We are confident of your hearty sympathy with the purpose of the First American Conference for Democracy and Terms of Peace. We therefore appeal to you for help in the most difficult side of its organisation. We come to you for money. You know of course that friends of p ace throughout the country are discouraged many are hopeless. The succe ful outcome of the proposed conference is therefore of utmost inportance for both present and future. You know, and we all know, that the pesce sentime..t le there but it is not organized. The individual is not heer; grouped and organized these individu is vilxert a power 1 influence upon ou wn comnity, a n Congress and won Presidert Wilson. To coordinate and organize the temperetis and pence loving oroes of the country is the primary aim of the conference. Once the friends of peace are organired they will doubtedly rally in suport of the conference progrip. But we must look to a few men and woren to launch the mirerent. The enclo ed budget asks for $5379.50. Of this a little over $1000 has already been contributed. The finance committee has carefull gone over its list of possible supporters and has taken the liberty of asking individuals for anecific sums. 200 ay we depend uron for a contribution ollars? This is not the ordinary sort of contribution: it is rather an investment in a big enterprise thich is sure to bring returns. Please let us cont on "on, American CHAPTER IV Neutral Conference Committee When it came to the actual organizing of an American Neutral Conference Committee, Miss Balch seems to have turned the work bodily over to Miss Shelly, who showed herself as in 1915 once more to be a worthy emissary of the Stockholm headquarters. By July 15th, 1916, when her first appeal was issued for a committee of 100 representative Americans, she already had a letterhead registering the following officers of an American Neutral Conference Committee: Chairman.- Hamilton Holt. Vice-chairman.-Jane Addams, Prof. Irving Fisher, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and Dr. George Kirchwey. Executive Committee.— Bertha Kuntz Baker, B. W. Heubsch, Paul U. Kellogg, Dr. Frederick Lynch, Lella Faye Secor, Dr. James J. Walsh and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise. In other words, Miss Shelly followed the example of Frau Schwimmer and Lochner in securing names for her enterprise likely to inspire confidence in the general public for peace projects. In her campaign there were three separate appeals sent out to representative Americans under the date of July 15, 20 and 26, 1916, respectively, all urging the formation of a Committee of 100. The first of the bulletins began: "The American Neutral Conference Committee was organized to bring before the public the idea of a Conference of Neutral Nations irrespective of peace platforms, preparedness and the terms of the war settlement. "The warring nations assert that their purpose is to make future wars impossible. Guarantees to that end can best be secured by a Neutral Conference. This idea is widely accepted in the neutral countries of Europe, as is attested by the strength of their Neutral Conference Committees, and the enthusiasm of the May 18th demonstrations called to urge governmental action in that direction. "Carl Lindhagen, Mayor of Stockholm,' has a Neutral Conference bill pending in the Riksdag; it passed the Lower Lindhagen was a Socialist, afterwards cooperating with the Russian Bolshevists. (Statement of member of Ford Party.) [993] House unanimously. Similar bills are pending in the Parliaments of Switzerland and Norway. What about the United States? . . Always in summing up, Miss Shelly brought out the points that Europe was waiting for America to lead in making future wars impossible; and that the aim of her committee was to crystallize and direct public opinion in any effort President Wilson might make to stop the war through a conference of neutrals. In composing these letters Miss Shelly showed a versatility and an ingenuity which perhaps deserved more success than she actually achieved at the moment. For though there were certain notables, such as Jane Addams, Luther Burbank, Gov. Capper of Kansas, Rear Admiral Chadwick, Philander Claxton, Dr. Frank Crane, Oswald Villard, Judge Ben Lindsey, Mrs. Joseph Fels, Prof. Jacques Loeb, Mrs. Percy Pennybacker, Thomas Mott Osborne, Senator Helen Ring Robinson, John Hays Hammond, Leo T. Rowe and Frank Walsh. who accepted service on the committee, and others like Senator La Follette, Raymond Robins and Dudley Field Malone, who declined with deep regret, yet these totalled only about thirty-five altogether. There were also some decidedly unregretful and clear-thinking declinations from equally important persons approached, refusing to interfere with the policies of the United States Government. Among these names were Joseph H. Choate, Charles J. Bonaparte, Winston Churchill, Harry Pratt Judson, A. Lawrence Lowell, George B. McClellan, Gifford Pinchot, Ex-Gov. Fielder of New Jersey, Emerson McMillin, Lyman Abbott, Chas. Van Hise, Charles F. Thwing, Thomas Burke of Seattle, Frances Lynd Stetson, George W. Wickersham, Samuel Gompers, and John Mitchell. Until the end of December, 1916, Miss Balch and Miss Shelly's committee seems to have been largely a paper organization. There is only one November letter on record from Miss Shelly's officethis to Louis Lande, of 290 Broadway, New York City, thanking him for his "co-operation and the generous list of names." That there was, however, co-operation with other anti-war agencies during November, 1916, is evidenced by a document in the conference files called "The Near-at-Hand World League to Prevent Aggression," by George H. Sibley, issued November 14, 1916, under the auspices of the League for World Peace, and sent originally to Jacob H. Schiff. Briefly, the article pointed out that Germany was ready to agree to the Allies' peace terms and give up Belgium if England would relinquish control of the seas; that the United States, on the strength of a provision of the Naval Appropriation Bill, should call a conference of the great governments in the interests of peace; that Mr. Taft's League to Enforce Peace was reactionary"; and that the United States must lead the world in disarmament. After this peace manifestation there was apparently a further lull in the American Neutral Conference Committee activities until December 23, 1916, when another form letter signed by Rebecca Shelly was issued. According to the letterhead Miss Balch was now vice-chairman of the executive committee, to which the names of John Haynes Holmes, Governor Arthur Capper, and John Hays Hammond had been added. The letter itself, which was more intimate and flurried into one than preceding ones, announced that: "The war and peace situation calls for immediate action. Will you not write or telegraph to your congressmen and senators, asking them to support some such resolution as was introduced a few days ago? The enclosed letter to President Wilson was received by our committee under most interesting circumstances. Mr. Bertrand Russell had written this letter to President Wilson on December 4th. About that time he saw in the London "Times" that the American Neutral Conference Committee had given publicity to Mr. Trevelyan's letter, and he determined to send it to us. The identity of the messenger cannot be revealed for obvious reasons." Concerning the letter mentioned by Miss Shelly, we quote from a letter to the Conference Committee from J. C. Skemp, of the Brotherhood of Painters and Decorators, January 3, 1917: "I should be pleased to use in the January 'Painter and Decorator' the Bertrand Russell letter. Assuring the Committee of my heartiest sympathy and co-operation in its work, I am," On January 13, 1917, Miss Shelly sent out a petition for peace, with notices of a meeting in its interests of the American Neutral Conferences Committee, for January 17th: "We are circulating a petition to which hundreds of thousands of names have already been signed. Within the next few weeks we want thousands of New Yorkers to add their names in order to assure President Wilson that he has the support of the people in any effort he may make towards peace. Organized churches, civic bodies and so forth are co-operating with us. Will you help us get the petition before all the people in your district. "Next Wednesday morning, January 17th, at ten o'clock we will meet in the University Settlement, 184 Eldridge street, to talk over plans for this vital work." The next document on file is a Conference Committee form letter issued on January 26, 1917, and signed by its new chairman, George Foster Peabody. This displays an impressive list of some 100 names as a general committee, and announces a peace mass meeting on February 2d, with William Jennings Bryan as speaker and Dr. George Kirchwey as presiding officer. A special invitation to the meeting under date of January 30, 1917, declares that: 66 . The occasion will be neutral and non-partisan. But those who attend will be united by one common belief: That the war should be ended by negotiation rather than by a peace dictated to a crushed opponent or a peace due to exhaustion." This letter was signed by Frederic C. Howe and Anna M. Sloan. When February 2d arrived Mr. George Foster Peabody, as chairman, presided over a crowded mass meeting; and to judge by the applause following Mr. Bryan's most anti-British and proGerman allusions, the audience must have been made up largely of German sympathizers. His address covered the following points: Insinuations against the veracity of American newspapers, against munition makers and other alleged "interests" back of the newspapers, and against England for interning German merchantmen; a plea that blame for the war should rest equally on all belligerents; for a peace without victory; for freedom of the seas; for a referendum on a possible declaration of war; a statement that Germany (presumably) never intended to injure the United States; that we should firmly refuse in any case to fight anybody until the present European War was over; and finally, that there would be great honor in refusing eternally to go to war, in order that we, the United States of America, might play the disinterested part of a great neutral. 1 1 Transcript of Stenographer's Minutes of Meeting Feb. 2, 1917. Marked passages, |