WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM
February 24-1926
My dear Miss Addams:
At last I have gotten around to continuing the hasty letter which I wrote you the other evening. Perhaps I was over-anxious about the Minutes of Catherine Marshall. She has been sending me installments every day or so and I now have twenty-five closely typed pages and I imagine there are still about twenty-five more to come. But I see from the portions I have received that Miss Marshall has toned down some of the remarks that were made, and that the Minutes on paper do not exhibit the bitterness that was shown in public at the meeting. As I said to you, in my letter the other evening, I feel that it is very important we should not perpetuate this antagonistic feeling by incorporating ↑it↓ in the Minutes. Of course we have got to face the great differences there are between some of our Sections, but we must do it with friendship and understanding. I think all the members would like to have a chance to correct the Minutes before you see them, but as I say, since reading over what C. M. has done I do not feel so strongly about it.
To continue with comments on our Executive Meeting in Paris. What troubled me most was the lack of trust and faith that the English had in the Germans and the Germans in the English. It wasn't only that they differed but it was that they really distrusted and disliked each other, and this seems to me very serious. Of course I see why it is. The Germans feel that a change in method is a change in principle, which of course it isn't at all; and the English feel that if the Germans are so obstinate, they are not worth bothering with. But these differences exist, not only in the Object, but in nearly everything. More or less there was disagreement all along the line. Some wanted headquarters at Geneva, merely as a clearing house, with the loosest possible kind of association. Others really had a vision of international work and international cooperation. Then some wanted the "Pax" a high-brow paper, only readable by the Executive Committee, and others wanted a popular paper so it would reach the masses. As to the [page 2] [house] ↑Maison↓, some, like the English, wanted it very comfortable with plenty of domestic service, while others, like the Germans wanted it cooperative with little or no domestic service, we doing the work ourselves. Of course this all means that nothing I can do will please the Executive Committee, not until they have come to some kind of an agreement as to what they really do want at headquarters. Again, I repeat, the Executive Committee must meet and meet until it gets some kind of a common understanding, or you will drive all your secretaries crazy.
Anyway I think we worked out a good [program] for the Dublin Congress. Very briefly it is as follows: The main title is "The Next Steps Toward Peace." Under this title the National Sections are to give reports on the things in their countries that are likely to cause war and the necessary steps to prevent war. These reports are to take the place of the usual reports on the local activities of the National Sections. These reports are sure to bring out two or three main things for discussion. In fact, the suggestions that have come in have already shown this, so that we are going to divide the [program] in two parts, -- first, The Things that Cause War, Exploitation and Oppression, and under this come the three topics for discussion, (a) Imperialism Economic and Colonial; (b) Disabilities of Minorities; (c) Militarism. There are to be three commissions to handle these three topics.
The second part of the [program] is an answer to the first. It shows the way out. The way to end war. [Nonviolence], and under this, Cooperation, Conciliation and Arbitration and Disarmament. This last part of the [program] is not to be covered by Commissions, but to have only a committee which will take resolutions on these topics to be passed on the last day of the Congress.
In my other letter I sent you the proposed New Object and also the Formula we are to use up to the time of the Congress. But I find the formula I sent is the first rough draft and is not the final polished one which I will send you as soon as I receive it from Miss Marshall.
You will be pleased to hear that Mme. Duchêne brought up the subject of the Subsidy paid to the French Section, and said she thought they could get along without it now, for Mme Jouve is no longer able to act as Secretary on account of her school and Mme. Duchêne's own private stenographer is doing the work for the moment.
By the way, I met a very attractive woman, ↑in Paris↓ a Mme. [Sautreau] who is a daughter of ↑the great Norwegian↓ "Bjørnson," but has married a Frenchman and has lived for many years in Paris. She is an extraordinarily fascinating woman and I was much taken with her. She is a member of the League, but feels that the French and German Sections have the wrong method of procedure in their work. In other words she really belongs with the Scandinavian and the English ↑Sections↓ and frankly says that she thinks it would be possible to get a large group of French women interested if the Washington Object were not used, and more tolerance was shown. She has promised to come to Geneva and make me a visit. I want her to come when the [page 3] Assembly is in session for she is just the kind of woman to be able to influence men. She is a mother of two sons over twenty, but she has the intelligence and charm that you would imagine a daughter of Bjørnson would have. For instance she knows "Painlevé" well and is trying to get him to bring such pressure to bear on the French Government that the international Red Cross will be permitted to enter into the war zone in the Riff. I suppose you know that the Riffians are considered rebels and not [belligerents] and therefore are not allowed Red Cross aid.
Well, I must stop, for these are a few of the things I have to do within the next ten days, -- I have to make eighteen copies of the Minutes ↑about 50 pages↓ to send to all the members who were present at the meeting in Paris. When I receive the corrected copies back from them I must then make forty-nine copies in three languages to send to all the National Sections. This is going to cost money and take a lot of time, and personally I think a digest would be much more satisfactory, but I suppose there is nothing to do but to follow the procedure demanded. Next, I have to catch up on two weeks correspondence, and then within the coming week I have to get out the March edition of the "Pax." This must contain tentative [program] for the Dublin Congress and for the Summer school, and so will be a big piece of work.
Now about money, -- Do you realize that you have sent me two 2500 Swiss Francs in February. Do you intend one of these for March, or is this extra installment that I have the twelfth installment for the year 1925? You paid me two installments in December, but I considered the one you sent Christmas Day as our January allowance. [illegible] If the last February payment is not the March payment, and there is still to be one in March, then I have the pleasure of announcing that I shall be able to put that 2500 Swiss Frs. aside for the Congress. Also the English have promised me another hundred pounds by June, and the Irish fifty pounds. That means that we have about a thousand dollars in sight of the three thousand which I think we shall need ↑for the Congress.↓
Again let me thank you for your generous Christmas gift of $25.00. We are still debating about it, but it will be fun to show you the results when you come to Geneva. I am trying to steer between the two courses of opinion about the House. In other words, in all the improvements I am making I am trying to have them of such a nature that will make the place pretty and bright and much easier to take care of.
I do hope you will enjoy your trip and have a good rest. With many thanks for all your encouragement, my warmest love,
Faithfully yours,
Madeleine Doty [signed]
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