INTELLIGENCE VERSUS PACIFISM AND SUBVERSION
An accurately reported Conference.
On January 6, 1926, Miss Mary E McDowell, Commissioner, Department of Public Welfare, Chicago, Illinois, on behalf of Miss Jane Addams and herself, requested a conference with three Reserve Officers, members of the Military Intelligence Association.
This conference was [duly] arranged for and took place at 2:15 P.M. on January 13, 1927 in Miss McDowell's Office, City Hall Square Building, Chicago, Illinois.
The following is an accurately reported precis of that conference:
"On and at the appointed day and time Lieutenant Colonel Albert E. Barnes and Captains Walter B. Furbershaw and Corydon B. Hopkins went to Miss McDowell's office and found there with her, Miss Jane Addams, Dr. S. J. Duncan-Clark, chief editorial writer of the Chicago Evening Post, and a 'Mr. Hunter.' Dr. Duncan Clark was asked if he was present in his capacity as a newspaper representative and replied in the negative stating he had been invited in as a disinterested party. Mr Hunter rook no part whatever in the subsequent proceedings.["]
The conference had barely begun when we accidentally discovered that a stenographer of whose presence we had not been made aware, was hidden behind a screen in an outer office, and was industriously taking notes of the conversation. Miss McDowell, on being pressed of an explanation was [very] much flustered and agitated but said she desired a record of what was said.
Captain Hopkins, acting as spokesperson for the Reserve Officers, immediately stopped proceedings. He stated that he was not unprepared for just such a situation, and has advised his secretary how to reach him if sent for. He immediately called her. Miss McDowell protested that stenographers were unnecessary but Captain Hopkins insisted that in as much as the Officers were to be questioned regarding their public utterances that the public was a party at interest and that subsequent proceedings should be open. He called up the CHICAGO TRIBUNE and a reporter was sent to cover the meeting. He arrived a moment after Captain Hopkins' secretary.
The arrivals were introduced and Miss Addams exclaimed, "Oh, why the TRIBUNE?" She was answered that Mr. Duncan-Clark could represent the afternoon papers and Mr. [Doherty] the morning papers. Dr. Duncan-Clark thereupon again stated he was not present in an official capacity, but Captain Hopkins insisted that he was at liberty to give fullest publicity to the matter -- that the reserve officers had nothing to conceal. The conference then proceeded. [page 2]
Colonel Stone was unable to be present and Captain Furbershaw was there in his stead, but not to represent him. He was not a part of the conference so far as it related to any public utterances of his (Stones).
Miss McDowell accused Colonel Barnes of referring to Miss Addams as, "the old Jane," in an address at Springfield, Illinois. Miss McDowell said she had heard the Colonel make the statement, and that she has twenty five letters from people who stated the same thing. Colonel Barnes denied any disrespectful allusion and said he could match every letter of Miss McDowell's with an equal number of denials. (Miss Addams told her nephew, James Weber Linn, a "column conductor" for the Chicago Herald Examiner, that she had been assured by those present that Colonel Barnes had not so referred to her, and Linn published a retraction and apology in his newspaper).
Captain Hopkins was then put on the grill by Miss McDowell. She produced a clipping from an Ottawa, Illinois newspaper, dated December 9, 1925, captioned: "Speaker Says Jane Addams is Red Supporter," and giving a "write up" of a speech delivered by the Captain before the American Legion the night before.
Captain Hopkins then told Miss Addams the editor of the paper was entirely correct in his caption and that she certainly was a supporter of the "reds" in this country. Asking for proof, Miss Addams admitted having told Captain Hopkins on a previous occasion that she was a member of the American Civil Liberties Union and that she was "in hearty sympathy and accord with its activities." Printed matter of the Civil Liberties Union was thereupon produced by the Captain. Miss Addams referred to a name on the letter head of the Union asking, "Do you call him a communist? -- then why call me a communist?" She was assured she had not been called a communist and there was no such statement before them. Miss McDowell here interpolated: "Miss Addams has her own convictions."
Captain Hopkins then said: "Miss Addams, you question as to why you are 'linked' with the communists. Let us get down to concrete facts. You are a supporter of the reds. I have here a pamphlet of the American Civil Liberties Union asking for a fund of $100,000 to defend Foster and other reds arrested in the Bridgeman, Michigan raids. That is certainly supporting them. I quoted from this pamphlet; I repeated to the Ottawa audience your statement to me that you endorsed the Civil Liberties Union activities; and the editor of the paper before you wrote his own story, making his own deductions. And thousands of others to whom I have made the same revelations of your connection with the Civil Liberties Union, the Womans International League for Peace and Freedom, and other like organizations, have taken the same viewpoint as this editor, and that I take myself."
"And here is another pamphlet of the Civil Liberties Union.
'WHAT DO YOU MEAN -- FREE SPEECH?' It makes the statement that any one has the right to advocate the overthrow of government by violence." Miss Addams here interrupted with, "Oh, not by violence. You read something into that statement." Captain Hopkins handed her the pamphlet, insisting that she read aloud from it. Then she said, "The Civil Liberties Union will have to check up on this." Captain Hopkins then told her she was like thousands of other women who joined and supported organizations with whose activities they were [page 3] not familiar and whose purposes were wrong.
Miss Addams asked, "why is it of interest to anyone to say and hear things like that about me? Is it a matter of entertainment?" "It is not a question of entertainment, Miss Addams," said Captain Hopkins, "it is a question of our national defense. Our Army is now scarcely 50% of the strength Congress decreed it should be, in our 1920 National Defense Act, and the pacifists were socking still further reductions in appropriations in order that we can have no military protection whatever. You say we must [disarm]. If you would suggest limitation of armament the question would admit of argument; but when you insist on disarmament you would utterly destroy our defense."
Miss Addams said, "We do not [say] 'do away with the army.' We say find some substitute, some other way of accomplishing the same end. The trouble is that the army is afraid it will lose some of its dignity." Asked what the size of the army was, Miss Addams replied "Oh, about 210,000."
Continuing, Captain Hopkins said, "You ask why you are singled out, Miss Addams. You are not 'singled out -- you stand out.' You are among the leading women of the world, and are sometimes called the world's leading woman. Your influence is tremendous. When you join or endorse a movement thousands of women follow you accepting it on the strength of your [judgment]. If that movement is good your influence is likewise good. But when [you’re] wrong, as you are in the matter we are discussing, your influence for wrong is likewise tremendous, and because of your prominence you are all the more dangerous. But, Miss Addams, if you will [disassociate] yourself from the Civil Liberties Union I will promise to make no further mention of you upon the public platform." "I will not do that," said Miss Addams. "Then I shall continue showing your connection with these radical movements," said Captain Hopkins.
The conference concluded without either side receding from its position.
II.
NOTE THE SHIFTINESS OF THESE WOMEN LEADERS!
Intelligence knows the horrors following in the wake of [vainglory], and uninformed leadership.
THE LESSON: A nation as successful, from every angle, as the United States has a good Government, and it follows as a natural corollary that its leaders must have been, and are, good. MORAL: Beware of false, or uninformed leaders.
February 3, 1927.
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