Peace and Bread in Time of War

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS

Contents

CHAPTER 1

At the Beginningof the Great War

When the news came to America of the opening hostilities whichwere the beginning of the European Conflict, the reaction against war,as such, was almost instantaneous throughout the country. This wasmost strikingly registered in the newspaper cartoons and commentswhich expressed astonishment that such an archaic institution shouldbe revived in modern Europe. A procession of women led by the daughterof William Lloyd Garrison walked the streets of New York City inprotest against war and the sentiment thus expressed, if not the marchitself, was universally approved by the press.

Certain professors, with the full approval of their universities, setforth with clarity and sometimes with poignancy the conviction thata war would inevitably interrupt all orderly social advance and at itsend the long march of civilization would have to be taken up againmuch nearer to the crude beginnings of human progress.

The Carnegie Endowment sent several people lecturing through thecountry upon the history of the Peace movement and the various instrumentalitiesdesigned to be used in a war crisis such as this. I lecturedin twelve of the leading colleges, where I found the audiences ofyoung people both large and eager. The questions which they put wereoften penetrating, sometimes touching or wistful, but almost neverbellicose or antagonistic. Doubtless there were many students of themore belligerent type who did not attend the lectures and occasionallya professor, invariably one of the older men, rose in the audience touphold the traditional glories of warfare. I also recall a tea under theshadow of Columbia which was divided into two spirited camps, but Ithink on the whole it is fair to say that in the fall of 1914 the young peoplein a dozen of the leading colleges of the East were eager for knowledgeas to all the international devices which had been established forsubstituting rational negotiation for war. There seemed to have been asomewhat general reading of Brailsford's "War of Steel and Gold" andof Norman Angell's "Great Illusion."

It was in the early fall of 1914 that a small group of social workersheld the first of a series of meetings at the Henry Street Settlement inNew York, trying to formulate the reaction to war on the part of thosewho for many years had devoted their energies to the reduction ofdevastating poverty. We believed that the endeavor to nurture humanlife even in its most humble and least promising forms had crossednational boundaries; that those who had given years to its service hadbecome convinced that nothing of social value can be obtained savethrough widespread public opinion and the cooperation of all civilizednations. Many members of this group meeting in the Henry StreetSettlement had lived in the cosmopolitan districts of American cities.All of us, through long experience among the immigrants from manynations, were convinced that a friendly and cooperative relationshipwas constantly becoming more possible between all peoples. We believedthat war, seeking its end through coercion, not only interruptedbut fatally reversed this process of cooperating good will which, if it hada chance, would eventually include the human family itself.

The European War was already dividing our immigrant neighborsfrom each other. We could not imagine asking ourselves whether theparents of a child who needed help were Italians, and therefore on theside of the Allies, or Dalmatians, and therefore on the side of the CentralPowers. Such a question was as remote as if during the Balkan warwe had anxiously inquired whether the parents were Macedonians orMontenegrins although at one time that distinction had been of paramountimportance to many of our neighbors.

We revolted not only against the cruelty and barbarity of war, buteven more against the reversal of human relationships which war implied.We protested against the "curbed intelligence" and the "thwartedgood will," when both a free mind and unfettered kindliness are sosadly needed in human affairs. In the light of the charge made later thatpacifists were indifferent to the claims of justice it is interesting to recallthat we thus early emphasized the fact that a sense of justice hadbecome the keynote to the best political and social activity in this generation,but we also believed that justice between men or between nationscan be achieved only through understanding and fellowship, andthat a finely tempered sense of justice, which alone is of any service inmodern civilization, cannot possibly be secured in the storm and stressof war. This is not only because war inevitably arouses the more primitiveantagonisms, but because the spirit of fighting burns away all thoseimpulses, certainly towards the enemy, which foster the will to justice.We were therefore certain that if war prevailed, all social efforts wouldbe cast into an earlier and coarser mold.

The results of these various discussions were finally put together byMr. Paul Kellogg, editor of The Survey, and the statement entitled "Towardthe Peace that Shall Last" was given a wide circulation. Readingit now, it appears to be somewhat exaggerated in tone, because we haveperforce grown accustomed to a world of widespread war with its inevitableconsequences of divisions and animosities.

The heartening effects of these meetings were long felt by many ofthe social workers as they proceeded in their different ways to do whatthey could against the rising tide of praise for the use of war techniquein the world's affairs. One type of person present at this original conferencefelt that he must make his protest against war even at the riskof going to jail—in fact two of the men did so testify and took the consequences;another type performed all non-combatant service open tothem through the Red Cross and other agencies throughout the yearsof the war although privately holding to their convictions as best theymight; a third, although condemning war, in the abstract were convincedof the righteousness of this particular war and that it would endall wars; still others felt, after war was declared in the United States, thatthey must surrender all private judgment, and abide by the decision ofthe majority.

I venture to believe, however, that none of the social workers presentat that gathering who had been long identified with the poor and thedisinherited, actually accepted participation in the war without a greatstruggle, if only because of the reversal in the whole theory and practiceof their daily living.

Several organizations were formed during the next few months, withwhich we became identified; Miss Wald was the first president of theUnion Against Militarism, and I became chairman of what was called theWomen's Peace Party. The impulse for the latter organization came fromEurope when, in the early winter of 1914, the great war was discussed fromthe public platform in the United States by two women, well known suffragistsand publicists, who nationally represented opposing sides of theconflict. Mrs. Pethwick Lawrence of England first brought to Americanaudiences a series of "War Aims" as defined by the "League of DemocraticControl" in London, and Mde. Rosika Schwimmer, coming fromBudapest, hoped to arouse American women to join their European sistersin a general protest against war. Occasionally they spoke from thesame platform in a stirring indictment of "the common enemy of mankind."They were unwilling to leave the United States until they had organizedat least a small group pledged to the advocacy of both objects;the discussion of reasonable terms of peace, and a protest against war asa method of settling international difficulties.

The Women's Peace Party itself was the outcome of a two days'convention held in Washington concluding a series of meetings in differentcities addressed by Mrs. Lawrence and Madame Schwimmer. The"call" to the convention was issued by Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt andmyself, and on January 10, 1915, the new organization was launched ata mass meeting of 3000 people. A ringing preamble written by Mrs.Anna Garlin Spencer was adopted with the following platform:

1. The immediate calling of a convention of neutral nations inthe interest of early peace.

2. Limitation of armaments and the nationalization of theirmanufacture.

3. Organized opposition to militarism in our own country.

4. Education of youth in the ideals of peace.

5. Democratic control of foreign policies.

6. The further humanizing of governments by the extension ofthe suffrage to women.

7. "Concert of Nations" to supersede "Balance of Power."

8. Action towards the gradual re-organization of the world tosubstitute Law for War.

9. The substitution of economic pressure and of non-intercoursefor rival armies and navies.

10. Removal of the economic causes of war.

11. The appointment by our government of a commission ofmen and women with an adequate appropriation to promoteinternational peace.

Of course all the world has since become familiar with these "Points,"but at the time of their adoption as a platform they were newer andsomewhat startling.

The first one, as a plan for "continuous mediation," had been presentedto the convention by Miss Julia G. Wales of the University ofWisconsin, who had already placed it before the legislature of the State.Both houses had given it their approval, and had sent it on with recommendationsfor adoption to the Congress of the United States. Theplan was founded upon the assumption that the question of peace wasa question of terms; that every country desired peace at the earliestpossible moment, that peace could be had on terms satisfactory to itself.The plan suggested an International Commission of Experts to sitas long as the war continued, with scientific but no diplomatic function;such a commission should explore the issues involved in the strugglein order to make proposals to the belligerents in a spirit of constructiveinternationalism. Miss Wales not only defined such a Commission,but presented a most convincing argument in its behalf, and we deliberatelymade the immediate calling of a Conference of Neutrals the firstplank in our new platform.

The officers of the newly formed society were Mrs. Anna GarlinSpencer and Mrs. Henry Villard of New York, Mrs. Lucia Ames Meadand Mrs. Glendower Evans of Boston, Mrs. Louis F. Post and Mrs. JohnJ. White of Washington. From Chicago, where headquarters were established,were Mrs. Harriet Thomas as executive officer, Miss Breckenridgeof the University of Chicago as treasurer, and myself as Chairman.

All of the officers had long been identified with existing Peace organizations,but felt the need of something more active than the oldersocieties promised to afford. The first plank of our platform, the Conferenceof Neutrals, seemed so important and withal so reasonable, thatour officers in the month following the founding of the organization,with Louis Lochner, secretary of the Chicago Peace Society, issued a callto every public organization in the United States whose constitution,so far as we could discover, contained a plank setting forth the obligationsof internationalism. These organizations of course included hundredsof mutual benefit societies, of trade unions and socialist groups,as well as the more formal peace and reform bodies. The call invitedthem to attend a National Emergency Peace Conference at Chicago inMarch, and to join a Federation of Peace Forces. A very interestinggroup responded to the invitation, and the Conference, resulting in theformation of the proposed Federation, also held large mass meetingsurging the call of a Conference of Neutrals.

The Women's Peace Party, during the first few months of its existence,grew rapidly, with flourishing branches in California and in Minnesota,as well as in the eastern states. The Boston branch eventuallyopened headquarters on the first floor of a building in the busy partof Boylston Street, and with a membership of twenty-five hundred, carriedon a vigorous campaign among the doubting, making public opinionboth for reasonable peace terms and for a possible shortening ofthe war. A number of the leading organizations of women became affiliatedbranches of the Women's Peace Party. Women everywhere seemedeager for literature and lectures, and as the movement antedated by sixmonths the organization of the League to Enforce Peace, we had thefield all to ourselves.

In the early months of 1915, it was still comparatively easy to getpeople together in the name of Peace, and the members of the new organizationscarcely realized that they were placing themselves on the sideof an unpopular cause. One obvious task was to unite with other organizationsin setting out a constructive program with which an internationalpublic should become so familiar that an effective demand forits fulfillment could be made at the end of the war. This latter undertakinghad been brilliantly inaugurated by The League of DemocraticControl in England, and two months after our Washington Convention,"The Central Organization for a Durable Peace" was founded in Holland.The American branch of the "Association for the Promotion ofInternational Friendship Among the Churches" also was active andmaintained its own representative in Europe. As a neutral, he at that timewas able to go from one country to another, and to meet in Holland withChurchmen from both sides of the conflict. We always found him mostwilling to cooperate with our plans at home and abroad. His successor,George Nasmyth, was also a sturdy friend of ours, and we keenly felt thetragedy of his death at Geneva, in 1920.

Through the very early spring of 1915, out of our eagerness, we triedall sorts of new methods of propaganda, new at least so far as peacesocieties were concerned. A poem which had appeared in the LondonNation portraying the bewilderment of humble Belgians and Germanssent suddenly to arms, was set to Beethoven's music and, through theefforts of the Women's Peace Party, sung in many towns and cities inthe United States by the Fuller sisters, three young English women,whose voices were most appealing. The Carnegie Endowment for InternationalPeace gave us a grant of five thousand dollars with whichwe financed the Little Theatre Company of Chicago, in the productionof Gilbert Murray's version of the Trojan women by Euripides. The playwas given throughout the country, including the Panama Expositionat San Francisco. The beautiful lines were beautifully rendered. Anaudience invariably fell into a solemn mood as the age-old plaint ofwar-weary women cheated even of death, issued from the darkenedstage, reciting not the glory of War, but "shame and blindness and aworld swallowed up in night."

In March, 1915, we received an invitation signed by Dutch, Britishand Belgian women to an International Congress of Women to be heldat The Hague, April 28 to May 1, at which I was asked to preside. TheCongress was designed as a protest against war, in which it was hopedwomen from all nations would join. I had previously met several of thesigners at the International Suffrage Conference and elsewhere. I knewthem to be women of great courage and ability, and I had long warmlyadmired Dr. Alletta Jacobs of Amsterdam, whose name led the list.

A delegation of forty-seven women from the United States acceptedthe invitation, most of them members of the new Women's PeaceParty. All of the delegates were obliged to pay their own expenses, andto trust somewhat confidingly to the usefulness of the venture. We setsail for Holland in the middle of April, on the Dutch ship Noordam,in which we were almost the only passengers. We were thus able to usethe salon for daily conferences and lectures on the history of the PeaceMovement. As the ship, steadied by a loose cargo of wheat, calmly proceededon her way, our spirits rose, and all went well until, within fourdays of the date set for the opening of the Conference, the Noordamcame to a standstill in the English Channel directly off the cliffs ofDover, where we faintly heard booming of cannon, and saw air andmarine craft of every conceivable make and kind. The first Englishnewspapers which came on board informed us of the sharp oppositionto the holding of our Congress, lest it weaken the morale of the soldiers.We were called "Peacettes" and the enterprise loaded with ridiculeof the sort with which we later became only too familiar. Duringthe three days the ship hung at anchor there was much telegraphingto all the people of political influence whom any one of us knew inEngland and several cables were sent to Washington.

Whether due to these or not, the Noordam finally received permissionto proceed on her way and we landed in Rotterdam two hoursbefore the opening of the Congress. We from the United States weremore fortunate than the English delegation. The North Sea had beendeclared closed to all traffic the very day they were to start, and eighty-sevenof them waited at a port during the entire session of The HagueCongress, first for boats and later for flying machines, neither of whichever came. Fortunately three Englishwomen had arrived earlier, andmade a small but most able delegation from Great Britain.
(Continues...)Excerpted from Peace and Bread in Time of War by JANE ADDAMS. Copyright © 2002 Katherine Joslin. Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS.
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