Nations the flag of France be saluted, or any other single flag. Jane Addams is international president!?
As to the statement that it was only possible to get literature if one spoke German, it is too absurd; true, we have German delegates, as we had those from Holland, Switzerland, France, England, Turkey, Japan, the Philippines and too many other countries to enumerate here, and Frau [Heymann], a German, did assist in the national office before the congress, but the national secretary was quite eligible to a membership in the D.A.R., as I am sure were many of the other workers in the office.
Mrs. Potts on another occasion at the congress interrupted Senator Borah when he made the statement that the organizers of the congress were much more truly following the constitution than those persons who were making it difficult at the meetings in trying to suppress free speech and the right of assemblage.
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom if organized in the belief that peace on earth good will to men can only come through intimate intercourse and friendly relations between the peoples of the world, and a thorough understanding each of the other’s problems.
As to the statement in regard to Ford hall speakers, I think Mr. George W. Coleman can answer it as can others of the sponsors of the forum movement in Boston.
Signed (Martha Helen Elliott)
4 Chestnut St. Boston. March 15
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