Details

Abstract / Summary

This portion of Lucia Ames Mead’s diary, beginning May 10, covered the 1919 WILPF Congress in Zurich. Mead described the proceedings of the Congress in detail, including speeches, motions for resolutions, and topics of discussion from delegates and observers from many nations. Mead called Jane Addams’s leadership, “patient, fair, shrewd, and kind.” Mead gave opening remarks on the Covenant of the League of Nations. The group issued the Book on the Congress to peaceful people and governments. Over the course of the Congress, Mead wrote of discussions on topics including the League of Nations, disarmament, the rights of asylum, capital punishment, socialism, trafficking in women, blockades, trade, propaganda, the rights of prisoners, education, taxation, the Red Cross, and the malnutrition of children. The group was not in total agreement that capitalism was the cause of the war, but most seemed to identify as socialists. Some argued that the League was robbing and strangling Germany. They feared the creation of Alsace-Lorraine-like areas all over Europe. Addams hoped that once the bitterness died down, a better League of Nations could be developed. Lillian Wald thought that all countries should be more concerned about child welfare, malaria, and venereal disease. Ethel Snowden criticized the Paris peace treaty because it did not work for peace, but for war, which was not what the soldiers were fighting for. Mead wrote of their society’s “birthday” and new name [Women’s International league for Peace and Freedom]. The Congress received a telegram from President Wilson and he said their message appealed to both his head and heart. After the Congress ended, Mead described a banquet with several speakers, including Jane Addams. On May 18, she traveled to Berne, then Geneva, and back to Paris, to the Hotel Petrograd. Names mentioned by Mead in the diary include: Chrystal MacMillan, Emily Greene Balch, Jeanette Rankin, Florence Kelley, Alice Thatcher Post, Lillian Wald, Madeleine Doty, Aletta Jacobs, Dr. Wilson, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Mrs. Ashton (Lord Bryce’s sister-in-law), Rosa Kulka, Lida Gustava Heymann, Catherine Marshall, Ethel Snowden, Fran Perlen, Mademoiselle La Fontaine, and Anita Augspurg.

Field of Interest

Women and Social Movements

Author

Lucia True Ames Mead, 1856-1936

Collection

Women and Social Movements, International

Content Type

Diary/Memoir/Autobiography

Duration

0 sec

Format

Text

Page Count

128

Subject

Women and Social Movements, History, Transnational Women’s Movement, Movimiento de Mujeres Transnacional, Movimento Feminista Transnacional, Lucia True Ames Mead, 1856-1936

Keywords and Translated Subjects

Movimiento de Mujeres Transnacional, Movimento Feminista Transnacional