July 22nd, 1927
Dear Miss Detzer:
Your letter of June 13th reached me just as I was leaving for New England for a visit to my invalid sister and I had no time to answer it before getting here and starting the Institute, circular of which I am enclosing. So many details have pressed upon my attention that all matters not in connection with this Institute have been pushed aside.
There has been, as you now know, criticism of the management of the National office. Not that anyone blames you, so far as my knowledge goes, but it is impossible for one person to manage properly the details of an executive office and at the same time do large service in the field. If letters have to be forwarded by the best stenographers to the executive officer when lecturing about the country, many will be lost and confusion will result.
It is also difficult to explain to people interested only in general in the W.I.L.P.F., the separate fees they should pay for local, national and international membership. To obviate that difficulty, I proposed to our New York group that effort should be made to get $10. annual memberships so that supporters of our cause should pay in one check for all three obligations. I succeeded in getting a few such $10. a year membership fees; $5. to go to the International, $2.50 to National and $2.50 to the local offices. I think that one of the difficulties of the national office and the international as well, would be obviated if some such plan as the basis of one check for each person could be inaugurated. Your service in the field is invaluable and should be made as effective as possible and this practical suggestion might help in regard to the office. The National Office of the W.I.L.P.F. at Washington, D.C. is in my opinion by far the most important element in the W.I.L. work ↑in the U.S.A.,↓ and to its complete success every local branch should be dedicated. So much do I feel this to be the case that I have personally refrained from advocating any strictly local activities which implied office expenses, salaries of executive officers or extensive individual membership. In that, I am aware I do not agree with the Executive Board of the National section. I believe the W.I.L.P.F. was born out of an emergency. I consider that any separate women's organization for peace is a temporary movement. No one can feel more keenly than I, the necessity or usefulness of the emergency work of the "Women's Peace Party" out of which the W.I.L.P.F. was born. Women alone could make the protest of 1915. The international and national branches of the W.I.L.P.F. must function until a more vital relationship between the women composing these bodies and the men's and women's societies can be made. That time is not yet, and I feel that the National Office of the W.I.L. at Washington should be sustained with power. This for the sake of our women and still more for the sake of the women of other nations. I believe that we should have in the field, not only yourself but two or three other first class speakers. I am convinced that they could serve the people better if they were in the field to get national members who are also supporting members of the international office in Geneva and such members only. [page 2]
The National Council for Prevention of War is the local ↑logical↓ body to bring together in local groups the men's, the women's, and men's and women's peace organizations. Peace will not be gained nor any great leadership be effectively established by either sex working alone. The women of this country working under the banner of W.I.L. and the great leadership of Jane Addams, should make the Washington office conspicuous for its business management under a first class executive director, for its brilliant presentation in the field by yourself and other good speakers, and its large financial support of the international office in Geneva.
I was not able to learn before leaving New York what plans concerning [Madeleine] Doty and her possible return to America were under consideration. I shall make every effort to ascertain details of plans on my return to New York, September 1st. I am trying to shape my own personal work in the early Fall to attend the meeting of the National Council to Prevent War, in Washington. I sincerely hope that you will be in Washington at the time of this meeting and that we may have a conference on the important matters indicated in this letter. I shall try to see Mrs. Hull before going to Washington. The sinister and dangerous attacks upon all pacifists organizations and all peace committees in women's organizations seem to me to create a particular need for concentrating effort upon the national office and national membership connected vitally and financially with the international body. More statesmanship is needed in W.I.L. in the United States.
Meanwhile be assured of my personal friendship, of my understanding of the difficulties you have encountered in trying to run the office well and at the same time serve us all in the field. Any complaint which I have made is based on a much larger conception of what the W.I.L. should be and do in our country than has yet been possible to realize with our limited means.
Yours sincerely,
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