Dear Jane Addams, --
Since writing the attached letter I have hesitated whether to send it but perhaps it is just as well you should know how discouraging a letter like Mrs. Ramondt-Hirschmann is and what need there is for you to stand by me in my endeavors if I am to have the courage to go on.
Mrs Ramondt's letter in effect said, "it is very nice of you to be trying so hard to do for the League but remember that efforts do not always succeed. Perhaps it is better to let things be as they have always been and as it is so difficult to raise money and if you raise any it will only make it harder than ever for the rest of us, so what ever you raise had better go towards the Dublin Congress."
Frankly I could not go on here another day if you were not willing to let me carry my present budget. As I ↑have↓ told you if you continue sending me the 2,500 Swiss francs with what I have raised, I can now meet all my expenses, including the increased stenographic work and postage but to do with less means sitting up ↑all↓ night working and then not having enough for postage and extra expenses that crop up. That is too discouraging. I cannot out of my present budget hand over money for the Congress of but that does not mean that I do not think I can raise money for the purpose. I can. Mrs. Ramondt is wrong that raising money prevents getting more money. "The more you have the more you get." That is a well known business principle. Gradually I am getting a lot of new people interested. This is a wholly new source to tap. I should like to point out to Mrs. Ramondt that her Dutch Section hasn't sent us a penny and that until today we haven't had one letter from them in spite of all the letters we have sent. Please tell Mrs. Ramondt that if she will get busy with the U.S. National Section and help them raise $2,000, I will undertake to raise another thousand over here and with $3,000 we can pull off I believe a first class ↑Congress↓. I do not think you personally should be responsible for a penny beyond what you are sending every month. All the money I have raised has been done over here so America is free and clear of demands from me.
Right after the Paris meeting I will make out a detailed [page 2] budget of just what the Congress will cost. The summer school I think can be self sustaining. It was at Thonon and I see no reason why we should not succeed equally well ↑here↓.
I am sure you appreciate the difficulty of the position here. One is continually torn by conflicting points of view and demands and it requires much sanity to be impartial and fair to all and remain serene and [unruffled]. Part of the difficulty it seems to me comes from a lack of a common constructive ↑program↓ much more concrete and definite that the word peace. I am beginning to feel the English have hit on the right word to bind us together and carry us forward to action, namely ↑"arbitrate"↓ You see it applies to every thing. Conflicts between nations, conflicts between majorities and minorities, conflicts between employer and employee, always we can come forward with the same demand "arbitrate." If all over the world our women got taking up that cry whenever any difficulty ↑arose↓ "arbitrate" with the same [insistence] and fervor as men have cried "war." We could make a deep impression. I shall try to write an editorial on this for the next "Pax."
Comments