From Heroine to Villainess

I. The Women's Peace Party

A. Addams the Pacifist

1. True to her ideals--Addams had long been a pacifist, stretching back to at least the War with Spain when she insisted that the boys at Hull House not drill with dummy rifles (in here presence, anyway)

2. January 1915--at the New Willard Hotel, 3,000 women gathered to form an organization dedicated to ending the war. Significantly, their aim was not just to keep the United States out of the conflict overseas--for which they would have found much agreement in early 1915--but to urge political leaders in the United States to act to end the war.

a. The resolution formulated at the convention noted women's roles as  mothers and nurturers of children to give themselves the moral weight for making this resolution.

3. April 1915--Jane Addams received an invitation from Aletta Jacobs, a suffragist in Holland, to bring a contingent of women from the United States to the Hague for an international women's peace conference.

a.International Suffrage Alliance--the umbrella group that sponsored the peace conference, spurred because the international suffrage meeting to be held in Berlin in 1915 was canceled because of the war.

B. International Congress of Women--as the leader of the largest neutral nation, was invited to chair the meeting,  as she had the meeting of the Women's  Peace Party.

1. Dissension--the meeting was dominated, in part, by Rosika Schwimmer, who was a radical pacifist, and not prone to seek compromise like Jane Addams. Women from the belligerent nations also had difficulties, at time, finding common ground among themselves.

2. Messengers of peace--swept along by the eloquence of Schwimmer, the conference voted to send representatives to meet with ministers and government officials from each of the belligerent and neutral nations in Europe and to the President of the United States to call for liberal peace terms,  the establishment of a permanent international court, a permanent international conference, no transfer of territory without the consent of the people, and representation of women in both national and international political life.

a. Many of these proposals made it into President Wilson 14 points program, so they did have some impact on the world

b. Although Addams had  little hope that the groups would meet with any success, she did agree to become part of one of the two groups formed, and who crisscrossed war-torn Europe. While on this mission, Addams got to see much of the effect the war had on those involved,  and those related to those directly involved--who informed her of their displeasure over the way, and how soldiers coped with the demands of the war.

C. Killing the sacred cow--Addams' off-hand story about her encounters with those close to soldiers and their  coping mechanisms for the death and destruction  they encountered on a daily basis set off  a firestorm

1. Addams' return to the United States--feeling tired and worn out, and eager to get to Bar Harbour and here vacation home, she left for the United States before the planned  debriefing with the other group in Europe.

a. Mixed reaction upon her return; some hailed the effort, while others like Theodore Roosevelt belittled her efforts, calling her one of the"shrieking sisterhood," a "Bull  Mouse,"  and "one of the shrieking  sisterhood."

2. Speech at Carnegie hall--Addams returned to the country on July 5, 1915, and made a speech in Carnegie hall in New  York relating her experiences in Europe. At the end of the speech,  in an offhand aside,  she mentioned that some soldiers  and their families told he that they coped with the misery of war by turning to drink and/or drugs before going into battle.

a. Addams is accused by many of besmirching the bravery of men in uniform--and this signals the beginning of her downfall.

b.  Addams answered critics my naming specific instances (without revealing names), but this did nothing to mollify critics

c. Addams' point behind these stories was that war was dehumanizing for all involved, and that some soldiers chose  to anesthesize themselves to cope with the situation--a common practice among those persons today suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

3. Role of Gender--Addams' critics demean her arguments in gender-specific ways, in part because they view her critique as a challenge to manhood in general. As a result, she was referred to as "silly," and criticized for "dabbling in politics, her suffrage  activity,  and her ill-advised methods of working for peace."

D. Rehabilitation Road--this criticism stung Addams, but she persevered--while also changing tact. As the war wound down, she found that she was able to work with Herbert Hoover to raise awareness of the food distribution problems that were endemic in postwar Europe--even in defeated Germany. While she remained committed to pacifism, that ideal was obscured by other work that she moved to the forefront.