Though there is no further mention of The Central Organization in this report, there is to be found a little later a most significant reference by Lochner to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

In

As we have seen, after war was declared in April, 1917, the inter-parliamentarians, pacifists, "neutrals," "internationalists," socialists, and Germans alike were unable to interfere seriously with the war policies of the United States Government. They did, however, largely through the Emergency Peace Federation, manage to harass administration officials in various ways. turn they exerted all possible pressure against the Chamberlain, War College, Press Censorship, Espionage and Selective Draft bills, as well as against any loans to the Entente or working agreements with the Allies. Further, about this time co-operation from the pacifist, religious or quasi-religious societies, began to aid in the defeatist plans of the Federation. Notable among these was the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which under the guidance of Norman Thomas on April 13, 1917, developed a plan to "Experiment with social, industrial and international problems."

1

The program though pretentious is of course vague, unless indeed one examines carefully each committee where, together with a group of unknown persons, two or three names of wellknown radicals are always bracketed. In the first group the names Miss Jessie Hughan, Walter Rauschenbusch and Dr. Harry F. Ward appear; in the second, Miss Balch, Dr. John Haynes Holmes, and O. G. Villard; in the third, Jane Addams, L. Hollingsworth Wood and the Reverend Jonathan Day.

It is also suggestive to note that one large committee of the Fellowship of Reconciliation was "devoted to the carrying on of the propaganda of the society in foreign countries."

In the way of "Emergency Strategy" at this point we find a number of instances: Mr. Owen Lovejoy on April 27, 1917, declined to serve on the Emergency Peace Federation Board, only because he was already pledged to the American Union against Militarism. "I think it adds immensely to our strength to have the lists quite distinct so that it will not appear that the same group of people is simply playing another role, because we are not able to get enough people to take all the parts."

Again when a purely ornamental pledge of $250 was made to the Emergency Peace Federation by Mr. Ralph Pearson of

1

Form letter sent Representative W. P. Borland, April 11, 1917, in form of questionnaire.

Document:

Committees appointed by Fellowship of Reconciliation Com

mittee, April 13, 1917.

New York City, Miss Secor wrote to him "not to worry about being held to it."

1

Presently there was another sharp change in the policy of those pseudo-pacifists. On April 30, 1917, Miss Shelly wrote to Lochner asking him and Miss Freeman to come to a meeting of the Emergency Peace Federation Committee at Hotel Astor in New York on May 2. This turned out to be virtually a co-ordinating and federating of the various anti-war, pro-German and Socialist leagues then existing in the United States, "as an informal Conference on War Problems, according to a letter, May 3, 1917, from Miss Shelly to Miss Trevett of Portland, Oregon:

"About forty people were present last night," continued Miss Shelly, "including Morris Hillquit, a great Socialist leader, Prof. Emily Greene Balch, of international standing, Rabbi Judah L. Magnes, a Jewish leader, John Haynes Holmes, one of the outstanding ministers of the country, Edward J. Cassidy, President of the Big Six Typographical Union, (the largest in New York), Miss Lillian Wald, of Henry Street Settlement, Mr. Linville of the School Teachers' Union, George Foster Peabody and about 35 other prominent labor, socialist, church and social reform leaders."

The Emergency Peace Federation bulletin of May 3, 1917, however, does not lay undue emphasis upon this significant federating of anti-war societies, merely stating, "We were beaten, but we were right. We did not succeed in stemming the destructive tide, but we stirred a tremendous sentiment against it." It then goes on to set forth conspicuously as the future praiseworthy object of the Federation "to defend American ideals of liberty and democracy in wartime and to work for an early and enduring peace."

Reasonable as this sounds, here we have the first definite warning of the significant part which so-called free speech and civil liberties were to play in the defeatist plans of the socialisticpacifists from this time on, invoking and perverting the meaning of one section of the Constitution precisely in order to undermine the strength of the Constitution itself. The rest of the May 3d bulletin sets forth the "Immediate Program" of the federation, as follows:

"No. 1. The free speech clause.

"No. 2. To oppose the enactment of measures for com pulsory military service.

"No. 3. To assert the right of the people to know and discuss the aims, scope and method of our participation in the war and their right at any time to advocate terms of peace.

"No. 4. To oppose the adoption of any treaty, alliance or policy which would prevent the United States from making an independent decision as to when and on what terms it shall make peace.

"No. 5. To urge our government to seize every oppor tunity for bringing about peace negotiations and establishing an international organization as a guarantee against future wars."

This "Program," which bears which bears resemblance to Lochner's 1915 program, was one of the first fruits of the meeting of May 2, 1917, to which Lochner had been summoned, and where representatives of the Emergency Peace Federation, the American Union against Militarism, the Socialist movement, the Labor Party, the Woman's Peace Party,' etc., merged under the suprising title of "The First American Conference for Democracy and Terms of Peace."

At a subsequent meeting of May 4th, to which also came individual radicals of all varieties, an amicable arrangement was reached whereby the officers of the American Union against Militarism and the Emergency Peace Federation were to co-operate jointly in the interest of the First American Conference for Democracy and Terms of Peace, set to meet formally at the Holland House in New York on May 30 and 31, 1917.

Since the chairman of the American Union against Militarism at that time was Miss Lillian Wald, supported by a staff including Amos Pinchot, L. Hollingsworth Wood, Crystal Eastman, Roger Baldwin and Charles T. Hallinan, it would seem that our "emergency group" had found strong allies. And promptly on May 3, 1917, Roger Baldwin, Associate Director of the American Union against Militarism (who has since served a year in jail for violating the Draft Law, and who was described as an "intellectual anarchist" by Norman Thomas), wrote a long letter to Miss Balch, giving expert advice as to how similar conferences for "democracy 'Lochner to Miss Wald, May 9, 1917, 1st and 2nd drafts.

and terms of peace" should be organized in Chicago, San Francisco and elsewhere. His main points were as follows:

"No. 1. That every effort should be made to get the labor, socialist and farmer group to back these conference meetings, "because they will carry most weight with the country and in dealing with similar groups abroad."

"No. 2. "That the pacifist organizations ought to stand in the background." (Old Emergency Peace Federation strategy, of course.)

"No. 3. More emphasis to be placed on the international aspects of these conferences. 'It may be well even to think of sending delegates from our own people's conferences to similar conferences to be held in other countries, particularly Germany and Austria.' Emphasis should be placed upon the co-operation of the peoples- not the governments on a program of internationalism."

Surely in this last point of Baldwin we have the old GermanSocialist-Internationalist pacifism of the Lochner-Schwimmer 1915 period, coming out into the open, under wartime conditions in 1917, as international revolutionary Socialism.

Though Lochner and his Emergency Peace Federation associates were in perfect accord with these policies of Baldwin, apparently the arrangements for Lochner to be in supreme charge of the Conference, seems not to have been satisfactory to certain officers of the American Union against Militarism,- notably Miss Wald, the chairman, undoubtedly the leader of the group. So that presently the executives of the American Union against Militarism, who had expected themselves to be in command, withdrew their names from the First American Conference.1

The history of the misunderstandings and difficulties which led to the withdrawal is rather complicated, but in Lochner's long letter of explanation to Miss Wald he says in effect that both Dr. Judah Magnes and Mr. Hillquit, who were apparently directing the organization of the Conference, objected to the American Union against Militarism being its steering committee.

The American Union thereupon concentrated its efforts upon defending the rights of conscientious objectors; and presently developed branch offices both in Washington and in New York under the name of the Civil Liberties Bureau. Though this 'Lochner to Mrs. Wm. Thomas, May 12, 1917, 2nd draft. 'Lochner to Miss Wald, May, 1917, Draft 1.

bureau under Baldwin continued to co-operate in an advisory way with the First American Conference, for the most part it created and developed entirely new machinery for hampering the military strength of the country, during the war and afterward. After following therefore the manoeuvres of Lochner's Conference forces to their logical conclusion, we shall return to observe those of the Baldwin American Union against Militarism group which seceded from the conference in May, 1917.