My dear Miss Addams
I have given a week and more to the Biennial Meeting of the National Council of Women of the U.S.A. at Detroit. I have used my influence backed by Dr [Thelburg] and Prof Whitney of Vassar and others devoted to what the Council was formed to do, to take the Council out of the hands that have so long ruled and to [frustrate] the band of super-"patriotic" societies that had determined to place in the President's office a Woman's Relief Corps woman who sees red every time peace is mentioned and was the moving element in the expulsion of the W.I.L.P.F.
I wrote Mrs Moore after the occurrence with our League that "the action taken showed that the soul of the Council was dead and that it could not have even an honorable funeral."
I then thought I should never attend another meeting after the Quinquennial at Washington when Mrs Post and I sat as Fraternal delegates to the International body of the Council ↑a delegate for W.I.L.P.F.↓
During my trip abroad, this past summer, however I saw what confusion would result in European circles of organized womanhood if our Council should become just a union of the ten or more patriotic societies which were trying to take possession of it; and the election of a chosen candidate for Pres. would be a signal for the League of Women Voters, the Federation of Women's Clubs the University Women and many others to retire from the Council in this country.
I also saw in Geneva a confusion of thought in high places as to what the women of America thought and would support in the Commissions of the League of nations connected with the interests of women and children, and which confusion could only be resolved by some united action which the Council alone, if properly equipped and officered, could render.
I therefore decided to send out the [enclosed] message, I cannot take time to tell you the complications, far more than I had imagined in advance, which met me at Detroit. I had hesitated to go by Dr Telberg and I alone of all the we women who met at the formation of the International and National Councils in 1888 survive in active influence in the Council and Prof Whitney assured me nothing vital could be done without my presence. I went out therefore and for the first and I hope the last time in my life acted as "campaign manager" in a struggle for office.
Dr. Katherine Bement Davis was our first choice for President [although] personally (had she had financial ability to undertake it) I wanted Mrs Glen Laven Swiggit of Washington from her Pan-American service, as my first choice.
At the last minute we received the absolute refusal of Dr. Davis in whom all the progressives had such confidence to allow her name to be used in nomination.
Dr. Valeria Parker was on the spot and my influence with the American Social Hygiene Assn of which she is a salaried staff officer seemed to make it safe to use her name for President and she made a fine place in the hearts and min minds of the delegate at once.
Knowing her entire loyalty to the highest patriotism and the broadest internationalism and the fact that she has already made for herself a place in Europe with such leaders as Lady Astor and the leaders ↑officers↓ of the International [page 2] Council of Women and is persona [grata] with the Federation of Women's Clubs and other big organizations now in the National Council, I felt it right to make her President and we did it.
In time she will institute proceedings (I whisper in your ear alone) to invite the U.S.A Section of the W.I.L.P.F back into the fold. She is a real peace woman.
The "patriotic" women who are a mediocre set of groups in the Council got scared by the "spider-web" business and the Lund woman, and so sent full delegations of their several societies to the Detroit meeting while the big societies had small delegations not recognizing any special need and having spent themselves on the Washington Quinquennial of the International.
[Moreover], there was a timid concurrence by Mrs Moore in the attitude of these "patriotics" so, that without any conference with the big societies in the Council she had a program filled up with military speakers defending "[Defense] Day" and had us all sing the Star Spangled banner and break down on the high note, and all "salute the flag" and almost stand on our heads to show we were not traitors to the government and the Army and Navy. The Lund woman appeared in the Detroit papers at full length with a full list of proposed [offers] but as she did not represent any society in membership she could be ignored by the Council. She had Mrs Finley [Shepard] (Helen Gould) in her proposed list and all N.Y people know that Mrs [Shepard] was so afraid the Germans were going to invade the U.S. that she looked under the bed every night expecting to be attacked by a German with his bludgeon.
Well, the Lund creature did not get in to an official ring but did attend all meetings open in any way to the public, and did have the newspapers, from lack of any decent publicity from the side of the Council.
The subtle damage done by the whole "spider-web" business has been in making Mrs Moore and the Patriotic Societies in the Council (not all of them but some) feel that they must have all the military people they can get to speak at the Biennials and fall over backward to show they are "loyal".
There is a real movement to revive and to purify the Council and make it again what it should be, a leader in the International movements of women.
I have no business to undertake another hard job. I want to write and once in a while take a long breath of leisure.
But I found in Europe such a condition of confusion and bewilderment about American women and their attitude to some great international movements that, knowing as I do from 37 years of close contact with the Council, that only through our official relation to that body abroad do we, or can we now, have official standing in such many-sided international movements as now head up at Geneva, I felt I must once more take a hand in the revival.
You will see by the separate sheet what resolutions were finally passed.
Dr. Parker and I have worked on a scheme for really able Committee Chairmen and we hope to get it over.
Nobody expected me to be on hand at Detroit with a real plan.
I purposely tried to scare them ↑with a threat of a "funeral"↓ and then had my scheme ready for a resurrection of the old Council spirit and work.
Now I [must] give up some paid lectures and much other work, and help all ↑the↓ new Board through this crisis. [page 3]
"My sitting silent through the passage of the [Resolution] favoring Defense Day and saying nothing against any proposition of the military guests was not understood, especially by the delegate from the League of Women Voters. But I tried to show th her that if I had said a [word] to precipitate a struggle along those lines I could not have led toward the real revival of the real "Council idea" and its embodiment in new hands of leadership."
You can trust Valeria Parker. She is true blue. I am able to meet and help her at every point. Dr Katherine Davis will help valiantly, and I think with paid service of [clerk] etc in time.
We may not make it as we hope. It is a fighting chance only. But I don't want to lose the one way of getting in real official line with the women of Europe in the many ways of international service now open and we should do so, in so far as a united front of varied interests is concerned, if we allowed the Council to die or be submerged by a narrow nationalism.
I write this to show you why for the next two years I shall work for the international spirit and international method in and through the Council of the U.S.A and in no other way ↑to any great extent.↓
I am convinced that if we can purify and strengthen this old organization which is nearer the League of Nations Commissions through its European Councils than any [other] organization of women in our country can be, it will [be a] better work for world peace than can be done in any other way.
I was prepared to see the Council die. But I would not stand by and see it poisoned to death by war [hysteria] and outside [malevolence].
So the prayers of the congregation are requested "for [all] about to enter a perilous pathway to help the younger women save the day for the real unity of moral forces among women.
I hope to see you dear friend, when you're in N.Y I have to go to my invalid sister in R.I. and shall not be back until [Armistice] Day and may not be at the meeting to hear you. But I must see you if possible when you come and shall hope to have you take luncheon with me at the Woman's City Club some day.
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