◆ SpookStack

HIsTOry Of The Women's International League U. s. SecTIOn The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom grew out of the anxiety and strain of the early dayu of the World War. It began in an to protest against war, meeting at The Hague from April 28 to May 1, 1915. Jane Addams, the chairman of the newly formed Woman's Peace Party in America, was asked to preside. Delegates representing twelve countries, includ- ing seven of the belligerent nations, surnounted difficulties and braved public opinion to attend. The forty-seven' United States delegates were detained on their boat for three days by British authorities, and finally landed only two hours before the Congress opened; while most of the English delegation were caught by the cessation of traffic on the North Sea, and never arrived. The delegates organized The Women's International Committee for Permanent Peace, consisting of not more than five women from each nation, with Miss Addams as International Chairman and with headquarters in Amster- and Freedom. At the 1915 Congress a series of resolutions was passed, which offered statesmanlike foundation for a treaty of peace; they attracted the interest of Of secret treaties, the denial'of the right of conquest, the right of a population to decide on its own government. Nor Jid the infuence of the Congress end in theories, for these same principles were carried over into the Covenant of the League of Nations. The Congress also advocated a *permanent Council of Conciliation and investigation" and a "permanent Court of Justice." This move toward arbitration had its effect in the Covenant of the League, in the World Court, and in the Kellogg-Briand Pact.. Another resolution made by this first Congress is particularly interesting "The International Congress of in the light of subsequent accomplishment. Women, advocating universal disarmament and realizing that it can only be secured by international agreement, urges, as a step to this end, that all countries should, by such an international agreement, take over the manufacture of arms and munitions of war and should control all international taffic in the same. It sees in the private profits accruing from the great armament factories a power- ful hindrance to the abolition of war.". The resolutions were presented by delegations of women to government Ieaders of fourteen countries, both neutral and belligerent. seck possible terms for peace and to present them to the belligerents as occasion Offered. This proposal was welcomed by most of the fourteen nations. During the next months the womtn made every effort to bring such - conference into being.. The unwillingness of the United States government to call it or even to participate was the only obstacle; but one which proved insur- mountable. Next an unofficial conference of individual neutrals was planned. This When Mr. Ford withdrew his support.. January, 1916. _It had been organized one year before at a mass meeting in Washington. The impetus had been the war-protest lecture of Mrs. Pethick Woman's Peace Party had grown quickly. attracting during its frst year about forty thousand members, and ahowing tremendous activity in peace propaganda. The demands for a Women's International Committee for Permanent Peace. convention of neutral powers and for the nationalization of armamerts were common to the platform of the Party and the resolutions of the Committee.