go for

either

or be cause

thing

Teasons

I can't get any

to elect me a delegate,

Iwill know that things

that the Well

To

Are at last you

that

they

don't theed

dusting

Isn't it great!

La Follette', action Saturday pens up the congressional

discussion & Henderson's

dosings on

England Must

Give Northcliff apoplexy! Compers rival organization is the best sign of our growing influence with labor. This is all the news gathered Jall Salurday when I

Members of my Board of Trustees

have expressed the feeling that it would be wiser
for me not to have my name identified with any of
the peace organizations at this time except those
with which I am at this time connected in an execu-
tive capacity.
As I do not wish to disrupt organi-
zations like the World Alliance of Churches and The
Church Peace Union, which have a high potency of
good in them, and thus lose what radical sentiment
still exists in these boards, I think it wise to
comply with this request. I cannot, therefore,
sign my name to the Call for the First American
Conference on Democracy and Terms of Peace.

30.

We are confident of your hearty sympathy with the purpose of the First American Conference for emocracy and Terms of Peace. We therefore appeal to you for help in the most difficult side of its organi ation. he come to you for

money.

You know of course that frieris of peace throughout the country are discouraged any are hopeless. The successful outcome of the proposed conference is therefore of utmost importance for both present and future.

You know, and we all know, that the pesce sentiment ie there but it is rot organized. The indivilval is not heard; Rrouped and organized these individu 1s 111 -ert a over ful influence upon ou wn comnity, Congreca and won esident Wilson. To coordinate and organize the emo retie and resce loving forces of the country is the primary aim of the enference.

Once the friends of mesce ere pagani-ed they will doubtedly rally in suport of the conference progr. But we must look to a few men and woren to launch the moment. The enclo ed budget asks for 5379.50. Of this a little over $1000 has already been contributed. The finance committee has cref 11 gone over its list of possible supporters and has taken the liberty of asking individuals for specific surs.

Vay we depend uron for a contribution

200--ollars? This is not the ordinary sort o. entribution: it is rather an investment in a big enterrrize hich is more to bring returns. lease let us contou,

Faithfully yours,

Fannie Garrisa Villard

PRE

American Neutral

CHAPTER IV

Conference Committee - July, 1916 to
February 3, 1917

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.)

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