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Jane Addams — Part 1
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Other 1915 planks of the Womar's Peace Party were: A “Concert of
Nations” to supersede “Balance of Power ;” the removal of the economic causes
of war; and the appointment by our government of a commission of men and
women, with an adequate appropriation, to promote international peace. In 1916
there were added an opposition to compulsory military service; a recommenda-
tion for a joint commission to deal with United States-Oriental problems; and
a statement of the principle that military protection for foreign investments
should not be expected.
‘The next annual meeting was held eleven months later, in December
of 1916. It took up the problems of minorities and the solutions which might
be effected through the federal form of government; and also discussed the
famines which were widespread in many countries, pointing out the direct con-
nection of famine and war.
The whole of the year 1916 and the first months of 1917 were saddening,
filled with unheeded protests by the Woman's Peace Party against the imperial-
jam of the South American policy and against the change of feeling, both in the
administration and at large, which led us into the World War. When the
country was at war, nothing was left but even vainer protests, as for instance
against conscription without a referendurn, or on behalf of the conscientious
objectors. The National Board, at its firat meeting after America entered the
war, declared to the branches: “We have avoided all criticism of our Government
as to the declaration of war, and all activities that could be considered as obstruc-
tive in respect to the conduct of the war and this not as a counsel of prudence,
but as a matter of principle.”
In the same statement the work of the State Branches is described.
Being in their work independent of the National Board, they had been following
various lines, some in Red Cross work, food conservation, and other war relief
efforts; others in protecting civil liberties; others in lectures and classes on
international justice.
At the annual meeting of the Wosnan’s Peace Party in December, 1917,
continued work was urged for a League of Nations and for substituting law for
war. “Let those of opposed opinions be loyal to the highest that they know,
and let each understand that the other may be equally patriotic.” With this
spirit the peace-lovers went forward into the passions and the bleak hatred of
the war months.
When peace came, and the Peace Conference was announced to meet
in Paris, plans were upset. The Women's International Committee for Perma-
ment Peace had expected to meet at the same time and place as the treaty
negotiators; but since Paris was not neutral territory and women from the
Central Powers could not come there, Zurich was hastily decided on.
The Zurich Congress passed unanimously a strong resolution on the
famine and the food blockade, asking that the inter-allied machinery already in
existence be used for peace, through the immediate distribution of necessities.
No action was taken by the Paris Conference on this plan.
When the Treaty of Versailles was made public the Zurich
was in actual session and was, we believe, the first body to protest the terms.
Protest it did, in no uncertain language. Its series of resolutions began as
follows:
“This International Congress of Women expresses its deep regret that
the Terms of Peace proposed at Versailles should so seriously violate the
principles upon which alone a just snd lasting peace can be secured, and which
the democracies of the world had come to accept.
“By guaranteeing the fruits of the secret treaties to the conquerors, the
Terms of Peace tacitly sanction secret diplomacy, deny the principles of self-
determination, recognize the right of the victors to the spoils of war, and create
all over Europe discords and animosities, which can only lead to future wars.”
The diplomats were patient though unmoved. The Allied press was
bitterly critical, for few people at that time saw the danger in the Versailles
Treaty. Only after a year or two did the views now common begin to develop.
Suggestions on the League of Nations were made to the Conference,
but also without effect. The Zurich Congress could not approach unity on the
question of whether to advocate the League, as then set up, and so no position
was officially taken.
Many women told the Congress of their experiences in the war, or in
the revolutions which several countries had undergone. There was no embar-
rasement, much less bitterness, in these exchanges between recent “enemies,”
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