In spite of Mr. Bryan's eloquence, negotiations with Germany, as we know, were officially discontinued on February 3, 1917, the very next day after he made this speech. On the same day the officers of the American Neutral Conference Committee, together with some "well known radicals," got together hurriedly in order to reorganize into a second Emergency Peace Federation, this time with the definite object of keeping America out of the war. The history of this rejuvenated federation may be followed in detail under the heading "Emergency Peace Federation of 1917."

CHAPTER V

Emergency Peace Federation, New York City-February to May, 1917

Our best record of the transformation of the American Neutral Conference Committee in New York, on February 3, 1917, into a rejuvenated Emergency Peace Federation, may be found in a letter from Rebecca Shelly, dated May 16, 1917, to J. Barnard Walton, of Swarthmore College and the Religious Society of Friends, who had previously described this organization as “all siding with the more radical wing."

"The Emergency Peace Federation," wrote Miss Shelly, as field secretary, "had its beginning on February 3, 1917, the date Count Von Bernstorff was handed his passports. On that day we formed a little 'keep out of war committee,' which held a mass meeting at Carnegie Hall on February 5th. On February 7th the Emergency Peace Federation was more formally organized with the object 'to keep America from war and its attendant consequences.' In the three strenuous months of our existence we have built up a strong national organization and raised over $76,000, most of which has been spent in advertising."

As the above excerpt takes us forward three months, we must return to February 8, 1917, when the American Neutral Conference Committee sent out a bulletin announcing its transformation into the Emergency Peace Federation.

Under the same date the Peace Federation issued a letter which begins as follows: "If the American people do not want to go to war, they must let Congress know how they feel about it. There is no silence on the part of those clamoring for military aggression."

In examining the officers of this Emergency Peace Federation Mrs. Henry Villard, chairman; Emily Greene Balch, Louis Lochner, Ella Flagg Young, and Phillip S. Florence, vicechairmen; Dr. Frederick Lynch, treasurer, Lella Fave Secor, secretary; and Rebecca Shelly, field secretary-we find "Internationalist" interests represented by Lochner, Miss Shelly, Miss 'J. Barnard Walter to Miss Shelly, March 15, 1917.

Secor and Miss Balch, four ex-members of the Ford Peace Neutral Conference at Stockholm. Clearly Lochner, who, according to a later statement,' had spent a year in Europe after the Ford party disbanded, had come back at the first sign of serious trouble between Germany and the United States, to steer emergency" peace ventures once more.

Simultaneously with the central office in New York, an Emergency Peace Federation Committee was formed in Washington, D. C., according to a bulletin letter sent out to members of the Woman's Peace Party by Miss Secor, February 9, 1917, "On the initiative of Miss Balch and Dr. Kirchwey." This "legislative branch" of the federation, which represented the American Union against Militarism, the American Peace Party, and the Women's Peace Party, at once proceeded to co-operate with New York headquarters in arranging with them for a great peace demonstration to be held in Washington on February 12, 1917.2

In Chicago, though, no new peace federation was formally organized at this time, the Woman's Peace Party of Chicago, representing the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace, led by such women as Jane Addams, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Anna Garlin Spencer, and Mrs. Louis F. Post, became very active along the old Emergency Peace Federation lines. On February 7, 1917, Miss Addams, as chairman, sent out a bulletin letter which proved, among other things, that she, as well as the Ford veterans in New York, was still faithful both to the International and German comrades. The bulletin covered the following points:

(a) A telegram sent by Miss Addams on February 3, 1917, to President Wilson, urging an alliance with neutral nations in an endeavor to avoid war.

(b) (1) Cablegram from several peace organizations to Dr. Anita Augspurg, secretary of the national committee in Germany: "Many American women join with the members of our international committee in sending messages of good will to our German sisters and share our hopes that war may yet be averted."

(2) A cablegram to Dr. Aletta Jacobs, of the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace at Amsterdam: "Members of our international committee have sent greetings to German women and are making utmost efforts to allay war spirit."

'Lochner's statement, May 30, 1917, p. 29, First Amer. Conference for Democracy and Terms of Peace.

'Form letter of Woman's Peace Party, Feb. 9, 1917.

(c) A petition to President Wilson to avert war through an official neutral conference and a referendum vote: This to be signed by as many members of the Woman's Peace Party as possible.

(d) The creation of a clearing house for peace activities under the auspices of the Woman's Peace Party of New York.

(e) Urging members of the Woman's Peace Party to co-operate with the American Union against Militarism in telegraphing the President, senators and congressmen endorsing "Mr. Bryan's statement to the American people."

Following the Addams bulletin letter a somewhat similar one was issued on February 9, 1917, jointly by the secretaries of the Chicago Woman's Peace Party and the New York Emergency Peace Federation, urging attendance of members at the proposed peace demonstration in Washington on February 12, 1917. Though the heavy work leading up to this pilgrimage fell on the shoulders of Miss Secor, at Emergency Peace Federation headquarters in New York, she was aided by two influential local women in Mrs. Henry Villard and Mrs. J. Sargent Cram, both of whom were delegates to the meeting. Further, as Mrs. Villard was honorary chairman, not only of the Emergency Peace Federation, but of the Woman's Peace Party of New York as well, with such women as Crystal Eastman, Mrs. Amos Pinchot, Mrs. James Warbasse, Madeline Doty, Mary Austin, Mrs. Frederic Howe, Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs. Florence Kelley, Mary Shaw, Lillian Wald, Anna Strunsky Walling, Margaret Lane, Agnes Brown Leach, Mrs. Jacques Loeb, Tracy Mygatt, and Nellie M. Smith on her staff, she was able to give Miss Secor substantial aid in many directions.

About the same time Miss Secor was receiving some expert advice in organizing pacifists from W. E. Williams, at the time publicity manager of the Commonwealth Construction Corporation of New York City. Among other things he advised:

(1) A committee of American Federation of Labor people, to persuade unions in all parts of the country to endorse the peace program; Miss Secor personally to influence the farmers' organizations to the same end.

(2) Each local representative of the Emergency Peace Federation to form a committee representing union labor, Socialism and 'Letter of Woman's Peace Party of N. Y. City.

other radical groups, peace parties, farmers' organizations and religious societies opposed to war.

(3) Emphasis to be laid on the fact that since the platform of the federation was "merely tentative" delegates would not necessarily be required to endorse it.' Thus it will be seen that the old method of federating radicals with pacifists was again followed, even to reassuring those who were alarmed by the socialistic platform with its "tentative program manoeuvre." That the radical delegates themselves understood this strategy perfectly is clear from a letter from W. J. Wright, representing the Socialist Party of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, at the Washington demonstration:

"Dear Comrade," wrote Mr. Wright, May 7, 1917, to Miss Secor, ". . . So let us get together the Emergency Peace Federation' to be its name, but let us merge it into the American Union against Militarism, Socialist Party and all societies who oppose Prussianizing the United States for the purpose of crushing militarism in Germany. Formulate some plan that we may all co-operate."

Among other early advisers of Miss Secor in the field about this period were Rear Admiral Chadwick, (Telegram, Feb. 10, 1917), Benjamin Marsh, of Washington, D. C., (Telegram, Feb. $, 1917), Robert Bringler, of the State Socialist Party of Penncylvania, (Telegram, Feb. 10, 1917), and C. H. Sorensen of Lincoln, Nebraska (another Ford veteran), all of whom sent encouraging and helpful telegrams to her, Sorensen being especially so in his message:

Feb. 8, 1917.

"I am bringing with me president of organization representing 40,000 farmers . .

On February 7, 1917, a mass meeting was held at Cooper Union, at which Mrs. Warbasse, Norman Thomas, Lochner, and Dr. Henry Neumann, all spoke. Whether or not this meeting actually recruited pilgrims for the February 12th celebration, when Lincoln's birthday of 1917 arrived, there were 250 delegates, headed by Mrs. Villard and Mrs. Cram, who appeared at the White House with a view "of urging that no action be taken which would plunge this country into war."

1 W. E. Williams to Miss Secor, from 18 E. 41st, N. Y. City.