Dear Jane Addams,
I have your letter of December 23rd, and I am very glad you like the first "Pax International."
Let me thank you for the delightful Christmas cards of Hull House. Some day I want a large photograph of Hull House and a new picture of you which I can have framed here and hung on the walls.
Confidentially, I want to tell you what the situation was when I arrived and how necessary it is that we should expand a little if we are to live. The truth is I found the life in the International Office just existing and that is all. Vilma Glücklich was completely discouraged. The National Sections were, many of them, at [loggerheads]. The German Section felt the English Section was hopelessly reactionary and stodgy. The English Section felt the French and German Section were wildly radical and quite impossible. The French Section seemed to be content with its own existence, and was paying no attention to anybody else. The smaller groups were not answering and the work was just existing and that is all. Now I remember that you said you woke up in the night and wondered whether it was worth keeping on, and I do not think that as it stood then it would be worth keeping on, and I think Vilma Glücklich had come to feel that. Yet that does not mean that there is any reason why the situation should be so bad. It really only needed a little warmth, a little chance to expand, the possibility of seeing one another and coming to understand each other, to make things blossom again. But, to bring this change about meant there must be an increase [page 2] in resources and finances: for instance, the three weeks our two German friends spent here were extremely profitable, not only because they translated "Pax" into German, but because of the understanding they got of the situation. If I am not mistaken, they have gone home with a much more tolerant attitude, a deeper understanding of the difficulties of working internationally, and how very much people can differ in their methods, even if they have the same ideal. In other words, our German friends will now be more understanding of their English sisters. On the other hand, my trip to England gave the English Section, I hope, quite a new understanding and appreciation of the German and the French groups and their struggles. By classing myself with the English, as an Anglo-Saxon, I could make them see that our chief difficulties were matters of temperament rather than principle.
As to the French Section, I am still struggling away with them and their exclusiveness. Little by little I am persuading them that the "Pax International," for instance, is not a paper designed wholly for France, but must represent all countries, and that if the French Section is only interested in France and not in what the other Sections are doing, then the French group is not really international. They did not distribute the first two numbers of the "Pax" in France on the ground that Mademoiselle Gobat's French is Swiss-French and not real French, and also on the further ground that the French people would not be interested in the news about the other parts of the world. I have now gotten through Mme. Duchêne a French woman to do the French translation of the "Pax," and they have agreed to send out 500 copies of the January issue to the French people.
Now you will see from all this that what is really needed here after all is a mother, who ↑can encourage and↓ getting together of the different sections as much as possible. If it is too expensive ↑for the International secretary↓ to travel, then the InterNational Secretaries ought to come here and be associated one with the other. We need to keep up a continuous stream of correspondence with each Section, making each one feel that their group is of special importance and we cannot get on without them. But this kind of work takes both time, strength and money. For instance, I am planning this month, if possible, to get Dorothy Woodman, the Secretary of the English Section here at the same time that I have Gertrud Baer.
Dorothy Woodman is a splendid young woman, only about twenty-six, but very capable, with the English thoroughness and self-control, and yet possessing a strong and unflinching stand on peace. She is quite ahead of the English Section in her peace stand, for, to tell the truth, the majority of the English Executive Board go only as far in [page 3] their ideals as the League of Nations. Now I found that Dorothy Woodman was quite discouraged about this and ready to give up her work. I told her she must not, that she was just the one that was needed where she was, and decided the thing to do was to have her meet some of the members of other Sections, so she would get a bigger angle on her work.
You see what I am trying to do is to bring in as many people as possible and to build up the work, not on myself, but on other people, so that when I leave you will have a lot of W.I.L. members, undertaking all kinds of things and will have no difficulty in finding a new Secretary.
In fact, the thing to do is to train our young people like Dorothy Woodman, for we shall surely end in disaster if we depend only on those whom we have always had with us and who are now getting tired and a little worn out.
And the youth are ready to come. If we do not take them in, they will organize groups of their own and we might much better have them with us.
But again, I see if I am to write to all the sections every week and keep different members of the different groups coming here, it will require resources and money. But I am not worrying about this. Already the money is coming in and the interest increases every day. I came back from England with not £50., but £84., and the German section are delighted with the German "Pax" and we are getting orders from them daily. In fact, from all sides, material, letters, expressions of interest are coming in. But you see I am making others work and not just doing it myself. The Germans are translating the German Bulletin and getting it out far and wide in Germany. The French, as I have told you, are to translate the French edition and spread that, and so it goes.
Now to get back to the daily routine of work. I quite understand that you do not wish to build up work that must go to pieces at the end of the year. As to the Bulletin, if the W.I.L. members are satisfied at the end of the year with the work that I have done on it, perhaps whether I stay over here or not, I could continue to be the editor. I feel quite confident of being able to raise the money, and I do not think it makes so very much difference where the paper is published, provided it is really an international paper of the W.I.L. and represents all the National Sections. The chief thing is to make the proper connections ↑over here↓ and get the work so organized that, whether here or in America, I could edit it equally successfully. [page 4]
Of course, I have no idea of making it any larger than it is at present, and the money from the American Fund for the printing bill just covers the cost of 12,000 copies in the three different languages. This is reasonable, because in Washington the English edition alone costs $165. a month, and now we are really getting out three papers with 12,000 copies at a cost of $200. for the total.
The plan of the paper, which we worked out at a National Board Meeting, is that the first page shall have items of world interest concerning things which the W.I.L. members might be able to do something about. The second page is for editorials and anything special about international work. The third and fourth pages are supposed to be devoted to the work of the National Sections. The middle page is to be used as far as possible for special articles so that this page could be almost used like a pamphlet without the rest of the paper whenever it seemed advisable. I try, of course, always to have the articles either written by our members or to have them about our members.
Now about increasing the staff here. I have not increased it except to take on Anne Zueblin, but it is quite impossible for any secretary to work here effectively without stenographic assistance. It really put Vilma Glücklich at a great disadvantage to have to do most of her English typing herself. For instance, take [today] as a sample. This morning there were 25 letters to German members, subscribers to the German "Pax." There were about 100 letters ↑in three languages↓ to the InterNational Sections about the Executive Meeting in Paris on February 6th, to which consultative members are invited. There were about a dozen letters of a personal character, such as I am writing to you. [Tonight] there is a meeting of the Genevese group here in the house, and of course we need to get out all the invitations to them. [Today] all my proof comes back from the printer for the January "Pax," and has to be corrected, cut up and pasted into shape. Now you can imagine what it is like trying to edit a paper, run a meeting, see people, answer letters, plan out work and do your own typewriting. Of course it is impossible, and whether I stay or not beyond the year whoever is here should have the assistance of an English and French stenographer.
Frau Tunas does the German letters, keeps track of all membership cards and files, files all the letters, sends out all the receipts, makes out the [checks] which I sign, is a buffer between me and all the people who [page 5] come here. She is busy every moment.
Then there is the little French girl. She directs envelopes, licks stamps, runs errands and does the French typing, and we could not get on without her. Now that is all the staff there is, and, as you see, the International Secretary, if she is to do any creative and executive work, has simply got to have someone to assist her and take shorthand.
I am only paying Anne $15. a week, and have told her I cannot raise her to $20. until she has learned shorthand and can do that as well as the English typing. She now does all the typing of the English letters and the material for the Bulletin and all the French letters ↑from English into French↓ for she is a good French scholar. For my shorthand work I still have to get outside assistance.
I am sending you an itemized statement of exactly what we spent in November and December, together with the amount that I was able to get in besides what you have sent me.
This is a very long letter, but I wanted you to get a picture of the situation. Don't worry; if the interest keeps on that I see everywhere, there will be a dozen people to take my place. By the time the Dublin Congress and the Summer School are through, you will have folks [clamoring] to work for us and give us money. See if you don't!
↑I haven't yet heard our ward from Anna Garlin Spencer about the $500 she was to raise for me. I do so want that money for stenographic work, I do not want to spend the money I have raised in that way, there are so many things it is needed for. I am paying 3rd class fare for four of our executive members, to and from Paris, who could not attend otherwise. Then I want to see some of the money I have raised to bring folks here for a week's [work]. I would like to have our Bulgarian & Greek delegates here and let them work out their problems [page 6] together. Also I want the Polish & Czechs & Yugoslavs ↑here.↓ Since I cannot go to there it is the only way to build up the work. Then I want to raise a fund to send [Marcelle] Capy, and Gertrud Baer about speaking for us. The different sections terribly need encouragement & organizing. These are just a few of the things I have in mind.
I have just asked for the financial statement to send you. It is not quite ready so I will mail it tomorrow under [separate] cover.
Here is an advance copy of the January "Pax." It has not yet been sent out to anyone -- you are the first.↓
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