An unexpected and spirited discussion arose yesterday at the luncheon of the Pennsylvania branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, held in the Germantown Women's clubhouse, at which Jane Addams, international president of the League, spoke to the local members.
Mrs. William Gold, a member of the Civic Club and the Germantown Women's Club, declared that "treasonable propaganda" was being spread in the public schools of this country and Haiti by the Women's League.
In the historical conference at the Bellevue-Stratford last week the closing number on the program was a demonstration by the girls of the South Philadelphia High School under the leadership of Dr. Lucy Wilson, of the so-called "Dalton method" of education. Under this method the students are told certain facts and are allowed to draw their own conclusions. According to Mrs. Gold, the pupils in the demonstration last week were told that the present treatment of Haiti by the United States was comparable to the treatment of the Colonies by England in 1776.
Mrs. Gold, who was present at the conference, declared yesterday that "such dogmatic assertions to the school children of the country may be called 'individualistic education,' but I call it 'treason.'"
In addition, she charged that Haitian children are being taught a bill of "twenty-one outrages, perpetrated by the United States Government upon the people of Haiti."
Mrs. Mildred Scott [Olmsted], executive secretary of the Board of Directors of the Women's International League, replied to the charges brought against the organization by stating that the Historical Conference, to which Mrs. Gold referred, was under the auspices of a large number of associations, of which the W.I.L. was but one, and that the W.I.L. had no more voice in the subjects to be discussed at the conference than any other organization concerned.
"The speakers came to the conference with the distinct understanding that they be allowed to say what they chose. It is inconceivable that such men as Dr. Beury, of Temple University, and Dr. Fenwick of Bryn Mawr, both of whom spoke at the conference, would allow that their remarks should be dictated to them," said Mrs. [Olmsted].
The meeting began with a scarcely concealed feeling of tension, due to the circumstances which occurred previous to the luncheon.
Authorities of the League leased the hall from the Germantown Women's Club, with the understanding, it was said, that nothing of a questionable nature would be said by either of the speakers, Miss Emily G. Balch and Jane Addams, the international president of the League.
After the hall was leased, invitations to the luncheon were issued which contained the following: "It has been stated by an English writer that the treatment of Haiti by the United States is comparable to the treatment of the Armenians by the Turks."
That quotation raised a doubt in the minds of the Women's Club officers regarding the probable nature of the meeting, an official declared, and the contract was nearly canceled by the club at the eleventh hour.
The quotation, however, remained on the invitations, and yesterday provoked a question from Mrs. Gold, who asked why it was quoted if the League did not agree with the text.
"The quotation does not in any way suggest," replied Miss Balch, a former vice president of the League, "that it is believed by the League; indeed, such an idea is ridiculous."
Miss Balch told of conditions as she observed them in Haiti, and said she believed that the United States has weakened Haiti by the protective policy assumed there.
Jane Addams gave a short summary of the history of the organization since its beginning in 1915, and followed it with an appeal to "restore the world to a saner and more reasonable point of view."
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