Woman's Peace Party
Encyclopedia
- This article is on the Woman's Peace Party, a forerunner of the Women's International League for Peace and FreedomWomen's International League for Peace and FreedomThe Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was established in the United States in January 1915 as the Woman's Peace Party...
.
The Woman's Peace Party (WPP) was an American pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
organization formally established in January 1915 in response to World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The organization is remembered as the first American peace organization to make use of direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
tactics such as public demonstration. The Woman's Peace Party became the American section of an international organization known as the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace later in 1915, a group which later changed its name to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was established in the United States in January 1915 as the Woman's Peace Party...
.
American pacifist forerunners
Prior to the establishment of the Woman's Peace Party, the three leading American pacifist organizations of national stature were essentially conservativeConservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
enterprises, viewing the peace movement's mission as one of extending stability, order, and the expansion of venerable American institutions.
The American Peace Society
American Peace Society
The American Peace Society is a pacifist group founded upon the initiative of William Ladd, in New York City, May 8, 1828. It was formed by the merging of many state and local societies, from New York, Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, of which the oldest, the New York Peace Society, dated...
(APS), established in 1828, was the oldest of the previously existing pacifist organizations and suffered from what one historian has called "over seven decades of accumulated Victorianism
Victorianism
Victorianism is the name given to the attitudes, art, and culture of the later two-thirds of the 19th century. This usage is strong within social history and the study of literature, less so in philosophy. Many disciplines do not use the term, but instead prefer Victorian Era, or simply "Late 19th...
. Typified by the detached conservative nobility of corporate attorney Elihu Root
Elihu Root
Elihu Root was an American lawyer and statesman and the 1912 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the prototype of the 20th century "wise man", who shuttled between high-level government positions in Washington, D.C...
, the APS was dedicated to demonstrating the incompatibility between war and Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and throughout its existence had remained small, impoverished, and ineffectual. By the time of World War I, it had been reduced in status to that of a veritable subsidiary of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a foreign-policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. The organization describes itself as being dedicated to advancing cooperation between nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States...
.
The Carnegie Endowment was launched by industrialist Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
in 1910 with a $10 million endowment. The Endowment became effectively a university publishing house for the peace movement, concentrating on academic research and the printed word rather than oratory.
The third of the primary American peace organizations of the first decade of the 20th Century was the World Peace Foundation (WPF), a group established in 1909 by millionaire Boston publisher Edwin Ginn
Edwin Ginn
Edwin Ginn , American publisher and philanthropist.In 1838, Ginn was born to a poor family who lived on a small farm near Orland, Maine. At age twenty-four he graduated from Tufts University. After graduation, Ginn had a career selling schoolbooks that became extremely lucrative...
as "Edwin Ginn's International School for Peace." This organization was launched with a $1 million endowment and carried on publishing activities, changing its name to the WPF in 1911. As with the Carnegie Foundation, the WPF limited its activities largely to research and publication, attempting to influence political decision-makers with ideas rather than to stir the fires of popular sentiment.
Much like the trustified world of big business of the day, the peace movement was characterized by interlocking directorates
Interlocking directorate
Interlocking directorate refers to the practice of members of a corporate board of directors serving on the boards of multiple corporations. A person that sits on multiple boards is known as a multiple director. A direct interlock occurs when two firms share a director or when an executive of one...
of the various organizations, with a very few men and no women wielding decisive influence over the movement by virtue of the power of the pocketbook. The American peace movement was, in short, part of the political establishment, with dinner meetings of the New York Peace Society likened by one contemporary to "a banquet of the Chamber of Commerce
Chamber of commerce
A chamber of commerce is a form of business network, e.g., a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to advocate on behalf of the business community...
."
Woman's Peace Parade
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
on August 29, 1914. This "Woman's Peace Parade" was organized less than a month after the outbreak of hostilities in World War I and featured a silent procession down Fifth Avenue behind a white banner bearing a dove in front of somber crowds lining the streets.
The chair of the Woman's Peace Parade committee was Fanny Garrison Villard
Fanny Garrison Villard
300px|thumb|Fanny Garrison Villard at the International Woman Suffrage Congress, Budapest, 1913.Helen Frances “Fanny” Garrison Villard was a women's suffrage campaigner and a co-founder of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People...
, a 70-year old veteran of the peace movement. Her son, Oswald Garrison Villard
Oswald Garrison Villard
Oswald Garrison Villard was an American journalist. He provided a rare direct link between the anti-imperialism of the late 19th century and the conservative Old Right of the 1930s and 1940s.-Biography:...
, later recalled the scene:
"There were no bands; there was dead silence and the crowds watched the parade in the spirit of the marchers, with sympathy and approval. The President had also approved, for the organizers, in complete sympathy with his public statements of the early days of the conflict, had courteously asked him for his consent. He was especially pleased by the decision of the paraders to carry no flags except the peace flag and to have no set speeches at the conclusion of the parade, but brief informal addresses were made to all who would listed....
"The silence, the dignity, the black dresses of the marchers — those who did not have black dresses wore black arm bands — the solemnity of the crowds, all of these produced a profound effect on the beholders."
The Woman's Peace Parade marked a change of methods of the peace movement. Older American peace organizations limited themselves to working behind the scenes, attempting to influence policy through regular political channels. The Peace Parade, on the other hand, made use of direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...
, attempting to build popular support for peace through public demonstration in the same way that labor organizations
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
had historically fought for policies and settlements which were important to them. With this tactical shift, the Woman's Peace Parade and the organization which emerged from it, the Woman's Peace Party, effectively marked the beginning of the modern peace movement.
In the aftermath of the march, Fanny Garrison Villard sought to transform the temporary organization constructed to coordinate the march into a permanent group. Villard called upon one of her old rivals in the women's movement, Carrie Chapman Catt
Carrie Chapman Catt
Carrie Chapman Catt was a women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920...
, President of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance to help in this regard. Catt, a former associate of Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony
Susan Brownell Anthony was a prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States. She was co-founder of the first Women's Temperance Movement with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as President...
, was fixated upon the struggle for women's right to vote and did not see the peace march as a likely vehicle for a change of public sentiment or national policy. Still, Catt was won over to the idea that the American suffrage movement stood to gain in support and stature if women could gain a prominent role in the noble struggle for an end to the European bloodbath.
In the middle of December 1914, Catt was finally persuaded to give full effort for the launch of a national women's peace organization. She wote to settlement worker Jane Addams
Jane Addams
Jane Addams was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace...
of Hull House
Hull House
Hull House is a settlement house in the United States that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located in the Near West Side of , Hull House opened its doors to the recently arrived European immigrants. By 1911, Hull House had grown to 13 buildings. In 1912 the Hull...
in Chicago, attempting to bring her into the forthcoming organization as its leader. Addams had long believed in a close interrelationship between international peace, domestic humanitarian reform, and women's right to vote and was won over to the idea of a national women's peace movement. The stage was set for a formal launch of the new organization — a group to be called the Woman's Peace Party.
Foundation convention
The Woman's Peace Party was established at an organizational convention held in Washington, DC on January 9-10, 1915. The gathering was attended by more than 100 delegates representing women's organizations from around the United States.Jane Addams was elected President of the new organization by the convention and given the power to select a Secretary and Treasurer for the group, which was to be headquartered in Addams' home city of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. Membership in the new organization was open to all groups willing to repurpose themselves also as a "peace circle" and to any woman paying a $1 annual membership fee. Officers ultimately included Lucia Ames Mead as National Secretary, Harriet P. Thomas as Executive Secretary, Sophonisba P. Breckenridge as Treasurer, and Elizabeth Glendower Evans as National Organizer.
The convention approved a platform
Platform
- Physical objects and features :* Diving platform, used in competitive diving* Jumping platform, naturally occurring platforms, or platforms made in an ad-hoc way for cliff jumping* Oil platform, a structure built for oil production...
calling for the immediate convocation of "a convention of neutral
Neutrality (international relations)
A neutral power in a particular war is a sovereign state which declares itself to be neutral towards the belligerents. A non-belligerent state does not need to be neutral. The rights and duties of a neutral power are defined in Sections 5 and 13 of the Hague Convention of 1907...
nations in the interest of an early peace," the limitation of armaments, organized opposition to militarism
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
in America, democratization of foreign policy, removal of the economic motivation for war, and the expansion of the electoral franchise for women. The right of women to vote was seen by the female participants in the organization as part-and-parcel of the cause for peace, based on the presumption that women were inclined by nature to be oriented towards the nurturing of human life.
The founding convention also approved a supplemental "Program for Constructive Peace" which demanded that the American government to call a conference of neutral nations and declared that, failing that, "the party itself will call an unofficial conference of pacifists from the world over" to determine a course of action. To ensure that the current war was not merely a prelude for another, the program called for a peace based upon no transfers of territory without the will of the involved people, no indemnities
Indemnity
An indemnity is a sum paid by A to B by way of compensation for a particular loss suffered by B. The indemnitor may or may not be responsible for the loss suffered by the indemnitee...
to be assessed outside those in accordance with international law, and no treaties between nations to be established without ratification of representatives of the people.
Activities concluded with a mass meeting held in the ballroom of the New Willard Hotel on Sunday, January 10, which was filled to capacity. An additional overflow meeting was held in another room but still some 500 interested people had to be turned away for lack of space. Speeches were delivered to this gathering by Jane Addams, and feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
activists Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence
Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence was a Britishwomen's rights activist.Her father was a businessman...
of England, Rosika Schwimmer
Rosika Schwimmer
Rosika Schwimmer or Bédy-Schwimmer "Rózsa" Rózsika was a Hungarian-born pacifist, feminist and female suffragist.Rosika Schwimmer was born on September 11, 1877 to a Jewish family in Budapest in Austria-Hungary...
of Hungary, among others.
1915 International Congress of Women
The ongoing war in Europe forced the cancellation of the scheduled biennial convention of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, which had been slated for BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in 1915. The cancellation of the German gathering provided an opportunity for the women's peace movement to hold an international gathering of their own, and a call was issued for a convention to be held in neutral Holland. Jane Addams, President of the Woman's Peace Party and arguably the most respected and influential woman in America was invited to preside over the conclave.
In April 1915, 47 women, including many members of the Woman's Peace Party along with representatives of other organizations, boarded the Dutch cruise ship the MS Noordam for the dangerous journey to The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
. Among those making the trip through mine-strewn waters were social worker Grace Abbott
Grace Abbott
Grace Abbott was an American social worker who specifically worked in advancing child welfare. Her elder sister was social worker Edith Abbott....
, epidemiologist Alice Hamilton
Alice Hamilton
Alice Hamilton was the first woman appointed to the faculty of Harvard University and was a leading expert in the field of occupational health...
, radical trade unionist Leonora O'Reilly
Leonora O'Reilly
Leonora O’Reilly was an American feminist, suffragist, and trade union organizer. She was a founding member of the Women's Trade Union League.-Biography:...
, and academic and future Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
winner Emily Balch.
The trip was not without controversy, despite America's formally neutral status, with former President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
declaring the women's mission "silly and base"" and calling the women cowards who sought peace "without regard to righteousness." The American women were not dissuaded, sailing into danger with a homemade blue and white banner that bore the single word, "PEACE."
The Noordam was held up for four days in the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
by the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
but was ultimately allowed to proceed to The Hague, which it arrived barely in time for the start of the three day congress on the evening of April 28, 1915. Despite the decision of some combatant nations, such as Great Britain, to deny its citizens passports which would have allowed them to participate in the Congress, the gathering still proved to be a massive event, bringing together 1,136 delegates and more than 2,000 visitors.
The congress drafted a series of resolutions detailing plans for a just peace, calling for general disarmament
Disarmament
Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear arms...
and the removal of the profit motive through nationalizing the production of armaments, and asserting the benefits of free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
and freedom of navigation
Freedom of Navigation
Freedom of Navigation is a principle of customary International Law that, apart from the exceptions provided for in international law, ships flying the flag of any state shall not suffer interference from other states. This right is now also codified as article 87a of the 1982 United Nations...
on the high seas. A resolution calling for continuous mediation
Mediation
Mediation, as used in law, is a form of alternative dispute resolution , a way of resolving disputes between two or more parties. A third party, the mediator, assists the parties to negotiate their own settlement...
of disputes by a conference of neutral nations was passed, but ultimately failed to come to fruition. A delegation headed by Addams was dispatched to the capitals of the belligerent powers but it, too, proved ineffectual.
Before adjourning, the congress established a new international organization called the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace. The Woman's Peace Party came to regard itself as the American section of this organization.
Name change
In 1921 the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace formally changed its name to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.Legacy
An archive of the records of the Woman's Peace Party from 1915 to 1920 resides at Swarthmore CollegeSwarthmore College
Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....
in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Swarthmore is a borough in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Swarthmore was originally named Westdale in honor of noted painter Benjamin West, who was one of the early residents of the town. The name was changed to Swarthmore after the establishment of Swarthmore College...
as part of its Peace Collection.
Prominent members
- Jane AddamsJane AddamsJane Addams was a pioneer settlement worker, founder of Hull House in Chicago, public philosopher, sociologist, author, and leader in woman suffrage and world peace...
- Fannie Fern AndrewsFannie Fern AndrewsFannie Fern Andrews was an American lecturer, teacher, social worker, and writer.-Biography:Andrews was born at Margaretsville , and educated at the Salem Normal School. She taught for six years before receiving a degree in psychology and education from Radcliffe College in 1902...
- Sophonisba P. Breckenridge
- Carrie Chapman CattCarrie Chapman CattCarrie Chapman Catt was a women's suffrage leader who campaigned for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which gave U.S. women the right to vote in 1920...
- Laura ClayLaura ClayLaura Clay , co-founder and first president of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, was a leader of the American women’s suffrage movement...
- Crystal EastmanCrystal EastmanCrystal Catherine Eastman was a lawyer, antimilitarist, feminist, socialist, and journalist. She is best remembered as a leader in the fight for women's right to vote, as a co-editor of the radical arts and politics magazine The Liberator, and as a co-founder of the Women's International League...
- Elizabeth Glendower Evans
- Charlotte Perkins GilmanCharlotte Perkins GilmanCharlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent American sociologist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform...
- Jessie Wallace HughanJessie Wallace HughanJessie Wallace Hughan was an American educator, a socialist activist, and a radical pacifist. During her college days she was one of four co-founders of Alpha Omicron Pi, a national sorority for university women. She also was a founder and the first Secretary of the War Resisters League,...
- Florence KelleyFlorence KelleyFlorence Kelley was an American social and political reformer. Her work against sweatshops and for the minimum wage, eight-hour workdays, and children's rights is widely regarded today.-Family:...
- Freda KirchweyFreda KirchweyFreda Kirchwey was an American journalist, editor, and publisher strongly committed throughout her career to liberal causes. From 1933 to 1955, she was Editor of The Nation magazine.-Biography:...
- Fola LaFollette
- Lucia Ames Mead
- Jeannette RankinJeannette RankinJeannette Pickering Rankin was the first woman in the US Congress. A Republican, she was elected statewide in Montana in 1916 and again in 1940. A lifelong pacifist, she voted against the entry of the United States into both World War I in 1917 and World War II in 1941, the only member of Congress...
- Rose SchneidermanRose SchneidermanRose Schneiderman was a prominent United States labor union leader, socialist, and feminist of the first part of the twentieth century...
- Anna Howard ShawAnna Howard ShawAnna Howard Shaw was a leader of the women's suffrage movement in the United States. She was also a physician and the first ordained female Methodist minister in the United States. Her birthday is celebrated as Anna Howard Shaw Day, as an alternative to St. Valentine's Day.-Early Life:Shaw was...
- Harriet P. Thomas
- Fanny Garrison VillardFanny Garrison Villard300px|thumb|Fanny Garrison Villard at the International Woman Suffrage Congress, Budapest, 1913.Helen Frances “Fanny” Garrison Villard was a women's suffrage campaigner and a co-founder of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People...
- Mary Heaton VorseMary Heaton VorseMary Heaton Vorse or Mary Heaton Vorse O'Brien was an American journalist, labor activist, and novelist. Vorse was outspoken and active in peace and social justice causes, such as women's suffrage, civil rights, pacifism , socialism, child labor, infant mortality, labor disputes, and affordable...
- Lillian WaldLillian WaldLillian D. Wald was a nurse; social worker; public health official; teacher; author; editor; publisher; activist for peace, women's, children's and civil rights; and the founder of American community nursing...
- Anna Walling
Further reading
- Harriet Hyman Alonso, Peace as a Women's Issue: A History of the US Movement for World Peace and Women's Rights. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1993.
- Mary Louise Degen, The History of the Woman's Peace Party. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1939.
External links
- "Woman's Peace Party," Spartacus School, www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/
- Finding Aid for the Woman's Peace Party Collection, 1915-1920, Swarthmore College Library, Swarthmore, PA.
See also
- Women's International League for Peace and FreedomWomen's International League for Peace and FreedomThe Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was established in the United States in January 1915 as the Woman's Peace Party...
- Carnegie Endowment for International PeaceCarnegie Endowment for International PeaceThe Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a foreign-policy think tank based in Washington, D.C. The organization describes itself as being dedicated to advancing cooperation between nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States...