Dearest Miss Addams
Your letter & the prospect of seeing you & Mary this summer bring much cheer at this rather gloomy & anxious time -- for the great strike that is now in its fifth day, is so full of ominous possibilities, not only for poor England but for other parts of the world as well -- one has, here [page 2] something the same sense of holding one's breath & feeling that the end of an epoch has come, as in the first days of the war.
However it comes out, one doubts if things will ever be the same here again.
The British economic & social system seems to be cracking & the qualities of temper that have been one of the great strengths of this race in the past -- its conservatism & tenacity appear now as a weakness -- unfitting them for the swift readjustments necessary to save the situation. One watches with bated breath this splendid people so creaking & lumbering along toward what looks like a shipwreck [page 3] -- -- -- -- They are so admirable -- their patience & steadiness & good-[humor] in the present emergency is, I should think, without [parallel] anywhere else; but they hang on with a bulldog stubbornness to things as they are, & refuse to change.
I'm sorry I'm not able to send as large a check this time as last. I've been dissipating my resources of late on a series of other things. But such as it is it goes with all good wishes for the success of the Congress.
I should love to go to Dublin, but can't be sure until nearer the time. I don't leave my invalid many days at a time unless he seems in especially good shape -- & that is never certain. He has had --"moralement" -- a better winter, thanks to his absorption in his wood-carving, which he is beginning to do quite beautifully & [skillfully] & which tides him over a good deal of pain & discomfort, quite happily. [page 4]
I have been reading lately a quantity of papers & periodicals in a Babel of Tongues, & ↑reporting↓ translating extracts for the War Resisters International. I have been appalled over the accounts of German increases in military expenditure & in war sentiment! It seems as if Scandinavia were the only sane corner of Europe!
We look forward with such hope to seeing you & Mary here. If you landed in Plymouth, I could meet you there & motor with you up here to Torquay.
Just at the moment we have the house full of guests who have taken refuge with us here until they can sail for America, as they found existence in London so difficult on account of the strike. Here at least it is peaceful & tramping about is pleasanter & less fatiguing; &, so far, there is plenty of food. If it goes on for weeks it may be another matter. Janet is all right in her school. The communication with her is a slow business. [written in the left margin of page 1] With much love to you & dear Mary in which John joins I am always affectionately yours -- Caroline Foulke Urie.
[written in the top margin of page 1] We have been beguiling these days reading together the fascinating volumes of Col. House. Have you read Lowes Dickinson's tremendous "International Anarchy?"
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