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Of young men against an old man's Europe -- of women who know the cost of life -- of statesmen who are beginning to dread that militarism will be entrenched and civil rights will be broken down in each country if the settlement of the war comes through bloodshed rather than negotiation.
By Jane Addams
IT is difficult to formulate your experience when brought face to face with so much genuine emotion and high patriotism as Europe exhibits at the present moment. You become very much afraid of generalizing. The situation is so confused, so many wild and weird things are said about it, that you are afraid to add one word that is not founded upon absolutely first-hand impressions and careful experience; because, for the world, you would not add a bit to this already overwhelming confusion. And you do not come back, -- at least I do not, -- from these various warring countries with any desire to let loose any more emotion upon the world. You feel that what is needed above all else is some careful understanding, -- some human touch, if you please, in this over-involved and over-talked-of situation in which so much of the world finds itself in dire confusion and bloodshed. You get afraid of tall talk; you do not know where words may lead the people to whom you are speaking. They seem to have acquired such a fearful significance and seem to have power over the very issues of life and death itself.
And so I should like, if I might, for a few moments, to tell as simply as I can, the experiences which we had at The Hague. Some have been much too kind to call me the leader of that movement, for I was not, in any sense of the word. It was convened and called together by a group of European women, and only after all the arrangements were made did we know about it in America, and consent to go. They were anxious to have a woman from a neutral country to serve as president, and it was safer to have the neutral country as far away as possible, and America was the furthest away. Therefore, I think America was chosen.
The women who called the congress were sure that, although during this last year none of the great international congresses, in science and arts or the most abstract subjects, had dared to meet; they were quite sure that the women who had been meeting during many years, in such conventions as Dr. Shaw has described, that at least a few of them could come together and in all sobriety and in all friendliness discuss their common aims and the terrible stake which they all had together in this war. That faith as you know, was well grounded, and for three days and a half with much less friction than is usual in the ordinary meetings of men or women, so far as I know them, the women met there at The Hague and formulated their series of resolutions. I will confess that the first day we were a little cautious. We skated, as it were, more or less on thin ice, because we did not know how far we dared venture in freedom of expression. One of the Dutch committee came to me and whispered almost in a stage whisper: "I think you ought to know that the hall is full of police, not only those supplied by The Hague, but some of them supplied by the government itself because they fear trouble." We told them we should be happy to have the police there to listen to our deliberations, and to call upon them if needed! It seemed as if every one was nervous, and I will admit that there was an element of risk, if you please, in asking women to come; but they did come from twelve different countries, in the midst of the strain under which Europe is now laboring.
On the last day of that conference it was suggested that the resolutions be carried by committees to the various governments of Europe, and to the President of the United States. Some of us felt that the congress had ended very happily, that we had proceeded day by day in good will and understanding, and that it was perhaps unfortunate to venture further. But the resolution was passed, and two committees set forth. One committee to the north, consisting of a woman from the side of the allies, and a woman from the side of the Germans, and also two women from the neutral nations, have visited the Scandinavian countries and Russia. We have had cables from them from time to time. They were received by the prime ministers and members of Parliament in all of the countries as well as by the ministers of foreign affairs. They have been reported in Italy and Holland, and will arrive in America we hope within a week or two. You cannot tell how long it may take to cross the ocean now because you may quite easily be held up in the English Channel or some other crucial trade route for some ten or twelve days.
The other committee consisting of the vice-president and the president of the congress, women from the two neutral nations, from Holland and from America, set forth to visit the other countries.
We were received in each of the capitals, in London, in Berlin, in Budapest, in Rome, in Paris and in Havre, where the Belgian government is now established. We took in also Switzerland and Holland, although they are neutral, and Rome should be counted twice for we visited the Vatican; or nine visits in all. We were received in each case by the minister of foreign affairs, [page 2] and by the chancellor or prime minister, and in all of the countries we saw members of Parliament and other men who are responsible for governmental polices.
It is too much to hope to reach the mind of everyone in a huge audience like this, but I should like to reproduce in the minds of some of you some of the impressions made by this pilgrimage of ours, if you choose to call it so, going to and fro from one government to another, as we did to nine governments in the space of five weeks.
THE first thing which was striking is this, that the same causes and reasons for the war were heard everywhere. Each warring nation solemnly assured you it is fighting under the impulse of self-defense. Each of the warring nations I assure you feels it is fighting to preserve its own traditions and its own ideals from those who would come in and disturb and destroy those high traditions and those ideals. And in one tongue or another, or translated into English, we heard the identical phrases. Going as rapidly as we did, from one country to another, I almost knew what to expect and what phrases were coming next, after a foreign minister had begun.
ANOTHER thing which we found very striking was that in practically all of the foreign offices including those two foreign offices, one of which I suppose to be leading one side and one the other side of this conflict, the men said -- again in very similar phrases, -- that a nation at war cannot make negotiations and that a nation at war cannot even express willingness to receive negotiations, for if it does either, the enemy will at once construe it as a symptom of weakness; and when the terms are made the side which first suggested negotiations will suffer as being construed the side that was weaker and was suing for peace.
But they said, in all of these foreign offices, that if some other power presented propositions, -- if neutral people, however they might be gotten together, people who would command the respect of the foreign offices to whom their propositions would be presented -- if a small conference were willing to get together to study the situation seriously and to make propositions, one, two, three -- even if they were turned down over and over again until something were found upon which negotiations might commence, there is none of the warring nations that would not be glad to receive such service. Now that came to us unequivocally.
We presented to each of the chancelleries our resolutions, but we talked for the most part about the possibility of substituting negotiations for military processes. Now, it is very easy for a minister to say: "This country will never receive negotiations; we are going to drive the enemy out inch by inch," but it is pretty hard for him to say it to one or two or three or four women who are sitting there, and asking: "If a proposition were presented to you, which seemed to you feasible, -- if something were presented to you which might mean the beginning of further negotiations between yourselves and your enemies, would you decline such a proposition? Would you feel justified to go on sacrificing the young men of your country in order to obtain through bloodshed what might be obtained through negotiations, -- the very thing for which your foreign office was established?" No minister, of course, is willing to say that he would. No minister would be willing, of course, to commit himself for a moment to such a policy. That we found everywhere.
THERE was another thing which was impressed upon us all of the time, and in all of the countries which we visited. Although each is tremendously united at the present moment, although there is no break that can be seen or heard anywhere on the part of the people fighting together -- that they wish the war to cease or that they are going to divide into parties, one party to oppose the other -- while they are thus united in this tremendous national consciousness, there was manifested in every country two general lines of approach. One finds expression in the military party which believes that the matter can be settled only upon a military basis; the other, a civil party, which very much deprecates this exaltation of militarism, which says that the longer the war runs on, the more the military parties are being established as censors of the press and in all sorts of other places which they ordinarily do not occupy; that the longer the war goes on the more the military power is breaking down all of the safeguards of civil life and of civil government, and that consequently the harder will it be for civil life and for the rights of civil life to [reestablish] themselves over the rights and power of the military. The more desperately they cling to their army, the more absolute is the power and the glory of that army. The people who represent the civil view of life, in the midst of this patriotic fervor, in the midst of this devotion to the army, see that and long for some other form of settlement, -- for some other form of approach to this terrible, confused situation, -- long for it one month more than they did the month before.
As you go from one country to another, you can only say for yourself and say it to the citizens as you have opportunity, that if this war is ever to be settled through negotiations, -- and sometime it must be, heaven knows when, -- but sometime men must stop fighting and return to their normal existence -- you say to these men: "Why not begin now before the military becomes even further entrenched? Why not begin now when you still have enough power to hold them to their own statements, to hold them to their own purposes, and not allow them to rule and control the absolute destinies of the nation?"
Now, I am quite aware that in every country we met, broadly speaking, the civil people and not the military people. I am quite aware that it was natural for us to see the pacifists, if you please, -- although they are hardly known under that name; -- that it was more natural for us to meet and know the people who were on that side of life, instead of the military side of life. But because we did meet dozens of them, I am willing to believe that there must be many more of the same type of mind in every country; quite as loyal as the military people, quite as eager for the growth and development of their own ideals and their own standard of living; but believing with all their hearts that the military message is a wrong message, which cannot in the end establish those things which are so dear to their hearts.
NOW, that is something to work upon. When peace comes, it must come through the people within those countries having some sort of claim to the same type of mind and the same type of people who are dwelling in other countries.
At present they have no means of communication. They say that under the censorship of the press one man cannot tell how many other men are feeling as he does or believing as he does. Although he is a comrade in mind, and may be living in the next street, or in the next town, he does not know how many there are. He cannot get them together. In our modern cities with their huge agglomeration of human beings, we communicate largely through the daily press. We cannot find out public opinion in any other way. Poor method as it seems, it is, after all, all that we have worked out as yet. And in the warring countries nothing goes into the press except those things which the military censors deem fit and proper.
So as we went about, people would say to us, in regard to the press, if you see So and So, say a word about lessening the censorship. And we said, No, we can talk about but this one thing. We cannot carry messages from the citizens to their governments. But over and over again this request was made. And as we got back to one country from another, they would say: "Are people talking like that there? That is just the way we are talking here." But they do not know each other from one country to another. And the individuals [page 3] cannot find each other within the country itself.
IN each of the warring nations there is this other point of similarity. Generally speaking, we heard everywhere that this war 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; that somewhere in church and state, somewhere in the high places of society, the elderly people, the middle-aged people, had established themselves and had convinced themselves that this was a righteous war, that this war must be fought out, and the young men must do the fighting.
Now, this is a terrible indictment, and I admit that I cannot substantiate it. I can only give it to you as an impression, but I should like to bring one or two details before you to back it up, so to speak.
I thought when I got up I shouldn't mention the word German or the word allies, but perhaps if I give an example from Germany and then an example from the allies, I will not get into trouble.
We met a young man in Switzerland. He had been in the trenches for three months, had been wounded and had been sent to Switzerland to be cured. He had developed tuberculosis and the physician among us thought he would scarcely live three months. But he thought he was being cured, and he was speaking his mind before he went back to the trenches. He was, I suppose, what one would call a fine young man, but not an exceptional young man. He had had a gymnasium education. He had been in business with his father, had traveled in South Africa; had traveled in France, England, and Holland, in the line of business. He had come to know men as mensch, that gute menschen were to be found in every land. And now here he was, at twenty-eight, facing death because he was quite sure when he went back to the trenches that death awaited him. This is what he said: Never during that three months and a half had he once shot his gun in a way that could possibly hit another man. He said that nothing in the world could make him kill another man. He could be ordered into the trenches; he could be ordered to go through the motions, but the final act was in his own hands and with his own conscience. And he said: "My brother is an officer." (He gave the name of his brother, gave his title; he wasn't concealing anything; he was quite too near death's door to have any shifting and concealing). "He never shoots anything; he never shoots in a way that will kill. And I know dozens and dozens of young men who do not."
We had a list given to us by the woman at the head of a hospital in one German city of five young Germans who had been cured and were ready to be sent back to the trenches, when they committed suicide, not because they were afraid of being killed, but because they were afraid they might be put into a position where they would have to kill someone else.
We heard stories of that sort from France. We talked with nurses in hospitals; we talked with convalescent soldiers; we talked to the mothers of soldiers who had come back on furlough and had gone into the trenches; and in all of these countries we learned that there are surprising numbers of young men and old men who will not do any fatal shooting because they think that no one has the right to command them to do that thing.
IN order to be quite fair and square, I shall next give my testimony from England. I quote a letter published in the Cambridge Magazine at Cambridge University and written by a young man who had gone to the front. I didn't visit Cambridge, but I did visit Oxford. The universities are almost depleted of young men. The great majority of them have gone into the war. This is what this young man wrote:
"The greatest trial that this war has brought is that it has released the old men from all restraining influences, and has let them loose upon the world. The city editors, the retired majors, the amazons {women are included, you see} and last, but I fear, not least, the venerable archdeacons, have never been so free from contradiction. Just when the younger generation was beginning to take its share in the affairs of the world, and was hoping to counteract the Victorian influences of the older generation, this war has come to silence us, -- permanently or temporarily as the case may be. Meanwhile, the old men are having field days on their own. In our name, and for our sakes as they pathetically imagine, they are doing their very utmost, it would seem, to perpetuate, by their appeals to hate, intolerance and revenge, those very follies which have produced the present conflagration."
I am not going to tell of many things that were said because I think there have been, for the present, too many things said: but the mothers would say to us: "It was hard to see that boy go because he did not believe in war; he did not belong to a generation that believes in war."
One of the leading men of Europe, whose name you would instantly recognize if I felt at liberty to give it, said: "If this war could have been postponed for ten years -- perhaps," he said, "I will be safe and say, twenty years, -- war would have been impossible in Europe, because of the tremendous revolt against it in the schools and the universities."
I am quite sure when I say that, that it is a partial view. I am quite sure that there are thousands of young men in the trenches feeling that they are performing the highest possible duties. I am quite sure that the spirit of righteousness is in the hearts of most of them, at least of many of them; but that throughout there are to be found these other men who are doing violence to the highest teachings which they know.
It seemed to me at times as if the difference between the older generation and the new, is something we apprehended dimly in each country, -- that the older men believed more in abstractions, shall I say; that when they talked of patriotism, when they used certain theological or nationalistic words, these meant more to them than they did to the young men; that the young men had come to take life much more from the point of view of experience; that they were much more -- pragmatic (I suppose I could have said in Boston: I don't know how well it will go in New York) -- that they had come to take life much more empirically; and when they went to the trenches and tested it out, they concluded that it did not pay, that it was not what they wanted to do with their lives.
I saw an old Quaker in England who said: "My sons are not fighting, they are sweeping mines." The Quakers are very clever in distinguishing between what they will or will not do. This Quaker explained to me that his sons allow themselves to sweep mines but they do not allow themselves to fire mines. They are doing this, that and the other thing. "It is strange to me," he said, "because they never went to Quaker meetings, but they are awfully keen now on being consistent." Now, there you are. I think it was the difference again between the older generation and the new. This again may be a superficial impression, but such as it is, we had it in every single country, one after the other.
LET me say just a word about the women in the various countries. The belief that a woman is against war simply and only because she is a woman and not a man, does not, of course, hold. In every country there are many, many women who believe that the war is inevitable and righteous, and that the highest possible service is being performed by their sons who go into the army; just as there are thousands of men believing that in every country; the majority of women and men doubtless believe that.
But the women do have a sort of pang about it. Let us take the case of an artist, an artist who is in an artillery corps, let us say, and is commanded to fire upon a wonderful thing, say St. Mark's at Venice, or the duomo at Florence, or any other great architectural and beautiful thing. I am sure [page 4] he would have just a little more compunction than the man who had never given himself to creating beauty and did not know the cost of it. There is certainly that deterrent on the part of the women, who have nurtured these soldiers from the time they were little things, who brought them into the world and brought them up to the age of fighting, and now see them destroyed. That curious revolt comes out again and again, even in the women who are most patriotic and who say: "I have five sons and a son-in-law in the trenches. I wish I had more sons to give." Even those 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.
Now, what is it that these women do in the hospitals? They nurse the men back to health and send them to the trenches, and the soldiers say to them: "You are so good to us when we are wounded, you do everything in the world to make life possible and to restore us; why do you not have a little pity for us when we are in the trenches? Why do you not put forth a little of this same effort and this same tenderness to see what might be done to pull us out of those miserable places?"
That testimony came to us, not from the nurses of one country, and not from the nurses who were taking care of the soldiers on one side, but from those who were taking care of them upon every side.
And it seems to make it quite clear that whether we are able to recognize it or not, there has grown up a generation in Europe, as there has doubtless grown up a generation in America, who have revolted against war. It is a god they know not of, that they are not willing to serve; because all of their sensibilities and their training upon which their highest ideals depend, revolt against the whole situation.
NOW it seems to me this: -- and bear in mind that the papers were much too kind when they said that I was going to advise the President. I never dreamed of advising him or of formulating plans. That last will have to be done when the others have returned -- I should never venture alone to do anything of the sort. But this, it seems to me, broadly speaking, might be true, that a set of people could be gotten together who are international, out of their own experience. You know, of course, that the law is the least international thing we have! We have an international body of science; a man takes the knowledge of the science to which he is devoted, and deals with that knowledge, and he doesn't ask whether it was gathered together by Englishmen or Germans. We have an international postal system, a tremendous international commerce, and a tremendous international finance; internationalism in all sorts of fields. But the law lags behind, and perhaps will lag behind for a long time, quite as many of our most settled customs have never been embodied in law at all.
If men could be brought together who have had international experience, who have had it so long and so unconsciously that they have come to think not merely in internationalistic terms, but in the realities of the generation in which they have been doing the thing -- whether business or labor or any other thing which has become so tremendously international -- if they could be brought together, they could be asked to try to put the very best mind they have not as representing one country or another country, but as representing human life and human experience as it has been lived during the last ten years in Europe.
They could be asked what it is that has brought about this situation. Does [Serbia] need a seaport? Is that what is the matter with [Serbia]? I won't mention any of the other warring countries because I might get into difficulties; but is this thing or that thing needed? What is it from the human standpoint, from the social standpoint? Is it necessary to feed the people of Europe -- who are, as you know, so underfed in all of the southern portions of Europe -- is it necessary, in order to feed them, to get the wheat out of Russia? Then in heaven's name, let us have warm water harbors in order to get that wheat out of Russia.
Let us not consider it from the point of view of the claims of Russia, or of the counterclaims of someone else; but consider it from the point of view of the needs of Europe. If men with that temper, and that experience, and that sort of understanding of life were to begin to make propositions to the various governments, men who would not placate the claims of one government and set them over against the claims of another government, but would look at the situation from a humane standpoint, -- I am sure, at the least (from my knowledge of dozens of men in all of the countries who talked with me about the situation) that that sort of negotiation would be received. Now that does not seem an impossible thing.
PERHAPS the most shocking impression left upon one's mind is this, that in the various countries the temper necessary for continuing the war is worked up and fed largely by the things which have occurred in the war itself. Germany has done this; the allies have done that; somebody tried to do this and somebody else tried to do that, and we foiled them by doing that. Now, I submit that no, shall I say, plain mother who found two children fighting, -- not for any cause which they stated, but because "he did that" and "I did this, and therefore he did that to me," -- that such a woman would say "this can't go on." It leads to nothing but continuous hatred and quarreling.
Let us say that there are two groups of boys in a boys' club, and I have much experience of that sort in boys' clubs to draw upon. If one says, "We did this because the other fellows did that," you will simply have to say, "I won't go into the rights and wrongs of this, but this thing must stop, because it leads nowhere and gets nowhere." And so with larger groups. We all know the strikes that have gone on for weeks, with the original cause quite lost sight of. I submit that something of the same sort is happening in Europe now.
They are going on because of the things which have been done in the war; but that certainly is a very curious cause for continuing the war. And what it needs, it seems to me, and to many of us, is a certain touch of human nature. The human nature in the trenches would heal them over; the kindly people in the various countries would not support the war longer, and the foreign offices themselves would resume their own business, -- that of negotiation versus that of military affairs, -- if human nature can be released instead of being kept at the boiling pitch as it is all the time by outrages here and there and somewhere else. I do not know how that is to be brought about, and I admit that this is a very simple analysis of a very serious and complex situation. But when you go about and see the same sort of sorrow everywhere, see the tremendous loss of life in these countries, when you find that you can't talk to a woman on any subject, however remote from the war, without finding at once that she is in the deepest perplexity, -- that while she is carrying herself bravely and going on with her accustomed activities because she thinks thereby that she is serving her country, her heart is being torn all the time, -- it is borne in upon you that at last human nature must revolt. The fanatical feeling which is so high in every country, and which is so fine in every country, cannot last. The wave will come down. The crest cannot be held indefinitely. Then men must see the horrible things which have happened; they will have to soberly count up the loss of life, and the debt they have settled upon themselves for years to come.
I COULD go on and tell many things that we saw. The Pope himself gave us an audience of half an hour. The men with religious responsibility feel keenly what has happened in Europe -- that while the various countries see in the war a throwback of civilization, the church sees it as a throwback to religion -- breeding animosities and tearing and rending the work of years. And yet we [page 5] are all apparently powerless to do the one thing which might end it. I do not say end it. We did not talk peace as we went about. It would merely confuse the issue. (And, in truth, isn't it hideous that whole nations find the word peace intolerable?) We said: "Why not see what can be done to arrive at some form of coming together -- to discover what might be done -- in the place of the settlement which is now being fought out through military processes?" And that was as far as we were able to go with clearness and safety, and upon that platform we were met with the greatest -- someone said courtesy -- it was to my mind more than courtesy. It was received, as one Englishman expressed it, like a breath of fresh air, this coming in at last of someone to talk of something that was not of war. We went into the room of one of the prime ministers of Europe, a large, grizzled, formidable man. We told him our little story and he said nothing. I never have a great deal of self-confidence -- I am never so dead sure I am doing the right thing, and I said to him:
"This perhaps seems to you very foolish, to have women going about in this way; but after all, the world itself is so strange in this new war situation that our mission may be no more strange or foolish than the rest."
He banged his fist on the table. "Foolish?" he said, "Not at all. These are the first sensible words that have been uttered in this room for ten months."
He said: "That door opens from time to time, and people come in to say, 'Mr. Minister, we must have more men, we must have more ammunition, we must have more money. We cannot go on with this war without more of something else.' At last the door opens and two people walk in and say, 'Mr. Minister, why not settle by means of negotiations instead of by fighting?' They are the sensible ones."
Other people, of course, said he was an old man, this prime minister, that he was without power. Yet he was an officer of the government in a high place, and that is what he said. I give it to you for what it is worth. And there are other testimonials of the same sort from all kinds of people in office and out of office; they are part of the peoples who are at war, and unable to speak for themselves.
THERE is one more thing I should like to say and I will close; and that is that one feels that the talk against militarism, and the belief that it can be crushed by a counter-militarism is, as has been uttered so many times, one of the greatest illusions which can possibly seize the human mind. England likes to talk and does talk sharply against what it calls militarism, but if they have conscription in England, then the militarism which they think they are fighting will, at least for the moment, have conquered Britain itself, which has always been so proud that it had a free army and not a conscripted army. And if all of the young men of France between certain ages come to their deaths in their effort to move people out of trenches from which they cannot be moved (because they are absolutely built in of concrete on both sides, and even military men say you cannot budge them without tremendous loss of life) -- if these young men are convinced that France must arm as never before, that she must turn herself into a military camp, as they are fond of saying, then, of course, the militaristic idea has conquered France.
The old notion that you can drive a belief into a man at the point of a bayonet is in force once more. It is quite as foolish to think that if militarism is an idea and an ideal, it can be changed and crushed by counter-militarism or by a bayonet charge. And the young men in these various countries say of the bayonet charges: "That is what we cannot think of." We heard in all countries similar statements in regard to the necessity for the use of stimulants before men would engage in bayonet charges -- that they have a regular formula in Germany, that they give them rum in England and absinthe in France; that they all have to give them the "dope" before the bayonet charge is possible. Well, now, think of that.
No one knows who is responsible for the war; all the warring nations are responsible, and they indict themselves. But in the end human nature must reassert itself. The old elements of human understanding and human kindliness among them must come to the fore, and then it may well be that they will reproach the neutral nations and will say: "What was the matter with the rest of the world that you kept quiet while this horrible thing was happening, and our men for a moment had lost their senses in this fanaticism of national feeling all over Europe?" They may well say: "You were far enough away from it not to share in it, and yet you wavered until we lost the flower of the youth of all Europe."
That is what the women said in various tongues and according to their various temperaments at The Hague, and that is what enabled them to leave their countries when they were at war, believing as they did in the causes for which they were fighting. The women who came to the congress were women who were impelled by a genuine feeling for life itself.
PLEASE do not think we are overestimating a very slight achievement or taking too seriously the kindness with which we were received abroad. We do wish to record ourselves as being quite sure that the peoples in these various countries were grateful for the effort, trifling as it was. The people say they do not want this war, they say that the governments are making this war. And the governments say they do not want this war. They say, "We will be grateful to anybody who would help us to stop the war." We did not reach the military, but we did talk to a few military men, some of whom said they were sick to death of the war, and I have no doubt there were many others who, if they spoke freely, would say the same thing.
"Without abandoning your causes, and without lowering, if you please, the real quality of your patriotism," -- the women's resolutions, which we carried, said to these various nations, and we said it to their representatives as long as they permitted us to talk -- "whatever it is you want, and whatever it is you feel you ought to have in honor, why in the world can't you submit your case to a tribunal of fair-minded men? If your case is as good as you are sure it is, certainly those men will find the righteousness which adheres within it."
And they all say that if the right medium can be found, the case will be submitted.
My dear Miss Addams,
My sister wrote me from Bailey's Island that you are urging women to work for Peace.
I have not read any message from you, but whatever can be done, I should like to help. [page 2] I have been trying to help in thought ever since a suggestion of war was made.
I even avoided the use of the word, and have not read the news, especially on bulletin boards, except to look for good, which I can always find, somewhere.
I have not told you yet (but do now) that [page 3] I well remember attending a musical one Sunday evening at Hull House, with my beloved Aunt Fanny Root.
My mother, who was Helen Root, is the only one of the five sisters on this earth now, and dear Uncle William the only one of the three Root brothers.
I will not use any more of my time on my family but this will show [page 4] that I am honest, generally willing to work, and not very wealthy in money!
The first thing I was burning to do, was to stop the war! It seemed as if I must write to Kaiser William himself, and say, "Dear Brother, What are you thinking of! Stop, and realize what you are doing!" or words to that [page 5] tour of the newspaper offices in this city to ask the editor in charge of the bulletin boards to put Peace prophecies on in capitals, and the horrible news (if any) in small print, for people would read it, anyway if they chose to.
Of course the first one said, as I knew he was likely to, that he put what the public demanded, & I said that [page 6] I am one of the public, & I demand Peace news, even if they have to make it up, as they do some of the War news.
He was perfectly good-natured, but very busy so I left him to meditate on it, and had to go to my summer house before I tried the others.
I talk Peace to everyone who mentions the other thing, and I attend a meeting of "New [page 7] island children."
Some peace-loving woman has done a good thing here, in the shape of Peace Pillows, which I saw in one of the stores, one with a flag, and "Let us have Peace," another with a dove, and "Peace hath her victories."
I went in to inquire, and they have them stamped, to be embroidered.
I had been thinking [page 8] of posters in large letters of the same kind, to offset the other words.
The Christian Scientists really have the best of it, saying that Spiritually, there is no war! And it sometimes seems as if that may be the only or surest way to bring Peace, if we can be firm in it.
But I want to be sure to know if there is anything outward [page 9] and positive to do beside the inward affirmations.
Edna L. Carter, in Unity says that Peace is the effect of Righteousness, and therefore R. must come before P. (queer as <it> may seem, alphabetically!).
That would make it again seem desirable to write to the Kaiser or King George!
Somehow, I have a feeling of a greater [page 10] possibility of "warming up" the former, than the latter.
It would not be "taking sides" because it would be asking him to help bring peace.
I am often surprised and almost dismayed at the hopeless, persistent prophecies of evil that I get from Christian people when [page 11] I suggest thinking and talking Peace!
Then I conclude to do all my work inside, -- till the next time my impulse rises up to say something!
Please pardon my writing so much!
I have not got the address of the Peace Society people, either men or women, [though] I still intend to. [page 12] But if I can join in any movement, signing or working, I should like to have the opportunity hoping it is not too much trouble for you to show the way.
Pres. Wilson seems to be so besieged with suggestions, that perhaps it might be well to appeal to newspapers, especially to ask them to stop cultivating [page 13] a war spirit in the children by their hideous suggestions.
And do you think it would do for women to begin to stop the making & selling of war toys, -- guns, swords [etc.]? (I would keep drums and flags, -- certainly the flags)
I am very truly
Your friend ([though] I do not expect you to remember [page 14] me)
Sarah Root Adams.
We may be related, notwithstanding your two d's.
Any one who has been interested in a huge strike or a similar social upheaval upon which public opinion naturally divides, must have been impressed with the ability of the press whether "[Capitalistic]" or "Labor" both to select the [occurrences] which it wishes to record or headline and to ignore or suppress others. During such <an> experience one is inevitably filled with speculation; public opinion must of course depend upon the data <with> which <it> is provided, it can be formed in no other way, and the power of the press to determine this data gives it [ultimate] control over the minds of [that] <multitude of> people who read but one type of journal.
Occasionally a situation exhibits even more than this power of selection. The International Congress of Women held at The Hague last April gave evidence of a spirit of [journalism] which goes a step further than selecting the items of news it wishes to record and is ready to create the desired news, which it is unable to procure in any other way, quieting <quite in> the spirit of the agent Provocateur who himself manufactures the conspiracy he later discovers. The journalists of many nationalities who attended the Congress, were united in the belief that a "row" was inevitable, both because it was a woman's Congress and because of the strained international situation. They therefore waited for "the story," ill concealing <their> boredom during the unemotional business meeting which considered the somewhat technical resolutions.
When the last day of the Congress arrived and nothing sensational had developed -- although of course the greatest "story" of all was implicit in that very fact -- the journalists became very <both> restive and inventive. Two Frenchmen succeeded in creating and reporting an insult to their absent country women which was reported the length [page 2] and breadth of France; the British correspondent availing himself of the incident that as the Congress was closing at midday, the committee rooms were being [cleared] for afternoon use, cabled that the Congress had broken up in confusion and disorder, a statement which [would] received wide credence. The Frenchman <thus> justified the absence of French women from the Congress and the Englishman pleased a large section of the British public who had rejoiced in the fact that the twenty-four English women who held pass ports issued by the Home Office had been unable to cross the North Sea, because a military order had prohibited <prohibiting> all shipping had been issued two days before the Congress opened. In fact the attitude taken by the press <of each nation> toward the Hague meeting, was to a degree a reflection of what was conceived to be the governmental attitude; in Germany <as> the passports were issued not by the imperial government but by each municipality, some cities granting them and some did not, and the papers in each city clearly reflected this in their reports of the Congress.
<new> On the last day of the Conference it was voted <Our later experiences however were still more startling>. Two committees set forth <to carry> that the resolutions be carried by committee <of the Congress> to the various governments of Europe, and the to the President of the United States. and One committee visited the [Scandinavian] countries and [Russia] and another committee consisting of myself as President of the Congress and Dr. Aletta Jacobs vice president <of which I was chairman> began with the warring nations. (We were received <[illegible words]> in London, in Berlin, in Vienna, in Rome, in Berne, in Paris, in Havre, where the Belgian government is now established and at The Hague and we were also re accorded an audience with the Pope. Each <The> committees in every case were accorded an interview by the minister of foreign affairs and <in most capitals were also received> by the Chancellor or Prime Minister. and In all the countries we saw members of Parliament and other men who are responsible for governmental policies.)
Jane Addams, "Peace and the Press," Independent 84, October 11, 1915, pp. 55-56.
Any one who has been interested in a huge strike, or a similar social upheaval upon which public opinion naturally divides, must have been impressed with the ability of the press, whether "capitalistic" or "labor," to select the occurrences which it wishes to record or headline and to ignore or suppress others. During such an experience one is inevitably filled with speculation: public opinion must of course depend upon the data which are provided, it can be formed in no other way, and the power of the press to determine these data gives it ultimate control over the minds of the multitude who read but one type of journal.
Occasionally a situation exhibits even more than this power of selection. The International Congress of Women held at The Hague last April gave evidence of a spirit of journalism which is ready to create the desired news, that it is unable to procure in any other way, quite in the spirit of the agent provocateur who himself manufactures the conspiracy he later discovers. The journalists of many nationalities who attended the Congress were united in the belief that a "row" was inevitable, both because it was a woman's congress and because of the strained international situation. They therefore waited for "the story," ill concealing their boredom during the unemotional business meeting which considered the somewhat technical resolutions.
When the last day of the congress arrived and nothing sensational had developed -- [although] of course the greatest "story" of all was implicit in that very fact -- the journalists became both restive and inventive. Two Frenchmen succeeded in creating and reporting an insult to their absent countrywomen which was retold the length and breadth of France; the British correspondent, availing himself of the incident that as the congress was closing at midday the committee rooms were being cleared for afternoon use, cabled that the congress had broken up in confusion and disorder, a statement which received wide credence: the Frenchman thus justified the absence of French women from the congress and the Englishman pleased a large section of the British public who had rejoiced in the fact that the twenty-four English women who held passports issued by the Home Office had been unable to cross the North Sea because a military order prohibiting all shipping had been issued two days before the congress opened. In fact, the attitude taken by the press toward The Hague meeting was to a degree a reflection of what was conceived to be the governmental attitude; in Germany, as the passports were not issued by the Imperial Government but by each municipality, some cities granting them and others not, the papers in each city reflected this in their reports of the congress.
As the delegation of which I was a member went from one country to another we everywhere 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. Such men were the victims of the mental and moral limitations of that war patriotism which is concerned to increase only the emotions which contribute to the relentless prosecution of war.
Everywhere we found evidence of a group of men and women -- how large we were of course unable to determine -- who, [although] they are not opposed to the war and regard their own countries as sinned against and not as sinning, still feel that their respective countries ought to be content with a limited program of victory. Yet "even in England a man who says that peace ought to be made with Germany on any other terms than dictation by the Allies is attacked by the newspapers as pro-German, without any reference as to whether those terms are favorable or not to this country." A good patriot of differing opinion finds it almost impossible to reach his fellow countrymen with that opinion and would not for the world print anything which might confuse the popular mind, war belonging to that state of society in which right and wrong are absolute. In addition to his inner scruple lest he may in the hour of his country's danger print that which would lessen the patriotic fervor so necessary for carrying on the war, the differing individual, if he succeeds in getting a hearing for his views, exposes himself to the most violent abuse. In London last June a paper called John Bull placarded the streets with huge yellow posters upon which in black letters were the words: "To the Tower with Ramsay MacDonald!" It was a striking incident in a campaign of persecution of a member of Parliament who had ventured to challenge the official point of view on the war. His speech in the House of Commons had been printed as a pamphlet and sent to the families whose sons had been lost in the war, in order that he might be accused of having himself done it and thus committed the cruelty of taking away from the parents the comfort that their sons had died in a righteous cause.
I remember a conversation with a mid-European statesman of large influence and service to the country, who bitterly resented the fact that at this time of stress his only knowledge of what was happening hung on the decision of a few men at the capital who practically decided what they wanted the people to know. He had been appointed on a commission to investigate the conditions in the prison camps, and everywhere found that the government's statements to the public had been misleading. Such men say that under the censorship of the press one man cannot tell how many men are feeling as he does. [Although] a man reaching similar conclusions may be living in the next street or town, he cannot be found.
The huge agglomerations of human beings of which modern society is composed communicate with each other largely [through] the printed word, and, poor method as it is, apparently public opinion cannot be quickly discovered [through] any other agency. Certainly the most touching interview we had on the Continent was with a man who had been in a responsible position in England when war was declared and who was overburdened equally with the sense that he had failed to convince his countrymen that the war was unnecessary and with the futility of making any further effort. This lack of mobilization of public opinion in so many of the countries of Europe is at present a serious aspect of the war. Even in the most autocratic countries, governments respond to public opinion and governmental policies are modified as men of similar opinion gather into small groups, make a clear statement of that opinion and promote larger groups. At the present moment this entire process in the modification [page 2] of governmental policies is brought to a standstill among the warring nations -- even in England, where the very method of governmental change depends upon the registry of public opinion.
But if likeminded people within the borders of a warring nation cannot find each other, much less easily can the search be conducted beyond the lines of battle. As we went from one country to another people would say: "Did you find any one taking our line, thinking as we do?" The people as a whole do not know the terms of settlement, and could only learn them [through] a free and courageous press, as the governmental officials themselves could only thus obtain a full knowledge of public opinion concerning the continuance of the war. Every public man in Europe realizes that before the rulers will think of peace they must know that behind them, if they advocate peace, there will be a grateful and passionate opinion which will be ready to support them against the militarists. Even pacifically inclined ministers in the government itself dare not talk of treating with the enemy while the only vocal opinion in newspapers and speeches is in favor of fighting till the enemy surrenders unconditionally. [Preeminently] in Great Britain and Germany any peace negotiations can be stopped by the militarist elements, which predominate, during war, in Government circles. But how can this process be begun if none of the leading journals dare call upon "the various governments to declare what to each nation is the essential and indispensable condition for ceasing the conflict" -- which would of course be but a preliminary to negotiations and the final terms of peace?
If in the end adjustment must be reached through the coming together of likeminded people in the contending nations, it is a thousand pities that it should fail [through] lack of a mechanism whereby they might find each other. An Englishman who is far from a pacifist has recently written in the New York Nation: "Our dearest hope is for revolution in German thought -- or, as I should prefer to put it -- for a domestic triumph of the best elements of the German people," but he makes no suggestion as to how such men may be discovered or communicated with. In the meantime the very foundations of a noble national life are being everywhere undermined by the constant disparagement of other nations, and, as each fears nothing more than an appearance of weariness of the war, the desire for peace filling many hearts is denied all journalistic expression, while the war spirit is continually fed by the outrages of war.
At moments I found myself filled with a conviction that the next revolution against tyranny would have to be a revolution against the unscrupulous power of the press. A distinguished European, accustomed to addressing the civilized world [through] the printed page, finding himself unable to reach even his own countrymen, suggested to us the plight of a caged lion as he vehemently walked up and down a little alcove in a hotel parlor expressing his exasperation and despair. To my mind the message he was not permitted to give was the one which Europe needed above all others, and the self-exiled pacifists, French, German, Austrian, English and Belgian, whom we met in Switzerland, were a curious comment upon the freedom of the press.
The press in the smaller neutral countries is of necessity timid, and many of the pacifist and Socialist journals whose basis is fundamentally international, were either under governmental control or had been [suppressed]. The striking feature of the press of Holland was the character of the cartoons, which exposed the hideousness of war in all its brutality, quite as the cartoons, early and late, have done in the American papers. It may be that the license granted to the king's fool, surviving in the modern humorist, accords him the privilege of uttering his shrewd wisdom without offense; or it may be, as Professor Giddings pointed out in the early days of the war, that the more primitive graphic art in this moment of strain has been instinctively utilized to express the horror which holds us all in its grip but which we shrink from formulating in words.
Two conclusions were inevitably forced upon us, the first, that the people of the different countries could not secure the material upon which they might form a sound judgment of the situation because the press, with its opportunity of determining opinion, by selecting data had assumed the power once [exercised] by the Church when it gave to the people only such knowledge as it deemed fit for them to have. Second, that in each country the leading minds 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 [through] the limitations imposed upon the sources of information.
Hull House, Chicago
Only serious illness prevented Miss Jane Addams from joining the group of peace advocates who are sailing with Mr. Henry Ford on his idealistic mission. She has already made one peace pilgrimage to Europe during the past year and in the following article she presents some significant observations made on that trip. Miss Addams is National Chairman of the Woman's Peace Party, which recently directed the sending of thousands of telegrams requesting President Wilson to take some action to bring about peace. -- THE EDITOR.
AT the close of the International Congress of Women held at The Hague last April two delegations were commissioned to carry the resolutions of the congress to the various governments. One committee visited the Scandinavian countries and Russia, and another, of which I was chairman, began with the warring nations. We were received in London, in Berlin, in Vienna, in Rome, in Berne, in Paris, in Havre, where the Belgian Government is now established, and at The Hague, and we were also granted an audience with the Pope. Both delegations in every case were accorded an interview by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and in almost every case by the Chancellor or Prime Minister, and in all countries we saw members of Parliament and other men who are responsible for governmental policies. Traveling rapidly as we did from one country to another, perhaps nothing was more striking than the diametrically opposing opinions found on each side concerning the identical occurrences or events.
We arrived in London two days after the sinking of the "Lusitania" and read in many columns of the press the indignation against this "crowning outrage of German piracy upon helpless women and children." So profound and national was this indignation that during the next few days, when we were still in London, the English Parliament, following the outrages upon the German bakeshops and other places of business, decided to [intern] the German subjects.
Ten days later, when we reached Berlin, the papers were still rejoicing over the victory which had been achieved by a tiny submarine over "a great auxiliary cruiser of the British navy." We were often reminded of the old phrases in our school books about the "Monitor" and the "Merrimac." Certain data were given over and over again; the "complete destruction of the 'Lusitania' was due to the explosion of her own cargo, she was an armed cruiser, and American passengers had been repeatedly warned."
Inevitably the inferences from these widely divergent facts were irreconcilable. Even reasonable and justice-loving people in both countries who wished to be sure of their data before passing judgment would be quite unable to deal impartially with the situation. As to the large number of people found on both sides who grasp eagerly at any atrocity which may justify or increase the bitter animosity against the enemy, we were unable to determine whether the hate produced the atrocities or the atrocities the hate.
Almost every tale we heard in London of outrages on the part of German soldiers against the helpless Belgians was repeated in Vienna of the brutal behavior of the Cossack soldiers in East Prussia. Our delegation reached Italy ten days after she had declared war against Austria. A Socialist member of Parliament, proud of the fact that his party had stoutly voted against the war appropriation, told us unequivocally that "This was a newspaper-made war," that a campaign conducted [throughout] the winter had culminated in a sensational three days when the people reached the highest degree of excitement. One is of course reminded of the old nursery riddle which is first, the egg or the hen? Does public opinion control the press, or the reverse? It was perhaps inevitable for our Socialist friend to believe that the great Italian banks with their interests in Dalmatia were the power behind the press. Certain cities were placarded with statements and photographs of atrocities and they had not been lacking in D'Annunzio's fiery speeches.
The journals everywhere we went tended to make an entire nation responsible for the crimes of individuals, a tendency which is certainly fraught with awful consequences even [although] the crimes for which the nation is held responsible may have originated in the gross exaggeration of some trivial incident. The very size and extent of the contention acts like a madness.
This perhaps accounts for the impressions left upon our minds that in the various countries the enthusiasm for continuing the war is fed largely on a fund of animosity growing out of the conduct of the war; Germany is indignant because England's blockade was an attempt to starve her women and children, England is on fire over the German atrocities in Belgium.
A young man in France said, "We hope to be able very soon to squirt petroleum into the German trenches so that everything will easily catch fire." I replied, "That seems very terrible." "Yes," he said, "but think of the poisonous gas and the horrible death of our men who were asphyxiated." Constantly one hears that Germany has done this; the Allies have done that; somebody tried to do this and we foiled them by doing that. But after all, great nations, however legitimate the first cause of war may have been, cannot conduct their operations from the standpoint of reprisals, which is not even a permissible method among small groups. Occasionally we met a man who said, "Of course in the end the war must be adjudicated with the original causes as a factor, but we are getting further away from the original causes every day, and more and more the conduct of the war is modifying its aim."
The leading English papers have long since ceased to write about "a war to end war," and [through] a series of gradations some of them have even reached "the crushing of Germany" as a worthy aim. In each country we were told of hideous occurrences of warfare which demonstrated that the continued existence of the enemy was a menace to civilization. Is it because this war has been carried to the very doorsteps of those people in Europe who have reached the stage of sensibility toward human suffering and an understanding of the differing individual which has never been obtained before in human history, that the gathering horror of that knowledge drives them on? A Hungarian owning a large estate near the Carpathian Mountains told me in Budapest that he was sheltering thirteen hundred men whose feet or hands had been frozen during the winter campaign and he bitterly resented the cruelty to which so many of his countrymen had been subjected, and of course held "the enemy" responsible.
It is as if the mind of Europe were submerged under a great emotionalism, as if the love of country had inhibited all normal family affection and daily interests so that thousands of people joyfully surrendered their children and all their possessions. A Frenchman, looking around his library, said to us, "I used to think [page 2] there was something valuable in these books, but I would throw them at once into the trenches, if their burning would so heat the hands of a soldier that he might shoot to kill one man of that nation which is destroying the liberties of Europe." Nevertheless the fanatical patriotism which has risen so high in these countries, and which is essentially so fine and imposing, cannot last. The waves will come down, the crest cannot be held indefinitely. Then men must see the horrible things which are taking place not as causes for continuing the war, but as that which must never be allowed to occur again. At last they must soberly count up the loss of life and the debts they have assumed for the generations to come. An old man said to me, "Some day the people will cease to think of the nation and will think of their children and grandchildren."
Curiously, however, at the present moment such an accounting seems only to increase the demands. Many Germans who originally justified the war on the ground of self defense and the mobilization of Russia, have come to feel that Belgium or other territory must be retained as a justification for the expenditure of life and treasure; so in France, which was originally fighting to clear her invaded territory, there is talk not only of recovering the lost provinces, but of pushing the boundary to the river Rhine, that the flower of France may not have died in vain.
Such plans readily find expression in the press, but the man whose burning heart can find no slightest justification for the loss of the finest youth of Europe unless it results in the establishment of such international courts as will make war forever impossible, finds it difficult to discover a vehicle [through] which he may express this view. International ideals for the moment are treated not only with derision and contempt, but as dangerous to patriotism.
Perhaps I may be permitted to close this article with a recent personal experience.
In an address in New York City given the week of my return from Europe I was presenting data which to my mind indicated a revolt against war, taking place in the midst of the war itself. I cited the loathing against the use of the bayonet felt by a certain type of young man, to overcome which "We were told in several countries" that stimulants were administered before a bayonet charge was ordered!
It never occurred to us who heard this statement nor to those who made it, 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 modern man to whom primitive warfare was especially abhorrent, [although] he was a brave soldier and serving his country with all his heart. The giving of stimulants was a quicker process than that incitement to reprisals and revenge which in actual warfare often serves as an immediate incentive. We were in fact told of this substitution, once by a Frenchman who said, "That since the use of poisonous gases by the Germans, no further stimulants could possibly be needed for a [thoroughly] indignant and aroused soldiery," and again by an Englishman who spoke of the difficulties in the early months of the war in overcoming the camaraderie unhappily evinced by certain British troops for the Saxons long established in an opposite trench, and the relief when the Bavarians, against whom no incitement to hostility was needed, took their places.
I used no illustration for the statement in my New York address, and speaking broadly and without notes I unfortunately gave a mistaken impression as to the extent to which I myself believed stimulants had been used in connection with bayonet charges. The statement, much exaggerated in the reporting and without any qualifying clauses, was made the subject of much unfriendly comment, especially in those journals which had been unalterably opposed to the woman's meeting at The Hague from its inception.
Several weeks ago, therefore, I took advantage of an interview on the subject with an Associated Press man to make clear two points: first the authority for my statement that "we have been told in several countries." I instanced three occasions upon which my friend Dr. Alice Hamilton and myself heard the statement when we were together, so that we have since been able to confirm each other's impressions. We distinctly recall a French governmental official, an English professor and a convalescing German soldier. The latter, who was on sick leave in Switzerland after three months in the trenches, was an exceptionally intelligent young man. He said to us, "A bayonet charge does not show courage, but madness. Men must be brought to the point by stimulants, and once the charge is begun they are like insane men. I have been in it, and after it was over I was utterly dazed. I did not know what had happened to me any more than if I had been picked up from the water after an explosion on shipboard." He said that the stimulant given to the German soldiers contained [sulfuric] ether.
I remember at the time Dr. Hamilton remarked to me that she knew from the medical journals that it had been found necessary in both the German and the English armies to abandon the idea of total abstinence and serve rations of alcohol to the soldiers.
I should also like to quote from the journal Stampa the impressions of a French soldier, who writes:
"You act and fight as in a dream; you have lost the sense of time and place and feel yourself to be merely a part of a monstrous whole that twists itself convulsively. It is as if the life of sensation had been cut off. And later on, when you are yourself again, you think you have been shut up in a cage, out of which you have been desperately trying to escape, but in vain. It is not true that you never are afraid, but proximity robs death of its terrors. Many soldiers experience an irresistible loathing of the use of their bayonets, of rushing on a living human being with such a weapon. They simply cannot do it."
The second point I made in my interview with the Associated Press man was that the soldier for whom stimulants might be necessary represented a type of sensitive man doubtless found in each army. Such assertions as I made in regard to the use of stimulants were confined to this type of man, and it never occurred to me to make any generalizations in regard to the "average" soldier, as I was reported to have done. One of the hideous results of war is the inveterate tendency of the "average" man to fall into the spirit of hot retaliation. We were told in two countries that the soldiers were being supplied as fast as possible with short knives because they could not advantageously use their bayonets in the occasional hand to hand encounters within the trenches themselves, and we of course know of the men who said of the bayonet charge, "Ah, that is fighting -- when the primitive man lets himself go and does the sort of fighting which is obvious and definite."
It is furthest from my wish and intention to add one word to the campaign of calumny, to disparage either the motives or the courage of the long line of fighting men, to repeat one tale of horror which might increases that poverty of heart induced by hatred. One returns from Europe this year in a much too serious frame of mind to wish to utter one word which might increase the confusion and misunderstanding or undermine the respect for our common human nature in these trying times.
Hull House, Chicago
Washington Government Printing Office, Ed., "Hearing before the Committee on Military Affairs," (Washington D.C.: Washington Government Printing Office, 1916), pp. 3-15, (To Increase the Efficiency of the Military Establishment of the United States).
Dear Miss [Addams]
I have a plan for celebrating the second anniversary of Peace which I would like to lay before you and Mr. Henry Ford. As you are the most prominent Advocate of the peace mission I know of, or guess there is. I think if a [page 2] "Woodrow Wilson Dove of Peace" could be made a "fad," Let every ladies hat be adorned with one, Let them be on church altars, adorn caskets and new made graves, Let scarf pins be "Doves of Peace" belt and stiffer buckles. In fact let little girls carry "Doves of Peace" instead of dolls or Teddy bears. Surely such a fad would be very beneficial and symbolical and should bring a fortune to the ones who made them. They could be made of satin [page 3] velvet plush or jute or natural birds would of course be handsome. This ought to help the pigeon industry if natural birds were used. Now I live in the country in obscurity with an invalid husband and my children and have no opportunity to advance an idea of This kind, besides I have no influence. Now all this is yours and what I am asking of you is that you will interest yourself in this matter for me. I want no honor for it. All I want is a royalty on what is made [page 4] from it. The idea is original with me and I need money and if the woman who made a "Teddy Bear" became wealthy why shouldn't my "Dove of Peace" help me? Hoping I have not wearied you and that you will kindly consider my plan. I shall wait anxiously and hopefully for your reply. You are to have the honor of the plan. I want only a part of the money, say one tenth.
Very Respectfully
Mrs. L. M. Le Gette


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An anonymous former employee of Facebook's controversial Trending News team has authored a scathing essay in The Guardian, alleging that the team is crippled by sexism, poor management and that most of the people who have quit the job in the last two years, including herself, have been women. The former employee, who writes that she worked as a contractor on Facebook's Trending News team, claims that working for the social media giant was "the most toxic work experience of my life." She said sexism — among other issues, like favoritism and intimidation — plagued the entire team, but had particularly negative effects on the women who worked on Trending News. Facebook's Trending News section has come under fire in recent weeks after several reports in which former employees have spoken out alleging that many of the trending stories are actually selected by humans instead of Facebook's algorithm, and that there was systematic bias toward conservative news.
The anonymous ex-employee disputed the reports' claims about conservative news suppression, but took aim at the department's treatment of women. "Contrary to what Sheryl Sandberg preaches in her Lean In movement, women on the team are rarely encouraged to speak up," she writes. Moreover, she alleges, women's voices are actually silenced. "I often found that when I reported a problem with the Trending tool or a discrepancy in the guidelines, my claims were dismissed," she writes in the essay. "When a man would report the same problem, he would be congratulated for noticing the problem and actions would be taken to fix it. This silencing was devastating. I found myself speaking up less and less, until I got to a point where I no longer reported any problems or errors I encountered." She wrote that of the 15 people who have quit the job since 2014, the year the project launched, 10 of the workers have been women, herself included. She went on to allege a litany of other grievances against Facebook, including why she says workers felt they were routinely punished by being given overnight shifts.
Prior to publishing the essay, The Guardian reached out to Facebook for comment on the claims. Facebook disputed the accusations in a lengthy statement. "Facebook provides everyone – including contractors – with a respectful and safe working environment," the company said in the statement. "Facebook does not tolerate unlawful harassment or any mistreatment in the workplace or in a work-related situation. We take any allegations of such very seriously, whether from employees or contractors, and investigate every complaint."
Read the full essay and Facebook's complete statement at The Guardian.


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A Message from the Executive Director
Dr. Joel Schleicher, Executive Director of Technology
The Grand Forks Public Schools Technology Department maintains a focus on a high-quality, 21st Century education for all students as reflected in our strategic plan:
Priority Area 2
Emphasize 21st Century instructional practices which foster student academic engagement.Goal
Promote the utilization of appropriate technology tools to enhance the teaching and learning process.Strategies*Research new and emerging instructional technology.*Provide professional development for administrative and instructional staff.*Implement 1:1 Student Personal Digital Device Project.
In addition, it is also imperative that we strive toward realizing our vision of how technology enhances learning in a 21st Century learning environment.
Technology Vision
The Grand Forks Public Schools believe technology is an integral component of learning and is necessary to learn effectively, live productively and participate globally in an increasingly digital world. Technology resources transform learning by allowing learners to create, publish, collaborate and communicate with others in a global environment. Technology helps learners gather and analyze information, solve problems and develop higher-level thinking skills through authentic real-world experiences.
The technology staff (7 technicians, 10 curriculum technology partners, network services coordinator, data services coordinator, administrative assistant, and director) is dedicated toward meeting the district's 21st Century learning needs.


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Karen McCarroll is the President/CEO of University Title Company. She is a native of the Bryan/College Station area. She attended Texas A&M University and became a licensed realtor in 1976. Karen has remained in the real estate industry since that time. Her expertise in real estate was expanded when she served as a real estate legal assistant. She joined University Title Company in 1983 as an escrow officer and became manager of the closing department in 1985. Karen has completed both phases of the Land Title School of Texas, the Texas Land Title Institute and numerous industry seminars. She has served on the Texas Land Title Public Relations Committee; The Land Title School of Texas Committee; and The Texas Land Title Membership Committee. She is a deserving winner of the 2008 TLTA Professional Excellence Award. Karen has served on the Board of Directors for Crime Stoppers, United Way of the Brazos Valley, and the Bryan College Station Better Business Bureau. In addition, she has served as a patient volunteer for Hospice Brazos Valley. She is married to Chuck McCarroll and they have four children and ten grandchildren.
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Cully Lipsey was born in Houston and reared in the West Texas town of Van Horn. He is the Legal Counsel for University Title Company and has practiced law with the firm of Hoelscher, Lipsey, Elmore & Poole since 1976. Cully was selected as a member of the Texas College of Real Estate Attorneys, and is Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in the areas of Commercial Real Estate, Residential Real Estate, and Farm and Ranch Real Estate Law. He presently serves on the Texas Board of Legal Specialization Real Estate Exam Commission. Cully is a graduate of Baylor University and the Baylor University School of Law. Cully is member of the State Bar of Texas, the College of the State Bar and the Real Estate, Trust and Probate Section of the State Bar. He has been active in civic affairs in leadership roles with MSC Opera and Performing Arts Society, First United Methodist Church of Bryan, Bryan Education Foundation, Little League, school PTO groups, and school and city committees and boards. Cully currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Baylor Alumni Association.
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