↑J. A↓
(1). This all turns on what is meant by a "radical pacifist." Miss Addams is not by any means radical on social and economic questions, if that is implied.
(2). This is true, and President Coolidge ↑It is true that she discussed disarmament with the President and he↓ was exceptionally cordial and interested. Please note his letter referring to this on page 9 of the pamphlet herewith. ↑"Statement of Facts."↓
(3). I do not know whether Miss Addams said just this nor in what context. I should think it was true that the Russian Revolution had perhaps done more to color American thought as to the costs of violence than the war itself; and is there anyone who does not think that in business, in culture, in religion and in politics we need to take a world view?
(4). The Fellowship of Youth for Peace has no relation to free love movements; its affiliations are, rather, religious. Miss Addams certainly did not imply any approval of the free love type of youth movement. There are as many youth movements as there are movements among older people. Much confusion is due to lumping all sorts under the phrase "the Youth movement." Many of them are reactionary, especially in Italy.
(5). I do not know whether Mr. Debs and Mr. Minor spoke at the series of meetings referred to. The point is that to desire to hear all sides is not to espouse them all, nor necessarily any one of them, and that one thing that we all need is opportunities and willingness to listen to those we most disapprove of and so fit ourselves to judge them fairly and meet their arguments effectively.
(6). Is this a count against Miss Addams?
(7). I do not know whether this is true. In general Miss Addams ↑I understand her↓ [page 2] believes that it is dangerous to suppress agitators and that in this way extremist movements get driven underground and become dangerous. She believes that if extremists talk in public the folly of their untenable positions becomes evident to others and often ultimately to themselves.
To believe this may be a mistake in judgment, or it may be highest wisdom. The fact that Miss Addams holds it should prevent anyone from supposing that because she permits a thing to be said she approves of it.
(8). This is a committee laboring with no ulterior purpose nor ↑and with no↓ any political affiliation to give the coming generation of Americans the equal opportunity for which America stands.
(9). I think Miss Addams feels much as President Coolidge does about Military Training camps. Is it unpatriotic to want to see the Philippines, Haiti, Nicaragua and all other countries free? Since when did America stand for slavery? Cannot equally patriotic people differ as to how early the Philippines should be given independence?
(10). Miss Addams never in any instance works with enemies of our country. It is a preposterous charge. She may be an honorary chairman of the Students' Anti-Militarist League. ↑I do not know.↓ I do know ↑that↓ militarism is the worst ↑most↓ un-American thing one can name and every good American trusts his country may never deserve to be called a militarist country.
(11). It is a happy day for America when men and women of such opposed political views can unite to prevent the name of America from being dishonored by miscarriages of justice. As I understand [page 3] it the American Civil Liberties exists for just this end -- to secure American justice for the weakest man or woman or the most unpopular cause. Shame to conservatives if hereafter they leave it so largely to extremists to defend the cause of legal justice.
(12). I cannot conceive what is meant by the reference to Russian relief being "exposed." The relief with which Miss Addams was connected was absolutely unpolitical and administered purely from motives of compassion with extraordinary conscientiousness and effectiveness. She wants to punish starving children for their parents' politics?
(13). An organization can receive money from a public fund for public purposes without endorsing the views or the conduct of the person who gave the money and this was true in this case. The management of the fund is publicly reported and the whole proceeding was open and above reproach.
(14). I do not know about the Peoples of American Society. If Miss Addams is connected with it there can be no question to anyone who knows her that it is a connection that does her honor. I do not know what is meant by her having been "exposed" in a Senate investigation. There is nothing to expose in the frank assistance she gives wherever she can to movements she believes to be for the public good, whether or not it commends itself to everyone.
(15). The Russian Reconstruction Farms is a [nonpolitical] undertaking to help to introduce scientific farming into Russia. If this succeeds it will mean the use in Russia of American tractors as well as a better standard of living for the poverty-stricken Russian peasantry. [page 4] I do not happen to know the facts about the Public Ownership League. Miss Addams' opinions are by no means "advanced" on such questions.
(16). The Peoples Council of America was a very ephemeral body growing out of the early war-time peace movement ↑before the U.S. entered the war↓. [illegible] [United States enter the war it ended.] Miss Addams was never much in sympathy with it, though her name may have been used in connection with it owing to the fact that it developed out of a previous organization of a different type. I was myself one of the responsible people in it.
(17). The Womens International League for Peace and Freedom will be glad to supply copies of the leaflet in question so that any honest inquirer can convince ↑himself or↓ herself of the falsity of this statement. The object of the leaflet was to create good relations between the two countries.
(18). This organization does not ↑endorse↓ and never has endorsed any so-called slacker oath, nor required any sort of "pledge" from its membership.
(19) I do not know the facts about this, but it is well known that there was great suffering among innocent people through the Passaic strike and that moreover very serious questions of constitutional law and practice were involved which needed to be looked into.
(20). Miss Addams cannot control what any paper may choose to say. I do not know whether the words attributed to her are correct. It is not uncommon to speak of the "left wing" of any movement in the sense of the less conservative part of it with no [page 5] reference to any political associations. The left wing of the peace movement generally means those who oppose all wars, as for instance the Society of Friends (Quakers) in spite of the fact that some of its members do not go so far. It does not imply anything as to political or economic views.
(21). It is preposterous to imply that Miss Addams ever favored in any way what is commonly called communism.
For point 22 see last page. ↑I am getting information. I was at this meeting in Germantown and had no idea that it was not arranged in a perfectly open way.↓
(23). The Foreign Policy Association is a purely [nonpartisan] body, carrying on educational work. Its standing among informed people is a very high one.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is a religious association which was started in England in 1915, two years before the Russian Revolution. It is not "red" or "pink" or otherwise political.
The National Council for the Prevention of War is adequately described by its name. Its membership is very largely extremely conservative.
(24). After the United States entered the war Miss Addams ceased to work for peace until the war was over. The organizations included in this list, other than those already spoken of, were all straight peace societies and belonged solely to the period when the United States was still neutral.
(25). It has been charged that Madame [illegible] ↑Schwimmer↓ was a German agent. To anyone who follows up the evidence this will, I think, seem patently absurd. It is unproved to say the least. Mr. Lochner is certainly a pacifist and a well-known one so he can be called a notorious pacifist if one wants to put it that way. He was never [page 6] pro-German.
(27). Miss Addams is in no sense a radical. She is a Progressive in party politics, a supporter of Roosevelt in his efforts to form a Progressive party and later of La Follette.
(28). I don't know what meaning is supposed to attach to the statement that Miss Addams is more of a realist as she grows older. Almost everyone learns so much of life.
(29). It is to be observed that Colonel House wrote this snap judgment before he had talked with Miss Addams. All that he says is that Lord Grey and others misled her by not being candid with her. If this had been true who would have been at fault?
(30). The Assistant Secretary of War is entirely at liberty to deplore the fact of Miss Addams' pacifism.
(31). I don't doubt you could find sensational newspaper captions coupled with Miss Addams' name throughout her career. The newspapers hostile to her have been those which had reason to fear her brave and effective stand against corruption in Chicago.
(32). I do not know why Mrs. Potter Palmer stopped giving to Hull House. It evidently was not for reasons connected with pacifism or communism, which were not issues in 1908.
(33). I do not know about the alleged list, but I am confident that this paragraph is a misstatement. It is inconceivable that anyone should have listed Miss Addams as "in control of red organizations"!
(34) I do not know what truth there is in this; by 1921 most people felt that in the United States, as abroad, political offenses should be amnestied since there had been much hysteria involved [page 7] in war-time political arrests. Of course Miss Addams never doubted that crimes such as burning barns, or poisoning cattle should be dealt with in the regular course of justice as much as other crimes.
(35). I do not know whether this is so, but it is no crime to be friendly to Miss Strong who lectured about a month before the Womans City Club of Chicago.
(36). I know of no way of controlling the other people who buy stock in a company in which one invests. This experiment of Mr. Hillman's was not a communist proposition, but a business one designed to be socially useful.
(38). I understand this pamphlet not to be discredited, but on the contrary to be a singularly fair and able presentation of a topic that every American ought to study to the bottom.
(39). On the contrary all Miss Addams' efforts in this field are directed to hasten disarmament and prevent civil war and all other forms of war. The Womens International League for Peace and Freedom is constantly going out of its way to make it clear that it is opposed to all violence in connection with social or economic unrest, to all violence whether in the form of revolution, domestic disturbance, civil war or war between countries.
It believes that we should work for peace, good will and freedom and against violence, oppression and cruelty in all their forms everywhere. [page 8]
I feel like an idiot sitting down and defending Miss Addams against the various items of this farrago. But I suppose it is one of those tedious jobs someone must undertake.
It does hurt my feelings though to see a great organization of representative American women like the D.A.R. misled by all this propaganda.
↑This has been written without consultation with anyone and is as I understand these things to be↓
Emily Greene Balch. [signed]
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