Jane Addams - Paz Justicia Generot

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JANE ADDAMS: PEACE, JUSTICE, GENDER, 1860-1918
Silver, Regene Henriette Spero, Ph.D.
University of Pennsylvania, 1990
Copyright ®1990 by Silver, Regene Henriette Spero. All rights reserved.
UMI
300 N. Zeeb Rd.
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
REGENE HENRIETTE SPERO SILVER
A DISSERTATION
in
History
Presented to the Faculties of the University of

Pennsylvania in
Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
of
Doctor of Philosophy.
1990
Supervisor of Dissertaiî3pn
Reader of Dissertation
ItSd-
Graduate Group Chairperson
COPYRIGHT
Regene Henriette Spero Silver
1990
For Michael, Dan and Max
and
For the women of the

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are many individuals whom I would like to thank for their contribution to this
work. Michael B. Katz was a thorough, thoughtful and direct supervisor who despite his
own voluminous workload got back to me quickly with helpful and insightful comments
on the dissertation. The same can be said of Mary Frances Berry, who was the reader of
the dissertation. As one who is herself an American political leader, she aided me in her
perceptions of what it must have been like for Addams back at the turn of the century.
Both Michael and Mary enabled me to see that sometimes I was being too hard on JA.
There are several colleagues in the academic community whom I would like to
thank for their encouragement and insights: Marion Roydhouse, Jean Soderlund, Evelyn
Brooks Higginbotham, Lisa Ratmansky, Peshe Kuriloff, Melinda Chateauvert, Merril
Smith and Shan Holt. Pat Faulk is a special friend as well as an astute colleague.
Neal Hubert is always wonderful - and his help was invaluable when it came time to
print out the dissertation.
Penn is lucky to have Nancy Huntington as its History Reference Librarian - people
don't come any finer or kinder than Nancy. I would also like to thank the curator of the
Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Wendy Chmielewski, and the librarians and
archivists at Swarthmore: Meg Spencer, Eleanor Barr (who deciphered JA's impossible
handwriting), Barbara Addison, Marty Shane, Kate Myer and Ed Fuller.
Friends and relatives were always very supportive: Peter Mclnemey, Mardie and
Mark Oberle (who arranged for a revitalizing climb up Mt. St. Helen's in the middle of all
this) Louise and Arnie Schlicter, John and Jeanine Brendler, Eileen Cohn, Jan and
Gordon Franz, Irv Garfinkle and Tom Wicker. My mother, Ellen G. Spero, was an
excellent proofreader. Ellen Garfinkle and Donald Spero did not live to see the
dissertation completed, but they live on in my memory.
The dissertation is dedicated to those closest to me. My husband, who suffered
through the writing of his own book simultaneous to my dissertation work, made the
computer behave and gave me more love and support than anyone could ask for. My 10
year old son, Dan, was very patient about turning down the volume of his video games so
I could work, although he was a frequent inquirer of when the "diss" would finally be
finished. My constant company during the data analysis and writing was my blind,
arthritic basset hound, Max - his occasional baying from downstairs let me know he was
still hanging in there.
If it were not for the women of W ILPFI would never have written about Jane
Addams. I would especially like to thank Anne Ivey, Kay Camp and Mildred Scott
Olmsted (whom JA referred to as "that brash young woman from Philadelphia.").
ABSTRACT
Regene Henriette Spero Silver
Michael B. Katz
This is the story of Jane Addams as she developed into an activist and principal
leader of the reform, women's suffrage and women's peace movements of the Progressive
Era. It examines her life from 1860 to 1918 in relationship to her goal of politicizing and
empowering women within the constraints of an American society traditionally dominated
in the political and economic arenas by wealthy white men of the establishment. It is the
first full-length work to focus on Addams' work for peace and justice in light of
acculturation and societal issues of gender relationships.
Two historical concepts undergird the dissertation: "inherited traditions" and
women's "separate sphere." "Inherited traditions" refer to the acculturation we experience
as we mature and assimilate the belief systems of our families, teachers, peers and the
larger society. Women's "separate sphere" refers to the conditioning of American women
to believe that their proper role was nurturing their families through home and charitable
activities and that they did not belong in the public political arena. The central argument is
that Addams worked to enable women to move beyond their "separate sphere" to become
active citizens in American political and foreign policy decision-making policies. A
product of the Victorian Era, however, Addams was herself thwarted by inherited
traditions which mitigated against women's participation in public politics and foreign
affairs.
The first chapter explores Addams' early years, her founding of Hull-House, the
origins of the women's network she helped create and her political and suffrage work until
vi
1912. The second chapter examines her relationship with African-American leaders,
particularly women, and her political and suffrage work from 1912 to World War 1.
Chapter three traces her development as a leader of the women’s peace movement until the
summer of 1915. Chapter four focuses on her work as the principal leader of the
American and international women's peace movement from 1915 to the end of World War
1. The conclusion analyzes women pacifists' difficulties during wartime and the problems
women whose agendas include peace and justice confront when entering national and
international politics.
vii
TABLE.QE.C.QHIENIS
Introduction: Jane Addams: Inherited Traditions

and the Politicization of Women p. 1.
Chapter 1: Jane Addams
and the Political Responsibilities of Women p. 22.
Chapter 2: Jane Addams and National Politics:

Racism and "Woman’s Causes" p. 73.
Chapter 3: Jane Addams' Peace Activism:

Internationalism and Women p. 133.
Chapter 4: The War Years:

Protest, Accommodation, Perseverance p. 207.
Conclusion: Jane Addams and
Women's Agenda p. 275.
Bibliography p. 283.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Jane Addams and Johnny Powers, March 2,1898. p. 54.

2. A Woman President and Her Cabinet, October 25,1909. p. 65.
3. Women at the Progressive Convention, August 7,1912. p. 103.
4. Theodore Roosevelt Thanks Jane Addams, August 8,1912. p. 115.
5. The Jane Addams Chorus, 1912. p. 118.
6. "Women! Do Something!", 1912. p. 119.
7. Women at the Hague, April, 1915. p. 184.
List of Appendices
1. Woman's Peace Party Platform, January, 1915. p. 191.

2. American Delegates to the Hague, April, 1915. p. 193.
3. Hague Resolutions, April, 1915. p. 197.
4. Deputations to European Statesmen, May - June, 1915. p. 198.
ix
A NOTE ON THE JANE ADDAMS PAPERS (JAP.) AND THE SWARTHMORE
COLLEGE PEACE COLLECTION (SCPC).
Near the end of her life, Jane Addams gave her personal papers, including her
letters and speeches, to Swarthmore College. The SCPC is the archival repository that
holds these original documents. The JAP, has microfilmed these letters and speeches.
For this dissertation I used the microfilmed edition of the JAP. Each page of the microfilm
gives the archival repository where the particular letter or speech on that page is housed. I
have therefore in my footnotes cited the JAP, reel and page number for each document I
used. All of the original letters and speeches I cited at length in this dissertation are
housed at the SCPC.
It should be noted that because the microfilm edition is available through inter-
library loan, the SCPC is sometimes reluctant to allow a researcher to use original
materials that are on the microfilm. However, with special permission from the SCPC
curator, one may see Jane Addams' original letters and speeches and other documents
housed at the SCPC.
Introduction
Jane Addams; Inherited Traditions and
the Politicization of Women
This dissertation is the story of Jane Addams as she developed into an activist and
principal leader of the reform, women's suffrage and women's peace movements of the
Progressive Era. It examines her life from 1860 to 1918 in relationship to her goal of
politicizing and empowering women within the constraints of an American society
traditionally dominated in the political and economic arenas by wealthy white men of the
establishment It is the first full-length work to focus on Jane Addams' work for peace and
justice in light of acculturation and societal issues of gender relationships.
Two historical concepts undergird the dissertation: inherited traditions and
women's "separate sphere." Inherited traditions refers to the acculturation which we all
experience as we mature and assimilate the ideas and belief systems of our families,
teachers, peers and the larger society in which we live. Women's "separate sphere," a
concept which women scholars have debated for the last three decades and which will be
reviewed later in the introduction, refers to the conditioning of women in American society
to believe that their proper role was nuturing their families through home and charitable
activities and that they did not belong in the public political arena. The central argument of
the dissertation is that Jane Addams worked consciously, with great determination and an
acute sense of responsibility, to enable women to move beyond their "separate sphere" to
become active public citizens in the political processes of American democracy and to
influence American foreign policy, primarily by openly protesting U.S. acts of war and
military intervention in foreign countries. However, Addams was a product of the
Victorian Era, and I will also argue that for her the concept of women's "separate sphere"
was real, and that she was herself thwarted by inherited traditions which mitigated against
women's participation in public politics and foreign affairs - arenas of activities traditionally
reserved for male leaders.
The most thorough treatment to date of the concept of inherited traditions or
"received culture" by a historian was by Lawrence Goodwyn in The Populist Moment, his
study of the American populist movement. Goodwyn argued that the agrarian revolt of the
populists in the late 1900s represented an "alternative movement culture," which was
defeated in a variety of ways by the established culture because of values transmitted from
one generation of Americans to the next. Whereas American society was founded in
racism and the spirit of economic competition, Goodwyn argued that the populists viewed
their future in terms of economic cooperation instead of competition and represented a
movement of people which could survive only if it overcame the racism which kept white
and black farmers alienated and working against one another instead of in concert
Goodwyn perceived the populists as a "new political culture," but he
acknowledged that it was difficult for most populists to sustain this new culture because
"the great mass of participants have older cultural memories which shape political conduct
and make insurgent politics difficult for the average citizen to imagine." Populist
promulgators called on Americans, especially those in the South, to change the way in
which they lived and related to one another, a task which proved impossible because the
received culture of racism was too entrenched to be crushed. Goodwyn analyzed the key
ideological tension of the Populist Movement as reflecting "the power of an idea versus the
power of inherited cultural loyalties." Goodwyn concluded that the whole reform
movement of the twentieth century unconsiously circumscribed its reach by accepting
inherited power relationships. Using the example of the Populist Movement and its
inability to overcome the "pervasive impact of the inherited caste system," Goodwyn
argued that cultures are exceedingly resistant to change. 1
In chapter two I specifically address Jane Addams' racism in terms of inherited
traditions, but throughout the dissertation I examine Jane Addams' work for women's
political rights within the framework of women’s separate sphere. The controversy among
women scholars regarding this concept has focussed on whether it was real or, as Linda
Kerber has argued most recently, "a trope, employed by people in the past to characterize
power relations for which they had no other word. . and by historians in our own time as
they groped for a device that m ight. . impose . . analytical order on the anarchy of
inherited evidence, the better to comprehend the world in which we live."2
Regardless of Kerber's contention, I have found in my research on Jane Addams
that for her and her colleagues, the concept of separate spheres had validity. Jane Addams
herself experienced contradictions over what was women's proper role in society and how
far a woman could go in being publicly accepted by men on the political level. Recognizing
that women were stymied by a culture which mandated their place to be at home or, at
most, in charitable and religious organizations, Addams urged women to become more
active in public affairs. She entreated women to become involved in the reform, suffrage
and peace movements. In founding Hull-House in 1889, Addams offered women an actual
place to live so that they could work in society, autonomous and free from their families'
demands. She encouraged women to work not only through women's organizations but to
join with men in participating in civic and political organizations. She was an active,
forceful leader in many reform and peace organizations comprising both men and women.
She was the first woman to nominate a presidential candidate, Theodore Roosevelt, when
he ran on the Progressive Party ticket in 1912.
But Jane Addams also refused to ever run for political office herself, arguing that
society was not ready to accept women as politicians and saying further that women were
not ready for political office. When a group of peace activists close to Addams asked her in
1915 to be the one woman member of a commission which would meet with European
statesmen to seek a peaceful resolution to World War 1, Addams refused on grounds that
neither the European statesmen nor President Wilson would accept a woman on the
commission. She did so despite the fact that she had just returned from Europe, having
met with all the same leaders as a member of a women's peace delegation. When queried
by a woman colleague after the war as to whether women should not join with men in an
international peace organization, Addams, who was one of the principal founders of the
Woman's Peace Party (WPP) and the International Committee of Women for a Permanent
Peace (ICWPP) in 1915 (she served as president of both throughout the war), answered
that women felt more comfortable working among themselves and that as with the suffrage
movement, it was appropriate for them to begin with their own organization.^
Throughout the dissertation are examples of Addams’ ambivalence regarding
women moving into what she saw as a political world representing men's turf. Beginning
in college, Addams and her women friends questioned what was "womanly" as opposed to
what was "manly." Throughout her life, Addams wrote and spoke about gender specific
inherited traditions which she believed informed the lives of women and men and which
caused women to have different priorities from men. Because of Jane Addams' own
struggle with moving beyond women's traditional role in society to work in the male
preserve of national and international politics, I felt it necessaiy, and furthermore integral to
the dissertation, to examine her life in regards to the concept of women's separate sphere.
In the summer of 1966, Babara Welter published the watershed article discussing
women’s separate sphere, "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860." She argued that
the literature and women’s magazines of the nineteenth century kept women "hostages" to
their homes. Using primary documents of the early and mid-nineteenth century, she
demonstrated that society judged women by their piety, purity, submissiveness and
domesticity. Religion was the core virtue: a male attorney wrote in The Ladies'
Repository, "Religion is exactly what a woman needs, fcr it gives her that dignity that best
suits her dependence." The catalogue of Mt. Holyoke, the first American women's
college, pledged to make women's education "a handmaid to the Gospel and an efficient
auxiliary in the great task of renovating the world." In 1854, George Bumap published
his lectures on The Sphere and Duties o f Woman which clearly differentiated between
feminine and masculine traits. He insisted that "Woman despises in man every thing like
herself except a tender heart. It is enough that she is effeminate and weak; she does not
want another like herself."
Literature addressed to women designated that their true roles were as daughters,
sisters, wives and mothers. Daniel Webster wrote in 1851, in The Young Ladies' Reader,
that America looked to women to raise Christian statesmen who could proudly proclaim,
"all that I am I owe to my angel mother." Men writers condemned and belittled feminist
thinkers and activists such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Frances Wright and Harriet Martineau
as "only semi-women, mental hermaphrodites." One Rev. Henry F. Harrington surveyed
women in the late 1830s as to whether they desired a "wider sphere of interest," and he
reported their response in the Ladies Companion, '"No!1they cried simultaneously, Let
the men take care of politics, we will take care o f the children!’" Welter concluded that by
the close of the nineteenth century the "True Woman evolved into the New Woman," but
that the stereotype of what a good woman should be remained and brought "guilt and
confusion in the midst of opportunity ."4
Two other prominent women historians addressed the concept of "women's proper
sphere" in the late 1960s, Aileen Kraditor in Up from the Pedestal and Gerda Lemer in
"The Lady and the Mill Girl: Changes in the Status of Women in the Age of Jackson."
Kraditor argued that the question of "spheres" was integral to comprehending American
feminism and she limned women’s "autonomy" as oppositional to "women's proper
sphere." Men, on the other hand, never were relegated to a "proper sphere" since the
whole world was viewed as their arena. She suggested that the concept of separate
spheres was connected with the commencement of the Industrial Revolution which
"broadened the distinction between men's and women's occupations and certainly
provoked new thinking about the significance and prominence of their respective
'spheres.'" Lemer argued that one "result of industrialization was in increasing differences
in life styles between women of different classes .. As class distinctions sharpened, social
attitudes toward women became polarized." In other words, "the cult of true womenhood"
was a mechanism by which middle-class women exalted their status over poorer women
who had to leave home to work.5
As feminism became a heightened issue in the 1970s, many more women historians
examined the relationship of women to each other and to the larger society. In 1975,
Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, analyzing the diaries and correspondence of women and men in
thirty-five white middle-class American families between the 1760s and 1880s, wrote her
landmark article, "The Female World of Love and Ritual." Smith-Rosenberg argued that
during this period women developed "a specifically female world" of "supportive networks
.. (which were) institutionalized in social conventions or rituals that accompanied virtually
every important event in a woman's life." Because of these support systems, which were
marked by mutual dependence and lasting affection, women developed self-confidence and
security which they could not glean from the public, male-dominated society. In later
articles, Smith-Rosenberg wrote more specifically about the social settlement houses, such
as Hull-House and the Henry Street Settlement (established in New York City in 1893 by
Lillian Wald) noting that these represented "Active female families," through which women
like Addams and Wald could "transpose the support systems and modes of communication
of the more traditional female world to new institutional forms." She argued that the
settlement women, " .. while rejecting the patriarchal family and their mothers' domestic
lives (they) did not repudiate the traditional world of female love or the concept of the
female family." Jane Addams and her colleagues represented the first generation of "New
Women" who lived in "separatist environments," but who devoted their lives to the
advancement of other women and who "amassed greater political power and visibility than
any other group of women in American experience.''^
In 1976, Marlene Stein Wortman published an article on "Domesticating the
Nineteenth-Century Amercan City." Wortman viewed the elevation of a woman’s home to
the position of a 'utopian retreat’ as society's attempt to "advanc(e) women's influence and
status by enhancing the significance of the home." But she also acknowledged that this
was a social process by which the male domain of politics and economics was separated
from the female domestic domain, leaving women with only indirect influence regarding
public policy. She quoted an anti-suffragist petition of 1871 which stated that "women's
sphere of duty is distinct from man's and is well-defined; and that as going to the polls
forms no part of it, we strenuously oppose this movement as an invasion of our right not to
do man's work." 7
The following year, Nancy Cott published The Bonds of Womenhood:"Women's
Sphere" in New England. 1780-1835. in which she explored, using white middle-class
women's diaries and letters, the reality of women's separate sphere during that era. She
found a definite "orientation toward gender" resulting from women's participation in shared
forms of work that centered on domestic and church activities. Cott concluded that
"woman's sphere (was) the basis for a subculture among women," which involved a
consciousness of themselves as a distinct group and would later lead to the emergence of a
feminist movement^
One of the most important theorists who dealt with separate spheres was not a
historian, but the anthropologist Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo. Estelle Freedman, a historian
who has argued that women operating from a "strong, public female sphere," can exercise
a more powerful political force in society than if they worked through predominantly male
organizations, has interpreted Rosaldo's work to mean that "The greater the social distance
between women in the home and men in the public sphere, the greater the devaluation of
women." Rosaldo herself wrote in an article published in 1980 that "my reading of the
anthropological record leads me to conclude that human cultural and social forms have
always been male-dominated." She further argued that in our societies, which are pervaded
by issues of gender, men have enjoyed public influence and prestige as a right whereas for
women they have always been a privilege. She cites tum-of-the-century male theorists,
Herbert Spencer, Georg Simmel, Emile Durkheim and Friedrich Engels, who all saw
women's natural place as the home but who believed that if women were to move beyond
their sphere, they would succeed "not in the masculine sphere of politics, but - the now
predictable answer came - in the more feminine arts." Rosaldo admonished feminist
theorists of our time to be aware of the deficiency of the separate sphere model: that it
proposed we look at women not in relationship to other women and men, but in terms of
women's "difference and apartness."^
One woman historian who accepted Rosaldo's admonition is Kathryn Kish Sklar,
who has done the most insightful scholarship to date regarding women's separate sphere,
especially as it relates to Jane Addams and her colleagues of the Progressive Era. In 1985,
Sklar published "Hull House in the 1890s: A Community of Women Reformers," and in
1989, she addressed The International Conference on Women and Peace held at the
University of Illinois on "Jane Addams’s Blessings as a Peace Activist, 1914-1922, Are
What Women Peace Activists Need Today." In her 1985 article, Sklar explored how the
collective life of women at Hull-House enabled them to gain public political power. She
argued that Hull-House allowed women reformers to move into the male political arena
while simultaneously sustaining a female base for activity which gave them independence
from male-dominated institutions and organizations. Hull-House proved to its women
residents that they could maintain their own institutions and not only enter into the
mainstream political process, but also develop the capacity for political leadership. Sklar
concluded, however, that eventually the male-dominated political arena imposed limits on
women's power in government more in response to, as Sklar viewed it, "class specific
rather than gender specific reform efforts." In her lecture before the Conference on Women
and Peace, Sklar argued that again, in a link with Hull-House, it was the collective network
of women in the peace movement which enabled Addams and other women peace activists
to carry their work forward: "The significance of friendships among peace workers," she
stated, "(w)as a source of solidarity and strength." 10
My only disagreement with Sklar is in regard to her contention that the limits
imposed on the women reformers' political power were class specific rather than gender
specific. I believe they were both. Women and men reformers of the Progressive Era
worked for government and business programs to improve living and working conditions
for poor Americans. Government aid to the poor was never popular in our society, and in
this respect, Sklar's point is correct: efforts to elevate the condition of the poor - the "lower
classes" - to equal those of the "middle and upper classes" in American society have not
been successful. But the wealthy white men who dominated not only the political and
economic arenas of American life, but also the powerful press of Jane Addams' time
implicitly enforced limits on the public political power of women by not supporting
women’s efforts to win the vote and by deriding women's attempts to influence national
and foreign policy, especially in regard to women activists’ work to end World War 1 by
peaceful negotiation rather than continued fighting. The press continually and often
viciously ridiculed women in the peace movement as silly and. ignorant -women who had no
place in the arena of making foreign policy.
In many ways, women's involvement in the social reform movement did not
threaten society because it could still be viewed as an outgrowth of women's separate
domestic sphere. Women achieving suffrage was more threatening, and the women's
peace movement still more so, because women were stepping beyond their traditional roles
to demand direct, open control over how society functioned - and treated and used women.
Jane Addams recognized the reality for women of their "separate sphere" and was aware in
her reform, suffrage and peace work of the difficulties for women inherent in moving
beyond this "separate sphere."
A 1910 article entitled "The Unrest of Women," (by a woman, Margaret Connolly),
published in The Progress Magazine typified the debate of Jane Addams' time regarding
women leaving their traditional "separate sphere." The author noted, "Inherited beliefs
persist with a tenacity proportioned to their falsity. No other is so firmly intrenched in the
human mind as that of women's inferiority." H
* * * *
Allen F. Davis wrote the most recent full-length biography of Jane Addams,
published in 1973 and entitled, American Heroine: The Life and Legend of Jane Addams.
Davis alerted his audience in the preface that he "tried to avoid a sexist interpretation of Jane
Addams." Unfortunately, as Anne Firor Scott has pointed out, Davis failed in this
endeavor. In her 1974 review of American Heroine Scott accused Davis of having fallen
into "reductionism" in the sense that he turned Addams "into a small heap of drives,
10
neuroses, and complexes." What Scott found most troublesome about the biography was
Davis' relentless pounding away at Addams as a self-serving, ambitious woman who
deliberately created an image of herself as an American saint. Although Davis accurately
recorded Addams' achievements, he made her out to be a very needy women who, in his
own words, "functioned best when she had an uncritical, loving disciple.” He ignored
Addams' self-doubts (which I have documented in this dissertation) by asserting that "She
was convinced that no one could represent the cause of justice better than she," and
insisting that she "enjoyed her role as priestess and sage."
He implied that Jane Addams was disingenuous when he wrote that she "played the
role of the saint," and she "played the role of famous lecturer, writer and founder of Hull-
House." Davis' lanquage is insulting because, indeed, Addams was the founder of Hull-
House and the author of eleven books and hundreds of articles and lectures. When the
press and general society bitterly ridiculed Jane Addams for her peace activism during
World War 1, Davis commented, "She desparately wanted to be right and to be approved.
She gasped at the small amount of adoration left." *2 Instead of exploring how Addams
actually coped with the opprobrium, Davis, offering no documentation for his opinion,
demonstrated little understanding of the pain one feels when openly scorned by a large
mass of people.
To prove Jane Addams' ambition, Davis relied primarily on evidence that she
mailed out copies of her books to other American intellectuals. Regarding the sending of
Addams' work to her peers, he averred, "The legend of Jane Addams portrays her as
modest and self-effacing, but in reality she was ambitious and eager for publicity."
There are two major flaws in Davis' argument. First, Davis seemed to believe that
no other American intellectual shared his or her work with other scholars and activists and
he ignored all the letters and books Jane Addams received from male intellectuals asking
11
that she read and comment on their work. These are all clearly documented in the Jane
Addams Papers. Upton Sinclair, Ray Stannard Baker, John Graham Brooks, Graham
Wallas and Felix Adler, to name just a few, all sent copies of their books to Jane Addams
asking that she read their work and inform them of her opinion.
Regarding Jane Addams' own books, her publisher, Macmillan, sent her a long
list of persons to whom it planned to mail out copies of her Newer Ideals of Peace.
(published in 1907) asking if there were any other individuals or organizations she wanted
to add to the list. It was good business for Macmillan to circulate Addams' books to as
many well-known American and foreign journalists, politicians and scholars as possible. It
is interesting to note that Addams added the secretary of the Chicago Woman's Club to
Macmillan's list, which already included, among others, Lillian Wald, John Dewey and
William James. On receiving Newer Ideals in February, 1907, William James encouraged
Addams to send the book to still others, and said that he had an extra copy which he would
personally mail to George Bernard Shaw because of the great interest he felt Shaw would
take in the book. 13
Second, Davis seems to believe that Jane Addams had no right to present her ideas
to her colleagues, male and female. More than an intellectual, Jane Addams was an activist
and leader in the reform, women’s suffrage and women's peace movements of her time.
As a leader, it was her responsibility to inform both other societal leaders and the general
public about the ideas of the movements and causes she represented. She could only do
this through writing and speaking out about the principles she believed in regarding
women's rights and the peace movement. Davis would have denied her the vehicles for
expression which male politicians and intellectuals employed for centuries to publicize their
thinking.
12
Aside from his negative attitude toward Jane Addams, Davis only adequately
described her activities in the women's suffrage and peace movements. He did not fully
explore Jane Addams' relationship with her women colleagues in the peace movement or
her relationship with African-American women leaders of her time. My emphasis in this
dissertation is more on the female support system which existed in the reform, suffrage and
peace movements and Addams' efforts to politicize and empower women. Different from
Davis, I have analyzed Addams' actvities from the standpoint of her feminism and her ties
to inherited traditions. I examined her relationship with black women because I believe
racism is a prevalent and destructive inherited tradition in our society and that it is important
for scholars to investigate how a woman leader such as Jane Addams dealt with issues of
race as they arose in her work for women’s rights. ^
* * * *
It is clear from Jane Addams’ correspondence with her family and women
colleagues that the women's network and support system she developed throughout her life
meant everything to her. There are many women whose names will appear in this
dissertation with regard to their close friendships and working relationships with Jane
Addams, but there are two women with whom Jane Addams chose to spend her life and
with whom she enjoyed special relationships: Ellen Gates Starr, who befriended Addams in
college and established Hull-House with her, and Mary Rozet Smith, who took Ellen
Starr’s place as Addams' most intimate confidante and companion when she came to help
out at the Hull-House kindergarten in 1890 and first met Addam s. *5
Ellen Gates Starr, who was bom on March 19,1859, grew up in Durand, Illinois,
a small country town similar to Cedarville, Jane Addams' hometown. She met Jane
Addams when they both entered Rockford Female Seminary in 1877. The Starrs were not
as wealthy as the Addams, and Ellen Starr's parents could only afford tuition at the
13
seminary for one year. While at Rockford, Starr wrote for the school paper on "Poetry"
and "Art in Florence." During Starr's childhood, her aunt, Eliza Allen Starr, a pious
convert to Catholicism, influenced her niece to take a great interest in religion and Ellen
Starr exhibited this interest both in her studies at Rockford and in her later letters to Jane
Addams. When Starr left Rockford at age 19, she taught for a year at a country school in
Mount Morris, Illinois and then moved to Chicago where she found employment as an
instructor of art appreciation at Miss Kirkland’s School for Girls. One of her major
concerns during the 1880s was how she could best use her religion (she joined the "low"
Episcopal church in 1884, but came to consider herself an "Anglican Catholic") and art
ability to serve society. In the long, rambling letters Addams and Starr exchanged during
the early and mid-1880s, Ellen Starr demonstrated concern as to whether she was devout
enough.
During 1887 and 1888, Addams and Starr traveled together in Europe (Addams
helped defray Starr’s expenses) and it was during this trip that Addams began to discuss
with Starr the idea of establishing a settlement house in Chicago. When they returned to
the States, Addams and Starr worked hard to find a location in Chicago and accumulate the
money and community cooperation necessary to open Hull-House, which they were able to
do in September of 1889. Ellen Starr's years at the Kirkland School, and her good
reputation among wealthy Chicagoans who sent their daughters there, were key factors in
winning local support for the settlement house. Starr's prime role at Hull-House in its early
years was in organizing art, history and reading clubs that she hoped would acculturate the
neighboring immigrants to American ways of life. Because of Starr's advocacy of art
appreciation, in 1891 Edward Butler donated $5,000 to Hull-House - one of the first major
gifts to the settlement - for the purpose of founding an art gallery. In the late 1890s, Stan-
traveled to London to study bookbindery and when she returned to Hull-House, she lived
14
in a small apartment near her bookbindery. Mary Wilmarth, one of Hull-House's several
women benefactors, financially supported Ellen Starr while she lived at Hull-House.
After Florence Kelley - a committed socialist who was politically more radical than
Jane Addams - came to live at Hull-House in the early 1890s, Ellen Starr became active in
the settlement's crusade for better working conditions for women and against child labor.
In 1896,1910 and 1915, she aided striking textile workers, and in 1914, she was arrested
for "interfering with a police officer in the discharge of his duty" during a restaurant
employee's strike. Starr was a charter member of the Illinois branch of the National
Women's Trade Union League and after the 1915 textile strike, labor leader Sidney
Hillman, a close friend of Starr’s, awarded her an honorary membership in the
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.
By 1916, Starr considered herself a socialist and ran for alderman because, as she
explained, "There was no other socialist on the ticket" As did all women candidates that
year, Starr lost the election. She was also still involved in a religious quest and in 1920,
she converted to Roman Catholicism and moved to St. Joseph's Benedictine Abbey in
Louisiana. She still visited her old friends at Hull-House until surgery for a spinal abscess
in 1929 left her paralysed below the waist. In 1930 she went to live at the Convent of the
Holy Child in Suffem, New York, where five years later she became an oblate of the Third
order of St. Benedict. She died on February 10,1940 at the age of eighty and was buried
at the convent 16
Mary Rozet Smith was raised in a wealthy Chicago family and Jenny Dow, another
young Chicago woman, first brought Smith to Hull-House in 1890 to help out in the Hull-
House kindergarten. Smith's family became regular financial contributors to Hull-House
and Jane Addams began to spend time with Mary Smith at the Smith family residence on 19
Walton Place. Smith was not the activist that Ellen Gates Starr was, but she offered
15
support and companionship to Addams by keeping her company on lecture tours and other
long journeys, and she continually wrote to Addams whenever the two women were
separated. In her own letters to Smith, Jane Addams showed not only a great love for
Mary Smith but deep appreciation for Mary Smith's support. Their many travels together
included a visit to Tolstoy in 1896, a trip to Europe and the Middle East in 1913 during
which they attended the Seventh Congress of the International Woman's Suffrage Alliance
( Addams addressed the conference), a journey to India and the Far East in 1923, and in
1926, a visit to the West Indies. In 1914, Smith and Addams bought a summer cottage
together at Hull's Cove, Maine, where they spent as much time as possible during the
summer and fall months. When Jane Addams was often ill during World War 1, Smith
helped take care of her and handled much of Addams' voluminous correspondence. In
February, 1934, Smith died of pnuemonia in Chicago, and within just over a year, on May
21,1935, Jane Addams died of c a n c e r . ^
It is unfortunate that although the Jane Addams Papers are filled with thousands of
letters that Addams wrote to Smith, none of Smith's letters to Addams have survived.
Perhaps, to preserve the privacy of their relationship, Jane Addams destroyed the letters
Smith wrote to her, although the spirit of those letters are very much present in the letters
Jane Addams wrote to Smith and which Smith, fortunately, kept for posterity's sake.
* * * *
There is one more issue which is crucial for the historian to address when
attempting to write a biography of someone who has left much aubiographical material: the
veracity of those self-presented recollections. Jane Addams wrote several autobiographical
and semi-autobiographical books and I have used five of them in this dissertation: Twenty
Years at Hull-House (1910), Women at the Hague (1915), The Long Road of Woman's
Memory (1916), Peace and Bread in Time of War (1922) and The Second Twenty Years at
16
H ull-H ouse (1930). Herbert Leibowitz explored the truthfulness of several
autobiographers, including Addams, in his 1989 book, Fabricating Lives. With regard to
Jane Addams, he examined her presentation in Twenty Years, and concluded that it "is an
important document because it displays and illuminates the character of the social reformer.
.. (it) is a masterpiece of balance."
I have found a few errors of memory and occasional misinformation in Addams'
autobigraphical work, more so in the later Second Twenty Years than in her earlier books.
I have purposely not relied on her autobiographies for factual information but have instead
focussed on them as her interpretation and perception of events as she lived through
them.
* * * *
The dissertation includes four chapters and a conclusion. The first chapter explores
Addams early years, her founding of Hull-House, the origins of the women’s network she
helped create during the Progressive Era and her political and suffrage work until 1912.
The second chapter looks at her relationship with African-American leaders, particularly
women, and her continuing political and suffrage work up to the outbreak of World War
1. Chapter three traces Addams development as a leader of the women's peace movement
until her return home in the summer of 1915 from her meetings with European statesmen.
During these diplomatic sessions with European men leaders she and other women peace
activists lobbied for an early, negotiated settlement of World War 1. The fourth chapter
focuses on her work as the principal leader of the American and international women's
peace movement from 1915 to 1918. The chapter discusses the WPP and Addams'
wartime activites and concludes as women peace activists prepared for their post-war
international congress. The conclusion analyzes the difficulties women pacifists confronted
during wartime, as Jane Addams experienced and wrote about them in Peace and Bread in
17
Time of War, and the general problems women face in trying to break into the traditionally
male-dominated field of national and international politics, especially women like Jane
Addams whose agenda include issues of peace, disarmament and social justice.
18
FOOTNOTES
^Lawrence Goodwyn, The Populist Moment. (New York: Oxford University Press,
1978), pp.30,61,65,72,204-205,284,295. The Populist Moment is an abridged edition of
Goodwyn’s Democratic Promise: The Populist Moment in America, published by Oxford
University Press in 1976.
^Linda Kerber, "Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Woman's Place: The Rhetoric of
Women's History," Journal of American History. Vol. 75, No. 1, June, 1988, p.39.
3At their first congress after World War 1, held in Zurich in 1919, the ICWPP adopted the
name of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Jane Addams
(JA) served as president of WILPF from 1919 to 1929, when she became its honorary
president for life. Re: JA's political activism and her refusal to run for political office, see
chapters 1,2 and 4. Re: her peace work among women, see chapters 3 and 4.
^Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860," American Quarterly. Vol.
18, No. 2, Summer, 1966,pp.153,159,162-163,171. In her article on "Separate Spheres,"
(p. 11) Kerber correctly, I believe, connects die onset of articles on women's separate
sphere with the 1963 publication of Betty Freidan's The Feminine Mystique (New York:
W. W. Norton, 1963). Freidan argued that it was a great myth propagated in American
society that twentieth century women were content staying at home and only nuturing their
families. It should be noted that in all of JA's writings and lectures, she mentioned no
influence by feminist thinkers such as Wollstonecraft or Martineau. In college, she studied
mainly male theorists such as Carlyle, Browning and Ruskin: see Anne Firor Scott,
Making The Invisible Woman Visible. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1984),p. 110 and Allen F. Davis, American Heroine: The Life and Legend of Jane Addams.
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 12. In her later years, she wrote of being
influenced by Darwin, Tolstoy and James Frazer. Re: Tolstoy, See JA, "A Visit to
Tolstoy," McClures. Vol. 36, No. 3, 1911, pp.295-302. Re: Darwin, see JA, Newer
Ideals of Peace (New York: Macmillan, 1907), p.24. Re: Frazer, see JA, Peace and Bread
in Time of War (New York: Macmillan, 1922), pp.75-77.
Âileen S. Kraditor,ed., Up From the Pedestal: Selected Writings in the History of
American Feminism. (Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 1968), pp.9,4,10. Gerda
Lemer, "The Lady and the M il Girl: Changes in the Status of Women in the Age of
Jackson," Midcontinent American Studies Journal. Vol. 10, Spring, 1969, pp.5-15,
particularly p. 10-12.
^Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victoria America.
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), pp.53-76, particularly pp.54,160,254-256. Smith-
Rosenberg, "Politics and Culture in Women's History: A Symposium," Feminist Studies.
Vol 6, Spring, 1980, pp.63-64.
^Marlene Stein Wortman, "Domesticating the Nineteenth-Century American City,"
Prospects: An Annual of American Culture Studies. Vol. 3, 1976, pp.535,547,563.
^Nancy F. CottThe Bonds of Womanhood: "Woman's Sphere" in New England. 1780-
1835. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), pp. 70,125,173,197-206.
^Michelle Zimbalist Rosaldo, "The Use and Abuse of Anthropology: Reflections on
Feminism and Cross-cultural Understanding ," Signs. Vol. 5, 1980. pp. 393-394, 402-
403, 409. Estelle Freedman, Separatism as Strategy: Female Institution Building and
American Feminism, 1870-1930," Feminist Studies. Vol. 5, Fall, 1979, pp. 512-513.
19
lOKathryn Kish Sklar, "Hull House in the 1890s: A Community of Women Reformers,"
Signs. Vol. 10, Summer, 1985, pp. 664, 676-677. Sklar, "Jane Addams’s Blessings as a
Peace Activist, 1914-1922, Are What Women Peace Activists Need Today," Selected
Papers from Women and Peace: an International Conference. (Urbana: University of
Illinois School of Social Work, 1990), pp.9-19, particularly p.9.
Margaret Connally, The Unrest of Women," The Progress Magazine. Vol. 10. No. 10,
December, 1910. pp. 1-8. particularly p. 2.
l^Davis, op.cit.. pp. x, 85, 88, 91, 92, 236. Scott, op.cit., pp. 142-148, 211.
l^Davis, ibid.. pp.145-163. Mary Lynn McCree Bryan, ed., The Jane Addams Papers
(JAP), (Chicago: University of Illinois, 1985), JA to Ray Stannard Baker, November 7,
1908, Reel 5, p. 593, (from now on reels and pages will appear as, for example: JAP.,
5/593; for further explanation of this abbreviation see Footnotes for Chapter 1); Felix
Adler to JA, May 5, 1918, JAP.. 11/994; JA to Upton Sinclair, February 2, 1915, JAP.,
8/251; JA to Graham Wallas, May 14,1914, JAP.. 7/1470; JA to John Graham Brooks,
November 7, 1908, JAP. 5/595; A.H. Nelson (Macmillan College Department) to JA,
January 11,1907, JAP. 5/17-19; William James to JA, February 12,1907, JAP.. 5/64-66,
also see footnote 37 of chapter 4 of dissertation. Mailing out books is standard trade book
practice - possibly, an academician such as Davis did not understand this. Bryan’s guide to
the JAP contains a comprehensive chronology of JA's life, pp. 1-9.
14 The work of three colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, and discussions with
them, made me realize it was critical to include material dealing with JA's relationships with
African-American women (see chapter 2 of dissertation): Mary Frances Berry was the
reader of the dissertation, and I was also influenced by her article, "Increasing Women's
Influence in Government and Politics: The Inclusion of Women of Color," Proteus: A
Journal of Ideas. Vol. 3, Fall, 1986, pp. 1-5; Evelyn Brooks Higgenbotham, who wrote a
ground-breaking article about black women being left out of women’s history: "Beyond the
Sound of Silence: Afro-American Women in History," Gender and History. Vol. 1, No. 1,
Spring, 1989, pp.50-67; and Melinda Chateauvert, who wrote her master's thesis on Ida
B. Wells-Bamet and Jane Addams.
l^The issue of JA's lesbianism has been raised by Allen Davis, who deemed it irrelevant
fop.cit.. pp.45-46,90-91) and Blanche Wiesen Cook, who insisited it was not irrelevant
(see Cook, "Female Support Networks and Political Activism: Lillian Wald, Crystal
Eastman and Emma Goldman," in Nancy F. Cott and Elizabeth Pleck, eds., A Heritage of
Her Own. (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979), pp. 412-419, with specific reference to
JA, p.419). Because other scholars have addressed this issue, I feel it would be remiss of
me not to do so. Cook argued that the historical denial of lesbian relationships of such
women as JA and Wald allowed historians to ignore the importance of women's support
for one another in their political activism. Although there are no frankly sexual letters in the
JAP, there are letters which may suggest that JA was a lesbian and that her love for Ellen
Gates Starr (EGS) and especially Mary Rozet Smith (MRS) was more than simple
romanticism. JA has a right to her privacy, but I agree with Cook that the female support
system and love of Starr and Smith for Addams, and her love for them, were crucial in
enabling JA to carry on the exceedingly intense political work she did throughout her life.
During the era in which she lived, it would have been political suicide for JA to openly
admit her lesbianism and such a public proclamation would have undermined her role (with
the greater society) as a leader of the women's rights and peace movements. There are two
letters which I find suggestive of a possible sexual relationship with MRS. See JA to
EGS, July (?) 1892, JAP..2/1316-1317. in which JA, who addressed EGS as "My dear
One," tells her regarding a house party at a mutual friend's, "Of Course, Mary and I slept
20
together." To Lillian Wald on March 26,1915, JAP..8/537-538. JA wrote, after she and
Mary had been apart for several weeks, "I am naturally anxious to lay my eyes on Mary."
16james Weber Linn, Jane Addams. (New York: Appleton-Century, 1936), p.45. Allen F.
Davis, "Ellen Gates Starr," in Notable American Women. 1607-1950. Vol. 3. Part 2.
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), pp. 351-353. See Reel 2 of the JAP, for
correspondence between EGS and JA, in particular, JA to EGS, February 18,1986, EGS
to JA, November ?, 1885, JAP.. 2/204 and 148.
l ^ D a v i s , op.cit.. pp.85-87. JA to MRS, August 8, 1895, March ?, 1898, April 22, and
May 6,1915, JAP.. 2/1721-1724, 3/975-979, 8/754-759, 835. Bryan, op.cit.. pp.2-11.
^Herbert Leibowitz, Fabricating Lives: Explorations in American Autobiographv.fNew
York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989),pp.l 15-155, specifically p.134. In JA, The Second
Twenty Years at Hull-House. 1909 to 1929. (New York: Macmillan, 1930), pp. 126-127.
The letters which JA remembers as being supportive were not all so: see William Kent (et.
al.) to JA, April 21, 1916, JAP. 9/1308-1324. In Second Twenty.p .l 18. she gives the
wrong date for the special Survey issue.
21
Chapter 1
Jane Addams and the Political Responsibilities of Women
When Jane Addams, with her close college friend, Ellen Gates Starr, founded Hull-
House in the immigrant slum on the west side of Chicago on September 18, 1889, she
was twenty-nine years old. She was a young, white woman of the upper-middle-class
establishment who was desparately seeking a way to use her talent, education and
intelligence to free herself from inherited traditions that stymied women in their efforts to
gain independence from their families and gain power in the larger, male-dominated
American society. She was a perspicacious and introspective woman who gleaned from
her own experience, and those of her colleagues, that other young women must also be in
need of greater economic, political and psychological freedom.
Jane Addams was bom Laura Jane Addams on September 6, 1860 in the small,
sleepy, northern Illinois mill town of Cedarville. Her mother, Sarah Weber Addams, died
when Jane was only two years and four months old. Jane was the last of eight children,
only four of whom lived to adulthood. After her mother died, Addams' seventeen year
old sister, Mary, stepped in to fill her mother's place and raise Jane and her siblings,
Martha, age thirteen (who died four years later of typhoid fever), James Weber, age ten,
and Alice, age nine. As well as Polly Bear, the family nurse, Mary employed several
village girls to help her run the Addams' household. Jane's father, John Huy Addams,
was a successful businessman and state politician. At the age of 32, he was first elected to
the Illinois State Senate on the Whig ticket and returned for seven more terms as a
Republican. He was an acquaintance and great admirer of Abraham Lincoln. When Jane
was eight years old, he was married for a second time, to Anna Hostetter Haldeman, a
local widow of culture and wealth.!
22
As a child Jane was reportedly shy, wanting to express her feelings, but afraid to do
so. She was an excellent student, however, and in June of 1877, she traveled east to
Northampton, Massachusetts where she passed the entrance exam to Smith, the women's
college just recently opened in 1875. But her father, a trustee of Illinois' Rockford Female
Seminary, where Jane's olders sisters, Mary and Alice, had received their advanced
schooling, insisted that Jane stay closer to home and attend Rockford. Jane accepted his
decision.2
After the founding of Mt. Holyoke in 1837, many institutions offering higher
education for women came into existence: Vassar in 1865, Wellesley and Smith in 1875,
the "Harvard Annex" and Bryn Mawr in 1879.3 Rockford was founded in 1853, but
when Jane matriculated there in the fall of 1877, it did not, as did the eastern women’s
colleges, offer a B.A. degree. With another classmate, Jane successfully petitioned
Rockford's administration that they be allowed to take the requirements necessary for a
B.A. degree, then not offered at the seminary. Jane graduated from Rockford in 1881,
and in June, 1882, when Rockford gained accreditation to grant B.A. degrees, Jane
Addams became one of the college's first four recipients of this award.4
"Women’s Causes" were much on the minds of college women of Jane Addams'
generation. At Rockford, Jane came into contact with women teachers who were leaders in
the organization of women for purposes other than marriage and further academic
learning. Charlotte Emerson, who taught Modem Languages at the seminary, became the
first president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC), founded in 1890.
Another teacher, Mrs. Brazee, organized women’s clubs locally.3
Jane Addams’ own sense of the need for women to excel outside of a cloistered
environment was demonstrated by her participation as Rockford’s entrant in an Interstate
Oratorical Contest held in June of her senior year. William Jennings Bryan, representing
23
Illinois College, was also a contestant. When she failed to achieve honors, Jane wrote
disparagingly that she placed "exactly in the dreary middle," (fifth) behind Bryan and the
other young men. She wrote that Bryan, "thrilled his auditors with a moral earnestness
which we had mistakenly assumed would be the unique possession of the female orator."
She felt that she represented "not only one school but college women in general," and that
she stood for "the progress of Women’s Cause(sic)." Colleagues prepping Jane for the
debates told her that she "had an intolerable habit of dropping my voice at the end of a
sentence in the most feminine, apologetic and even deprecatory manner which would
probably lose Woman(sic) the first place." When she returned to school, her classmates
were "not only exhausted by the premature preparations for the return of the successful
orator, but naturally irritated as they contemplated their drooping garlands. They did not
fail to make me realize that I had dealt the cause of woman's advancement a staggering
blow." ^
Noteworthy in Addams' discussion of the contest were the ideas that if Jane Addams
appeared too feminine, she would lose the contest, and that "moral earnestness" was the
sole property of women. Competing against men in academic situations was uncharted
waters for these young, educated women. The concept of separate spheres, that men and
women were qualitatively different in appeal and ability, was real for the women as they
strategized how best to compete and win in what seemed to them to be a male-dominated
world. They could not simply act naturally but felt it was necessary to appear more
"masculine." Here we see the fledgling efforts of a group of conscientious young women
trying to deal with a dilemma which Jane Addams would perpetually face as she matured
into an international activist: how women could gain power in society while maintaining a
feminine role, which they saw as their identity, but which simultaneously thwarted their
power because they did not appear "masculine" enough.
24
Jane Addams was clearly a product of an era when upper- middle-class women
realized through advanced education, which introduced them not only to philosophical
debates but to other women also away from home for the first time, that they could aspire
to professions as their mothers had not. The young women, whose families were able to
afford a college education for their daughters, had the opportunity to converse and argue,
and build relationships among themselves, independent of the yoke of their family’s
watchful and circumscribing eyesJ At college, these women were immured in ideas that
would eventually, after they left school, create conflicts within themselves. On the one
hand, they were taught to go out into the world and be upright, industrious and productive
citizens. On the other hand, they sensed an allegiance to the traditions of women's
separate sphere. Whereas a man’s "sphere" always included the political world, upper-
middle-class women, until the twentieth century, were generally relegated to the home and
more domestic activities of nurturing families and charity work. Many college women of
Jane Addams' generation desired to continue the move away from home begun in school
but they felt pressured to remain within the family boundaries. They could stay home, or
marry and create a family of their own, and undertake "good deeds," but to leave home as
a single woman was a novel concept for women of Addams' generation and socio
economic class.
How to accomplish noble work outside the traditions of the proper family boundaries
would become a frustrating problem for Jane Addams in particular. Her junior year
exhibition speech augured the conflict in her between remaining within the boundaries of
women's separate sphere and moving out into a male political world, a conflict which
would nag her throughout her years as a social and peace activist. Women, she said, had,
passed from accomplishments and the arts of pleasing, to the development

of her intellectual force and her capabilities for direct labor. She wishes not
to be a man, nor like a man, but she claims the same right to independent
25
thought and action . . . We are not restless and anxious for things beyond
us . . we simply claim the highest privileges of our times and avail
ourselves of its best opportunities. But while on the one hand, as young
women of the 19th century, we gladly claim these privileges, and proudly
assert our independence, on the other hand we still retain the old ideal of
womanhood - die saxon lady whose mission it was to give bread unto her
household. So we have planned to be 'Breadgivers' throughout our lives,
believing that in labor alone is happiness, and that the only true and
honorable life is one filled with good works and honest toil, we will strive
to idealize our labor and this happily fulfill woman's noblest mission.^
Jane Addams was valedictorian of her graduating class at Rockford. Her address,
entitled "Cassandra," continued the theme emphasized in her junior exhibition speech:
"We have expressed to each other higher and nobler things than we have probably ever
said to anyone else . . We stand united to-day in a belief in beauty, genius, and courage,
and that these expressed through truest womanhood can yet transform the w orld."9 Jane
Addams was a young woman who held great expectations that she and her friends would
take their lofty, idealized vision of what pure woman could do and reform the world. But
what exactly were they do to? How could they reconcile asserting their independence with
retention of their traditional role as "Breadgiver" to the family? Addams claimed that she
and her women colleagues did not seek "things beyond us" but, in fact, they very much
did.
In August, 1881, after her graduation from Rockford, Jane Addams' father died
while the family was on a trip to the Lake Superior copper country in Wisconsin. A few
days later, Jane wrote to Ellen Starr, "The greatest sorrow that can ever come to me has
passed, and I hope it is only a question of time until I get my moral purposes
straightened." I® Jane Addams was now essentially an orphan. According to her
autobiography, Twenty Years at Hull-House (which she dedicated to the memory of her
father), she felt from the time of her graduation until her decision to found Hull-House,
"absolutely at sea so far as any moral purpose was concerned, clinging only to the desire
26
to live in a really living world and refusing to be content with the shadowy intellectual or
esthetic reflection of it." 11
In the fall of 1881, Jane traveled to Philadelphia with her step-mother and entered the
Woman's Medical College there. However, by the spring she was ill with what one
biographer has classified a nervous breakdown and she received treatment at Dr. S. Weir
Mitchell's Hospital of Orthopedic and Nervous D is e a s e s . 12 She then returned to
Cedarville with her step-mother, little improved in health or spirit, and spent the summer
of 1882 with her sister in Mitchellville, Iowa. In the fall she underwent an operation
performed by her brother-in-law to correct a curviture in her spine. By August of 1883,
Jane was ready to travel to Europe. She wrote to Ellen Starr, "It seems quite essential for
the establishment of my health and temper." She left New York Harbor with her step
mother, and other relatives and friends, for nineteen months of travel a b r o a d . 13
Jane Addams was always very hard on herself and while she might have been
enjoying the sights of Paris, she wrote to Ellen Starr on February 21, 1885, that "I was
thinking yesterday rather drearily that I had accomplished very little since being in
Paris." 14 After Jane returned to the states, she and Ellen corresponded in long, rambling
letters. This correspondence represented the origins of a network of women which would
later change the way women interacted with their environment. Jane and Ellen were not
content with singular family life. Both complained that they felt the need for something
responsible to do. In November of 1885, Ellen wrote to Jane, " I can't help wishing
that we could sometime be in the same place long enough to do some work together. I
believe we should work well." 15 In early February, 1886, in response to Ellen's self
recriminations, Jane wrote, "Don't you know, my dear, that you do as much work as I
do, and more, in addition to all the time and vitality you give your girls and that I am filled
with shame that with all my apparent leisure I do nothing at all. I have had the strangest
27
experience in Baltimore. I have found my faculties, memory, receptive faculties and all,
perfectly inaccessible locked away from me."
On December 14,1887, Jane Addams sailed from New York with a former teacher
from Rockford Seminary, Sarah Anderson, to meet Ellen Starr in Europe. It was
Addams' idea to travel to Europe with her friends and she paid half of their expenses.
Starr, who was anxious to get to Europe, had crossed the Atlantic earlier in the fall. In
Twenty Years at Hull-House Addams claimed that her idea to found Hull-House stemmed
from her sitting through a bull fight in Madrid in Easter, 1888, during this trip. At the
time, she wrote home to her sister, Laura: "There were six bulls killed that afternoon, but
we did not stay until the bitter end although we were rather ashamed and surprised to find
that we were brutal enough to take a great interest in i t . . I think I would rather not have
the children of the family know of the bullfight." ^ This is how Jane Addams explained
the process in her autobiography,
It is hard to tell just when the very simple plan which afterward
developed into the Settlement began to form itself in my mind. It may have
been even before I went to Europe for the second time, but I gradually
became convinced that it would be a good thing to rent a house in a part of
the city where primitive and actual needs are found, in which young women
who had been given over too exclusively to study, might resore a balance of
activity along traditional lines and learn of life itself; where they might try
out some of the things they had been taught and put truth to 'the ultimate test
of the conduct it dictates or inspires.’ I do not remember to have mentioned
this plan to any one until we reached Madrid in April, 1888.
We had been to see a bull fight rendered in the most magnificent
Spanish style, where greatly to my surprise and horror, I found that I had
seen, with comparative indifference, five bulls and many more horses
killed. . . in the evening the natural and inevitable reaction came, and in
deep chagrin I felt myself tried and condemned, not only by this disgusting
experience but by the entire moral situation which it r e v e a l e d . *8
As Addams limned, "the entire moral situation" to which she awoke was that she
was trying to tell herself that she was doing something with her life, when in reality she
was doing nothing at all that she considered to be of any merit or consequence. She was
affected by seeing the poverty in East London on her first trip to Europe in October, 1883,
28
as evinced in a letter she wrote at the time to her brother, James Weber, " . . we found
ourselves in a Dickens neighborhood.. .We took a look down into dingy old Grub S t It
was simply an outside superficial survey of misery and wretchedness, but it was enough
to make one thoroughly sad and perplexed." *9 Now, apparently, she was distressed and
jolted enough by her lack of action to finally become the toiling "breadgiver" she believed
herself destined to be in college.
In Twenty Years at Hull-House. Addams recounted how she discussed the idea of a
settlement with Ellen Starr, hoping that Ellen would join her in the "scheme." She credited
the comfort of Ellen's "companionship, vigor and enthusiasm" as the final leverage which
enabled her to proceed with her plan of founding Hull-House.Ô In June of 1888,
Addams visited Toynbee Hall, the social settlement in East London's Whitechapel section
run by men from Oxford University. Samuel Barnett had established it in 1884 out of the
belief that working and collegiate men would benefit from reciprocal communication.
Addams also reported in Twenty Years that she attended a meeting of London match girls
who were on strike and "who met daily under the leadership of well-known labor men of
London."21 These experiences were her introduction to what she later defined as the
founding purpose of Hull-House: "to make social intercourse express the growing sense
of the economic unity of society . . to add the social function to democracy.. . It was
opened on the theory that the dependence of the classes on each other is r e c i p r o c a l . " ^
Jane Addams returned to America that summer. January of 1889 found her and Ellen
Starr, both young women petite and earnest, in rooms in a Chicago boarding house, a
base from which they worked to gamer support for their idea of a settlement One of the
first organizations to which Addams turned to seek assistance was the Chicago Women's
Club. During February, she wrote long, exuberant letters to her sister Mary describing the
experiences of meeting with the doyennes of the club:
29
"Mrs. Starrett, she is of much weight in the club. If she wants she can
crush the whole thing at a blow.. . She believed just now she had felt the
stirring of the spirit and she intended to follow it whither it led and she
advised the other ladies to meditate on the matter which had been presented.
The effect was very good for us .. .Mrs. J.O. Harvey came . . to
investigate me. She frankly said that she is a great power in the woman's
club. . at the end of about an half an (she) hour asked me if I wanted to join
the 'Woman's Club." I told her I should be very glad indeed if it were
possible to be elected. She said that they had 360 members too many and
that they were trying to restrict it to the election of one new member a year.
'I came to see you about that, I shouldn't wonder if you would be the one
member.' I said that struck me as rather improbable as I was almost a
stranger in Chicago. She said that doesn't make any difference if I want
you. I am a pretty important member of that c l u b .2 3
Jane wrote to her sister that she addressed the Woman's Club for 15 minutes as well
as she could and one of the older ladies exclaimed, "surprises never cease!" Jane
continued, "We have positively done nothing in regard to urging on the cause and yet get
invitations from all sides. We think it must be the Woman's Club." Jane and Ellen met
with graduates from Smith, Vassar and Wellesley. They tried to reach college women
who like themselves wanted to work productively in society, outside of the fold of their
families of origin. When a Chicago minister predicted that "the modem fashionable young
ladies . . the most hard-hearted creatures in existence" would have no interest in their
plan, Jane retorted, "It was time someone did something for them if their very pastor
talked about them like that." 24
The first social settlement in the United States was established in 1886 on the Lower
East Side of New York by an Amherst graduate, Stanton Coit, who had earlier that year
spent several months at Toynbee Hall. Strongly influenced by the Ethical Culture Society,
Coit, who held a Ph.D. from the University of Berlin, believed that the first step toward
social reform in the city should be "the conscious organization of the intellectual and moral
life of the people." His Neighborhood Guild collapsed when he moved to England in
1887, but two other male settlements, the Hudson Guild and the University Settlement,
grew out of it.25
30
Hull-House was the second women's settlement founded in the United States. A
week before its doors opened on September 18,1889, the women of the College
Settlement Association established the College Settlement on the Lower East Side of New
York. Vida Scudder, a Smith graduate and former English instructor at Wellesley,
began organizing graduates of the eastern women's schools after a Smith College reunion
in 1887, when the young women decided that social justice "could only be won at the cost
of a tremendous social upheaval." Several of the women had spent time in England
observing settlements and felt it was an idea that could be transported to ameliorate
conditions in the teeming, mephitic slums of America. 26
Jane Addams corresponded with her compatriots of the College Settlement about their
plan but wrote to her sister, "We are modest enough to think that ours is better." Ellen
Starr wrote to a friend about her envisionment of Hull-House, "We have well-founded
reason to believe that there are at least a half dozen girls in the city who will be glad to
come and stay a while and learn to know the people and understand them and their way of
life; to give out of their culture and leisure and over-indulgence and to receive the culture
that comes of self-denial and poverty and failure which these people have always
known."27
Chicago of 1889 was a city of close to a million people, three-quarters of whom were
immigrants from Ireland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia, Poland and other Bohemian
lands. Catholics from over a dozen different countries crowded in on three sides of Hull-
House, Polish or Russian Jews resided to the south, and at any given time in the 1890s
at least 26 nationalities could be found living within three blocks of the settlement house.
70,000 souls packed into a six block radius of Hull-House. As Jane Addams described
living conditions surrounding Polk and Halsted Streets, where Hull-House was located,
"The streets are inexpressibly dirty, the number of schools inadequate, sanitary legislation
31
unenforced, the street lighting bad, the paving miserable and the stables foul beyond
description. Hundreds of houses are unconnected with the street sewer. ."
There was no gainsaying that when Jane Addams, Ellen Starr and a woman-
housekeeper, Mary Keyser, moved into Hull-House the area was in need of rehabilitation.
Since college, Jane Addams had been struggling with how she could do "good deeds,"
but also know an independence equal to a man’s. When she, Ellen and their housekeeper
(that they would take their own housekeeper reflects fully their socio-economic class
background!) opened house on Halsted Street, she finally found a way that was acceptable
to society to both retain her female identity as noble "breadgiver" and live independently
from her family.
Addams and Starr advertised throughout Chicago for support of Hull-House, and
with money from Addams' family income and other donors, they were able to rent Hull-
House (for $60 a month) from Helen Culver, a philanthropist who inherited the property
and millions of dollars from her cousin, Charles Hull. By the spring of 1890, Culver was
convinced of the settlement's good work and leased for free to Addams the house and land
adjacent to it for four years - she eventually donated the whole property outright to Hull-
House. Soon after Hull-House opened, Jenny Dow, a young wealthy Chicagoan,
organized and funded the settlement's kindergarten. Many more well-heeled Chicago
women offered financial assistance to Addams, including Louise De Koven Bowen, who
served as president of the Hull-House Woman's Club for seventeen years and built
Bowen Hall to accommodate the club’s activities. She later paid all expenses to erect the
largest of the Hull-House buildings that supported the activities of the Hull-House Boy's
Club. Throughout their lives, Culver and Bowen remained two of Hull-House's most
generous contributors. In 1895, Addams was able to formally incorporate the Hull-House
Settlement.28
32
The white, upper-middle-class had always exercised tremendous power and authority
in the American hierarchy, but the women of the establishment had usually done so
through the confines - part-time charity or club work - of their family life. Jane Addams
was central in the movement of middle-class women during the Progressive years who
reached for power by first leaving their own families and then going to live and work with
other women. Throughout the 1890s, in lectures and magazine articles, Jane Addams
alerted society to the college woman's need to fulfill her social obligation, a desire which
the woman's family would want to deny. Addams explained that the new generation of
college educated women wanted to do something more for society than only contribute to
her family's well-being: these young women yearned to exercise their rights as "citizens"
and participate in "health-giving activity." Clearly referring to her own experience, she
addressed the Board of the Chicago Woman's Club on December 3,1891:
"educated young people . . have to bear the brunt of being cultivated into
unnourished, over-sensitive lives. They have been shut off from the
common labor by which they live; from the great sources of moral and
physical health. Young girls feel it most in the first years after they leave
school. In our attempt, then, to give a girl freedom from care, we succeed,
for the most part, in making her pitiable miserable. She finds 'life' all so
different from what she expected it to be. She is besotted with innocent
little ambitions, and does not understand the apparent waste of herself; —the
elaborate preparation, if no work is expected of her. Her own uselessness
hangs about her heavily. The sense of uselessness and impotence, Huxley
declares, is the severest shock the human mind can sustain, and if
persistently sustained, results in atrophy o f power. 29
Jane Addams expanded on this theme when she gave a remarkable lecture in 1892 on
"The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlement" at the summer school of the Ethical
Culture Society held in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Here, however, she more strongly and
directly indicted the family for trying to hamper the college-educated daughter, "when the
daughter comes back from college and begins to recognize her social claim to the
"submerged tenth," and to evince a disposition to fulfil it, the family claim is strenuously
33
asserted; she is told that she is unjustified, ill-advised in her efforts.. . The girl loses
something vital out of her life which she is entitled to. She is restricted and unhappy; her
elders, meanwhile, are unconscious of the situation, and we have all the elements of a
tragedy."30
Jane Addams offered the most comprehensive exploration of this conflict in an article
which appeared in The Commons in September of 1898, "The College and the Family
Claim." She wrote that a girl’s family did not anticipate that its daughter would return
from college feeling the "stress of social obligation." She argued that the daughter meant
not to disavow her family's inheritance but that "she has entered into a wider inheritance as
well." Addams warned that if the young woman allowed the "social claim" to be pre
empted by the "family claim" she would remain full of contradictions and become ill. She
would be given a "rest-cure" (which is exactly what Jane Addams received when she
dropped out of medical school in 1882), when what she really needed was responsible
activity. Addams concluded that the family was susceptible to progress, and like all
institutions, it needed to be reconstructed as well as preserved. Many women, she
averred, were struggling with the task of enlarging the conception and the functions of the
family.31 As she suggested to the 1895 graduating class of Rockford:
Woman has always been the conservator of the family. Family and state we
have ever held to be the most sacred relations. They have been handed
down to us as the greatest result of work of the past To preserve intact the
gift is not sufficient. We should enlarge and add to the things which are
given us. And thus family life is capable of enlargement. The family duty
should be extended so that it shall embrace the community. We should
enlarge the bonds and not limit those to whom our love and interest is
extended to (by) the bonds of cosanguinity .32
Kathryn Kish Sklar has argued that Hull-House enabled women to move into the
male political arena while simultaneously maintaining a female base for activity which
allowed them independence from male-dominated institutions.33 Once Jane Addams
worked through her own Angst, and established Hull-House, she saw it as her obligation
34
to provide this kind of foundation for other women. In her lectures and writings about the
need for young women to participate in settlement work, she was proselytizing to an
audience with whom she identified and which she felt held great potential. She believed,
on one hand, that women had to move beyond their "separate sphere" to influence the
workings of society. On the other hand, she was confronted by the fact that circumstances
made it difficult for women to do so. At the time Hull-House opened its doors, not one
state in the Union offered women suffrage and not one woman sat in the U.S. Congress
or the state legislatures where the laws were made which affected women every day of
their lives.
Jane Addams worked tirelessly through the social reform, suffrage, Progressive
Party and peace movements to increase women's participation in the public and political
arenas - traditionally the bastions and sole preserves of men. In many ways, women's
involvement in the social reform movement was not threatening to society because it could
still be viewed as an outgrowth of women's separate domestic sphere. Women working
in political parties and achieving suffrage was more threatening, and the women's peace
movement still more so, because women were stepping out of their traditional roles to
demand more direct, open control over how society functioned - and treated and used
women. Jane Addams was aware of the difficulties inherent in moving beyond the
women's "sphere."
* * * *
The goal of Hull-House, according to its charter, was "To provide a center for a
higher civic and social life; to institute and maintain educational and philanthropic
enterprises, and to investigate and improve in the conditions in the industrial districts of
C h ig a g o ." 3 4 in December of 1891, Jane Addams wrote to her friend, Katherine Coman,
to answer Coman's inquiry as to what Addams viewed as most fundamental to the work at
35
Hull-House, "The most important aspect of settlement work is the neighborly aspect - in
the arousing of the sense of responsibility of good citizenship . . . our neighbors have
constantly less fear that we will proselyte (sic) them." About those who would be the
residents of Hull-House, Addams continued, "In regard to style of living I think it should
be that that the residents would naturally have if they lived anywhere else. I deprecate very
much anything that makes the movement strained or unnatural."35
By the end of 1894, Hull-House counted fifteen residents, the majority being women
who lived in the main house and a handful of men who resided in a house across the
street. Edith Abbott, who lived at the settlement with her sister Grace from 1908 to 1921
reported that during those years residents included usually twenty to twenty-five women
and a dozen men.36 The most ambitious of the women who came to live at Hull-House
between its inception and the second decade of the twentieth century - those who became
famous for their work championing the rights of women and children - shared a common
family background, particularly a political one. Their fathers had all been highly and
visibly active in state and national politics and had clearly imbued their daughters' with a
sense of the need for positive citizenship and political responsibilty.
Jane Addams' father, who served eight terms as an Illinois State senator, was
representative of the fathers of the other pioneering residents of Hull-House. Julia
Lathrop's father William, a successful attorney and politician from Rockford, Illinois,
served in both the Illinois legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives. Julia, an
1880 Vassar graduate, felt bored working in her father's law office and came to live at
Hull-House in 1890. While at Hull-House, she was appointed the charity visitor to all
Cook County relief "cases" within a ten-block radius of the settlement, and in 1893 the
govenor appointed her to the Illinois Board of Charities. In 1912, on the urging of Jane
36
Addams and Lillian Wald, President Taft appointed Lathrop to be the first Director of the
National Children’s Bureau.^?
Florence Kelley’s father, William, was a Philadelphia judge who served fifteen
consecutive terms in Congress. A stalwart protectionist, he was given the sobriquet, "Pig
Iron Kelley." Florence, a graduate of Cornell, went abroad after college to study law and
government at the University of Zurich. While in Europe she became a socialist,
befriended Friedrich Engels (she translated his Condition of the Working Class in England
in 1844 into English) and married a Polish-Russian doctor with whom she had three
children. She returned to the United States and lectured at the College Settlement in New
York. Unhappily married, she moved with her children to Illinois where the divorce laws
were more equitable. This is how she described her introduction to Hull-House,
One snowy morning between Christmas 1891 and New Year's 1892,1
arrived at Hull-House, Chicago, a little before breakfast time, and found
there Henry Standing Bear, a Kickapoo Indian, awaiting for the front door
to be opened. It was Miss Addams who opened it, holding on her arm a
singularly unattractive, fat, pudgy baby belonging to the cook, who was
behindhand with breakfast. Miss Addams was a little hindered in her
movements by a super energetic kindergarten child, left behind by its
mother while she went to a sweatshop for a bundle of cloaks to be finished.
We were welcome as though we had been invited. We stayed.38
While living at Hull-House, Kelley initiated and directed the investigation into the
local sweatshop industry, which resulted in the Illinois legislature's passage in 1893 of an
eight-hour law for women and Govenor John Altgeld's appointment of Kelley as the first
Chief Factory Inspector of the state. In 1899, Kelley moved to New York to become the
general secretary of the National Consumers' League. After leaving Hull-House, she and
Jane Addams continued their close relationship. In letters to mutual friends she referred to
Jane Addams as the "chief' and she returned for visits to Hull-House not infrequently.
Jane Addams, who addressed Florence as "my dear Sister Kelley," wrote to Paul Kellogg
in November of 1905 that she felt somewhat awkward reviewing Kelley's latest book for
37
the journal he edited, "Charities", because, as she explained, "Reviewing Mrs. Kelley's
book is almost like reviewing a book of my own so closely do I feel identified with her
undertakings and with her ideas." As late as the summer of 1913, fourteen years after
Kelley moved to New York, Addams wrote to "Sister Kelley" when she returned to
Hull-House after a speaking tour that, "It is awfully nice to get back to Hull-House
although it won't seem quite natural until I see you and J. Lathrop in i t It is curious that I
have never gotten used to you being away from it, even after all these y e a r s . " 3 9
There were besides Jane Addams, Julia Lathrop and Florence Kelley, other women
identified with Hull-House who had exceedingly political fathers. Grace and Edith
Abbott's father was the first lieutenant govenor of Nebraska. While living at Hull-House,
Grace became the director of the Immigrants’ Protective League. She was later appointed
director of the Child Labor Division of the Children’s Bureau and eventually replaced Julia
Lathrop as head of the Bureau in 1921. Edith was a professor at the Chicago School of
Civics and Philanthropy (one of the first American schools of social work) as was another
resident, Sophonsiba Breckinridge, whose father was a U.S. congressman from
Kentucky.^
Jane Addams' interest in the empowerment of women was realized through Hull
House's existence and the political activities its existence in the middle of an immigrant
slum spawned. The women who came to reside at Hull-House could not follow directly
in their father's footsteps because they were women. They could neither vote nor hold
office, though in future years the idea of Jane Addams running for mayor of Chicago or
president of the United States was tendered by various women's suffrage groups. Jane
Addams would never take these initiatives seriously, indicative that she was aware of the
limitations placed on her and her colleagues by inherited traditions - men's place was in the
political world, women at home or doing philanthropy through the church or woman's
38
clubsM The women of Hull-House did, however, push their energy and desire for social
change to the limit that their times would allow. They were of the establishment and
sought to change the system through the political methods they had first seen demonstrated
by their fathers. At Hull-House, they would organize and lobby as women for the rights
of women in a political and social manner acceptable to the larger society.
Jane Addams was able to attract not only upper-middle-class women to Hull-House,
but also working women who did not labor for self-fulfillment, but because they needed
the income to support themselves and their families. In 1880 approximately two and a half
million women worked for wages in the United States, by 1890 close to five million, and
by 1910, there were over eight million women who labored for wages, constituting 2 3 . 4
percent of all American women. 3 1 .3 percent of these women worked in domestic service
(maids, cooks, laundresses) and 2 2 .3 percent (1 ,8 2 0 ,5 7 0 women) worked in factories,
other women worked for wages on farms or in white-collar j o b s . 4 2 At the time Jane
Addams opened Hull-House, it was the era of the sweatshop in America, where women
and children toiled in crammed, closed rooms devoid of windows, air, heat in the winter,
adequate plumbing, or water to soothe throats dry from breathing in dust, dirt and lint.
Jane Addams felt it was her responsibility to reach out to the women of Chicago who had
to work in such degrading conditions. At the time Addams established Hull-House as an
institution to meet the needs of all "classes" of women, working women were already
organizing themselves into their own advocacy groups.
In Chicago, socialist women organized the Working Women's Union (WWU) in
1878. The Knights of Labor gave the WWU a charter in 1881 to organize as Local
Assembly No. 1789 but in the fallout of the Haymarket tragedy, the assembly dissolved.
By 1888, the women had recouped enough to win a charter from the AFL as a federal, or
occupationally mixed, women's union and the Ladies' Federal Labor Union Local No.
39
2703 was bom. Listed fourth among the union's purposes was to "secure the active
assistance of the many women's organizations." To this end, the local established the
Illinois Woman's Alliance, which combined the resources of 38 Cook County women's
organizations in order to agitiate for better working conditions for women and educational
facilites for children. Pre-eminent among Local No. 2703's leaders was Mary Kenney,
who joined with Jane Addams in 1891 to establish the Jane Club, a cooperative boarding
house at Hull-House for young working women, which could be used as a base for
further union and strike organization 43
Mary Kenney was a young bookbinder from Hannibal, Missouri. Her father died
when she was a teenager and she went to work first as an apprentice to a dressmaker and
then at a printing press, where she earned a measly $2 a week. She learned "every branch
of the trade done by women" and within four years she became a forewoman. She also
had full responsibility for her invalid mother. When the factory in which Kenney worked
moved to Keokuk, Iowa, she followed; but in 1886, the factory shut down and Kenney
decided to move to Chicago to seek higher w a g e s . 4 4
Mary Kenney's first job in Chicago was at J.M.W. Jones, a large press operation that
did printing for the city. She demanded equal pay for equal work - and she got it - but
she saw that other women laborers were not as aggressive as she was and they needed to
be organized. She was able in retrospect to write in the January, 1893 issue of Age of
Labor.
There are several reasons which prevent women from wishing to organize.
In die first place they are reared from childhood with one sole object in view
- an object I do not wish to discourage but to elevate from present
conditions - that is looking forward to marriage. If our mothers would
teach us self-reliance and independence, that it is our duty to wholly depend
upon ourselves, we would then feel the necessity of organization and
especially the new form of organization which is voluntary co-operation...
.(But women workers feel) that an institution which has for its platform
protection, is for men only and the only protection they expect is the
40
protection given them by men, not realizing that it is their duty to protect
themselves.45
As did Jane Addams, Mary Kenney clearly believed in the necessity of women
forming associations to organize for women's rights: more than expedience, it was an
obligation. Kenney left J.M.W. Jones and became a "tramp bookbinder": she went from
shop to shop trying to organize women laborers, and wherever she found unsanitary
conditions she reported them to the Chicago Board of Health by way of unsigned
postcards. Once established in Chicago, Kenney brought her mother there and they
moved into a "home for working girls." A part of the progressive movement, this was a
new kind of institution established by philanthropists, to offer young working women an
opportunity to live collectively and pay little rent. A New York society woman, Grace
Dodge, founded the "Working Girls Clubs" in 1884, where she hoped women factory
workers would come to socialize and hear uplifting "practical talks." These clubs,
nationalized in 1885, were often affililiated with the working women's homes and Mary
Kenney became the first president at the club established at her residence. She was,
however, dissatisfied with the club, disgusted that the women spent time talking of
"outings" rather than organizing for better wages and working conditions. She
consequently joined the Ladies Federal Union and became one of its first delegates to the
Chicago Trade and Labor Assembly.46
In Twenty Years at Hull-House. Jane Addams recalled her first meeting with Maty
Kenney,
In the first years of Hull-House we came across no trade-unions among
women workers, and I think, perhaps that only one union, composed solely
of women, was to be found in Chicago then, - that of the bookbinders. I
easily recall the evening when the president of this pioneer organization
accepted an invitation to take dinner at Hull-House. She came in a
recalcitrant mood, expecting to be patronized and so suspicious of our
motives, that it was only after she had been persuaded to become a guest in
the house for several weeks in order to find out about us for herself, that
she was convinced of our sincerity and of the ability of "outsiders" to be of
any service to working w om en.4'
41
Maiy Kenney reported in her autobiography that she was indeed hesitant to take
dinner with the ladies of Hull-House. She wrote, "Small wages and the meagre way
Mother and I had been living had made me grow more and more class conscious."
Kenney's mother persuaded her daughter to attend the dinner, and on seeing the lovely,
finely decorated Hull-House, Kenney recorded the wish, "If the Union could only meet
here!" Jane Addams asked how she could help organize the bookbinders and Mary
replied that the place they were presently meeting in, over a saloon, was "dirty and noisy."
Jane Addams not only offered her Hull-House as a meeting place but volunteered to leaflet
the factory district to inform women workers about union meetings. Mary Kenney
recorded that, "When I saw there was someone who cared enough to help us and to help
us in our own way, it was like having a new whole world opened u p ." 4 8
Together, in May of 1891, Mary Kenney and Jane Addams established the Jane Club
as a boarding house for working women. Initially the club had seven members who not
only lived together in a large apartment but met weekly and elected officers who served for
six month terms. Hull-House furnished the apartment and paid the first month's rent.
The women paid $3 a month which covered food, rent and utilities. By 1894, between
thirty and fifty women lived in the Jane Club, whose quarters had increased to five flats.
In 1898, an entire building was given over to house the c l u b . 4 9
Kenney met Samuel Gompers when he visited Hull-House in 1891 and he came
away quite impressed with her talent and drive. On the advisement of the only two women
delegates to the 1891 AFL convention, he created the post of a national organizer for
women and awarded it to Mary Kenney in 1892. Despite her success in New York
organizing shirtmakers and bookbinders, in Chicago organizing boot, shoe, shirt and
garment workers, and her forming a coalition between the garment workers on strike in
1893 and Hull-House women (which delivered needed relief services to the strikers), the
42
AFL determined after only six months that it was not "in a condition financially to keep a
woman organizer in the field." In 1893 Kenney began work as Florence Kelley's deputy
factory inspector and in 1903 she was one of the principal founders of the Women's Trade
Union League (WTUL) 50
Historians have argued that Jane Addams denied the class struggle that was inherent
in labor's attempt to win parity with the moneyed classes.51 She did not deny class
differences but instead, somewhat ingenuously, believed they could be overcome by
simple goodwill. Addams was proud that the women cloakmakers and shirtmakers were
organized at Hull House. On December 7,1891, she wrote to Katherine Coman, "We had
a very enthusiastic meeting of shirt-makers here last Wednesday evening who formed a
Ladies Union. We find ourselves almost forced into the trades unions, there are very few
and we hope to help form them." Later in the month she wrote to the socialist leader,
Henry Demarest LLoyd, to tell him that the shirtmakers union had acquired twenty more
members, elected a "very sensible girl" as their president, and were "well on their feet."
She also wrote him that they hoped to organize the women in the sewing factories and
asked that he come to a conference on labor organizing to be held the next month. She
enclosed the program schedule for the next four months of the Working People's Social
Science Club, which included Lloyd speaking on "The Scab," Florence Kelley on
"Socialism To-day(sic)," Alzina Stevens, a union activist who lived at Hull-House,
lecturing on "The Obligations of Citizenship as seen by one of the Unfranchised," and
J.W. Rogers, editor of The Age of Labor, who was to give an address on "Labor’s
Struggle for Justice.52
Jane Addams' great ideal was that members of all classes, ethnic groups and races,
would be able to co-operate with another to avoid debilitating conflicts. She did not deny
that class differences existed, but she wanted to believe that they could be overcome and
43
that they were overcome when, in fact, they were not. In Twenty Years at Hull-House
she told the story of a prominent member of a Woman's Club who because of her
sympathy with women's unionism, wanted to be elected to the Woman's Union Label
League. To Jane Addams’ chagrin, the woman was denied admission, because the union
members felt that she "seemed to belong to the other side." Addams was pleased when
less than ten years later the same woman was elected as president of the WTUL. She
believed this story demonstrated the "recognition of the fact that it (the labor movement) is
a general social movement concerning all members of society and not merely a class
struggle."53
Jane Addams was too intelligent and perceptive a woman to gainsay that labor-
management disputes were based in class conflict, but she deluded herself, as did many
other overly optimistic progressives, that amelioration would ensue because everyone
wanted to improve the conditions of the poor and working classes. Clearly, everyone did
not. A problem that has dogged movement workers throughout history has been the
insulated sense that their cause was so thoroughly right and just that the majority would
certainly fall into agreement. It took Jane Addams many politcal campaigns and peace
initiatives to leam that although she might still believe her cause "right," the majority of
citizens did not agree with her.
Jane Addams felt a compelling responsibility to ameliorate situations of conflict.
When Addams failed to meet her self-imposed standards of responsibility, she went
through an inner agony which was only expressed to her closest of companions, Mary
Rozet Smith, who lived with Jane Addams until Mary Smith's death of pneumonia in
February, 1934. Such was the case during the 1910 garment workers' strike.
On September 29, 1910, a sixteen year old seamer in the Chicago garment shop of
Hart, Schaffner and Marx walked out because the foreman reduced her pay a quarter of a
44
cent per garment. Nineteen women workers followed her and within three week almost
every worker in the city was out on strike. Jane Addams was asked to help arbitrate the
strike and when an agreement which prohibited collective bargaining was submitted to the
arbitors, Jane Addams refused to sign it, asserting that the workers would not accept it.
She was right. The strike dragged on with tens of thousands of workers out. Jane
Addams wrote to Mary Smith on December 1, 1910, " Darling - Your supportive letter
came today and quite reassured me as to the value and charm of life which I was deeply
doubting. We had the meeting on the strike today at the Woman's Club and after all the
talk and fuss, I had grave doubts about the value (illegible) . . . altho we are afraid of
saying anything which might interfere with the city-(illegible) negotiations."^ in the
end, collective bargaining was made part of the agreement and the strike was settled in
1911. Jane Addams was successful in this instance of speaking up for the rights of
women and men laborers. In other endeavors to make the city of Chicago more livable
for the poor, she did not always reap the harvest she sought. Such was her attempt to
defeat the corrupt city council alderman, Johnny Powers, who represented the 19th ward
in which Hull-House was located.
* * * *
In 1901, Robert Hunter, a young reformer from Terre Haute, Indiana who lived at
Hull-House released an authoritative report on Tenement Conditions in Chicago. The
study showed why the mephitis and filth was so devastating to the 19th ward which had
the third highest death rate in the city: there were 1,581 outdoor privies located in alleys or
yards between front and rear tenement buildings; most of the 1,203 garbage bins were left
uncovered and rotting debris overflowed into the surrounding alleyways and yards; there
were 1,443 horses in the district (an average of twenty per block) who shared the streets
45
with not only the people of the ward but with the dweller's pigs, goats, chickens, geese,
ducks, cows and pigeons.55
Jane Addams described the situation in Twenty Years at Hull-House:

One of the striking features of our neighborhood twenty years ago, and
one to which we never became reconciled, was the presence of huge
wooden garbage boxes fastened to the street pavement in which the
undisturbed refuse accumulated day by day. The system of garbage
collecting was inadequate throughout the city but it became the greatest
menace in the ward such as ours, where the normal amount of waste was
much increased by the decayed fruit and vegetables discarded by the Italian
and Greek fruit peddlers, and by the residuum left over from the piles of
filthy rags which were fished out of the city dumps and brought to the
homes of the rag pickers for further sorting and washing.
The children of our neighborhood twenty years ago played their games
in and around these huge boxes . . .We are obliged to remember that all
children eat everything which they find.. . .It is easiest for even the most
conscientious citizen of Chicago to forget the foul smells of the stockyards
and the garbage dumps, when he is living so far from them that he is only
occasionally made conscious of their existence but the residents of a
Settlement are perforce constantly surrounded by them.56
Thinking that an educational campaign about keeping the neighborhood clean would
improve the unsanitary conditions, Hull-House arranged talks for neighborhood women
on how to properly dispose of garbage. Four years of intolerable stench and disease
passed with no amelioration and Addams suspected that it was not the fault of the residents
of the 19th ward, but of the dearth of competent garbage collecting services by the city.
Addams asked Edward Buchard, the first male resident of Hull-House, to direct an
investigation into the city's garbage collection system. Twelve members of the Hull-
House Woman's Club helped Buchard with the investigation and during August and
September of 1894 they sent the Chicago Board of Health 1,037 substantiated reports of
violations of the law. Addams gave the women credit: "(After) a long's day work of
washing or ironing followed by the cooking of a hot supper . . . It required both civic
enterprise and moral conviction to be willing to do this three evenings a week during the
hottest and most uncomfortable months of the year."57
46
Buchard ascertained that the alderman for the 19th ward, Johnny Powers, was using
the position of garbage collector as a political plum, which he gave to one of his local
bootlickers, who picked up money but no garbage. Jane Addams decided to act: with the
backing of two well-known business men, she put in a bid to become the garbage collector
for the 19th ward. Her application was rejected on a technicality, but a few months later,
Mayor Swift appointed Addams garbage inspector for the ward. The Bellevue Iowa
Leader commented on the appointment under the headline of "Municipal Housekeeping":
"Her new appointment, while not giving her a chance to do the work itself, will enable her
to watch it (garbage collection), and show how efficient a woman may become in
overseeing municipal work. . . Miss Addams has accepted a position which is now
probably filled by a woman for the first time. Her experience will be watched with much
interest, and if she succeeds there will be other women follow her example."58
Jane Addams appointed as her deputy Amanda Johnson, a University of Wisconsin
graduate and former volunteer inspector in Chicago and Pittsburgh, and together they
made rounds each morning at 6 AM in a low-covered buggy, drawn by a sturdy gray nag.
They followed the garbage wagons to the dump and returned to Hull House in time for an
8 AM breakfast. After breakfast they repaired to their duties until just before noon. New
garbage pails were installed, the collection improved, landlords who did not comply were
arrested and Jane Addams could honestly report that the ward was cleaner. The death rate
also declined, the 19th ward dropped from third to seventh in the city's ranking. After
Jane Addams resigned from the inspectorship in May, 1896, the Superintendent of Street
and Alley Cleaning appointed Amanda Johnson (whom he called "the best of all the 34
Inspectors in this Bureau") to replace her.59
Jane Addams found many of the neighborhood women shocked that she would
accept work which they perceived to be an "abrupt departure into the ways of men." But
47
she believed that if it was "womanly" to nurse the sick, it was just as much so to prevent
the breeding of disease. She tried to explain that "housewifely duties logically extended to
the alleys and streets" but she was well aware that inherited traditions caused her women
neighbors to believe that she had taken on a job which "was not a lady's." 60 Time and
time again, Jane Addams would come up against the idea that certain movement into the
political arena was not appropriate for a woman.
She decided, however, that it was crucial to try and oust Johnny Powers from his
powerful alderman position. Powers, an Irishman, was first elected to the City Council in
1888, when he joined the boodle ring headed by Alderman Billy Whalen. He became
chairman of the council's finance committee and in 1895 alone sold six city franchises.
He did most of his business with Charles Yerkes, the traction Czar, to whom he granted
millions of dollars in street railway franchises. Although his weekly salary was only $3,
Powers acquired two profitable saloons, a gambling establishment, one of the largest
homes in the ward and an ostentatious collection of diamonds. By 1896, he was
reportedly worth $400,000. Because he wanted a new parochial school in the 19th ward,
he stymied Jane Addams in her efforts to obtain a new public school for the ward (there
were three thousand more pupils than there were seats in the ward's public schools) and
he tried to make the garbage inspectorship only open to men.61
In Chicago, each ward elected two alderman for terms of two years, but only one
alderman was elected each year. Although Powers himself did not come up for election
until 1896, on the encouragement of Jane Addams the Hull-House Men's Club (which
was composed of settlement workers and neighborhood men) ran one of its members,
Frank Lawler, in the 1895 election against Powers' crony. Powers' was amused by what
he considered a "Sunday School" attempt by the settlement to enter politics. Lawler won,
48
but he was soon induced by payoffs to become a cohort of Powers, making the victory
purely pyrrhic.62
Jane Addams believed that men and women should work together for the public
good. Time and again, she would exhort women to join their male colleagues in reform
and political work. In 1893, men and women reformers in Chicago came together to
establish the Civic Federation in an effort to better coordinate the city's charitable
activities. When Susan B. Anthony, the indomitable president of the National American
Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), wrote to Jane Addams at the end of 1895 she
queried quite bluntly, "How comes on your Civic Club? Have those men had the thought
enter their noddles yet that women could be of any help to them provided they had the
ballots in their hands?"63
But in the winter of 1895-96 Jane Addams was more concerned with defeating
Johnny Powers, himself, when he came up for re-election in the spring of 1896, than
pushing her male colleagues to work for women's suffrage. Jane Addams and her Hull-
House cohorts joined forces with the Municipal Voter's League, established by prominent
reform-minded Chicagoans in 1896, for the purpose of cleaning up the city council (they
estimated that fifty-eight members out of a total membership of sixty-eight were corrupt
and they wanted to replace them with "upright" men). She also wrote to Henry Demarest
Lloyd:
We are very anxious to open a vigorous campaign against our alderman,
Johnny Powers about the middle of January. We are planning it on a very
broad line, to attack Powers as the tool of die corporations, making a great
deal of the fact that we have poor street car service in the 19th Ward because
Yerkes, through the Council has robbed us of our rights. We will probably
begin in the most sensational manner with placards: "Yerkes and Powers,
die Briber and the Bribed." Do you think Mayor Pingree would be willing
to come and open the campaign with his street car plans &c. I can think of
no one else who would bring out an audience of the 19th Ward and start
things up generally. Would you be willing to write to him for me urging
our great desire for him to come? I really believe that if we could get an
49
investigation in the 19th Ward, against our corporation Alderman, it might
extend to the whole city.64
The reformers chose 42-year-old William Gleason, an Irish immigrant, member of

the Hull-House Men's Club, and a former president of the Chicago Bricklayers’ Union to
run against Powers. Hazen Pingree, the reform mayor of Detroit, agreed to come to
Chicago and open the campaign. George Cole, president of the Municipal League, also
stumped for Gleason, as did Judge Murray Tuley, who upbraided the 19th Ward citizens
for not possessing enough civic pride "to overthrow the prince of the boodlers." The
reformers plastered the neighborhood with flyers decrying the ills perpetuated by Powers'
reign: "incomparable filth, ill-paved, and snow-laden streets, high rates, low services,
double fares. .scant public school accomodations, rapidly increasing tenements. .taxation
that favors the corrupt and oppresses the poor." Gleason's troops promised relief from
corruption and a cleaner, more healthy w a r d . 6 5
Jane Addams spoke to a group of reformers and ministers on February 18, 1896, and
presaging her more famous 1898 address on "Ethical Survivals in Municipal Corruption"
she declared that Powers wasn't elected because he was dishonest, but because "he is a
friendly visitor." She pointed out that he provided for funerals for the loved ones of
constituents too poor to pay for the funerals themselves, and that Powers' constituents
remembered such kindnesses when election time rolled around. In an editorial the next
day, The Chicago Evening Post weighed in, "It is the personal equation, the giving of the
time, the attention and the individual solicitude that makes his gifts golden bonds between
alderman and their constituents.. . We believe that Miss Addams herself could defeat
Alderman Powers in the nineteenth ward, but we know of no man who has given enough
of himself to his neighbors in that ward to accomplish that much-to-be-desired r e s u l t . " 6 6
Gleason lost to Powers, but reduced the alderman's majority from 2,700 in 1894 to
1,100 in 1896. Regarding the Post's idea that Jane Addams run for alderman, because
50
women at that time were without the franchise in Chicago it was believed it would have
been illegal for them to hold an elected office in the city. Moreover, Jane Addams herself
would never have accepted such a candidacy. In the 1890s, she was still tied to traditions
which inhibited her from campaigning directly for even her closest of male colleagues.
When Mayor Samuel Jones asked her to stump for him in his 1899 bid for Ohio’s
governorship, she told Chicago's Inter-Ocean, "I don’t think it would help him if I were to
go. A woman delivering stump speeches in a political campaign is more likely to lose
votes than to make them. I have no intention of trying anything of the kind."67 Perhaps
her negative experiences in the 1898 campaign against Powers, in which she did actively
participate, influenced her decision not to go on the stump for her friend, Mayor Jones.
Jane Addams was supported in her decision that Hull-House should again take on
Powers in 1898 by many of its women residents, in particular Florence Kelley, Ellen
Starr, Alzina Stevens and Mary Kenney, who came back from Boston to help in the
campaign. She received letters from reformers across the country urging her to persevere.
William Clark wrote from Boston, claiming that his ward was the toughest in the city and
from her experience, what suggestions could Miss Addams offer to help reformers there.
James Reynolds, president of the New York Citizens Union wrote that he too was
involved "in the slimy ooze of politics. . . if we succeed (in the mayoral race) I shall feel it
was worthy of the time and weariness which it has cost." Addams was also encouraged
by the passage of a new civil service law in Chicago and the election of a new, reform
alderman, James Walsh, in the 17th Ward (due in great part to the efforts of another
settlement, Chicago Commons). In concert with the Cook County Republicans,
independent Democrats and the Municipal League, Hull-House, whose Men's Club had
established a Ward Improvement Committee in each precinct since the 1896 election, put
up Simeon Armstrong, an Irish Catholic Democrat to run against Powers.68
51
Since 1896, Powers had given his former opponent Gleason a job in the city’s
construction department, and other workers for the 1896 reform candidate were also
beneficiaries of the alderman's generosity. Mindful of such actions, Jane Addams opened
the campaign on Sunday, January 23 with an address to the Ethical Culture Society on the
methods of city bosses which became a classic analysis of ward politics. Newspapers
across the country lauded Addams' insight and both Outlook and the International Journal
o f Ethics published the speech in April of that year. She said, in brief, that the alderman
retained his seat because he met the needs of his constituents in terms of jobs and other of
life's basic necessities: he employed (in the case of Powers) one-third of the voters on the
public payroll, he gave presents at weddings and Christenings, turkeys at Thanksgiving
and Christmas, he bailed people out of jail and defrayed the costs of funerals ill-afforded
by constituents. Whereas the alderman embodied "village kindness" so important to the
immigrant population of the 19th Ward and stood for their aspirations, the reformers,
Addams noted, "give themselves over largely to criticism of the present state of affairs, to
writing and talking of what the future must be; but their goodness is not dramatic; it is not
even concrete and human." Addams concluded that if corrupt politicians won elections
because they stood by and for the people, "then nothing remains but to obtain a like sense
of identification before we can hope to modify ethical standards."®*
Powers was threatened enough in 1898 to go on the attack. One of his followers
wrote Addams a remarkably obscene letter which stated that no man could "love a woman
who takes her place among men as you do," and that she wanted so badly to do the work
of a man that she should "for a small sum induce one of such men to sell you his pecker
and balls . . . your only chance to prove yourself a man." Powers himself made
accusations against Amanda Johnson, the young garbage inspector, insisting that the Civil
Service Commission strip her of her post because she was campaigning against him. The
52
Chicago papers guffawed at this lame attempt at political foolery and the commission
found her innocent. Next he tried to gerrymander the district, removing Hull-House and
the Italian neighborhood most adamantly opposed to him, a political ploy which also
fa ile d 7 0 (see Illustration 1)
Not infrequently and particularly towards the end of the campaign, Jane Addams felt
disheartened. The campaign was obviously rough on her. In early March, she wrote to
Mary Smith about Powers' success at stirring up Catholic animosity towards her: "As
nearly as I can make out, the opposition comes from the Jesuits, headed by Father
Lambert, and the parish priests themselves are not in it, and do not like it Maty (Kenney)
talked for a long time to them and is sure it is jealousy of Hull-House and money
obligations to Powers, that he does not believe the charges himself. She cried when she
came back from real grief." In another letter, she explained how Powers gave $1000 to
some Jesuit "temperence cadets" who then formed a procession in which "There was a
picture of your humble servant on a transparency and others such as "No petticoat
government for us . . . " We all went out on the comer to see it, Mr. Hinsdale carefully
shielding me from public view." Jane Addams confessed to Mary Smith, "I find myself
depending upon your moral fibre as never before." It was evident that she was not really
enjoying the political battle. "I sallied forth today and got $100," she reported to Mary,
"(I) will have to keep this up all week; charming prospect, isn't it?" To Henry Demarest
Lloyd, she wrote of "our present sad political estate." Toward the end of March, she
allowed, "I am beginning to have a little real hope."71
The reformers' campaign, however, was in vain as small business men and local
tradesmen, indebted to Powers, switched their loyalties back to him as the campaign
climaxed in April. Powers defeated Armstrong, 5,450 to 2,219. Although Florence
53
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission
I1
“ J O H N N Y ” P O W E R S IS G O IN G T O M O V E T H E H U i |* H O U S E S E T T L E M E N T O U T O F T H E 19T H W A R D
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Kelley urged Jane Addams to continue the fight against Powers in 1900, Addams decided
to turn her attention to another political matter, that of woman's suffrage. She had begun
to speak out publicly for woman's suffrage as early as 1897, but with the continued
elections of bosses such as Powers, as the Woman's Journal enjoined, it was crucial that
women have the vote to remove politicians who degraded women and were inimical to
woman's participation in the American political p r o c e s s .7 2
* * * *
When Jane Addams began to actively campaign for women's suffrage in the mid-
1890s, only four Western states had enfranchised women, Wyoming in 1890, Colorado in
1893 and Utah and Idaho in 1896. Addams' father had favored women's suffrage and
she admitted that in college, when everyone else "took for granted the righteousness of the
cause . .1 at least had merely followed my father's conviction." But through her
experiences at Hull-House, working with immigrant and laboring women, she vividly
realized that women were at the bottom of the heap. She reasoned that if women, wealthy
or poor, could win the franchise, they might gain better control over political
machinations which affected their everyday lives. In The Second Twenty Years at Hull-
House. she wrote in retrospect:
We argued that because of the tendency to make the state responsible for the
care of the helpless and the reform of the delinquent, to safeguard by law
the food we eat, and the health of children, contemporary women who were
without the franchise were as much outside the red life of the world as any
set of disenfranchised free men could have been in all of history73
Throughout the 1890s Jane Addams often spoke to women’s groups and wrote in
journals on the social obligations of women's citizenship. Her entreaties that women
participate in philanthropic activities surfaced in part from her own sense of failure when
she felt she was not meeting the high standards of responsibility she set for herself. An
empathetic woman Addams was deeply influenced by the interactions of those around her.
55
At Hull-House she came into daily contact with working and immigrant women who had
to suffer poor working conditions in factories and sweatshops and miserable living
conditions in their tenement homes. She saw Florence Kelley and the Woman's Alliance
campaign assiduously for an eight-hour law for working women in Illinois, which the
state legislature made into law in 1893, only to have the Illinois Supreme Court rule it
unconstitutional a year later. Addams endured several demeaning and futile campaigns
against the corrupt Johnny Powers, elections in which she could not vote because she was
a woman. It became clear to her that philanthropy, lobbying, and a few city appointments
for women were not going to give women the power they needed to ameliorate the
conditions which adversely affected them and their children. They needed the right to
vote, and once she began to actively seek women's suffrage in 1897, she did not quit until
a constitutional amendment assured women across the country of that right 74
More than a right, Addams presented suffrage as a woman's responsibility. She
delivered one of her first speeches on the subject, entitled "Woman Suffrage Among the
Working Women," to the Chicago Political Equality League in May of 1897. Political
bossism was her backdrop as she explained how men like Johnny Powers handed out jobs
to win votes. For working women, she said, suffrage was an "industrial as well as a
political question," women needed to be able to vote for laws that would give them better
protection on the job. Addams declared," I am not one of those who believe - broadly
speaking - that women are better than men. We have not wrecked railroads nor corrupted
legislatures, nor done many unholy things that men have done; but we must remember that
we have not had the chance. But my understanding of the matter is that woman should
have the ballot, because without this responsibility she cannot best develop her moral
courage."75
56
Addams' audience here was white, upper-middle-class women. She saw herself as
the emissary for working class and immigrant women. Addams was the only prominent
suffrage leader who addressed the needs of immigrant women in regard to suffrage. In
1908, she wrote in the Woman's Home Companion that "working women need the ballot
because they must possess some control over conditions of their lives and those of their
children. . . the ballot box offers the only channel through which they can give expression
to such legitimate control." In her 1910 Ladies' Home Journal article, "Why Women
Should Vote" Addams informed the Journal's well-heeled audience that Scandinavian
women did not understand why they were disfranchised in America when they possessed
the ballot in their homeland; Italian women in Addams1neighborhood, who in Italy had
enjoyed each other’s company when they washed clothes together in a stream by their
village, needed a clean public wash-house here in the states; Russian-Jewish women
needed covered markets so they would not have to buy fly-infested vegetables exposed to
the city's dust and soot in hawker's open carts. Immigrant women, Addams insisted,
needed the vote to feed, clothe and protect their families. She wrote, "It is, perhaps,
asking a great deal that the members of the City Council should understand this (the need
for covered markets, public wash-houses), but surely a comprehension of the needs of
these women and efforts toward ameliorating their lot might be regarded as matters of
municipal obligation on the part of voting women."76
Jane Addams wanted upper-middle-class women to understand that becoming
franchised did not imply that they were losing their womanly traits; rather, they were
expanding on their duties in their homes. As she wrote to M. Carey Thomas, the
militantly feminist president of Bryn Mawr College, she had written the Ladies' Home
Journal article for Edward Bok's (the editor) "timid readers. I called it The Franchise for
Women and the Preservation of the Home' and was quite disappointed to have Mr. Bok
57
change the title." In the article, she reassured the readers that "Public-spirited women
who wish to use the ballot, as I know them, do not wish to do the work of men nor to take
over men's affairs. They simply want an opportunity to do their own work and to take
care of those affairs which historically belong to women, but which are constantly being
overlooked and slighted in our political institutions."??
Addams devoted a chapter of her 1907 book, Newer Ideals of Peace to the
"Utilization of Women in City Government," in which she explained that feudal cities
were built for the military purpose of protecting its citizens. Since only men bore arms
and were solely responsible for protecting the city, it had made sense in feudal times that
they were the only individuals eligible to vote. However, she argued, modem cities
represented strongholds of industrialism, not militarism, and their problems were those of
sanitary food and housing, poisonous sewage, contaminated water, children's health and
education, juvenile crime - all areas for which women were traditionally responsible. Why
should not women, therefore, have suffrage "not as a right or a privilege, but as a mere
piece of governmental machinery without which they could not perform their traditional
functions under the changed conditions of city life?" In her appeal to the middle-class
woman, Addams expanded on the "cult of true womanhood" theory that a woman's place
was in her home, where she knew how to nurture and protect children and men. She was
suggesting that true women were so competent at nurturing their own families that they
should feel obligated to serve the larger "home" of the city municipality. It was women's
political duty to vote and be active in civic affairs. Addams urged women to change their
ways of thinking:
Old-fashioned ways which no longer apply to changed conditions are a
snare in which the feet of women have always become readily entangled. It
is so easy to believe that things that used to exist still go on long after they
are passed; it is so easy to commit irreparable blunders because we fail to
correct our theories by our changing experience. So many of the stumbling-
58
blocks against which we fall are the opportunities to which we have not
adjusted ourselves78
Jane Addams entreated women to move out of their "separate sphere" and become
empowered within the white male-dominated society. On one hand, she lightly chastized
them for not having the courage to move beyond traditional ways of thinking and being
bold in the face of changing opportunities. On the other hand, she knew that relinquishing
inherited traditions was difficult and she encouraged women to see that women had been
successful in the public, more political sphere in the past, both in working with men and in
organizations by themselves. She essayed to show women that they had a larger role to
play in society than they might feel possible. In this vein, in 1898, Addams wrote and
spoke out on "Woman’s Work for Chicago." She told how the Chicago Woman's Club,
founded in 1876, secured the appointment of women physicians to many large health
institutions serving the needy, they organized the Protective Agency for Women and
Children in 1886, and they pushed the city into appointing matrons to five central police
stations where women under arrest were to be taken. (Addams gave credit also to the
Women's Christian Temperance League for its work toward prison reform.) The
Philanthropy Department of the Woman's Club, she recalled, agitated until the Cook
County Hospital opened a contagious disease ward. The club's Educational Department,
in coalition with the Woman's Alliance, lobbied successfully for the first woman appointee
to the Chicago Board of Education as early as 1888. The club also founded the Political
Equality League to begin work for women's suffrage. Addams credited the Woman's
Alliance, founded in 1888, with being the pioneer umbrella organization (consisting of 38
women's organizations) that moved into the political sphere. The Alliance continually
lobbied elective male institutions and through petitions to the city council procured
appointments of women to serve on the city health commission, in the sanitation
department and as factory inspectors. Addams also offered a list of women's "firsts" in
59
Chicago: U.S. claims officer, assistant superintendent of city schools and chief factory
inspector.
Addams perforce wanted to make known to women that men and women could
successfully work together to gain reforms in Chicago: the Municipal Order League
worked for better sanitation and provided bathing facilities in several public schools until
the city took over that function. The Civic Federation, with men and women serving as
officers, investigated and secured better garbage disposal. Addams concluded one article
by remarking that the Municipal Science Club, an organization of both men and women,
had produced the best recent study of municipal conditions. She thought that men and
women working together was possible in such a "western" city like Chicago where the
"western tendency to give positions of public trust to women, and the readiness to work
with them as comrades, may account for their more natural absorption into public
affairs."79
Cognizant that women were wary of entering the political world, Addams tried to
persuade women that it was their responsibility to do so even if men did not welcome them
with open arms. On the urging of M. Carey Thomas, she traveled east in the spring of
1908 and spoke to nine college audiences (the Seven Sisters, the Woman's College of
Baltimore and Swarthmore) as well as to the Equal Suffrage Leagues in Maryland,
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in seven days. Along with the local Leagues, the
NAWSA and the WTUL sponsored her trip. Addams told her audiences, a majority of
whom were college women:
The protection of children is a traditional activity of women which she
attends to when it concerns her own, but when it concerns the children of a
city and passes out of her hands into those of an organized body of men,
then it is no longer considered 'womanish' but 'mannish.' Then when she
is not responsible and cannot directly control this protection of children, it
becomes a less active interest to her even though the men in charge are
incapable and careless in the matter. 80
60
The issue of what was "womanish" as opposed to "mannish" was never far from the
heart of discussions on women's suffrage. There were times, when dealing with the more
conservative women's groups who were chary of giving up their ladylike position, that
Addams had to back down. In the summer of 1906, Addams, who chaired the Industrial
Advisory Committee of the GFWC, was forced to send the following letter, to calm rattled
nerves, to the whole membership:
As Chairman of the Industrial Advisory Committee, I venture to issue a
word of explanation in regard to the circular sent out by our committee in
April. The members of the committee signed the circular because we
believed that the ballot would afford the best possible protection to the
working-women and expedite that protective legislation which they so sadly
need and in which America is so deficient The circular was sent in an
advisory capacity, and with no reference to the general policy of the
GFWC, nor to the convictions held by the officers. No plan was made to
bring the matter up for action nor in any sense make it an issue at the St.
Paul Meeting.81
Between 1907 and 1909 Jane Addams led two campaigns to win the municipal
suffrage for women in Chicago. The strategy was to have a suffrage clause put into a new
city charter. As Addams wrote to a suffragist in Ohio in April, 1908, "The attempt to
secure municipal suffrage for women received a tie vote in the charter convention,
whereupon the chairman voted against i t The matter was again brought up in the (state)
Legislature and lost by one vote. The whole charter, however, was afterwards rejected by
the people so we may have another opportunity." Addams told a reporter that she felt the
first campaign was not representative enough of women's groups.82
This was remedied in the second campaign when Addams, as Chairwoman of "the
Committee for the Extension of Municipal Suffrage to Chicago Women" garnered the
support of 101 different women's associations "including large national societies," labor
unions, church groups and the "usual Woman's Clubs." The committee established
headquarters at the Stratford Hotel in downtown Chicago and set out each day to canvass
61
the entire city and lobby members of the charter convention. They put up yellow-printed
posters around town exclaiming:
"WHY DO NOT
"CHICAGO WOMEN
"HAVE MUNICIPAL SUFFRAGE?
"Women Vote on Municipal Affairs in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Norway,
Sweden, Finland, British America, Natal, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania and in the
States of Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and Idaho.
"IT IS UP TO THE
CHARTER CONVENTION!"83
Jane Addams arranged for political speakers from outside the state, including
Colorado’s reform Juvenile Judge, Ben Lindsey, who was fresh from a great electoral
victory, as he had telegraphed Addams, of "ten thousand majority" over "bosses,
machines both parties .. Greatest victory in history of the state." Lindsey attributed his
victory to the women's vote and Addams wanted the women of Chicago to know that their
having the ballot could make a difference. When on March 13, 1909, the Charter
Convention approved a bill for municipal suffrage, which would then go before the state
legislature, the women were elated. Jane Addams and her co-chairwomen, Mrs. Catherine
Waugh McCulloch (a Rockford graduate in the class below Jane Addams) and Mrs.
Charles Henrotin, planned an "invasion" into the chambers of the the Springfield
legislature for April. 150 women from Chicago traveled aboard the "Suffrage Special" to
Springfield on April 14 to lobby for pasage of the bill. Jane Addams introduced seventeen
women and two men to die legislature who addressed their representatives on such aspects
of the question as "The Ballot and the Farmer’s Wife" and "Church Interests and Suffrage
for Women." The bill, however, was defeated. 84
Despite many defeats, Jane Addams remained undaunted in her campaign for
women's suffrage throughout the first two decades of the twentieth century. In July of
62
1908, she led a delegation of women from NAWSA to the National Republican
Convention to ask that suffrage become a plank in their platform. They did not get it, but
as the Trenton Times of New Jersey pointed out, "their action called attention anew to the
fact that some of the women most highly esteemed for their public services and private
virtues are asking for the ballot" Jane Addams, who the Ladies' Home Journal named the
foremost living woman in 1908, became the vice-president of NAWSA in 1911.85
hi 1912, Addams and her colleagues again attempted to gain the vote in Illinois to no
avail. She also spoke for the vote in Michigan, where she made it clear to the women
organizers that she would only address audiences of both men and women. In the middle
of July she wrote to Mrs. W. F. Blake in Grand Rapids:
I am afraid that I shall have to decline to speak to the Ladies' Literary
League in the middle of October, at an afternoon meeting, when the
campaign is still on.
It seems to me that the thing to do is to get at the voters and I should be
very sorry not to have men in the audience. Ordinarily, when no campaign
is on, I do not make this distinction but I am sure it would be a mistake to
lay too much stress on a woman's meeting just then.86
At the request of NAWSA's young field worker in Wisconsin, Crystal Eastman,
Addams stumped hard in Wisconsin during much of 1912. Eastman wrote her in April of
that year that the women of Wausau, Wisconsin "feel that one speech from you will start
things and arouse the women, and they feel rather hopeless in regard to any other way of
getting started." Eastman was most interested in having Jane Addams speak in Wisconsin
because she felt Addams was the only woman who could possibly convince the German
women of the need for women's suffrage. Perhaps Jane Addams was able to reach the
German women, but certainly not the German men: the liquor interests poured money into
the German American Alliance which successfully organized to defeat the bill for women's
suffrage in Wisconsin. 87
63
Beginning in 1911, Addams corresponded and exchanged articles on the women's
franchise with suffragists in England. An international network of women's rights
activists arose around the issue of suffrage which would later forge the international
women's peace movement. When Addams testified on national suffrage for women,
along with other prominent suffrage leaders, before the Judiciary Committee of the U.S.
House of Representatives on March 13, 1912, she opened her remarks by pointing out
that, "More than a million women will be able to vote for President of the United Sates
next November. More than half a million have the Municipal Suffrage. In fact, the
remaining women of America are almost the only English-speaking women in the world
who are deprived of the municipal franchise." She then reiterated her "enlarged
housekeeping" argument that women's humanitarian work could no longer be carried on
without the vote. She preferred examples of how men in government were ill-equipped to
run agencies authorized to meet the needs of the poor, sick and aged, implying that men
were not as adroit at this work as were women. Before introducing Lenora O'Reilly, the
daughter of Irish immigrants, a labor organizer and founder of the WTUL, who was to
speak on working women and the franchise, Addams concluded, "Perhaps no class of
women in the entire community need the ballot so much as the working women." Over a
thousand women attended the h e a r i n g . 8 8
Beginning in 1902, newspaper articles appeared which raised the possibility of Jane
Addams running for alderman, mayor, senator or president of the United States. The
earlier stories suggested that someone like Jane Addams would "purify" politics, while
others snidely commented that women could not handle the financial side of government
responsibility. In 1908 and 1909 a spate of articles erupted suggesting that suffragists
would push a bid by Jane Addams for the American presidency, (see Illustration 2)
Addams herself called the rumors "absurd," and so it was all either wishful thinking on the
64
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part of some suffragists or a ploy by certain newspapers to drum up some sensational
business. The New York Evening Journal quoted Miss Addams, "I can't imagine who is
responsible for this, but I can say it is all a joke . . It is altogether too absurd for me to
discuss." Alice Stone Blackwell, editor of the Woman’s Journal, wrote to the New York
Times to also say that Addams’ presidential candidacy was a "false report." She did not,
however, call it a b s u r d . 8 9
* * * *
Exclusive of running for political office, Jane Addams urged women to accept
political responsibility. She was always most interested in how women could achieve
greater independence and control in their lives. She had gone through a kind of hell
herself in her twenties, floundering, feeling she had no purpose in life. She took control
of her own life when she determined that she could move out of the traditionally acceptable
mold of staying wihin the confines of family life. She recognized that wallowing in self-
pity did her no good. Instead, with the support of her close women colleagues, she
established a place, Hull-House, where women could thrive and actively work - outside of
the traditional family circumsription - for what they believed to be the betterment of
society. As these doughty women moved from investigating slum conditions and cleaning
up inner-city garbage, to working to defeat a corrupt alderman, to aspiring to gain the vote
for themselves, they matured in confidence and political acuity.
Jane Addams tested the acceptable limits of society but worked always within the
boundaries of propriety. She was not a radical, but in her work at Hull-House and in the
suffrage movement, she was a leader of a revolutionary movement which would change
the ways in which women saw their capabilities. Using traditional concepts, tactics and
language, Addams urged women to become more involved in the political activities of
society. She encouraged women to join with men in the political sphere. She talked to
66
women about moving beyond the snares of "preparation" and "old-fashioned ways."
She would not run for political office herself. It would never be her style - she was proper
rather than gregarious, and she believed it would not be politically astute - but by 1912,
she had earned an international reputation as a leader in the women's rights movement.
She would use her position of power to further push for "Women's Causes" in the coming
years.
67
FOOTNOTES
Abbreviations
The Jane Addams Papers includes over 71 reels (each reel 1200 to 1900 pages long)
which consist of all correspondence to and from Jane Addams, newspaper and article
clippings about Jane Addams, all unbound writing by her, records she maintained
regarding organizations in which she was active, appointment books and calenders. The
papers will be abbreviated in the footnotes as JAP. If a letter was, for example, on reel 2,
page 214, it will be listed in the footnotes as 2/214.
^James Weber Linn, Jane Addams:New York: Appeleton-Centuiy,1936),pp.l6-25. Allen

F. Davis, American Heroine:The Life and Legend of Jane Addams. (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1973),p.6.
2jbid. pp.24,31,40-41.
Êleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle:The Woman's Rights movement in the United
States. (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1975), pp.31,36. Mt. Holyoke did not achieve
collegiate status until 1893.
4Linn, op,cit„ pp.61-64. Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull-House. (New York:
Macmillan, 1910),p.63.
^Linn, op.cit.. p.60.
Âddams, op.cit.. pp.54-56.
7Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, Disorderly Conduct: Visions of Gender in Victorian America.
(New York: Knopf, 1985), pp. 176, 256.
8Davis,QB£it, p.20.
^Linn, op.cit.. p.63.
IQjbid.. p. 66.
Âddams, op.cit.. p.64.
l^Davis, op.cit.. pp.27-28.
13M , pp.32-33.
l 4Jane Addams (JA) to Ellen Gates Starr (EGS), February 21,1885, JAP.. 2/21.
!5e GS to JA, November 28? 1885, IAP., 2/148.
16jA to EGS, February 7, 1887, JA P.. 2/294-205. Ellen taught English and art
appreciation at Chicago's Kirkland School for Girls.
1 / Davis, op.cit..pp. 13.44. JA to Laura Addams, April 25,1888, JAP.. 2/938.
18Addams, op.cit.. pp.85-86.
19 quoted in Christopher Lasch, editor, The Social Thought of Jane Addams. (New York:
Irvington Publishers, 1982), p.8.
20Addams, op.cit.. p.87.
21jbid.. p. 81. Allen Davis, Spearheads for Reform: the Social Settlements and The
Progresive Movement. 1890-1914. (New York: Oxford University Press,1967), pp.6-7.
22Lasch, op.cit.. p.29.
23j a to Mary Addams, February 19,1889, JAP.. 2/1027-1034.
24jbid.. pp.1026,1032-1041.
25Davis, Spearheads for Reform, pp.8-10.
26jbid.. pp. 10-11.
27oavis, American Heroine, p.57.
68
28Linn, Op.cit.. pp.94-96. Thomas Philpott, The Slum and The Ghetto: National
Determination and Middle-Class Reform. Chicago: 1880-1930. (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1978), pp. 67-72. Addams, Twenty Years, p.98. Chicago’s
population, according to The U.S. Census for 1890, was 1,099,850. The census also
showed that between 1890 and 1900, immigrants to Chicago increased by 136,446. (see
Philpott,pp.7-8).Davis, op.cit.. pp.68-70,106-109.
29JAP. 46/485-486. Italics added.
30Lasch, op.cit.. p.38.
31JAP. 46/864-868.
32Jane Addams, "Claim on the College Woman," Rockford Collegian. June, 1895, JAP..
46/714.
33Kathryn Kish Sklar, "Hull House in the 1890s: A Community of Women Reformers,"
Signs. 10, Summer,1985. p.664.
3Âddams, Twenty Years, p. 112.
35JA to Katherine Coman(KC), December 7,1891, JAP.. 2/1283.
36Addams, Twenty Years, p. 151. Edith Abbott, "Grace Abbott and Hull House, 1908 -
1921, Part 1," Social Service Review. Volume 24, September, 1950, p.377.
37Philpott, op.cit.. p.63. Davis, American Heroine, pp. 75-76. Sklar, op.cit.. p.662.
President Taft wrote to Addams on 4/15/12 asking for her recommendation of Julia
Lathrop, JAP.. 6/927. Addams wrote to Lillian Wald on 4/12/12 re: Lathrop for the
position, "It does seem to me a pity not to have a woman - and a very able one - in this
position... Let’s try for a woman first." JAP.. 6/918.
38Sklar, op.cit. pp.662-663, Abbott, op.cit.. p.376. Davis, American Heroine, pp.76-
77. Meredith Tax, The Rising of the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class .Conflict.
1880 1917. (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979), p.81. Florence Kelley (FK), "I
Go to Work," Survey. LVIII, June 1927, p.271.
39Abbott, op.cit.. p.376. FK to Mary Rozet Smith (MRS), February 4, 1899, JAP..
3/1287. JA to Paul Kellogg (PK), November 23, 1905, JAP.. 4/1181. JA to FK, July 5,
1913, JAP.. 7/915.
40sklar, op.cit.. p. 663. Davis, American Heroine, pp. 80-81.
41 for further discussion see p. 52-54 and footnote #89.
42Tax, op.cit.. p.29.
43jbid.. pp.41-56. Jane Addams, "Women’s Work for Chicago," Municipal Affairs. 2,
September, 1898, JAP.. 46/874.
44Tax.op.cit.. p.56.
45jbid.. p.58.
46jbid..pp.58-60.
47Addams, Twenty Years, pp.211-212.
48Tax, op.cit.. p. 60.
49jbid.. p.61. JA and EGS, "Hull-House: A Social Settlement," January, 1, 1894, JAP..
46/600-603.
S^Tax, op-cit- pp. 61-63. Flexner, op.cit.. pp. 206, 218-219. Jane Addams was
instrumental in founding the WTUL (Flexner, p. 219, Tax, p.93).
5lTax, op.cit.. p. 107. Philpott's whole presentation of Jane Addams in The Slum and the
Ghetto.
69
52Addams, Twenty Years, p.212. JA to KC, December 7, 1891, JAP. 2/1185. JA to
Henry Demarest Lloyd (HDL), December 15,1891, JAP.. 2/1288. JA to HDL, December
26,1892, IAE., 2/1346-1347.
53Addams, Twenty Years, pp. 212-213.
54j a to MRS, December 1,1910, JAP. 5/1364-1365. Linn, op.cit.. pp.240-241.
55philpott, op.cit..pp.27-33.
^Âddams, op.cit.. pp.281-283.
32ibisl., pp. 283-285. Allen Davis, "Jane Addams and the Ward Boss," Journal of the
Illinois State Historical Society. 53, Autumn 1960, p.251.
58Addams, Twenty Years, p.285. Davis, "JA and the Ward Boss," p. 252. Bellevue,
Iowa Leader June 27, 1895, JAP.. 55/70.
59Omaha Bee, July 21, 1895, JAP.. 55/80. Addams, Twenty Years, pp. 287-288.
Davis, American Heroine, p.242. John Rhodes to JA, May 26,1896, IAE., 3/181.
ÔAddams, Twenty Years, pp.287-288.
6lDavis, "JA and the Ward Boss," pp. 248-251. Anne Firor Scott, "Saint Jane and the
Ward Boss," American Heritage. 12, December 1960, pp. 12-13. Addams, Twenty
Years, p.289.
62 Davis, ibid.. pp.252-253.
63Davis, American Heroine, p.112. Linn, op.cit.. pp. 162-163. Addams, Twenty Years.
p. 160. Susan B. Anthony to JA, December 19, 1895, JAP.. 2/1826. Anthony had visited
Hull-House the previous spring. She wrote to JA looking for Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Stetson whom she wanted to make sure was back east in time to testify for NAWSA on
women's suffrage before the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee. She wrote
to JA, "I have many and many a time told die story of my visit to the club last spring when
I was on my way to California. . . I would love to hear you give the argument for
women's enfranchisement (before the Judiciary Committee) from the standpoint of your
Hull-House work."
64j a to HDL, December 22, 1895, JAP.. 2/1829. Davis, American Heroine, p.122.
Scott, op.cit.. p.94.
^D avis, "JA and the Ward Boss," p.254.
66 Chicago Evening P ost, February 19,1896, JAP. 55/125. Davis, ibid.. p.254.
67Chicago Inter-Ocean, August 26, 1899, JAP. 55/521. Davis, ibid.. p. 255. Letter to the
New York Times from Alice Stone Blackwell, August 16,1909, JAP. 57/584. Woman's
Journal, April 9, 1898, JAP. 57/431.
68Davis, "JA and the Ward Boss," pp.257-262. Scott, op.cit.. p. 95. William Clark to
JA, March 18, 1897, IAE, 3/611-614. James Reynolds to JA, July 21, 1897, JAP.
3/735-736.
69 Jane Addams, "Ethical Survivals in Municipal Corruption, "International Journal of
Ethics. Volume 8, # 3, April, 1898, pp. 19,274-291, IAE., 46/844-862.
70"A Voter" to JA, January 17, 1898, JAP.. 3/937-943. Chicago Herald, January 25,
1898, 55/398. Chicago Times-Herald, March 6, 1898, JAP. 55/419. Chicago Record,
January 26,1898, JAP.. 55/402. Davis, "JA and the Ward Boss," p.258. Humbert Nelli,
"John Powers and the Italians: Politics in a Chicago Ward, 1896-1921," Journal of
American History. LVH, June 1970. pp. 67-84. Nelli suggests that the Italians and
reformers could have eventually beaten Powers, who stayed in power until 1927. Powers
died in 1930.
71 JA to MRS, March ? 1898 and March 20, 1898, IAE., 3/977-979, 998-999. JA to
HDL, March 13, 1898, IAP., 3/993.
70
72Scott, op.cit.. p.97. Davis, JA and the Ward Boss," pp. 263-265. Woman's Journal,
April 9,1898, IAE., 57/431.
7^Linn, apjeit., pp.263-264. Jane Addams, The Second Twenty Years at Hull-House.
(New York: Macmillan, 1930), p.89.
74Tax, op.cit.. p.87. Addams, Twenty Years, p.204. The Illinois Eight-hour Law was
not revived until the Supreme Court upheld the Oregon Ten-hour Law in Muller v. Oregon
in 1908.
75 clip (no newspaper name given), May, 1897, JAP. 55/277. Chicago Tribune, October
31, 1897, JAP.. 55/332. New York City Public Opinion, December 9, 1897, JAP.
46/840.
76 Jane Addams, "The Working Woman and the Ballot," Woman's Home Companion.
April, 1908, JAP.. 46/1662. Jane Addams, "Why Women Should Vote," Ladies’ Home
Journal. January, 1910, JAP.. 46/1813. Aileen S. Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman
Suffrage Movement 1890-1920. (New York: Norton, 1981), pp. 142-143.
7 7 ja to M. Carey Thomas(MCT), August 29,1910, IAP., 5/1261-1262. Addams, "Why
Women Should Vote," ibid.. 46/1814.
78 Jane Addams, Newer Ideals of Peace. (New York: Macmillan, 1907), pp. 180-187.
This chapter appeared earlier, in 1906, in various newspapers under the title, "Jane
Addams Declares Ballot for Women Made Necessary by Changed Conditions," see JAP..
46/1453-1455.
79Addams, "Women’s Work for Chicago," op.cit.. 46/871-875.
80mCT to JA, October 5, 1907, October 10,1907, October 29, 1907, January 24,1908,
IA P,5/243-244,254-255, 263,310-311.Boston Transcript, March 21, 1908, JAP..
56/1271.Boston Traveler, March 23, 1908, JAP. 56/1287. Baltimore News, March 18,
1908, IAP., 56/1264.
8lLetter from JA to GFWC membership, summer, 1906, JAP..4/1405.
8 2 ja to Mrs. Rice, April 28, 1908, JAP.. 4/1405. New York American, March 22,
1909, IAE., 57/303.
83Collier’s Magazine. April 3,1909, IAE., 57/333.
84 Ben Lindsey (BL) to JA, November 5,1908, JAP.. 5/591. JA to MCT, November 20,
1908, JAP.. 5/613. Anna Nichols for JA to Brand Whitlock (Mayor of Toledo, Ohio),
December 24, 1908, JAP.. 5/649. Chicago Record, January 24,1909, JAP.. 57/233.
85Trenton Times, July 9,1908, JAP.. 57/117. Methodist Ladies' Home Journal. March
5,1908, IAE, 56/1233.
86Canton Repository, February 2,1912, JAP.. 58/721. JA to Mrs. W.F. Blake, July 13,
1912. JAP.. 6/1116.
87chrystal Eastman (CE) to JA, April 11,1912, JA to CE, April 17,1912, JAP.. 6/ 913-
914, 931. Flexner, op.cit.. p.269.
88 "Remarks of Miss Jane Addams of Chicago, 111.," In U.S. Congress. House.
Committee on the Judiciary, Woman Suffrage Hearings before the Committee on the
Judiciary. March 13. 1912. pp.7-8. H. Document 762 (Serial Set 6323), 62nd Congress,
2nd Session, 1912, JAP.. 47/306-308. Chicago Record-Herald, March 14,1912, JAP..
58/790. Flexner, op.cit.. pp.206-207. Mrs. F.W. Pethick-Lawrence (EPL) to JA,
September 28,1911, JAP.. 6/480-481. JA to Alice Haldeman, October 18, 1911, JAP.
6/479.
89Harper's Weekly. March 10, 1902, JAP. 55/676. Rochester Advertiser, February 12,
1904, JAP. 55/998. Clip on "Views Differ to Woman for Mayor" JAP.. 56/98Brooklyn
Eagle, June 18, 1907, JAP.. 56/891. Indiana Dispatch, September 2, 1908, JAP..
71
57/149. LA Examiner, August 9, 1909, JAP.. 57/545. Boston Post, (no date) JAP..
57/543. Chicago News, August 9, 1909, JAP.. 57/546. New York Journal, August 10,
1909, JAP.. 57/550. New York Times, August 16, 1909, JAP.. 57/584. San Francisco
Examiner, August 26, 1909, JAP.. 57/596. Chicago Tribune, June ?, 1910, JAP..
57/1023. Chicago American, April 18,1911, IAE-. 58/381.
72
Chapter 2
Jane Addams and National Politics:
Racism and "Woman's Causes"
Jane Addams' father, John Addams, was a Republican abolitionist who attended
the founding meeting of the Republican Party held in Ripon, Wisconsin in 1854. He
served in the Illinois State Senate from 1954 until 1870 and during the Civil War reared
and equipped a company in the Illinois Regiment named after him, "The Addams Guard."
Jane Addams revered her father and in the first two chapters of her autobiography, Twenty
Years at Hull-House, expressed gratitude to her father for inculcating in her the principles
of Lincolnian democracy. 1
In the second chapter, entitled "Influence of Lincoln," she noted that "There were at
least two pictures of Lincoln that always hung in my father's room, and one in our
upstairs parlor, of Lincoln with little Tad." She wrote with pride of the letters her father
received from Lincoln, addressed to "My dear Double-D'ed Addams," assuring the state
senator that the president knew he "would vote according to his conscience" in matters
before the state legislature. Jane Addams recalled that at times of stress in her own adult
life, particularly during the Pullman Strike of 1894 in Chicago, she would walk to Lincoln
Park to stare at Lincoln's statue and take in his words of "charity to all," remembering the
"tolerance of the man who had won charity for those on both sides of 'an irrepressible
conflict."' The remembrance of her father's connection to the slain president, whom her
father so greatly admired, gave Jane Addams courage and comfort. To describe her moral
inheritance from her father, Jane Addams borrowed lines from Elizabeth Barrett
Browning's Aurora Leigh,
He wrapt me in his large
Man's doublet, careless did it fit or no. 2
73
Jane Addams endeavored to follow in her father's and Lincoln's footsteps. Hull-
House, as she wrote, was "opened on the theory that dependence of classes on each other
is reciprocal." To encourage the remembrance of Lincoln and the importance of his 1863
Emancipation Proclamation which freed black slaves in the United States, Addams held
celebrations at Hull-House on the anniversaries of Lincoln’s birthday, served on an
organizing committee to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Declaration,
and she wrote articles defending the civil, economic and political rights of African-
Americans.3
However, as the tradition of abolitionists was against slavery, it was also neither
non-racist nor integrationist. Jane Addams was raised in a Republican atmosphere of
noblesse oblige, where Negroes were to be protected by white American benefactors from
racial violence and political discrimination, but were not seen as the social and intellectual
equals of white men and women. While living with her stepmother in Baltimore in 1886,
Addams wrote letters to her sisters which reflected this sense of responsibility tainted by
racism. Just after Christmas, she wrote to Laura, "I spent the afternoon of Christmas day
with old colored women and gave them some little presents as well as an orphan asylum
for little colored girls I have been quite interested in." To Sarah she added about the
orphangage, "They take little colored girls and help them until they are fifteen, training
them to be good servants, the children themselves expecting to be that and having an
ambition for a good place. I heartily approve of the scheme."^
During her lifetime Jane Addams overcame her racial prejudice enough to socialize
and work for social justice with upper- and middle-class African-American leaders such as
Ida B. Wells-Bamett, Mary Church Terrell and W.E.Burghardt Du Bois: she welcomed
them to Hull-House and served with them on the original Board of Directors of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). When Ida Wells-
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Barnett and her husband requested Jane Addams' aid in halting a Chicago newspaper's
effort to segregate the city's schools, Addams chaired the committee which successfully
ended the destructive campaign. She spoke out against lynching and a vicious play, "The
Clansman," which denigrated African-Americans. She helped to raise funds for black
settlement houses on Chicago's South Side.5
Although historians have given credit to Jane Addams for being less racist than
many of her colleagues in the Progressive Era, she was still influenced enough by her own
inherited traditions that the rights of African-Americans held less priority for Addams than
did her work for the empowerment of immigrant and white working and middle-class
w o m e n .6 In her alliance with predominantly white women's organizations such as the
General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) and the National American Woman
Suffrage Association (NAWSA), and in her deep involvement with Theodore Roosevelt's
1912 Progressive Party campaign for president of the United States, the political, civil and
social rights of African-Americans took a backseat to Addams' drive to win suffrage for
immigrant and white American women. Jane Addams developed a pattern of speaking up
for the inclusion of black women and men in club and political organizations, but when it
came to a choice between remaining in the organizations and working for women's
causes, or leaving the organizations because of demeaning, exclusionary treatment of
African-Americans, Addams always chose the former route.?
* * * *
America has always been a racist society, but after the Civil War and the
institutional freeing and enfranchising of black slaves in the south, white American
society had to find new ways to prove its superiority and maintain its domination over
peoples of color. White Americans, on the whole, resented and were threatened by the
economic and political gains made by blacks after the Civil War. Although Charles
75
Darwin's 1859 Origin of Species was meant to refer only to animals other than mankind,
white American pyschologists and intellectuals used his theory of the "survival of the
fittest" to demonstrate that African-Americans were intended to remain on the bottom
rungs of society because of their lack of ability, while white male industrial magnates
were successful because they belonged to a superior species. 8
Northern bourgeois theorists such as Herbert Spencer and William Graham
Sumner, and historian William Dunning popularized the ideas of Social Darwinism and
"consciousness of kind." Sumner, with particular regard to African-Americans, wrote that
"legislation cannot make mores . . stateways cannot change folkways," the implication
being that enfranchising and granting political equality to blacks would in no way increase
their competence as American citizens. In 1876, a scientist, Dr. Cesare Lombroso,
published his study, Criminal Man. which "proved" that men of non-Anglo-Saxon
features craved not only to murder but to "mutilate the corpse, tear its flesh and drink its
blood."^ About this ugly spate of nativist, anti-black literature during the last decades of
the nineteenth century, the noted historian of the South, C. Vann Woodward, observed
that it "appeared in the years when the wave of Southern and American racism was
reaching its crest. (Its) influence was to encourage the notion that there was something
inevitable and rigidly inflexible about the existing patterns of segregation and race relations
in the South . . . it was, indeed, folly to attempt to meddle with them by means of
legislation." He also argued that Jim Crowism was as strong in the North as in the
South. 10
In its February 1, 1913 issue commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the
Emancipation Proclamation, The Survey ("A Journal of Constructive Philanthropy,”
edited by social reformer Paul Kellogg) carried an eloquent article on the "Social Effects of
Emancipation," written by the black scholar and editor of The Crisis (the official organ of
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the NAACP), W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois wrote that in 1863 there were approximately
5,000,000 African-Americans in the United States, 4,000,000 or more of whom were just
being released from slavery. Ninety per cent of the released slaves were illiterate. He
reported that of the three-quarters of a million free Negroes, those living in the South were
for the most part a "wretched, broken-spirited lot," and those residing in the North were
forced to live in the "worst slums and alleys," excluded from public schools or "furnished
with cheap and poor substitutes." 11
Du Bois reported that by 1913 the American black population had reached
10,250,000 and the only vestiges of real slavery were the debt peonage and convict lease
systems. As of 1900, fifty per cent of former slaves were farm laborers and servants, and
the other half of freed men and women worked as teachers, seamstresses, physicians,
porters, barbers as well as in many other trades and professions. By 1910 African-
Americans owned 18,000,000 acres of land and 220,000 farms. Du Bois estimated the
1913 total Negro wealth to be $570,000,000. African-Americans held 9,000 government
positions and supported 200 private schools and colleges. Over the last forty years they
had raised $45,000,000 for their public and private schools. Black "secret and beneficial
societies" held at least $6,00,000 in real e s t a t e . 1 2
On one hand, Du Bois wrote optimistically,

Above and beyond this material growth has gone the spiritual uplift of a
great human race. From contempt and amusement they have passed to the
pity and the perplexity of their neighbors, while within their own souls they
have arisen from apathy and timid complaint to open protest and more and
more manly self-assertion. Where nine-tenths of them could not read or
write in 1859, today two-thirds can; they have 200 papers and periodicals,
and their voice and expression are compelling attention.13
On the other hand, Du Bois pointed out that black advances were thwarted by white
racism and a growing caste system in the United States. He noted that for black and white
couples who wanted to wed, intermarriage was illegal in 26 states and that segregation in
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transportation, waiting area and restrooms, restaurants, hotels, churches and schools, was
fast becoming the rule rather than the exception in the South. In the North laws against
segregation were not always enforced. By means of the literacy tests, poll taxes,
employment, army service and property requirements, and the "grandfather" and
"Understanding" clauses, African-Americans were rapidly being deprived of the franchise
in the South. The southern school system not only discriminated against blacks through
segregation, but reduced the number of grades in black schools and maintained few black
high schools. As Du Bois pointed out, "They are sufferers without the power of the vote
for change." 14
It was the black women's clubs, Du Bois asserted, that bore the brunt of social
services for African-Americans. The clubs established orphanages, kindergartens, old
folk's homes and hospitals. Du Bois did not, however, discuss the ill treatment that black
women received from the white woman's club movement or the general disparagement of
black women by the larger white society.
Whereas white women who wanted some kind of empowerment in society could
form clubs for cultural development and social reform, and then be praised as moral
uplifters, black women were victims of degrading literature which saw them as sexually
depraved. During slavery, white masters sexually exploited black women, but the white
world, not wanting to incur the blame for such heinous behavior on the part of their men,
scapegoated the black women. In 1902, the popular intellectual journal, The Independent,
carried a commentary which read, "I sometimes hear of a virtuous Negro woman, but the
idea is absolutely inconceivable to me." In a similarly debasing vein, another Independent
writer proclaimed that like white women, "Black women had the brains of a child, the
passions of a woman," but unlike white women, African-American women were "steeped
in centuries of ignorance and savagery, and wrapped about with immoral vices." As the
78
following 1896 report attests, even the northern white women missionaries who worked
with freed slaves after the Civil War and recognized the culpability of white male masters
blamed black women for a high illegitimate birthrate of African-American children,
They are still the victims of the white man under a survival of a system. .
which deprives them of the sympathy and the help of the Southern white
woman, and to meet such temptations the negro woman can offer only the
resistance of a low moral standard, an inheritance from the system of
slavery, made still lower from a life-long residence in a one-roomed
cabin.
The founders of the white women's club movement were neither interested in
improving the lot of African-American women nor in inviting them to join their clubs. The
white woman's club movement got its start in the late 1860s. When journalist Jane
Cunningham Croly and her women colleagues were denied invitations in 1868 to a New
York Press club dinner for Charles Dickens, they founded the Sorosis Club. The same
year, Caroline Severance, a wealthy philanthropist and reformer, began the the New
England Woman's Club in Boston. These clubs spawned hundreds of other clubs
nationwide which held classes and lectures on such subjects as career opportunities, health
concerns, literary endeavors and how to organize lobby groups to place more women on
school boards. In 1890, Croly founded the General Federation of Women's Clubs
(GFWC) in order to bring all the local women's societies into a national organization. The
GFWC was composed of mostly fashionable upper- and middle-class white women.
More interested in cultural activities than political rights, the GFWC did not endorse
women's suffrage until 1914. A nativist and racist organization, it opposed admission of
immigrant and African-American women.
Black women were not deterred by their white sisters' ill treatment of them. One
woman especially led African-American women in their fight for recognition and
empowerment in American society. The black women's club movement in the United
States can be traced to Ida B. Well's bold crusade against lynching. Wells was bom into
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slavery in Holly Springs, Mississippi on July 16, 1862. Her father was a carpenter and
her mother, in her own words, was "a famous cook." When a yellow fever epidemic in
1878 claimed her mother and father, Ida Wells was determined to keep her younger
siblings together. With the help of her seventy year old grandmother and a Mend of her
mother's, she raised her siblings, and lived off a small inheritance from her father and a
teaching job she took in a one-room school six miles from her home. When her paternal
aunt in Memphis agreed to take over the upbringing of the Wells children, Ida Wells was
free to move onto a better teaching position. Traveling by train in 1884 to her new school
in Tennessee, the railroad conductor told Wells that as a Negro woman she would have to
sit in the smoking c a r . 17
Ida Wells returned to Memphis, where she began teaching in the city schools, and
sued the railroad. In December 1884, a local court decided against the railroad and
awarded Wells five hundred dollars in damages. The Tennessee Supreme Court, however,
overturned the case in April of 1887. This setback could not stop Well's campaign for
AMcan-American justice. A doughty and beautiful young woman, sometimes brash, she
became the editor and part owner of a small Memphis newspaper, Free Speech and
Headlight (she would later shorten the name to Free Speech), and proceeded to write a
series of articles damning the condition of Memphis' segregated schools for black
children, which cost her her teaching job i n 1891.
Ida Wells continued her newspaper work and while away on assignment in 1892,
three black men who owned and operated a successful grocery store in a Memphis suburb
were lynched by a white mob. Wells was the godmother of the daughter of one of the
victims, Thomas Moss, and the best friend of Moss' pregnant wife, Betty. Wounded and
outraged, Wells turned her pen against the crime of lynching and argued that lynching had
nothing to do with the usual pretext, that of black men raping white women, but rather
80
was caused by white businessmen's resentment of prosperous black shopkeepers. As a
result, Memphis whites threatened Wells' life and destroyed the Free Speech office in
May of 1892. The journalist left Memphis forever. 19
On June 5, 1892, the African-American newspaper, New York Age, carried Ida
Wells' seven column story of black lynching on its front page. Wells purchased a one-
fourth interest in the Age and continued to write columns twice a week for the paper. Her
goal was to publish her investigative findings on lynching in a booklet, but she lacked the
funds to do so. On the eve of a speaking tour to Great Britain, where Wells was to
expand her crusade against lynching, prominent African-American women in New York
hosted a testimonial dinner at the city's Lyric Hall for Wells to raise funds for the anti-
lynching booklet.20
The key organizer of the event was Victoria Earle Matthews, the founder of the
White Rose Working Girls Home (for black women), a predecessor of the Urban League.
Two hundred and fifty black women attended, including Boston's Josephine St. Pierre
Ruffin, an activist and suffragist who was married to one of the first black graduates of
Harvard Law School, and Dr. Susan Mckinney of Brooklyn, considered the foremost
black woman physician of her time. Inspired by the testimonial, McKinney and Earle
established the Women's Loyal Club in New York and Ruffin founded the Woman's Era
Club in Boston. When Wells returned from England in 1893, she helped form the Ida B.
Wells Club in Chicago. Between 1892 and 1894, black women's clubs proliferated
throughout the country. In Chicago alone, seven black women's clubs came into
existence. The Woman's Era, a black journal edited by Ruffin noted that "Ida Wells was
creating so much interest in her crusade against lynching, it was a good time to carry out
the club idea." As feminist historian Gerda Lemer remarked about Wells, "she expressed
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what was to become the ideological direction of the organized movement of black women -
a defense of black womenhood as part of a defense of the race from terror and a b u s e ." 2 1
The paths of Ida B. Wells and Jane Addams would cross when Wells moved to
Chicago to be near Ferdinand Lee Barnett, an attorney and the founder of the Conservator,
the first African-American newspaper in Chicago. Wells and Barnett married in 1895 and
together, as Langston Hughes recorded, "They continued their campaign for equal rights
for Negro Americans . . . their activities . .include(d) every social problem of importance
in the Windy City." But before Addams and Wells met, Addams had an opportunity in
Chicago to speak up for the rights of African-American women, and she let the chance slip
by. Her work for social reform focussed on the problems of immigrants, and she did not,
in the early 1890s, reach out to the black community in its struggle for recognition and
social justice.
A rising star in the American social settlement movement, Jane Addams presided
and led sessions at a conference of social reformers held during the 1893 World
Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The fair's purpose was to show off American
achievements to people at home and abroad. William Stead, the British journalist and
editor who came to the exposition, noted after visiting Hull House that, "The best hope
for Chicago is the multiplications of Hull House into all the slum districts of the city."
Except for a Haitian exhibit, presided over by Frederick Douglass (who was appointed
American minister to the island in 1889) African-Americans as a group were not allowed
to participate in the fair. When Hallie Q. Brown of Wilberforce University urged the
Board of Lady Managers, in charge of selecting displays for the women's acheivements
exhibit, to appoint an African-American woman to the Board, she was told this was
impossible because black women had no national organization. Only a few prominent
black women were allowed to address audiences at the exposition, including Fanny
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Barrier Williams, the first woman to be appointed to Chicago's Library Board and one of
the few black women admitted to the Chicago Women's C l u b . 2 2
This was an occasion when Jane Addams could have spoken up for the rights of
black women and their need for equal and fair treatment by white women. There is no
evidence that black women leaders asked Addams to intervene, but it is a fair assumption
that Addams, who was involved with the organization of the exposition and knew
Williams, was aware of the exclusion of black women. Addams remained silent, and
black women and men were left to defend their accomplishments and stature on their own,
which they did most eloquently. Addressing a conference at the exposition, Fanny Barrier
Williams stated, "I regret the necessity of speaking of the moral question of our women
(but) the morality of our home life has been commented on so disparagingly and meanly
that we are placed in the unfortunate position of being defenders of our name." She spoke
of the constant harassment of black women by white men and said that if white women
were so concerned about morality, they ought to take steps to help protect black women.
During the final three months of the fair, Ida Wells, Ferdinand Barnett and Frederick
Douglass distributed 10,000 copies of a phamplet they wrote entitled, "The Reason Why
the Colored American Is not in the Columbian Exposition." As Wells described the
"creditable little book" in her 1931 autobography, "It was a clear, plain statement of facts
concerning the oppression put upon the colored people in this land of the free and home of
the brave." 23
At the request of Frederick Douglass, Wells spoke in February 1893 to a group of

black women activists in Washington, D.C. In the audience was Mary Church Terrell, an
Oberlin graduate who was the first African-American woman to serve on the District of
Columbia Board of Education. After hearing Wells, she founded the National League of
Colored Women, which united black women’s clubs in the area and opened a
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kindergarden and a nursery school for the children of working women. In 1895, after
announcing in The Woman’s Era that a British suffragist had received a nasty letter from
an editor of a small Missouri newspaper condemning the morality of African-American
women, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin called for a national meeting of black women
activists to be held in Boston in the early summer. This convention spawned the National
Federation of Afro-American Women and within a few months the organization had
affiliates in sixteen states. By 1896, the Federation merged with the Colored Women's
League to form the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) and Mary Church
Terrell was elected its first p r e s i d e n t . 2 4
* * * *
Social historian Christopher Lasch observed that "Most middle-class Americans of

the 1890's agreed in attaching great importance to the concept of race, and it was that
agreement which gave the intellectual life of the period its peculiar tone." Ida B. Wells-
Bamett wrote in her autobiography that she regarded Jane Addams as "the greatest woman
in the United S t a t e s ." 2 5 After Wells married Ferdinand Barnett and moved permanently to
Chicago, she and Addams had their differences, but they worked together in causes for
justice for African-Americans. It appeared that Wells-Bamett accepted that white leaders
had an agenda that did not give priority to working for full equality for black people, and
that the small amount of work Addams did to achieve some sort of racial equality for
African-Americans earned her Wells-Bamett's adulation. The concept of race may have
been as important - and as much an impediment to change - to middle-class blacks as it
was to middle-class whites. As well as her social reform efforts, Addams made more
overtures to black America than did most of her contemporaries, and possibly this was
why Wells-Bamett distinquished her as such a great American woman.
84
In 1899, the NACW held its annual convention in August at Chicago's Quinn
Chapel. Having read of the meeting in the daily papers, Jane Addams called Ida Wells-
Bamett and asked her to extend an invitation to the officers to have lunch with her at Hull-
House, and to also invite the entire association membership to visit the settlement At the
time, Mary Terrell and Ida Wells-Bamett were not on the best of terms because, according
to Wells-Bamett, Terrell wanted to insure her re-election as president of the NACW and
did not want to share center stage with Wells-Bamett. Wells-Bamett, however, did visit
the conference long enough to issue Jane Addams' invitation to the club women. The
newspapers reported that in response to the invitation the black women lunched at Hull-
House and the women of Hull-House were:
Thus effacing in a large degree the color line that has separated the
intelligent feminine representatives of the negro race from their sisters of
lighter skin. This is the first time in Chicago that colored women have been
recognized in a social way by white women. One of the residents of Hull-
House said, W e were impressed with the intelligence of our guests. They
inspected the Settlement understanding^ and poured on us as many
interested questions as we could a n s w e r . ' 2 o
Addams' effort to welcome black club women to Hull-House was not echoed in the
larger white women's club movement. Black women leaders themselves had proposed
that women of all races work together, as evidenced by Josephine Ruffin's address before
the 1895 Negro women's conference in Boston when she stated,
Our woman's movement is woman's movement in that it is led and directed
by women for the good of women and men, for the benefit of all humanity,
which is more than any one branch or section of i t . . .we are not drawing
the color line; we are women, American women, as interested in all that
pertains to us as such as all other American women; we are not alienating or
withdrawing, we are only coming to the front, willing to join any others in
the same work and cordially inviting and welcoming any others to join
us."27
But Ruffin's overtures were not reciprocated. In 1900, Ruffin’s New Era Club
applied for and received membership in the GFWC, the latter unaware that the club was
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African-American. When Ruffin attended the GFWC biennial convention that year in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as a representative of three organizations - two predominantly
white (the Massachusetts Federation and the New England Woman’s Press Club) and one
black (the New Era Club) - all hell broke lose. Worse than merely heated verbal
exchanges, GFWC members attempted to snatch Ruffin's badge from her on the
convention floor. On a technicality, the black women's club was asked to return its
certificate of membership and Ruffin was told that she could be seated as a member of one
of the white women's organization. She refused. Angry over the mistreatment of Ruffin,
two Massachusetts clubs, Middlesex and Brightelmstone, withdrew from the
federation.28
The admission of black women’s clubs was not resolved until two years later at the
Los Angeles Biennial. Although there was no record that Jane Addams attended the 1900
convention, she participated in the 1902 meeting and urged that the Negro women's clubs
be admitted to the federation. Addams alluded to her disgust with the southern women
who were against membership for the clubs in a letter to Mary Smith, written from her
L.A. lodgings, the Westminister Hotel, on May 3rd. She wrote that the place was "Oh!
so infested with women folk. I am having a charming visit with Mrs. Wilmarth to whose
room I have fled now - for my hostess is a Southern woman and at times I find the
atmosphere a little difficult to tolerate."29
Jane Addams, who the Los Angeles Express reported "won the conference (over)
with her unassuming manner and evident earnestness," spoke on the morning of May 5
for an amendment to the federation's by-laws. Whereas the by-laws required a four-fifths
vote of the admission committee of clubs of the general federation to admit any
organization, Addams wanted it changed to read that a three-fifths vote of approval would
be all that would be necessary to admit a club for membership. She felt this reduction in
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the necessary vote to admit clubs would enable black women's clubs to become members.
The amendment was soundly defeated, and Addams admitted, "There was nothing that
would change the situation about the colored clubs. It is a matter of machinery, merely,
and I want the machinery adjusted so that the weaker clubs shall have fair chance with the
stronger o n e s . " 3 0
Although the color line was to hold in the GFWC, Addams would retain a role in
the organization as chair of its Industrial Advisory Committee. She did so to maintain
power in an organization which she apparently believed could be instrumental in achieving
rights for white women. In 1906 her committee urged GFWC endorsement of woman's
suffrage, and she received flak for doing so. It would take until 1914 for the federation,
which then represented 1,700,000 American clubwomen, to endorse the national
enfranchisement of American women. As sensitive as Jane Addams tried to be in relation
to her black sisters, she could neither overcome her inherited sense of racial stereotypes
nor noblesse oblige toward African-Americans, nor put their need for social justice ahead
of her desire for the empowerment of white women in a male-dominated society.
Perhaps, if there had not existed in Addams' time such a strong tradition of segregation
and degradation of blacks in American society, she would have been better prepared to
work equally for the rights of black women as well as those of white American women.
The lynching of black men and women, particularly in the South, was one method
by which whites could terrorize and maintain hegemony over African-Americans. In his
1905 study, Lvnch Law. James Elbert Cutler reported that 1,337 individuals were lynched
between 1882 and 1903. Based on records kept by white officials, the NAACP later
found that between 1882 and 1927,4,951 persons were lynched, approximately 3,500 of
whom were black. 92 were women, including 76 black women. Ida Wells-Bamett
estimated that by the turn of the century the number of lynching victims reached into the
87
tens of thousands. Jane Addams, abhorrent of this extra-legal crime against blacks,
sought out information about the killings and wrote an article decrying lynching of
Negroes in the South, "Respect for Law," in the January 3, 1901 issue of The
Independent.31
In the article, Addams demonstrated her understanding of the class and racist
dynamics of lynching, but also her own racist attitudes and misunderstanding that
lynching was the punishment meted out to black men who raped white women. She began
the article almost apologetically for the South's behavior, writing that self-government was
local and it was not always easy for outsiders to comprehend local dynamics: "We are
obliged to remember.. all the difficulties of reconstruction and the restoration of a country
devastated by war (and) they must deal with that most intricate of all problems - the
presence of two alien races... Before entering this protest. . . in regard to the increasing
number of negro lynchings occurring in the South, we must remember that many of the
most atrocious public acts recorded in history have been committed by men who had
convinced themselves that they were doing right." Twice she referred to the "peculiar"
and "certain" class of crimes for which lynching was used, in other words, rape. Addams
argued "that the bestial in man, that which leads him to pillage and rape, can never be
controlled by public cruelty and dramatic p u n i s h m e n t" 3 2
She perceived the link between the advances made by blacks in the South and their
former masters wanting to keep them subjugated, and she admonished women for
allowing lynching to occur in their name:
Punishments of this sort rise to unspeakable atrocities when the crimes of
the so-called inferior class affect the property and persons of the superior;
and when the situation is complicated by race animosity, as it is at present in
the South, by the former slave owner to his former slave, whom he is now
bidden to regard as his fellow citizen, we have the worst possible situation
for attempting this method of punishment. .. Perhaps it is woman who can
best testify that the honor of women is only secure in those nations and
localities where law and order and justice prevail. . the woman who is
88
protected by violence allows herself to be protected as the woman of a
savage is, and she must still be regarded as a possession of a m a n . 3 3
But her derogatory tone when describing Negros as "undeveloped" and likening
them to "a child who is managed by a system of bullying and terrorizing (who is) almost
sure to be a vicious and stupid child," underscored Jane Addams' own condescension
toward African-Americans whom she considered uncultured. Ida Wells-Bamett, in an
article published in The Independent May 16, 1901, took Addams to task for
misrepresenting the reason for lynchings of blacks in the South. At the time, Wells-
Bamett chaired the Anti-Lynching Bureau of the National Afro-American Council, the first
national civil rights organization of the post-Civil War e r a . 3 4
Wells-Bamett wrote that although "Appreciating the helpful influences" of Addams'
appeal against lynching, "It is strange that an intelligent, law-abiding and fair minded
people should so persistently shut their eyes to to the facts." She challenged Addams'
"unfortunate presumtion used as a basis for her argument," calling it "unspeakably
infamous." Using detailed statistical tables on lynching, compiled by the establishment
Chicago Tribune, Wells-Bamett demonstrated that out of the 5 0 4 black citizens lynched
between 1896 and 1900, only 96 had been accused of rape. She wrote, "A careful
classification of the offenses which have caused lynchings during the past five years
shows that contempt for law and race prejudice constitute the real cause of all ly n c h i n g ." 3 5
Despite their differences regarding lynching, a couple of years later Ida Wells-
Bamett and Jane Addams worked together to end an insidious campaign by the Chicago
Tribune to initiate a segregated school system in the city. When Wells-Bamett went to see
the editor of the newspaper about the articles, he mistook her for a church woman
soliciting funds for a black church, and told her that he would have no time to meet with
any delegation of Negroes who wanted an end to the series of articles. Wells-Bamett and
her husband informed Jane Addams about the difficulty with the editor and Addams called
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together a meeting of prominent white Chicago reformers. As she wrote to the Rev.
Jenkin L. Jones on October 20, 1903, "Have you seen the discussion in the Chicago
papers concerning the possibility of separate schools for colored children? I have been
asked by the Barnetts and others to call a little meeting for next Sunday evening at Hull-
House to discuss the matter. I wish very much that you would consent to c o m e . " 3 6
Jones attended the meeting, as well as many other reformers including Rev. R. A.
White, a member of the school board, Edwin Burritt Smith, a leading Chicago attorney
and Celia Parker Wooley, the future director of the Frederick Douglass Center. Wells-
Bamett explained the situation to the group and as a result, a committee of seven, headed
by Jane Addams, met with the Tribune’s editor. Henceforth, as Wells-Bamett recorded in
her autobiography, "There has been no further effort made by the Chicago Tribune to
separate the schoolchildren on the basis of r a c e . " 3 7 This was one occasion when Jane
Addams' actions carried further than her words, and she was instrumental in preventing
mistreatment of African-Americans in Chicago.
Wells-Bamett and Addams again collaborated in February, 1909, when they
organized a mass meeting at Chicago's Orchestra Hall to commemorate the centenary of
Lincoln’s birthday. W.E.B. Du Bois was to be the event's featured speaker, as he was at
Hull-House in 1907, also on the occasion of Lincoln's birthday. Jane Addams was the
guest of Du Bois and his wife in May, 1908, when she spoke at the graduation exercises
at Atlanta University. Just before Addams left for the southern city, Du Bois wrote her,
"When you reach the depot any colored hackman will bring you to our door.. .1 wired last
Tuesday for a short report of your speech for northern papers. This is to circumspect the
Associated Press Papers which will ignore or misquote us." Du Bois was clearly aware of
the country's sentiment against friendship between black and white individuals. He and
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Wells-Bamett would, however, continue to work with Jane Addams and other prominent
white Americans to form the N A A C P .38
The National Negro Committee, the forerunner of the NAACP, met for the first
time on May 31, 1909 in New York City. William English Walling, a white social
activist, sparked The Committee when he wrote "Race War in the North," a story about
the horrific race riot he witnessed in Springfield, Illinois in late 1908 (it ran in northern
papers and The independent). Mary White Ovington, a New York social worker
concerned with the problems facing African-Americans, read Walling's article and
contacted him. They joined with other reformers, including Jane Addams, Ida Wells-
Bamett, Lillian Wald, Oswald Garrison Villard (grandson of abolitionist William Lloyd
Garrison) and Henry Moskowitz, head resident of a social settlement on the Lower East
Side, in a call for the May conference to take action against lynching, peonage, the
convict-lease systems, disenfranchisement and the Jim Crow cars of the South. Although
Jane Addams was not present at the meeting, Walling wrote to her in June and asked her
to become a member of the "Permanent Committee." He explained,
Careful consideration was given to the selection of names on this
committee. Only such were chosen as it could be felt can be relied upon to
take a profound interest in this delicate and complicated question. Since you
are among those few whom we feel we can lean upon, it is earnestly hoped
that you will not refuse to join with us, even if your time is so restricted as
to allow your attendance at few of our meetings.39
The NAACP became incorporated in 1910 and Addams agreed to serve on both the
national’s and the Chicago chapter's Board of Directors. She helped to raise funds for the
organization and hosted its annual conference when it was held in Chicago in 1912. When
Woodrow Wilson enforced washroom and work area segregation for black employees at
the Treasury and Post Office Departments in 1913, Jane Addams joined Du Bois, Villard
and Moorefield Storey, national president of the organization, in sending Wilson "a very
pointed letter of protest" which denounced the segregated arrangements as "fallacious,"
91
humiliating and dangerous. Addams' was also the first signature on the Chicago branch's
letter of protest to the president, which pointed out that the discrimination against Negro
employees was "wholly undeserved" and "violates the principle of fair play and equal
treatment." In the fall of that year, she traveled to Washington to interview black
employees in the government service about Wilson’s segregation policies.^
In Chicago itself, Jane Addams did little to really alter the color line which
transversed the city. The African-American population of Chicago was 14,271 persons in
1890, 30,150 in 1900, and 44,103 by 1910 (1.3%, 1.8% and 2.0%, respectively, of the
total population). The great migration of black people did not occur until after 1915, and
then the black belt along the South Side became fixed. In 1913, there were nine settlement
houses within walking distance of black residential areas: four were for blacks and five
were for whites, there was no integration. Hull-House employed a black cook, whom it
kept on staff even though the Chicago union would not accept him for membership.
Addams, who felt strongly about only employing union workers, dealt with the situation
by arranging a membership for the man in a Negro local in St. Louis.^l
There was a "club of colored women" at Hull-House which worked on black

housing problems, but the Jane Club, the boarding home for working women, remained
purely white for the duration of its existence. Jane Addams participated in the integrated
Frederick Douglass Center, but its activities were directed more toward upper- and
middle-class whites and blacks than to the poor and most needy Chicago African-
Americans. Addams sat on the board of the Wendell Phillips Settlement, which served
black Chicagoans but had some white residents. However, as social historian Thomas
Philpott has pointed out, by 1919, eight settlement houses for African-Americans in
Chicago had all disappeared and all "had been separate and either second-rate or
subordinate to white c o n t r o l . " 4 2
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Jane Addams would continue to write about the ill treatment in America of African-
Americans and she would work with Mary Church Terrell in the women's peace
movement. But, in her efforts for political and civil justice for blacks, she was still
fettered by stereotypes inherited from her own white, abolitionist background. In 1913, in
the lead article of the same issue of The Survey in which Du Bois pointed out that African-
Americans were becoming victims of a caste system propagated by whites, Addams spoke
of the caste system as if it was something in the past. She admonished white Americans
for their indifference to the plight of black citizens but in doing so she raised the old
proscribing and biased stereotypes of black talent,
What is being lost by the denial of opportunity and of free expression on the
part of the Negro, it is now very difficult to estimate; only faint suggestions
of the waste can be perceived. There is . .the sense of humor, unique and
spontaneous . .the inimitable story telling prized in the South; the Negro
melodies which are the only American folk-songs; the persistent love of
color. .the executive and organizing capacity so often exhibited by the head
waiter in a huge hotel or by the colored woman who administers a
complicated household.^
In her 1930 autobiography, Second Twenty Years at Hull-House. Addams called

the poverty, discrimination, and segregation of black citizens "the gravest situation in our
American life." She spoke up for black women whose earnings a 1919 Labor Department
study found to be "far below the earnings of most white women, although they too must
somehow meet the expenses of food, shelter and clothing." But other than her friendships
with a few prominent leaders, Addams was out of touch with the majority of black citizens
and she was blind to her own prejudice. Addams failed to see that African-Americans had
kept their traditions throughout slavery. A strong believer in the power of inherited
traditions, she felt that without those traditions blacks -could not be the true social equals of
white or immigrant Americans (whom she believed had maintained their traditions).^
Although considerably more sensitive than most Americans to the problems faced
by blacks in a white run society, Addams' bias undermined her effectiveness in working
93
for equality and justice for black citizens. This ingrained lacuna in Jane Addams, coupled
with her desire to empower white and immigrant women, circumscribed her ability to do
more than verbally defend African-Americans' rights, as evidenced by her role in the 1912
Progressive Party convention.
* * * *
Jane Addams was elected the first woman president of the National Conference of
Charities and Corrections in 1909. Since 1897, when Jane Addams apologized for
attending the conference due to its hostility towards the settlement movement, the
organization had changed from one devoted to correction and charity to one concerned
with prevention and social reform. This transformation was marked in 1909 not only by
Addams' rise to power, but also by the Conference's establishment of a committee on
occupational standards charged with determining "certain minimum requirements of well
being" in an industrial society. This committee reflected the goal of Progressive Era
reformers to set a national agenda, which could translate into national policy to be enacted
by the federal govemment.45
When the National Conference met in Cleveland in June of 1912, the industrial
committee condensed its three years of investigation into a platform of minimum standards
called "Social Standards for Industry," the intention clearly stated that it be used to "direct
public thought and secure official action." The platform called for an eight-hour day in
continuous twenty-four industries, a six-day week for all workers, an end to tenement
manufacture, improved housing conditions, prohibition of labor for children under
sixteen, careful regulation of employment for women, and a federal system of accident,
old age and unemployment insurance. Owen Lovejoy, chair of the committee (and also
secretary of the National Child Labor Committee, on whose board Jane Addams also sat)
94
said this was not a catalogue of ideals but minimum necessities for any community
"interested in self-preservation."^
After the Charities Conference adjourned, several members of the committee

remained in Cleveland to determine how the platform could be incorporated into the 1912
presidential campaign. They decided it would be well worth their efforts to see if they
could get their "Platform of Industrial Minimums" accepted at the Republican Party
National Convention, currently in session in Chicago. John Kingsbury, general agent of
the New York Association for Improving the Conditions of the Poor, Paul Kellogg and
other prominent reformers traveled to Chicago where they presented their program to the
platform committee of the Republican Convention, to no avail.47
When Theodore Roosevelt, who had shown interest in the industrial platform at the
convention, bolted the Republican Party to organize a run as the Progressive Party
candidate, several reformers, including Kellogg, Kingsbury and Henry Moskowitz, went
to see him at his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. They presented their ideas to him in
detail and as Kellogg recorded, Roosevelt "took over the Cleveland program of standards
of life and labor practically bodily." It was also at this time that Judge Ben Lindsey, Jane
Addams’ friend and political ally from Denver, Colorado met with the former president
who again aspired to be president, to discuss with him the issue of woman's suffrage.
Lindsey wrote to Addams on June 30, 1912, "I wanted to tell you about my interview
with Colonel Roosevelt at his house, and the change of heart that I feel quite confident he
has expressed on this subject. I have been trying to get him to see the necessity, the right
and the justice of taking a strong, affirmative stand for suffrage, and I flatter myself to
believe that he has been quite convinced that this is the proper attitude now o n .. I haven't
the slightest doubt that we shall get the plank in the platform of the new party ."48
95
Jane Addams had tried, quite unsuccessfully, to get planks calling for women's
suffrage at the April, 1912, Illinois State Republican and Democratic conventions, and
also at the Republican National Convention in June, where she represented NAWSA. She
had met with success dealing with Roosevelt on other issues, but she was still not one
hundred per cent sure he would go along with suffrage in the "new party" when she wrote
to Lindsey, "Will you not let me know if I can be of any service in pushing it (suffrage)
forward in the new party, where your counsel will have so much w e ig h t!" ^
Jane Addams had worked with Roosevelt since 1905, when she induced him, as
president, to speak to the nation about the dearth of statistical data regarding working
women and children. Following Roosevelt's message, Addams was pivotal in

persuading the U.S. Congress to appropriate funds for such a federal study. Roosevelt
wrote to her from The White House, somewhat unctuously, regarding her role, "Will you
let me say a word of very sincere thanks to you for the eminent sanity, good-humor and
judgment you always display in pushing matters you have at heart? I have such awful
times with reformers of the hysterical and sensational stamp, and yet I so thoroughly
believe in reform, that I fairly revel in dealing with anyone like you." In 1909, Roosevelt
convened a conference on the care of dependent children, at which Addams was one of the
primary speakers. In The Second Twenty Years at Hull-House. Addams credited the
conference with bringing that issue to the forefront and giving "social work a dignity and a
place in the national life which it had never had b e f o r e . " 5 0
According to Addams, it was also at this conference that an encounter occurred

which much amused the president:
As the evening speakers were waiting to file upon the platform, the young
man in charge, a little overcome by his responsibilities, said, 'Are we all
here? Yes, here is my Catholic speaker, my Jewish speaker, the Protestant,
the colored man, and the woman. Let's all go on.’ I remarked to Booker T.
Washington, 'You see, I am last; that is because I have no vote.' He
96
replied: 'I am glad to know the reason. I have always before been the end
of such a procession m y s e l f . ^ l
Whether apocryphal or not, the story speaks to Addams’ overriding concern with
women gaining suffrage.
In response to an article on prostitution and the white slave traffic which Jane
Addams wrote for McClure's in 1911, Roosevelt sent her a lengthy letter which touched
on the subject of suffrage for women and African-Americans. Since the missive delineates
a position which would later be played out at the 1912 Progressive Party Convention, it is
important to note Roosevelt’s words:
You say in effect that women should be given the suffrage in order to
protect them, just as it was found necessary to give the freeman the
suffrage. I am a woman suffragist, but I have never regarded the cause of
woman suffrage as being of really capital moment from the standpoint of
women or of men, and this largely because of the perfectly flat failure of
negro suffrage in the South. . More good is being done at this moment by
Hampton, Tuskegee and similar schools, a hundred fold over, than is being
done in the black belt of the South by the fact that the negroes there have
been given the ballot.. .woman suffrage will be judged accordingly as it
does or does not produce practical results.. .If.. . we get a cleaner tone of
morality between the sexes, if we get somewhat cleaner politics because
women take part in them, and yet if women do better instead of worse as
regards their primary duties of wifehood and motherhood. . . then they will
have furnished arguments impossible to answer.. .52
According to Edith Abbott, a resident of Hull-House who chronicled her and her
sister Grace's experiences at the settlement house between 1908 and 1921, when
Theodore Roosevelt visited Hull-House in early 1912 to speak at a naturalization
ceremony (Grace was head of the Immigrants' Protective League), he told Jane Addams
directly that he would support women's suffrage and furthermore announced it in his
speech that day. Whether Roosevelt had actually decided to support suffrage as early as
this visit to Hull-House, in June of 1912, after Ben Lindsey met with Roosevelt, a public
announcement was made that the Progressive Party would carry women's suffrage as one
of its planks. For Jane Addams, it was a decision that brought her full force into national
97
politics. She became the first woman to second a presidential candidate and was highly
praised as the foremost leader of the women's rights movement in America. She also,
however, received harsh censure for becoming partisan and supporting a racist party
which would not seat the Southern black delegates to its c o n v e n t i o n . 5 3
Historian George Mowry has argued that one of Theodore Roosevelt's ambitions in
the 1912 presidential campaign was to break the stronghold of the Democratic Party in the
South and re-design the political map of the country. His strategy entailed developing an
alternative party that would appeal to southern whites. Evident from his 1911 letter to Jane
Addams, Roosevelt believed the southern black man to be venal and unless educated, too
ignorant to handle enfranchisement. Ironically, it was black male voters in the South
drawn to Progressive platform who first began organizing for Roosevelt, and it was
because of the black man's vote in Maryland that T.R. beat Taft in the 1912 spring
primary election.54
The southern state conventions to choose delegates to the National Progressive

Convention (which was to be held in Chicago, August 3rd through 7th) presaged the
humiliation and degradation that African-American party members would receive at the
national convention itself. When the call of the officially sanctioned Roosevelt Georgia
White League blatantly stated that Negroes would not be admitted to the state convention,
African-Americans in Georgia formed their own National Progressive Party. They selected
a contesting delegation which they threatened to send to Chicago but did not actually do.
In Florida, the appointed provisional national committeeman, H. L. Anderson, organized
and funded two separate conventions for blacks and whites. He failed to tell the black
Progressives that their convention was so far away from the white one that they would
have no say in the state organization or selection of delegates to the National Convention.
In spite of the white men's sleazy tactics, the African-American convention chose its own
98
delegates who, unlike Georgia's, actually went to Chicago to claim their seats. Similar
situations occurred in Alabama and Mississippi, and when the black delegations from
those two southern states also showed up at the National Convention, the Provisional
Committee, meeting day and night August 3rd, 4th and 5th, were forced to deal with the
race issue before the actual convention began at noon on Monday, August 5th.55
The Provisional Committee, in charge of deciding which delegations would be
seated at the convention, met under the chairmanship of Joseph M. Dixon, the Senator
from Missoula, Montana who was Roosevelt's national campaign manager. Opening the
meeting in Room 1102 of the Congress Hotel on a hot summer's day, Dixon reported that
after hearing of a call "by some colored man" in South Carolina to a state convention to
designate delegates to Chicago, "We knew that meant suicide," and he wired "that we
disavowed the call." This announcement set the tone for the shabby proceedings which
unfolded over the next few days. Thomas Lee More, the representative to the committee
from Virginia, affirmed that if they allowed southern blacks to participate in the
convention, "a condition will turn up in the south(sic) that may haunt us, it may destroy
the movement"56
B. F. Fridge, Mississippi's white delegate from Ellisville, testified,
"I cannot be a leader of a colored party, I cannot do it in Mississippi. I
might to it in Ohio, Indiana, or in your Northern states.. .1 was talking with
the porter on the train last night, and he considers himself as much above
the southern darky as the whites do, and he was raised somewhere in
Illinois . . When you give those people down there (Southern African-
Americans) a chance to be leaders they get into the position that as you all
have known from year to year some one (sic) has got to be killed. . Well, I
have never helped kill a darky in my life, I never expect to help kill one, I
have never been in favor of killing them . . I am in sympathy with the
colored people, gentlemen. .1 don't want you to favor me, just settle this
thing according to your judgment, for Colonel Roosevelt and for this new
party just exactly what you think is best.57
Perry B. Howard, a black lawyer from Jackson, Mississippi, addressed the
committee on behalf of his state's black delegates and the 900,000 black voters there,
99
It is entirely up to you to force us and drive us away. We have been loyal to
you and I ask you not to take us out. As colored men, we do not ask that
you give us favors, we are intelligent men, we have got our means, we are
citizens, we are respected by democrats. I think it would be foolish of you
to disfranchise us and leave us out Mark my prediction. Gentlemen, It is
not fair, it is not r ig h t. We are known in Mississippi no doubt as well as
Mr. Fridge.. this matter as it has turned out here is the greatest humiliation
to us, and there is no man that would not raise his voice in protest to this
great humiliation . . in the start of the campaign, or I would consider him
less than a m an. .1 want to be a man respected in the community, it is not
what you think I am, it is what my neighbors think.58
Before Perry, Fridge or Moore got the opportunity to state their cases at the
Provisional Committee meeting, Theodore Roosevelt announced the Progressive Party's
policy toward southern black citizens in a letter he wrote on August 1st to Julian Harris, a
white Georgia delegate whose father edited Atlanta's Uncle Remus Magazine. The letter
was made public on August 2nd, the day before the committee meetings began. Roosevelt
insisted that the political and social position of the northern Negro was different from that
of his southern brother. According to the former president, the Progressive Party could
count on many intelligent and virtuous Negroes living in the North, whom the Republican
Party had previously overlooked, to greatly contribute to the new party. In the South,
however, Roosevelt wrote that he had personally observed the failure of the Republican
Party to build a successful organization based on Negro participation. Southern
Republicans had done a disservice to blacks and Roosevelt was not about to repeat the
experiment which he averred would only "create another impotent little corrupt faction of
would-be office holders, of delegates whose expenses had to be paid, and whose votes
sometimes had to be bought" He concluded that whereas northern blacks could speak for
themselves, only "intelligent and benevolent" white men in the South could help Negroes
get justice in that part of the country. In his speech to the whole convention at the Chicago
Colliseum on August 6th, Roosevelt repeated these arguments. He was awarded much
100
applause when he reminded his audience of the black delegates from West Virginia, Rhode
Island, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and M a r y l a n d . ^ 9
Although a couple of members of the Provisional Committee from northern states,

Matthew Hale from Boston and William Flinn from Pittsburgh, spoke for the seating of
the black delegates as a "question of common honesty," the southern black delegates were
denied their seats and the committee approved the position Roosevelt took in his letter to
Harris. Angered by this decision, black delegates from the South decided to seek redress
before the Resolutions Committee. As C.H. Alston, a black delegate and attorney from
Florida, put it,"If we wanted to attend the convention as spectators, we would have
bought tickets."*®
Although there are no extant minutes from the Resolutions Committee meeting held
the night of August 5th, the New York Tribune reported on August 6th that Jane Addams
and Henry Moskowitz went before the committee that night and protested against the
party's treatment of southern African-Americans. Addams told the committee:
Some of us are much disturbed that this party which stands for human
rights should even appear not to stand for the rights of the negroes. It seems
to us inconsistent when on one page of our newspapers we find this party is
to stand for the working man and woman, and to protect the rights of
children .. and on the next we find it denies the right of the negro to take
part in this movement. . We know this is only in appearance, and it can
easily be cleared up so as not to interfere with the statesmanlike plans of
Colonel Roosevelt for breaking the Solid South . . .We know the largest
purposes of this party can be filled and at the same time the rights of the
negroes preserved, and this should be done.*®
When the Resolutions Committee met again late in the evening on August 6th,
Hugh T. Hulbert, Minnesota's representative to the committee, carried with him a plank
Jane Addams wanted inserted in the party's platform. The plank stated, in part, that "The
National Progressive Party recognizes that distinctions of race, or class, or sex, in political
life have no place in a Democracy. Especially does the party realize that a group of
10,000,000 people who have in a generation changed from slavery to a free labor system.
101
. reduced their illiteracy from 80% to 30%, deserve and must have justice, opportunity and
a voice in the government." The plank was rejected. However, the platform did contain
planks calling for many of the provisions of the Cleveland Industrial Standards
Committee, improved opportunities, "assimilation . . . education and advancement" for
immigrants, and most important to Jane Addams, "equal suffrage for men and women
alike." Another plank, which Addams admitted was hard for her to accept, called for the
building of two American battleships a year. Still, for expedience sake, she would go
along with it.61
When Lillian Wald, one of Jane Addams' closest colleagues in the reform
movement, wrote to Addams for "light" because she was "perplexed over the political
situation," Addams at first hurridly responded to Wald, "I don't need to tell you how
happy I should be if you feel you could come in with u s .. I have never doubted that my
place was inside, when there was a chance to help with a program like this one." But a
few days later, realizing she could not bulldoze her friend, Addams wrote more honestly
to Wald, "I can quite understand your bewilderment, it took me three days and nights to
make up my mind to go in but after the splendid platform, suffrage and all had been laid
before my astonished eyes.. I have always kept out of the Socialist Party because it went
further than I was wanting to go, but here was this just about as far as I did go and
offering a chance to work directly for Woman's Causes. You may imagine it was pretty
hard for me to swallow warships .. The Negro situation was really much better than the
papers made out, but Mr. Moskowitz will tell you of that.." (italics a d d e d ) 6 2
The "Negro situation," as Addams called it, was not pretty at all and what blazed
across many newspaper story headlines was "Women in, Negroes Out?", "First
Convention Day Owned by Suffragists," and "Many Women in the Picture at the
Roosevelt Convention." (see Illustration 3) At the time the Progressive Party came out for
102
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suffrage, there were 1,346,925 women eligible to vote in the six western "suffrage states"
of California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, which accounted for 33
electoral votes. The suffrage question was on the 1912 ballot in five other states, Ohio,
Michigan, Kansas, Nevada and Wisconsin, whose total electoral votes equalled 66. When
Roosevelt decided to adopt women's suffrage and risk the loss of black voters, he knew
he could depend on the women suffragists to stick with him. Similar to what she wrote to
Wald, Jane Addams told a reporter that the most "vital factor" in the Convention's keynote
address by Senator Albert Beveridge was "Suffrage. Given that, all other reforms will
follow." She acknowledged to a New York Evening Post reporter that although she
"opposed the barring (of) Southern negroes . .1 am willing to accept (this) to get the larger
reforms." 63 in the long run, Jane Addams would tolerate mistreatment of black citizens
to win support for a cause closer to her heart, the gain of power for white and immigrant
women in the political arena dominated by white men.
On opening day of the convention, 500 women suffragists, with yellow pennants
flying in the wind, marched through downtown Chicago to the Colliseum to honor the 19
women delegates (which included Jane Addams, delegate-at-large from the Illinois
contingent) to the Progressive Party Convention. The anti-suffrage, establishment New
York Times snidely remarked on the make-up of the convention, "About everyone here
who wears trousers is an ex. There are ex-Senators, ex-Secretaries and ex-
Commissioners galore. Everyone who is not an ex is a woman.. Outside of the exes the
women are running things. It is to be a woman’s c o n v e n tio n ." 6 4 indeed, women
spectators filled the Colliseum seats to capacity.
On August 7th, the third session of the convention was called to order at 12:43 pm
by the Chairman, Indiana Senator Beveridge. William A. Prendergast, from New York,
rose to nominate Theodore Roosevelt as the Party's presidential candidate. Ben Lindsey
104
seconded the nomination and then it was Jane Addams1turn for glory. She received "a
storm of applause" when Beveridge introduced her as "America’s most eminent and most
loved woman." Frank H. Funk, the Illinois state senator who was running as the state's
Progressive candidate for govenor, escorted her to the platform where she delivered an oft
interrupted by applause seconding speech:
I rise to second the nomination, stirred by the splendid platform

adopted by this convention.
Measures of industrial amelioration, demands for social justice, long
discussed by small groups in charity conferences and economic
associations, have been considered in a great national convention and are at
last thrust into the stem arena of political action.
A great party has pledged itself to the protection of children, to the
care of the aged, to the relief of overworked girls, to the safeguarding of
burdened men. Committed to these humane undertakings, it is inevitable
that such a party should appeal to women, should seek to draw upon die
great resevoir of their moral energy, so long undesired and unutilized in
practical politics - one the corollary of the other, a programme of human
welfare, the necessity for women's participation.
We ratify this platform not only because it represents our earnest
convictions and formulates our high hopes, but because it pulls upon our
faculties and calls up to definite action. We find it a prophecy that
democracy shall be actually realized until no group of our people - certainly
not ten million of them so badly in need of reassurance - shall fail to bear the
responsibility of self-government and that no class of evils shall lie beyond
redress.
The new party has become the American exponent of a world-wide
movement toward juster social conditions, a movement which America,
lagging behind other great nations, has been unaccountably slow to embody
in political action.
I second the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt because he is one of
the few men in our public life who have been responsive to modem
movement Because of that, because the programme will require a leader of
invincible courage, of open mind, of democratic sympathies, one endowed
with power to interpret the common man and to identify himself with the
common lot, I heartily second the n o m i n a t i o n . 6 5
As Jane Addams stepped down from the podium, Funk at her side, she was handed
a large "Votes for Women" banner. A floor demonstration followed, demanding that she
not return to her seat. Instead, the entire Illinois, Colorado and Indiana delegations,
holding the women's suffrage banner aloft, led Addams up and down the aisles of the
105
packed hall, men and women alike grasping to shake her h a n d . 6 6 it must have been a
very heady moment for a woman who, twenty-four years earlier, had been quite unsure
of her place in this world.
The reviews of Jane Addams' decision to enter the limelight of national politics
were mixed. The Los Angeles Call editorialized, "Four years ago women of the country
were classified legally and in the minds of politicians with the FOUR-I’S' - INFANTS,
INDIANS, INSANE AND IDIOTS, NOT PERMITTED TO VOTE.. . Mr. Roosevelt is
proud, as well he may be, of the friendship and co-operation of that splendid woman, Jane
Addams . . .Women of America: Politicians realize your importance BECAUSE YOU
YOURSELVES HAVE BEGUN TO REALIZE YOUR POWER." The New York Call
weighed in with an editorial entitled, "The Lamb Tags on to the Lion," which spoke more
nostalgically of the Hull-House Jane Addams, "Jane had a curious little way of her own of
clipping claws and extracting fangs in those days, and she and her associates detested
noise of all sorts, especially political. .And now she has hooked up with the Biggest
Noise (T.R.) of a ll. .Those people who hold that it is impossible to foretell what women
will do in politics are probably correct." The Call was apparently unaware of Addams'
previous campaigns against Johnny Powers, but that was a local election, not one
involving the political machinations of an entire n a t i o n .6 7
The Poughkeepsie Enterprize answered negatively to its editorial question, "Is Jane
Addams Right?" with its avowal that "Great movements are bigger and broader than party
affiliations. Miss Addams, who has been a citizen of the world. . has sold her heritage.
Instead of being the unique personage she has always been, she is now the lesser luminary
revolving as a satellite about Theodore Roosevelt's miniature sun."68 On one hand, Jane
Addams would propably have disagreed with this view, in the sense that she had her own
agenda - that of pushing women's causes of suffrage and reform - when she came aboard
106
the Progressive bandwagon. But on the other hand, she knew she had compromised to go
along with Roosevelt's wishes on the race issue and the adoption of a plank calling for
warships. She received handfuls of letters from individuals who felt that she had either
sold out or who agreed with her that she did the right thing.
Many African-Americans wrote to Addams regarding her stand on the seating of the
southern black delegates. William Monroe Trotter, editor of the Boston Guardian (and the
only other black student who matriculated at Harvard with Du Bois in 1888) sent her a
night letter on August 6th which, after stating, "Colored Massachusettes (sic) appreciates
your opposition excluding southern colored delegates," beseeched Addams to "not be false
to the colored race and betray equal rights by seconding nomination Roosevelt.. women
suffrage will be stained with negro blood unless women refuse alliance with Roosevelt."
Just after the convention, Addams recieved an anonymous letter from "One of them"
which asked her "Is it right before God to do evil that good may come? Is woman
suffrage more important in His Sight than the right of the Negro?" and then implored her,
"Oh woman of the warm heart and golden tongue who has done so much for humanity do
not identify yourself with those who have joined hands to crush the poor African: come
out from among them!" Jenkin Lloyd Jones, the white director of Chicago's Abraham
Lincoln Center, and Addams' good friend, wrote her that after spending March of every
year in the South, he knew "colored people . . . are honestly interested in American
politics (and) anxious to fulfill the functions of citizenship.. we cannot evade the national
responsibility of the negro p r o b l e m . " 69
If such letters upset Addams, she could take solace from letters and telegrams from
the black community which appreciated her speaking up for African-Americans at the
convention. The Colored Woman's Civic Club of Indianapolis wired her August 6th, "We
extend heartiest thanks for the courageous stand taken in defense of the Negro." She
107
received a similar telegram from the black women members of the Indianapolis Equal
Suffrage Association. George Cook, Business Manager of Howard University, thanked
Addams for her "just and admirable stand, " but asked her "to continue your fight in all
reasonable opportunities." Of Roosevelt, who had given him "honorary appointments" in
the past, Cook wrote, "I think. . he is wrong, but that it is an error of judgment and not
one of conscience." Mary Childs Nemey, secretary of the NAACP, wrote Addams, "On
behalf of the association permit me to express our deep sense of gratitude for the stand you
took for fair dealing with the Negro delegates."^
It should be noted that Du Bois, editor of the NAACP's journal, The Crisis, felt
differently than Nemey. Angered over the Progressive's rejection of the race equality
plank, Du Bois concluded that the new party had no "respect" for Negroes and he came
out for the Democratic presidential nominee, Woodrow Wilson (about whom he also had
reservations, but felt he was the best of the three candidates, Taft, Wilson and Roosevelt).
The Amsterdam News, an influential African-American newspaper, also abandoned T.R.
and within a day of the close of the Progressive Convention, announced that they would
support Taft in the election. Many other prominent black leaders followed suit.71
Jane Addams1 friends in the peace movement were also unhappy with her for
supporting Roosevelt. Erving Winslow, Secretary of The Anti-Imperialist League, wrote
her most pointedly, "Your public appearance as an endorser of Mr. Roosevelt's candidacy
justifies a remonstrance . . .You have been mis-led(sic). The President of the United
States can do little or nothing to carry out the noble work to which your life has been
dedicated, but he eaa bring political ruin upon the country by his political methods . .he
can involve us in war . . He has been sounded upon Anti-Imperialism as an issue with
Taft, and he has thrown it down hard!" F.S. Coffin, a citizen of Seattle, reprimanded
108
Addams for supporting " a man who is the most virulent advocate of war and bloodshed
of any of the noted politicians of our country."72
The most bitter criticism of Addams' turning away from the peace movement came
from Baroness von Suttner, whose open letter to Jane Addams was published in
newspapers across the country. The Baroness, an Austrian who was the first woman to
win the Nobel Peace Prize (in 1905), explained in the letter her puzzlement over Addams’
support of a platform which called for warships and fortifying the Panama Canal. She
queried Addams as to how "the asset of woman's influence and votes" could be used for
such a campaign and finally, "should this influence be headed by you, a peace
advocate?"73
But at this time in Addams' life, her position was much greater than that of peace
activist and social reformer. By taking the lead in bringing women into national politics,
she symbolized the aspirations of many American women who wanted both a larger
political role in American society and greater influence over governmental decisions. The
majority of letters Addams received after the convention were from women who applauded
her most public declaration for women's rights. Mary McDowell, Addams' Chicago
cohort in the reform, peace and women's labor movement, caught the importance of
Addams' step into national politics when she wrote to her on August 16th, "How great
you were to carry a political party at a strategic moment. Someone, and the right one had
to seize that moment where a new party was bom - and you and no one else was ready by
experience and personality to do the deed, and you did it perfectly." Another friend,
Caroline Urie, commented, "It is one of the big events of contemporary history." And
Katherine Coman, the Wellesley economics professor who had corresponded with
Addams since the early days of Hull-House exclaimed, "Aren't you magnificent? and what
109
a grand new service you have rendered the human race. Thousands of women are blessing
you."73
Although NAWSA held a policy in 1912.that it could not take partisan political
action, its president, Anna Howard Shaw, wrote to Jane Addams on August 16th, "I want
to say, personally, that I rejoiced in your address.. .1 agreed with every word you said,
except what you said of Theodore Roosevelt. .1 cannot agree with you in your opinion of
that man." Shaw went on to say that she rejoiced, however, in the progressive movement
and reassured Jane Addams that her position in the party did not compromise her work
with NAWSA or at Hull-House. Shaw's sanction was important to Addams because two
days earlier Mabel Boardman, the national president of the Red Cross, attacked Addams
for her political role in the Progressive Party. In an unfriendly statement published in
major American newspapers, Boardman accused Addams of being disloyal to Hull-
House, and the settlement movement in general. About Boardman, Shaw quipped to
Addams, "Miss Boardman, who did so much to make the last years of Clara Barton’s life
unhappy, and who is a rigid partisan of President Taft and anti-suffragist, rather amuses
me in her letter. It shows she has no more grasp of political affairs than she has of
democracy."7^
New to the nitty-gritty of national politics, Addams was still somewhat unsure of
herself, as evidenced in her response to Shaw, written from a friend's summer home in
Bar Harbor, Maine, on August 20th,
"May I thank you for your most generous letter. While I have had no
doubt as to my own position, I was inevitably worried as to possible
ramifications.
I am sure we have tied down the new party to legal suffrage and can
only hope that the coming campaign will commit the other parties as well
and that the cause will benefit from the education at least. You will let me
know, won't you, if at any time you think I am making a mistake."73
110
Aware that she could not delay publicly answering Boardman's accusation,
Addams sat down on August 14th and composed a reply to run in American papers.
Addams "claim(ed) the right to sit as a delegate in a convention whose platform embodies
the measures for which I have worked many years." She emphasized that the Hull-House
community had always stood for freedom of speech. Denying that she had violated her
obligations to the settlement house she began in 1889, Addams concluded her statement,
"It is a question whether any society or institution has a right to stultify its officers. On the
contrary an institution reveals its own weakness when it cares more for its position and
influence than for the very cause itself." A national vice-president of NAWSA, Addams
also felt obligated to address the whole membership of the organization regarding her
partisan position, and she did so in a column in the August 17th issue of The Woman’s
Journal (NAWSA's organ). She enjoined NAWSA members to work for the Progressive
Party as individuals but "in no case, urge their suffrage associations to such a c tio n ." 7 6
Once these matters were dealt with, Addams remained a couple of weeks in Maine, where
she began drafting articles to be published on behalf of the Progressive Party. Repairing to
Chicago in September, she began a hectic fall schedule of more writing, organizing
women into political cadres, and stumping across the country to win votes for the
Progressive Party and its platform of women's suffrage and reform legislation.
Addams wrote a series of six articles on the Progressive Party's platform for the
Central Press Association which were syndicated weekly in American papers. The first
column to appear in September was on "The Needs of the Children," followed over the
course of the fall by "Protection of Immigrants," "The Claims of the Disinherited," "Safety
for Working Girls," "Organized Labor," and "Woman's Suffrage." Addams did not
wholly enjoy the writing, but as she explained to her colleague, Sophonsiba Breckinridge,
a professor of Social Economics at the University of Chicago, "I am grinding away at one
111
(an article) for McClure's November number. I have to remind myself quite often of the
$500.00 fee and the good of the cause."77
In her piece on the safeguards for working girls, Addams reiterated the Progressive
Party's pledge of prohibition of night work, an eight hour day and the establishment of a
minimum wage in the "sweated" industries. The approach she took to win over
conservative voters was similar to the arguments Louis Brandeis used in the famous
Muller v. Oregon case heard before the Supreme Court in 1908. The Muller decision
upheld the ten-hour day for working women. In his brief (which was prepared largely by
his sister-in-law, Josephine Goldmark, a staff member of the Consumers' League),
Brandeis continually returned to the idea that women, who carried the burdens of
"maternal functions," were not as physically strong as men. If forced to work overly long
hours, women would suffer ill health and the future of the race would then be in jeopardy.
Women, Brandeis stated, needed to be protected from "the greed as well as the passion of
man." Jane Addams' main argument was that women, fatigued at night after work and
paid too poorly to live comfortably, were easily taken advantage of by dissolute men who
tried to engage the young women in prostitution. Her argument was less feminist than it
was casuistical: if society did not treat the working woman better, she would fall prey to
dishonest men, the result being the unraveling of America's moral fibre. Addams
concluded her article, "our nation . . can no longer unwittingly place the profits of
industry above the health and virtue of its future mothers nor fail to see the moral
implications of exhasting hours and starvation w a g e s . " 7 8
Addams' article on "The Progressive Party and Woman Suffrage" was geared to
appeal to the traditional women's club member but also challenged them to action. She
reminded the many "public spirited women" that their good deeds were continually
undermined by corrupt politicians. Without the franchise, Addams insisted that women
112
could not "fulfill (their) traditional obligation to the community." Women who ’"keep out
of the turmoil of politics,'" she argued, functioned "out(side) of the real life of their times
for never since the days of Pericles has so large a portion of social activity come within the
sphere of politics." Concluding the column, Addams called up the lines she had used to
second Roosevelt's nomination, that the Progressive Party was ready to use "the moral
energy of women which has been so long undesired and unutilized in politics." Addams
urged women to recognize that participating in politics was as much women's work as it
was men’s. She was building on her arguments of the 1890s, when she entreated women
to use their homemaking skills to improve city life for the dispossessed. Women knew
better than men how to take care of people in need. When women became involved in
local political issues at the end of the nineteenth century, Addams argued that it was their
responsibility to keep tabs on the city aldermen. Now, with the entrance of women into
national politics, Addams declared that it was women rather than men who would keep
politics and government ethical.79
In the November McClure's article "My Experience as a Progressive Delegate"

(which Addams had alluded to in her note to Breckinridge), Addams reiterated her
argument that philanthropic women had a place inside the party because "Their concern for
the human wreckage of industry has come to be considered politics." She also dealt with
the issue of supporting the platform's battleship plank. She rationalized her acceptance of
it by arguing that the "abolition of degrading poverty" and the greater protection of
industrial workers would save as many men as those killed in two consecutive wars: " ..
when a choice was presented to me between protesting against the human waste in
industry or against the havoc in warfare, the former made the more intimate appeal, and I
identified with the political party which not only protests such waste, but advances well
considered legislation to prevent it"80
113
Addams' most feeble written effort in service to the Progressive Party was "The
Progressive Party and The Negro," which The Crisis published in November, 1912. A
dozen readings of the muddled article, in which Addams evoked the memory of her
"Abolitionist father," still leaves the reader confused and puzzled as to what Addams was
attempting to say. Addams clearly felt sympathy for Negroes, and she was trying to make
amends for the party's treatment of black citizens, but it did not work.
She wrote that "war on behalf of the colored man was clearly impossible," but that
a "system of federal arbitration in interracial difficulties" might come to fruition one day.
She declared that the Progressive Party had "at least taken the color question away from
sectionalism and put it in a national setting which might clear the way for a larger
perspective." This was not true. Addams then exacerbated her attempt to win black votes
by intimating that the Negro's vote might be susceptible to bribery.81 As with her other
articles on justice for black citizens, she was tongue-tied. Her argument that in the long
run the Progressive Party would help African-Americans was not going to gain support
from blacks who had been humiliated by the Party.

If the Progressive Party was nonchalant about attracting African-Americans to its
cause, it was agressive in recruiting women. On August 8th, Roosevelt wired Addams an
effusive three page telegram which not only thanked her for her support but pontificated
on the importance of women to the campaign. It was later used as a campaign flyer (see
Illustration 4 ) and read, in part, "(in) the new party women have. . been shown to have
their place to fill precisely as men have, and on an absolute equality. It is idle now to
argue whether women can play their part in politics . .In this convention we saw the
accomplished fact.. we have a right to expect that women and men will work within the
party for the cause with the same high sincerity of purpose and with like efficiency. I
earnestly hope . . we shall see women active members in the . . state and county
114
Theodore Roosevelt to Jane Addams
Cleveland, A ugust 8, 1912.
D ear Miss A ddam s:—I wished to see you in person to thank
you for seconding me. 1 do it now instead.
I prized your action, not only because of w hat you are and
stand for, hut because of w hat it syml>olizcd for the’ new move
m ent. In this great national convention, starting the new party,
women have thereby been shown to have their place to fill pre
cisely as men have, and on an absolute equality. It is idle now
to argue w hether women can play their part in politics because
in th is convention we saw the accomplished fact, and moreover
the women who have actively participated in this w ork of
launching the new party represent all th at we are most proud
to associate w ith American-wom anhood. W ithout <|ualification
o r equivocation, 1 am fo r woman suffrage, the Pr*>gressive
P arty is for woman suffrage and 1 believe within half a dozen
years we shall have no one in the U nited States against it.
My earnest hope is to see the Progressive P arty movement
in all its state and locat divisions recognize this fact precisely
as it has been recognized at the N ational convention. O ur
P a rty stands for social and industrial justice and we have a right
to expect that women and men will work within the party for
the cause w ith th e same high sincerity, of puqtosc and with
like efficiency. 1 therefore earnestly hope th at in the campaign
now opened we shall sec women active members of the various
S tate and County com m ittees. Four women are to he put on
the N ational Com m ittee and I tru st th at there will l>e a full
representation of them *on every S tate and County Committee.
W hile I am now addressing you I desire that this shall be
taken as the expression of my personal hope and desire hv all
mem bers of such S tate and County Committees, and 1 l»elieve
th a t 1 express the feelings of the great m ajority of Progressives
in m aking this request. I have Judge H otchkiss' assurance that
it will be done in the State of New York and I very m uch hope
th a t it will be done in the other states. W ith great esteem, 1
am faithfully vours,
T H E O D O R E R O O SE V E L T .
Plank on Equal Suffrage

T h e Progressive P a rty , believing th a t no people can justly
claim to be a tru e democracy w hich denies political rights on
account of sex, pledges itself to th e task of mecuring equal suf
frage to m en and wom en alike.
775-
Re produced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
committees. Four women are to be put on the national committee . Jane Addams, of
course, was one of the four women. As soon as the convention ended, she and the other
seventeen women delegates to the convention issued a call "To the Women of the United
States" urging them to join the c a u s e . 8 2
Although both the Republican and Democratic Parties organized women workers,
the Progressive Party was the only party which could use the issue of suffrage and
women's rights to attract troops of women, and it did so with great zeal. Mary E. Dreier,
one of the New York delegates to the convention stated unequivocably in an article she
wrote for the New York Sun , "There is no question any longer of women forming
auxiliaries to the men's organizations. The women in this party are to work hand in hand
with the men." Frances A. Kellor, another New York delegate who served as a national
"committeeman," wrote a letter to the Ohio suffragists, who had just lost a state battle for
suffrage, admonishing them that they were defeated because they had worked outside of
party lines. She stated that the Republican and Democrats were dominated by the liquor
interests, and if the women really cared about obtaining the franchise they would become
Progressives. To a friend, Addams commented that she never would have had the
courage to send such a l e t t e r . 83
Women did become members of the state and county Progressive Party
organizations, but they also maintained their own committees. Women leaders of the
Progressive Party, including Jane Addams, were aware that many women felt more
comfortable working only with other women. In at least fourteen states across the country,
including Nevada, Texas, Georgia and Iowa, women joined the regular committees but
then established their own finance, literature and recruitment committees. In
Massachusetts, black women organized their own state committee. One of the biggest
draws was the Jane Addams Chorus, women choral groups which gave concerts for the
116
party and sang at mass meetings and rallies.(see Illustration 5) The women of the National
Committee sent out letters to women's clubs and suffrage associations urging them to take
advantage of this new opportunity for women: "unparalleled training for women who have
not participated in political affairs." 84 it was, indeed, a new era in which women became
integral to campaign stategy and organization.
Progressive Chairwomen also welcomed women who were not ready to join a
political party but who could "lend a hand in the educational campaign among and for
women." (see Illustration 6) They wanted women to acquire political experience and
acumen through the campaign so that in the future women could assume even greater roles
in national politics and party leadership. The women leaders were proud, for instance,
that for the first time women were candidates for presidential electors in Wyoming and
California. They made plans for a "Women's Permanent Organization" in the party with
committees on legislation, immigration, education (in charge of preparing and distributing
party literature), speakers and social workers (to utilize however necessary social data
collected on welfare and industrial conditions, and to co-operate with social w o r k e r s ) . 8 5
The Progressive women knew, however, that much of the country saw women's
suffrage as a threat to the American family and women's "separate sphere." The Chicago
Inter-Ocean declared that women in politics was dangerous,
It is because it will tend to introduce into the home, where spheres
should be defined and whence every source of discord should be relegated as
far as possible . . a dangerous source of futile fiction . . a latent menace to
domestic harmony.
It is because it will take from the home the old ideal of the womanly
woman.. and to substitute therfor (sic) the ideal of the mannish woman, the
woman who thinks she can only show her equality with man by doing the
things that men d o .."
In a similar vein, the Louisville Evening Post asserted that women are "as free
today and as untrammeled as a man. In her own field she is absolute. Outside of it she is
and will ever be secondary."^
117
Srrlaratimt of principles
------------------------------nf tlje--------------------------— /
Slattr Ahfcama (Eljorua

r p H E Jane Addams Chorus is affiliated with the
, *• Roosevelt Progressive Republican League.
Q I t is organized to aid its party in every possible
way. .
t | It Stands for the humanitarian platform of the Na
tional Progressive Party, especially for those planks
relating t o : \
Industrial Justice
Child Labor Laws
— Minimum W ages Laws for Women
Eight H our Law
One D ay o f R est in Seven for
Laboring People
H E Jane Addams Chorus in using its influence
T for the principles advocated in the platform will
be o f great benefit to the Progressive Party and
will prove to the nation the value o f the woman voter..
I------IJ-All-womenm-sympathy with the Progressive move
m ent are invited to ally themselves with the Roosevelt
Republican League by leaving or sending names to
\ the W oman’s department, room 127 Title Insurance
Building, Fifth and Spring Streets.
— CJThose who can sing are. asked to register for the
chorus in Room 181.
11B
Name
Address
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout permission.
r t t \)S T tA TICK 6 .
W om en! D o Som ething!

If yon believe your d ty and oounty Med your m rl w aiV H TEE!L '
If 7 0 a believe women and children in industry need protection—DO SOMETHZXtL ■' .
If yon bellere in political w ork-JO IN THE PEOQREESIVEa.
If yon belisve in educational week—WHITE TOE 8UGGEST10HB.
If yon don't find the kind o f work yon cu t do in the suggestions below—find ent w hat yon x neighbors are
doing. W rite aa about i t
W hat to D o in th e P arty
WOBXEBS: Don’t be afraid to report to Hational and State head-
Enroll aa members o f the Party. S o not form auxH- iquarters what is going on in yonr district. Report what
i being done or said either by the Progressives or their
iariea or aeparate dubs, and thereby loaa the training opponents. In this way weak districts may be strength
and advantages of party work.
Have a working representative in each precinct and enedAand strong districts held.
weekly report of what yon and others are doing
election district and ward who w ill use good judgment is a very good thing. ..................
on local issues. Get the members of yonr suffrage organisation to
Mnd ont who yonr district leader ia and ask him join the Progressive Party. Get the association to week
what there ia yon can do. W ork w ith the district com against a ll candidates in ether parties that do not favor
mittee. suffrage. T ell them who they era.
W rite and see yonr county, senatorial, judiciary and As fast as Progressive candidates are nominated for
assembly chairmen and ask to have qualified women put the legislature, w rite them or ask them for their attitude
on the committees' to represent yon. on suffrage and on the protection of women and children
w«™ » wiwrao’a department opened a t headquar;- workers,
te n , w ith women in charge. Have a ll matters affecting Circularize your dub members w ith requests for help
women~go~~througlr~thit~ttepaittaeafc — or tend them educational material.
Write or see yonr State chairman and ask to have Where the sentiment of the party is not ripe fa r rcp-
yonr most representative women put on tiar8tatB~com=— m entation by women within the party, form Progressive
Tr«Va «b»n» *511 1 of The women repre Leagues and work for them, doing campaign work as
sentatives sa d formulate plans lo r State w orE Ex w ell.
change reports and laeat and have crgunizatitm and edu
cation ptocM anaoHg-witform Hnes-in-the-countyând SPEAXEB8:
S tater Organlre~wlUrthe~men or along tho same lines. Send to headquarters for material far speoches.
'Canvass your neighborhood or district by postal'card Speak if yon can; if yon can’t, send to headquarters
or otherwise, and set Progressive women a t work dis tor speakers; attend meetings; if there axe none, ask lor
tributing literature, raising money, interesting their them.
friends and talking the Progressive platform. Be direct. Use facts. Talk suffrage, social justice,
Hold meetings, attend meetings and send good health and the other planks of interest to women and
women speakers to meetings. Beach the women who w ill 11
1*. Timm
not go to pnblio meetings by social functions and parlor Use Mritting conditions and the platform as the
- meetings. basis o f yonr speech.
- Hake the platform, especially the social and indus Talk party, politics and principles and not candi
trial justice, health and suffrage planks, the basis of dates.
your speeches, your work and yonr pledge. Do not attack the other parties except on suffrage.
Don't tb'uV some one else is doing your work. Courtesy is a prime essential to successful campaign
Work as though success depended on you. Personal work work.
is most effective. M .w your part in the campaign educational.
W hat to D o O utside th e Party

If yon do not join the party, lend a hand in the edu living? How about the markets and middlemen and cost
cational campaign among and for women. Send for of delivery? . .
material and suggestions. Do the working men receive a livin g wage, and wnal
is the bare cost of living in your county?
Send torinform ation concerning the various welfare *AsectJkin*wh&t is goiog o s is your own locality ssd
activities now being carried on in which yon can help. send in facts about the condition o f women and children
Have your club include in its programme eivio wel which w ill help legislators to make wise and adequate
fare work, and discuss industrial conditions.
I t is every woman’s task to open her mind to the con
What can be done tor babies? Is the m ilk supply ditions, to gather the facts and then DO SCftU-THlHQ-
pure? Arc the streets safe playgrounds? What becomes Political and non-political workers desiring in f tarna
of the working mother’s Child while she is a t work? tion, suggestions, outlines of work, address requests and
Is there anything yon can do to lower the cost of reports to
JAKE ADDAJSB, Illin ois Progressive H eadquarters

TRANCES A. XELLOB, 1
ISABELLA W . BLANEY, U BS. RAYMOND BOBINS.
Hational Committecmsi Hotel La Salle. Chicago
119
The attitudes expressed by the two newspapers were exactly those which Jane Addams
had countered for twenty years and she continued her fight as she crisscrossed the
country, stumping hard for a Progressive Party victory in November. From October 3rd
to November 4th, Addams addressed audiences in over 30 cities, including Grand Forks,
North Dakota, Clinton, Iowa, Lincoln, Nebraska, New York, Denver, Boston and
Wichita, Kansas, where she was the guest of William Allen White. A woman journalist in
Denver reported that Jane Addams seemed "more like a tired housewife. . than a broad
minded and great-souled worker for reform.. her speech was straight from the shoulder.
. business-like. She dealt with practical affairs from a logical, efficient standpoint." After
her address, Addams entertained the questions of women reporters in her room, and the
same reporter noted, "it was impossible to get a glimpse of the real woman's personality,
which one felt must be glowing underneath." Anna Howard Shaw, who often gave
suffrage speeches in cities where Addams had just visited, remarked, "Wherever I went I
heard nothing but talk of Jane Addams. I suppose other political speakers were out there,
but you never would have guessed it. As far as I can judge, Miss Addams was the most
effective speaker that was out in this c a m p a ig n ." 87
Despite Jane Addams1campaign success, Theodore Roosevelt took second place in

1912 to Woodrow Wilson, polling 4,119,538 votes (88 electoral votes) to Wilson's
6,293,454 (435 electoral votes). Republican William Taft received 3,484,980 votes (8
electoral votes), Eugene Debs of the Socialist Party, and Eugene Chafin of the Prohibition
Party, polled 900,672 and 206,275 votes respectively (no electoral votes). T.R.'s lily
white strategy failed particularly in the South, where he suffered a crushing defeat, the
Progresssives faring worse than the Republicans had in either 1904 or 1908. The day
after the election, Roosevelt wrote to Addams from Oyster Bay, "Now, my dear Miss
Addams, I wish to tell you how very much your support in this campaign meant to me.
120
We have fought a good fight; we have kept the faith; we have gone down in disaster. Yet
I certainly feel that it would have been wrong for us not to have fought exactly as we
did."88
Jane Addams remained on the Progressive National Committee for over a year and
a half and helped formulate the Progressive Service, a national program which adpated
social work principles and research to the organization of a political party. Addams
presented the idea of the Service, which included six departments (Legislative Reference,
Social and Industrial Justice, Conservation, Education and Publicity, Cost of Living and
Corporation Control and Popular Government) to the National Committee, which met in
New York City on December 10, 1912. Although some of the more conservative
politicians on the committee were hostile to the social reformer's educational and lobbying
scheme, the Service was accepted and Addams became director of the Department of
Social and Industrial Justice. 89
The National Progressive Service urged states, counties and townships to establish
local Service branches. The National Committee worked especially hard to recruit women
into the organization. There were women state "chairman" in at least sixteen states, as far
flung as Arkansas, North Dakota and Washington State. As time wore on, however,
many of the social reformers, who perceived themselves as the "extreme wing" of the
party, became disillusioned with Roosevelt and his chief lieutenant, George Perkins.
Perkins, chairman of the National Committee's Executive Committee, was a partner in the
J.P. Morgan company and served on the board of directors of U.S. Steel and International
Harvester. Gifford Pinchot, director of the Conservation Bureau, and his brother Amos,
wrote long letters to Roosevelt (copies of which they sent to Addams) explaining that
Perkins should resign given his work for the trusts and against trade unionism and the
common man and woman. Roosevelt refused to ask Perkins for his r e s i g n a t i o n . 9 0
121
Jane Addams wrote to reform Congressman William Kent of California that she
was "perplexed by the sectarian attitude which the Progressive Party seems to be
developing in certain quarters." Much to Roosevelt’s dismay, she increasingly backed
away from Progressive National Committee matters. He wired her in February, 1913,
that her absence from a Lincoln Day dinner in New York "would give rise to serious
misunderstanding." Although Addams had planned to attend the dinner, she did not do
so, and by August, 1914, she tendered her resignation from the Executive Committee of
the Progressive Party National Committee, designating Harold lekes (Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s future secretary of the interior), to be her successor.91
In the November, 1912 election the suffrage issue fared much better than Theodore
Roosevelt: women won the franchise in Michigan, Oregon, Arizona and Kansas, only
Wisconsin going down to defeat. Addams wired Crystal Eastman, NAWSA'S suffrage
campaign manager in Wisconsin, on November 7th, "Congratulations on the splendid
campaign you have made - with sincere regret for the result, Jane Addams." Addams
helped organize a Chicago victory march to celebrate the success in the other states and
also drafted the call to the 44th convention of NAWSA to be held in late November in
P h ila d e lp h ia . 92 Until the outbreak of war in Europe in August, 1914, Addams' primary
work would be for the suffrage movement
Addresssing the national convention, Addams reiterated her argument that women
belonged in the public arena. She stated that if a woman failed to participate in activities
outside of her home, she would suffer from "a narrowing of her mind and of her sense of
morality." She went further regarding women's role in political matters: "No organization
and no agency of education and training can better fit (women) for higher citizenship than
a proper understanding of noble political principles through the instrumentality of the
Government.. .women will prove to be the most valuable asset to the body politic." It
122
was also at this convention that NAWSA's Executive Committee gave Alice Paul, the
young suffragist who had recently returned from Britain, permission to form a special
congressional committee to begin work toward the Susan B. Anthony Amendment to the
U.S. constitution. This marked the beginning of a national campaign which would
eventually supercede the state-by-state strategy. Jane Addams, in attendance at the
meeting, supported the d e c is io n .93
On March 8,1913, the day before Woodrow Wilson's inauguration, NAWSA held
a large suffrage parade in Washington, D.C. to bring attention to its cause. A brouhaha
broke out when the national leaders discovered that Ida B. Wells-Bamett was going to
march in the parade with the Illinois contingent of 65 women. Many of the southern and
eastern women resented that a black woman was to march in a state delegation rather than
in the Negro contingent. Grace Trout, head of the Illinois delegation, insisted that Wells-
Bamett march with the Illinois group but the national association rejected Trout's plea and
she was forced to tell Wells-Bamet that she would have to march with the "colored
delegation." Reportedly in tears, Wells-Bamett retorted that she would march with Illinois
or not at all, "I personally wish for recognition. I am doing it for the future benefit of my
whole race."
At the start of the parade Ida Wells-Bamett was nowhere to be found. However,
as the Illinois delegation marched on, out from the crowded sidewalk stepped Wells-
Bamett, who took her place between two white colleagues who had supported her
throughout the controversy, Virginia Brooks and Belle Squire. Nothing more was said.
As a national vice-president of NAWSA, Jane Addams marched at the head of the parade.
However, there were no records to indicate that Addams spoke up for her friend, Ida
Wells-Bamett. NAWSA's policy of exclusion of African-American women continued
right through the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment^
123
In the summer of 1913, Jane Addams traveled to Budapest with Mary Smith, and
suffrage leaders Anna Shaw, Crystal Eastman and Carrie Chapman Catt, for the
International Congress of the Woman's Suffrage Alliance. Women from twenty-six
countries attended the congress. Dr. Maude Royden, a delegate from England, commented
on Addams' role at the meeting, "She was an ordinary delegate. . yet everyone realized
that among the whole of that conference of women from all over the world, she was the
one that was known to the whole world... Jane Addams wherever she sat was always the
heart and soul of it" Addams' hostess was the Hungarian suffrage activist Rosika
Schwimmer, who would be instrumental in galvanizing the American women's peace
movement in 1914.95 Addams would use all the contacts she made at this congress to
later establish an international women’s peace movement which she hoped would end a
European war and forestall a world war.
When Jane Addams returned to Illinois in early July, the state had changed in one
significant way. In June, influence by a women's lobby which had persevered for years,
the Illinois Legislature granted suffrage to women in all elections except those mentioned
in the state constitution: women could vote for president, mayors, alderman, and most
local officers, but not for govenor or other state officers including congresspersons and
senators. Immediately, rumors began circulating that Addams would run for mayor. She
quickly squashed such an idea by stating, "It is against our principles to rush in for office-
holding the moment we have received the vote. It would be very unwise for the women of
Illinois to accept or seek office until they have a few years' experience as voters. At this
time I think I should refuse to be a candidate for public office." Instead, Hull-House
organized classes to teach women, especially the immigrant women in the neighborhood,
about campaigning and the voting p r o c e s s . 9 6
124
During the next year, Jane Addams testified twice before the U. S. House of
Representative's Committee on Woman Suffrage, she served as the Illinois delegate to the
National Council of Women Voters (established in 1911), directed a campaign in Chicago
to register women voters -100,000 out of 300,000 Chicago women eligible to register did
so - and she hosted a public meeting for Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, the militant British
suffragist who was detained on Ellis Island for several days before the American
government decided to let her into the country. Although Addams herself did not run for
an alderman position in the April, 1914 election, her colleague, Mary McDowell, and eight
other women campaigned for those positions. They were all defeated. Jane Addams
served as election judge on election day and applauded her colleague's fight for public
power," It has been a red-letter day for women, this first day of voting.. . The women
showed that they had an intelligent understanding of the issues. It was a great thing to
have women in Chicago brave enough to run in this aldermanic election and to be willing
to face the probable defeat."^
Jane Addams was instrumental in obtaining the passage of a suffrage resolution at

the GFWC's 12th biennial convention held in June, 1914 at the Chicago Auditorium. At
the same meeting, she addressed the 1,832 delegates, representing 670 organizations, on
"Immigrant Woman As She Adjusts Herself To American Life." Addams explained to the
white members of the GFWC that they had nothing to fear from immigrant women who
were quite intelligent and would one day, if welcomed by the American women, be ready
for clubwork. Addams said of the immigrant woman, "She may not bring a vast amount
of cultivation, but she does bring those basic moralities which have proved most valuable
in the long history of the human r a c e . " 9 8
Jane Addams never spoke or wrote such words about the morality of her African-
American sisters. Addams, like so many great American feminist leaders before and after
125
her, allowed the issue of women's suffrage to take precedence over justice for black
American citizens. Part of this was due to her own prejudice against African-Americans,
the majority of whom she neither knew nor fully trusted. However, she was friends with
several prominent black leaders, both men and women, who were eloquent speakers and
authors, highly intelligent, educated and moral. Addams knew that the white world of
America was not ready to accept African-Americans as equal partners, and in her
pertinacious bid to win suffrage for white and immigrant woman, she often forfeited the
cause of justice for American Negroes.
Jane Addams was less racist than most of her progressive colleagues. She faced a
dilemma that all liberal reformers of her time confronted - trying to better living and
working conditions for as many people as possible in a racist society. She needed
credibility to operate in political situations that demanded compromise. She worked within
racist institutions - the GFWC, the Progressive Party and NAWSA - because she honestly
believed that through reforms in these institutions, African-Americans would, over the
long haul, gain parity with white Americans. But one cannot help but wonder if Addams
had been less afflicted by inherited attitudes toward blacks and more courageous in her
efforts to obtain equality for blacks, she might have been as influential in this cause as she
was in other causes.
Jane Addams was a realist in her recognition of what people could and could not
tolerate, and she usually did not push beyond individual's or group's abilities to
understand and accept. This was certainly the case with women's suffrage and issues of
industrial and municipal reform. She challenged people, especially white middle- and
upper-middle-class women, to change how they thought, and how they viewed their
capabilities, so that they might gain entrance into society’s arenas of public power. She did
so without going out of bounds. When Jane Addams began dealing with issues of peace
126
and war, she began a journey that would eventually take her beyond the acceptable bounds
of American society.
127
FOOTNOTES
1Allen Davis, American Heroine: The Life and Legend of Jane Addams. (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1973), P.5. Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull-House. (New
York: Macmillan, 1910), Chapters 1 and 2.
Âddams, ibid.. pp.22,31-32.
^Quoted in Christopher Lasch, editor, The Social Thought of Jane Addams. (New York:
Irvington Publishers, 1982), p.29. Re: articles she wrote see Jane Addams, "Respect for
Law," The Independent.53. January 3, 1901. pp.18-20. "Has the Emancipation
Proclamation Been Nullified by National Indifference?" The Survey. 29, February 1.
1913. pp.565-566. Review of "Tom Dixon's Clansman," The Crisis. May, 1915, JAP..
47/1159. Re: Lincoln's birthday see Jane Addams (JA) to W.E.B. Du Bois(WEBD),
January 26, 1907, JAP.. 5/33. Alfreda M. Duster, editor, Crusade for Justice: The
Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), pp. 321-
323. Re: Emancipation Celebration see Sophonsiba Breckenridge(SB) to JA, November
5, 1912, JAP.. 7/344-345; JA and Ida B. Wells-Bamett (IWB) et al to Harry Pratt,
November 25,1912, JAP.. 7/451.
4jA to Laura Addams and Sarah Alice Haldeman, December 28, 1886, JAP.. 2/396,402-
403.
5jA to WEBD, April 28, 1905, January 26, 1907, November 25, 1907, JA P ..
4/1056,5/33, 261; WEBD to JA, May 19,1908, JAP.. 5/448; Re: school segregation see
Duster, op.cit.. pp. 274-278, JA to Jenkin Lloyd Jones (JLJ), October 20, 1903, JAP..
4/705; Re: NAACP see William English Walling (WEW) to JA, June 8, 1909, JAP..
5/814-815; Re: Lynching see footnote 3, Oswald Garrison Villard (OGV) to JA, May 24,
1911, JA P.. 6/323, Elliot Rudwick, W.E.B. Du Bois: Voice of the Black Protest
Movement. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982), p. 104; Re: raising funds for
black settlements see JA to Anita McCormick Blaine (AMB), February 12 and 13,1913,
JAP. 7/764-766,769.
6Davis, op.cit.. p. 129; Bettina Aptheker, Occasional Papers Series Number 25: Ida B.
Wells-Bamett and Jane Addams on Lynching and Rape. (New York: The American
Institute for Marxist Studies, 1982),p.2; Thomas Philpott, The Slum and The Ghetto.
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), chapter 2.
7 This will be treated in detail later in the chapter. JA was not alone in choosing
expediency over justice, see Rosalyn Terborg-Penn and Sharon Hayley, The Afro-
American Woman: Smuggles and Images. (Port Washington: Kennikat Press, 1978).
8 Paula Giddings, When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and
Sex in America. (New York: William Morrow and Co., inc, 1984),p.78. Richard
Hofstadter, Social Darwinism in American Thought. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1955), P.44.
^Giddings, ibid.. p.79; C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow. (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1974), pp. 103-105; Aptheker, op.cit.. p.2.
lOWoodward, ibid.
W.E.B. Du Bois,"Social Effects of Emanicipation.'The Survey. 29, February 1,1913,
p.570.
12jbid..pp.570-571.
13jbid.
l 4M|.,pp.571-572.
128
15jbid..p.572: Giddings, op.cit.. p.82. Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle.
(Cambridge: Belnap, 1975), p. 191.
16Karen Blair, The Clubwoman as Feminist: True Womanhood Redefined. 1898- 1914.
(New York: Holmes and Meier, 1980), pp. 15-35,93-95, 108.
l^Duster, op.cit.. pp.xv-xvi,15-19.
ISjbid.. pp.xviii-xix.
pp.47-75; Flexner, op.cit.. pp.192-193.
ZOGiddings, op.cit.. pp. 29-30.
21jhid.. pp.30,83; Gerda Lemer, The Majority Finds Its Past. (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1979), pp. 85-86.
22 Duster, op.cit..pp.xxii-xxiii. Davis.op.cit..pp.93.95: Flexner, op.cit.. pp.190-191;
Giddings, op.cit.. pp.85-86.
23Duster, op.cit.. pp. 115-117; Giddings, ibid.. p.90.
24 Flexner, op.cit.. pp. 193-195; Giddings, ibid.. p.93.
25Duster, op.cit.pp.259-260: Christopher Lasch, "The Anti-Imperialists, the Philippines,
and the Iniquity of Man," Journal of Southern History. 24, 1958, p.321.
26 Duster, ibid.. pp.259-266; Aptheker, op.cit.. pp.5-6; Utica Dispatch, August 21,
1899, IAE, 55/520.
27 Flexner, op.cit., p.194.
28 ibid.. p.195; Blair, op.cit.. pp.108-109.
29j a to Maiy Rozet Smith (MRS), May 5,1902, JAP. 4/373.
30Los Angeles Express, May 6, 1902, New York Herald, May 7, 1902, JAP.. 55/672,
673; JA to GFWC, summer, 1905, JAP.. 4/1405; Blair, ibid.. pp. 111-113.
31Aptheker, op.cit.. pp.8,25-29; OGV to JA, May 24,1911, Bernard Flexner to JA, May
23,t 1911, JAP... 6/323- 327.
32"Respect for Law," is found in Aptheker, ibid.. pp.26-28.
33jbid.. pp.28-29.
34jbid.. p. 11, "Lynching and the Excuse for It," is found in Aptheker, pp.30-35.
35jbid.. pp. 31-34.
36Duster, op.cit.. pp.275-276; JA to JU , October 20, 1903, JAP. 4/705-706.
37Duster, op.cit.. pp.276-278.
38jbid.. pp. 321-322; JA to WEBD, January 26, 1907, November 25, 1907, May 18,
1908, WEBD to JA, May 19, 1908, JAP.. 5/33,261,431,448.3
39john Hope Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans. (New
York: Vintage Books, 1969),pp.443-446; Allen Davis, Spearheads for Reform. (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1967), pp.99-102; Rudwick, op.cit.. p. 120; WEW to JA,
June 8, 1909, JAP.. 5/814.
40Rudwick, op.cit.. pp. 162-163; JA to AMB, February 3,1911 and January 10,1912,
JAP.. 6/78,762; OGV to JA, August 18,1913, JA et al to Woodrow Wilson, August 26,
1913, IAP., 7/1039,1052-1053; Blanche Wright to JA, October 18,1913, JAR., 7/1144.
Blanche Wright was an African-American who had formerly lived in Chicago, and
performed in a play at Hull-House which was directed by Frances Parker Wooley. At the
time of her letter to JA, she had worked six years as a stenographer in the government
service in Washington. She detailed for JA the segregation practices and refusal of the
government to promote black workers. She wrote to JA: "Now I refuse absolutely to put
my foot in any separate conveniences for colored people, and I am begging you and
129
pleading with you in the name of justice and fair play to defend me against persecution."
This is die only correspondence to or from Wright in the JAP.
41philpott, op.cit.. pp.l 16,312-315; Edith Abbott, "Grace Abbott and Hull-House, 1908-
1921, Part 1," Social Service Review. 24, September, 1950, p.394.
42Jane Addams, Second Twenty Years at Hull-House. (New York: Macmillan, 1930),
p.97; Philpott, ibid.. pp.319-320; Davis, Spearheads, p.95.
43Addams, "Emancipation Proclamation," pp.564-566. Mary Church Terrell. A Colored
Woman in a White World. (New York: Amo Press, 1980 reprint), pp.330-335,354,361-
363.
44 Addams, Second Twenty, pp.396-401.
43Allen Davis, "The Social Workers and the Progressive Party,1912-1916," American
Historical Review.69. no. 3,1964, p. 262; Davis, Spearheads, p.195.
46Snearheads. p. 196.
47ibid.. pp.196-197.
48jbid.. p.197. Ben Lindsey (BL) to JA, June 30,1912, JAP. 6/1097.
49Chicago Record-Herald, April ?, 1912, Chicago American, April 27, 1912, The
Woman's Journal, June 29, 1912, JAP.. 58/903,931,1137.
SOsimon North (Director of Census Bureau) to President Theodore Roosevelt, December
7, 1905, North to JA, December 9, 1905, JA P .. 4/1199-1203; Charles Neil
(Commissioner of Labor Bureau) to JA, January 29, 1906, Theodore Roosevelt (TR) to
JA, January 24, 1906, !£ £ ., 4/1243-1245.
51 Addams, Second Twenty, p. 18.
52TR to JA, October 31,1911, IA£., 6/512-514.
53Abbott, "Hull-House, Part 2," December, 1950, p.502; The Woman's Journal, June
22,1912, I£ P ., 58/1126.
54George Mowry, "The South and the Progressive Lily White Party of 1912," Journal of
Southern History. 6, May, 1940, pp. 237-239.
55jbid.. p.240.
36jhe Presidential Papers of Theodore Roosevelt. Library of Congress, 1967, subseries
13D, Official Minutes of the First Progressive Party Convention,(reel)447/(pages)l 1,33.
Henceforth this will be referred to as TRP and the reel and pages will be noted as with the
JAP.
57iMd., pp.102-103.
58jbid.. pp.120,140. New York Times, August 4, 1912.
S^New York Times, August 3,1912; Mowry, op.cit.. pp.241-242. TRP. 447/128-134.
60TRP. 447/51, 213; Mowry, M i , p.243.
61New York Times± August 6,7,8, 1912; New York Tribune, August 6 , 1912, JAP..
58/1223.
62 Lillian Wald (LW) to JA, August 12, 1912, JA to LW, August 14? and 17, 1912,
JAP.. 6/1330-1337, 1376-1378, 1410-1412.
63New York Times, August 7, 1912; Chicago Record-Herald, August 5 and 11, 1912,
Chicago Inter-Ocean, August 6, 1912, New York Evening Mail, August 7?, 1912, New
York Evening Post, August 8, 1912, unidentified newspaper, JA P.. 58/ 1210,
1222,1231,1240 and 59/24,912.
64Call from Women Delegates, JAP.. 7/83; New York Evening Post, August 8, 1912,
Chicago Evening Post, August 15, 1912, Chicago Examiner, August 2, 1912, JAP..
58/1240, 1204, 1193; New York Times, August 5,1912.
130
6 5 TEE, 447/94-96.
66Chicago Record-Herald, August 8,1912, JAP.. 58/1228; New York Times, August 8,
1912.
67Los Angeles Call, August 21, 1912, New York Call, August 11, 1912, JAP.. 59/98-
99, 18.
68Poughkeepsie Enterprize, September 4,1912, JAP.. 59/176.
69william Trotter to JA, August 6-7,1912, "One of Them" to JA, August 9,1912, J U to
JA, October 10,1912, IAE, 6/1210, 1266-1268 and 7/236-239.
70Colored Woman's Civic Club to JA, August 6-7, 1912, Branch #7 to JA, August 6,
1912, George Cook to JA, August 17, 1912, Mary Childs Nemey to JA, August 16,
1912, IAE, 6/1205, 1208, 1415, 1345; Rudwick, op.cit.. pp.22-23.
7lRudwick, ibid.. pp. 159-160; New York Times, August 7 and 8,1912.
^Êrving Winslow to JA, August 7 and 12, 1912, F.S. Coffin to JA, August 12, 1912,
IAE, 6/1234-1235,1339, 1320-1322.
73 Mary McDowell to JA, August 16, 1912, Caroline Urie to JA, August 6, 1912,
Katherine Coman to JA, August 8,1912, JAP- 6/1391-1396,1211-1214,1244.
7^Mabel Boardman to the editor of the New York Tribune, August 18, 1912, Hartford
Courant, August 15, 1912, Anna Howard Shaw (AHS) to JA, August 16, 1912, JAP..
59/80,55 and 6/1405-1407.
75JA to AHS, August 20,1912, IAE, 6/1439-1441.
76Addams, "Statement Defending Participation in the Progressive Party Campaign
Against the Charges Levelled by Mabel T. Boardman," August 14, 1912; "Why I
seconded Roosevelt’s Nomination," Woman's Journal, 43, August 17, 1912, p.257,
JAP.. 47/ 462-465, 469.
77New York Evening Mail, September 21,1912, JAP. 59/219 (the six articles are listed
on 7/64); JA to SB, September 5,1912, IAE, 7/51-52,
78 Linda Kerber and Jane De Hart, Women's America. (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1982), pp.440-442; Addams, "The Progressive Party and Safeguards for Working
Girls," IAE-, 47/435-438.
79Addams, "The Progressive Party and Woman Suffrage," JAP..47/499-504.
Âddams, "My Experience as a Progressive Delegate," McClure’s Magazine, November,
1912, pp.12-14.
81Addams, "The Progressive Party and the Negro," The Crisis, November, 1912, pp.30-
31, IAE., 47/605-606.
8^t R to JA, August 8,1912, "From the Women Delegates to the National Convention of
the Progressive Party to the Women of the United States," August 5, 1912, JAP..
6/1252-1254 and 7/85,83.
83New York Herald, August 11, 1912, New York Sun, August 11, 1912, Atlanta
Constitution, August 18, 1912, Greater New York Star, September 18, 1912, JAP..
59/20-23,85-86,213; Frances Kellor to Ohio Suffragists (and JA's comment), September
6, 1912, IAE-, 7/60-62.
^^Progressive Party Organization Notes, "Declaration of the Principles of the Jane
Addams Chorus," JAP.. 7/114-117,165; Letter from Committee on Organization Work
among Suffrage Societies, JAP. 42/954; Appeal from women on Social Work
Committee, October 2,1912, JAP.. 7/193-195.
85progressive Party Organization Notes, "Women's Permanent Organization," October
18,1912, IAE, 7/117,283; New York Outlook, September 28, 1912, IAE, 59/ 252-254.
131
%(>New York Outlook, JAP.. 59/254.
87 Henry Locher to JA (itinerary), October 2, 1912, JAP.. 7/190-192; Chicago Record-
Herald, September 28, 1912, Denver Times, November 2, 1912, New York Sun,
November 7, 1912, IA E , 59/ 256,495, 530.
^Bernard Bailyn et al, The Great Republic. (Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Co., 1981)
p.xxv; Mowry, op.cit.. p.246; TR to JA, November 5,1912, JAP.. 7/334.
°9tR P . 48/12; Philadelphia North American, December 16,1912, JAP.. 59/816; Davis,
Spearheads, p.206; "Report of Committee of Leaders of Progressive Movement,"
November 26,1912, JAP.. 7/677.
90John Kingsbury to JA, December 23, 1912, Frances Kellor to Joseph Dixon,
November 1, 1912, Amos Pinchot to TR, December 3, 1912, Gifford Pinchot to TR,
December 17, 1912, IAE., 7/595-596,425-427,499-503, 561; Davis, ibid., pp.207, 214-
216.
91jA to William Kent, December 3,1912, TR to JA, February 4,1913, JA to Progressive
Committee, August 3,1914, JAP.. 7/496, 752,1564; Davis, American Heroine, p. 196.
9 2 ja to Crystal Eastman, November 7,1912, JAP.. 7/340; Chicago Tribune, November
11,1912, IAE., 59/547; Call to 44th NAWSA Convention, JAP.. 42/157-158.
Â ddam s' Address to NAWSA, Woman’s Journal, 43, December 14, 1912, JAP..
47/666; Flexner, op.cit.. p.272; Minutes from NAWSA Executive Meeting, JAP..
42/162.
94Chicago Daily Tribune, March 4, 1913; Aileen Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman
Suffrage Movement 1890-1920. (New York: Norton, 1981), pp.213-215.
95New York American, June 29,1913, Chicago Record-Herald, July 13,1913, Michigan
City (Indiana) Dispatch, July 13,1913, JAP.. 60/278, 368-369,320; James Linn, Jane
Addams. (New York: Appleton-Century, 1936), p.283.
96New York Literary Digest, June 28, 1913, New York Sun, June 12 and July 12 1913,
Washington Herald, July 8, 1913, Chicago Tribune, June 18,1913, JAP.. 60/287, 216,
316, 338, 251.
97"Testimony of Miss Jane Addams," Committee on Rules, Committee on Woman
Suffrage, H. Res. 9, 63rd Congress, Second Session, December 3,4,5, 1913, JAP..
47/913-922; Washington Star, September 9, 1913, Washington Times, August 14,1913,
Long Branch Record, October 23,1912, Chicago Record-Herald, October 19,1913, New
York Evening Mail, February 8, 1914, Chicago News, April 8, 1914, Chicago Post,
April 8,1914, IAE., 60/493,544,1000,936 and 61/499,1031,1032.
™The Survey, July 4,1914, Woman’s Journal, June 23, 1914, JAP.. 62/277-278, 226;
"Immigrant Woman as She Adjusts Herself to American Life," GFWC Official Report.
1914. JAP.. 47/903-905.
Chapter 3
Jane Addams' Peace Activism: Internationalism and Women
Jane Addams did not become active in the American peace movement until after the
outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898 - the first American war that occurred
during Addams1lifetime - but before the war many other American women were involved
in issues of peace. One woman peace historian has estimated that by 1900 there were more
than a million American women committed through their individual women's organizations
to peace work. These women were predominantly white, protestant and middle class,
members of such organizations as the Women's Christian Temperence Union (WCTU), the
Daughters of the American Revolution, and the National Council of Women (NCW). In an
effort to promote women's international cooperation, the NCW was established in 1888 as
a section of the International Council of Women (ICW). It served as an umbrella
organization for women from the National Council of Jewish Women (NJC), the National
Association of Colored Women (NACW), the National American Woman's Suffrage
Association (NAWSA) and the Free Baptist Woman's Missionary Society. Most of these
organizations were active in the social reform movement of the Progressive Era, working
for temperance, an abolition of prostitution and better schools and health care. They touted
family values, equated violence with masculinity, and viewed peace as women's particular
concern. 1
It was not until the late 1880s, when women's organizations began to thrive in the
United States, that networking of peace activism among women was feasible. Before
then, however, a few dedicated women peace activists worked on their own, or as
minority members of male-dominated peace societies, to build a women's peace force.
Shaken by the Franco-Prussian War, Boston reformer Julia Ward Howe appealed in
September, 1870, "To Womanhood throughout the World" to attend an international
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women's peace congress. She hoped that "Christian women" everywhere would issue "a
sacred and commanding word" against war. She convened meetings in New York and
Boston before she sailed to London where she planned to initiate "a Woman's Apostolate
of Peace." But Howe was unable to secure support from either men or women. The men
officers of an international peace gathering in Paris refused to let her address the general
membership and women at the time seemed more interested in temperance or suffrage
work. Howe commented that "many steps were to be taken before one could hope to
effect any efficient combination among women" for peace work.2
The Universal Peace Union (UPU), founded in 1866, was a Quaker pacifist
organization with several women members, including Belva A. Lockwood, a lawyer and
feminist. Lockwood, the first woman to practice law before the Supreme Court, served as
UPU's lobbyist for forty years and drafted Senator John Sherman's resolution of 1890
which called for permanent treaties of arbitration. Another member of the UPU was
Hannah Bailey, who would become the first national superintendent of the Department of
Peace and Arbitration of the WCTU which was established in 1887. The WCTU was the
first American women's organization to institute a peace bureau.^
In 1896 the NCW adopted a resolution which committed its members to devote time
to issues of peace and arbitration, and by 1899 the organization established a standing
committee to insure that they did so. During the Venezuela boundary dispute of 1895-
1896, which pitted England against the United States, women's organizations urged their
members to oppose military action and support a peaceful resolution of the situation. In
1898 a million club women petitioned President McKinley to avoid war with Spain and
once the war was over, they crusaded against annexation of the Philippines. Lucia Ames
Mead, who served as a director of the APS with her husband, Edwin, chaired both
NCW's and NAWSA's departments on peace and arbitration. She and May Wright
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Sewall, who chaired NCW’s committee on the first Hague Conference on International
Arbitration, campaigned for women to support the meeting held in the Hague in 1899.
They lobbied unsuccessfully for Belva Lockwood to be a delegate to the conference.
Lockwood attended the conference as an observer and reported in detail on the
proceedings in the Woman's Tribune. At the time, the Tribune noted that "No movement
in this generation has so enlisted the interest of women as this peace conference."^
But the history of the peace movement in America was one in which women and
men worked largely through gender segregated organizations. By all accounts, the peace
societies of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century were
dominated by professional, WASP men of 'a respectable ancestry', who gave a tone of
literary and patriarchal elitism to the concept of "international peace."^
Like Andrew Carnegie, who founded the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace (CEIP) in 1910, and Edwin Ginn, who established the International School for
Peace (ISP) the same year, they were primarily businessmen, clergy and educators who
believed that war was harmful to material progress and prosperity. These men of the
establishment valued order and stability. They were interested in maintaining the status
quo and insuring that no radical change would undermine their position and dominance in
society. Both Presidents Taft and Wilson were members of peace societies as were
Secretaries of State Elihu Root, Robert Bacon, Philander Knox, Robert Lansing and
William Jennings Bryan.6
Robert Treat Paine, president of the oldest American peace organization, the
American Peace Society established in 1828, told those attending the 1901 Lake Mohonk
Conference on International Arbitration that "the great intelligent mercantile classes, the
commercial classes, the industrial classes" was "the supreme thing at which this . .
Conference ought to aim." Accordingly, the Mohonk Conference beginning in 1902 held
135
a special session each year on the subject of business and war. By 1903, the forty
businessmen attending the conference outnumbered the clergymen present The 1904
International Congress held in Boston had separate meetings for women, workingmen and
businessmen. William H. Lincoln, chair of the businessmen’s meeting and ex-president
of the Boston Chamber of Commerce declared that war was against the interests of
business.^
The 1907 National Arbitration and Peace Congress held in New York also held
separate sessions for women, businessmen and labor leaders. Women were in the
minority of the over fifteen hunfred official delegates, which included two presidential
candidates, eight members of the cabinet, ten U.S. senators, nineteen congressmen, three
supreme court judges, twelve state chief justices, nine govenors, ten city mayors, sixty
newspaper editors and "thirty multi-millionaire captains of industry."** Such peace
meetings represented the cream of the American Establishment and reflected the idea that
peace was integral to the Progressive Era's optimistic theme of prosperity for all
Americans. Women, however, usually played a minor role in these patriarchal, business
associated societies. They worked through their own organizations and their emphasis was
much more feminine oriented in tone and message.
* * * *
Jane Addams became active in the peace movement when issues of war and foreign
policy began to impinge on her mission at Hull-House and in the social reform movement.
Although not active in the peace movement before then, she had been concerned that
individuals live together in harmony, strikes be adjudicated non-violently, and
humanitarian reforms progress unimpeded. In 1896 she visited Tolstoy at his estate in
Russia, and in a follow-up letter to Alymer Maude, one of Tolstoy's disciples, she
expressed her idea of non-resistance as it related to Hull-House, "Our effort.. has always
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been to seize upon the highest moral efforts we could find in the labour movement and
elswhere, and help them forward. To conserve the best the community has acheived and
push it forward along its own line when possible."^ The Spanish-American war, the first
foreign conflict to adversely affect Addams' aims, was a catalyst to her involvement in the
peace movement Not active in the WCTU or the NCW, Addams chose to become one of
the charter members of the Chicago branch of the Anti-Imperialist League. Since the
founding of Hull-House, Addams had worked with men in civic and national associations
and, unlike many women of her era, she felt comfortable doing so.
Jane Addams subtitled her 1930 autobiography, The Second Twenty Years at Hull-
House. "With a Record of a Growing World Consciousness." It was during the years
Addams covered in this book, 1909 to 1929, that she spent less time working in the
American social settlement movement and increasingly turned her attention to the
international women's peace movement, of which she was a principal founder. To open
the discussion of her peace work in The Second Twenty Years, she chose to quote an
unnamed University of Chicago professor who made the following connection between
Addams' social settlement and peace work:
Jane Addams may not have discovered the principles of internationalism

through her experience at Hull-House, but it is easily within the bounds of
truth to say that she could not have lived there without practising them.
There were by count, a few years ago, a hundred different languages and
dialects spoken in Chicago .. One of the chief functions of Hull-House has
been to welcome the stranger. . to help adjust the foreign-born generations
to American life. Moreover, the political relations of the European peoples
to each other, the problems of oppressed nationalities.. have always been a
part of the intellectual background of the settlement Doubtless the trust and
affection with which Miss Addams had inspired so many Europeans . .
were reflected in the invitation extended to her to become chairman of the
International Congress of Women, which was the first concerted attempt to
let reason and pity into the stupid and cruel, chaos of a world at war. 10
137
Addams qualified the professor’s remarks only in asserting that her peace activism
preceded World War 1 by many years. She in fact began speaking out against the evils of
war and militarism at the end of 1898, in the wake of the Spanish-American War, almost
sixteen years before World War 1 began. Addams believed in the viability of international
community, and she was distressed during the brief 1898 war to find boys in the Hull-
House neighborhood playing at war, killing Spaniards. In an address to the Academy of
Political and Social Sciences in December, 1898, she noted that there was also an increase
in murders in the Hull-House ward and insisted that it was '"established beyond question
that every one of these cases was directly traceable to the passions excited by the late
Spanish-American conflict"'! 1
The ideal concept of internationalism - individuals transcending their national
prejudices to work together in peace - had a basis in reality for Addams. She derived from
her experience at Hull-House the conviction that if many nationalities in the slums of
Chicago could overcome their ethnic animosities and exist in friendly co-operation, then
whole countries should be able to mediate their conflicts without resorting to war. Before
the Spanish-American War there may have been more skirmishes between Hull-House
neighbors than Addams was willing to see, but she was certain that the war inflamed
national prejudices, instigated killings and undermined the international community of the
area more than had any other previous incident. This angered Jane Addams. In 1898 war
could have destroyed Addams' faith in internationalism, but instead it offered another
cause to which she could direct her energies. Out of her concern that war killed people,
ruined humanitarian understanding and nullified social progress, Addams worked from
1898 to the end of her life to achieve world peace.
Addams emphasized the need for internationalism throughout her peace work, but it
was not until 1907, when she became the leader of the Chicago women's campaign to win
138
municipal suffrage that she began to stress the special role of women in the peace
movement. She used arguments similiar to those she had previously presented to women
in the municipal reform and suffrage movements, to encourage them to participate in
activities outside of their homes: women's skills of nurturing and caretaking practiced in
the home could be put to good use in the peace movement
Addams argued that historically women's role of nurturing and maintaining the
home was "industrial" while men's role of fortifying the city was "military." She claimed
that in previous centuries women led isolated lives centered around their homes. Men,
however, organized first into armies and then, in the industrial age, into commercial
institutions. According to Addams, women were at an advantage as peacemakers because
in their isolation they had never learned to be competitive. They lacked, however, men's
long experience of working in groups outside of the home. When Addams addressed the
women's session of the 1907 National Arbitration and Peace Congress, she not only
encouraged women to move out from the home and lend their nurturing capabilities to the
peace movement, she stated that it was their obligation to do so:
For the first time in the history of the world women have the opportunity of
carrying on their legitimate work in groups and definite inter-relations, not
only with each other but with all of society. What might not happen if
women realized that the ancient family affection, that desire to protect and
rear little children which they have expressed so long in isolation, might
now be socialized and be brought to bear as a moral force on the current
industrial organization. Personally I do not believe that the glamour of war
will ever pass to the side of construction and conservation, that it will ever
be possible to make industry seem as heroic as war has seemed unless we
can do something of this sort. 12
As she had in her work for municipal reform and suffrage, Addams urged women
to accept the responsibiities of citizenship and take their place besides men in the American
peace movement
139
When Jane Addams began speaking out for peace in the wake of the Spanish-
American war, she joined the few other women who were leaders in the male-dominated
establishment peace movement. Initially, she stressed the theme of internationalism rather
than women’s historical training and disposition for peace work. Aware that she was
treading in public on men's domain, Addams used good judgment in emphazing the
concept of internationalism - an idea male mavens of the peace movement could relate to -
rather than a theme of women's special peacemaking abilities which would have excluded
men. Her leadership of an all-women’s peace movement evolved over time as she became
more active in the women's suffrage movement and women within the peace movement
called on her to lead a separate women's peace movement In the late 1890's she remained
within the fold of the traditional peace societies, but by 1907 there were more women
active in these societies and Addams had gained enough power within the establishment
peace societies that she felt comfortable promulgating her ideas on women's special
mission of peace.
* * * *
On the afternoon of April 30,1899, a mass meeting was held at the Central Music
Hall in Chicago to protest President McKinley's annexation policy in the Philippines and
organize an Anti-Imperialist League in the city. Of the hundred prominent Chicagoans
who arranged the meeting, only three were women, Jane Addams, Ella F. Flagg, the
future superintendent of public schools, and the philanthropist Mrs. H. M. Wilmarth.
Over occasional hoots of "Treason!" from the gallery, speakers Henry Wade Rogers, the
president of Northwestern University, professor J. Lawrence Laughlin of the University
of Chicago, Roman Catholic Bishop J.L. Spalding, Jane Addams, and her colleague in the
reform movement, Reverend Jenkin Lloyd Jones, addressed the overflowing a u d i e n c e . 13
140
Although the general anti-imperialist movement, founded in Boston in June, 1898,
was dominated by men like Andrew Carnegie and Mugwump Carl Shurz, whose rhetoric
was often racist, concerned more with the promise of American life than universal
brotherhood, the speeches at the Chicago charter meeting reflected a broad humanitarian
outlook in line with Jane Addams' philosophy of democracy. Professor Lawrence told the
audience,
In the Philippines we are not merely hounding colored natives with the
bloodhounds of ante-slavery days, but murdering them with rapid-fire guns
- 'nigger hunting' it is gruesomely expressed. The flag there does not
protect those over whom it floats. It is there the emblem of tyranny and
butchery.
Jane Addams' speech was less vivid, more abstract, devoted to how she would like
to see Americans react to an international political situation "demanding the evolution of a
new morality." She argued that "Unless the present situation extends our nationalism into
internationalism, unless it has thrust forward our patriotism into humanitarianism we
cannot meet (the new morality)." Her speech focused only indirectly on America's abusive
treatment of Filipino natives. She was more concerned that American military escapades
abroad were destroying democracy and progressive reforms at home. She pleaded:
Let us not make the mistake of confusing moral issues sometimes involved
in warfare with warfare itself. Let us not glorify the brutality . . . Some of
us were beginning to hope that we were getting away from the ideals set by
the Civil War, that we had made all the presidents we could from men who
had distinquished themselves from that war, and were coming to seek
another type of man. That we were ready to accept the peace ideal, to be
proud of our title as a peace nation; to recognize that the man who cleans the
city is greater than he who bombards it, and the man who irrigates a plain
greater than he who lays it waste. Then came the Spanish war, with its gilt
and lace and tinsel, and again the moral issues are confused with exhibitions
of brutality.
141
Blaming the war (and the newspapers which inflamed tempers during the war) for
the increased murders in the Hull-House neighborhood, the children's play at killing
Spaniards, and a legislative bill calling for the re-establishment of the whipping post,
Addams' remarked, "Simple people who read of carnage and bloodshed easily receive its
suggestions. Habits of self-control which have been slowly and imperfectly acquired
quickly break down under the stress." She insisted, however, that "Peace.. has come to
be a rising tide of moral feeling, which is slowly engulfing all pride of conquest and
making war impossible."^
Addams' speech was a remarkable mixture of idealism and common sense. The
basic truth of war, that it destroyed lives and property and all that women and men worked
for, was irrevocably lucid to Addams. On one hand, she acknowledged and understood
Americans' fascination with war and their vulnerability to wartime emotions and hatreds
(by referring to the "simple people," she obviously felt that the poorer classes were more
prone to wartime hype than her own intellectual class - those whom she addressed at the
anti-imperialist meeting). But on the other hand, she persevered in her belief that a new
morality and peace were at hand. War was destroying Jane Addams' world and she could
not sit idly by. In September she made clear her unhappiness with the situation in a letter
to Mary Smith, who was traveling through New York on Dewey Day (when a parade in
honor of the admiral who had captured Manila Bay would overload the city), "I hope that
Dewey day won't be an interminable nuisance.. The troubles of our unrighteous war will
never come to an end." 17
Addams continued her peace work in 1900 when she addresssed an "anti-war pro-
Boer" meeting held on the evening of January 27 at the Central Music Hall in Chicago.
The city's Inter-Ocean noted that women were the primary organizers and that Mrs. Henry
Wilmarth presided over the rally, at which Jane Addams and Clarence Darrow were the
142
keynote speakers. Mrs. Wilmarth opened the meeting of nearly 3,000 people by declaring
that its object "is first to show that there is a better way to preserve peace than by warring
for it." She went on to say, "By nature women are not warriors, nor are they politicians,
but these disabilities carry with them certain privileges and among them is that of speaking
our minds."
The Chicago Times-Herald reported that "No speaker received the greeting which
(Addams) did and none seemed to make their statement any more effective." Addams
urged her audience to "do what we can for the prevention of war," and suggested that
individuals make contributions to the Red Cross to help the wounded and suffering. As in
1899, she spoke out against the tradition by which only the glories of war were promoted:
War and all its horrors is a terrible thing. It is the law of the jungle
elaborated. It is the old story of the rulers of Persia and Rome, when they
conquered other peoples and forced them into slavery to work for them and
no longer for themselves alone. We are taken in once more by the old
definition of civilization. We simply get besotted with military glory and go
back again to where the Romans were a thousand years ago." 19
In February, 1900, Addams published an article on "Commercialism Disguised as

Patriotism and Duty" in which she stated, "The great pity of it all is that a war tends to fix
our mind on the picturesque." She told of an incident during preparations for the 1893
Columbian Exposition in Chicago when boys at Hull-House were practicing for a military
drill in which they would participate at the fair. She suggested to the boys that they use
sewer spades instead of bayonets in the drill because "it is quite as noble to manuever as if
to clean the city in order to prevent disease and saye life as it was to manuever as if to
charge the enemy and kill our fellow men." Paying little heed to her arguments, Addams
acknowledged that as soon as she was nearly out of their sight, the young men went back
to using bayonets.Ô
143
It was also in the year 1900 that Addams and Lucia Ames Mead began to
correspond over peace issues. Mead wrote to Addams on April 27, quite distressed over
the ridicule that W.T. Stead, the British pacifist editor and journalist, received at the hands
of the Boston press because of his peace budget proposal. The proposal called on the
U.S. Congress to allocate funds for international dialogue, an idea scoffed at by many, but
one which Mead told Addams she was going to push for at the next Mohonk conference.
The proposal came to no success, but Stead would later, in 1907, recommend that at least
three women be part of an international arbitration committee and that Addams be
appointed a delegate to the Hague Conference on International Arbitration. He was the
only man at the time to formally advance the idea that women were capable of international
mediation.21
During 1901, Jane Addams hosted a visitor to Hull-House who further contributed
to her ideas about peace, Russia's Prince (Peter) Kropotkin. Kropotkin was an anarchist
but also a disciple of Darwin's, and his influence on Addams was evident in her speeches
on peace after his stay. At the end of March, 1902, she traveled by train to Philadelphia
where she addressed a meeting of the Ethical Culture Society, held at the New Century
Hall on South 12th Street, on "The Newer Ideals of Peace." She gave a similar speech in
July before an audience in Chicago. For the first time in an address on peace, Addams
spoke on Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest (The Origins of Species. 1859) and
argued that not only did Darwin stress the struggle for existence, "but he also emphasized
mutual aid as a means of progress and survival." She delineated for her audience two
previous approaches taken by activists in their protests against war. The first, exemplified
by Tolstoy, was that of " an appeal to pity and mercy": war was too horribly sordid and
cruel to qualify as an acceptable way to resolve conflicts. The second approach was that
144
of "prudence": war was too wasteful and destructive to be expedient as a means to an
e n d .2 2
Addams then declared that she preferred a third appeal, "to the sense of human
solidarity." She asked those in the hall, "Aside from the worth of human life, it is our
business to aid human existence. If we are equal in the sight of the Lord, how can one set
of men decide to do away with another set of men?" Addams concluded by stating that
"Temptation comes to every age to use an old moral standard and to fail to apply one to
which to work up. It may be the new standard of life is at our hand, and if we fail to
apply it we shall slip back to old s ta n d a r d s ." 2 3 Propagandizing for peace, Addams
utilized the same argument that she had applied earlier in her quest to gain greater power
for women in society: inherited traditions - in the case of women those which kept them in
the home, shielded from public service - impeded progress and hurt society. To achieve
peaceful resolution of conflicts, citizens also needed to move beyond the inherited tradition
of idealizing war. Moreover, the concept of scientific progress being so integral to the
Progressive Era ethos, Addams now added the scientific component of Darwin's theories
to support and proffer her belief in human being's ability to choose peace over war.
Whereas tum-of-the-century conservative intellectuals such as Herbert Spencer and
William Graham Sumner had used Darwin’s theories to support social Darwinism -
asserting that successful human beings were those most fit to survive and the poor
deserved neglect because they were failures and the least fit to survive - Addams drew on
Darwin’s ideas of evolution to urge fellowship in the aid of human dignity.
In 1902 Macmillan published a compilation of several of Addams' essays and
lectures under the title, Democracy and Social Ethics. The book, which included revised
editions of "The College Woman and the Family Claim," and "Ethic Survivals in
Municipal Corruption" did well for its genre, selling 4,500 copies in the first year and a
145
half. (Over the next fifteen years it sold 10,000 copies). Economist Edwin Seligman
wrote Addams that it was "so sane and so inspiring," adding that "no other book by a
woman shows such virility, such masculinity of mental grasp and surefootedness." He
was not the only male to feel that a work's value was in some way related to its author's
"masculine" character. Richard Ely, the University of Wisconsin reform economist who
edited The Citizens' Library series through which Macmillan had published Democracy.
shared with Addams the comment he received from Oliver Wendell Holmes after the
supreme court justice read the book: "(she) is a big woman who knows about the facts and
gives me more insight into the point of view of the workingmen and the poor than I had
before. How excellent her discrimination between doing good |£> them and doing good
with them."24
George Brett, president of Macmillan, was pleased enough with Democracy's

reception that he wrote to Addams on October 29, "We have, of course, supposed that you
would follow up the success of this book with another one and we should be very happy
indeed if you are willing to let us know as to when in all probability your new book will
be ready and the subject thereof, in order that we may make an offer for its publication."
Less than a month after hearing from Brett, Addams wrote to Richard Ely that she would
like to put more lectures into book form under the title of "The Newer Ideals of Peace,"
"Dynamic Peace," or "War and Labor." As soon as he received her letter, Ely responded
enthusiastically that he could meet with her within a week to go over the manuscript. By
January 2,1903, Addams had signed a contract with Macmillan to publish The Newer
Ideals of Peace in the Citizens’ Library series, again under the editorship of Ely. She
made sure she was allowed three years in which to finish the book for, as she explained to
Brett when returning the contract, "I have written only one chapter though I have the
subjects and some (source?) material for the others. I find very little time for writing and
146
my ideas are as yet by no means c l e a r . " 2 5 Delayed by other priorities and responsibilities,
the book did not come out until the beginning of 1907. During the years of writing the
book, however, Addams continued to formulate her ideas on "a moral substitute for war"
through lectures and attendance at national peace conferences.
During 1903 Addams gave several speeches on "A Moral Substitute for War'’ in
Chicago which were reported in papers as far away as Cripple Creek, Colorado and Erie,
Pennsylvania. In the spring she spoke at Steinway Hall before the Ethical Culture Society
and although acknowledging that "War has done much in the history of the human race to
develop courage, inculcate patriotism, and inspire chivalrous deeds,” she insisted that, "it
is becoming obsolete, and its barbarous side is uppermost to the best thought everywhere.
The arts of peace and the toil of the masses inspire higher sentiment than war." In
September she addressed the Hull-House Woman’s Club on "Peace and War," and in
October, she traveled to Omaha where the Woman's Club sponsored her talk on "Newer
Ideals of Peace." She told her audience that war was the way of the past, reaffirming
that, "All processes of life are evolutionary and we can safely go from one to the other."
William James, with whom Addams corresponded and exchanged ideas, was also
working on his own concept of "a moral substitute for war," and in 1904 they would both
address the International Peace Congress on this subject.26
For the first time in eleven years, in 1904 the International Peace Congress, which
had been meeting for thirteen years, convened in the United States. The call was issued by
Lucia Mead’s husband, Edwin (chair of the Executive Committee) and the meeting, which
marked a new emotional commitment to the peace movement by Addams, was held in
Boston during the first week of October. As the Springfield. Republican noted, "for the
first time (the congress) welcomes delegates from organizations of women which are in
sympathy with its purposes." As well as the usual businessmen's and workingmen's
147
meetings, the congress held a special session for women, presided over by Lucia Ames
Mead and addressed by Julia Ward Howe, Baroness Bertha von Suttner (who became the
first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905, for her founding of an Austrian
peace society and promoting pacifism - a close friend of Alfred Nobel, she allegedly
influenced him to establish the peace prize), Rev. Anna Garlin Spencer and Jane Addams.
Women from England, India, New Zealand and China also addressed the women's
session.27
Addams, who spoke before the workingmen’s session as well as the women's,
wrote to Mary Smith on October 5 about the opening of the congress. It was, she said,
"one of the most magnificent sessions I ever attended. . . Mary McDowell wept by my
side while I gave vent to my emotions in ways such as I seldom do - and people seldom
hear I suppose." She wrote further, "The meetings are pretty continuous and some of
them filled with platitudes, but on the whole it is a fine group of people trying to do a real
thing." Addams had also written to Lillian Wald on October 3, entreating her to join Mary
McDowell and herself at the congress, emphasizing that "It is really very stirring."
Wald did travel from New York to Boston to join her settlement colleagues at the
congress.28
Although entitled "The Responsibilities and Duties of Women toward the Peace
Movement," Addams' address to the women's session did not specify women as
peacemakers. It was, instead, a reiteration of earlier speeches in which she laid out the
various approaches to peace and urged her audience to "convert our men and women, and
make them see that war is destructive, that peace is constructive, that if a man commit(sic)
himself to warfare he is committing himself to a played out thing, and not to the new,
vigorous and fine thing along the lines of the highest human development."^ Addams
had not yet formulated her argument that women possessed a special talent as
148
peacemakers, more deeply ingrained and more trustworthy than men’s. This idea seemed
to have evolved from the crafting of Newer Ideals and her active leadership in the Illinois
women’s campaign for suffrage in 1907.
Shortly after her return to Chicago from the Universal Peace Congress, Addams
reported to Ely on the progress of Newer Ideals. "The book is moving on slowly but after
all is in motion. I think it would be safe to announce it for the Spring. . . There certainly
is a renewed interest in the Peace Movement." However, spring arrived and turned to
summer with no appearance of the manuscript. Ely wrote to Addams on July 22, 1905,
that Macmillan expected to announce the book among its fall publications. Addams
answered that the deadline would be impossible. She explained that before Henry
Demarest Lloyd's widow died, she had promised her she would edit her husband's
unfinished manuscripts (the socialist leader had died in 1903) and she was occupied with
that project for the remainder of the sum m er.30
When Ely had still not received the Newer Ideals draft by November, he wrote to
Jane Addams and offered her $250 to give two lectures a week for the six weeks of the
University of Wisconsin's 1906 summer session. He asked her, "Why not come and
give us your lectures on "Newer Ideals of Peace"? and during the course of preparation for
the lectures get your book into final shape?" Although worried that she would not "have
enough material for twelve lectures in that subject," Addams accepted Ely’s "kind
invitation." On September 5,1906, one day before her forty-sixth birthday, Addams was
able to write to "My dear Dr. Ely," that she had arranged for the completed manuscript to
be hand delivered to him in Madison. She was not gleeful, "I'm am sorry that it isn't
better, but I do not believe that I will improve it by working on it any longer."31
The fundamental premise of Newer Ideals, which Macmillan brought out in
January, 1907, was that if immigrants in the poorer sections of a crowded, ethnically
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mixed city like Chicago could overcome their national differences and live together in
mutual aid, rather than antagonistic competition, nations could also resolve their
diffferences peacefully, rendering war obsolete. In her idealistic approach to harmonious
social relationships, Addams either ignored or denied the power of the Chicago police in
maintaining order in the often raucous ghetto neighborhoods. Her perspective seemed
overly hopeful, but it was in line with the optimism of other contemporary philosophers,
such as William James and John Dewey with whom Addams corresponded and worked.
Like most progressives, they all shared in the belief that the world was moving toward a
more humanitarian o u t l o o k . 3 2
William James finally published his work on "A Moral Substitute for War" three
years after Newer Ideals came out He theorized that although belligerence was at the root
of human nature, people could sublimate their bellicosity and find a more positive outlet
for their energies which would serve as an "equivalent" for war. He declared, "The
martial type of character can be bred without w ar... The only thing needed henceforward
is to inflame the civic temper as past history has inflamed the military temper." His
argument culminated in the leaflet, "The Moral Equivalent of War", which the
Association for International Conciliation published in 1910. Although Addams quoted
James in Newer Ideals, she demonstrated more of a Darwinian influence when she
proffered a sociological-anthropological rationale for man- and womankind turning away
from w a r . 3 3
In Newer Ideals Addams developed a theory that the oldest of human traits was the
tribal feeding of the young, and this trait antedated by a million years man's propensity for
killing others of his own species. Addams believed that the basic instinct of nurturance,
more deeply ingrained in human nature than the war instinct, would outlast and supersede
belligerence. Grounding her ideas in what she experienced living at Hull-House among
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immigrants, she yoked nurturance to human solidarity and concluded that pacifism was the
way of the future:
Because of their difference in all external matters, in all non-essentials of

life, the people in a cosmopolitan city are forced to found their community
of interests upon the basic and essential likenesses of their common human
nature; for, after all, the things that make men alike are stronger and more
primitive than the things that separate th e m .3 4
Possibly Addams was not totally pleased with Newer Ideals because she knew her
evidence of human solidarity was weak in parts of the text. Her reasoning was
questionable when she wrote, for example, "It is possible that we shall be saved from
warfare by the ’fighting rabble' itself. . It is not that they are shouting for peace - on the
contrary, if they shout at all, they will continue to shout for war - but they are really
attaining cosmoplitan relations through daily experience. They will probably believe for a
long time that war is noble and necessary both to engender and cherish patriotism; and yet
all the time, below their shouting, they are living in the kingdom of human k i n d n e s s . " 3 5
She seemed to imply that although the immigrants in her neighborhood were saying one
thing, they were doing another - was Addams suggesting that she knew the hearts and
minds and actions of her neighbors better than they knew themselves?
On the whole, Newer Ideals had more to do with municipal problems, labor-
employer relations, industrial legislation and protection of poor children than it did with
international peace. One of the strongest chapters, "Utilization of Women in City
Government," (see chapter 1 of this dissertation) discussed the rightful place of women in
city management because the problems of the modem industrial city, sanitary food and
housing, children's health and education, juvenile crime, were traditionally within
women's domain. Addams asked why women should not have the right to vote, "as a
mere piece of governmental machinery without which they could not perform their
traditional functions?" America, she stated, was well beyond the feudal era when only
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men - the gender charged with protecting the city and carrying weapons for that purpose -
had the right to vote. Women were as much the protectors of the city in the modem
industrial age as were men, and should therefore possess equivalent power to make
decisions regarding their family's well-being.36
On January 23, Florence Kelley wrote to Addams to let her colleague know that
she had read Newer Ideals "all day yesterday" while traveling by train to Augusta, Maine.
She commented, "It is noble and wise and parts of it are very beautiful." In February,
William James wrote to Addams on his return to Cambridge after a fortnight in New York.
While in New York, he told her, "I soothed myself by the perusal of your book. I find it
hard to express the good it has done me in opening new points of view and annihilating
old ones. New perspectives of hope! .. Yours is a deeply original mind, and all so quiet
and harmless! yet revolutionary in the extreme, and I should suspect that this very work
would act as a ferment thru (sic) long years to come." Assuming that she had sent copies
to H. G. Wells and (John?) Carpenter, he suggested that he mail the extra copy which
Macmillan had sent him to Bernard Shaw, "I het (again) that it will stimulate his genius in
the most extraordinary way." In a postscript, he added that, "B. S. is a fanatic moralist of
the new type, and will some day be cared for as s u c h . " 3 7
Newer Ideals did not do as well as Democracy, selling only 2,800 copies the first
year and 6,000 by the the outbreak of WW 1. Several critics, including University of
Chicago sociologist George Mead, found that the book lacked "logical organization." But
the importance of the book for Addams was that it enabled her to continue to develop her
ideas about peace work. She concluded Newer Ideals with a discussion of the prophet
Isaiah and his dictum that swords be beaten into plowshares: "It was if the ancient prophet
foresaw that under an enlightened industrialism peace would no longer be an absence of
war, but the unfolding of world-wide processes making for the nurture of human l i f e . " 3 8
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Addams had long contended that it was within women's sphere, indeed, primarily up to
women, to nurture human life and bring social and economic justice to the industrialized
city. Beginning in the spring of 1907, she also argued that women had a special role as
peace activists. No longer did women only have an obligation to improve city life for the
poor, now she urged women to see that that their traditional role as caretaker carried with it
responsibilty for engendering peaceful resolutions to conflict.
In preparation for the second Hague Conference, to be held in June, 1907, the first
National Arbitration and Peace Congress met in New York from April 14 to 17. The
formal sessions, including a separate one for women, were held in the elegant Carnegie
Hall. Those attending the Congress included U.S. senators and congressmen, cabinet
officers and supreme court judges, state govenors and chief justices, and thirty multi
millionaire businessmen. Andrew Carnegie presided over most of the proceedings which
culminated in two simultaneous and "magnificanf' banquets at the Astor and the Waldorf-
Astoria for the 1,500 official delegates. One journalist noted, "Every one of the nine
formal sessions of the congress not only packed the platform, parquet, and two tiers of
boxes of Carnegie Hall, but even the two spacious upper g a lle rie s." 39
While in New York for the congress, Jane Addams stayed with Lillian Wald at the
Henry Street settlement She was one of the few women to address the congress at one of
the main sessions and to her audience of both men and women she spoke on "The New
Internationalism," recapitulating her belief that the cosmopolitan internationalism of city
immigrants presaged larger co-operation between nations. The one formal session of the
congress for women, held on Tuesday morning, the 16th, was entitled, "The Relation of
Women to the Peace Movement." It was followed by a conference the next day at the
Broadway Tabernacle organized by the women's committee of the congress. The
Brooklyn Citizen noted on the 16th, "The dove of peace is resting more quietly to-day at
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Carnegie Hall, for women gathered to declare their views before the National Arbitration
and Peace Conference." More than 4,000 women filled Carnegie Hall to hear Lucia Ames
Mead report on "The History of the Peace Movement," Ellen M. Henrotin (former
president of the GFWC) discuss "Home vs. War," Mary E. Wooley (President of Mt.
Holyoke) speak about "Educational Aspects of the Peace Propaganda,"and Jane Addams
give her address on "New Ideals of Peace."40
Although the title of Addams' speech was the same as those she had been giving for
the past five years, her message was different - it was geared specifically to women as
activists for peace. As the U.S. was not actively involved in a war, peace for Addams
involved working for domestic justice. She theorized that hundreds of years ago, while
men defended cities by forming armies and using weapons, women were left to raise their
young at home. Whereas women learned endurance and patience in their nurturing,
caretaking tasks, men were trained in sudden and heroic action, inciting each other to
battle. Today, Addams told her audience, there was no need for men to bear arms to
protect their cities from intruders. Given the problems engendered by the industrial
modem cities - the need for better housing, health care and education, and relief from poor
sanitation - women, through their philanthropic and humanitarian training, were better
equipped than men, who knew more about competition than caretaking, to maintain peace
and justice in American cities. Women, Addams argued, did not possess the fighting
instinct which was bred in men. Consequently, women could bring a new moral force to
peace work. She concluded her remarks by asking her audience,
Cannot we predict that women’s traditional work will go forward worthy of
its domestic beginnings, that the wolfish eagerness of the chase and of the
battlefield shall be mitigated by the defence of the weak and the education
ofthe young?41
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Reproduced with permission o fth e copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
In 1909, Jane Addams was one of the primary organizers of the second National
Peace Congress, which took place in Chicago from May 3rd to 5th. A vice-president of
the congress, Addams made arrangements for speakers, procured funding, and presided
over sessions. Newpapers touted the conference, with its attendence of 4 0 , 0 0 0 (which
included ambassadors from China, Turkey, Sweden, Great Britain, Japan and Germany),
as "the largest gathering in history in the interests of universal peace." Separate sessions
were held for women, businessmen and those most concerned with the legal aspects of
international arbitration. An affair of the establishment, Secretary of War Jacob M.
Dickinson served as its president and Secretary of the Treasury Franklin Macveagh as a
vice-president. Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger read a letter from President Taft
which expressed the president's regret at not being able to attend the congress, but offered
assurance of his dedication to world p e a c e . 4 2
Jane Addams changed the title of her speech before the women's session from
"New Ideals of Peace" to "Woman's Special Training for Peacemaking." Having finally
found her voice in the peace movement, she was very direct in her approach: "Perhaps
there are some special things which might be said to an audience of women that would not
be so applicable to an audience of men." Reiterating her contention that women had not
been trained to work together in "phalanxes" and "regiments," she called the women in
front of her a "special generation" which possessed the ability and was learning how to act
togetherin large organizations. For the first time in a speech to a women's peace group
she alluded, with a trace of anger in her words, to women not having the power of the
vote. Instead, she suggested they possessed a greater power - that of women’s
organization:
It is said that one of the charms of political life - of course we will have to
speak of that entirely by hearsay; we cannot even have any reminiscences in
our blood, I suppose, of that - is the fighting element that still remains; the
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consciousness that you are one of a large body of men going out to battle
against your enemy of the other party. If we lack all of that training and
have now come into this new movement with the power of acting together,
we ought to bring a distinct factor into the peace of the world. . to make it
clear that bodies of people can act together without this . . spirit of
competition . . It seems to me we are, as women's organizations, bringing
into. . those things which make for progress, a new combination which ..
will make for peace as perhaps no organizations have ever done before.^
In 1909, Addams also helped establish, with several other eminent Chicagoans the
Chicago Peace Society (CPS), the first major peace organization founded west of the
movement's traditional base in the northeastern United States. When the society
reorganized in 1910, she became a vice-president, sharing that title with Ellen Henrotin,
Ella Flagg Young, Graham Taylor, Rabbi Emil Hirsh and Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones.
George E. Roberts, president of the Commercial National Bank was elected president of
the CPS and Charles Beals, Field Secretary for the APS, was elected secretary of the new
branch. In January, 1911, Addams added her name to those of novelist William Dean
Howells, former secretary of state Richard Olney (who served in the Grover Cleveland
administration), and Standford Univeristy's president David Starr Jordan in what the New
York Herald called a "formidable array of signers" to a polemic protesting the fortification
of the Panama C anal.^
On the evening of May 19,1912, Jane Addams addressed an overflow audience of
the Sunday Evening Club in Chicago's Orchestra Hall, again speaking on "The Newer
Aspects of the Peace Movement." But as touched on in chapter 2, when Addams became
the leading spokeswoman for Theodore Roosevelt's Progressive Party in August - the
party's platform containing a plank to build two battleships a year and Roosevelt's
reputation being that of a militarist - many of Addams' colleagues in the peace movement
felt she had abandoned her principles. She retorted that Roosevelt's program of industrial
amelioration would save more lives in the immediate future than warfare would cost, but
her critics were not mollified. Baroness Von Suttner bristly critized Addams in a letter
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she had published in leading newspapers across the country. The Baroness noted in her
letter that not only did Roosevelt openly oppose the reinstatement of arbitration treaties
between the U.S. and France and England, but that the platform also supported the
fortification of the Panama Canal. Alluding to Addams' past opposition to the
militarization of the canal, she pointedly addressed her peace colleague, "I wish you
would kindly give me an explanation of what seems.. a distressing contradiction, and..
dispel the grief and apprehension . . to see the woman's suffrage movement. . pledge
itself to the old policy of a r m a m e n t." ^ For Addams and most of the suffragists who
believed in the power of mainstream party politics, there was no choice: neither the
Republican nor Democratic Parties would support a suffrage plank in 1912, the
Progressive Party did.
Other peace activists questioned Addams more quietly, in personal letters. Charles
Beals, believing von Suttner was mistaken to publish her letter - that she was in fact
"coached" by "a mischievous newspaper and unwise counsellors" to do so - still felt

"quite bewildered that the Big Sister has swallowed Bull-Moosism or been swallowed by
it - 1 don't know which. Perhaps in time I may get to your view-point, even as you helped
me to do on the question of woman suffrage." •Jenkin Lloyd Jones wrote a four page
typed letter to Addams about both the racism and militarism of the Progressive Party, "I
am more distressed over the militarism of the platform and the Man. .. Roosevelt is the
arch champion. . of that obsolete and unprophetic contention that 'armament contributes
to the pacification of the w orld.'. . It was Roosevelt that so cheapened the Presidential
office by filling boyish hearts with a love of the gun.. I may be wrong about my estimate
of this forceful man. I hope I a m . " 4 6
David Starr Jordan, having taken on the directorship of the World Peace
Foundation as well as the presidency of Stanford, was one movement member who wrote
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to Addams with greater acceptance, "I can easily understand how one might put up with
the boisterous Mr. Roosevelt. . for the sake of Industrial Justice and other fine things
promised in the Progressive platform. . We shall count you as one of us just the same .
,,4 7
Indeed, as soon as the election was over, Addams repaired to her work as a peace
advocate. Re-elected to the executive committee of the CPS, she was instrumental in
January, 1913, to its passing a resolution calling for international arbitration regarding
Panama Canal toll arrangements and urging that there be no establishment of a "council of
national defense," as proposed by the Navy League. Having also received Lucia Mead’s
circular letter to the members of NAWSA and the NCW on the dangers of the Militia Pay
Bill before Congress - the bill called for the nationalization of state militias and a
consequently larger, more expensive army - Addams also influenced the CPS to express
opposition to the bill as "dangerous, pernicious and u n - A m e r i c a n . " 4 8
In the spring of 1913, Addams traveled with Mary Smith to Egypt for a vacation.
They stayed abroad through June when they went to Budapest to attend the Seventh
Congress of the International Woman’s Suffrage Alliance (IWSA). Addams' contact
person at the congress was a passionate Hungarian activist and journalist, Rosika
Schwimmer, who had worked closely with Carrie Chapman Catt, after the two had met at
the 1904 inaugural meeting of the IWSA (Catt was elected president of the IWSA at that
first meeting). Schwimmer, a former social worker, organized the 1913 congress in
Budapest. An ardent pacifist, she also helped found the Hungarian feminist and pacifist
society, Feminist&k Egyesiilete. Louis Lochner, a young journalist who served on the
executive committee of the CPS with Addams and came to know Schwimmer quite well
during the ill-fated Ford Peace Ship adventure of 1915-1916, described the fiery
Hungarian woman, "Eloquence, wit, savoir-faire, forcefulness, a keen sense of the
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dramatic, a genuine personal charm - all these qualities were at her command, to be used
whenever the exigencies of a given situation demanded th e m . " 4 9
During the first months of 1914, Jane Addams continued to speak optimistically
about the fruition of world peace and her vision of a world legislature. In April, when
Wilson suggested he might intervene militarily in Mexico due to an incident with Mexico's
General Huerta (whom Wilson considered anti-democratic and wanted to topple) women
activists in New York City, including Florence Kelley, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Mary
Beard and Fanny Garrison Villard (daughter of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and
married to Henry Villard, editor of The New York Evening P o st), hastily arranged a
meeting of 2 ,0 0 0 men and women at Cooper Hall to demonstrate opposition to any
government plans for intervention. Fanny Villard, speaking of Jane Addams as ’"the fair
flower of American womanhood' in anti-war sentiment" announced that Addams was
planning a similar meeting in Chicago. A few days after the New York rally, the Chicago
demonstration took place at the Central YMCA on South La Salle Street. William Calhoun,
former American ambassador to China, Jenkin Lloyd Jones and suffragist Catherine
Waugh McCulloch all addressed the meeting of 9 0 0 people, but Addams was the first to
take the floor, "I am as patriotic as anybody," she said, "but I don't want to see war in
this case. We are big enough to overlook insults to the flag . . . Real bravery consists in
standing for peace in time of w a r . " 5 0
When war broke out in Europe in August, Addams would much sooner than she
imagined have the opportunity to test her own words. Rosika Schwimmer was in London
over the summer, serving as press secretary for the ISWA and as a correspondent for
several European newspapers. At a breakfast with Lloyd George on July 9, Schwimmer
warned him that given the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarejevo,
"unless something were done immediately to satisfy and appease the resentment. . (it)
159
would certainly result in war with Serbia, with the incalculable consequence which such
an operation might precipitate in Europe."51
As soon as Germany invaded Belgium on August 4, followed six days later by

Austria-Hungary's invasion of Russia, Schwimmer began organzing European women in
a protest against the war and a call for immediate mediation by neutral countries to end the
fighting. The appeal for arbitration, which was addressed to Woodrow Wilson and signed
by a million women from the U.S. and thirteen European countries, including Great
Britain, Germany, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Sweden and Holland stated, in
part,
.. we urge the President of the United States to invite the neutral countries
of Europe to send envoys to meet the delegates he will appoint to carry the
message of our nation, and that these envoys shall unite in a demand upon
the nations now at war that they declare a cessation of hostilities until this
message shall have been delivered, being confident that this armistice would
be the first step toward permanent p e a c e . ^ 2
Schwimmer wrote to Addams on August 17 from London, "I leave this hell, called
Europe on the 25th Aug. when I sail on the "Arabic" White Star Line . . I go to see
President Wilson and Mr. Bryan on a peace-mission. I would like to communicate with
you in this matter and beg you therefore to write me c/o Mrs. Chapman-Catt.. I always
looked forward to come over to your states but I never dreamt that I will have to go under
such terrible circumstances, for we so called Alien Enemies are living here like gently
treated prisoners of war." Schwimmer arrived in the states on September 6, and in the
company of Carrie Chapman Catt, she met first with Secretary of State Biyan and then, on
September 18, with President Wilson. She told the New York Times that upon receiving
the appeal from the European women, Wilson told her that "he was thinking day and night
about the possibility of peace in Europe." She added, "He seemed to be deeply interested
160
in the movement and said that he would lose no opportunity of taking practical steps to end
the war." 53
When Schwimmer's letter to Addams arrived in Chicago at the end of August,

Addams was with Mary Smith at Hulls' Cove, their summer home near Bar Harbor,
Maine. Addams' secretary wrote to Schwimmer that she would hold the letter for Miss
Addams' return to Chicago in mid-September. In The Second Twenty Years at Hull-
House. Addams recalled that "it was hard to believe in August, 1914, that war had broken
out between Germany an France and later to receive the incredible news that England had
also declared war." She recorded her first "actual impression of the war" while up in
Maine that August:
.. a huge German liner, to our amazement, suddenly appeared at the bottom
of a hill on the Island of Mt. Desert upon which our cottage was built It
was an incredible sight - an ocean steamship in Frenchmen’s Bay, hard to
account for until we heard that she had been several days out from New
York when her captain heard that Germany had declared war and he was
afraid to proceed lest his cargo of gold bullion be captured. Among the
passengers was a yachtsman from Bar Harbor who volunteered to pilot the
boat into p o rt. . The huge boat in her incongruous setting was the first
fantastic impression of that strange summer when we were so incredibly
required to adjust our minds to a changed w o r l d . 5 4
By the time of the outbreak of World War 1 in Europe, several American women
were established as leaders in the public peace movement. These women were veteran
activists and well prepared to organize themselves into cadres to influence those in
political power to stop the war before it gained greater fury. The first action taken by
American women to protest the European war was The Women’s Peace Parade, held in
New York City on August 29,1914. Organized by Lillian Wald and Fanny Villard, the
parade was intended to be reminiscent of a funeral procession: 1,500 women dressed in
black marched to the sound of muffled drum beats as they slowly moved down Fifth
Avenue. Of the fourteen vice-presidents of the Parade Committee, only one was from an
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established peace society - all the others were leaders in the Women's Trade Union League
(WTUL), the settlement, suffrage and women's club movement. Fanny Villard,
discontented with the establishment male leadership of the New York Peace Society,
proclaimed, "this is a time for a new peace movement" Lillian Wald asserted that women,
the industrial sex, were different from men, the military sex: whereas men saw glamour in
war, women could see "only the realities of brute force." Careful that the parade be
viewed as a "feminine achievement," the Committee decided that "The idea was originated
by women .. and if it appears the men wish to make a protest they will have to organize a
parade of their own." President Wilson endorsed the parade on the provision that it
adhere to neutrality. The New York Times, expressing the opinion that the women were
"entitled to make their will known" reported that there was evidence of a "definite
determination on the part of a considerable number of women to exert a practical influence
on a field of public action from which in the past they have been almost wholly
withdrawn."55
Jane Addams did not participate in the parade, but her Chicago colleague, Margaret
Dreier Robins, marched in New York and when Robins returned to Chicago at the end of
the month, she announced that the leading women of Chicago, including Jane Addams,
were planning a similar march to be held in the loop of the Windy City. Her
announcement, however, was premature. At this point Jane Addams was not ready for
action by women alone and she held doubts about Schwimmer's plans. No women's
peace march was forthcoming for the Chicago area, although a mass peace rally for both
men and women took place on Sunday, October 4, in which Jane Addams did
participate.^
On September 11, Paul Kellogg wrote to Jane Addams in Hull’s Cove:
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My feeling is that while the extremely negative attitude taken by the
administration at Washington is probably right for a neutral government, so
much is at stake in this European conflict. . that our people ought to
express themselves . . in some great affirmative way . .Why could not a
gathering of the first men and women of the United States. . make known
that the New World had a message . . which could breathe the spirit of
democracy . . Could not those who deal with the social fabric in their
everyday work take the step which would lead to a crystallization of
sentiment? And who is there, so well as you, who could get the project
going?
Kellogg, who was in New York preparing the next issue of The Survey, offered to
come up to Boston to further discuss the idea with Addams. He also included the names
of men and women whom he felt would contribute the most to formulating such a
message.57
Jane Addams wrote to Kellogg on September 15, explaining that she had not
answered him sooner because she was attending her Aunt Jane’s funeral in Philadelphia
when his letter arrived. She told him that the "peace people" in Boston were "no nearer
nor yet so n ear. . a manifesto." She added a few names to Kellogg’s list of individuals
who should be invited to craft such a message, suggesting that a list of those invited
should be included in each invitation. She also enclosed the appeal Rosika Schwimmer
was circulating, commenting, "I have signed it reluctantly as a member of the National
Suffrage Board, simply because I don't like to damp(sic) any plan which is so
widespread, but it doesn't seem very fe a s ib le ." ^
In a letter which crossed Addams', Kellogg suggested individuals in Boston whom
he thought she should contact about the meeting when she delivered a speech there under
the auspices of the Boston Equal Suffrage Association on September 17th. He believed
that they had time enough to announce the meeting for the 29th of the month, but felt the
invitation would bring out more individuals if it was signed by Jane Addams. He also
expressed the opinion that, "If Miss Wald is back in New York it would give it strength—
and distinction—to have the meeting at the Nurses’ Settlement." The invitations were
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issued within the next week to thirty-one distinquished Americans, including Emily
Greene Balch, Thomas Edison, Louis Brandeis, Rabbi Stephen Wise, Florence Kelley,
William Dean Howells and Julia Lathrop. Signed by Lillian Wald, the invitation began,
"Miss Jane Addams joins me in asking you to be one of a small group of people to come.
. for a round table conference on the w ar," and concluded that the discussion was meant
to be "a means by which, in humbleness and quiet, some of us who deal with the social
fabric may come together to clarify our minds, and, if it seems wise, to act in concert." At
a pre-organizing meeting in New York on September 24, Lillian Wald, Paul Kellogg,
Florence Kelley, Edward T. Devine and Judge Julian Mack decided that Jane Addams
should preside at the Henry Street meeting to be held on the 29th.58
Before going to New York, Jane Addams delivered a speech on "What Women's
Suffrage Can Do for World Peace" at Boston's Wilbur theatre to a crowd of 2,000.
Although the afternoon meeting was originally planned to address only women's suffrage,
it was extended to include a protest against the war, and the overflow audience
unanimously adopted by acclamation several peace resolutions, including one which
entreated "women everywhere to urge the substitution of peace and arbitration for war"
and men "to give to the mothers of the race a voice in public affairs, in order to hasten the
day when war shall be no more." Wearing a white silk dress and rising to a standing
ovation, Addams first noted the changes in women's power and visibility in Chicago
since women had gained suffrage there. She then moved onto the subject of war. She
endorsed Vice-President Thomas Marshall's proposal of a peace commission of three,
averring that one member should be a woman unless, she qualified, "it should appear that
a member of our sex would be objectionable to some of the belligerent countries, and so
prejudice the effectiveness of the committee's strivings." She continued:
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But that is hardly possible. The women of all the fighting countries, in
every walk of life, are doing all they can to end the reign of horror, and
surely every one of the countries recognizes die vital interest that woman,
who bears the heaviest of wars's burdens, has in measures to bring about
their cessation.. You will notice that in none of the warring countries does
women have any voice in the matters that have brought on the terrible
struggle.. . The great thing to do to perpetuate universal peace, after this
terrific catastrophe is over, is to work feverishly against huge armaments
and focus all our efforts on anti-war sentiment and propaganda . . and
nothing in this world can accomplish those things with such effectiveness.
.as Woman's Suffrage .59
Although aware that to many in society, women did not belong in the field of
international diplomacy, Addams insisted in this speech that they did. She also endorsed
what she saw as the inextricable link between peace and women's suffrage, the latter being
the primary route through which she believed women gained power in society. In the
evening of the 17th, Addams shared the platform with Lillian Wald and Hamilton Holt at a
peace meeting hosted by the Women's City Club. Again she spoke of women's special
sensitivity to war but added, "nothing before has ever seemed to me so much the
obligation of both men and women as to express our sense of shame, of blasphemy . .
when the papers are filled with the pages of war news, should we not make clear our
protest?" 60
Following her belief that men and women should work together to bring an end to
the European war, Addams chaired the meeting at the Henry Street Settlement on the 29th.
She worked with Kellogg, Wald and Balch over the following months to put together a
special issue of The Survey devoted to the group's vision for world peace, which was
published on March, 6, 1915. "Towards the Peace That Shall Last," the polemical
centerpiece of the issue, analyzed the citizen's right to protest and how war impeded social
progress. In the section composed by Addams, "What War Has Done And Is Doing," she
wrote, "War has brought low our preciousness o f human life . . It has benumbed our
growing sense of the nuture of life." Signed, in the end, by 18 prominent progressive
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reformers, the statement was idealistic and melodramatic in its wording - "(war) has
whetted a lust among neutral nations to profit by furnishing the means to prolong its
struggles . . It has blasted our new internationalism in the protection of working women
and children." In her 1922 memoir of the war years, Peace and Bread in Time of War.
Addams acknowledged, "Reading it now, it appears to be somewhat exaggerated in tone,
because we have perforce grown accustomed to a world of widespread war with its
inevitable consequences of divisions and animosities." In 1916, the Henry Street Group,
which spawned a couple of other anti-war committees, decided to call itself the American
Union Against Militarism (AUAM) and elected Lillian Wald as its first president Between
1915 and 1917, the AUAM received over $50,000 in contributions and had a mailing list
of 1,000 dues-paying members, 5,000 sponsors and volunteers, and 60,000 "friends."61
Although Addams had voiced doubts about Schwimmer's appeal from women,
Schwimmer and another European suffragist, Emmeline Pethick Lawrence, so galvinized
American women's anti-war sentiment during the fall of 1914 that Addams could no
longer deny women's escalating call for their own separate peace movement. While
Schwimmer was touring the Midwest in October to raise support for her appeal, Pethick
Lawrence arrived in New York, invited to the states by Alice Paul and Lucy Bums to help
them launch a new suffrage campaign. A British suffragist who had broken with
Emmeline Pankhurst over the use of violence in the suffrage struggle, Pethick Lawrence
and her husband, a settlement worker and scholar who had visited Hull-House in the
1890s and corresponded with Jane Addams since then, were active in the Union of
Democratic Control (UDC), an anti-militarist organization dedicated to making known
alternatives to Britain's war policy. Once she set foot on American soil, Pethick Lawrence
was as much interested in spreading the gospel of the UDC as she was in speaking about
suffrage. As she later wrote in her autobiography, her trip to the U.S. offered her "an
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opportunity for enlisting the support of the suffrage movement in the neutral country of
America for the idea of a world peace secured by negotiations, and therefore just to a l l ." 6 2
On the evening of October 3 0 , Pethick Lawrence brought her message to a mass
meeting of the Women's Political Union (WFU) at Carnegie Hall. She read a letter from
the novelist Olive Schreiner, which called upon American women to aid in founding an
"International Women's Peace Society" which would "overstep the miserable little bounds
of nationality and race which lie at the root of the world's evil and war today." She
declared that women like Jane Addams and Lillian Wald, "great guardian(s) of human life
. . (should) sit side by side with a man representative at the Hague." Similar to
Schwimmer, Pethick Lawrence insisted that the United States, as a neutral countiy, should
lead in mediation to end the European conflagration. Her address was persuasive enough
to draw $ 4 6 ,0 0 0 in contributions to the WPU that evening. After hearing the British
suffragist, Crystal Eastman founded the Woman's Peace Party of New York. She also
urged Pethick Lawrence to go see Addams in C h i c a g o .6 3
Jane Addams was aware of the impact the two European women were having on
the women's peace movement in the United States and by November 20, both Rosika
Schwimmer and Emmeline Pethick Lawrence were in Chicago, staying at Hull-House as
Jane Addams' guest. They lectured throughout the city, especially to women audiences
whom Pethick Lawrence told, "Humanity must get on top of the war field or the war field
will get on top of humanity. It is for the women of the world to demand a new peace such
as the world has never known before." Jane Addams was feeling pressured to organize a
national women's peace conference in Washington, but still felt ambivalent. On
November 3 0 , the day after a peace meeting of social workers at Hull-House elected her to
chair an all-women's delegation to the proposed Washington peace conference, Addams
wrote to a southern colleague in the suffrage movement, Madeline Breckinridge,
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There are so many demands in every possible direction for a Women's
Peace Meeting that I am inclined to see what I can do toward helping to call
such a meeting.. . Mrs. Pethick Lawrence, as well as Rosika Schwimmer,
have been staying at Hull-House for the last ten days; they are both, as you
know, quite keen that women should take a very definite part in the final
adjustment . . Personally, I should rather have a meeting of "social
workers" and others representing the new point of view —the saving of life
by all sorts of social devices, and have men as well as women invited.
Perhaps this is not mutually exclusive, however, and we can have the
women’s meeting the day following the others.64
Events moved swiftly in the formation of peace groups dedicated to resolving the
war. During the first week of December, Addams became chair of the Emergency Peace
Commitee (which later in the month adopted the name of the Emergency Federation of
Peace Forces (EFPF), Chicago Committee), a new organization of both men and women
which influenced by Pethick Lawrence and Schwimmer, sent President Wilson a
resolution that he initiate arbitration of the war by neutral countries. On December 8,
Addams wrote to both David Starr Jordan and Lillian Wald about planning a national peace
conference for January in Washington. She was still uncertain as to whether the
conference should include both men and women, or only women. To Jordan, she wrote
that she was receiving letters every day, urging that a conference be called, "Many of the
letters are from women but by no means all of them." She asked if he thought "gathering
together various groups of people interested in the peace movement" was a good idea. To
Wald she reported that many people who had heard Schwimmer and Pethick Lawrence,
including "numbers of women —are anxious to have a big meeting in Washington.. I am
very perplexed about it." She asked Wald to check with Paul Kellogg about the Henry
Street Group participating in the Washington conference and concluded, "I think that the
women’s organizations . .would . . send representatives if we were quite sure that we

knew what we wanted to do with them after we got them there!"65
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Carrie Chapman Catt wrote to Addams also in early December, encouraging her to
organize a national meeting composed of "women or women and men." On December 14,
Addams answered Catt that she "dread(ed) gathering women from all over the country
merely because they are eager for Peace. We would certainly confront a good deal of
emotionalism and I doubt the value of such a conference." She still believed that a meeting
of representatives from women's state suffrage associations and the state Federation of
Women's Clubs with social workers and economists would be preferable to a meeting of
women alone. Despite all of her rhetoric about women's abilities, she still harbored
personal doubts about women's competence in organizing for peace. Having worked in
the older, established peace and reform societies with men, she was not ready to forego
those ties.66
The issue of gender, and women working separately from men, dogged Jane
Addams as she carried out her role as leader of a peace movement that included both her
men and women colleagues. During the last two weeks of December, Addams came
under growing pressure from her women friends in the suffrage and peace movement to
lead a women's peace movement On December 16, Catt wrote to Addams, broaching the
idea of an all-women's peace conference, "If I have received the right impression from
Mrs. (Anna Garlin) Spencer, the present management of the peace movement in this
country is over-masculinized . . (they have) as little use for women and their points of
view, as have the militarists . . I think it would be an excellent idea to have the next
demonstration by women alone.. You are the one woman in the nation who ought to call
such demonstrations.’’^?
Lillian Wald was one friend who had doubts about any peace meeting in
Washington. She wrote to Addams on December 17, "Dear Lady,. . All of us are very
skeptical about that Washington meeting. It would seem to me that it would be nagging the
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President to do something, when there is nothing he can do." Now convinced that women
were more anxious then men to hold a national peace conference, Addams responded on
December 21 to Wald that her Peace Committee in Chicago was being "pressed by women
all over the country" to join in a peace meeting in Washington on January 10. She noted
that "the desire of the women to meet is the result of the stirring lectures given by Mrs.
Pethick Lawrence and Madame Schwimmer." Addams also wrote to Lucia Mead and
Carrie Catt To Mead, who was very active in the establishment APS with her husband
Edwin, Addams chose her words carefully, "I believe generally in working through
accredited organizations and do not care much for a separate women's movement, but in
this case the demand has been so overwhelming and spontaneous over the country it
seemed to me best to take it up." To Catt, she wrote," I quite agree with you as to the
masculine management of the existing Peace Societies. I have been identified with them
for years, and while I believe that men and women work best together on these public
measures, there is no doubt that at this crisis the women are most eager for a c t i o n ." 6 8
Although Addams was going ahead with the January 10 Washington meeting,
Wald wrote to her on Christmas Eve that she was still not "fascinated" by the idea of the
meeting, explaining, "What I have laid stress upon is that the opposition to the agitation
for increased armament is a man's affair. I have no objection to women's making it their
affair, too, but I would not like to fix in the public mind that it is not a man's affair."
Although Addams usually addressed Wald in her letters as "Dear Lady," she more curtly
responded on December 27 to "My Dear Miss Wald . . There is no doubt that the
Woman's Peace Meeting on January 10th will be held in Washington and on the whole it
seems to me better that it should go through. The response is very generous and I am
quite encouraged about i t Do Come on for it. You are a pioneer as you know and must
live up to the p a r a d e . " 6 9 Addams ambivalence toward establishing a separate women's
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peace movement, in itself, demonstrated that the inherited tradition of separate spheres still
influenced her thinking and actions. But despite her misgivings about an all-women's
peace movement, she assumed as she had always done before, a position of leadership
among women. Lillian Wald, however, did not and instead chose to continue her work in
the Henry Street Group.
Invitations to the Washington meeting were issued by Catt and Addams the last
week of December to national associations of women with standing peace committees and
to the established peace societies. Addams' greatest fear was that women's peace groups
which did not favor suffrage would not attend. Consequently, suffrage was not mentioned
in the "call" to the meeting. Another potential problem about which Addams was
concerned was that the Congressional Union (CU), the American suffrage group based in
Washington and led by Alice Paul and Lucy Bums, which had split from NAWSA in a
disagreement over tactics, would try to take over the meeting. Both Catt and Schwimmer
warned Addams that because of their ties with NAWSA they would not participate in a
meeting with the CU. To deal with this "vexed situation" Addams arranged for a special
meeting , preliminary to the one on January 10th, at which peace was made between the
competing suffrage organizations. It can be noted that although eight of the established
peace societies sent representatives to the January meeting, the Church Peace Union
responded that it had no women on its board of trustees who could represent the
organization, and the CEIP said it did not appoint representatives to attend meetings.
Samual Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), wrote to Addams
on January 9 that the propositions contained in the call (which included Schwimmer’s plan
for a negotiated peace) were "so totally out of harmony" with the AFL's declaration on
war and peace, that it was not permissible to send a d e l e g a t e . ^
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Although Addams wrote to Catt that she was undertaking the women's peace
meeting "with a certain sinking of the heart, knowing how easy it is to get a large body of
women together and how difficult it is to take any wise action among many people who do
not know each other well," Jane Addams was an experienced and exceedingly competent
organizer. She arranged for a meeting at the New Williard Hotel (where the meeting on
the 10th was also to occur) on January 9th of a hand-picked platform committee which
prepared the next day's agenda and the resolutions to be presented for acceptance at the
meeting the next day. Those on the committee represented the cream of the women's
suffrage and peace organizations: Addams, Catt, Anna Garlin Spencer, Lucia Mead, Alice
Thatcher Post, a member of the Anti-Imperialist League and the APS and wife of Louis
Post, Wilson's Assistant Secretary of Labor, and Fannie Fern Andrews, the founder and
secretary of the American School Peace League (ASPL), the only pre-war, establishment
peace society in which a woman played a leading role. Eighty-six delegates from the
major women's organizations attended the platform discussion and under the leadership of
the committee, they hammered out an eleven plank platform with a preamble written by
Anna Spencer. 71
The theme of the preamble, the platform and the speeches given at the conference,
which was attended by 3,000 women, was perforce the special necessity and obligation
of women's being involved in ending the war in Europe and securing a just peace for the
future. All that was spoken and adopted at the conference was undergirded by a sense of
international sisterhood, and women's demand for increased power in the world.
Spencer's preamble read, in part,
We, Women of the United States, assembled in behalf of World Peace,
grateful for the security of our own country, but sorrowing for the misery
of all involved in the present struggle among warring nations, do hereby
band ourselves together to demand that war be abolished... As women, we
feel a peculiar moral passion of revolt against both the cruelty and the waste
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of w ar.. As women, we are especially the custodian of the life of the ages.
. charged with the future of chidhood and die care of the helpless and the
unfortunate. . called upon to start each generation onward toward a better
humanity. . We demand that women be given a share in deciding between
war and peace in all courts of high debate - within the home, the school, the
church, the industrial order, and the state. So protesting, and so
demanding, we hereby form . .The Woman's Peace Party (WPP).72
The platform, unanimously accepted by the conference, called for a "convention of
neutral states in the interest of an early peace," limitations on and the nationalization of the
manufacture of armaments, peace education for the young, suffrage for women (for
"further humanizing of governments"), the removal of the economic causes of war, and a
government appointed commission of men and women "with an adequate appropriation to
promote international peace" (see Appendix 1). The conference adopted a four-part
(divided into 15 sub-categories) "Program for Constructive Peace," which detailed the
workings of a neutral conference and suggestions for an international league of nations.
As the WPP's first historian, Marie Degen noted in 1939, the organization was founded
because "women had both peculiar grounds of protest against war and peculiar social and
political limitations upon their struggle against w a r . " 7 4
Jane Addams1address to the conference reflected her belief that it was women's
obligation to overcome limitations placed on them by a male-dominated society and their
heritage to work for international peace and justice:
I do not assert that women are better than men - even in the heat of suffrage
debates I have never maintained that - but we would all admit that there are
things concerning which women are more sensitive than men . . the
protection. .nurture. . fulfillment.conservation (and) ascent of human life
. .If we admit this sensitiveness . .is stronger in women than in men
because women have been responsible for the care of the young and the
aged. .it is certainly true that this senstiveness developed in women, carries
with it an obligation . . Many of us believe that throughout this . .world .
.there are thousands of men and women who have become convinced that
the sacrifice of life in warfare is unnecessary and wasteful..It is possible
that if women in Europe - in the very countries which are now at war -
receive a message from the women of America solemnly protesting against
this sacrifice, that they may take courage to formulate their o w n . 7 5
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Jane Addams was elected Chair of the WPP and served on its Executive Council,
which included the secretary, Lucia Mead, the treasurer, Sophonsiba Breckinridge, and
four vice-presidents, Anna Spencer, Fanny Villard, Alice Post and Grace White. White
was the onlu CU member of the Council, but eventually the CU did take over the
legislative committee, based in Washington. There were also a propaganda committee,
headed by the women's trade union activist Elizabeth Glendower Evans of Boston, a
finance committee, chaired by the Wisconsin novelist, Zona Gale, and an experienced
journalist and editor, Katherine Leckie, whose services were accepted as the WPP national
publicity director. For Addams1convenience, national headquarters were located in
Chicago. Harriet Thomas was hired to be the Executive Secretary to administer the office,
which was at 116 S. Michigan Avenue, in quarters shared with the Chicago branch of the
APS and the Church Peace Union. State Chairs were appointed who, in turn, appointed
chairs of local congressional districts. There were two categories of membership: local
groups could be organized, paying $5.00 annual dues to the national office, or sustaining
members could join as individuals, paying annual dues of $1.00. To publicize its
program, the WPP sent out massive mailings and staged a road-company production of
Euripides' tragedy, The Troian Women, funded in part by the CEIP. Within a year the
WPP claimed 25,000 members throughout the United S t a t e s . ^
It should be noted that the WPP was primarily a white woman's organization. In
early February, at Addams' suggestion, Harriet Thomas took the liberty of adding the
name of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) to the list of organizations
interested in the WPP which went out with WPP publicity. At the time this occurred,
Thomas wrote to Maggie Murray Washington, president of the NACW and the wife of
Booker T. Washington, to tell her that she had included the NACW on the list of
sponsors, saying that "there is no time to communicate with you for the list must go to
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press today, but I am not afraid that in this great plan you would fail to concur, and I am
sure of your executive board. This is at Miss Addams' suggestion." The next month,
again without solicitation and again at Addams’ suggestion, a WPP assistant secretary
mailed Washington one hundred WPP buttons for use by NACW membersJ 7 There were
no other women's organizations treated in a similar way.
The WPP decision to include women's suffrage as one of its planks lost the
organization some members, but Jane Addams remained firm on the importance of
women’s suffrage as it related to the issue of peace. Addams answered one disgruntled
woman, "I am very sorry that the suffrage plank proved divisive.. but it was absolutely
fundamental to the undertaking. The whole platform looks toward the humanizing of the
conception of government" Only after an acrimonious debate did the Boston branch -
always the most conservative group within the organization - decide to retain the suffrage
plank for the sake of national unity. On February 14th, the Executive Council met in
Chicago and passed a resolution reaffirming the suffrage plank. In doing so, it pointed to
the clause in the WPP Preamble which welcomed membership to all in "substantial
sympathy" with the fundamental purpose of the organization, "to band . . together to
demand that war be abolished," whether or not they could accept in full the WPP's
complete statement of principles. Although Jane Addams remained committed to suffrage
as essential to the women's peace movement, the two American suffrage leaders who were
instrumental in organizing the WPP, Carrie Catt and Anna Howard Shaw, wrote to
Addams soon after the January meeting that they were too busy with their suffrage
committments to continue working for the WPP.78
Shortly after the outbreak of war in Europe, the German Union for Woman
Suffrage, the branch of the IWSA which was to have hosted the 1915 international ISA
biennial meeting in Berlin, withdrew its invitation. Dr. Aletta Jacobs, president of the
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Dutch suffrage society, and Chrystal Macmillan, a Scottish attorney and secretary of the
IWSA, wrote to suffrage leaders in Europe and the United States to determine if a meeting
in a neutral country would be possible. Lida Gustava Heymann, a German suffragist,
also issued a "Call to the Women of Europe" to meet to protest the war and an
Englishwoman, Emily Hobhouse, attracted worldwide attention when she issued a "Letter
of Christmas Greeting" to women in Germany and Austria79
Upon receiving Jacob's and Macmillian's letter, Catt, who was still president of
the IWSA, wrote to Jane Addams on January 16 that" The women of the neutral countries
could get together at this time, but I am doubtful whether it would result in good." She
explained that she had received bitter, hostile and irrational letters from women in
Germany and France causing her to feel "that the world has literally gone mad, and I don't
think we could get any International meeting with these warring people in attendance, It
would be too much like trying to organize a peace society in an insane asylum." Catt
polled sections of the IWSA about whether to hold a meeting, but only the Dutch section
responded favorably and therefore no formal IWSA meeting was forthcoming. Jacobs
and Macmillian, however, decided to call an informal meeting of women from the
Netherlands, Great Britain and Germany to be held in Amsterdam on February 12 and 13,
the purpose of which was to discuss issues of international peace and to protest the war.
Regarding this special unofficial meeting, Catt wrote to Addams that she had told Jacobs
she could neither attend nor condone the meeting, as it would then be "misunderstood and
believed by some to be 'official.'" Explaining that she had already mailed the WPP's
platform to the European women, she urged Addams, as chair of the WPP, to "send any
recommendations as to the policy which may occur to you." 80
Believing that an international gathering of women was impossible, Catt proposed
to Addams that they begin a correspondence with the auxilaries of the IWSA, the ICW and
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International WCTU, and that "as soon as the war is closed, and settlements are to be
arranged, an international conference of women shall be held . .to present resolutions,
appeals, or whatever may seem best . In agreement with Catt, Addams wrote to Kate
Waller Barrett, president of the NCW, and Anna A. Gordon, president of the WTCU,
asking them if they would serve on the "Co-operating Council" of the WPP and maintain
correspondence with their respective international organizations. Both agreed to do so. 81
Meanwhile, the women meeting in Amsterdam, led by Jacobs and Macmillan,
decided to hold an international meeting at the Hague in April to which they would invite
women from both neutral and belligerent countries to come together to discuss how a truce
in the present war could be attained. The invitation read, in part, "We feel strongly that at
a time, when there is so much hatred among nations, we, women, must show that we can
retain our solidarity and that we are able to maintain mutual friendship." On February 22,
as she was preparing to chair a large national meeting of the EFPF in Chicago, Addams
received Jacob's telegram inviting her and "your whole Peace Party" to join in the April
congress, asking her to cable the most convenient dates and size of the American
delegation. Although Addams had been ill, she cabled her acceptance, responding that the
end of April was the best time to hold the congress. She then spent the next three months
speaking for the WPP, the EFPF, and organizing a delegation to travel across the Atlantic
to the Hague come A p ril. 82
A couple of days before the opening of the EFPF conference in Chicago (the
conference was held on the 27th and 28th), Julia Grace Wales, a young and deeply
religious Shakespearian scholar who taught English at the University of Wisconsin, and
who had agonized over the destruction of the European war, wrote to Jane Addams about
a mediation plan she had conceived called "Continuous Mediation Without Armistice."
The plan, which had already received the endorsement of the Wisconsin State Legislature,
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would create a commission of international experts to meet and formulate, without
government sanction, proposals for ending the war. Having reviewed the plan earlier in
February, David Starr Jordan urged Wales to present it at the EFPF meeting. Shy and
modest, Wales did not attend the EFPF meeting, but wrote Addams to "beg of you who
have the ear of America to help m e.. to get it fullv to the attention of the thinking world."
Presented by John Aylward, a member of the Wisconsin Peace Society, the plan won
unanimous endorsement from the EFPF conference which resolved that it be shown to
Woodrow Wilson. Addams and Aylward, appointed to lead the delegation, telegraphed the
president on March 4th that they would like to meet with him to present Julia Wales' plan,
out "of kindly helpfulness, not of interference or criticism." The president, however,
wrote to Jane Addams on the 8th that he could not meet with them because he had so
many similar requests and "I should have to draw distinctions which would become
invidious . . unless I granted interviews to all who applied . ." He concluded that he
would, "with all my heart," welcome a memorandum from her on the subject.83
Addams did not send a memorandum to the president at that time but she did enlist
Wales as a delegate to the Hague conference to be held April 28 to May 1, so that the
young university instructor could present her plan to an international group of women. As
well as contacting other women colleagues in the peace, suffrage and settlement
movements about their coming to the Hague, she spent several weeks in March on the
East Coast, speaking before audiences to gain support for the WPP and the upcoming
international conference. In New York City, she spoke at the lovely, intimate Cort Theatre
where, as the New York Times reported, she said, "Women can meet more easily than
men without being charged with cowardice . . There has never been a greater chance for
women to work as now . . they have never been so well organized and never so vocal."
After speaking in New York, Addams traveled to Philadelphia to launch the Pennsylvania
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branch of the WPP. At the Academy of Music, she addressed a crowd of 3,000 women.
From Philadelphia, she moved onto Boston where she spoke to 500 WPP members
crowded into the ballroom of the Somerset Hotel. Announcing that the WPP was now
organized in fifteen states, with "beginnings" in ten others, she told her audience that
American women had an obligation to help their European sisters protest the war. She
concluded, "We want above all to maintain our neutrality, but their are two kinds of
neutrality, either to ignore the war or to protest, and it is especially fitting that women
should make that protest."84
Among those whom Addams talked into going to the Hague as delegates were Alice
Hamilton, Emily Greene Balch, Sophonsiba Breckinridge, Leonora O'Reilly, Alice
Thatcher Post, Rebecca Shelly, Fannie Fern Andrews and Grace Abbott. (Forty-six
American women represented the United States at the conference - see Appendix 2 for
profiles of the delegates). Lillian Wald was one colleague who refused to go, explaining
that while she found it "extremely difficult to come to a decision. .(and). the response on
the part of women in this country is dramatic and has great publicity value. . My leaving
America at this time . .would seriously affect responsibilities which I have assumed."
Neither a second letter from Addams nor a hand-written entreaty from Mary Smith, which
told Wald how "very valuable" her attendance would be could change Wald's mind.85
Addams, who was asked to preside at the Hague conference when Catt declined to
attend, had her own doubts about the Hague meeting which were exacerbated by the death
in March of her sister, Alice, to whom she was very close. She wrote to Wald on March
26th:
Dear Lady:- I am awfully sorry that you have decided not to go to the
H ague.. .The undertaking, of course, offers many possiblities of failure;
indeed, it may even do much harm. The whole enterprise has about it a
certain aspect of moral adventure but it seems to me to be genuine. I think,
too, that women who are willing to fail may be able to break through that
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curious hypnotic spell which makes it impossible for any of the nations to
consider peace. It would be a great thing for us if you could go! . . I
returned from our old home in Cedarville on Tuesday and find it difficult to
bring my mind out of the long past and my childhood.
Addams also wrote to Balch, a professor of economics and sociology at Wellesley,
on the 26th, explaining that she had been out of town for several days owing to her
sister's illness and death. Hoping that Balch, who had at first said she would not go to
Holland, would change her mind, Addams wrote, "Our chance of success depends largely
upon the personel of the women to g o . . Don't you think that there is a certain obligation
on the women who have had the advantages of study and training, to take this possible
chance to help out? I don’t want to be too insistent but won't you please consider it
again?" On April 6th, Balch wired Addams that she would definitely join the American
delegation sailing for Europe on the Noordam, of the Holland-America Line, from New
York on April 13th. 86
Less than a week from sailing, Addams was still uneasy, wrting to David Starr
Jordan that they were off on "a fools' errand, perhaps!" He quickly wrote to reassure
her that "It cannot be 'a fool's (sic) errand'; it must result in great good, and I can see no
movement so hopeful." She wrote to Wald that she had been encouraged at a farewell
dinner in Chicago by the confidence of Hamilton Holt, Professor Mead and many others,
though she admitted, "no one can predict (the results) —it is literally 'on the lap of the
Gods.'" Her spirits may also have been dampened by an altercation which was made
public only three days before sailing. Although in March Addams had branded Theodore
Roosevelt for his American Legion plan, Roosevelt now turned on the WPP and the
international congress of women. The New York American announced on April 10th that
T.R. had written a letter (which Addams had seen but the WPP office would not make
public) denouncing Addams and her colleagues as a "menace to the future welfare of the
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United States." Printed in its entirety in the Chicago Evening Journal three days after the
Noordam left port, the letter called the women and their platform "silly and b a s e . " 8 7
While Lucia Ames Mead remained in America and answered in a letter published in
newspapers across the country Roosevelt’s attack on the WPP, the women's delegation to
the Hague conference sailed through rough Atlantic seas for Europe. They carried with
them letters of introduction from Secretary of State Bryan and Assistant Secretary of War,
Henry Breckinridge. Louis Lochner, now the secretary of the EFPF, and Emmeline
Pethick Lawrence, also traveled with the delegation. The Boston Congregationalist
commented on the mission,
Women are rapidly enlarging the sphere of their work and influence beyond
the traditional limited but hallowed circle of home life that has been and
always will be their special responsiblity. It is inevitable in the progress of
humanity that women will more and more have a part in the great world of
public affairs, that they may safeguard the home. Women want peace
because homes and loved ones can never be safe in war. Women have a
right to be heard on the subject of peace, and men need their help to
establish it permanently.^^
Not all papers praised the peace voyage. The pro-British, anti-suffrage New York
Times cynically remarked, "The insistence of the delegates on carrying out their mad plan
is sure to have on the women suffrage cause a considerable effect - an effect to be viewed
with sorrow or rejoicing, according to whether the observer favors the extension of the
suffrage privilege or opposes it." With more compelling concerns on her mind than the
Times opinion of the conference, Jane Addams told a New York Evening Globe reporter
on the eve of the sailing, "Women. . are, perhaps, not so afraid of being made ridiculous
as men, and that is one thing which gives a greater freedom in important moments, so they
do not draw back at the unlikelihood of accomplishing little at the moment." 89
On the journey itself, the women came together mornings, afternoons and evenings
to examine the resolutions to be offered at the conference, to hear lectures by Lochner and
181
the women delegates, and discuss among themselves proposals such as Julia Grace
Wales' plan for "Continuous Mediation." On April 22, Addams wrote to Rozet, who
remained in Chicago, that she was "quite homesick" for her, but "It has really been very
nice and we have grown quite attached to our delegation." Alice Hamilton who, as both
friend and physician, seemed to view it as her role to look after Addams in Smith's
absence reported to Mary Smith a few days later that Addams was "clearly having a good
time. She has made every woman on board feel that she is an intimate friend and they all
adore her." Emily Balch recorded in her diary, "Miss Addams shines, so respectful of
everyone’s views, so eager to understand and sympathize, so patient of anarchy and even
ego, yet always there, strong, wise, and in the lead."90
Although the Noordam was to proceed directly to Rotterdam, the British
authorities, explaining that the admiralty would not allow any ships to travel to Holland,
intercepted and halted the Noordam just off Deal on the southeast coast of England. In
fact, the British allowed other ships on the Holland-America Line to proceed to Holland.
Knowing that they were expected in the Hague in only a few days for the opening of the
conference, Addams urgently telegraphed Walter Page, the American Ambassador to
England, that he must intercede on their behalf. He sent back word that he could do
nothing in the matter. Addams then wrote to Viscount James Bryce to ask for his help and
within a day the ship was allowed to leave for H o lla n d . 91
Upon arriving at the Hague on the afternoon of the 28th (the congress was to begin
at 8 pm), the American delegation learned that the British government had also
successfully obstructed the British women's delegation. Although 180 British women
applied for passports, only 24 were granted, and most of those women waited in vain for
their anticipated transportation to Holland. Only Kathleen Courtney and Chrystal
Macmillan, who had gone to the Hague a week early to attend the Resolutions Committee
182
meeting, and Pethick Lawrence, who had traveled with the American women, represented
Great Britain at the congress. In all, 1,136 delegates attended the congress, five from
Belgium, forty-six from the U.S., one from Canada, three from England, twenty-eight
from Germany, approximately one thousand from the Netherlands, nine from Hungary,
six from Austria, one from Italy, six from Denmark, twelve from Sweden, and twelve
from Norway: women from twelve neutral and belligerent countries who represented over
one hundred fifty women's organizations. No women attended from France or Russia, but
of those who did attend, the saga of the five Belgium delegates offered insight into the
perseverence of the women who made it to the congress. The Belgium women, wanting
to insure that the congress would not call for an armistice unjust to their devasted country,
cajoled the Germans into giving them permission to attend the congress. The five women
started out from their homeland by automobile. Upon reaching Esschen, they were
searched "to the skin," they then walked for two hours to Rosendahl, across the Dutch
border, and traveled the last leg to the Hague by train. Upon reaching the meeting the
second day it was in session, Germany's Dr. Anita Augsberg, whose country had invaded
and overrun Belgium, rose to welcome the Belgium women and offered them a seat on the
platform. They received a standing o v a t i o n . 9 2 (see Illustration 7)
Jane Addams chaired the proceedings. At the opening session, the basis of
membership in the congress was made contingent on the acceptance of two resolutions:
first, that women be granted equal political rights with men and second, that future
international disputes be subject to conciliation and arbitration. Despite the need for
ongoing translations (into German, French and English) the congress, held in the
Direntuin, the largest hall in the Hague, ran smoothly until the fiery Rosika Schwimmer
asked that the women "call a thunderous halt tomorrow that shall overthrow the thunder
of the trenches." Eugene Hamer of Belgium pleaded for a peace, not to be arranged in
183
fcUuvr g»T) C - ^
73
bu R em bran dt P hoto C o ., T h e H a z u e , <
A M E R IC A N D EL E G A T E S A T H E A D Q U A R T E R S
F ifteen cam e from N ew Y ork; 14 from Illinois; 5 from M assa c h u se tts; 3 from
D istrict o f C o lu m b ia ; 2 from N ew Jersey; I each from O hio, O regon,
C alifornia, Iow a. P ennsylvania an d W isconsin. T eachers, artists, authors, a
m in ister, a b a n k er, social w orkers, law yers, rep resen tativ es of suffrage
associations, w om en s clubs an d tra d e unions w ere am ong the delegates.
M any re p re se n te d p e a c e societies. O ne w as a Friend.
J civte. Ir
■fvrvet- , S* C*+A ^v»w\a.
WOMEN
AT T H E
HAGUE
!•
ROSEKA SC H W IM M ER OF
HUNGARY
Madame Schwimmer had been
in the United States since early
in the war. She made a pas
sionate appeal {or peace.
AMERICAN DELEGATES W AITING FOR BRITISH

“ CLEARANC* PA PERS" TO CROSS T H E
NORTH SEA.
ANNA KLEMAN
(Sweden)
EM ELY ARENSEN
(Norway)
COURTNEY
( E n g la n d )
KATHLEEN
CHRYSTAL MACMILLAN
(England)
haste, but based on justice "which would return to Belgium her liberty, independence,
richness and prosperity." The congress consequently resolved "that the peace which
follows shall be permanent and therefore based on principles of justice." Endorsing
Wales' plan for mediation, the congress called for immediate steps to create a conference
of neutrals to offer continuous mediation of the war. The congress also adopted
resolutions calling for the establishment of a permanent international court, no transfer of
territority without consent of the people, democratic control of foreign policy, freedom of
the seas and general disarmament (see Appendix 3 for the entire list of adopted
resolutions). The Congress established the International Committee of Women for
Permament Peace (ICWPP) in order to maintain an organization throughout the war and
declared "it to be essential, both nationally and internationally, to put into practice the
principle that women share all civil and political rights and responsibilities on the same
terms of men." Branches from any nation could join the ICWPP as long as they endorsed
the resolutions adopted by the c o n g r e s s . 93
Jane Addams’ Presidential Address, delivered the final night of the congress,
lauded all of the participants for their "act of heroism" and "spiritual internationalism" in
coming to the congress. Aware that much of the world believed in the war and many had
denigrated the women's attempt at a peace initiative, Addams noted, "Even to appear to
differ from those she loves in the hour of their affliction or exaltation has ever been the
supreme test of woman's conscience." Addams told a young woman reporter from The
Survey who had accompanied the delegation to the Hague, "The great achievement of this
congress is . . the getting together of these women from all parts of Europe when their
men-folks are shooting each other from opposite trenches." Despite her assertions, the
New York Herald called the conference "a silly proceeding," the Pittsburg Gazette-
Times, "a disappointing failure," and the Detroit Free Press derided it as "the excursion of
186
innocents." On May 4, the New York Times carried a dispatch on the congress by
Addams in which she stated that the meeting ended without "serious disagreement or
ruction." But the preceding day, in an editorial, the Times, with no evidence to the
contrary, called Addams a liar for saying that there had been, in their words, "perfect
harmony" at the congress. Addams, of course, had never said there was "perfect
harmony." For months to come, The Times continued to deprecate all of Addams'peace
efforts. One of the few American papers which credited the congress with any success
was the Chicago Herald which acknowledged, "As a historic incident it promises to be
memorable because it boldly proclaims a pioneering principle with a future, to wit, the
inherent antagonism to war of an entire s e x . " 9 4
One decision which the congress took - with deliberation - was to send delegations
to the heads of state of both warring and neutral countries to present the congress'
resolutions, particularly the plan for continuous mediation. Schwimmer proposed the idea
of delegations to the capitals, but the American women were reluctant to proceed with it,
believing that delivering the resolutions to foreign ambassadors at the Hague was
sufficient (a similar action had been taken in Washington pursuant to the January WPP
meeting). In caucus, the American delegation decided to oppose Schwimmer's plan, but
after an emotional plea by the Hungarian before the entire congress, in which she declared,
"let us, mothers, only try to do good by going to the kings and emperors, without any
other danger than a refusal!", Addams and the others reversed themselves and voted for
the proposal.95
The delegations consisted of Jane Addams, Aletta Jacobs, Alice Hamilton and Rosa
Genoni, who traveled to the war capitals, and Emily Greene Balch, Rosika Schwimmer,
Chrystal Macmillan and Cor Ramondt-Hirschmann, who met with government leaders
from the neutral countries ( the latter delegation was joined by Baroness Ellen Palmatema
187
in Petrograd and Stockholm). Dr. Jacobs and Addams also met with the Pope in Rome,
(see Appendix 4) On the eve of her first meeting, with Prime Minister Cort van der
Linden at the Hague, Addams wrote to Mary Smith, "I know that you won't care for this
tour of the governments - that you may even think it ’silly and base.' I don't believe that
any one could understand taking a desparate chance until she had been here." On May 9,
two days after a German U-2 boat had sunk the Lusitania, and four days before she was
to meet with the Foreign Minister of England, Sir Edward Grey, Addams wrote Smith,
"Dearest. . I know how wild this must sound in the U.S.A. - you can never understand
unless you were here, how you would be willing to do anything. . The whole experience
has been tremendous. I don't think that I have lost my head - there is just a chance in 10
thousand..." On May 13, Addams, Jacobs and Genoni were received by Grey and the
following day, they met with Prime Minister Asquith. On May 16, Addams reported to
Smith that they "had a most favorable reception" with both British leaders and that because
"some of the wisest men we met were in favor of the pilgramage. .1 am going ahead with
a better heart." She noted that" a curious feeling of fellowship comes over one in these
war times."96
During the remainder of May, Addams traveled with Hamilton and Jacobs to
Berlin, Budapest, Vienna and Berne. In Vienna, after Jane Addams told Prime Minister
von Stiirgkh that he must think it "very foolish that women should go about in this way,"
the Austrian statesman, according to Addams, banged his fist on the table and told them
regarding their plan for mediation, "These are the first sensible words that have been
uttered in this room for ten months." In June, Addams and Jacobs met with the foreign
and prime ministers of Italy, Belgium and France. In Paris, Addams told a reporter for the
New York Call that the proposals had been well received by all the governments except
those of France and Italy, who had just entered the war. During this time, Balch and her
188
delegation met with the foreign and prime ministers of Norway, Denmark, Sweden,
Russia and the Netherlands. She wrote long, detailed letters to Addams and Louis
Lochner as to their reception by the various ministers. At the request of Jane Addams,
Lochner wrote a four page typed letter to Woodrow Wilson, reporting on both his own
travels and those of the women's delegations in the European countries, pointing out that
there existed much more of a sentiment for peace in Europe than reported by the American
press.97
By June 18, Addams and Hamilton had returned to London. Although the original
plan of the delegations called for a follow-up meeting in Amsterdam, Addams was clearly
tired, and anxious to return home. Planning to depart for New York on June 26th, she
wrote to Mary Smith that she and Alice Hamilton were "both well considering all we have
seen," and that she would cable Lillian Wald as to their ship’s arrival time in New York.
Mary had written to Addams about the death of Ellen Starr's father and Addams sat down
immediately to write her old friend, " I have thought about you all day, and always with
affection and sympathy.. I am awfully sorry to be away so long a time . .at moments it
seems worthwhile and again it fades into nothing." On June 26th, aboard the U.S.M.S.
St. Louis, Addams wrote to both Balch and Schwimmer in Amsterdam, apologizing for
not meeting with them, but explaining that she and Hamilton had received two "very
exigent cables" in London requiring them to return home (If such cables existed, there are
no extant copies). To Schwimmer, in particular, Addams wrote that, "I think you have
been so fine," and hoped that her early return home would not be perceived as her
"deserting the cause." She told Schwimmer that it would be easier for her to return later in
the summer. Just before her departure, she received a letter from Edward Grey, now out
of power, asking not only that she inform him of her impressions of her discussions with
189
the statesmen of the other belligerent countries, but that it was important "they should be
known to the British g o v e r n m e n t . " ^
Although Grey may have been interested in what Addams thought, she was
returning to a United States which increasingly regarded her as unrealistic and unpatriotic.
On June 27th, The Detroit Free Press declared, "The time she has spent upon the continent
has been wasted." On June 25th, the New York Times opined in an editorial that Addams
trip was a "complete failure," and followed up on the 30th with, as the first missive in its
letter column, an attack on Addams. The author, a woman, announced, "For many of
us, for most, I think, Jane Addams has forever lost her shining prestige. We do not for
one instant question her sincerity, but we no longer believe in her judgment and we
distrust the character of her p a t r i o t i s m . " 9 9
When Jane Addams returned home in early July, she would, for the first time, find
herself on the defensive, in a position of ridicule because of what she believed very deeply
in her heart: the right of women to speak out for internationalism and against the
inhumanity of war.
190
W E , W O M E N O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S , assem bled in .behalf
o f W o rld P eace, g ra te fu l fo r the- security o f o u r o w n c o u n try , b u l so r
ro w in g fo r th e m isery of all involved in the p re se n t stru g g le amOngTvaii^
r i n g . n a tip n s, do h ereb y , b a n d o u rselves to g e th er to d e m a n d .th a t war.-?!
shoulcT be abolished. ' ; *
f E q u a lly w ith m en pacifists, we u n d e rsta n d th at p la n n e d -fo r, legalized,

w holesale, h u m a n sla u g h te r is today the sum o f all villainies. A s w om en, ■
-w e-feeH r-p ecu liar m o ra l p assio n o>f revolt against b o th th e crueltyNaiffrifiS"”
f r ......................................
w aste o f w ar. !
- A s w om en, we a re especially the custodians o f the life o f the agpd.
WlZc_wilLiiQt.lQii.geiL£OnsenL_tQ_i.ts_recklcss..d£struction._.
p a rtic u la rly ch arg ed w ith the fu tu re o f childhood and w ith th e c are o f
th e helpless an d the u n fo rtu n a te . W e will not longer accept w ith o u t p ro -
te st th a t ad d ed b u rd en of m aim ed and invalid men and p o v erty stricken
w idow s arid o rp h an s w hich w ar places upon us
A s w om en, we have builded by the patient d ru d g e ry o f th e past th e
basic fo u n d a tio n of th e hom e and of peaceful in d u stry . W e will not
lo n g er en d u re w ith o u t a pro test which m ust he h e ard a n d heeded by
m en th a t h o a ry evil w hich in an h o u r destroys the social stru c tu re
th a t ce n tu rie s o f toil have rea re d _____
A s w om en, w e a re called upon to sta rt each g e n e ratio n o n w a rd
to w a rd a b e tte r h u m an ity . W e will not longer to lerate w ith o u t d ete r- ~
m ined o p position th a t denial of the sovereignty of reason an d ju sticg
by w hich w a r and a ll th a t m akes fo r w ar today-'Fsrrtler infp3teht"’tfie
idealism of the race.
T h e re fo re , as h u m an beings and the m other half of h u m a n ity , we
d e m a n d —th a t o u r rig h t to be co n sid ered in the se ttle m e n t af"\jae siso iK —
co n cern in g not alone th e life o f individuals but of n ations be rec o g n ised .—...
a n d resp ected . ' ■
We_ d em an d th a t w om en be giv en a sh a re asa d e c id in g bsewea&Twuv
a n d peace in all the courts- of high d e b a te ; w ithin the hom e, th e school,
th e ch u rch , the in d u strial o rd e r, and the State. ’
So p ro te stin g , an d so dem anding, we hereby form o u rselves in to a
n atio n al o rg an izatio n to be called the
W O M A N ’S PE A C E PA RTY
W e hereby adopt the follow ing as o u r p la tfo rm o f p rinciples, som e

o f th e item s o f w hich have been accepted by a m ajo rity vote, a n d m o re
o f w h ich h av e been the u n anim ous choice or’ those a tte n d in g th e
c o n fe re n ce w hich in itiated the fo rm atio n o f this o rg an iza tio n . vVc
- h a v e sunk all d ifferen ces o f opinion on m in o r m a tte rs an d given fre ed o m r.
o f ex p ressio n to a w ide divergence o f opinion in th e d etails off OHS’
p la tfo rm a n d in o u r statem en t of explanation a n d in fo rm a tio n an .£i
com m on d esire to m ak e o ut- w om an’s p ro te st a g a in st w a r a n d a ll fel'S
m ak es fo r w a r vocal, co m m anding and effective. W e w elcom e Ip Otar
m em b ersh ip all w ho a re in su b stantial sym pathy w ith th a t fu n d a m e n ta l
p u rp o se o f o u r o rg a n iz atio n w h eth er o r not they can accept in fu ll ©wr
d e ta ile d sta te m e n t o f p rin cip les. , ”■
permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

W
HLVA'f*
>» <>., ..L.kn^.vt^.
S'if.Ji i'V
PLA TFORM a -- -
T H E P U R P O S E o f this Organization is to enlist all American

"’^ ^ * =J^ o m eh in .arousing the nations to respect "the sacredness o f human life
and to abolish war. T he following fs adopted as our platform
!’ l ’ T h e immediate calling o f a convention o f neutral nations in
i&reet-o-f-early p eaces • — — -
2 . "Limitation o f armaments and the nationalization of their manu
facture." ..........
.. -G .^ -O rgan ized opposition to militarism in our own country. ■
4rri2ducation-of-youth in the_idcals_Qi_pgace.----------------------
- 5. D em o cratic c o n tro l o f foreign policies.
6 . 'T h e f u rth e r'h u m a n iz in g o f governm ents. ,by_ the ex ten sio n of' the: ^
- f r a n ch ise—tet-w om en
T7~ItC o n cert o f N a tio n s” to supersede “ B alance .of P o w e r.”.
8. A ctio n to w a rd th e g ra d u a l o rg an iza tio n o f th e w o rld to. su b stitu te
L aw f o r W a r.
9. T h e su b stitu tio n of an in te rn atio n a l police for. rival arm ies and
navies.
nt 10. R em oval o f th e econom ic causes o f w ar.
■ 11. T h e a p p o in tm e n t by o u r G o v ern m en t of a com m ission o f m en and
w om en, w ith an ad eq u a te ap p ro p riatio n , to p ro m o te in te rn a tio n a l peace.
The Conference Further Adopted the Following Resolution:

- Resolved:.
T h a i w e denounce w ith all the earnestness o f w hich %gte..ar§.
capable the concerted attem pt now being m ade to force this country
— ’h vtorstiiTfwrjtker--prepared'/iess-for-war.— W-s-desire.. to..mak.e.a
appeal to the higher attributes o f our com m on hum anity to kelp
us unm ask this menace to our civilisation.
OFFICERS
Chairman,
Jane Addams, Hull House, Chicago."
H on orary Chairman,
C a r r ie C hapm an C att.
I/ice Chairmen,
1
■■
A n n a G a r u n S pen cer , M eadville, Pa.
M rs. H en r y D . V il l a r d , N ew York Ciiy.
M r s . L o u is F. P ost, "Washington, D . C.
M rs. J o h n J a y W h it e , W ashington, D. C.
Temporary Headquarters, H ull H ouse, Chicago
U ntil the appointment of a Treasurer, money may be sent to

• J u l ie t B ar rett R u ble e ,
1105 Sixteenth Street, W ashington, D. C.

it97L.
■JANE ADDAMS, M. A., LLi D., Hull House, Chicago, representing tho Woman’a JPsaeOy.
Party o f Ahlerica, the National American Woman's Suffrage A ssociation, assc! 6%
'C h icago Peace Society. Head rcsident-of Hull H o u se; president o f ShoWoiaaa'S ~
Peace Party; vice-president of the American Peace Society and o f tho Nat3oaa3
Peace Federation ; author of "Nower Ideals of Peace”, “Dem ocracy and Scdflil
E th ics”, “T he Spirit of Youth in the City Streets", etc. otc.
GRACE ABBOTT, Ph. M., Hull House, Chicago, representing^the ImmigrantaLJ?rotec4hjO—
X eaguo. Director of the Immigrants' Protective Leagufrp lecturer on Immhjratloa
at the University of Chicago ; former secretary
Commission on Im m igration; author, scries o f "Studies on immigrant Colonl30
in Chicago".
Mrs. FANNIE FERN ANDREW S, 405 Marlborough Street, Boston, secretary o f Iho Amoricata
Sahool Peace L eague; a director of the American Peace Society; TiCS'PICSidfiiSISAS'"’
lithe i "Maosachusetts - branch o f the W om an'tr Pcace^ârty;j^^^lK>ir-e.«|n*.*il»ri^
ii= J a tern a tio n a l-P ca ce Bureau," Berne'r'" Sw itzerland.' ~
EMILY GREENE BALCH, 11. A., 130 Prince 3trcet, Jamaica Plain, Mass., reprccontlag t&Q
W ellesley College branch of the Woman's Peace Party and the Woman'o Ttrscfc!
Union League of Boston. Professor of econom ics and sociology. W ellesley Collego 5
member of the Planning Board, City of Boston ; author, “Our Slavic. Fd2cc7_
Citizens".
Mrs, BINNS, Columbus, Ohio, representing the Ohio branch of the Woman's Pcaco Party;
lecturer for the National Socialist Party.
SQPH02IISBA P. BRECKINRIDGE, J. D., Ph. D., Green Hall, The University o f Chicago,
representing the University of Chicago branch o f the Woman’s Peace Pafftyo
Assistant professor ol social economy and assistant dean of women aS S^f3
University o f C hicago; dean of the Chicago School of Civica and Philanthropy";
Secretary of the Immigrants' Protective League ; treasurer of the Woman’s Peaco
Party o f America; author, "Legal Tender — a Study in American Monetary
______________H istory," etc. ------------------------- ----------------- -----------------
ALICE CARPENTER, care 14 Wall St., New-York City, representing the N en-Y ork braaGii
o f the Woman'o Peace Party and member of the governing boiard. Director o f
Woman's Department of William P. Barbright & Co., Inc. (Investments), New-Ycrik
C ity; member New-York City unemployment committee ; secretary Lenguo $08'
Businoss opportunities for Woman ; speaker for suffrage.
MARY L. CHAMBERLAIN, A. B., A. M., 387 Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn, New-York
representing the Committee on Organization of Department Store WoslXQtO 9?
New-York City. Member editorial staff, The Survey ; member New-York oraaGll
. o f the W oman’s Peace Party.
• Mrs, MARY REID CORY, Oradell, N ew-jersey, representing the N eu-Jersey branch o f Hilo
W om an’o Peace Party ; . Woman's Club o f Hockcncack, N. j . (unofficial). Proaiotea®
Nation's Review S ociety; vice-president The National Round Table o f Non-York;;
lecturer and author. • ---------------------------------------------
-H raTFR A N X H. C 0T H R 3N , A. B„ ' A. M., LL. B„ 387 Clinton Ave.„ Brooklyn, Nca-YosLt,
representing the New-York Branch o f the ;Worp,an'a Peace Party.Xawyor jsaQiabar
- ■ . • Mayor'o pension comm ission of N ew-York; vice-chairman, WosntiiYoSuffrageFariy
of.Brooklyn ; chairman, Brooklyn Juvenile Courta A sso cia tio n
153 '■ ’ ■
— ■*—T '~—— ^-ti--,.: ^v.;;
|W;«w
m
^^LeagttiiViip& XeachecsÂssociationt and the-Orcgon«--State^«dcratiOTS»iO®®W©nS<M]

_a.tti^_.-i_ ^ J - ~ ' ~ ::''. * * ;r-;—r c p n » e n te tiT ^ H io a r d ; o f j ^ c a i i c ir g f1^ |U an d
__________ o f the1 National' Education ■A ssociation ; membei^
p j t e Co-opcratirig Council o f Woman’s Pe^ce Party.* ... • • . - '
D E tE lN E Z. DOTY, B. L., LL. li., S3 W ashington Place,- New-York Qity,~ rep'reaentlrifl
iiLtheAybnjanLs Lawyer’s Association. Member o f the Governing Board, New*- Y f e f
■^teî^brancH of. the Woman’s Peace Party ; member of the W om ans University*^
Juvenile.'Court• investigator; law yer; prison reform er; m em b'erlNewô'rkrState>Mi;
T risO n, Commissiorr;— writer^-Representing Century Magazine & E ven in g Pdsti
CONSTANCE DREXEL, 2S0 Boulevard Raspail, Paris, France, individual member. Suffrage * *,
worker ; representative.of New-York Tribune ; member W ashington and-New-Yoffc^
Peace S ocieties; author, “The Woman Pays" and “Deauville with a Difference.” o'1
Mrs. . ELIZABETH'' GLENDOWKR EVANS, 12 Otis Place, Boston. Mass.y reprcsenting-the--— ;-™“~ mm
Woman's Trade Union League ; Massachusetts- brairch ~of thi^W otm fn ^ P eTce'r~rr.-i'~:
'Party and Massachusetts W oman’s Suffrage Association funofffciiiD-â^lofp^^ses.C^
,Organizer, Woman'S PeacC^Party ; suffrage worker. Her. ' **5we,!3r* ' ‘ ■ ■ "
(J a flfw l Mrs. ROSE .MORGAN FRENCH, care Civic League, 120 Post Sfrce t, SarTFrancisco, California,.-
representing the National Federal Suffrage Association and the California Su ffrage-----
A ssociation; also, Women Voters of California (unofficial). Locturer for wom en’s
uffragc-ôrgam zcr— California Girls Learning H om e: author of brochures
on suffrage; member execu tive committee of the Anti-White Slavery S o c ie t y ; .......
formerly police officer in San Francisco. . .-. ,
KATHERINE-GLOVER, 19 W est 9th Street, New-Yoik City, representing she Gamut Club
.' (unofficial). Author; formerly editor Today's Magazine.
AtffC&’HA'MIirFON;—M:—Btt—Hull—House;— GhtcagOi—rcprcsmituiff-tho—Wogian’s-C ity -d a b —Qf — •■-
Cmcago;—Investigator- of - Occupational Diseases,—FederaTr-.BureoU—or~£m bor“ “ -T
■■■' -. S tatistics; vice-president of the American Medical Association-:, author,!“ Lcdd
" - - Poisoning in Industry -’,- etc. ... . . ...------------ i.—...
FLO R E N C E , HOLBROO^, Principal Forrestville School, . Chicago, ' :re.prosd£it3n[j'the
, ..C hicago Political nquality League and the Chicago Peace S ociety;, chairman o f .
• ' . : the art comm ittee, Woman's Peace Party. - - . .. . ' ,
I&3. MABEL H . IRWIN, 568 Pacific Street, Brooklyn, New-York, representing- -Jhe William Lloyd .
Garrison Equal Rights A ssociation; the New-York Society of. Sanitary and Moral
Prophylaxis (unofficial). Minister, lecturer and writer ; editorial "writer on th e -
Now-York American; author of “Whitman, The Poet-Liberalor. o f Woman”.
_rrT iie'R igiit ofT n e Cndd to be well Born", “Inviolatc-Mothorhood”. etc, - < --------•-
MABK 3.YDE KlTXKEDGE, 62 W ashington Square, New-York City.-'representing the Henry
Street Settlement and the Association P ractical. Iiou3ekeeping-Center3 ;--oocia!-
trorkcr: president Housekeeping Centers.; chairman, New-YorkrSchooHLuncH
Committee; author. “ Practical H om e-m aking', “A Secon d Courso anHome-maltingV
(ooth"used in the New-York scnools). , • ' . • • • ...<■
■^NiiiA’^fl.''KLlNGENH-AGEN, B. A., PJj. M., lotva City. .Iowa, representing the .StateTlniversity
<pf lojvaj.. also, Iowa branch ,o f the W oman’s . Peace Party. / Dean 'of 'women •
and assistant professor .of history, the University of Iowa. ■ ...; >•
-Bfra v -Rrtltff.RT V /.. ICOHLHAMER. 927 Galt Avenue. Chicago.": reoreseptSncr ina.Clnicagri : m ■—-.t— .
•; ‘ -..7 -Political Equality League Chicago• .Woman'a Cjty Club and the Illinois State
.-.vg’s?-, >••'-.•?i.s^"-?.-anfirage--A|3o}t«Iati9B' p- . :-
j i i ^ Lti!fc^cSlDPLE ’rLEWIS'rCL^ns'd0vrnemPenn8?Ivaw ar-T C T 7re9entiaff^7^^£jyri"iiib''&iifS ^ i^ i
b rtH e7W om an’ff'Peace“Party ancTilftT W om en oi; the--i-,SnfcdQlph'ia :Yeajiy M oetiiig
o f -ErlendsV'Civic. Club • o f .Philadelphia aqd DcJijv/aTe.jCounty. Chapter of: the';
f'J>l?ft.’.R;-.(pn6ltfcial). Trustqg o^ S)warthmor(^Cs]Ie*gQ.l:.>;<(*q,-;'..y.-a/.vw ,
Sra ; p i p s_ 'Vt£ 6 ® ’, ’ '-jcare Abraham
^ - ^ -* A 1* m ? im a a 1 n
L An.
in coln r Center; r l s I An
,Qaicogap --r9 r9rtn/ir.sl«. /n fttSi*. •*** A n n v.\ ;
;;.r£prcnghllDg:8lie.peacei
i. .i-:.-;-'.".-..'.;-.--.::.-.■. com m ittee o f Abraham Lincoln. Center.
Mrs W/ILLlAv" BRGSS LLOYD, 'A . 3 . Y /innctsa, Illinois, representing the Cnicago b r a n c h
or too Woman's Peace Party.
: • • - -- * **3
n:
Hr&' FR A ^K -IL McMULLIN, the Blackstone Hotel, Chlcag^ l
Society Daughters of the American S e r o h i t e n
7 ' / " ' " . A ssociation ; Society o f National ,
: ■ ■ . W otnw 'a Chib, Children's Walfare Aasocistiwe; etfc. îaaS8cii!li).ffite^ll^^>i
the Arden Shore A M cciation; representation o f m iA v d A ft--
■Mre. ALICE K. MELOY, Ph. B„ A. &L,'640Rircrridc O r h r o ,N o s s fi> Y o s & r a ^ b ® i^ 'iT^
ORRIE I. H1NASIAN, 840 President Stroet, Brooklyn, Nerr»Yosk, C3|ifiS®t©48E|^':? !^
Arbitration League. ! ■> 'iJI '< d-jriS'Sf
ANNIE E. -MOLLOY,'101 Coo/per Street, East Boston, McsiacSi&sjafra,.
Telephone Operators’ Union of Boston, the Iuternatte&sl BpoSJsCJilC&Sl&f!
Workers of U. S. A. and Canada, the Central Labor.’WaShd C 'OV
American Federation o f Labor; The Woman's Ci^'CSafe 0? ‘E3®IteS
Maosachuoetfo Suffrage Aoaociaiion (unofficial).. RrcaMot^ 'SSssa ? TcH^^SSSS:
Operator’ Union. ’ • .1 T. ’ *«/Vlit<££4£_
ANGELA MORGAN, 140 Claremont Avenue, Ncsy-YorU Q ty f're^stJ& sht0^ji|V i4M e£^JS3^,o
Peace- Society of Now-York and the N a a -Yoak ■^ tataE cd gm gitei _
Club3. Correspondent of The Chnatian-Work'; lbtturar, ■pesflt:aSfi3'licj!Sfi(){|' d3£fe3^C'
"The..Hour has Struck", etc. > ■
A. EJ4ILY NAPiERALSKI, 2126 Cortland Street, Chicago, delegate -of tfco B d S z Z z i
Alliance of America, also representing the Polish Natiaaat AJSk23C3C?yir7'"v^v
the .PqlishtCatholic Union astd tao Polish UnlosL-.fpCESral!' Ss£K^S£f?»C& vb ;
" W om eo'o Alliance o f A m erica; president o f th9-
Yh ri. *7t
.. Chicago; correspondent. - *«■»
A. EVELYN NEWMAN, Ph. B., A. M.. 32—37 East S2nd Street, New-York C lSy,rajpekxfz f r ..&
the Studio Club of New-York City; The Young W omen a Q&ricSlasj
(unofficial). Teacher and social utorkci-^general secretary,of £&0‘S*c£3o T I
field -------------
rtretary of art student- work
■ - in Ncta-Y
" ork.G~ -----------...
tv; author, “ ILaWBESSS® V:
Ethics”, “ Art Student Life in New-York", eta. . f A * l"Lv*
Mrs. MAS.1/ HEATON O'BRIEN (Mary Heaton Vorsc), Provincetooo, M c s o c ^ i^ & io lX ^ iC ^ f !^
the W omen's Suffrage Party of New-York City. Corrcc#$adea8 C? ic*3(”''-1
Magazine; author, “Story pf a little... Parf/On", "AuCobic(jropEiy c2 C3 "itLC. sV' -
Woman”, ..Heart’s Country”, ,,The Ninth Man*’/e t c . -. n..’ •».*-. \
LEONORA O'REILLY, 6801 Seventeenth Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y., reprccsaferv kic, ''
Woman's Trade Union League, formerly Supervisor o f tho Mashln”1 ,
Department o f the Manhattan trade School for Gitb, pstfcid fe ^ Wt ! ~J”C ’
<- ct -League.
Satiragu r. v' S'Trf.r /o C1 it.
Mia MARY CKUTTENDEN PERCY, 264 W. 67th Street, New-Yoril ’€ f
-’. Aliidriekln Peace and Arbitration League and the Nctrr-Yoib
the 'V/oman'o • Pdace Party:' (unofficial). Manager o f BIodBiog24lO'El§ p C T T j./p
honor graduate of Cooper Art Scftodl ; autltor, "SymirolEdhi 3;)'Airt”, ’ “ <*-
Mrc. LOUIS F. • POST,’ 2513 Twslfth -Street; V/aoh!ng“on, D. C./ropST^xtudS'j'^Zhr''’* ~ l vl^r.
Peace Party o f America. Vice-prcaident, tho YVomcm’a'PeacdSFnKy jatTS!'3"-' ' 1
o f tho American Proportional Repreaentation L eague; a trlcoptttildcffjCl? "’“'V"’
American Anti-Imperialist L ea g u e; former managing <?djto:?
F L O R A - RAYM OND, L L . B., 201 S e c o n d S tr e e t E ea o t, W ao h in g to a, Do © .i a o p r a o t r ^ J
U n iveiaai p e a c e U n io n ; W o m a n 's P e a c e P a rty (unofficial). O o L ty n iL o
o f t h e In te rio r- • •■ . r
Mro. J U L IE T B A R R E T T R U B L E E , 1105 S ix te e n th S l , Y /ashiD gton, D. C c ircgTCkX:^:^
. W achicgton branch o f the Woman'a Pancc Party. PrsaMeaS _(S cid oi'S ^ C T l
SnSrago League. . - -*'
Mra. CHARLES EDWARD RUSSELL, 1025 Fifteenth Street, Washington, B>« \
th e Woman’s National C om m it tec, Socialist Party. Member ‘W oos^ Q
Elro. ANNA 23. SCHAEDLSR, 2621 Hamilton Court, Chicago; lopiaslmtfelg-8ah:W e & f S . t r
Section o f tho National Bateau for the Advancement o? Y"t
College o f Expression, had o f Eastern Star Club o f Rliaold
■ • . IP S ' .
tW 1
»
S®^CCATSHSLl*¥»~iA«-B>,--.Ereepoit, Illinois,, .representing th&—Ereepoit-Woaan'o Chib'

:isa"'ihir-'W.'' C. T. U. of Sag!navr"'County. MieMgna ; WosflaQ’tf'te&gai..........
®?^JflW8^«fTsr.iaWtfj*or*Teaehar o f Gsrmsnf3OT.'3s^TCTSSSffil^^^
' 23ra. FANNIE W. SMITH, 225 North 5th Street, Newark, Now-Jcnsay,
_ New-Jersey branch of the Woman s Peace Party. President E ssex branch
Teachers' Retirement Fund of New-Jerjey.
Mrs. H. J, SMITH, 806 Oakwood Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois, representing Tenth District
Federation of Women's Cluba
Sirs. WILLIAM L THOMAS, 6132 KimbarU Avenue, Chicago, raprassnting the Chicago
branch o f the Woman’s Peace Party ; Woman's City Club of Chicago (unofficial).
Social W orker; executive secretary of the Woman's Paaco Party of America.
CATHERINE VAN DYKE, 35 East 62nd Street, New-York City, representing the Studio
Club o f Naw-York City ; the Gamut Club (unofficial). President Professional
Alumnae of the Studio Club; journalist and writer, especially articles on feminism.
JULIA GRACE WALES, B. A., M. A„ care The University of WioconeigaJ^-adison.elAMveorjaiiVi rrq^'V-’Ci*^
representing the University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Peace Society.
n Ai->? i'V Jnatructor in English, University of Wisconsin ; author, "Mediation without!
w1 i
>\ ^.ys Armistice”, etc.
ANNE WITHINGTON, Ncvrburyport, Massachusetts, representing tho Wonsan's Trade Union
League o f Boston and the Political Equality League o! Boston.
■t'j
V IS IT O R S .
DEEIAREST LLOYD* Boston, Massachusetts, Correspondent for various Boston papera.

WILLIAM 3RQSS LLOYD, Winnetka, Illinois. Member Chicago Peace Society, otc.
LOUIS ?. LOCHNSH, 116 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, representing the National Pcaco
Federation. Secretary the National Peace Federation and Tho Chisago Peace
S ociety; director Central W est Department of the American Poaca S ociety;
author, "Internationalism among Univarsitie3"Pl'‘W anted—Aggressive Pacifism”, etc.
EL J. SMITH, 306 Galctvood Avenue, W ilmette, Illinois. Correspondent for the Chicago Daily
Novra; rrriter and publicist. 1
Reproduced with permission o f the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
I. W O M E N AND W A R or differences of a Justifiable character
such as arise on the Interpretation ol
1. PROTEST treaty rights or of the low of nations.
We women. In International con RESOLUTIONS b. As a development of the constructive
gress assembled, protest against the work of the Hague Conference, a .per
madness and the horror of war, In
volving as it does a reckless sacrifice ADOPTED BY THE manent International Conference holding
regular meetings in which women'Should
of human life and the destruction of take part, to deal not with the rules of
so much that humanity has latmurcd INTERNATIONAL warfare but with practical proposals
through centuries to bultd up. for further International co-operation
2. WOMEN’S SUFFERINGS IN WAR among the states.
This International Congress ol CONGRESS OF This conference should be so consti
Women opposes the assumption that tuted that It could formulate and en
women can be protected under the
conditions of modern warfare. It pro WOMEN force those principles of Justice, equity
and good will in accordance with which
tests vehemently against the odious the struggles of subject communities
wrongs of which women aro>.the vic could be more fully recognized and the
tims In time of war, and especially T h e H ague, H o lla n d Interests and-rights not only of the
against the horrible violation of great powers and small nations but also
women which attends all war. A p r i l 28- 29- 30, 1915 those of weaker countries and primitive
peoples gradually adjusted under an en
II. TO W A R D S PE A C E lightened international public opinion.
This International Conference shall
3. THE PEACE SETTLEMENT appoint:
This International Congress of Women of different nations, A permanent Council of Conciliation and Investigation for
classes, creeds and parties is united in expressing sympathy the settlement of iotcmstfona! differences arising from eco
with the suffering of all, whatever their nationality, who are nomic competition, expanding commerce. Increasing population
fighting for their country or laboring under the burden of and changes In social mod political standards.
war.
Since the mass of the people in each of the countries now 12. GENERAL DISARMAMENT
at war believe themselves to be fighting, not as aggressors The International Congress of Women, advocating universal
but In self-defense and for their national existence, there can disarmament and realizing that It can only be secured by
be no Irreconcilable differences -between them, and their com- . international agreement, urges, as a step to this end, that all
men ideals afford a basis upon which a 'magnanimous and countries should, by such ‘an Internationa! agreement, take
honourable peace might be established. The congress there aver the manufacture of arms and munitions of war and
fore urges the governments of the world to put an end to should control all International traffic in the same. It sees
this bloodshed, end to begin peace negotiations. It demands In the private profits accruing from the great armament fac
that the peace whkh follows shall be permanent and there tories a powerful hindrance to the abolition of war.
fore based on principles of Justice, Including those laid down 15. COMMERCE AND INVESTMENTS
In the resolutions1 adopted by this congress, namely: *• The Internationa] Congress of Women urges that In all
That no territory should be transferred without the consent • countries there shall be liberty of commerce, that the seas
of the men and women In ft, and that the right of conquest shall be free and the trade routes open on equal terms to the
should not be’ recognised. shipping of all nations,
That autonomy and a democratic parliament should not be b. 'inasmuch as the investment by capitalists of one country
refused to any people. m the resources of another and the claims arising there
That the governments of all nations should come to an from are a fertile source of International complications, this
agreement to refer future International disputes to arbitration International Congress of Women urges the widest possible
or conciliation and to bring social, moral and economic pressure acceptance of the principle that such Investments shall be
to bear upon any country which resorts to arms. made at the risk of the Investor, without claim to the
That foreign politics should be subject to democratic control. ■official protection of his government.
That women should be granted equal political rights with 14. NATIONAL FOREIGN POLICY
men. a. This International Congress of Women demands that all
4. CONTINUOUS MEDIATION secret treaties shall be void and that for the ratification of
This International Congress of Women resolves to ask the future treaties, the participation of at least the legislature
neutral countries to take Immediate steps to create a con . ®L*v*ry government shall be necessary.
ference of neutral nations which shall without delay offer b. This International Congress of Women recommends that
continuous mediation. The conference shall Invite suggestions National Commissions be created and International Con
for settlement from each of the belligerent nations and In any ferences convened for the scientific study and elaboration
case shall submit to all of them simultaneously reasonable of the principles and conditions of permanent peaite, which
proposals as a basis of peace. might contribute to the development of an International
Federation.
III. P R IN C IP L E S O F A P E R M A N E N T PE A C E These commissions and conferences should be recognized
by the governments and should Include women In their de
5. RESPECT FOR NATIONALITY liberations.
This International Congress of Women, recognizing the right ,8’ ^P,MEN IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
of the people to self-government, affirms that there should This International Congress of Women declares It to be
be no* transference of territory without the consent of the essential, both nationally and Internationally, to put Into prac
men and women residing therein, and urges that autonomy tice the principle that women should share all civil and political
and a democratic parliament should not be refused to any rights and responsibilities on the same terms as men.
people.
6. ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION V. T H E EDUCATION OF C H IL D R E N
This international Congress of Women, believing that war 16. -pil* International Congress of Women urges the neces
Is the negation of progress and civilization, urges the govern sity of so directing the education of children that their
ments of all nations to come to an agreement to refer future thoughts and desires may be directed towards the Ideal of
International disputes to arbitration and conciliation. constructive peace.
?. INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE VI. W O M E N AN D T H E PE A C E S E T T L E M E N T
This International Congress of Women urges the govern
ments of all nations to come to an agreement to unite In 17; This International Congress of Women urges that h
bringing social, moral and economic pressure to bear upon any interests of lasting peace and civilization the conference
country, which resorts to arms instead of referring Its case which shall frame the peace settlement after the war should
to arbitration or conciliation. pass a resolution affirming the need In all countries of ex
tending the parliamentary franchise to women.
8. DEMOCRATIC CONTROL OF FOREION POLICY 18. This International Congress of Women urges that rep*
Since war Is commonly brought about not by the moss of rescntatlves of the people should take part In the conference
the people,*wbo do not desire It, but by groups representing that shall frame the peace settlement after the war, end
particular Interests, this International Congress of Women dilms that amongst them women should be Included.
urges that foreign polities shall be subject to democratic con
trol; end declares that It can only recognize as democratic a
system which Includes the equal representation of men and VII. ACTION TO B E T A K E N
women. 19. WOMEN’S VOICE IN THE PEACE SETTLEMENT
V. THE ENFRANCHISEMENT OF WOMEN This International Congress ol Women resolves that •»
Since the combined Influence of the women of all countries international meeting of women shall be held to the ssmj
is one ol the strongest forces for the prevention of war. and plseeand at the same time as the Conference of th e Peters
since women can only have full responsibility and effective which shall frame the terms of the peace settlement a f t e r tne
Influence when they have equal political rights with men, war for the purpose of presenting practical proposals to tna»
this International Congress of Women demands their political conference.
enfranchisement. 20. ENVOYS TO THE GOVERNMENTS
In o rd e r to u rg e t h e g o v e rn m e n t, of th e w orld t o pu
end to t h i s bloodshed a n d t o e s ta b lis h s I n s t end tosun*
IV. IN T E R N A T IO N A L CO-OPERATION peace, t h i s I n te rn a tio n a l C o n g ress of W omen deleg ates envTO
10. THIRD HAQUE CONFERENCE to c a rry t h e m essa g e e x p ressed In th e c o n g re ss resolutions
This International Congress of Women urges that a third t h e r u le rs o f t h e b e llig ere n t a n d n e u tra l n a tio n s of e w w
Hague Conference be convened immediately after the war. a n d to t h e P re s id e n t o f t h e U nited S ta te s . k .tiireren t
11.-INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION TTiese e n v o y s s h a ll b e w om en of b o th n e u tr a l e n d bell g e re
n o tio n s, ap p o in te d b y th e In te rn a tio n a l Com m ittee ol Oil
This International Congress of Women urges that the organ g re s s . T h e y s h a ll re p o rt t h e r e s u lt ol t h e i r m issions “ >
ization of the Society of Nations should be further developed In te rn a tio n a l W o m en 's C om m ittee fo r C o n stru c tiv e Peace
on the basis of a constructive peace, and that It should Include: baala for f u r th e r a c tio n . _______
a. As a development of the Hague Court of Arbitration, a
permanent International Court of Justice to settle questions •N ote. T h e co n g ress d eclared by v ote t h a t I t J o t ' e! ^ 7 Womrp
tran sferen ce o f te r r ito ry w ith o u t th e consent o f th e m en ana Jsed.
*Noti:. Tlif* reso lu tio n s Id fu ll a re Nor. n. 6. 7, S. f*. In It to Itnnlv t h a t th e rig h t o f co n q u est w as n o t to he rew *
iy 7
g«SM S5^M «
§®8SB&£se» £ ? ^
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DEPUTATIONS TO THE EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS. ‘"b■<,\'i:!?-‘«''i.^

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L in d en : ( c h r y s t a l M a c m illa n ..
(R o sik a Schw im m er.' ' y&*---
( j a n e Addams.
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- ;~A1 Grey^L (Rq§&-2eJ "lX-
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(J a n e Addams;
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Juno 2. B erne. F o r e ig n M i n i s t e r , H offm ann:

r Jane Addams.
■■ n 2o a P r e s id e n t M otta: ( D r .A l e t t a J a c o b s ;
Ju n e 4. Rome, F o r e ig n M i n i s t e r , S o n in o :
rJane Addams.
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d 'A vignon: ( D r .A le t t a J a c o b s .
(E n ily B a lc h .
May 28. C openhagen. (Prim e M in io te r , Z a h le: (C h r y sta l K a c n illa n T -
(Cor R an or.d t-H irsch -
(F o r e ig n M in is t e r , S c a v e n iu s: ( nahh.
(R o sik a Schwimraer.
^ » ->*- 'V»S. .. w.-^ x£ ^ vT~T<
(.Emily B a lc h .
■ C h ris tia n i a . - H is-Ka-3 e s t y —th o -K -in g :- -(C hrys-tal—MKcmtliHin ...
F o r e ig n M in is t e r , I h le n : (Cor R a c o n d t-H ir sc h -
Ju n e ....P r ic e .M in is t e r P.-.Knudaen:- - r ^ ’TnsnsE
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FOOTNOTES
1Judith Papachristou, "From Domesticity to International Politics: the Emergence of the

Women’s Peace Movement, 1890-1910." Paper presented at the Meeting of the American
Historical Association, Chicago, December, 1986, pp.3-4. Marie Louise Degen, The
History of the Woman's Peace Party. (New York: Garland: 1972), p. 15.
^DeBenedetti, op.cit.. pp.61-62.
3jbid.. p. 61. Papachristou, op.cit.. pp.6-7,16.
^Papachristou, op.cit.. pp.6-8,17. Degen, op.cit.. p. 14.
^Charles Chatfield, For Peace and Justice: Pacifism in America. (Boston: Beacon Press,
1971), pp.8-9. Merle Curti, Peace or War: the American Struggle. 1636-1936. (New
York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1936), p. 204. David S. Patterson, Toward a Warless
World: the Travail of the American Peace Movement. 1887-1914. (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1976), p. 197.
^Charles DeBenedetti, The Peace Reform in American History. (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1980), pp. 81, 89. Patterson, op.cit.. p.203. C. Roland Marchand,
The American Peace Movement and Social Reform. 1898-1918. (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1972), p.xiii.
^Marchand, op.cit.. pp. 74-76. Boston Globe, Boston Transcript, October 6, 1904,
JAP.. 55/1135,1137.
8Chicago The World Today (CTWT), June, 1907, JA P.. 56/923-924. New York
Globe(NYG), April 13, 1907, IAP., 56/771.
^Davis, op.cit.. pp. 136-138. JA to Aylmer Maude, July 30, 1896, JAP.. 3/435. This
letter was published in Humane Review. June, 1902, pp. 216-217.
lOjane Addams (JA), The Second Twenty Years at Hull-House. (New York: Macmillan,
1930), pp. 113-114.
11Hartford Times, December 27,1898, JAP. 55/487. Allen F. Davis, American Heroine.
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 140.
12jA, "New Ideals of Peace", National Arbitration and Peace Congress Proceedings.
1907, pp. 106-110, IAP., 46/1498-1502.
13Chicago Inter-Ocean (CIO), April 30,1899, JAP.. 55/504.
l^William E. Leuchtenberg, "Progresivism and Imperialism : the Progressive Movement
and American Foreign Policy, 1890-1916." Mississippi Valley Historical Review.. 39,
December, 1952, pp. 486,503. New York Journal, May 1,1899, JAP.. 55/507.
15ja, "Democracy or Militarism," Chicago Liberty Meeting of the Central Anti-Imperialist
League, 1899, IAP., 46/899-901. Chicago Standard, May 13,1899, IAP., 55/510.
l^JA to Mary Rozet Smith (MRS), September,(?),1899, JAP.. 3/1439.

1%CIO, Chicago Times-Herald, January 28,1900, JAP.. 55/542,543.
WflaA
20St. Louis Dispatch, February 23, 1900, JAP.. 55/554. JA reiterated the sewer spade
story in Twenty Years, pp.444-445.
21 Lucia Ames Mead (LAM) to JA, April 27,1900, JAP.. 3/1561-1563. CIO, April 9,
1907, New York American (NYA), April 8, 1907, IAP., 56/770,766.
22curti, op.cit.. pp.243-245. Philadelphia Times, March 31, 1902, JAP.. 55/652. JA,
"Newer Ideals of Peace," July 7, 1902, JAP.. 46/1111. Emma Goldman to JA, April 7,
201
1901, JA P.. 4/65. Clarence Darrow to JA, September 11, 1901, JAP.. 4/207. JA
mentions Kropotkin's stay at Hull-House in Twenty Years at Hull-House, pp.402-405.
23"Newer Ideals," op.cit.. 46/1111.
24j a , Democracy and Social Ethics. (New York: Macmillan, 1902, Edwin Seligman to
JA, April 26, 1902, Richard Ely (RE) to JA, July 10, 1906, JAP.. 4/348,1408. Davis,
op.cit.. p.128.
25Qeorge Brett(GB) to JA, October 29,1902, JA to RE, November 27,1902, RE to JA,
November 29, 1902, JA to GB, January 2, 1903, GB to JA, January 9, 1903, JAP..
4/464, 480-482,488,510,515.
2(>C/0, May 4, 1903, Erie Times, June 27, 1903, Omaha News, October 6, 1903,
Cripple Creek County Times, October 31, 1903, JAP.. 55/84, 859, 906, 932. Davis,
op.cit.. p. 143. William James (WJ) to JA, January 24 and February 12, 1907, JAP..
5/29,64-67.
27Boston Transcript, September 6, 1904, Manchester Guardian, April 15, 1904,
Springfield Republican, September 22, 1904, Providence Journal, October 2, 1904,
Boston Advertiser, October 6, 1904, Boston Record, October 6, 1904, JA P ..
55/1044,1126,1136,1137.
28 j a to MRS, October 5,1904, JA to Lillian Wald (LW), October 3,1904, JAP., 4/934-
935,932-933.
29 j a , "The Responsibilities and Duties o f Women Toward the Peace Movement,"
Universal Peace Congress Ofiicial Report. 1904. pp. 120-122. JAP.. 46/1226-1228.
3 0 ja to RE, November 9, 1904, RE to JA, July 22, 1905, JA to RE, August 6, 1905,
IAE, 4/971,1102, 1117-1118.
3 IRE to JA, November 11, 1905, JA to RE, November 20, 1905, September 5, 1906,
JAP.. 4/1176-1177,1178-1179,1434.
32 j a , Newer Ideals of Peace. (New York: Macmillan, 1907). For a study of Jane
Addams' relationship with John Dewey (JD) see Mary Jo Deegan, Jane Addams and the
Men of the Chicago School. 1892-1918. (New Brunswick: Transaction Books, 1988).
Also Davis, op.cit.. pp.96-97. Correspondence see JD to JA, October 12,1898 and April
26, 1899. JAP.. 3/1179.1332-1335.
33 William James, "The Moral Equivalent of War," in John Mcdermott, Ed., The Writings
of William James. (Chicago: the University of Chicago Press, 1977), pp. 660-671. Davis,
op.cit.. p. 143. Curti, op.cit.. pp.244-246. JA, Newer Ideals, p.24.
34 j a , Newer Ideals, pp.l 1-12,17. Curti, op.cit.. pp.245-246.
3 6 j]i,p p .i8 0 -1 8 7 .P
37Fiorence Kelley (FK) to JA, January 23, 1907, WJ to JA January 24 and February 12,
1907, IAP., 5/25-26, 29,64-67.
38Davis, op.cit.. p. 148. JA, Newer Ideals, pp. 237-238.
39Brooklyn Eagle (BE), March 3, 1907. CTWT, June, 1907, NYG, April 13, 1907,
JAP.. 56/701,923-924,771.
40New York Evening Post (NYEP), April 13 and 16, 1907, Brooklyn Citizen, April 13,
1907, IAE., 56/782,791-792,790.
41JA to LW, March 8, 1907, IAE., 5/90. JA, "New Ideals of Peace,"and "The New
Internationalism," National Arbitration and Peace Congress Proceedings. 1907, pp. 106-
110,213-216, IAE-, 46/1498-1502,1510.
202
42Chicago Record-Herald (CRH), March 11, 1909, CIO, March 11,1909 and April 28,
1909, Washington Standard, March 30, 1909, Brooklyn Daily Citizen, May 4, 1909,
New York Call (NYC), May 4, 1909, IAP., 57/279, 380,327,397,398. JA to Oscar
Strauss, February 18, 1909, JA to Richard Gilder (RG), April 22,1909, RG to JA, May
4, 1909, IAE., 5/704-705,780-781,790.
43 j a , "Women's Special Training for Peacemaking," National Peace Congress
Proceedings. 1909.pp.252-54. JAP.. 46/1737-1740.
44DeBenedetti, op.cit.. pp. 83-84. Chicago Public, January 14, 1910, New York Herald
(NYH), January 16, 1911, JAP.. 57/806, 58/207.
45CRH, May 20, 1912, Chicago Journal, August 12, 1912, JAP.. 58/1021,59/79. JA,
"My Experiences as a Progressive Delegate," McClures, November, 1912, pp.12-14.
46charles Beals to JA, October 12, 1912, Jenkin Lloyd Jones to JA, October 10, 1912,
JAP.. 7/187-189,236-239.
47David Starr Jordan (DSJ) to JA, November 25,1912, JAP.. 7/452.
48Chicago Tribune(CT), January 17, 1913, JAP.. 59/1021. LAM to JA, January 17,
1913, JAP..7/709-710.
49m cia Ford (for JA) to Rosika Schwimmer (RS), March 5,1913, JAP.. 7/788. Degan,
OP.cit-, pp. 28-29. William O,Neill, Everyone was Brave: the Rise and Fall of Feminism
in America. (Chicago: Quadrangle, 1969),p.l71. Davis.op.cit.. pp. 214-215.
50Minneapolis Tribune, January 11, 1914, NYEP, April 24, 1914, Chicago News(CN),
April 27, 1914, CRH, April 27, 1914, Chicago Examiner, April 27 and 28, 1914, JAP..
61/333,1131-1132,1160, 1161,1159,1166. Blanche Wiesen Cook, "Woodrow Wilson
and the Anti-Militarists,"Ph.D.dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, 1970, p.5.
51Degen, op.cit.. pp.28-29.
52jbid„ p. 29.
53 RS to JA, August 17, 1914, JAP.. 7/1568. Degen, op.cit.. p. 30.
54secretary for JA to RS, August 31,1914, JAP.. 7/1576. Second Twenty, pp.117-118.
55Marchand, op.cit.. pp.182-185. Barbara J. Steinson, American Women's Activism in
World War 1. (New York: Garland, 1982), pp.9-13.
56Chicago News, August 31, 1914, Chicago American, September 25, 1914, NYA,
September 27; 1914, IAP., 62/429,511, 524.
57paul Kellogg(PK) to JA, September 11, 1915, JA to PK, September 15, 1914, JAP..
7/1581583, 1587.
58pK to JA, September 15 and 24,1914, LW to Emily Greene Balch (EGB), September
22,1914, IAE-, 7/1588-1590,1606, 1601-1603.
5^Boston Herald (BH), September 18, 1914, Boston Evening-Record, September 17,
1914, IAE-, 62/482,478.
60BH, September 18, 1914, IAE., 62/482.
61PK to JA, October 18 and 24, 1914, JA to PK, December 11, 1914, JA to Paul
Reinsch, December 11, 1914, IAE-, 7/1627-1628, 1653-1661, 1753-1754, 1755.
"Towards the Peace that Shall Last," The Survey,33, March 6, 1915, JAP.. 47/1125-
1132. Davis, op.cit.. pp.213-214. Degen, op.cit.. p. 23. Cook, op.cit.. pp.11,19.
Marchand, op.cit.. p.227. Peace and Bread, pp.4-5.
62Davis, op.cit.. p.215. Steinson, op.cit.. pp. 19-22. Degen, op.cit.. pp.31-32. O'Neil,
op.cit.. pp. 171-172. F.W. Pethick Lawrence to JA, August 14, 1912, JAP.. 6/1369-
1370.
203
63steinson, op.cit.. p.22. Degen, op.cit.. pp.30-35. New York Evening Journal
(NYEJ), October 28, 1914, New York Tribune (NYT), October 31, 1914, JA P..
62/670,680.
G^CRH, November 24, 1914, Chicago Tribune (CT), November 30, 1914, JAP..
62/787, 805. JA to Madeline Brekinridge, November 30,1914, JAP.. 7/1728.
6$New York Sun, December 6, 1914, CN, December 5, 1914, JAP.. 62/832, 824. JA to
DSJ, December 8,1914, JA to LW, December 8,1914, IAE., 7/1744,1745. "Minutes of
the Emergency Peace Committee, December 19,1914, (Louis Lochner elected secretary of
the organization), JAP.. 7/1785-1788.
66ccC to JA, December 14, 1914, JA to CCC, December 14, 1914, JA to Mrs. B.W.
Walton, October 30,1914, JAP.. 7/1731-1732, 1764, 1676.
67CCC to JA, December 16,1914, JAP.. 7/1772-1773. Anna Garlin Spencer(AGS) was
an officer of the New York Peace Society.
68l W to JA, December 17,1914, JA to LW, December 21,1914, JA to LAM, December
23,1914, JA to CCC, December 21, 1914, IAP., 7/1776-1777, 1783-1784, 1794, 1796.
69LW to JA, December 24, 1914, JA to LW, December 27, 1914, IAP., 7/1804, 1809-
1810.
Învitation letter to Women's Peace Meeting, December 28,1914, CCC to JA, January
4, 1915, RS to JA, January 1, 1915, JA to CCC, December 21, 1914, JA to LAM,
December 28 and January 3, 1915, -TAP.. 7/1826-1827,1796,1815-1816, 8/39-40. James
Brown Scott (CEIP) to JA, December 31,1914, Frederick Lynch (Church Peace Union)
to JA, December 31, 1914, Samuel Gompers to JA, January 9, 1915, JA P ..
7/1853,1850-1851, 8/68-69. Steinson, op.cit.. p.33.
71 JA to CCC, December 21, 1914, JAP.. 7/1747. Steinson, op.cit.. pp.34-35. O'Neil,
op.cit.. pp. 175-176.
72oegen, op.cit.. pp.40-41.
73jbid.. pp.41-43.
74ibid„ pp.43-46.
75ja , WPP Address," IAP., 47/1098-1099.
Ô fficers on stationary, JAP.. 8/335. Degen, op.cit.. p.51. Steinson, op.cit.. pp. 44-45.
O'Neil, op.cit.. p.178. Katherine Leckie to JA, January 27 and 28, 1915, Henry
Haskell(HH) to JA, January 25 and February 19, 1915, "Trojan Women Tour", JA to
HH, February 26, 1915, JAP.. 8/127,206, 165-166, 353, 149, 371. Because some
members of CEIP's Executive Committee did not approve of the suffrage plank in the
WPP platform, the money for the "Trojan Women" was sent to JA to be used under her
"personal direction," instead of going directly to the WPP. For further discussion, see
Steinson, op.cit.. p.45, footnote 56. Re:the Legislative Committee, see Nina Allender to
JA, January 18, 1915, JAP.. 8/99-100. Members of the committee included Elizabeth
Kent(EK), wife of Congressman William Kent, Belle La Follette(BLF), wife of Senator
Robert La Follette (their inclusion was at JA's suggestion). Re: WPP office, see JA to
L.D. Trueblood, January 21,1915, 8/140.
^ H arriet Thomas(HT) to Maggie Murray Washington (MMW), February 2, 1915,
Assistant secretary for WPP to MMW, March,(?), 1915, JAP.. 8/253,415.
78j a to Harriet Hemenway, January 30, 1915, Harriet Hemenway to JA, January 24,
1915, Susanna Cocroft to JA, January 18, 1915, BLF et al to JA, January 13, 1915,
Hetty Cummingham to JA, March 1, 1915, Kate Waller Barrett(KWB) to JA, February
13, 1915, JA to Anna Sturges Drayer(ASD), February 5, 1915, KWB to JA, February
12,1915, Susan Fitzgerald to JA (Boston debate), February 1,1915, HT to ASD, March
204
3, 1915, CCC to JA (in January but specific date unknown), Anna Howard Shaw to JA,
January 27, 1915, JAP. . 8/225-227,151-155,105,75,267, 274, 309, 242-243,401.
79, 94-95, 201.
79steinson, op.cit., p. 49.Degen, op.cit.. p. 65.
80CCC to JA , January,(?), 1915 and January 16, 1915, JAP.. 8/ 14, 94-95. Degen,
op.cit.. p.66. Steinson, op.cit.. pp. 49-50.
81CCC to JA, January 27, 1915, JA to CCC, February 2,1915, JA to KWB, February
9, 1915, KWB to JA, February 12, 1915, Anna A, Gordon, February 10, 1915, JAP..
8/185,248,290-291, 309-310,304.
82Degen, op.cit.. pp.66-67. Steinson, op.cit.. pp.50-51. Jacobs et al to JA. February
22, 1915, Assistant Secretary for JA to CCC, March 2, 1915, LW to JA, December 17,
1914 (mentions JA has been ill), IAP., 8/360, 399, 7/1776-1777.
83Julia Grace Wales(JGW) to JA, February 26, 1915, Woodrow Wilson (WW) to JA,
March 8, 1915, JA and John Aylward to WW, March 4, 1915, IAP., 8/379-381,434-
435, 408. For discussion of Julia Wales and her Plan for Continuous Mediation see
Walter Trattner, "Julia Grace Wales and the Wisconsin Plan for Peace," Wisconsin
Magazine of History. 44, Spring, 1961, pp. 203-206. CT , February 28, 1915, JAP..
62/1152.
84JA to JGW, March 25 and 29, 1915, JA to EGB, March 13, 1915, IAP., 8/529, 550,
152-153. New York Sun, March 6, 1915, New York Times (Times), (date unclear),
Philadelphia Public Ledger , March 6 and 8,1915, BH, March 9,1915, JAP.. 62/1186,
1069, 1189,1205,1211.
85List of American Delegates to the Hague, JAP.. 8/787-790. LW to JA, March 25,
1915, JA to LW, March 26,1915, MRS to LW, March 31, 1915, IAE., 8/531,537,615-
617.
86ja to Mrs. Malcolm Forbes, March 25,1915, JA to LW, March 26 and April 6,1915,
JA to EGB, March 26,1915, IAP., 8/527-528, 537-538,680-681,533-534.
87 ja to LW, April 6,1915, JA to DSJ, April 9,1915, DSJ to JA, April 5 and 14, 1915,
JAP.. 8/680-681, 709, 671, 728. BH, March 9, 1915, Times, April 10, 1915, Chicago
Evening Journal, April 16, 1915, JAP.. 62/1211,1390, 63/36.
%%CRH, "WPP Answers Roosevelt," April 23,1915, Boston Congregationalism April 22,
1915, JAP.. 63/91,88. Henry Breckinridge to Officers of the Army, April 8, 1915,
William Jennings Bryan to Diplomatic Consular Officials of the U.S. in Holland, April 7,
1915, IAE., 8/698,687.
89Times, April 28, 1915, New York Evening Globe, April 13, 1915, JAP.. 63/119,8.
90j a to MRS, April 22,1915, Alice Hamilton to MRS, April 28,1915, IAE-, 8/754-756,
765. Steinson, op.cit.. p.55.
91 Steinson, op.cit.. p. 56. JA to Viscount James Bryce, April 26, 1915, JA P..
8/785,786. Times, April 27,1915, JAP.. 63/112. For an account of the voyage across
the Atlantic, the Hague Congress and the delegations to the capitals by the participants, see
Addams, Hamilton and Balch, Women at the Hague. (New York: Garland, 1972,
Reprint).
92 Degen, op.cit.. p.77. Steinson, op.cit.. p. 56. Mary Chamberlain, "The Women at the
Hague," The Survey, 34, June 5, 1915, pp. 220-222. Gertrude Bussey and Margaret
Tims, Pioneers for Peace: The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
1915-1965. (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1965), p. 19. Mercedes Randall,
Improper Bostonian: Emilv Greene Balch. Nobel Laureate. 1946. (New York: Twayne,
1972), p. 156.
205
93 Chamberlain, op.cit.. pp. 218-222. Women at the Hague. Appendix 3, p. 157. Degen,
op.cit.. pp.82-83. Steinson, op.cit.. p.60.
9 4 ja, "Presidential Address to the Hague Congress," April 30, 1915, JAP.. 47/1114-
1116. Chamberlain, op.cit.. p.219. Literary Digest, "Was die Women's Peace Congress a
Failure," May 15, 1915, Times, May 3 and 4,1915, ME., 63/236-237, 164, 168.
95KWB to JA, January 29, 1915, JAP.. 8/218-221. Steinson, op.cit.. pp. 61-62.
96ja to MRS, May 6,9 and 16, 1915, Edward Grey (EG) to JA, May 12, 1915, James
Bryce to JA, May 6, 1915, JA to EG, May 12, 1915, JA P .. 8/835,853,953-
954,921,839,906.
97women at the Hague, p. 96. EGB to Louis Lochner(LL), June 1, 1915, EGB to JA,
June 8, 1915, LL to WW, June 2, 1915, ME-, 8/993-995,1013 - 1015,999-1002. NYC,
June 17, 1915, ME., 63/414.
98ja to MRS, June 18, 1915, JA to EGS, June 17, JA to EGB , June 26, 1915, 1915,
JA to RS, June 26, 1915, EG to JA, June 20, 1915, JA P.. 8/1027-1028,1035-
1038,1082,1085-1087, 1048-1051.
V ^Tim es, June 25 and 30, 1915, Detroit Free Press, June 27, 1915, JA P ..
63/447,488,464.
Chapter 4
The War Years: Protest. Accommodation, Perseverance
As if a presage to the discomfiting and rocky few years ahead, when Jane Addams
would reap opprobrium from much of American society for her pacifist stance during
wartime, a bad squall came up as the U.S.M.S. St. Louis maneuvered into her berth in
North River, New York on July 5,1915. The New York Sun reported: "It was a warlike
welcome that the elements gave Miss Addams when she returned... As she stepped down
the gangplank . . . the skies opened and poured down water as if they were weeping for
the devastation in the countries she had been . . the wind . . carried the rain across the
deck, drenching the peace advocates who had come . . to welcome Miss Addams home.
But Miss Addams walked serenely." She had just returned from a Europe in which ten to
twenty thousand soldiers were being killed each day in battle, and the American peace
movement looked to her for leadership in its attempt to secure negotiations to end the war
before the United States entered into it.l
A group of about fifty well-wishers, representing seventeen peace societies, waited
on the pier for Addams and Alice Hamilton. Lillian Wald, however, would not wait. Up
since dawn and anxious to see Addams, whom Wald knew was suffering from exhaustion
after the long European sojourn, she arranged for a revenue cutter to take her out in the
storm so that she could board the American liner before it docked. Once on land, they
were greeted by Leland Robinson of the International Polity Clubs, Spencer Miller of the
Collegiate Anti-militarist League, and Woman Peace Party (WPP) stalwarts, Fanny
Garrison Villard, Crystal Eastman Benedict, Florence Kelley and Evelyn Newman.
Before repairing to the Henry Street Settlement with Wald, Addams gave a brief press
conference at which she said of the statesmen they saw, "They took us very seriously .
.the German Chancellor only a few weeks before we saw him had lost his son in battle.
207
They were all giving something.. .They seemed to feel that it was natural and right that
peace talk should come from women."2
Now that Addams was back on American soil, the press gave her peace mission a
very mixed review. The Chicago Record-Herald, which still considered Addams the
"leading citizen of the world," enjoined Chicago citizens to give Addams a homecoming
"not only worthy of the returning pilgrim but of the women - and men - of Chicago for
whom she has labored . . in the interests of the poor and downtrodden she has toiled
likewise for the whole community." The Baltimore Evening Sun commented that "No
one can tell how much influence (the women's) protest and their activity may have in
strengthening what must be an ever-increasing desire for peace among the masses of the
people in the belligerent countries . .The Hague congress . .in its quiet influence .. may
ultimately (shorten) the duration of a fruitless international deadlock." 3
Other papers, however, ridiculed the Hague Congress and the women’s visits with
the European leaders. The Springfield (Ohio) Sun spumed the women's attempt at
peacemaking and directly attacked Addams: "The woman's peace congress proved to be a
hopeless fizzle.. Miss Addams is an authority in her own work but the kindest advice that
can be given to her now is to quit talking about the war and the prospects of peace." The
most derisive editorial, written the day after Addams' return, was from the pen of the
editor of the establishment's paper of record, the New York Times. Accusing her of
"flitting from capitol to capitol," the writer averred, "Every one(sic) will be glad to
welcome Miss Jane Addams back, and this includes her admirers . . who were sorry to
see her go. These will hope that the next time there is to be a demonstration of the folly of
those who think peace can brought by stopping a war it will fall to the lot of someone less
generally respected than she is to make it. For Miss Addams is a citizen too highly valued
for anyone to see her engaged in such an enterprise without a feeling of pain."4 It was
208
certainly a possibility that the European statesmen met with the women delegation for the
benefit of public relations rather than from a genuine interest in mediation. But even if the
women were naive in their peace efforts, they had acted in good faith under difficult
circumstances.
The Carnegie Hall Debacle
In terms of ridicule the worst was yet to come. It was brought on by Addams
herself, by too loose a tongue, in a speech she delivered at Carnegie Hall on the evening
of Friday, July 9th. The speech, thirty pages long, was a report on her trip. Three
thousand people attended the meeting which was organized by a coalition of thirty-eight
religious, civic, peace, suffrage and women's groups. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw, president
of the National American Women's Suffrage Association(NAWSA) presided and the four
other speakers, Congressman Meyer London, Professor George Kirchway, George
Foster Peabody, a pacifist banker and philanthropist who headed the New York Peace
Society, and Oswald Garrison Villard, editor of the Nation, all paid tribute to Addams
before she rose to speak. Villiard, in particular, said that he hoped Addams would have
"burning words from her tongue" for her audience. At the opening of her address, she
responded to his remark,
One does not come back, —at least I do not —from these various warring
countries with any desire, Mr. Villiard, to let loose any more emotion upon
the world. (I) feel what is needed above all else is some careful
understanding, some human touch. . in this overinvolved and over-talked-
up situation in which so much of the world finds itself in dire confusion
and bloodshed. You get afraid of tall talk; and you do not know where
words may lead the people to whom you are speaking."^
But during her generally straightforward speech, in which she spoke of every
belligerent country's feeling that they were fighting in self-defense and of their fear that if
they be the first to offer negotiation, they would be considered weak, she made several
209
provocative statements. She said that in each country to which they traveled the
censorship of the press interfered with the spreading of any kind of pacifist sentiment, of
which she found much evidence during her travels. She implied that even the most
patriotic women "when they are taken off their guard, give a certain protest, a certain plaint
against the whole situation which very few men, I think, are able to formulate." But the
two statements she made which the American public found most outrageous - and for
which they pilloried her - were, first, "Generally speaking, we heard it everywhere - this
was not universal, but we heard it everywhere - that this was an old man's war; that the
young men who were dying, the young men who were doing the fighting, were not the
men who wanted the war, and were not the men who believed in the war." From her
Carnegie audience supporters, Addams received loud applause for this appraisal, but the
American press was not so charitable. The latter took even greater umbrage at
Addams' second bombshell remark, which she made during the closing minutes of her
speech,
And the young men in these various countries say of the bayonet charge:
'This is what we cannot think of. You know of course that all of the
countries make their men practically drunk before they can get them to
charge, that they have a regular formula in Germany, that they give them
rum in England, and abstinthe in France. They all have to give them dope
before the bayonet charge is possible. Well, now, think of that. No one
knows who is responsible. All the nations are responsible, and they indict
themselves.6
Although she may have only been trying to depict the desparate demands of
inhumanity which war makes on its soldiers, Addams had in her bayonet story struck a
visceral blow at the supreme myth of men's unflinching courage in battle, and the papers
reacted violently against her. The New York American’s headline about the story
screamed, "TROOPS DRINK-CRAZED, SAYS MISS ADDAMS." The New York Press
headlined its story, "IT'S AN OLD MAN’S WAR SAYS MISS ADDAMS." The Boston
Evening Transcript ran a story on July 13th entitled "Dutch Courage Not Needed to Make
210
Bayonet Charges," which carried refutations to Addams' allegations by war correspondent
Richard Harding Davis and a soldier recently discharged (honorably) from the French
army. The New York Times (Times) was more subtle in its coverage of the Carnegie Hall
speech. Its story, titled "Miss Addams Tells of Quest for Peace," which included the "old
men's war" and " bayonet charge" remarks, was set on a page surrounded by stories about
German and Turkish (allies of Germany) war atrocities. For the rest of the summer,
however, the Times made sure to run a nasty campaign in its editorials and letters column
to undermine Addams' peace work.?
The Times editorial of July 12th said that the only thought-provoking idea in
Addam's speech was her statement that she had been told that young soldiers considered
the war an "old man's war." The editorial writer, however, felt that the statement was
only interesting if it was true "and doubts of its correctness immediately come to mind." A
pro-Allies newspaper, the Times insisted that the war was a result of German militarism.
The paper backed up its attack on Addams the next day with a letter from Richard Harding
Davis (whose story on Sing-Sing was highlighted in the Times Sunday Magazine the
following Sunday). Calling Addams "a complacent and self-satisfied woman" Davis
wrote:
Miss Addams denies (the soldier) the credit of his sacrifice. She strips him
of honor and courage. She tells his children, 'Your father did not die for
France, or for England, or for you, he died because he was drunk... In my
opinion since the war began, no statement has been so unworthy or so
untrue and ridiculous. The contempt it shows for the memory of the dead is
appalling; the credulity and ignorance it displays are inconceivable."^
The very next day the Times printed another letter equally critical of Addams,
written by the prominent lawyer and social reformer, Everett Wheeler, who added that her
statement was typical of suffragists who, he insisted, were ignorant of human nature. The
Times continued to print letters and articles critical of Addams for the next several weeks
211
and on the only occasion which it granted space to a letter from a woman who supported
Addams, the editor wrote a stinging, disdainful response:
There is something too cheap, easy, and glib about the frequent
pronouncement concerning some utterances by a woman that it is
'characteristically feminine.' Very often such an utterance is characteristic
not of femininity, but of foolish human nature; and generally the criticism is
to be avoided. But no hesitation or reservation is necessary in the case of
the delightful letter signed 'a Stenographer-Suffragist’ printed in The Times
yesterday. It is altogether feminine, and no man could be guilty of such
logic.9
Most newspapers were not as genteel in their editorial responses to Addams'

remark about the need for stimulants before the bayonet charges. Their comments were,
on the whole, vicious and base, and directly attacked women who they found incapable of
doing work outside of women's "separate sphere." The New York City Town Topics
commented: "Jane Addams is a silly, vain impertinent old maid, who may have done good
charity work at Hull House.. But is now meddling with matters far beyond her capacity."
The Houston Post remarked "Jane Addams is a good and useful woman, but there are
some jobs a woman cannot successfully handle. She seems to have tackled a job of this
kind when she undertook (the European tour). Miss Addams is an ancient spinster..."
The Louisville CourierJournal titled its editorial "A Foolish, Garrulous Woman," and
warned that Americans might be influenced by Addams' statement because "as absurd
though it is, (it) will be believed.. because Miss Addams makes it and because they know
nothing of war." The Anaconda (Montana)Standard suggested that being "womanlike,"
Addams had jumped to conclusions after hearing that "some soldier . . surreptitiously
(took) a drink before going into action." The Rochester Herald suggested that Addams
was "incapable of distinguishing sober truth from farcical invention," and insisted that it
was a man's duty to protect his woman, something Jane Addams could not understand
because she "knew nothing of the real claims of womanhood." The San Francisco Letter
wrote that the only comfort to be taken from Addams' unsupported assertion was that it
212
"originated in the caput of the chairman of the skirted delegates who gathered at the Hague
several months ago to draft peace suggestions for nations of w ar.. . (whose) only proper
resting place (is) in a waste paper basket." In other words, as an ignorant woman,
Addams' remarks were unworthy of being taken seriously.
Other than the Woman's Journal, NAWSA's house organ, few papers came out in
support of Jane Addams. The small town Chambersburg (PA) Register , however, was
brave enough to write after the bayonet brouhaha the following editorial regarding the
women's peace mission:
It demonstrated that women are neither the illogical, inconsistent, narrow

minded creatures imagined by those near-statesmen who deny them the
suffrage, nor the frivolous, babbling, hysterical beings dreamed of by the
poet; but just plain, rational human beings, who kept from the firing line by
accident of birth, and bound to the race by closer ties, have suffered with
keener anquish the depredations of war. 11
After chairing a WPP Executive Committee meeting on July 11, at which she stated
her "pretty definite conviction" that it might be more viable to convene an unofficial neutral
conference composed of non-government representatives with "broad international
experience and sympathies" than a government sanctioned conference (Addams was
unsure of Wilson's willingness to commit himself to initiating a formal conference),
Addams retreated with Mary Smith to Bar Harbor, Maine for a needed rest. She
telegraphed and wrote her niece, Marcet, daughter of her sister Alice, who had died in
March, that "I am quite frantic to see you. Mary sends her best love and hopes with all her
heart that you will come. There are so many associations with your mother that I find a
great comfort." Of course, with the controversy over the bayonet charge, Addams earned
only a slight respite. The first letter she received in Bar Harbor was from the Vice-Consul
of the French Embassy in New York who protested that "the thought of avenging their
womanfolk acts as a much more powerful inspiration than would absinth," which, he
stated, was illegal to drink in France. *2
213
Her friends in the women's, reform and peace movements, though, were quite
supportive of Addams. Ellen Henrotin wrote her how uplifted the Carnegie speech left her
and that she felt while listening to Addams that "God does not leave himself without a
mistress in this world." Elizabeth Glendower Evans, a vice-chair of the Massachusetts
WPP who attended the Hague Congress wrote, "I think your Carnegie Hall Address is
simply a marvel of beauty and wisdom . .We are looking for you to speak for us . . you
are bom to bear other people's burdens and you yourself would not asked to be
delivered." Owen Lovejoy, General Secretary of the National Child Labor Committee,
wrote to tell her what "a real pleasure (it was) to hear you the other evening." Lucia Ames
Mead congratulated Addams on her "words of wisdom" and asked for a copy to be
included in a book she planned to publish. Lillian Wald was more cavalier in her
response. Unfortunately, her letter to Addams of July 14 was damaged, but one can
make out "Richard Harding Davis and Everett Wheeler and other knights of war are
(damning?) your statement concerning the doping of the soldiers .. I believe you take the
Times, but if you do not, I will save some of the clippings, in case you should feel
inspired to answer."
Undaunted by the mainstream press' response to the Carnegie Hall speech, Paul
Kellogg printed it in its entirety in the July 17 issue of The Survey. Addams, worried
about repercussions, telegraphed him in advance, but on July 15th he wrote her "that you
need not feel concerned." Frederick Lynch, Secretary of the Church Peace Union,
however, wrote to Addams that given Davis' and Wheeler's accusations, "If I were you I
would bring forth my authorities at once. . I wish I could lay my hand on the (European)
paper which went into detail over the administering of liquor to the German troops just
before they charged.. but I can not for the life of me remember where I saw it." Addams
wrote to Kellogg a week and a half later giving him the references for her statement and in
214
August, speaking before the New York Chautaugua Society, she announced that her
informants were soldiers, officers, and well-placed civilians in England, France and
Germany. 14
Still bothered by the furor over her bayonet remark, Addams twice published in the
Independent a clarification of her statement She explained, "It never occurred to us who
heard this statement (of doping before the bayonet charge). . that this was done because
the men lacked courage. It was taken for granted that the stimulants inhibited the
sensibilities of a certain type of modem man to whom primitive warfare was especially
abhorrent." In October, John P. Gavit, the managing editor of the New York Evening
Post who was sympathetic to Addams' peace work, printed an interview with Addams
which not only gave her sources, but in which she admitted she was "startled and
disconcerted" by the uproar that followed the infamous remark. The painful sting of the
bayonet controversy lingered in Addams for quite a while. On November 8, she wrote to
Aletta Jacobs in the Netherlands, "I don't know know whether the ridiculous bayonet
story is still afloat in England." Addams enclosed copies of articles which defended her.
As late as August, 1917, when Paul Kellogg requested letters of introduction from
Addams to the people she knew in England for a trip he planned there, she wrote
regarding the names she gave him, "I am not so sure.. my name will prove a method of
approach (to) even all of these for I do not know how wide-spread(sic) the unhappy
bayonet story was in England." She would later write in The Second Twenty Years at
Hull-House that it was during the bayonet charge controversy and the journalistic attack
upon her at the time that, "I learned to use for my own edification a statement of Booker
Washington's: 'I will permit no man to make me to hate him.'" 15
Publicizing the Women's Peace Cause
215
Although shaken, Addams persevered in her campaign to enlist women in the
women's peace movement and to become more generally active in civic affairs. In the July
31 issue of Harper's Weekly, she wrote in the article, "Women, War and Babies": "As
women we are the custodians of the life of the ages and we will no longer consent to its
reckless destruction. We are particularly charged with the future of childhood, the care of
the helpless and the unfortunate, and we will no longer endure without protest that added
burden of maimed and invalid men and poverty-stricken women and orphans which war
places on us." She reported that war was destroying the home unit in the "highly
civilized" countries of Europe. Because military authority reigned in times of warfare,
Addams argued that "women can have no worthy place, no opportunity for their
development, and they cannot hope for authority in its council." For women to gain and
maintain power in society, they must protest against war because war inevitably, through
its leadership of military men who excluded women, relegated women p o w e r l e s s . *6
In August, the Ladies Home Journal published a column by Jane Addams entiltled
"As I see Women." Similar to her articles in the. 1890s, this was an appeal to women to
become more active in society. The column took the form of "an informal talk with a
friend," offering Addams the opportunity to say such things as "The only way to make a
woman bigger and broader is to put bigger and broader subjects into her mind," When
asked by "her friend" about men and women working together, Addams replied, "I am
strong in the belief that men and women should work together on all questions of public
interest... One result of equal suffrage is that women and men work shoulder to shoulder
and not apart." As Addams was to admit later in Second Twenty Years, this was not
always true: "There is no doubt that some groups (men's and women's) remain separated
too long, but that is not always the fault of the women!" *7 But in August, 1915, her goal
216
was to get as many women as possible, working alone or in concert with men, involved in
political affairs affecting the nation.
Addams' strongest indictment of men who insisted that women had no place in
international affairs came in the article "Women, War and Suffrage," published in The
Survey in November. She wrote that although men had, in some instances, granted
women the right to vote on matters of the regulation of contagious diseases, protection of
working children, pure foods, and in the election of local and national leaders, these same
men felt it "preposterous for women who cannot fight" to be involved in international
relations. Addams retorted that it was only because of their narrow nationalism that these
men could not see that the same problems on which women conferred locally were
international concerns: how to take care of those sick, elderly, poor and starving. Given
her experience at the Hague Congress, Addams believed that after the war, women,
perhaps more easily than men, could "subordinate. . an isolated nationalism to a general
international federation."
Addams was also not afraid to attack the press, which she felt was jingoistic. In
her article, "Peace and the Press," published in the Independent in early October, she
began by stating that public opinion was largely formed by data found in the press. She
explained that at the Hague Congress, reporters had invented non-existent controversies
for the sole purpose of undermining public confidence in the work of the conference.
About her visits to the warring countries, she wrote, "Everywhere (we) met men who felt
tied hand and foot by their inability to receive any information or to express any opinion
contrary to that which the press had decided to foster as in the interest of patriotism and a
speedy victory." She argued that even though there were individuals in belligerent
countries interested in pursuing peace, they were stymied by lack of information: "The
desire for peace filling many hearts (was) denied journalistic expression." Given her recent
217
go-around with the press over the bayonet remark, it was not surprising that although
referring to her trip abroad, she wrote: "I found myself filled with the conviction that the
next revolution against tyranny would have to be a revolution against the unscrupulous
power of the press." In her conclusion she asserted that the leading minds in Europe
"were not bent upon a solution nor to the great task that would bring international order
out of the present anarchy, because they were absorbed in preconceived judgments and
had become confused thru(sic) the limitations imposed upon the sources of
information."
Addams’ mission on her return to the United States was to insure that Americans
learned of the cry for peace in Europe and, in particular, that President Woodrow Wilson
hear directly from her lips the resolution of the Hague Congress calling on "Neutral
countries to take immediate steps to create a conference of neutral nations which shall
without delay offer continuous mediation." Woodrow Wilson planned to meet with
Addams upon her return and wrote to Lillian Wald on July 3 that he would see both of
them in Washington as soon as he returned to Washington from his summer vacation in
Cornish, New Hampshire. The meeting was arranged for July 21.20
Before seeing Wilson, Addams held a WPP Executive Committee meeting in New
York on July 11, visited with Carrie Chapman Catt to assure her of the connection the
International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace (ICWPP) made between suffrage
and achieving peace, and attended the Henry Street Settlement meeting on July 20, called
by Paul Kellogg and Lillian Wald to discuss the idea of a neutral mediation conference.
Crystal Eastman, Norman Angell, Felix Frankfurter, Owen Lovejoy, Frederick Lynch,
William Hull, Fannie Fern Andrews, Edward T. Devine, Hamilton Holt and Gertrude
Pinchot also attended the meeting.21
218
At the meeting Addams reported on her European experience telling the
representatives of the American peace movement that "a prolonged war would seat
militarism in the saddle; and that it would be much harder for the civil leaders to manage
the military after a great victory." As she had suggested at the WPP meeting on July 11,
she again argued for an unofficial negotiating conference. Arguing that "all the small
nations (had) axes to grind" and were "timid," she asked, "Why assume that the
governments are all that there is?" She concluded that because the European diplomats
had been "discredited" it was time for the people to have "a new deal. The people want to
do the real thing . . " The group established a committee of Oswald Garrison Villard,
Emily Greene Balch (who was still in Europe and due back in early August), Crystal
Eastman, Paul Kellogg, Edward Devine and Lillian Wald to draft a resolution in support
of Addams' proposal for an unofficial conference. It was decided that no action would be
taken until after Addams and Wald met with Wilson because the group desired to "be in
the position of perhaps backing up action determined by the President, or influencing him
in action or seeking action in some other q u a rte r."2 2
On her trip south to New York and Washington, before meeting with her
colleagues and Wilson, Addams stopped off to see the President's intimate advisor,
Colonel Edward House, at his residence at Manchester-by-the-Sea. House was jealous of
Wilson's attentions and saw himself as the sole individual capable of mediating peace in
Europe. But Jane Addams seemed to have faith in House's ability. House did not feel
likewise towards Addams, and wrote to Wilson on July 17 after meeting with her: "She
has accumulated a wonderful lot of misinformation in Europe. She saw von Jagow,
Grey, and many others, and, for one reason or another, they were not quite candid with
her, so she has a totally wrong impression." This was not true, for on August 26,
219
Edward Grey, who had shown interest in Addams1neutral mediation when she met with
him earlier in the summer in London, wrote to House:
"Several neutrals have pressed me about a Conference of neutral States ..
to undertake mediation whenever it is opportune. I have said that no one
could resent any efforts . . but that I did not think a Conference of neutrals
would be of much use unless the United States was in i t .. If die end of the
war is arrived at through mediation, I believe it must be through that of the
United States . . I look forward to the help of your country under the
guidance of the President and impelled by this section of public opinion in
those larger conditions of peace, which looking to the future, interests
neutrals as much as belligerents."23
Of course, Wilson was not privy to this note from Grey when he met with Addams
and Wald on July 21.
The meeting between the President and Addams and Wald was quite cordial and
lasted an hour. Although Addams related to the President the European statesmen's
interest in neutral mediation, the Times reported that Wilson "is understood to have told"
the women that he did not think the time had come for any definite effort by the neutrals to
bring about peace in Europe. Wilson did inform the women that he had studied the Hague
Resolutions and found them "by far the best formulation which up to the moment has been
put out by any body." The meeting having confirmed her doubts as to Wilson's interest in
instigating an official mediation conference, Addams returned to Chicago, and the Henry
Street group proceeded to formulate a proposal for an unofficial neutral c o n f e r e n c e . 2 4
Despite her recent bad press, Addams' return to her home town was triumphant.
Thirty-five of Chicago's largest organizations, including the Chicago Woman's Club, the
Union League Club, the Lincoln Center and the Y.W. and Y.M.C.A s, organized the
homecoming events with the goal of having as many Chicagoans as possible hear
personally from Jane Addams' about her peace mission abroad. On July 22, the day she
arrived by train in Chicago, The Chicago Evening Post editorialized, "It takes moral
courage to proclaim a dream of beauty when the world is obsessed by the nightmare of
220
blood." When she stepped off the Broadway Limited at Union depot, Addams was
surrounded by women friends, who, one after the other, embraced her and told her how
glad they were to have her home. Henry Morris, president of the Chicago Peace
Society(CPS) and Louis Lochner, the secretary of the CPS who had accompanied
Addams to the Hague, had boarded the train at an earlier stop at the Englewod station, so
that she would have escorts upon her arrival in Chicago. A delegation of city alderman
were also present at Union station to greet h e r .2 5
As soon as she returned by car to Hull-House, Addams granted an interview to the
Evening Post, and then in the evening she addressed three thousand people from the stage
of the Auditorium Theater. Reporting on the Women's Congress and their delegations to
the capitols, Addams said that it was difficult to negotiate peace when many citizens in
each country believed they were "engaged in a fight of righteousness." Regarding her
hopes for an early mediation conference, she stated, "I believe that not until some body of
men, without guile and without personal ambition, approaches this task, as strikes
sometimes are settled in this city, will negotiations begin; and only through such help as
that will this curious spell, this hypnotism be b r o k e n . " 2 6
A "Body of Men"
A "body of men" is exactly what Addams meant for when Kellogg and Wald wrote
to her that the Henry Street Group had formulated a plan for an unofficial neutral
conference to which she, Colonel House, Justice Charles Evans Hughes and former
President William Howard Taft would be the American delegates, she responded first to
Kellogg on July 27, "I don't think it would at all wise to put me on, or any other woman
for that matter. I am afraid the President is not 'for women' and I am also afraid that the
European countries would construe it as a very strange performance." She added,
somewhat contradictorily, "By the way, I hear that Tumulty is reported to have said that
221
"the president has been much impressed by Miss Addams' statement." She wrote to
Lillian Wald on July 29,
I think the outline for the resolutions is awfully nice. We have appointed
five people from the Woman's Peace party and five from the Chicago Peace
Society to work at them fuller - 1 will send them o n .. . It would not do to
put me, or any other woman for that matter, on that first committee. I
should like it, of course, but I know it would be a mistake. It would be too
much to expect the Germans to accept. . With my best love . . Always
affectionately yours. . .
When Wald pushed Addams about this decision, Addams responded bluntly, "I
shall have to insist that my name not be used as one of the negotiators. I am convinced
that it would mean absolute ruin to the entire plan."27 Although she had met with over a
dozen European heads of state during the past months, Jane Addams recommended
against herself, let alone any other woman, serving on an international negotiating team to
bring about peace. Although she told her American audiences that the European statesmen
genuinely paid heed to the women delegations to the capitols, she obviously believed - as
expressed to her closest colleagues Kellogg and Wald - that they were only taken seriously
in their role as women, as that half of the species which cared foremost about preserving
human life. Maybe she had been buffeted too hard by the recent press attacks on her
abilities as a woman, but she seemed to have recognized, realistically, that conservative
male statesmen did not consider women to be their equals at the negotiating table.
On August 6, Oswald Villard saw Secretary of State Robert Lansing to sound him
out about the Henry Street Group’s proposal for a "provisional commission, non-
diplomatic and yet international in character, which shall seek a means for bringing the
European war to an end by negotiation rather than exhaustion." The memorandum asked
that the American citizens selected for the commission receive the "sanction of President
Wilson, so that they may come to the belligerents with all possible weight and dignity."
Villard reported to Emily Greene Balch, who had just returned from Europe and had an
222
appointment with President Wilson for August 18, that, "My interview with Mr. Lansing
resulted about as I expected. He was not at all impressed with our arguments and did not
feel that the foreign governments were ready to consider mediation. He also thought that
Miss Addams had been more or less imposed upon." Lansing passed on the
memorandum to Wilson, who returned it to his secretary of state, asking, "Have (you)
any opinion about this proposal that you would be willing to express to me? I ask because
I know these good people are not going to let the matter rest until they bring it to a head in
one way or another. I must, I suppose, be prepared to say either Yay or Nay." Lansing
answered that he believed the belligerent nations would not "at the present time look with
favor on action by the neutral nations . . I strongly discourage any neutral movement
toward peace at the present time, because I believe it would fail and because, if it did fail,
we would lose our influence for the future." On August 19, the day after he saw Emily
Balch, the president responded succinctly to Lansing's memo: " .. I entirely agree.." As
noted by several Wilsonian historians, Woodrow Wilson had a distinct vision of a free,
democratic world order based on parliamentary procedure and capitalism. He was a
president who would never want to jeopardize his leadership role in determining the
international order after the war was finally o v e r .2 8
The Women and the President
By mid-August, Jane Addams had returned with Mary Smith to their Maine
summer residence, Hull's Cove. She was hoping that Emily Balch and Lillian Wald, as
well as her niece, Marcet (whom she warned, "I hope you won't be too bored with our
peace talk, but it is a nice house and you can flee when it gets too bad") would join them
there after Balch's interview with the president, but she became quite ill with bronchitis
and had to cancel her friends' visit. Aletta Jacobs was also arriving in the states at the end
223
of August and Mary Smith wrote to Balch that Addams "secretly thinks she might stagger
to New York (to greet Jacobs), but I know there is no possibility."29
On August 19, Balch hand wrote a four page letter to Addams about her meeting
with the president. She reported that Wilson said he would "not wait to be asked to
mediate, if he saw an opportunity to be of use he would take it," but, she went on, he was
unenthusiastic about unofficial mediation. He admonished Balch that the "out and out
pacifist" would never be able to successfully negotiate with belligerents who "came at the
problem from the point of view of military advantage." Although he told Balch that he
could not meet with Aletta Jacobs because she was a foreigner, over the course of the fall,
he would not only meet with Jacobs but also other ICWPP representatives Chrystal
Macmillan, Rosika Schwimmer and Ethel Snow den. 30 Possibly, with the 1916
presidential campaign not far off, Wilson did not want to alienate the reformers who could
help him win re-election to the office which, in the long run, enabled him to maintain a
position of power in world politics.
Although Addams remained ill with pleurisy throughout August and most of
September, when Jacobs wrote to her that she had "a most important messsage" from her
government - the Netherlands wanting to know Wilson's attitude towards a congress of
neutral governments - Addams wrote to Wilson to ask him to see Jacobs. The president
arranged for an interview to be held on September 15. As soon as she had seen the
president, Jacobs reported to Addams that he was "very kind and manlike as well as
gentlemanlike. His answers were very diplomatique. In short it was: the U.S. was now in
such great difficulties with the belligerents that a definite answer in one way or another
(regarding a neutral conference) was impossible." Wilson, at this time, was also being
influenced by Robert Lansing, who was unfavorable to neutral mediation and had been
more brusque with Jacobs and Emily Balch when they met with him on August 31. Balch
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wrote to Oswald Villard that the Lansing interview was "a disheartening experience," and
that Lansing's attitude was not only "absolutely amoral and cynical (unsuitable) for any
large or constuctive action in international affairs," but also that his comments to the two
women leaders were "on an unspeakably lower moral level" than those made "by any of
the European statesmen" with whom the women had met on their visits to the foreign
capitals. Lansing, Balch wrote Villard, rejected outright continuous neutral mediation by
the U.S., but said that the American government would not "put obstacles in the way of a
conference of neutrals if one were called."31
What the women did not know was that on September 6, Lansing sent a chit to
Wilson warning the president that the Allies were paying for war materiel with "American
securities .. soon to be exhausted." Lansing, whose first priority was the economic well
being of the U.S., urged Wilson to float loans to the Allies. He queried the president:
could the U.S. "afford to let a declaration as to our conception of the 'true spirit of
neutrality,' made in the first days of the war, stand in the way of our national interests .
.?" In August, the government authorized the house of J.P. Morgan to float a loan of five
hundred million dollars to allow England and France to buy munitions from the U.S., thus
abandoning the policy of American neutrality. The Americans provided resources to the
Allies which Germany was unable to o b t a i n . 3 2 Henceforth, It would be economically
critical to the United States that the Allies win the war.
Also increasingly afoot in the United States during 1915 was the preparedness
movement, led in large part by former president Theodore Roosevelt. The movement
gained force during the early months of 1915 once Germany established a war zone and
begin its submarine attacks on neutral as well as belligerent ships and England tightened
her blockade against Germany, both steps creating increased incidents with the U.S. on
the high seas and in the commercial arena. In the winter of 1915, Congress had considered
225
appropriating $45,000,000 for more battleships and Roosevelt called for the creation of
an American Legion composed of 250,000 volunteers to serve as an army reserve.
Although neither proposal came to fruition, Wilson, feeling pressured by the "nationalists”
- in particular the National Security League which staged a large preparedness rally in New
York in June - requested Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels and Secretary of War
Lindley Garrison during the summer of 1915 to develop programs to provide military
defense for the U.S. In a memorandum to Daniels on July 21, Wilson stated that he
wanted a navy which would be equal to the "most efficient and most practically serviceable
navy" in the world and the military program "should be of such a kind as to commend
itself to every patriotic and practical m a n ." 3 3
Although the anti-militarists, including Jane Addams, attempted to persuade Wilson

in August to hold congressional hearings on the preparedness issue, Wilson was more
influenced by his advisors such as Colonel House. House told Wilson that he believed it
was "a terrible gamble" for the U.S. to rely for its safety on the Allies and that America
should have prepared "actively when this war first broke loose." He wrote Wilson in mid-
July that if the United States had armed immediately upon the outbreak of the war, "by
now we would have been in a position almost to enforce peace." On October 20, 1915
Secretary Daniels announced an ambitious naval build-up, and on November 4, Wilson
made his preparedness plans public in a speech before the Manhattan Club. He said, "We
have it in mind to be prepared, not for war but only for defense.. The mission of America
in the world is essentially a mission of peace and good will among men." His program
entailed an expansion of the regular army and an establishment witin the next three years
of a new continental army by training "a force of 400,000 citizen soldiers." In December,
Wilson followed up these initial plans with a request to Congress for $500 million for the
226
navy in order to build ten battleships and one hundred submarines over the next ten
years.34
As Wilson privately made military preparations within government circles, Jane

Addams and the other leaders of the women's peace movement persevered in lobbying the
president for neutral mediation and against any kind of American military preparedness
program. On October 15, Addams, Jacobs, Balch, Chrystal Macmillan and Rosika
Scwhimmer promulgated a manifesto - with special personal copies sent to Wilson and
Colonel House - which reiterated the story of the visits to the European statesmen and their
opennesss to a neutral mediation conference. The manifesto specified that "As women, it
was possible for us, from belligerent and neutral nations alike, to meet in the midst of war
and to carry forward an interchange.. between capitals which were barred to each other.
It is now our duty to make articulate our convictions." To further influence the president,
the WPP leaders circulated a peace petition among women's organizations which asked the
president to "create a conference of neutrals nations . (to) .offer continuous mediation."
On November 8, women's organizations across the country mailed thousands of these
petitions to President W i l s o n . 3 5
In response to Daniels' October 20 announcement of a naval buid-up, the WPP

officers wrote a letter to the president on October 29 which addressed the issue of
preparedness. Signed by Addams, Lucia Ames Mead, Anna Garlin Spencer, Alice
Thacher Post and Sophonsiba Breckinridge, the letter stated, in part:
Feeling sure that you wish to get from all sources the sense of the American
people in regard to great national questions, officers of the Woman's Peace
Party venture to call to your attention certain views which they have reason
to believe are widespread, although finding no adequate expression in the
press . . We believe in real defense against real dangers, but not in a
preposterous "preparedness" against hypothetical dangers. .. At this crisis
of die world, to establish a "citizen soldiery" and enormously increase our
fighting equipment would inevitably make all nations fear instead of trust us
.. It is obvious that increased war preparations in the United States would
227
tend to disqualify our National Executive from rendering the epochal service
which this world crisis offers for the establishment of permament p e a c e ." 36
Faced with the facts of Wilson's call for military preparedness and his reluctance to
initiate a formal neutral conference, the WPP, under Addams' leadership, had to decide on
priorities and strategy for the upcoming months. The first annual WPP conference was
scheduled to meet in Washington, D.C. January 8,9 and 10, and the executive committeee
wanted to submit a plan of action to its membership. On November 8, Alice Thacher Post
wrote to Addams that she had taken tea with former Secretary of State William Jennings
Bryan and his wife, and that she and the former secretary "talked a great deal about
Mediation. He wishes the president would take it up, but hardly expects it. In default of
official backing he thinks a conference of large-minded citizens from neutral countries
might be called, and could do useful work. His idea seemed exactly like ours .." Louis
Lochner and David Starr Jordan met with Wilson on November 12 and also found the
president unenthusiastic regarding their proposal for official neutral mediation.
Discouraged, but not yet hopeless, the women activists found support for their idea of a
neutral conference from a highly unlikely source, the automobile magnate Henry Ford,
and his wife, C l a r a . 3 7
The Fords' Interest in Peace

Rebecca Shelly, a young pacifist in Detroit who had attended the Hague Congress,
arranged for a mass peace demonstration in Detroit for November 3. She wrote to
Addams in October asking her to speak at the rally (she also invited Schwimmer and
Macmillan to speak) but Addams declined the invitation. Schwimmer agreed to address the
meeting, which finally occurred on November 5 and received good local press coverage.
Schwimmer so captivated the large audience that Shelly wanted her to meet with Henry
Ford, who had himself announced in August, 1915 that he "would give half his fortune if
it would shorten the war by one day." Shelly believed that the passionate Schwimmer
228
could persuade Ford into supporting the mediation conference and with the help of Edwin
Pipp, editor of the Detroit News, an interview was arranged between Ford and
Scwhimmer for November 17. Pipp wired Addams on November 18:
Madam Schwimmer had an interview with Ford yesterday. Mr Fords (sic)

attorney . . hostile, skeptical. . Would you kindly wire . . at our expense
for public or private use a statement as to her work . . Our Washington
correspondent has arranged with the president for an interview with Madam
Schwimmer and Mrs. Snowden to take place in near future. In the
meantime we are anxious to have the press of the country take a more
friendly attitude toward the peace movement. .We would be please (sic) to
have you send us a statement to be printed in our own paper and forwarded
to others.. ."38
Louis Lochner met with Ford and Schwimmer the following day and within the
week, Ford traveled to New York to meet over lunch with representatives from the WPP
and the Henry Street Group, which included Jane Addams, Paul Kellogg, George
Kirchwey and Oswald Garrison Villard. On November 2 0 , the Times reported that Ford
would confer with the President Wilson to discuss "the plan to have the United States join
a conference of neutral nations for the purpose of bringing about peace in Europe." Ford
and Lochner met with Wilson on November 2 3 , and although the millionaire entrepreneur
offered total financial backing for an official neutral commission with American delegates
to be appointed by the president, Wilson told his visitors that if he committed himself to
the women's proposal, he would be prevented from adopting a better one, should it later
come along. Ford then announced to the president that he had chartered a boat to take
delegates to a mediation conference in Europe, and even if the president was uninterested
in taking advantage of Ford's generosity, Ford would see to it that a neutral conference
took place. Wilson, according to Ford, told the auto magnate that he had the right to
finance such an unofficial conference and wished him God's s p e e d . 3 9
Hearing of Ford's plan for chartering the Oscar II, Jane Addams "was at once
alarmed." She explained to Ford that the delegates could pay their own way to the
229
conference and that they needed his help in organizing the conference, not in transporting
delegates. Addams wrote in Peace and Bread in Time of War, her 1922 memoir of the
war years that "Mr. Ford's response was to the effect that the more publicity the better and
the sailing of the ship itself would make known the conference more effectively than any
other method could possibly do." Aside from her concern over ridicule from the press
over the Ford "adventure", which was indeed forthcoming, Addams was worried that a
"crusading journey to Europe with all expenses paid could attract many fanatical and
impecunious reformers" rather than serious and experienced high-calibre peace activists.
She had also not yet given up all hope of an official conference.^
The interview between the president and Ethel Snowden and Rosika Schwimmer,
which Pipp had alluded to in his telegram to Addams on November 18, was scheduled for
November 26. Schwimmer, with the support of Jane Addams, prevailed upon Clara Ford
to donate $10,000 toward a telegram campaign of messages from the mothers of America
requesting that the president sponsor a neutral conference. The telegrams were to arrive at
the White House on the 26th to coincide with Schwimmer's and Snowden's meeting with
Wilson. Enclosing an initial check of $2,000, Clara Ford wrote to Addams on November
22: "I think our Mother's day’ will be a huge success . . Wishing you every success in
this humane work." The campaign was coordinated by the New York City WPP but the
telegram that went out to all WPP members and dozens of women's organizations,
including such groups as the W.C.T.U., the National League for Women Workers, the
Women’s Catholic Societies, the Nurses Associations, the Women's Trade Unions, the
D.A.R., the Women Officers of Local Granges, the Y.W.C.A.s and the GFWC, was
signed by Jane Addams. It read:
For the sake of all the anxious mothers dreading that their sons may be
added to the tens of million men already killed or crippled in this war will
you strengthen the appeal to be made next Friday by Ethel Snowden of
England and Rosika Schwimmer of Hungary to President Wilson by
230
telegraphing him immediately at Washington somewhat as follows: We
urge a conference of neutral nations dedicated to finding a just settlement of
the war.41
On November 26,12,000 telegrams from women across the country arrived at the
White House. Also on that day, a large rally was held before Snowden and Schwimmer
met with the president, and during their forty-five minute conference, those who attended
the demonstration held a silent vigil outside the White House. Unmoved by the women's
entreaties for a peace conference, Wilson remained non-commital to the idea of an official
conference.42
Plans for the Ford Peace Ship moved ahead, for as Ford had announced to the
press on November 25, "We are going to get behind the work done by the Hague peace
conference of women .. It is my earnest hope to create a machinery where those who so
desire can turn to inquire what can be done to establish peace.. It is an experiment in the
right direction." Explaining that he had never before addressed a public audience, he told
those at the November 26 Washington rally, "I simply want you to remember the slogan,
'out of the trenches by Christmas, never to go back.'" Schwimmer and Louis Lochner
became the main organizers of the expedition, the plan being that the Oscar II delegation
would visit the neutral capitals, publicize the neutral conference in Europe and convince
prominent neutral citizens to attend the conference which would serve as an international
clearing house for mediation proposals. The sailing date was set for December 4.
Schwimmer had also, supposedly, persuaded Ford to donate $200,000 to the ICWPP.43
Jane Addams tried to have some influence on whom was to be invited to travel on
the Oscar II, and although she remained unsure of the competence of many of the people
who participated in the Ford expedition (many were young students with little or no
experience in international relations), she felt she had to support the attempt at a peace
conference. As she later wrote in Peace and Bread.
231
I was fifty-five years old in 1915; I had already 'learned from life,1to use
Dante's great phrase, that moral results are often obtained through die most
unexpected agencies; . .It was quite possible that with Mr. Ford's personal
knowledge of the rank and file of working men he had shrewdly interpreted
the situation.. I still felt committed to it and believed that at worst it would
be a protest from the rank and file of America. .It (was clear) that whoever
became associated with the ship would be in for much ridicule and social
opproprium, but th a t. . seemed a small price to pay for a protest against
w a r .4 4
Although Addams supported the peace ship and planned to travel on it to Europe -
the ICWPP leaders in Europe were greatly anticipating her arrival - other WPP officers
were opposed to the expedition. Anna Garlin Spencer wrote Addams after a visit with
Lochner and Schwimmer that "the whole atmosphere.. seems. .quite removed from that
somber and humble attitude of mind which can alone enable one to be of real service in
this awful tim e. . Dear Miss Addams, think very seriously before you go with Mr. Ford.
I believe any man may go and have influence with him, and, if strong enough, with the
world. Any woman, however, who goes will I believe be compromised by Mme.
Schwimmer.. Some inferior women will surely go, and they will be specially under her
influence." Spencer had little faith that women with less experience in the peace
movement than she or Addams could resist Schwimmer’s flamboyant and powerful ability
to influence those around her. Crystal Eastman, younger and more of a feminist than
Spencer was less concerned with a man's ability and influence overpowering a woman's,
but she still did not want Schwimmer representing "the one side of the belligerents and no
English woman aboard." She wrote to Addams that the New York branch was "glad that
the Woman's Peace Party is not officially connected with (the ship) in any w a y ." 4 5
On December 4, the Ford expedition left New York harbor without Jane Addams.
Although there was speculation that she was simply backing out at the last minute,
Addams was actually hospitalized on December 2 in Chicago with a severe infection,
eventually diagnosed as tuberculosis of the kidney, which forced her to convalesce for
over a month. As of December 9, still hoping that she might join the peace expedition
232
later, Addams had Harriet Thomas write to Clara Ford (who was in staying in New York)
of her condition and her inability to make any definite plans. It was not until December 21
that Mary Rozet Smith could write to Florence Kelly, who had offered to accompany
Addams on the ship, that "J.A. is in her own bed at Hull-House this morning and she
looks very comfortable and happy. Dr. Herrick will not let her come to (my) house which
has harbored several hard colds of late and is considered infectious. She was so touched
and pleased by your suggestion of supporting her through the Ford trip. It was truly a
noble o f f e r . " 4 6
Unaware that Addams was ill, Aletta Jacobs wrote to her on December 4 to inform
her that the Dutch government planned to call soon for the organization of a committee of
neutrals. Regarding the Ford expedition, she said, "I feel very much afraid . .that the
Ford's troupe will spoil all what can be done here just now .. .1 hope you will arrive here
on your own way and not make yourself or our work suspicious by coming by the Ford's
ship." Addams wired back to Jacobs on December 12, "Still in hospital . .Think
Committee (ICWPP) should be kept distinct from Ford undertaking." Both Jacobs and
Chrystal Macmillan were concerned about the alleged Ford donation to the ICWPP.
Macmillan wrote to Addams on December 17, "Dr. Jacobs thought this money should not
be spent or accepted until we were quite sure that no conditions were attached to which we
could not agree." As the money never reached the Committee, Ford never paying it to
Schwimmer, their worries were u n n e c e s s a r y .47
Once the Oscar II arrived in Christiania, Norway, Ford’s health broke down and
he became disillusioned with his proposed peace mission. Having not achieved his goal of
getting the boys out of the trenches by Christmas, he departed on the Norwegian liner
Bergensfjord for the United States on the morning of December 24. Addams wired
Schwimmer on December 26, " . . have never wavered in my allegiance .. have faith in
233
ford(sic) expedition but considered it impossible for international committee (ICWPP) to
join in nongovernmental conference without formal votes of full committee earnestly hope
individual members will cooperate as i (sic) myself have done from the beginning." In her
usual role of the negotiating leader, Addams seemed to be trying to keep all attempts for
peace on track. Her ambivalence about the expedition was in evidence in a letter she wrote
to David Starr Jordan on December 28, "We were all delighted when Mme. Schwimmer
succeeded in interesting Mr. Ford in the Conference of Neutrals, but the notion of a
separate ship was of course not part of the original plan (which) continued to change and
almost no one on our carefully selected original list actually sailed on the Oscar I I .. In
spite of all of this, I still feel that there is an element of popular appeal. which may be of
great value, and that we can perhaps pull off a Conference of Neutrals." Addams'
indecision regarding the Ford adventure may have been due to her illness and generally
feeling overwhelmed at the time. She was an active person, used to assuming power and
control of situations, and her illness prevented her from doing so in this instance.
When Ford returned to the States on January 4, he told the press that his only
connection with the expedition was "a financial one," asserting that it had all been Jane
Addams idea. The usually successful entrepreneur wanted to distance himself from what
he viewed as a failure, but Addams spoke the truth when she retorted that she had not
spoken to Ford until after he had met with Schwimmer and that she knew nothing of the
Oscar II until after Ford had chartered the boat.48
Despite Ford's departure, a Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation, under
Lochner, Jenkin Lloyd Jones' and Schwimmer's direction, was officially established in
Stockholm on January 24, 1916. There were five delegates and five alternates from
Denmark, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. Jane Addams
was designated as an American delegate, but when her doctors ordered her at the end of
234
January to go to California for two months for "outdoor living (and) serum treatment" to
cure her tuberculer condition (now spread beyond her kidney), Emily Greene Balch agreed
to take her place. By March, Louis Lochner decided he could no longer tolerate
Schwimmer's autocratic methods and arrogation of power and after a row, she resigned
from the Conference. The Conference, however, remained steadfast in its goal of
mediation and issued appeals to belligerent and neutral countries for a negotiated settlement
of the war. The appeals generated discussion in European parliaments and among prime
ministers, but did not move beyond those hearings. Addams continued to support the
work of the Conference until Henry Ford, feeling he had to back "the president 'to the
limit1" at the end of January, 1917 (when U.S. entrance into the war was imminent and
Wilson cut off diplomatic relations with Germany), discontinued all financial aid to the
Conference bringing its proceedings abruptly to a c l o s e .49
Militarism at Home
The other key issue, besides mediation, which the WPP dealt with during the years
1915 through 1917 was that of American military preparations for war. Upon receiving
the WPP officers' letter of October 29 regarding preparations, Wilson wrote to Addams
that he valued receiving "such expressions of opinion, and I hope with all my heart that I
may be enabled to follow a wise and conservative course in the great matter about which
you have spoken so candidly." On November 11, Addams developed her reasons for
opposing preparedness, point by point, in a letter to Walter Fisher, who served with
Addams on the executive committee of the CPS. She wrote that first, the U.S. was only
reacting in panic to "hypothetical enemies;" second, the war would alter the type of
defences to be employed in the future and it was therefore not a propitious time for large
expenditures on "old-fashioned" war equipment; third, a possible result of the war would
be a general reduction in armaments and so again, it was not the appropriate time for a
235
military build-up; fourth, if the U.S. increased her armed forces, other governments,
especially those in South America and Asia, whose people could hardly afford the taxation
caused by higher military expenditures, would feel obligated to follow suit; and finally,
she argued that with the U.S. "entering the ring, as it were, even hypothetically . . it
would make it much more difficult for her to act in bringing pressure to bear to end the
war." She publicly announced these arguments against preparedness at a Social Service
Club discussion and then published them in a letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune on
November 18.50
The first annual meeting of the WPP, held in Washington during the second week
of January, 1916, was attended by one hundred and fifty delegates from New England,
the South and the Middle West. A public meeting drew an audience of 2,500 and raised
$10,000 for the work of the party. The total WPP membership figure at the time was
20,000. Jane Addams, who came east though she was still not well, was re-elected
national president. Following her leadership and that of the executive committee, the
delegates adopted a legislative program which called foremost for "no increased
appropriations for war preparations." It asked the government to take action to eliminate
all private profit from the manufacture of armaments and requested the U.S. Congress to
appoint a committee to both investigate and have public hearings on military expenditures.
Refusing to drop the idea of a formal neutral conference, the program urged the
government to immediately proceed in calling a conference of neutral nations (in doing so
the WPP was endorsing House Joint Resolution 32 (H.J.Res. 32), presented by
Representative Curry, which mandated such action). The delegates also adopted a change
in the WPP constitution which formally designated the WPP as "The Section of the United
States to the International Committee of Permament Peace."51
236
Lucia Ames Mead, re-elected national secretary, accurately reflected the mood of
both the meeting and the country when she said, "We are non-voters, working for an
unpopular cause at a time when the acts of America may shape the policy of the world."
Already, Carrie Chapman Catt, who was recently elected president of the NAWSA,
decided she could not attend the WPP meeting because as she wrote to Harriet Thomas
(executive secretary of the WPP), "Like an unwilling lamb led to slaughter, I have been
offered in the interests of peace upon the altar of suffrage." Addams was greatly
"downcast" at Catt's disaffection, but not even a letter begging Catt to attend the meeting
could dissuade the suffrage leader from her d e c i s i o n .52
Representing the WPP, Addams, Mead, Crystal Eastman and Sophonisba

Breckinridge testified on January 11 before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
regarding H.J. 32. Whereas Eastman and Mead were quite direct in their testimony,
Addams was, at the beginning, almost contrite before the male members of congress.
After Mead and Eastman spoke, and before she introduced Breckinridge, Addams
apologized to the committee, "I find myself a little embarrassed, because we seem to be
instructing you." When Addams turn came to speak she told the committee of her
interviews with the European statesmen and suggested that the ICWPP delegates "were
very well received everywhere - possibly because they (the statesmen) were willing to talk
to women, because they thought we were not of much account. . " She said that the
leaders of the belligerent countries were afraid to talk of peace because that would lessen
the enthusiasm for war, which was necessary for the belligerents to maintain for the
duration of the war: "If a government is in a war, it can not do anything except go on," she
said. Her central argument for why the U.S., as a neutral nation, must intervene to stop
the fighting was that, "being more outside than the other nations, (it) would be safe to act
without compromising itself."
237
Toward the end of her testimony, Representative Henry Cooper of Wisconsin
raised the press allegations that the ICWPP delegation "was received by representatives of
belligerent countries - well, almost with ridicule; in fact that you were not received at all,
except At which point, Addams interrupted the congressman. By now, the leader of
the women’s peace movement was angry and exasperated,
I know people have said that. I can not understand why they do. They say
two things. First, that we were received very lightly, and second that we
were received politely because we were ladies, and bowed in and out, and
pleasant things were said to us on that account. Von Bethmann-Holweg,
the Imperial Chancellor of Germany, had lost his son a few weeks before,
in the trenches. He was a solemn, overwelmed man and to say that he
received us lightly . .is perfectly absurd. If people only knew how the men
in those countries feel. . They are not doing anything lightly; they are doing
everything in the shadow of death and destruction.. The Pope. .said he did
not see why women had kept quiet so long. He said, 'For heaven's sake,
why do not women express themselves; it is woman's business to oppose
war.' I do not mean that is the Pope's exact lanquage, but that is practically
what he said, and that is what was said in substance everywhere we went.
Upon completion of her last sentence, Henry Flood of Virginia, Chairman of the
Committee, announced that it had heard the suggestions of Jane Addams with pleasure and
he adjourned the h e a r in g .5 3 Two days later, when Addams alone, as president of the
WPP, went before the House Committee on Military Affairs to testify on military
preparedness, she had more pointed remarks to make about the differences between men
and women in their customs and attitudes toward war.
Addams suggested that the "Gentleman of the committee. .postpone this plan for a
large increase of the Army and Navy until the war is over." She continued:
I do not like to say that men are more emotional than women, but whenever
I go to a national political convention and hear men cheering for a candidate
for 1 hour and 15 minutes, it seems to me that men are somewhat
emotional. I think the same is true in regard to this war; men feel the
responsibility of defending the country and they feel it is 'up to them' to
protect the women and children, and therefore they are much more likely to
catch this war spirit and respond to this panic.. .women are not quite so
easily excited. They go on performing their daily tasks, in spite of
hypothetical enemies, and they are not so easily alarmed. I venture to say
this in face of the fact that some women are organizing themselves into
238
defense leagues. A woman in the midst of household duties, occupied with
the great affairs of birth and death, does not so quickly have her
apprehensions aroused because possibly sometime, somewhere, somebody
might attack the shores of the American Republic.
To counter the argument that preparation was needed for defense and not attack,
Addams pointed out that all wars were considered defensive by their perpetrators. But in
this testimony Addams would not lay aside the difference between men and women.She
saw it as her fundamental responsibility to represent women who were againstall
preparations for war: "Perhaps our attitude indicates a survival of the old difference
between woman surrounded by a group of helpless children, who in case of supposed
danger wants to move a little more slowly than the man who rushes out as soon as the
bushes begin to move, quite convinced that an enemy is in a m b u s h . " 5 4
Although male colleagues in the peace movement such as William Jennings Bryan
and David Starr Jordan wrote to congratulate Addams on her performance before the
Committee on Military Affairs, many newspapers crudely attacked her for once again
stepping beyond the sphere of women's work. The Charleston Courier commented that in
her appearance before the committee she did not promote "the doctrine that women are just
as competent as men to deal with large affairs of government.. .members of the male sex
have taken the same poor case and done infinitely better." The Newark Morning Star
averred that "the simplicity of Miss Jane Addams in her talk . . was refreshing in its
artlessness." The Minneapolis Journal officiously weighed in, "Someone ought to lead
Miss Jane Addams back to social service. As the head of Hull House (she) has done great
work. As an advisor on adequate National defense. .she is a joke." One writer suggested
that the best thing that could happen to Addams was "a strong, forceful husband who
would lift the burden of fate from her shoulders and get h er.. interested .. in things dear
to the heart of women who have homes and plenty of time on their h a n d s . " 5 5
239
While in Washington, Addams took copies of Women at the Hague, the
compilation of essays on the ICWPP Conference and delegations to the European
statesmen written by herself, Emily Balch and Alice Hamilton, to the California
Congressman William Kent, whose wife was active in the WPP. She asked him to
distribute the book to senators, representatives and cabinet members, hopeful that its
contents might influence them against military preparedness. He delivered the books, but
like the sheaf of responses from the politicians which he enclosed in his letter to Addams
in April, he wrote to her that although he had a "fundamental belief in the peace
propaganda, as affording the only relief for a stupid, tired and suffering world," he felt the
necessity "of being prepared to resist.. interference with our home affairs, by strength of
armament." In a review of Women at the Hague, the Providence Journal called Addams'
statements "hysterical utterances," stressing that her past noble work was no excuse for
her present "unpardonable calumnies of brave men."56
1916 was, of course, a re-election campaign year for Woodrow Wilson and he
walked a tightrope, essaying to please both the nationalist preparedness movement and the
progressive reformers who wanted the U.S. to remain neutral and offer mediation. He did
agree to meet with Jane Addams during her Washington visit in January. While talking,
he pulled out the resolutions from the Hague Conference which Addams had given him
back in July. She noticed they had been much handled and the president allegedly told
her, "You see I have studied these resolutions . . I consider them by far the best
formulation which up to the moment has been put up by anybody." But waiting to hear
from Colonel House, who was at the time in Europe trying to negotiate an early settlement
between Germany and England, Wilson would still not commit himself to an official
conference.57
240
After House's attempt at mediation failed, Wilson crisscrossed the country in late
January and February, speaking in favor of preparedness. The President assured his
audiences that although America would never become militaristic, it was crucial that she be
prepared to protect the Western Hemisphere and the country's national ideals. Wilson was
successful in winning support for his military plans and in May, 1916, the Congress
passed the Army Reorganization bill which doubled the Regular Army to 206,169, with
provision for expansion to 254,000 men and 110,000 officers. The bill also increased the
number of units in the army, expanded the National Guard to 425,000 and called for
construction of a nitrate plant to cost a maximum of $20,000,000. To the ignorance of
much of the Congress, the bill included the "Hayden Joker," which called for conscription
during wartime. By August, the Congress passed both a navy bill and shipping act which
enlarged the merchant m a r in e .5 8
Wilsonian Politics
Simultaneous with his preparedness campaign, Wilson moved forward to gain the
support of the progressive reformers by enacting most of the measures he had promised
them during his 1912 election campaign. As the pre-eminent Wilsonian scholar, Arthur
Link, remarked, within the first six months of 1916, Wilson became "a new political
creature." Between January and June, he rammed legislation through Congress which he
had previously opposed during his administration: a farm or rural credits bill, a federal
employees' workmen's compensation act (the Kem-McGillicuddy bill), the Adamson Act
which established an eight hour day for railroad workers (some reformers optimistically
viewed this as a governmental step toward nationalizing the railroads), the Keating-Owen
bill which illegalized interstate transport of goods produced by children under fourteen,
and the creation of a tariff commission. Walter Lippmann, the leading liberal journalist of
241
the Progressive Era, declared that in 1916 Woodrow Wilson "had grown 'from a laissez-
faire Democrat into a constructive nationalist"'^
Wilson's Republican opponent, Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes met
with and attempted to win the support of the progressive peace activists, but when on
September 1, he attacked hyphenated-Americans, charged Wilson with "shrinking from

duty," and endorsed a speech by Theodore Roosevelt, which demanded a vast increase in
the army, the anti-militarists realized that they had little choice but to back Wilson's bid
for re-election. Addams was ill for most of 1916 and unable to participate in much peace
work. But she took it upon herself to write to Wilson in early August and asked him to
meet with a large delegation from the Stockholm Neutral Conference and the American
Neutral Conference Committee(ANCC), an American spin-off of the Stockholm
Conference which continued to lobby Wilson for mediation (Addams served as a vice
chair of the organization). The President agreed to do so and met on August 30 with
twenty high-ranking peace activists, including Emily Greene Balch, David Starr Jordan,
Rebecca Shelly and Hamilton Holt Although Wilson left them with the impression that he
would act alone in the future, he had at least expressed sympathy for their goals and gave
them greater reason to endorse him over H u g h e s . ^ 0
On October 14, Jane Addams announced to the press that she would support the re-
election of Woodrow Wilson. Her endorsement acknowledged Wilson’s "respect for the
convictions of the individual and a determination to give him a full opportunity." She also
joined several dozen social workers in a full-page ad in The Survey on October 28,
declaring their support for Wilson because of his domestic reform and his "diplomacy of
reason and negotiation" . Wilson expressed his gratitude to Addams in a letter from
"Shadow Lawn," on October 17, "I cannot deny myself the pleasure of telling you how
proud I am and how much strengthened I feel that I should have your approval and
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support. I know that you always act with such genuineness that no support could hearten
me more than yours." Although Addams was too sick to undertake much campaigning for
Wilson, she made a few appearances on his behalf, and after he won re-election, his
invitation to her to attend a White House dinner party was greatly prized by Addams long
after the event. 61
Much was made in the papers during the 1916 election about women participating
in the campaign - the issue of women's proper role in politics and world affairs was
increasingly before public view during the progressive years, but it was also discussed in
private as evidenced by an exchange between Addams and Ellery Sedgwick, editor of The
Atlantic Monthly, during the fall of 1916. Jane Addams was interested in arranging for
Sedgwick to publish some letters written between Emily Balch and other leading women
peace activists regarding the mediaton movement. Sedgwick replied to Addams: "If the
letters are to be published in The Atlantic, the names should not be divulged. It is rather
shameful to say so, but it would add weight to the discussion (in many people's minds),
if readers were commonly to think that the writers were men. Certainly there should be no
hint as to the sex ..." Addams answered three days later, "I am glad you cared for the
correspondence and I quite agree that there is no necessity for indicating the sex of the
writers." Although the 1990 feminist might take umbrage at Addams accommodation to
Sedgwick, given the opprobrium directed at Addams for her pacifist stance - especially as
a woman activist - it cannot be considered surprising that she was willing to accept
publicity on mediation even if the women did not receive the credit. However, when
Sedgwick wrote her two months later, requesting an article on whether women voted
according to their family’s predilections and stated that he believed "women are incline(d)
to pacifism, and that they are not as much interested in foreign politics as men are,"
Addams responded curtly, "There has been so much unjustified speculation in regard to
243
the women's vote that I shall have to decline to add one more article." Letting the good
editor know that she felt women were, indeed, quite relevant to international politics, she
informed him that she would consider writing an article after the war when women's vote
on consription and war measures affecting neutral countries would "afford valuable
material."62
Woman's Memory
Although Jane Addams was unable during 1916 to maintain her previous breakneck
activist pace, she had time to write, and in the fall, Macmillan published The Long Road of
Woman's Memory, a remarkable tribute to women’s traditions and how they sustained
women through periods of painful struggle and adaptation to difficult life situations.
Written after experiencing first hand war tom Europe, Addams wrote that human beings
owed much to "Memory, that Protean Mother, who first differentiated primitive man from
the brute; who makes possible our complicated modem life so daily dependent on the
experiences of the past; and upon whom at the present moment is thrust the sole
responsibility of guarding for future generations, our common heritage of mutual good
will."
Chapter five, entitled "Women’s Memories - Challenging War," explained that
women were caught "tragically and bitterly" between two conceptions of duty: the first to
their "tribal clan" - unquestioning loyalty to their country, and the second, to preserving
the life of their family and children. Addams recollected how in her travels through
belligerent European countries in 1915, she met women who felt they must be patriotic,
but who could no longer tolerate how their governments, for military purposes, had closed
down schools and facilities for the sick and handicapped, and put women and children to
work "in factories under hours and conditions which had been legally prohibited years
before." She quoted a mother who spoke of militarism's emphasis on physical force and
244
the problem this posed for feminists whose priorities were social services. As physical
force, in time of war, became more esteemed in running the country, the woman, who
was considered "inferior in physical strength," had increasingly less power in society:
"The fury of war . . may destroy slow-growing social products which it will take a
century to recreate - the 'consent of the governed,' for instance . . " Addams concluded
the chapter with her own acute, somewhat hopeful, assessment of women trapped in war:
This may be a call to women to defend those at the bottom of society who,
irrespective of the victory or defeat of any army, are ever oppressed and
overburdened. The suffering mothers of the disinherited feel the stirring of
the old impulse to protect and cherish their unfortunate children, and
women's haunting memories instinctively challenge war as the implacable
enemy of their age-long undertaking.63
Long Road of Woman's Memory received scant attention from the public.
Woodrow Wilson and Felix Frankfurter (then at Harvard Law School) wrote to praise
other essays in the book, which dealt with immigrant women who resided near Hull-
House and their traditions, but mentioned nothing regarding the "Challenging War"
chapter. Only David Starr Jordan wrote to Addams to "express my most high appreciation
of your 'Challenge to War* in your last book. It is one of the finest contributions yet made
to a sane psychology of the war . . it should become a classic."64
Final Efforts to Prevent War
The second annual WPP conference was held at the New Ebbitt Hotel in
Washington, D.C. from December 8 to 10. Jane Addams opened the proceedings by
remarking that "Some people regard us as less patriotic than citizens who want a large
army and navy, whereas it is just because we have the development of our country at heart
that we work for peace." Although only fifty women attended the meeting, those present
included Florence Kelly, head of the National Consumer's League, Ella Flagg Young,
former superintendent of the Chicago schools, Julia Lathrop, Director of the National
Children’s Bureau and Lillian Wald. The Conference called for a repeal of the
245
conscription clause in the Army Reorganization Bill, endorsed the Susan B. Anthony
Suffrage Amendment and also the Hemsley Clause of the 1916 Naval Apropriation Bill
which requested the president to initiate a neutral mediation conference. The women
resolved to work against compulsory military service for American citizens and military
training for minors, and also to send a request to Wilson that his inaugural events reflect
national civic, educational, industrial, philanthropic and artistic interests instead of being
the usual military pageant of former years. In its letter to Wilson on Decemberl9
regarding the latter resolution, the WPP Executive Committee wrote:
Since, Mr. President, the policies of your distinguished administration have been
such as to celebrate 'the constructive processes of peace', and since those policies
have won for you the support of thousands of men and women throughout our
country, may we not at this time fittingly urge you that ceremonies attending your
second inauguration signalize this consciousness, and not, by their nature, suggest
the accession of the chief of a great militaristic sta te d
Wilson, who identified the Republicans as the war party, campaigned inl916 on the
theme, "He kept us out war." Little did the WPP women know that during that time
Wilson allegedly commented to Josephus Daniels that he cound not guarantee to keep the
country out of war and that as early as June, 1916, he informed his personal secretary,
Joseph Tumulty, that it seemed as though "war with Germany (was) inevitable." Jane
Addams, though, later wrote in Peace and Bread about Wilson's ambivalence regarding
U.S. entrance into the war and his almost arrogant style of leadership:
The results of the campaign had been very gratifying . .It seemed as . . if
peace were assured and the future safe in the hands of a chief executive who
had received an unequivocal mandate . ."to keep us out of war." We were,
to be sure, at moments a little uneasy .. It seemed at times as if he were not
so eager for a mandate to carry out the will of the people as for the
opportunity to lead the people whither in his judgment their best interest lay.
"66
On December 12, Addams, carrying out her mandate as President of the WPP,
testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and called for the passage of Anthony
Suffrage Amendment. When asked why a women's peace group would concern itself
246
with suffrage, Addams made the connection clear for the gentlemen of the committee:
"(We) make 'votes for women' a fundamental issue because . .women should have the
right to vote on questions of peace and war, or rather to vote for the men who . . must
ratify all declarations of war and vote for preparedness for it"67
It was also on December 12 that the German Foreign Office announced that it
would enter peace negotiations. President Wilson responded with a request that the
belligerents state their "views as to the terms upon which the war might be concluded," but
he denied any connection with "the recent overtures of the Central Powers." The WPP
and the European affiliates of the ICWPP (the international headquarters in Amsterdam
had forwarded those cables to Addams in the U.S.) were elated by Wilson's attempt at
mediation and Jane Addams wired him on December 20 "to express the graditude of our
association for your able efforts to secure a definition of terms from the belligerent
powers." The joy was tempered by Great Britain’s response to Wilson which stated that
"the Allies could achieve their ends only through a victory over Germany." Wilson did,
however, write to Addams that he appreciated her gracious message and that he "hope(d)
with all my heart that some effect will be wrought which would at least make peace a little
nearer. "68 Despite Wilson's earlier remarks to his advisors about the inevitability of
American entrance into the European conflagration, he was still, apparently, trying to stave
off this occurrence.
Encouraged by Wilson's attempt at mediation, Addams began in January, 1917 to
fund raise and plan for the women's peace conference to be held after the war. It was
noteworthy that when Mrs. Emmons Blaine, a long time contributor to Hull-House,
queried Addams about an all-women’s meeting, as opposed to a peace congress composed
of men and women, Addams replied," I quite agree with your feeling that it is better for
men and women to do things together, but in international affairs as yet women have had
247
no opportunity to work with men and beginning with a congress of their own is exactly
what they have done in municipal, state and national affairs, although they were later
r e c o g n iz e d ." 6 9 Comfortable herself working with men on all political levels, Addams
still believed that women, generally, were less threatened working in groups of their own
sex. She would push for women to move into the "man's sphere" of national and
international affairs, but she retained a protective sense that most women, when first
dealing with international politics, felt more comfortable and free to express themselves
working within women's organizations. Addams implied to Blaine that later generations
of women, having first gained skills through women's organizational work on the
international level, would feel more competent and confident once they felt ready to move
into the "man's sphere" of international relations.
On January 22, 1917, Woodrow Wilson gave his "Peace without Victory" speech
before the U.S. Senate. More than any previous presidential act or statement, this
address heightened the peace movement's hope for an early settlement to the European
war. Wilson argued in favor of an international organization to insure world peace and
suggested that the war should end before any side achieved victory. In pure Wilsonian
democracy terms, he declared that the peace gained after the war must be "without victory.
. that no nation should seek to extend its polity over any other nation or people, but that
every people should be left free to determine its own polity . . way of development,
unhindered.. unafraid, the little along with the great and powerful." Greatly heartened by
the speech, Addams and the WPP officers wired Wilson on January 23 to express their
gratitude for his "brilliant statement." The same day Addams wrote to Louis Lochner and
Emily Balch about how "wonderful the way our cause is moving lately." Wilson received
so many telegrams of congratulations on his January 22 address that instead of his usual
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personal letters of response, his office mailed out hundreds of standard typed notes of
appreciation, one of which went to Jane Addams70
The peace activists' hopes for peace were dashed on January 31 when Germany
announced its resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare on all boats in designated
Allied territory, whether they were armed or unarmed, neutral or belligerent. Louis
Lochner met with Wilson on February 1 to discuss the new international situation, which
Wilson told Lochner was "most surprising" and "could change the whole world."
Anxious to hear about Lochner's meeting with Wilson, Addams wired Lochner requesting
he inform her immediately of the interview. Lochner telegraphed Addams the same day:
"Chief (Wilson) looked haggard and distressed.. but gave me plenty of time . .(He was)
thoroughly interested.. regarding our future work." Addams also wired Balch asking if
the ANCC could urge Washington to call "a congress of neutral nations to make a mutual
protest in name of international searights." And finally, on February 3, Addams wired
Wilson directly, entreating the president to join with other neutral nations "to be the
beginning of a league of nations standing for international rights (which) could . .offer
a(n) approach less likely to involve any one nation in war."71
But Addams' and Ixjchner's appeals to Wilson were in vain. On February 3, the
president announced that the United States had severed all diplomatic ties with Germany
and German and American ambassadors returned to their respective countries. Lochner
wired Addams (who was in Chicago) the same day that New York and Washington were
"war mad" and "unless tremendous pressure (were) brought on Wilson and Congress we
shall enter war in few days." He "earnestly begged" Addams to send Wilson a "stirring
message." Harriet Thomas wired Addams from Washington that "many (WPP) members
disturbed and bewildered. Some reassuring expression from you would be helpful." Paul
Kellogg also sought Addams' advice on how "Survey (should) handle war s i t u a t i o n . " 7 2
249
With U.S. entrance to the war appearing imminent, mobilization of the peace
movement moved fast but at the same time those anxious for America to join the Allied
cause organized to support any governmental action in that direction. Telegrams flooded
the White House urging Wilson to join the war and many women's clubs declared their
"unswerving loyalty to their country and . . unwavering determination to be of service
during wartime." Jane Adams and the American Union against Militarism (AUAM - the
successor of the Henry street Group), however, still hoped to avert war. On February 6,
after obtaining permission from the WPP executive commitee, Addams wired Wilson that
the WPP members "are persuaded that your wisdom can devise a new way out of the
present difficult situation . . in accord with the new internationalism . . Should a
democracy not ask the people by a referendum vote whether it is there wish to defend
American commerce by war?" The following day, Addams wrote to all members of the
WPP to notify them of the proposed movement towards obtaining a referendum on
entrance to the war and included copies of telegrams sent to Wilson by the WPP Executive
Board and the AUAM. She also informed them of her February 4 telegram to the German
ICWPP members which stated, "Many American women join in sending good will to our
German sisters and share their hope that war may yet be a v e r t e d . " ^
While Addams worked on the idea of a referendum from Chicago, representatives
from the WPP, the AUAM, the APS and the ANCC met in New York to form the
Emergency Peace Federation (EPF), which held its first public meeting in New York on
February 6. William Jennings Bryan, who along with Senator Robert La Follette had
advised such a referendum on war as early as the spring of 1916, addressed the gathering.
On February 12, a hundred EPF delegates traveled to Washington to lead a "Lincoln's
Birthday pacifist demonstration." Although unable to attend the rally, Addams wired her
approval of the action. The EPF also sponsored a letter writing and telegram campaign
250
urging their congressional representatives to support bills calling for a referendum on war
which La Follette introduced in the Senate and Rep. Calloway of Texas in the House.
Both bills, however, were buried in committee.^
On January 30, when Louis Lochner was in the throes of trying to get Henry Ford
to continue funding the Stockholm Conference, he sat down to write to Addams that "I
have gone through veritable hell these last few days." During the end of January and
February, the American peace activists were increasingly aware that their efforts to end the
European war had been futile. On February 8, Addams wrote to Lochner - a hand-written
personal letter as opposed to the furious wires which flew back and forth regarding
meetings with the president -" Your telegrams came this morning and filled me with great
sorrow - 1 suppose we ought to be grateful for having had a chance for fifteen months and
certainly your record in it all has been one to be proud of In remembrance of this time
before the U.S. entered the war, Addams wrote in Peace and Bread. "The long established
peace societies and their orthodox organs quickly fell into line expounding the doctrine that
the world’s greatest war was to make an end to all wars. It was hard . .to understand
upon what experience this pathetic belief in the regenerative results of war could be
founded." The WPP itself was divided as to whether to support the referendum
movement. Addams called an emergency meeting of the WPP executive board to be held
in New York on February 21. Writing to inform Lillian Wald of her visit to New York
and the WPP meeting, Addams exclaimed, "How perplexing it all is!" Rose Forbes
wrote Addams that the Massachusetts branch opposed the national referendum because it
would "hinder . . the President in his work for Peace and Justice." It was consequently
decided at the February 21 meeting that each branch would decide for itself whether or not
to work for the popular r e f e r e n d u m .^
251
As America prepared for war, measures were introduced and passed in Congress
which restricted personal liberties during wartime. On February 14, the Threats against
the President Act passed, which mandated a fine of $1000 and a maximum prison sentence
of five years for individuals who "knowingly and willfully" made written or spoken
statements threatening the President's life. An espionage bill, which the WPP, AUAM
and EPF protested, was also introduced during February, but it was not brought to a vote
before Congress adjourned March 4. However, it would be raised again after war was
declared in A p r il.7 6
On February 26, the day after the Zimmermann telegram was made public (the
telegram proposed a German-Mexican-Japanese alliance and offered Texas to Mexico if it
fought against the U.S. in the war), Wilson requested from Congress the authority to arm
American merchant ships carrying supplies to England. Robert La Follette organized a
filibuster by 13 senators against the bill which lasted days, involved a rough-and-tumble
skirmish on the Senate floor, and succeeded in preventing passage of the bill. A furious
Wilson told the press, "A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their
own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible."
As commander-in-chief, Wilson did not actually need permission from the Congress to
arm the ships, and in his Inaugural Address on March 12 he ordered the arming of the
merchant marine.^?
Wilson met with the peace activists one last time on February 28, when he agreed to
see Addams, who headed a delegation which included Emily Green Balch, Joseph Cannon
(representing the mine, mill and smelter workers), William I. Hull (a Swarthmore
professor and former student of Wilson's), Frederick Lynch (of the Church Peace Union)
and Amos Pinchot (vice-chair of the AUAM). The delegation urged Wilson to utilize a
League of Nations and armed neutrality to further "organized maintenance of common
252
rights." The president explained that he was doing all he could to keep the U.S. out of the
war, but he could not accept their suggestions. Jane Addams recalled her assessment of
the meeting in Peace and Bread:
The President's mood was stem and far removed from the scholar’s
detachment as he told us of (the Zimmermann telegram) and the
impossibility of any . . adjudication . . He used one phrase which I had
heard Colonel House use so recently that it still stuck firmly in my memory.
The phrase was to the effect that, as head of a nation participating in the
war, the President of the United States would have a seat at the Peace Table,
but that if he remained the representative of a neutral country he could at
best only 'call through a crack in the door.'
In The Second Twenty Years, she expanded on her feelings as they left the
interview with Wilson, "Until that time the peace people had regarded the President as a
friendly ally .. but from this time on we felt officially outlawed (and) left the White House
in deep dejection."78
Another blow to the women's peace movement was NAWSA's decision to

volunteer its services to the government if the U.S. entered the war. Within days of
Wilson's breaking off diplomatic relations with Germany, the New York State Woman
Suffrage Party offered its services to Govenor Charles Whitman. When Carrie Chapman
Catt called NAWSA's executive council together on February 23, the WPP National
Board wrote to her, expressing its hope that NAWSA "will take no action concerning
service to our government anticipatory of war since many suffragists hope such a calamity
may be averted, and(we) feel that this is a time when patriotism may be effectively shown
by refraining from any action tending to increase the war spirit." Undeterred by the WPP
plea, Catt declared that NAWSA should make a "definite proposal" to be of service to the
government, thereby invalidating the antisuffragists' accusation that NAWSA was
unpatriotic. NAWSA held a mass meeting in March in Washington, with guests Secretary
of War Newton Baker and Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels displayed on the dais,
to dramatize its announcement that the suffragists were ready to lay aside suffrage work to
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support America's war effort. Because of this move on Catt's part, the New York City
WPP dropped her as its honorary vice-president, and Catt subsequently resigned from the
party. Also in March, Rose Pastor Stokes, a leading member of the New York WPP,
announced in a public statement carried in the Times that she also was resigning from the
WPP. She declared that if the U.S. entered the war, it would be "for the perfecting of
human unity and . . freedom" and although she loved peace, she could no longer be a
pacifist.79
The decision that the United States should enter the war was made privately at a
cabinet meeting on March 20, and the next day the Congress received notification that
Wilson would address an extraordinary session of the 65th Congress on April 2, 1917.
Addams, who was again ill and recuperating in South Carolina, wired Lochner that she
could not participate in the EPFs last minute April 2 demonstration against U.S. entrance
into the war because she had an engagement in Washington on the tenth and she "could
not spend a week in such excitement." She asked him to "telegraph . . if I can be of any
special service (after) April 7 .." On April 2 the president asked for a declaration of war.
After a four hour speech to the Senate on April 4 by Robert La Follette, in which he asked
why a war to save democracy was to be declared without a popular referendum, the
Senate, near midnight, resolved 82 to 6 that America should enter the war. In the early
morning hours of April 6, the House of Representatives also voted to accept war, 373 to
50. The WPP took great pride in the fact that one of its members, Jeanette Rankin of
Montana, the lone woman in Congress, was one of those who voted against entrance into
the war. "I want to stand by my country," she stated, "but I cannot vote for war."80
Addams Perseveres in Wartime
Shortly after war was declared the WPP issued "A Program during War Time." Its
initial statement declared:
254
Under the shadow of w ar. . members of the Woman's Peace Party do not
need to affirm . . their patriotism and. . devotion . .to our country's higher
life. The Internationalism to which the WPP is pledged came to fulfil(sic)
the highest national life and not destroy it.
The document specified patriotic work in which members could participate: first,
"promoting the spirit of good will and mutual comprehension between persons of varying
points of view;" second, helping to ameliorate social needs which might become
overlooked in wartime, such as aiding the poor,and insuring that immigrants did not
become the brunt of nativism, and third, working toward a league of nations to eventually
substitute law for war. The program also appealed to members to oppose military training
for school children and both the conscription and espionage bills recently reintroduced into
Congress. 81
By the second week of April, Jane Addams was in Washington to lobby against
both the conscription and espionage bills. She, Lillian Wald and Norman Thomas met
with Secretary of War Baker to voice their opinion that conscientious objectors (COs)
should be exempted from military service on religious and ethical grounds. The peace
activists viewed military service as "a matter not of corporate but of individual
conscience." They left the Secretary of War with a memorandum regarding classifications
for exemption. Baker told them he would bring their suggestions to the attention of the
Chairmen of the Senate and House Committees, but offered no reassurance that the
congressional committees would accept the recommendations.
On April 14, Addams appeared before the House Committee on Military Affairs to
testify regarding conscription. She stated she was in receipt of a great number of letters
calling "conscription . . a form of coercion . . absolutely averse . . and contradictory to
everything that America has ever stood for, and that even in Australia and in Canada,
where the people are in this war with England, they have not had conscription." She left
with the committee an article explaining how and why conscription was defeated in
255
Australia. Urging Lillian Wald, Roger Baldwin and Norman Thomas to do the same,
Addams telegraphed Baker on April 27 asking that he press for passage of the La Follette
and Keating amendments (to the Selective Service bill) which provided for CO exemption.
Baker reported to Addams on the 29th that it was "unlikely .. we can secure a legislative
exemption for conscientious objectors." He added, somewhat sympathetically, "I hope
that the administration of whatever law is passed will make it possible to avoid the
unhappy difficulties which occurred in England." Despite the peace activists' efforts, the
Congress passed the Selective Service bill, without any amendments, on May 18,1917.82
While in the capital, Addams also lobbied against the espionage legislation before
the Congress. On April 9 and 12, she appeared before the House Committee on the
Judiciary to oppose legislation which would suppress free speech, assemblage, popular
discussion and criticism. She explained to the committee that as president of an
international organization, "it would be very difficult . . .(to) stop preaching an
international point of view and she was worried that the legislation would impede the work
of the ICWPP. Her main concern was a clause in the bill which prohibited "willfully
caus(ing) disaffection," because she feared it would blunt ICWPP's ability to discuss
international programs. When a committee member asked if she would agitate against the
bill once it became law, Addams responded that "I am continually agitating against laws..
I think we have the right to agitate against existing laws which we . . consider to be
against public policy."
Addams also joined twenty-one other reform activists, including Wald, Amos
Pinchot, Balch, Rabbi Stephen Wise and Herbert Croly, in a letter to President Wilson
imploring him not to sacrifice American "safeguards fundamental to the life of her
democracy." They reported that already halls were refused for public discussions,
meetings broken up and speakers arrested. They wrote in vain: on June 15 the Espionage
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Act became law. Already, those criticizing the war were arrested on the basis of the
Threats against the President Act of February and now, mail was increasingly censored,
including that of the WPP. By September, the Post Office Department was investigating
the AUAM and when the Department later suspended issues of The Nation. Oswald
Garrison Villard wrote Colonel House, "The president surely cannot know what is going
on." But Addams, in Peace and Bread, recorded her sense of Wilson’s contempt for
pacifists, when she alluded to his remark before an American Federation of Labor
conference that '"I, too, want peace, but I know how to get it, and (the pacifists) do
not'."83
Addams' network of women friends in the peace and reform movements offered
one another support during the war years. Soon after war was declared, Helena Dudley
wrote to Addams who responded on April 19 to "my dear dear friend.. your letter was of
great comfort to me. I feel as if a few of us were clinging together in a surging sea. I have
joined 'the Fellowship of Reconciliation'(FOR) and hope to attend some of the meetings
only to see you there.. I will write again.." On April 17, Lillian Wald wrote to Addams
that "It was wonderful to have a little visit with you and Mary and you inspired us with
your wisdom as you always do .." She also asked that Mary send a picture of Addams
because "the one that I had and.. cherished was lent to a vicious newspaper man (and not
returned)." On June 4, just before Hull-House was to begin registering men for the army
(one of Addams' accommodations to the war), Addams wrote to Wald, who herself was
struggling with organizational conflicts within the AUAM,
"You are always 'heavenly good' to me in New York, that I came away
with a sense of (black?) ingratitude that I hadn't told you of my affection
and appreciation ., I know how hard this peace work has made things for
you and I much admire the way you stand up to it, altho (sic) that also I
haven’t said. Affairs are very tense here today but I hope after the
registration tomorrow that the atmosphere will be (clearer?). 8^
257
In May, Addams addressed audiences at Chicago City Club and the University
of Chicago on the theme of "Patritotism and Pacifists in War Time." She opened the
speech, "The position of the pacifist in time of war is most difficult, and necessarily he
must abandon the perfectly legitimate propaganda he maintained before war was declared."
But she would not back down on her belief that "war . . affords no solution for vexed
international problems," and it instead "obscure(s) and confuse(s) those faculties which
might otherwise find a solution." She insisted that pacifism did not imply cowardice or a
lack of patriotism and that pacifists were not isolationists: "We are urging a policy exactly
the reverse, that this country should lead the nations into a wider life of co-ordinated
political activity." She asked for understanding of those emigrants to the U.S. from the
Central Powers, to whom the war with their "fatherland means exquisite torture." She
called for an international organization such as the U.S. was currently establishing to
"distribute foodstuffs to all conquered peoples." She pointed out that "w ar.. arouses the
more primitive antagonisms" and "the spirit of fighting bums away . . those impulses,
certainly toward the enemy, which foster the will to justice."
When Addams delivered the same speech on June 10 at Evanston’s First
Congregational Church, she received no applause. Furthermore, as soon as she finished
speaking, Illinois Supreme Court Judge Orrin F. Carter, leaped to his feet and said, " I
have been a lifelong friend of Miss Addams and I have agreed with her on most questions
in the past but," At which point, Addams interrupted, "That sounds as if you are going
to break with me." The judge continued, " I am. I think anything that may tend to cast
doubt on the justice of our cause in the present war is decidely unfortunate." Catherine
Waugh McCulloch, Addams' suffrage colleague defended Addams, "I do not see why
people who that killing is wrong should not speak out in war time as any other." As soon
as she heard of the controversy, Alice Hamilton wrote to Addams,
258
"Well it was detestable of Judge Carter.. but men are going to be that way
from now on, as long as the war lasts . . I feel so sure that blows like this
are coming pretty often. .that I long to have you develop a sort of protective
covering . .1 want you to keep on saying things even more positively, no
matter what you are called, for in the end it will count. . . Please don't
bother over militaristic idiots, even when they are federal judges.
Crystal Eastman also wrote to Addams that she found the speech "stirring and
beautiful and courageous." She went on to say that if the WPP "is going to be a real
power, (it) ought frankly to make capital out of the fact that it expresses a woman's
protest." Emphatically encouraging Addams to appeal to passion she said the WPP must
"both intellectually and emotionally .. capitalize on the woman’s greater regard for life."
Addams wrote back: " I quite agree with what you say in regard to the distinctive function
of the Woman's Peace Party, and I hope in time we can do this." Alice Thacher Post
wrote to Addams that the speech was "splendid.. it exactly and finely says what needed
to be said." And although most women's clubs supported the war, a chairwoman of the
Florida GFWC wrote to Addams to tell her that she was glad Addams was persevering in
her war protest but was disappointed in the majority of the women of the country who
were not because "in the end the women must take a hand and the sooner we do the more
lives of innocent men will be s a v e d ." 85
Not all women, of course, supported Addams. After she spoke to the Chicago
Woman's Club in May, it withdrew its salons as public distribution points for peace
propaganda. Mary Kingsbury Simkhovitch, president of the National Federation of
Settlements and a former WPP member, announced to the press that "it has been very
painful to many of us who hold Miss Addams in deep affection and wholly respect her, to
find that we cannot think or act in unison with her." After the June Evanston speech, the
press pounced on Addams once again, the Louisville Courier-Journal labeled her "silly
Sallie" and denigrated her to be "of limited mentality, somewhat over-educated." The
259
Cleveland News called Addams and Rankin "a couple of foolish virgins," sobriquets
unlikely to be thrown at any man.86
The war years were not easy on Addams. She was ill much of the time with attacks
of bronchitis and colds, but she carried on as president of the WPP and the ICWPP, and
under the auspices of Herbert Hoover's Department of Food Adminstration, she spoke to
women around the country on the need for food conservation and feeding those starving,
no matter what country they lived in. It was another way to get across her messsage of
internationalism and the role of women in promoting it.
Members of the WPP looked to Addams for leadership. Lucia Ames Mead wrote to
her in August, "I am studying the papers anxiously to see whether pacifists can do more
harm than good by speaking openly.. .1 have never felt in more mental distress than this
summer. . Hitherto my path was clear, but now I have had a feeling of impotence at the
time of the greatest need.." Addams determined in September that a WPP board meeting
was necessary and wrote to the officers on the 10th proposing that they convene within the
next couple of months to discuss strategy, financing, whether to hold an annual meeting,
and look into how they could aid the ICWPP. Florence Taussig wrote from St. Louis that
she heartily agreed in the advisability of meeting and wondered if the WPP should change
its name to present itself as having a "closer correlation" with the ICWPP. Alice Post
thought it important that the board "develop a constructive policy." Anna Spencer
believed a board meeting would "do us all good" and was essential for "we can serve in no
better way . . than in going over without hurry or publicity the puzzling problems of
pacifists in these U.S. of A." Addams wrote to the board members at the end of
September that she scheduled a meeting from October 19 to 21 at the country house of
Mrs. Wimarth, president of the Chicago branch, on Lake Geneva (Wisconsin). Noting
that "everyone is agreed to the desirability of avoiding publicity which might lead to
260
misinterpretation," Addams explained that this location would provide privacy and an
opportunity for an "uninterrupted c o n f e r e n c e ." 87
The national board determined that an annual conference of the WPP would be held
in Philadelphia in early December. On October 25, the board issued a statement that in
pursuing internationalism among women it had "avoided all criticism of our government as
to the declaration of war, and all activities that could be considered as obstructive in
respect to the conduct of war . .this not as a counsel of prudence, but as a matter of
principle.. Our business is to help mitigate all the horrors of war by consistently refusing
to make any sacrifice of human fellowship and good w ill ." 8 8
WPP branches adopted differing roles and attitudes during the war. Whereas the
Massachusetts branch participated in relief activities, providing clothing to French children
and supplies to the Friends' War Victim Relief Committee, the New York branch began
publishing Four Lights, a brash journal, often critical of the government. One early
article ridiculed women's relief work as a "peculiarly infantile form of patriotism," and
before Addams began speaking on behalf of food conservation, the journal disparaged
women who were taken in by Hoover's "admonitions (which) are little short of satire." In
August, 1917, Four Lights ran Mary Ovington's article which protested Wilson's
indifference to the violent acts committed by American military troops against African-
Americans in the July East St. Louis riots. The WPP New York branch was the only
peace organization which publicized these atrocities against the black citizens of St. Louis.
The Chicago branch developed a program which involved both relief work and aiding
COs. Aware of the discrepancies between branch philosophies and actions, Anna Spencer
wrote to Mead that at the annual meeting she feared they would "run the risk of going to
pieces with a show of antagonism between the two extremes among us that will make the
N.Y. Times and such papers send a howl of delight." An example of dissension was
261
was Mead's November 12 letter to Addams expressing displeasure that the board's
October statement had said "nothing about loyalty and standing behind the president"^
With ninety-three members present, the WPP held its annual meeting on December
6 and 7 at the Friends’ Twelfth Street Meeting House. Although the meeting was closed
to the press, it was widely reported in the papers that federal and municipal officials were
investigating the proceedings to insure that nothing seditious occurred. In fact, no
inflammatory speeches were given and the Department of Justice agents made themselves
inconspicuous at the meeting. Addams, who flew into Philadelphia for the meeting, was
re-elected president. In her keynote address she appealed to "the primitive sympathies of
men and women to get a new center of gravity for our national feeling and international
life." She hoped that "women may begin again to take a more ethical view of the problem
of mankind, being urged to such a goal by this world war."
The congress called for an interallied peace conference to be held at the earliest
possible date, at which both representatives of the people and the governments would
determine economic and political aims. It urged that at the final peace conference, terms
should be adopted to insure democratic settlement and enduring peace through a League of
Nations. The meeting also resolved to oppose all congressional action for universal
compulsory military training (this was not contradictory to President Wilson's views).
Accommodating to American war time patriotism, Addams praised Wilson as a great
internationalist and the WPP refrained from sending the customary greetings to the
ICWPP, because the committee included women from enemy countries. But in an
interview with the Times after the meeting adjourned, Addams said "when the time is here
for peace .. women as well as men ought to be there. We hardly expect that women will
be accredited representatives of their governments but women will hold a conference at the
time and the place of the peace conference."^
262
Outside of her WPP activities, Addams tried to reach American women about the
need for international understanding through her addresses on food conservation. As she
wrote in Peace and Bread. Addams thought that through participating in food
conservation women might "stretch their minds to comprehend what it means in this world
crisis to produce food more abundantly and to conserve it through wisdom . . I believed
that we might thus break through into more primitive and compelling motives than those
inducing so many women to increase the war spirit." Addams recorded that in the first
days after the U.S. entered the war, she had poured over Frazer's Golden Bough, reading
about the Com Mother and how feminity was always associated with feeding woman- and
mankind. In her travels around the country speaking before women's and city clubs,
public meetings and college and teacher conferences, Addams declared that from time
immemorial women had been associated with tilling the soil and producing food. Her
penultimate address was given on May 3, 1918, before the fourteenth Biennial GFWC
Convention in Hot springs, Arkansas.
In her speech, Addams began conservatively by proposing that women take
responsibility for elimination of waste, a reduction in consumption, and the substitution of
foods unable to be readily shipped with those like com and wheat which could be easily
transported. She asked her audience "Of what worth is the comradeship and study carried
on (by women's clubs) if they cannot serve us in a great crisis like this?" She explained
that scholars believed that women were the first agriculturalists whereas men did little to
cultivate the soil. Most salient to Addams' philosophy of women's obligation to political
responsibility was her assessment that:
In international affairs the nations have still dealt almost exclusively with
political and commercial affairs .. (nations) have never been humanized in
their relations to each other. . It is quite understandable that there was no
place for woman and her possible contribution in these international
relationships. They were indeed not 'woman's sphere.' But it is not quite
possible that as women entered into city politics when clean milk and
263
sanitary housing became matters for municipal legislation, as they have
consulted state officials when the premature labor of children and the
tuberculosis deathrate became factors in a political campaign, so they may
normally be concerned with international affairs when these are dealing with
such human and poignant matters as food for the starving and the rescue of
women and children from annihilation?
Reiterating Wilson's Fourteen Points speech to Congress of January 8, 1918, in
which he urged the founding of a League of Nations after the war, Addams told her
audience that a new internationalism was being established day by day and women had an
obligation to serve in it.91 In time of war she could not express her pacifism and still be
taken serious by the American public. Through her food conservation work, she was, at
least, taking hold of the opportunity to try and convert women to her belief that it was their
traditional role to engender societal justice and peace.
During the war years, especially after the intense ridicule of the press directed at
Addams, she was more careful about the groups with which she associated and the
protests to which she lent her name. Although Emily Balch, Louis Lochner and Crystal
Eastman were quite active in the founding of the People's Council of America for
Democracy and Peace (PC) during the summer of 1917, Addams, along with Lillian
Wald, David Starr Jordan and Norman Thomas, would not serve on its organizing
committee. Addams wrote to Wald before the first national PC meeting that "If I were
well and strong I would venture (attending) it and do what I could for its development, but
into the promised fight coming on it seems to be no place for a sensitive lady who might
have to go to bed in the midst of the crisis!" She explained to Jordan that she did not
attend because "the situation is very confused as is the membership itself, between fine
people with whom one would be glad to cooperate and certain people who are self-
seeking."^
When Roger Baldwin, director of the Civil Liberties Bureau, asked Addams to
write the president in support of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.), which
264
was being hassled by the Departments of Post Office and Justice in the summer of 1918,
and some of its men imprisoned, Addams responded that she was uncertain that the
evidence Baldwin presented her with was a strong enough case to warrant a letter to
Wilson. She concluded, "I have reluctantly decided that I had better not do so. The
situation is complicated by the fact that I am here in Chicago and am obliged to walk very
softly in regard to all things suspect." She did say that she was going to try to help in
other ways and at least arrange for the men to be transfered to a jail with "better air and
(which) offers out of door exercise."93
As soon as the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, Addams, the WPP
and the ICWPP, began to make plans for their women's peace conference after the war.
But within days of the armistice, a new controversy arose involving Addams. German
women, including Anita Augsburg of the ICWPP, sent cables to Addams and Edith Galt
Wilson, the wife of the president, stating that the blockade aginst Germany had not been
lifted and German women and children were starving and "suffering unspeakable
disaster." Although the newspapers called the appeal a trick, Addams announced from
Hull-House that she was sure plans would be worked out to provide food for the
Germans. The Washington and New York WPP branches and the FOR wanted to hold a
mass meeting in support of the German women, but Alice Post (whose husband was an
assistant Secretary of Labor) wrote to Addams that the Department of State believed that
the women "may be tools of influence" trying to get special advantages for Germany. She
assured Addams that Hoover was enroute to Europe to oversee equitable food distribution.
She urged Addams to hold no large meetings and explained that sending a cable to the
German women was impossible due to military censorship. No mass meeting was held.
Alice Hamilton remarked that she had never seen "anything so full of hate and bitterness"
as the mail Addams received regarding the c a b l e s .94
265
On the same day that the newspapers announced that Secretary of State Lansing had
granted Addams' and Alice Post's request for the issuance of passports to the members of
the WPP so they could attend their post-war peace congress, the Times ran an editorial
which asked "Are Women People?" The editorial averred that since Jane Addams and the
ICTWPP was to hold a separate peace conference from the men that they were "a class
which apparently hates and distrusts men . . The millions of women who have worked
and suffered to help win the war for democracy will hardly relish the revival of sex-
antagonism by women who insisted that the war was wholly wrong."96
Jane Addams was not against the war because she hated men, but because she felt
legalized killing through war was immoral. She believed that women could be
empowered through their entry into national politics and international diplomatic
relationships. Holding an international women's peace congress after the war was one
more opportunity for women to take their place in international affairs and demonstrate
their competence in working for world peace and justice.
In mid-December, 1918, Victor Yarros of the New York Evening Post reported in a
story about Chicago's upcoming mayoral race that, "Some of the women are discussing
the advisability of nominating a woman - possibly Jane Addams - for Mayor, in order to
prevent the machines from capturing and annexing the woman vote, as well as in order to
contribute some real service to the fight for clean, honest, and progressive government."
Addams' years of protest against the war had obviously not damaged her reputation to the
degree that she was a pariah - at least not in the hearts and minds of the women of
Chicago. Many women still viewed her as their leader in the struggle for empowerment
within the heretofore "man's sphere" of politics. The next day, however, the Buffalo
Enquirer reported that Addams' disparaged the idea of her running for mayor as "simply
stupid."96
266
Jane Addams devoted the rest of her life to involving women in the peace
movement and political affairs, but her alleged response to the suggestion she run for
political office was symbolic of the contradiction and tension within Addams between
moving beyond inherited traditions and remaining traditional - in this instance her refusal
to ever run for political office herself. Addams lived during an era when women were only
beginning to move into the traditionally male arena of politics; indeed, she was a principal
leader of this movement. But one's acculturation is quite hard to overcome and although
Addams successfully operated in men's domain of public politics, she shied away from
campaigning for office herself. She would call on future generations of women, who
benefitted from her loosening men's stronghold over public political decision-making, to
persevere in moving a women's agenda to the fore of American politics.
267
FOOTNOTES
1Marie Louise Degen, The History of the Woman's Peace Party. (New York: Garland,
1972, Reprint), p. 110. James Weber Linn, Jane Addams. New York: Appleton-Century,
1936), p.315. New York Sun (NYS), July 6, 1915, IAP, 63/553.
2 ibid.
3Chicago Record Herald (CRH), July 6, 1915, Baltimore Evening Sun, July 9, 1915,
JAP. 63/ 536,602.
4Springfield Ohio Sun, July 8, 1915, New York Times (Times), July 6, 1915, JAP..
63/597,554.
$New York American (NYA), July 10, 1915, Times, July 8 and 10, 1915, New York
Press (NYP), July 10, 1915, New York Evening Sun (NYES), July 10, 1915, JAP..
63/631,594,642,637,639. JA, "Carnegie Hall Speech,” July 9, 1915, IA£., 47/1182-
1211.
6JA, ibid.47/1194-1209.
7 NYA, July 10, 1915, NYP, July 10, 1915, Boston Evening Transcript, July 13, 1915,
JAP.. 63/631,631,676. Times, July 10, 1915.
%Times, July 12 and 13, 1915, JAP.. 63/669,682.
9Times, July 14, 1915;Times (letters): July 15 and 16, 1915; (article): July 15, 1915;
(editorial): July 22, 1915, JAP., 63/693,708,725,708,831.
I®New York Town Topics, July 15, 1915, Houston Post, July 12, 1915, Louisville
Courier-Journal (LCJ), July 21,1915, Anaconda Standard, July 23,1915, San Francisco
News, July 17, 1915, Rochester Herald, July 15, 1915, IAP., 63/ 709,672, 799, 853,
734, 710.
Woman’s Journal, July 17, 1915, Chambersburg Register, July 15, 1915, JAP..
63/738,712.
l^Barbara J. Steinson, American Women's Activism in WW 1. (New York: Garland,
1982), pp.67-68. JA to Marcet Haldeman-Juiius(MHJ), July 13, 1915, Stanislas
d'Halewyn to JA, July 10, 1915, IAP., 8/1146,1139.
lÊllen Henrotin to JA, July 23, 1915, Elizabeth Glendover Evans to JA, July 22,1915,
Owen Lovejoy to JA, July 12, 1915, Lucia Ames Mead (LAM) to JA, July 13, 1915,
Lillian Wald (LW) to JA, July 14, 1915. IAP., 8/1199-1200,1186-1187,1144,1147,
1159.
14 Paul Kellogg (PK) to JA, July 15, 1915, Frederick Lynch (FL) to JA, July 14,1915,
JA to PK, July 27, 1915, JA to (MHJ), August 11, 1915, J A P ..
8/1162,1156,1219,1311. JA, "The Revolt Against War," The Survey. 34, July 17,1915,
pp.355-359. Allen F. Davis, American Heroine: The Life and Legend of Jane
Addams.fNew York: Oxford University Press, 1973), p. 230.
15j.p. Gavit to JA, October 14,1915 (ends: "Liquor Bayonet Charges"), JA to Clarence
Phillips, August 3, 1915 (JA was paid a $100 honorarium for her Carnegie Hall speech
which she donated to the WPP), JA to Aletta Jacobs (AJ), November 8,1915, JA to PK,
August 18, 1917, IAP-, 9/83, 8/1270, 9/254, 11/108-109. JA, "The Food of War," The
Independent (TI), 84, December 13, 1915, pp.430-431, IAP, 47/1279-1280. JA, The
Second Twenty Years at Hull- House. (New York: Macmillan, 1930), p. 133.
16j a , "Women, War, and Babies," Harper's Weekly. 61, July 31, 1915, p.101.
l^JA, "As I See Women," Ladies Home Journal. 32, August 1, 1915, pp. 11,54, JAP..
47/1256-1257. Second Twenty, p. 108.
268
18 JA, "Women, War and Suffrage, " The Survey. 35, November 6, 1915, JAP..
47/1274-1275.
19 j a , "Peace and the Press," I I , October 11,1915, pp. 55-56.
^"Resolutions of the International Congresss of Women," The Survey. 34, June 5,
1915, p. 218. Woodrow Wilson (WW) to LW, July 3,1915, IAP, 8/1123.
21LW to JA, July 14, 1915, PK to JA, July 15, 1915, JA to AJ, July 17, 1915, JAP..
8/1159, 1162, 1164-1165. Blanche Weisen Cook, "Woodrow Wilson and the
Antimilitarists, 1914-1917," Ph.D. dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, 1970, p. 112
(see footnote 70), Steinson, op.cit.. pp.68-69.
22 Cook, ibid.. pp. 111-112. Steinson, ibid.. p.68.
23 j a to LW, July ?, 1915, JAP. 8/1166-1167. Degen, op.cit.. p. 108. For the story of
WW's relationship with Colonel Edward House and House's mission to Europe for WW,
see Alexander and Juliette George, Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House: A Personality
Study. (New York: Dover, 1956).
l^Tim es, July 22, 1915, Washington Evening Star, July 21, 1915, JAP.. 63/831,796.
Degen, op.cit.. p. 115. Steinson, op.cit.. pp.68-69.
25Chicago Examiner(CE), July 8, 1915, Chicago Herald (CH). July 7, 1915, Chicago
Evening Post (CEP), July 22, 1915, IA&, 63/587,566,817-818.
26CEP, July 22, 1915, CH, July 23, 1915, IAP., 63/817-818,843.
27Cook, op.cit.. p. 113. JA to PK. July 27, 1915, JA to LW, July 29 and August 3,
1915, JAP.. 8/1219-1220,1232,1271. (Joseph Tumulty was WW’s personal secretary).
Re: appointment to the committee, see Louis Lochner (LL) to Sophonsiba Breckinridge
(SB), July 30, 1915, JAP.. 8/1238. For Chicago Committee's opinion, see LL, JA to
PK, July 30,1915, JAP. 8/1231. Re: Chicago Peace Society(CPS) to potential members
see .TAP.. 8/1242-1243.
28"Intemational Committee Memorandum," JAP. 8/1239-1241. PK to JA, August 3 and
4.1915.JAP. 8/1272,1281 Oswald Garrison Villard (OGV) to Emily Greene Balch
(EGB), quoted in Mercedes M. Randall, Improper Bostonian. (New York:Twayne,
1964), p. 194. Degen, op.cit.. p. 116. New York Herald (NYH), August 19, 1915, JAP.
63/1021. Re: WW's world vision see N. Gordon Levin, Woodrow Wilson and World
Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970) and Arthur Link, Woodrow Wilson:
Revolution. War and Peace. (Arlington Heights: Harlan Davidson, 1979).
29ja to MHJ, August 11, 1915, JA to LW, August 6, 1915, JA to EGB, August 6,16
and 17,1915, Mary Rozet Smith (MRS) to EGB, August 17,1915, Carrie Chapman Catt
(CCC) to JA, August 15, 1915, IA P., 8/1311,1301-1302,1299-1300,1372,1377-
1380,1388, 1366-1367.
30 EGB to JA, August 19, 1915, JAP- 8/1406-1409. NYH, September 16, 1915, New
York Evening Mail, September 9, 1915, JAP.. 63/1151,1122. Steinson, op.cit.. pp.70-
79. David Patterson "Woodrow Wilson and the Mediation Movement," Historian. 33,
August, 1971, p.543.
31MRS to Mabel Hyers, August 26,1915, MRS to Rosika Schwimmer (RS), September
10.1915, AJ to JA, August 26 and September 15, 1915, JA to WW, September 5,1915,
JA to CCC, September 13, 1915, JA P., 8/1436-1437,1472, 1443-1444,1501-
1502,1463,1479. NYP, September 13,1915, IAP., 63/1138. Balch's letter to Villard is
quoted in Cook, op.cit.. pp.l 16-117.
32Cook. ibid. pp. 117-118.
33jbid.. pp. 30-35. Degen, op.cit.. pp.151-153. Steinson, op.cit.. p. 122.
34jbid. Robert D. Schulzinger, American Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century. (New
York: Oxford University Press, 1984), pp. 67-68.
269
35"Manifesto," JAP.. 9/302-304. JA to WW, October 26,1915, Joseph Tumulty for WW
to JA, October 28, 1915, Edward House (EH) to JA, November 1, 1915, JA to EH,
October 26,1915, Peace Petition (Florence Petit for the Oregon Federation of Women's
Clubs), November 18, 1915, JAP.. 9/162,181, 216, 161, 261. New York Evening Post
(NYEP), October 13,1915, JAP.. 63/1267. Degen, op.cit.. pp. 129-130.
36JA (et al) to WW, October 29,1915, WW to JA, November 2, 1915, IA E, 9/182-184,
226.
37Alice Thacher Post (ATP) to JA, November 8, 1915, JAP. 9/264-267. Degen, op.cit..
pp.121-123,155.
3°Rebecca Shelly to JA, October 15,1915, Edwin Pipp to JA, November 18,1915, JAP.
9/2-7,331-333. Steinson, op.cit.. pp. 75-81. Degen, op.cit.. p. 131.
39Degen, ibid.. pp. 131-133. Steinson, op.cit.. p. 78. JA, Peace and Bread in Time of
War. (New York: Macmillan, 1922), p. 33.
40peace and Bread, pp.34-38.
41 JA to Clara Ford(CF), November 20, 1915, CF to JA, November 22, 1915, JAP..
9/342, 356-357. Steinson, op.cit.. pp.79-80. For a list of the organizations which sent
telegrams to the White House, see JAP.. 9/428. JA to all WPP members and Women's
Organizations, November 23,1915, JAP.. 9/346.
42Degen, op.cit.. pp.124-125. RS to JA, November 26, 1915, JAP.. 9/410.
43p)egen, ibid.. pp. 133-135. Steinson, op.cit.. pp.81-82,90. Aj, Rose Manus and
Chrystal Macmillan(CM) to JA, November 27, 1915, JAP... 9/431. Re: donation to
ICWPP see CM to Presidents of Scandanavian Sections, December 7,1915, JAP.. 9/606-
607.
4 4 ja to RS, November 27,1915, JAP.. 9/425. Peace and Bread, pp. 37-38. At the time,
JA was much aware of the unpopularity of the ship. For example, see report of CH,
November 29, 1915, JAP.. 64/8: receiving loud applause at a civil service employees
meeting in Chicago, JA said,” I am particularly grateful for this applause because after I
sail on Mr. Ford's ship, I probably shall never be applauded again . .The idea is so
unpopular, it is probable that those who identify with it will become unpopular, too."
45 Anna Garlin Spencer (AGS) to JA, November 29, 1915, Crystal Eastman(CE) to JA,
November 27 and December 3,1915, JAP., 9/482,426-427,526-527.
4&NYEP, December 1, 1915, JAP.. 64/12. Alice Hamilton (AH) to RS, December 2,
1915, Louise Bowen to LL, December 2, 1915, Harriet Thomas (HT) to CF, December
19, 1915, JA to AJ, January 25, 1916, MRS to Florence Kelley (FK), December 21,
1915, IAP., 9/513,512,566,874,621-622. Davis, op.cit.. pp. 239-240.
47AJ to JA, December 4 and 23, 1915, JA to AJ, December 12, 1915, CM to JA,
December 17, 1915, JAP.. 9/536-539, 634-635,586, 602-605. Degen, op.cit.. p.140.
4^Chicago News (CN), December 24, 1915, JAP.. 64/23. JA to RS, December 26,
1915, JA to David Starr Jordan (DSJ), December 28, 1915, JAP.. 9/ 640-641, 656-657.
New York (?), January 4, 1916, JAP. 64/39. Re: Henry Ford's return to the(JLJ) to JA,
December 27, 1915, IAP., 9/885-887, 658.
49steinson.op.cit.. PP. 91-93. Degen, op.cit.. pp.146-150. Secretary (for JA) to AJ,
January 25,1916, JA to LL, February 18,1916 and January 31, 1917, LL to JA, March
14, 1916 and January 30, 1917, JLJ to JA, December 27, 1915, JLJ and LL to JA,
January 18,1916, IAE-, 9/874, 1035-1036, 10/689, 9/1188-1189, 10/687, 9/658,820.
50 WW to JA, November 2, 1915, JA to Walter Fisher, November 11, 1915, IAP.,
9/226, 281-282. "Miss Addams and Preparedness," Chicago Tribune (CT), November
18, 1915, IAP., 47/1277.
51 Degen, op.cit.. pp.155-162. The Survey. January 22, 1916, JAP„ 64/56.
270
5 2 ^ . CCC to HT, December 17,1915, HT to CCC, December 31,1915, JAP., 9/653,
676.
53 "Statement (on Mediation) of Miss Jane Addams," U.S. House Committee on Foreign
Affairs. Commissionfon Enduring Peace. Hearings before the Committee on Foreign
Affairs, on H.R. 6921 and H J. Res. 32. January 11, 1916, 64th Congress, 1st Session,
1916, IAE-, 47/1288-1297.
54 "Statement (on Preparedness) by Miss Jane Addams," Committee on Military Affairs.
To Increase the Efficiency of the Military Establishment of the U.S. Hearing before the
Committee on Military Affairs. January 13, 1964, pp. 3-15, 64th Congress, 1st Session,
1916, JAP. 47/1298-1311. For a study of the Women's Defense Associations organized
during WW 1, see Steinson.op.cit.. Chapters 4 and 7.
55dSJ to JA, January 19,1916, William Jennings Bryan (WJB) to JA, January 22,1916,
JAP. 9/826-827, 851. Charleston Courier (CC), January 15, 1916, Newark Morning
Star(NMS), January 14, 1916, Minneapolis Journal (MJ), January 16(7), 1916, JAP..
64/40, 45. Davis, op.cit.. p.240.
56 Second Twenty, pp.126-127. William Kent to JA with enclosures, April 21, 1916,
JAP. 9/1308-1324. Letters included those from Senator Lee Overman of North Carolina,
Senator G. W. Norris of Nebraska and the Secretaries of State, Agriculture and Navy.
Providence Journal (PJ), January 16,1916, JAP.. 64/45.
57 Patterson, op.cit.. p.549.
58steinson, op.cit... p. 144. Schulzinger, op.cit.. pp.68-73. Arthur Link, Woodrow
Wilsom. Confusions and Crises. 1915-1916. (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1964), pp. 337-339.
59Arthur Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era. 1910-1917.(New York: Haper
Torchbook Editions, 1963), p. 224. Cook, op.cit.. pp. 141-142.
60Cook, ibid.. p.153. Patterson, op.cit.. pp. 549-550. JA to WW, August 2, 1916,
General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) to JA, May 31, 1916, Shelly to JA,
August 29(encls: list of delegation to WW) and September 9, 1916, Re: JA's illness see
WW to JA, April 7, 1916 and JA to Martha French, June 19, 1916, JAP. 9/1597-
1599,1449,1691-1692, 10/22-23, 9/1270, 1483-1484. New York Call (NYC),
September 1, 1916, CN, April 6, 1916, NYA, April 7,1916, CE„ April 7, 1916, IAP,
64/221, 138, 140.
61 Statement Endorsing WW, JAP. 47/1401-1402. Peace and Bread, pp. 57-58. "Why
Wilson," The Survey. 37, October 28, 1916. CT, October 14, 1916, JAP. 64/240. JA to
PK, October 25,1916, WW to JA, October 17,1916, JAP, 10/ 155,120.
62CN, November 7, 1916, NYS, November 13(7), 1916, IAP, 64/273, 277-280. Ellery
Sedgwick (ES) to JA, September 13 and November 15, 1916, JA to ES, September 16
and November 21,1916, LAP., 10/35-37,274-276,46,303.
63JA, The Long Road of Woman's Memory. (New York: Macmillan, 1916), pp. xv,
115-140 (Chapter 5).
64Felix Frankfurter to JA, September 30,1916, DSJ to JA, November 10,1916, WW to
JA. November 17, 1916, IAP., 10/84, 228,120.
65Degen, op.cit.. pp.173-176. Washington Times (WT), December 8, 1916, NYEP,
December 8, 1916, New York Tribune (NYT), December 11, 1916. JAP.. 64/304, 315,
WPP Executive Committee to WW, December 19,1916, JAP.. 10/425.
66Cook, op.cit.. pp. 169-170. Peace and Bread, p. 58.
67"Hearing before the Judiciary Committee- Testimony of Miss Jane Addams," December
12, 1916, IAP., 47/1412-1414.
271
68Cook, op.cit.. pp. 174-175. JA to WW, December 20, 1916, WW to JA, December
27, 1916, IAP., 10/436, 473. CE, December22, 1916, JAP.. 64/328.
69JA to Mrs. Emmons Blaine, January 17, 1917, JA to Miss Cooper Willis, January 23,
1917, JA to WPP Branches and ICWPP Sections, January 10, 1917, JAP.. 10/580-581,
623-635, 540.
70Cook, op.cit.. pp. 176-179. JA and WPP Officers to WW, January 23, 1917, JA to
LL, January 23, 1917, JA to EGB, January 23, 1917, WW to JA. January (?), 1917,
JAP.. 10/629, 628,622, 635.
71Cook, ibid.. pp.179-181. JA to WW, February 3, 1917, JA to EGB, February 3,
1917, JA to LL, February 1, 1917, LL to JA, February 1, 1917, J A P ..
10/722,719,710,713.
72cook, ibid.. pp. 181-183. LL to JA, February 3, 1917, HT to JA, February 5, 1917,
PK to JA, February 3, 1917, IA E, 10/724, 732,723.
73C/V, February 5, 1917, CE, February 4, 1917, WT, February 4, 1917, IAP, 64/349,
347. JA and WPP Executive Committee to WW, February 6, 1917, JA to HT, February
7,1917,JA to WPP Members, February 7,1917, IAP., 10/734 and 755, 756, 757-758.
7^Cook.op.cit.. pp.182-183. Degen, op.cit.. pp. 182-183. Steinson, op.cit.. pp.230-
231. Margaret Lane to JA, February 6-7, 1917, JA to Emergency Peace Federation
(EPF), no date given, JA to HT, February 8, 1917, JAP. 10/739,752,777,786.
Washington Evening Star(WES), February 12, 1917, JAP. 64/359. Re; Robert La
Folette's sponsorship of Referendum see Ellen Torelle, The Political Philosophy of Robert
M. La Follette. (Madison: The Robert La Follette Co., 1920), pp. 205-206.
73LL to JA, January 30, 1917, JA to LL, February 8, 1917, LAM to WPP Executive
Committee, February 13, 1917, JA to LW, February 13, 1917, Rose Forbes to JA,
February 15, 1917, IA£., 10/687,775,829,814-815,840-841. Peace and Bread, pp. 61-
62. Steinson, ibid.. pp.223-224.
76steinson, ibid. NYC, February 22, 1917, JAP, 64/373. WPP Executive Committee to
WW, February 21, 1917, I£E., 10/868.
77 Cook, op.cit.. p.192. Degen, op.cit.. p.188. David P. ThelenJRobert M. La Follette
and the Insurgent Spirit(Boston: Little, Brown, 1976), pp.133-134.
73Steinson, op.cit.. pp.241-242. Cook, ibid.. pp.194-195. NYC, March 1, 1917, JAP.
64/387. Peace and Bread, pp.63-64. Second Twenty, p. 138.
79 Steinson, ibid.. pp. 236-240. Degen, op.cit.. p.189. JA (et al) to CCC, February 23,
1917, HT to JA, March 14,1917, ATP to JA, March 12, 1917, IAP., 10/874, 946, 947.
Times, March 18 and 25,1917.
SOCook, op.cit.. p. 200. JA to LL, April 1, 1917, IAP-, 10/1021. Times, April 7, 1917.
Chicago American, April 2, 1917, NYA, April 2,1917, JAP.. 64/415. Merle Curti, Peace
or WarrThe American Struggle. 1636-1936. (New York: Norton, 1936), pp. 253-254.
Degen, ibid.. p.191.
8lDegen, ibid.. pp.193-195.
82Cook, op.cit.. pp.203-205. Steinson, op.cit.. pp.254-255. JA, LW and Norman
Thomas (NT) to Newton Baker (NB), April 12,1917. JA to NB, April 27, 1917. JA to
Roger Baldwin (RB), April 27, 1917, HT to JA, April 21, 1917, IAP., 10/1065-1066,
1130, 1131, 1116. WT, April 14, 1917, IAP-, 64/422. "Statement (on Conscription) of
Miss Jane Addams," House Committee on Military Affairs, Volunteer and Conscription
System. Hearings before the Committee on Military Affairs. April 14, 1917, pp. 20-29,
65th Congress, 1st Session, 1917, JAP.. 47/1419-1423.Re: England's treatment of
Conscientious Objectors(COs), see JA to Senator George Chamberlain, April 7, 1917,
272
JAP. 10/1195. England imprisoned 3000 COs, 30% of whom were Quaker. JA believed
this imprisonment of COs was an embarrassment to England.
^"Statement (on the Espionage Bill) of Miss Jane Addams," House Committee on the
Judiciary, Espionage and Interference with Neutrality. Hearing before the Committee on
the Judiciary on H.R. 291, April 9 and 12,1917, pp.50-52, 65th Congress, 1st Session,
1917, JAP, 47/1430-1432. Times, April 13, 1917, JAP.. 64/420. Cook, M i., pp. 207-
208,230-232. Peace and Bread, p. 71. JA (et al) to WW, April 16,1917, IAE, 10/1064.
8 4 ja to Helena Dudley, April 19, 1917, LW to JA, April 17, 1917, JA to LW, June 4,
1917, Marie Frost to JA, August 6, 1917, CE to JA, June 28, 1917, JA to CE, June 30,
1917, ATP to JA, June 21, 1917, AH to JA, June 13, 1917, IA E , 10/1100,1093,1325-
1326,11/46-48,10/1536-1537,1552,1490-1491, 1406-1408. Re: Hull-House residents’
and neighborhood responses to war and draft registration at Hull-House, see JA, Peace
and Bread, pp.l 17-119 - JA appears to have felt quite badly about allowing Hull-House to
be used as a registration station for the draft, but also felt it her duty as an American citizen
to do so; Linn, op.cit..p.327: Davis, op.cit.. p.245. CE, June 11, 1917. JA, "Patriotism
and Pacifists in Wartime," Citv Club of Chicago Bulletin. 10, June 16, 1917, pp. 184-
190. Re: AUAM conflicts, see Steinson, op.cit.. pp. 256-257,282-285, and Cook,
op.cit..pp.210-227. LW and JA both resigned from the AUAM in the fall, 1917, when it
divided into the Civil Liberties Union (CLU -forerunner of the ACLU) and the American
Union for a Democratic Peace(AUDP). Re: the AUAM and LW and JA, see LW to JA,
August 14, October 1 and November 13,1917, CE to JA, October 30 and November 14,
1917, JA to LW, November 12,1917, JAP.. 11/ 91 (in this letter, LW wrote that she felt
the AUAM staff was doing things in "poor judgment."), 305,405,374,407,388.
85Chicago Evening Journal (CEJ), June 1,1917, JAP.. 64/476. Degen, op.cit.. pp.199-
201 .
8?LAM to JA, August 8,1917, JA to WPP Executive Board, September 10 and October
19, ATP to JA, September 14, 1917, AGS to JA, September 12, 1917, 1917, Florence
Taussig to JA, September 19, 1917, Clara Lansburg (for JA) to MHJ, September 23,
1917, Re: JA was ill again with bronchitis, JAP.. 11/36-39, 251,279,259,235,231,267.
88Degen, op.cit.. p.204.
89steinson, op.cit.. pp.259-262,289. Cook, op.cit.. pp. 233-234. Four Lights. July 14,
1917, Vol. 1, #13, p.l. JA to RB, June 7,1917, Joy Young to JA (on beginning of Four
Lights’). June 14,1917, AGS to LAM, October 31(7), 1917, LAM to JA, November 12,
1917, JAP., 10/1336, 1449, 11/379, 399-402.
90Degen, op.cit.. pp. 205-209. Steinson, ibid.. pp. 292-293. Philadelphia Public Ledger,
December 7,9 and 10,1917, Philadelphia Enquirer, December 7,1917, Times, December
8, 1917, IAE , 64/583,584,580,582.
91 Peace and Bread, pp. 75-77. Denver News, November 24, 1917, Colorado Springs
Gazette, November 24, 1917, LA Times, March 19, 1918, JAP. 64/575, 642. Arthur
Bestor (AB) to JA, January 31, 1918, JA to AB, January 24,1918, WW to JA, January
15, 1918, IA P., 11/666, 642, 608. JA, "The World’s Food Supply and Woman's
Obligation," GFWC Biennial Convention Official Report. 1918. pp. 251-263, JAP..
47/1657-1781.
92l l to JA, May 6 and June 18, 1917,JA to LL, May 7, 1917, NT to JA, July 5, 1917,
LW to JA, August 4, 1917, DSJ to JA, August 22, 1917, JA to LW, August 23, 1917,
JA to DSJ, October 2, 1917. JAP.. 10/1194,1469,1197,1595-1596, 11/91,26, 131-135,
307. Re: People's Council's Program, see Steinson, op.cit.. pp.267-282.
93r b to JA, June 10, 1918, JA to RB, June 7 and 11, 1918, IAP., 11/1020, 1015-
1017,1023.
273
94Buffalo Enquirer(BI), November 15, 1918, NYT, November 16, 1918, CE, November
16, 1918, NYS, November 29, 1918, JAP.. 64/707, 715, 734. NT to JA, November
16, 1918, Virginia Dale to JA, November 15,1918, CE to JA, November 15, 1918, ATP
to JA, November 17, 1918, Women’s Association of Lawrence, Indiana, November 18,
1918, Woman's National Committee of American Defense Society, November 16,1918,
Women's Committee, Council of Defense to WW (copy to JA), November 15, 1918,
IAE., 11/1259,1250,1251,1264,1271,1257,1246-7. Steinson, op.cit.. pp. 351-352.
ATP asked Mary Church Terrell (MCT), the president of the National Association of
Colored Women, to be a delegate to the 1919 Women's Peace Congress and MCT agreed
to attend the meeting (see ATP to JA, December 17, 1918. JAP.. 11/1373-1374). MCT
wrote about her experiences with Jane Addams and the Women's International League for
Peace and Freedom (WILPF) - the name the ICWPP adopted at its 1919 Zurich Congress,
in her autobiography, A Colored Woman in a White World. (New York: Amo Press,
1980, Reprint) pp. 331-335,361 -363. MCT reported that JA was supportive of her
opinions and activity in WILPF.
9*NYT, November 30, 1918, Times, November 30, 1918, JAP.. 64/736.
96NYEP, December 16, 1918, BE, December 17,1918, IAP., 64/750, 751.
274
Conclusion
Jane Addams and Women's Aeenda
There is no denying that the impact of the war years fell full weight on Jane
Addams. She worked for the causes of social justice and peace since she was in her
twenties and believed that "the endeavor to nurture life . . crossed national boundaries
(and that) nothing of social value (could) be obtained save through wide-spread public
opinion and the cooperation of all civilized nations." In 1915, when she was fifty-five
years old, Addams saw war destroy cooperation between countries and slaughter
thousands of human beings, and she had to reckon with public opinion that
overwhelmingly favored the war. She described her experience as a pacifist during
wartime in Peace and Bread in Time of War, which Macmillan published in 1922.
Chapter 7, "Personal Reactions During Wartime," is remarkable in Addams' willingness
to record her vulnerabilty to society’s derision. After her July, 1915 Carnegie Hall
speech, in which she stated that men needed to imbibe "stimulants" to go into battle, the
press lambasted Addams - for months that stretched into years - for expressing beliefs
about war that were contrary to popular opinion. Addams recalled in Peace and Bread
how she initially responded to the disparagement by the press and the larger society:
I will confess that the mass psychology of the situation interested m e . . until I
fell ill with a serious attack of pleuro-pneumonia, which was the beginning of
three years of semi-invalidism. During weeks of feverish discomfort I
experienced a bald sense of social opprobrium and widespread
misunderstanding which brought me very near self-pity, perhaps the lowest pit
into which human nature can sink. Indeed the pacifist in wartime, with his
precious cause in the keeping of those who control the sources of publicity and
consider it a patriotic duty to make all types of peace propaganda obnoxious,
constantly faces two dangers. Strangely enough he finds it possible to travel
from the mire of self-pity to the barren hills of self-righteousness and to hate
himself equally in both places. 1
275
Addams explained that what pained pacifists most was their sense of isolation from
society: "the force of the majority was . . overwhelming . . and one secretly yearned to
participate in 'the folly of mankind."' It was hard on activists like Addams, who were
used to speaking out about societal injustices (and they certainly regarded the killing of
war unjust, nonsensical and immoral) to realize that stating their position no longer served
any "practical purpose" and, worse, doing so proved provocative and reaped only greater
ridicule and disharmony.
Addams, however, refused to "lose the conviction that as all forms of growth begin
with a variation from the mass, so the moral changes in human affairs begin with a
differing group or individual." Although non-pacifist friends warned Addams and her
fellow women pacifists that they would no longer "be trusted as responsible people or
judicious advisers," due to their pacifism in wartime, Addams persevered in her work for
international understanding. By mid-summer of 1917, Addams accommodated to public
opinion by discontinuing her efforts to stop the war, but throughout the war she stood
firm as president of both the Woman's Peace Party (WPP), which continued to meet
quietly and planned for post-war activities, and of the International Committee of Women
for a Permanent Peace (ICWPP), which stayed in communication throughout the war and
also planned for the post-war conference that would reunite women of peace from around
the world. ^
During World War 1, Addams justified her continued pacifism by maintaining "that
a man's primary allegiance is to his vision of the truth and that he is under obligation to
affirm it." But Addams also acknowledged that every student of her era was reared in
pragmatism and that the great American teachers of pragmatism - she spoke in regard to
John Dewey and William James - had "come out for the war and defended their positions
with skill and philosophic acumen." To insure that mainstream American women still took
276
her seriously and listened to her concerning women's responsiblity for promoting
international goodwill, Addams was pragmatist enough herself to offer her services to
Herbert Hoover’s food conservation program .^
The goal Addams always set for herself was one of involving women in the
public workings of society - and if during wartime, she had to be less openly verbal about
her pacifism and more outspoken about women’s role in feeding the world in order to
persuade women to participate in public affairs, she would follow this course of public
action. By undertaking a government sanctioned national speaking tour for food
conservation, during which she continually addressed the need for international
cooperation, she kept before women the idea of their being responsible public citizens. It
was in her 1918 speech on "The World’s Food Supply and Woman's Obligation" to the
largely conservative General Federation of Women’s Clubs that Addams broached the idea
that "woman's sphere" now involved women’s contributing to international relationships.
She argued that if women became involved in city politics when their children's health was
at stake, it was imperative that women - faced in war with the threat of starvation and
annihilation of children - become a "new and powerful force in international affairs." For
Addams, women's agenda unmistakably involved establishing a "new internationalism.''^
After the Allies and the Central Powers signed the armistice in November, 1918,
Jane Addams renewed her efforts in the women's peace movement. At the first post-war
meeting of the ICWPP in Zurich, 1919, the organization adopted the name of the
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), and Jane Addams served
as president until 1929, when she became honorary president for life. In 1931 Addams
became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace P rized
* * * *
277
This dissertation has focused on Jane Addams* work for social justice and
international peace in light of inherited traditions and societal issues of gender
relationships. Jane Addams encouraged women to participate in public politics on the
local, state, national and international levels. She herself had access to local, national and
world leaders who, in the political arena, consisted mainly of statesmen. She was,
however, sensitive to the majority of women feeling more comfortable working in
organizations among themselves rather than joining with their male counterparts to bring
about social change. She did not deter women from joining with men to work for social
justice and peace - in fact she urged women who felt they could join with men in
organizatonal and political work to do so. But she realized that generally white middle-
class women of her era were acculturated in a society whose public dictums designated
their roles as being primarily in the home and in work through charitable organizations.
Addams built on these traditonal feminine roles to persuade women that the nurturance
they offered in their homes could be used to profit society in the public arena. Addams
never called upon women to change their "agenda" - she believed that as the traditional
nurturers in society, women were obligated to push for improvements in the lives of all
peoples, including working for better conditions for laborers and immigrants, improved
health care and education for children, global peace, and economic, political and social
equality for men and women of all races.

Addams* work for social justice was unfailing except in regards to African-
Americans, an issue addressed in Chapter 2. Addams was reared in a culture that did not
condone integration between African- and white Americans and did not grant equality to
black citizens. She worked for improvements in the living and working conditions of
African-Americans and did so in allegiance with the outstanding black women and men
leaders of her time. However, white and immigrant women's suffrage took priority for
278
Addams over social and political equality for African-Americans. She genuinely believed
that her work in the Progressive Party and the women's rights and peace movements
would help improve life for African-Americans but the inherited American culture of
racism hindered her ability to see how her own actions may have contributed to the
degradation of black citizens in American society.
* * * *
Jane Addams was the principal leader of the Progressive Era to engage women in
debates of public policy. Her main concern was that when women entered the
predominantly male arena of politics they did not forgo their "women's agenda." In 1930,
ten years after American women received the suffrage, Addams addressed in The Second
Twenty Years at Hull-House the issues o f women retaining separate organizations and
maintaining a traditionally feminine agenda in public political work:

How long it will be necessary to keep .. separate organizations for women
before they unite their efforts with those of men is a question each group
must decide for itself. There is no doubt that some groups remain separated
too long, but that is not always the fault of women! . . When Janet(sic)
Rankin interrupted the roll call in the House of Representatives on April 5,
1917, to say: 'I want to stand by my country - but I cannot vote for war,'
the feminist movement was supposed to have received a knockout blow.
The patriots cried aloud that women would infect politics with pacifism, an
alarm .. which.. unfortunately proved unfounded.. . Some of us feel that
women in politics thus far have been too conventional, too afraid to differ
from men .. too skeptical.. to incorporate the needs of simple women into
the ordering of political life.. it is much easier (for women) to dovetail into
the political concerns of men than to release the innate concerns of women,
which might be equivalent to a revolutionary force.. .the nearer (women)
can keep in their political life to their historic role in human affairs, the more
valuable they will be.6
Addams argued that women enter politics and maintain an agenda which was
historically "feminine" in nature rather than become politicans who, like most statesmen,
favored large defense budgets at the expense of programs for women and children. Since
Jane Addams’ time there has not been a tremendous influx of women into the American
279
public political arena, but American women continue to organize for political power and
gain seats in state legislatures and the U. S. Congress. As of June, 1990, there are 2
women senators out of the 100 members elected to the U.S. Senate (women representing
2% of the total membership) and 28 congresswomen out of the 435 congresspersons
serving in the U.S. House of Representatives (women representing 6.4% of the total
membership). Only one African-American woman currently serves in the Congress,
Cardiss Collins of Illinois, although the National Women's Political Caucus predicts that
there will be at least three more African-American congresswomen after the November,
1990 congressional elections. As of June, 1989, there were 1,261 women serving in
state legislatures out of 7,461 total members (women representing 16.9% of the total
membership).^
In a 1986 article on women of color in politics and government, Mary Frances

Berry pointed out that most women of color who work in the government are concerned
with aiding those "left-out, overlooked, and underserved in our society," - an agenda
similar to Jane Addams' - but when these women ap’proach the usually white men with
whom they work about programs to help such individuals the men often view the women
"as being overly sensitive to such concerns." She suggested that women in politics and
government "find a way to continue being overly sensitive while not being excluded from
influence on any issues that arise." In 1989, Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder,
currently the most senior woman in Congress and Democratic Whip, told the International
Conference on Women and Peace at the University of Illinois, "I think we're going to
have a lot of trouble ever having a woman president until we've had a woman secretary of
defense." 8 After serving seventeen years in Congress, Schroeder argued that until the
American society accepts women as competent in traditionally male fields, such as those of
defense and war, the culture will resist electing a woman to the chief executive officer of
280
the nation. Schroeder champions programs for women and children, but 1ike Jane
Addams, she is a pragmatist who acknowledges the power of inherited cultural
stereotypes.
Women who want to enter politics today and work for an agenda that involves what
Addams considered historically "feminine" - more money for government programs to
improve the health, education and welfare of all Americans, regardless of color, gender,
age or ethnic background, and less money for weapon systems designed to kill - will face
a political arena that is still dominated by white men of the establishment. As women
continue to participate in the public political arena and gain positions of political power and
influence, especially those women with agendas of nurturance, the society will
increasingly confront whether it maintains or lets go of inherited traditions that impede
social justice and the nation's ability to contribute to global peace.
281
FOOTNOTES
Ijane Addams, Peace and Bread in Time of War. (New York: Macmillan, 1922), pp. 3,
(chapter 7)132-150, specifically 139.
îbid.. pp. 140-142.
3jbid.. pp. 151, 143.
4jane Addams, "The World’s Food Supply and Woman's Obligation," General
Federation of Women's Clubs, Biennial Convention Official Report. 1918. pp. 262-263,
JAP.. 47/1669-1770. JA reiterated this remark in Peace and Bread, p. 81.
5 Addams died from cancer in 1935. WILPF, still in existence today, has sections in 31
nations with headquarters in Geneva. The national headquaters of the U.S. Section is in
Philadelphia. In celebration of its 75th anniversary in 1990, the U.S. Section noted in the
program book for the national dinner that "WILPF members have worked
uncompromisingly for 75 years, often against great odds, promoting the empowerment of
women and working for local, state, federal and global policies which meet human needs
through disarmament, an end to racism, and the abandonment of foreign policies based on
domination and intervention." The spirit of Jane Addams remains very much alive within
the organization today.
6jane Addams, The Second Twenty Years at Hull-House. (New York: Macmillan, 1930),
pp. 108-111.
'Marie Morse, Political Director of the National Women's Political Caucus (NWPC) gave
me these statistics in a telephone conversation on June 1, 1990. NWPC updates its
statistics on women in politics once a year at the end of June. The NWPC address is 1275
K. Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20005. Its telephone number is 202-898-1100.
^Mary Frances Berry, "Increasing Women’s Influence in Government and Politics: The
Inclusion of Women of Color," Proteus: A Journal of Ideas. 3, Fall, 1986, pp. 3-4.
Patricia Schroeder, "Women's Role in National Peace Politics," Women and Peace: An
International Conference. (Urbana: University of Illinois School of Social Work, 1990),
p. 48. Schroeder was first elected to represent Colorado's First Congressional District in
1972 and is currently a member of the House Armed Services Committee. She
campaigned in 1987 to become the 1988 Democratic presidential candidate and when she
cried in public after announcing her withdrawal from the race due to lack of funds, there
ensued much media hoopla because many columnists suggested that as a typical woman
she had too openly showed such emotion. Schroeder discusses this in her book,
Champion of the Great American Family. (New York: Random House, 1989), pp. 8-9:
"Some writers went so far as to say that my tears had dampened all hopes for women in
presidential politics for the rest of this century!"
282
BIBLIOGRAPHY
THE PROGRESSIVE YEARS

AFRICAN-AMERICANS.WOMEN. POLITICS. REFORM
PilTW ry SftUtCgS
Manuscript Collections and Public Documents
The Papers of Carrie Chapman Catt, New York Public Library.
The Papers of Richard T. Ely, Wisconsin State Historical Society.
The Papers of Robert M. La Follette, Library of Congress/ Wisconsin State Historical
Society.
The Papers of Amos Pinchot, Library of Congress.

The Papers of Elihu Root, Library of Congress.
The Papers of Lillian Wald, New York Public Library.
The Papers of Theodore Roosevelt, Library of Congress (available on microfilm).

The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Library of Congress/Princeton University.
The Congressional Records. 1890-1925. National Archives.
Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1914-1919. Washington,
D.C.: Government Printing Office. 1928-1929.
Periodicals
Atlantic Monthly.
The Chicago Daily Tribune.
The Crisis.
Harper's Weekly.
The Independent.
Ladies' Home Journal.
The Masses.
The Nation.
New Republic.
The New York Times.
The Survey.
Woman's Tribune.
The Woman's Journal.
Books and Articles
283
Breckenridge, Sophonsiba P. "The Color Line in the Housing Problem." The Survey. 29,
February 1, 1913. pp.575-576.
Du Bois, W.E. Burghardt "Social Effects of Emancipation." The Survey. 29, February 1,
1913. pp.570-573.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Our Man-Made World or Our Androcentric Culture. New York:
Charlton Co., 1911.
_____________________ . Women and Economics. New York: Harper Torchbooks,

1966. Reprint.
McDermott, John J., Editor, The Writings of William James. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1977.
Terrell, Mary Church. A Colored Woman in a White World. New York: Amo Press,
1980. Reprint.
Torelle, Ellen, Compiler. The Political Philosophy of Robert M. La Follette. Madison, WI:
The Robert M. La Follette Co., 1920.
Wald, Lillian. Windows on Henry Street. Boston: Little, Brown, 1934.
Wells, Ida B. Crusade for Justice:: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells. Ed: Alfreda M.
Duster. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.
_________ . "Lynching and the Excuse for It." The Independent. 53, May 16, 1901.
pp. 1133-1136.
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York: Holmes and Meier, 1980.
Boals, Kay. "Some Reflections on Women and Peace." Peace and Change: A Journal of
Peace Research. 1, Spring, 1973. pp. 56-59.
Bolt, Ernest C. Ballots Before Bu11ets:The War Referendum Appraoch to Peace in America
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Boneparth, Ellen, Editor. Women. Power and Policy. New York:Pergamon Press, 1982
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Boyer, Paul. Urban Masses and Moral Order in America. 1820-1920. Cambridge: Harvard
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Brooks Higginbotham, Evelyn. "Beyond the Sound of Silence: Afro-American Women in
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Campbell, Barbara K. The Liberated Woman of Nineteen Fourteen: Prominent Women in
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1979.
Chafe, William H. The American Woman: Her Changing Social. Economic and Political
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Chambers, Clarke A. Seedtime of Reform: American Social Science and Social Action.
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Evans, Richard J. The Feminists: Women's Emancipation Movements in Europe. America.
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and C o ., 1976.
Trout, Grace Wilbur. "Side Lights on Illinois Suffrage History." Illinois State Historical
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Wiebe, Robert H. Businessmen and Reform: A Study of the Progressive Movement.
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____________ . The Search for Order. 1877 to 1920. New York: Hill and Wang, 1967.
Winterrle, John. "John Dewey and the First World War: A Study in Pragmatic
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PEACE MOVEMENTS OF THE PROGRESSIVE YEARS

Primary Sources
Manuscript Collections
The Records of The American Union Against Militarism, Swarthmore College Peace
Collection.
The Papers of Randolph Bourne, Columbia University Library.
The Records of The Fellowship of Reconciliation, Swarthmore College Peace Collection.
The Papers of Louis Lochner, Wisconsin State Historical Society.
290
The Records of The People's Council of America for Democracy and Peace, 1917-1919,
Swarthmore College Peace Collection.
The Papers of Norman Thomas, New York Public Library.
The Papers of Oscar Garrison Villard, Harvard University.
The Papers of Julia Grace Wales, Wisconsin State Historical Society.
Secondary Sources
Alonso, Harriet Hyman. "A Shared Responsibility: The Men and Women of The People's
Council of America for Democracy and Peace, 1917-1919." M.A. thesis, Sarah Lawrence
College, 1982.
Chatfield, Charles. For Peace and Justice: Pacifism in America. 1914-1941. Boston:
Beacon, 1971.
_______________. "More than Dovish: Movements and Ideals in the United States." Ken
Booth and Moorhead Wright, Editors. American Thinking About Peace and War. New
York: Barnes and Noble, 1978.
_____________ . Peace Movements in in America. New York: Schocken, 1973.

______________, Blanche W. Cook and Sandi Cooper, Editors. The Garland Library of
War and Peace. New York: Garland Publishing, 1971-1977. (Includes more than 330
volumes of reprinted peace classics and original anthologies of prominent peace leaders).
Cook, Blanche Wiesen. Bibliography on Peace Research in History. Santa Barbara:
American Bibliographical Center-Clio Press, 1969.
______________ . Crystal Eastman on Women and Revolution. . New York: Oxford
_____________ . "Democracy in Wartime: Antimilitarism in England and the United
States." Charles Chatfield, Editor. Peace Movements in America. New York, 1973. pp.
39-56.
____________ . "Woodrow Wilson and the Antimilitarists." Ph.D. dissertation, Johns
Hopkins University, 1970.
Curti, Merle. Peace or War: The American Struggle. 1636-1936. New York: W.W. Norton
and C o ., 1936.
DeBenedetti, Charles. Origins of the Modem American Peace Movement. 1915-1929.
Millwood, NY: KTO Press, 1978.
________________ . The Peace Reform in American History. Bloomington: Indiana
291
Diggins, John P. The American Left in the Twentieth Century. New York: Harcourt,
Brace, Jovanovich, Inc., 1973.
Florence, Lelia Secor. "The Ford Peace Ship and After." Julian Bell, Editor. We Did Not
Fight: 1914-1918 Experiences of War Resisters. London: Cobden-Sanderson, 1935. pp.
95-126.
Griffin, Frederick C. Six Who Protested: Radical Opposition to the First World War. Port
Washington: Kenniket Press, 1977.
Grubbs, Frank L. Jr. The Struggle for Labor Lovaltv: Gompers. the A.F.L. and the
Pacifists. Durham: Duke University Press, 196>J.
Herman, Sondra R. Eleven Against the War: Studies in American International Thought.
1898 -1921. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1969.
Howlett, Charles. Troubled Philosopher: John Dewev and the Struggle for World Peace.
Port Washington: Kenniket Press, 1976.
Jones, Mary Hoxie. Swords into Ploughshares: An Account of the American Friends
Service Committee. 1917-1937. New York: Macmillan, 1937.
Kraft, Barbara. The Peace Ship: Henrv Ford’s Pacifist Adventure in the First World War.
New York: Macmillan, 1978.
Lasch, Christopher. "The Anti-Imperialists, the Philippines, and the Iniquity of Man."
Journal of Southern History. 24, 1958, pp. 319-331.
Lutzker, Michael A. "The Formation of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace :
A Study of the Establishment-Centered Peace Movement, 1910-1914." Jerry Israel, Editor.
Building the Organizational Society. New York: The Free press, 1972.
_______________. "The 'Practical' Peace Advocates: An Interpretation of the American
Peace Movement. 1898-1917." Ph.D. dissertation, Rutgers University, 1969.
Marchand, C. Roland. The American Peace Movement and Social Reform. 1898-1918.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.
_______________ . "The Ultimate Reform: World Peace in American Thought During the
Progressive Era." Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1964.
Newberry, Jo Vellacott. "Anti-War Suffragists." History. 62, October, 1977. pp.411-
425.
O'Neill, William L. Everyone was Brave: The Rise and Fall of Feminism in America.
Chicago: Quadrangle, 1969.
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Papachristou, Judith. "From Domesticity to International Politics: The Emergence of the
Women's Peace Movement, 1890 - 1910." Paper presented at The Meeting of the American
Historical Association, Chicago, December, 1986.
________________ . "For a Just and Peaceful World: American Women as Peace and
Foreign Policy Activists, 1895 -1905." Unpublished paper.
Patterson, David S. Toward a Warless World: The Travail of the American Peace
Movement. 1887-1914. Bloomington: Indiana University Press,1976.
_____________ . "Woodrow Wilson and the Mediation Movement." Historian. 33,
August, 1971. pp.535ff.
Schott, Linda Kay. Women Against War: Pacifism. Feminism and Social Justice in the
United States. 1915-1941. Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1985.
Steinson, Barbara J. American Women's Activism in World War 1. New York: Garland,
1982.
_______________. "The Mother Half of Humanity: American Women in the Peace and
Preparedness Movements in World War 1." Carol Ruth Berkin and Clara M. Lovett,
Editors. Women. War and Revolution. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1980. pp.259-284.
Trattner, Walter I. "Julia Grace Wales and the Wisconsin Plan for Peace." Wisconsin
Magazine of History. 44, Spring, 1961. pp. 203-213.
Wreszin, Michael. Oswald Garrison Villard: Pacifist at War. Boomington: Indiana
Zur, Ofer. "Men, Women and War: Gender Differences in Attitudes towards War." Ph.D.
dissertation, The Wright Institute, Berkeley, 1984.
WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM

THE EARLY YEARS
Primary Sources
The Papers of Emily Greene Balch, Swarthmore College Peace Collection.
The Papers of Alice Hamilton, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library.
The Records of The Women's Peace Party, Swarthmore College Peace Collection.
The Records of The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Swarthmore
College Peace Collection.
293
History bv the Founders
Addams, Jane, Emily Greene Balch and Alice Hamilton. Women at the Hague: The
International Congress of Women and Its Results. New York: Garland, 1972. Reprint
Hamilton, Alice. "At the War Capitals." The Survey. 34, August 7,1915. pp.417-422.
Secondary Sources
Bauman, Mary Kay. "Madison Organization for International Peace and Freedom."
Wisconsin Then and Now. 12, no. 2, 1965. pp. 1-3.
Bussey, Gertrude, and Margaret Tims. Pioneers for Peace: The Women's International
League for Peace and Freedom. 1915-1965. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1965.
Chamberlain, Mary. "The Women at the Hague." The Survey. 34, June 5, 1915. pp.218-
236.
Cook, Blanch Wiesen. "The Women's Peace Party: Collaboration and Non-Cooperation in
World War 1." Peace and Change. Fall, 1972. pp.36- 42.
Conway, Jill. "The Women's Peace Party and the First World War." J. L. Gramatstein and
Robert D. Cuff, Editors. War and Society in North America. Toronto: Thomas Nelson and
Sons, 1971.
Costin, Lela B. "Feminism, Pacifism, Internationalism, and the 1915 International

Congress of Women." Women's Studies International Forum. 5, no.3/4, 1982. pp.3Ql-
Degen, Marie Louise. The History of the Woman's Peace Party. New York: Garland,
1972. Reprint.
Evander, Jan. "Woman’s Peace Party." Ph.D. dissertation in progress, New York
University.
Foster-Hayes, Carrie. "WILPF, the Women and the Warriors: Dorothy Detzer and the
WILPF." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Denver, 1984.
Olmsted, Mildred Scott, and Eleanor Gorham Ottemess. Roots of the Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom. Philadelphia: WELPF, 1977. (Swarthmore
College Peace Collection).
Pois, Anne Marie. "The WILPF: 1915-1941." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Colorado,
1988.
Randall, Mercedes. Beyond Nationalism: Social Thought of Emilv Greene Balch. New
York: Twayne, 1972.
______________.Highlights in WILPF: A History from the Hague to Luxembourg, 1915-
1946. Philadelphia: WILPF, 1946.
294
______________. Improper Bostonian: Emilv Greene Balch. Nobel Laureate. 1946. New
York: Twayne, 1972.
Schott, Linda. "Women's Involvement in the Peace Movement, 1915-1941."

Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1986.
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Papers. 1915-1978: A Guide to
the Microfilm Edition. Mitchell F. Ducey, Editor. Sanford: Microfiming Corporation of
America, 1983.
JANEADPAMS
Primary Sources
Manuscript Collection
Bryan, Mary Lynn McCree, Editor. The Jane Addams Papers. Ann Arbor: University
Microfilms International, 1985. ( A Guide to the Microfilm, published by the University of
Illinois at Chicago, 1985, is available from University Microfilms.)
Works bv Jane Addams
(James Farrell's Beloved Ladv. cited under "Secondary Sources" includes a bibliography
of 514 of Jane Addams' writings, pp.221-241. Included below are key works by Addams
used in the dissertation.)
Addams, Jane. "Has the Emancipation Proclamation Been Nullified by National
Indifference?" Survey. 29, February 1,1913. pp. 565-566.
__________ . Democracy and Social Ethics. New York: Macmillan, 1902.
__________ . The Long Road of Woman's Memory. New York: Macmillan, 1916.
_________ . "Patriotism and Pacifists in Wartime." Citv Club of Chicago Bulletin. 10,16
June 1917. pp.184-190.
_________ . Peace and Bread in Time of War. New York: Macmillan, 1922.
__________. "Peace and the Press." The Independent. 84, October 11,1915. pp.55-56.
. "The Progressive Party and the Negro." The Crisis. 5, November, 1912. pp.
30-31.
_________ . Newer Ideals of Peace. New York: Macmillan, 1907.
__________. "Respect for Law." The Independent. 53, January 3,1901. pp.18-20.
295
__________. "The Revolt against War." The Survey. July 17,1935. pp.355-359.
__________• The_S.ecpnd Twenty Years at Hull-House.September.1909 to September.
1929. New York: Macmillan, 1930.
_________ . Twenty Years at Hull-House. New York: Macmillan, 1910.
__________. "Wartime Challenging Women's Traditions." The Survey. 36, August 5,
1916. pp.475-478.
__________. "Women's Special Training for Peacemaking." Proceedings of the Second
National Peace Congress. Chicago: 1909. pp.252-254.
. "Women, War and Babies." Harper's Weekly. 61, July 31, 1915. p. 101.
Secondary Sources
Abbott, Edith. "Grace Abbott and Hull House 1908-1921, Parts 1 and 2." Social Service
Review. Volume 24, September, 1950. pp 374-394 and December, 1950. pp. 493-517.
Aptheker, Bettina. Occasional Papers Series Number 25 : Ida B. Wells-Bamett and Jane
Addams on Lynching and Rape. New York: The American Institute for Marxist Studies,
1982.
Barker-Benfield, G. J. "Mother Emancipator: The Meaning of Jane Addams' Sickness and

Cure." Journal of Family History. 4, no. 4,1979. pp. 395-420.
Buroker, Robert L. "From Voluntary Association to Welfare State: The Illinois
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INFORMATION TO USERS

T he m ost advanced technology has been used to photograph and

The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the

Oversize m aterials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by

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University Microfilms International

JANE ADDAMS: PEACE, JUSTICE, GENDER, 1860-1918

Silver, Regene Henriette Spero, Ph.D.

University of Pennsylvania, 1990

Copyright ®1990 by Silver, Regene Henriette Spero. All rights reserved.

REGENE HENRIETTE SPERO SILVER

Presented to the Faculties of the University of

For the women of the

Introduction: Jane Addams: Inherited Traditions

Chapter 1: Jane Addams

and the Political Responsibilities of Women p. 22.

Chapter 2: Jane Addams and National Politics:

Chapter 3: Jane Addams' Peace Activism:

Chapter 4: The War Years:

Conclusion: Jane Addams and

Women's Agenda p. 275.

1. Jane Addams and Johnny Powers, March 2,1898. p. 54.

1. Woman's Peace Party Platform, January, 1915. p. 191.

passed from accomplishments and the arts of pleasing, to the development

Jane Addams described the situation in Twenty Years at Hull-House:

The reformers chose 42-year-old William Gleason, an Irish immigrant, member of

-—4 ' U.^^r ":>V'

„ \.J>JSZ.SIZ>£.7r'T. SJCXE. DKA34S jp p fp jt j gv* a ***7*& F “

^James Weber Linn, Jane Addams:New York: Appeleton-Centuiy,1936),pp.l6-25. Allen

On one hand, Du Bois wrote optimistically,

At the request of Frederick Douglass, Wells spoke in February 1893 to a group of

Social historian Christopher Lasch observed that "Most middle-class Americans of

There was a "club of colored women" at Hull-House which worked on black

In her 1930 autobiography, Second Twenty Years at Hull-House. Addams called

After the Charities Conference adjourned, several members of the committee

women and children. Following Roosevelt's message, Addams was pivotal in

According to Addams, it was also at this conference that an encounter occurred

The southern state conventions to choose delegates to the National Progressive

Although a couple of members of the Provisional Committee from northern states,

i- ; «. ■'• • ; ' ' v V.. ‘ ,'.'v

•-5- ' ' S

I rise to second the nomination, stirred by the splendid platform

In the November McClure's article "My Experience as a Progressive Delegate"

from blacks who had been humiliated by the Party.

Plank on Equal Suffrage

Slattr Ahfcama (Eljorua

W om en! D o Som ething!

W hat to D o O utside th e Party

JAKE ADDAJSB, Illin ois Progressive H eadquarters

Despite Jane Addams1campaign success, Theodore Roosevelt took second place in

Jane Addams was instrumental in obtaining the passage of a suffrage resolution at

Jane Addams may not have discovered the principles of internationalism

In February, 1900, Addams published an article on "Commercialism Disguised as

George Brett, president of Macmillan, was pleased enough with Democracy's

Because of their difference in all external matters, in all non-essentials of

"coached" by "a mischievous newspaper and unwise counsellors" to do so - still felt

As soon as Germany invaded Belgium on August 4, followed six days later by

When Schwimmer's letter to Addams arrived in Chicago at the end of August,

On September 11, Paul Kellogg wrote to Jane Addams in Hull’s Cove:

women’s organizations . .would . . send representatives if we were quite sure that we

bu R em bran dt P hoto C o ., T h e H a z u e , <

AMERICAN DELEGATES W AITING FOR BRITISH

f E q u a lly w ith m en pacifists, we u n d e rsta n d th at p la n n e d -fo r, legalized,

It demonstrated that women are neither the illogical, inconsistent, narrow