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Dear Madame Schwimmer,
Your letter of September eighth reached both Miss Addams and me in time for us to consult together. We were both very much [illegible] moved and very unhappy over the whole situation. Yet we cannot see that it is practicable [illegible] to keep her in the United States and that being so the only thing seems to be to let her go back to her mother and brother, first at any rate, hoping that it may be possible there to get the best possible medical advice and if she is able or as soon as she becomes able to find a place where she will be out of the gossip and, if it may be, [make] use of all her splendid equipment and ability in scientific work. We talked this over with other responsible members of our W.I.L. board at Swarthmore and no one saw any other way out.
Mr. Bigelow has taken things into his own hands as a matter of fact. When I wrote to him saying that Madeleine Doty would be glad to accompany G. W. to Switzerland he replied that he thought that her companionship would be less good than harm and that he had bought and paid for her ↑G. W's↓ transportation through to Berne, not via Geneva, and that she was to sail on October first on the DE GRASSE of the French Line from Pier 57 North River and that he had arranged that she should be placed with suitable people at table and that her Mother knew all her plans.
On Saturday I consulted Dr, [Charles I.] Lambert, Head of the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Clinic in New York as Miss Addams, and I too, felt it only right to have an opinion on various of the points involved ↑before↓ resigning ourselves to this plan. I showed him letters of hers and told him all that I could of the situation. Of course this is not equivalent to a [page 2] personal examination but he seemed to find it sufficient on which to base an opinion and I will reproduce what he said to me as accurately as I can.He diagnoses her condition [as] a "paranoid state," not, I am happy to say, as dementia praecox. He does not think that there is any physical cause such as a tumor making possible a cure by operation or anything of that sort. He connects it with her time of life and is more hopeful on that account than he would be otherwise. He thinks that she may recover. He thinks that it is likely that she will be ill two or three years and that she is likely to be worse before she is better. He thinks she should have good mental treatment from a first class specialist and the sooner the better (As there seems no possibility of our keeping her here for two or three years' care this is an argument for not trying to delay the sailing that Mr. Bigelow had arranged). He recommends Dr Bleuler of Zurich who is the head of the Burghölzli there. Or if she stays in this country Dr. Adolph Meyer of John Hopkins who is at the head of the Phipps Clinic in Baltimore -- himself formerly of Zurich.
He was not opposed to Mr. Bigelow's plan for her journey to Switzerland ↑Berne↓ unaccompanied.
As to her undertaking scientific work (which Dr Allen had felt she ought to keep quite away from for several years) he did not believe that she would find it possible in her present condition to concentrate on it sufficiently but if she could do so and ↑it↓ neutralized her morbid preoccupations it might be useful rather than the contrary.
It is this question of her being able to work that makes one of the great difficulties about her remaining longer in the United States. Hospitable as the Bigelows have been Mrs Bigelow told me that they could not keep her, fond as they are of her, after cold weather came as they had no [page 3] heated room. Also I believe they were thinking of going to Europe themselves for the winter. She has been trying and trying since leaving Dr Allen's to find a position ↑in the U.S.↓ but has always received polite evasive replies in the negative -- so Mr. Bigelow told me.
A further difficulty is our terribly strict immigration laws under which I suppose that she is entitled to remain only if she is fulfilling a professional engagement. I dread the possibility of publicity and enforced deportation by [illegible] an overzealous immigration officer.
Altogether, though with a very heavy heart, I see us forced to let Mr. Bigelow's plan go through. I am sorry that the plan Miss Addams and I had arranged for Madeleine Doty going with her has fallen through. Miss Addams and Mrs. Lovett and I have sent thirty dollars to Mr Bigelow and asked him to give this to the stewardess to buy the utmost of care and kindness that she can give. I have written to G. W's friend Dr. [Frese] (42 Via Nassa, Lugano) begging her to arrange to have G. W. met at Havre on arrival and accompanied to Berne, offering to pay, on behalf of her friends here, if necessary, for the expenses to Havre and back. This letter I have sent not direct but to Mr Bigelow, for him to forward if he will. I suppose that he will let me know whether he has sent it. I did not feel that I could send it independently without running a risk of making confusion in case he had made other arrangements. I shall hold myself in readiness to go to New York to see G. W. off if that seems best.
Throughout, ever since I got home in the middle of July I have been much preoccupied with this, doing all that I could see my way to do and in constant touch with Mrs. Hull, Mrs. Lewis, and Miss Addams. I have also reported previously to Madame Duchêne and Vilma Glücklich and I propose to send copies of this letter to Miss Honegger (to share with Madame Ragaz) Mlle Gobat, Dr. [Frese] and Miss Addams.
I hope that [page 4] Madame Wiechowski of Prague, who was at our meeting at Innsbruck where we were all so distressed at G. W.'s account of the persecutions that she was undergoing in America said then that her husband was always ready to give her a position in the University of Prague where he is. It would be splendid if this could be arranged.
I hope that you by writing at once [will] be able to help toward securing the best possible solution of the problem of Gertrud Woker's future in Europe for it is there that it inevitably has to be solved and if she can go soon to friends in Vienna or Prague I [shall] feel immeasurably relieved. Failing that perhaps treatment in Zurich is the best thing to be hoped for.
Please let me hear from you and believe me most sincerely yours Emily G. Balch.
Emily G Balch [signed]
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