With mourning hearts we stand united here.
We grieve for many brave young men who have lost their lives
on the battlefield before attaining their full manhood;
we mourn with the poor mothers bereft of their sons;
with the thousands of young widows
and fatherless children.
-Dr. Aletta Jacobs
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Friday June 18, 1915
From The Survey: Report of Mary Chamberlain, Part II of "Women at the Hague"
Dr Aletta Jacobs
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In the June 5th edition of
The Survey, staff writer, Mary Chamberlain, reported on the
International Congress of Women which met at The Hague from April 28th to May 1st. More than 1,200 delegates from European nations, the United States and Canada met and dedicated themselves to the cause of peace. The delegates included women from the both the belligerent and neutral countries.
The International Congress of Women was organized by Dr. Aletta Jacobs of the Netherlands who gave a welcoming speech on the first evening of the congress in which she told the assembled delegates:
With mourning hearts we stand united here. We grieve for many brave young men who have lost their lives on the battlefield before attaining their full manhood; we mourn with the poor mothers bereft of their sons; with the thousands of young widows and fatherless children, and we feel that we can no longer endure in this twentieth century of civilization that governments should tolerate brute force as the only soutane of international disputes.
Yesterday
Hellraisers published
Part I of the report by Mary Chamberlain, today we offer Part II for the conclusion of the article.
From The Survey of June 5, 1915:
[continued]
The Women at the Hague
-----
By Mary Chamberlain
OF THE STAFF OF THE SURVEY
From the Scandinavian countries came large delegations to the congress, representing in most instances the committees formed in these northern nations for the international congress. Among them stood out such names as Anna Lindhagen of Sweden, inspector of children’s institutions and one of the seven women members of the town council of Stockholm; and Thora Daugaard of Denmark, representing 15,000 suffragists.
No Russian or French woman attended the congress. Whereas the European press overlooked much that was of real and lasting importance in the congress, few papers failed to publish in full the manifesto of the Conseil National des Femmes Francaises and L'Union pour le Suffrage des Femmes, organizations representing more than 150,000 French women. The manifesto is addressed “to the women of neutral and allied countries.” It is a touching document courteously declining for French women a share in the congress and proudly declaring that "in order that future generations may reap the fruit of this magnificent display of self-sacrifice and death, French women will bear the conflict as long as it will be necessary. At this time united with those who battle and die, they do not know how to talk of peace.”
The manifesto further proposes that French women can talk of peace only when justice has been triumphantly vindicated by the heroic defenders of the French nation.
In spite of this manifesto many letters were received from individual French women telling their desire to reach the congress and of the impossibility of traveling so far. Among them was a telegram of sympathy from Jules Siegfried, president of the Conseil National des Femmes Francaises, and a letter signed by Mme. Duchéne, chairman of the Section du Travail du Conseil National and by some fifteen working women, which offered to "the women of other nations good wishes and assurance that we are ready to work with them more ardently than ever to prepare the ‘peace of tomorrow.‘ "
Russian women sent a letter expressing much the same sentiment as did the French manifesto, but the very feeling which kept these French and Russian women from the congress drove five valiant little Belgian women across the border into Holland from devastated Belgium. Eugene Hamer and Mlle. Sarton, vice-president and treasurer of L'Alliance Belge des Femmes pour la Paix par l’Education, decided that no peace congress attended by German and Austrian delegates should pass resolutions without a hearing before Belgian women. They determined not to vote but to protest against any measure, such as the calling of an armistice, which they deemed unjust to their country.
With three companions they obtained permission from the German authorities to go. They went by automobile to Esschen, where they were searched to the skin; thence they walked for two hours to Rosendahl across the Dutch border, and from there they traveled to The Hague by train. Then, when Mlle. Hamer and her friends at last reached the congress, it was Dr. Augspurg of Munich who welcomed them to a seat on the platform.
So, over seas and mountains, pushing aside dangers and obstacles, more than three hundred women “got together" with the Dutch delegates and visitors who crowded the meetings night after night. However any might criticize the proceedings of the congress, none could fail to admire the magnificent spirit of these women who dared clasp hands with women from an enemy country. Even if this international congress wields little influence, it was, as Miss Addams said, a lasting achievement in thus uniting from every corner of Europe different sympathies and beliefs in one great yearning for peace.
But as I talked with Miss Addams, another thought came into my mind. Was it not, I asked her, a higher test of courage than “getting together” when the trenches were bleeding with wounded comrades, to “stick together” until out of their common suffering these women evolved a charter of common aspiration? Someone in the café had spoken of a mutual distrust that seemed to constrain the delegates. Now, talking with Miss Addams, I realized how this mistrust had gradually melted. Like my Socialist friend, I missed the flare of passion which kindles a meeting held to score a specific wrong; I revolted some times at dodging realities and floating in a cloud of theories; I, too, missed the vigorous robust solidarity of a congress bound together by the sense of the inter-dependence of labor. But more and more I was feeling that strong, sober solidarity based on universal mourning.
"Everybody talks about victory,” said Rosika Schwimmer in one of her stirring speeches, "but we women know that every victory means the death of thousands of sons of other mothers."
It was grief and sympathy that welded us together.
At the first session of the congress, without a dissenting voice a motion was carried making the basis of membership in the congress the acceptance of two resolutions—that women shall be granted equal political rights with men and that future international disputes shall be subject to conciliation and arbitration.
With the meeting-ground of the congress thus defined, the way was left open for debate and discussion on any other resolution to be considered. But so great was the unity of feeling that day after day of conferences slid by with no or little friction. Indeed, the monotony of perfect accord caused us at the press table to snatch and overemphasize the faintest spark of sensationalism—the harangue, for instance, of the militant suffragette who vowed that for every woman in England wishing to attend the peace congress 1,000 wished to fight; or the excitement of a Belgian lady who thought that the phrase “backward nations” referred to Belgium.
Many resolutions were passed unanimously such as those protesting against women's sufferings in war, demanding democratic control of foreign policy, urging that the education of children be directed toward peace and that women be represented in the conference of powers after the war. Even the radical resolutions introduced by the American contingent went through without protest. Among these were resolutions calling for open seas and free trade routes, for the acceptance of the principle that investments in a foreign country be made at the risk of the investor, for mediation without armistice and for the establishment of a permanent international conference which shall deal with practical proposals for future international co-operation and shall appoint a permanent council of conciliation for the settlement of differences arising from social and economic causes.
From the German delegates came a resolution of even greater import which repudiates the right of conquest. This resolution affirms that there shall be no transference of territory without the consent of the residents and urges that autonomy and a democratic parliament shall not be refused to any people.
When the resolution came up for vote advocating universal disarmament and urging all countries to take over the manufacture of arms and munitions of war and to control international traffic in the same, a stir was created by a United States who delegate moved an amendment that "traffic in arms from neutral countries be prohibited.” Miss Addams ruled the amendment out of order as bearing upon present conditions, but added that she herself as an American citizen favored it.
Aside from the delay and slight confusion caused by tedious translation, there was but one hitch in the proceedings of the congress. It came after Madame Schwimmer's appeal for women‘ to “call a thunderous halt tomorrow that shall overthrow the thunder of the trenches.” By a rising vote the conference had voted to accept without debate this resolution urging the governments of the world to put an end to bloodshed and to begin peace negotiations. Then Mlle. Hamer, burning with the spirit of the French manifesto, pleaded for a peace based on justice “which would return to Belgium her liberty, independence, richness and prosperity.” Unanimously the congress voted to insert in this most important of resolutions:
“The congress demands that the peace which follows shall be permanent and therefore based on principles of justice.”
Thus “arbitration” bridged the one division of feeling in the congress which threatened a serious split.
What will come of it all?
That is what the world of practical people, who demand immediate results, is asking.
When I questioned my Socialist friend, she scoffed at little bitterly, “A lot of talk that will blow away with the delegates." But the newspaper woman reflected that it would leave its stamp on the woman movement in every country, and the magazine writer declared that its end was already attained in dispelling the idea of implacable hatred between women of warring countries.
The one immediate step of the congress was to delegate envoys, women from both neutral and, belligerent nations, to carry the message expressed in the congress resolutions to combatants and non-combatant countries. Already Jane Addams, Aletta H. Jacobs, chairman of the executive committee of the congress, and Rosa Genoni of Italy, have been received by the court of Holland, have presented the resolutions to the prime minister of England and have come back to the continent in a tour which includes the capitals of Germany, Belgium, France and Austria. They will later be joined by Kathleen Courtney of England and Anita Augspurg of Germany, and will visit the neutral countries of Switzerland, Spain and United States. The entrance of Italy into the war will prevent these delegates visiting Rome as planned.
Meanwhile another group has been appointed to go to Denmark, Sweden Norway, and Russia.
To students of diplomacy and to the “practical” people of the world the expeditions will seem, like the congress itself, the action of visionaries. They will laugh at a “parcel of women" bearing resolutions to prime ministers who are vexed with the burdens of war. They will sneer at its futility and assail its temerity. But to others, and especially to us who attended the congress, the mission of these women will mean that the spirit of the congress will not be girded by the canals of Holland but will reach across trenches smoking with war.
~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
The Survey, Volume 34
Survey Associates, 1915
https://books.google.com/...
The Survey of June 5, 1915
https://books.google.com/...
"The Women at the Hague" by Mary Chamberlain
(Source, also, for all images within article.)
https://books.google.com/...
Report of the International Congress of Women:
Hague-The Netherlands,
April 28th to May 1st, 1915
Printed by the Women's Peace Party
https://archive.org/...
Officers of the Congress and
The Resolutions can be viewed here:
https://archive.org/...
IMAGES
International Congress of Women. The Hague,
Great Hall of the Dierentium,
April 28 to May 1, 1915.
https://archive.org/...
Aletta Jacobs
http://spartacus-educational.com/...
Report Title Page
https://archive.org/...
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Where Have All the Flowers Gone - Peter, Paul & Mary
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