Transcripts For CSPAN2 Reel 20240704

A in 1915, a group of women gathered in europe to try and find a way to stop world war one. It was the birth of the oldest womens Peace Organization in the world, the Womens International league for peace and freedom. This is their story. The end of the victorian age and the beginning of the 20th century brought about a flood movement for social change. Many people began actively struggling for control over their own lives. Settlementunions and civil libes organizations all grew out this tremendous and dynamic period. Women were profoundly in all these movements as well, fighting for their own rights. These feministbeca■meformidabled world of the early 1900s. Mildred Scott Olmsted has been a of the Womens International league since 1921. She has held variety of positions in the League United states section. I grew up a strong feminist. I grew up in a victorian type family and as i grew up my first ten years in victorian family in which they, my father was the head of a house and you werent supposed to ask you questions if you asked things. It was because, i would say so and this was the way my mothers position was too. And i resented it very much. And so i would colleague as believing in suffrage. In 1915, the fight for women was gaining momentum despite barriers of distance and of language voters. Women ed in the struggle for equality as as 1902, an International Suffrage Alliance had been formed to strengthen es planned to hold one of their International Congresses berlin in 1915. But world war one intervened and fell over there and then the word sent the word a but when the war broke out i followed Woodrow Wilson of whici was, and so were most people. Emily meade was at war, warned to make the world safe for democracy and all those beautiful slogans. And then my little girl were there. Women responded in a Great Variety of ways to the outbreak of, the war. Some, although they opposed their governments position, women supported the decision to in the war. Other women were angered at the way their countries were caught up in war craze jingoism. They felt they had been dragge o voice and thought the war was wrong. These differences were the cause of wsplit in the International Womens Suffrage Alliance after war, mildred olmsted went overseas do reli w later. She began working with the American Foreign Service Committee and friends invited me to work with them and i went up to the grand prairie, northern france, the devastated region. And there i got all the other side. What war had mnt to these peasants, to these People Living there . Some of them were coming back, you see, they couldnt even find the houses, whole types of hill. Women shot away. The people were living, caved in and they were living down on the ground floor. The world had been poisoned. We were right on the edge of a battlefield and all the instruction was still there. And the prisoners of war, prisoner of war, camp were assigned t rhench rebuild trying to rebuild. And you would go into the homes of these families and there they would have sitting down with reading with them what food they had, sharing with a prisoner or the german who had been helping him. And you would say, but this is a this is a prisoner. This is a german, this is your enemy. And would very germans are bad people, but not this war. Hes exploitation. So i saw what happened when people were put and working to to realize how much the people were exploited by the government that was sent intohe area and we saw what starvation was. You cant imagine. Its like in the first world war, germany not destroyed, but they were starved as everywhere. Food was stolen everything honestly was no food. You cant imagine what it was like. You see a big crowd looking in at a window, at a boom dried up. She and a couple of pieces of through there i saw the side of it and it was really there that first heard of the Womens Internationalpeace and freedom because the german section women in there came in over their services to help set as volunteers. The distribution of the food as a result became very good friends with gertrude and her if what other women in america doing for peace . Why did mrs. Catt us . And i had no and through her and group we used to see in the evenings and so on, the they told us about how women had met at the hague in 1915. Women from both sides of the line who were opposed the war and wanted to end the war and right away. And who wanted to appeal to the government and had appealed to all neutral and the belligerent governments to stop the war before there was war, destruction and try to negotiate from the onset of war, many women who had previously worked through the International Suffrage Alliance tried to maintain ties to a german. Some of us. Wish to send you a word at this Side Christmas died offer solemn greeting to such of you who feel as we do there. Sons are sent to slay each other and our he cruelty of. This fate, yet through panes we will be true to our common womanhood. Saddened and angered what the war was doing to their lives. They look to each other for support sympathy and for a way out of the horror they were experiencing. A letter jacobs was first woman doctor in holland and the of the dutch womens suffrage movement. She along with other women, thought that it was important than ever for them to maintain the solidarity that ey ft with each other as women above that of national city. They sent out a call to meet in april of 19 at the hague and then they began organizing the International Congress of women. It was one thing for women to accept the invitation to the congress and quite another for them to actually reach holland. Many had been denied by their governments. Other simply could not pass through areas where the was raging women. Traveling to the congress not only battled minefields but also the ridicule, scorn of their governments and. There were 300 delegates from 12 nations who attended the congress, 1300 people packed the large hall three days. The difficult task chairing the meeting went to jane addams of United States. None could fail to admire the courage spirit of these women from enemy who embraced an experiences with onethe women oe congress were great suffrage leaders. Others were labor leaders, teachers housewives. In those three days, despite confusion of translations, they worked side by side, disagreed and compromised by the end of, the congress, they formulated a plan neutral mediation of the war and laid down a detailed answer Pacific Program to maintain war. The congress voted that the resolution should be carried by envoys to the various governments of europe and to the president of the United States. Their plan, the wellrehearsed read, was not acted upon by any government until 1918, when many their ideas were incorporated by Woodrow Wilson into the 14 points for the armistice. The women of the Hague Congress formed the International Committee of women permanent peace, which in 1919, officially known as the Womens International for peace and freedom. Still shocked the massive destruction of world war one. People to organize and mobilize, looking for ways to keep the peace and investigate new methods for resolving conflicts. From 1931 to 1934, scores liberal, radical and pacifist groups sponsored a series of no more war parades, which grew from 3 participants to more than thousand. Oh, i remember very vividly. It was quite a hot summer, and it was when the germans conference in washington was failing. And after the war. And theres quite a lot of material about that. Why that was very they were about to break up the Womens International league international. She felt that something should be done to rescue it. So they asked the sections to do what they could in a way of influencing. Their governments and collecting signatures. Annual meeting out in california, in los angeles. At the end of the meeting. Oh yes, at sunset, the beach day. What we were going to do a at the finale of that and just at sunset we released whole flock of carrier peons. I and they flew up and circled around in the sunset and then started off to washington. England. Thatained million and 300,000 signatures. Japan obtained nearly a million. And so from one country to another, they are presented each with their own government, hoping to make something of a background Public Opinion before the disarmament. Meet them next february was during president roosevelt period and we washington and we received at the white house where we the signatures a and at the dinner that night had photo of your who was our National President presided and eleanor was there and jane addams and in the afternoon we had a big Public Meeting in one of the washington squares in washington. And mr. Adams initiated, the first round the world, broadcast. Many of us hope that the course of time, the millis see the nes portraying as they do the inhabitants from every part of the globe named time obtain such a sense of identification, such an understanding, various kinds of life that will be quite impossible for them to visualize any of these an enemy people in time will develop the talents which will make war impossible and the old for universal will come about because the people will no longer tolerate anything else. The Womens International league in a variety of areas. They supported, the league of nations, reduced educational, organized speaking tours and congresses. In 1934, dorothy dixer, a member of the Womens International league, led thsh congressional investigation into the munitions industry. The findings of that committee exposed vast corruption andad profit. One of the things which has been most interesting in the Peace Movement is which way should it way of violence to change . Or will it go in the way of nonviolence then . Theres always been, you know, groups who believed in nonviolence or violence. But the really the great poet was india when he preached that india. But when is freedom and they caught the attention of the whole world and when he began with his salt march to the sea up on own, people marching what they considered unjust, tax. And he succeeded. It was really quite electric. So what did he all of the people who were not only peace people were people were interested in economics and in government and in world situations, world history. The example gandhi gave tangible evidence of the of nonviolent resistance. All in all, it was a when the work of pacifists was and the hope for a Peaceful World seemed like dream. The rise of fascism in europe in the 1930s put pacifism to the ultimate test. Many people who had been proponents of absolute nonviolence took, up arms or actively supported others. The fight against fascism throughout, europe, others still their pacifist positions, arguing that although they unequivocally opposed fascism. Violence was not the solution at the outbreak of the war, the United States section of the Womens International league lost its membership equally, it was too pacifist and it was not pacifist enough. Worldwide members were lost because of persecution, exile and death. What women was the other Harriet Scott from the very famous viennese Music Publishing family . A she she was there and she continued. I visited later in in vienna and and she was one of the last to leave vienna after hitler came in, she and a very good friend of hers who was a gentile, a musician, were living together. Her large house and garden. And after hitler came in, she was forced to have her friend leave her. She was very much under attack, but she told me that she was going to stay till the last minute because she symbolized the that somebody grave security they knew. She knew that after she left. It would be perfectly hopeless for them. So she stayed. But said she was going to after she gave up that she was going to live by introducing long hair doctrines and wild strawberries. To do that is the case. She never actual got it. She got as far as england, however, it didnt borders everything. It needed to Steven Hochman was theder of the German Feminist Movement and very closely associated her with was a doctor anita augsburg. One was tall, the other was short fat. So is the collar. But yet . Dr. Augsburg had brought into the woman to become a doctor in germany to break in that you see this was what they were trying to do and they remained together for all the rest of their lives. Ultimately, of course, were on list to be disposed of and they escaped and ended their lives. Switzerland gertrude baer was a kable figure. Her father was a banker in hamburg, but was a strong feminist, used to drive out he mother back door. Try get out the window night or go out at night to a meeting for a feminist. Meeting. And her mother would let her in in the window. She really kept the international alive. She would not did not get to the first congress. But she didnt have to really kept it alive by being carrying it on. And she escaped from germany after hitler came in. She was on the list to be liquidated and she brought they had their last meeting in cologne on the border. She said goodbye and came over into switzerland with a list of them with her. She carried it on all through the war, kept it going at, and she came to the United States to represent us at the and is very large, responsible for the representation out at the un. Emily green branch had been on the faculty at wellesl and had gotten a leave of absence due go with miss adams and work on this and she succeeded adams as the interNational President with boston lost her position at Wellesley College she june ed oo american women who have ever received a nobel peacerize. And nagasaki gave a terrifying new to the concept of war. A whole movement to fight Nuclear Testing and of nuclear the most varied contacts are developing between. The soviet union and america. A delegation of the United States section of the Womens International league for peace and freedom came to moscow for the second soviet american conference. After many fruitful discussion in the United States government focused much of its attention on monitoring the activities of ■l■ Mens International league. When do you become interested in these, which are non local issues . They have to be prepared attacks now they happened differently. If there are organizations that are set up to attack them and unamerican, then they are subject to great representation. Absolutely representation really, because theyre afraid of a the community is afraid that they dont know really what theyre going to do. So everybody was labeled because of the communist movement was the great movement, the great new movement. They were terribly afraid. It they really didnt know what communism were. They didnt know what was going to happen in russia. And there are all sorts of fears developed. So anything they didnt understand was labeled communist. So much show, for example, that when i around i wouldnt wear a red dress or a pink dress even when i was talking, i always took there was some conservative colors. It was very amusing do because it they a law in massachusetts that you couldnt carry a red flag in a parade and they ran right into the fact that the students harvard were not then not allowed to carry their flag whenridiculous limits at any any group or any individual. They didnt conform tstandards. And so you had to be prepared if you came into a movement is andd misinterpreted or worthless always been a target the witch disarmament and past interNational President of the Womens International league. I remember when at one time following a seminar here with soviet we were sending the women around to branches throughout the country and our branch hosted three of them. We had a evening here at our an. Many friends, neighbors and work members came. We had a very good time. They little speeches. We made little speeches, took a lot of pictures and i think everybody felt that it was a ve warm and cordial evening. And following that, i wrote them and i sent them copies of all those pictures. And i was stunned to learn. Years later. That every one of those pictures turned up copied in the fbi files, which on that evening at our home home and i felt i felt very personal violated, that this was an■p intrusion similar the way i felt when we were burglars ized and came home to find all our drawers pulled out and contents strewn about the room and, personal valuables missing and at the same time it was so ludicrous for them to be reporting on whawehad try so han the newspapers you series. Then there goes ghost, then back in oh from deep down. Now us to give you your has to struggle. You all the Civil Rights Movement left a legacy of nonviolence and direct to people around the world. Give me your hands. The oh, give your hand to some the example of black people fighting and resisting became an inspiration. The resurgence of the Womens Movement and for the enormous mass resistance against the vietnam war. My. Know just how these overlapping movements clearly demonstrated the relationship, peace and freedom. Now we■ may use to stretch well, come on, all you big, strong men, uncle to help again. Got in a terrible jam way down yonder in vietnam. Put down your books and pick up the gun. Were going to have a lot of fun. And as one, two, three, what are for . Dont ask me. I dont give a the next stop in vietnam and its seven broken up early. Okay well i time to wonder why. Oh on to die not on general lets move fast your big chance is here last name go out you get those. Reds because the only good copy is one■tt 4uhat with the vietnaa dramatic change took place. The tone of antiwar demonstrations. Although signature campaigns and pe continued, many people were putting their bodies the line to protest the war by saying that. That. What do i do . I had one of the important aspect been its desire to go to the source for information, to go to hotspots in the world and get the correct both on reconciliation and Fact Finding Missions from the of. Jane addams to two governments. But im talking about crossing borders the first undertaken was after the us marines landed nicaragua and haiti. Madame bouzereau went on several to those areas and other areas in the caribbean and reported back and we took action to protest those those intervention days and this has■ gone on through the years many members went to vietnam of course during the vietnam. But■bc we a will delegation that was able to go to both South Vietnam and north vietnam, which rather unusual. And we found ourselves in the position of taking messages from women from South Vietnam to women of north vietnam, and between families and so forth. It was also in laos at that time. One of the outcomes of that was that we worked out, signed, drew up peace treaties with the women between our our countries, women, u. S. Women and South Vietnamese women and us women in north women. And that was a very useful. R. When was not encouraged to go, one could not return by way of mexico city. If one went in by mexico. So three of us made a point of having to fly to madrid and then back to the states and, held a press conference to y, wasnt this ridiculous . We should be traveling and trading and talking with cubans. And later it began hapwe went te coup and while two of us would be talking, the government leaders of three or four would be talking to thee in the publishing unit and getting very specific information. And it was a service soul sharing experience. We met families who had lost members and we found victims coming to us secretly because the City Government had published satirical account of these ladies Walking Around with their notebooks, describing the buckets of blood, so forth. And report the United Nations human rights commission. That and to congressional leaders. And we felt that we were helpful in getting congressional legislation to to stop trade and weapons sales to chile although the banks to do so. Six of us from North Central and south america went to costa rica and nicaragua el salvador and guatemala. We have two focus on the individus all countries that are victimized by us intervention, military. But when we recognize there have been 250 such inter that is interventions by the us in third world countries since 1948 that this has been going on for generations now have to tackle the the overall problem and thats going to take a little longer but were working i didnt. I didnt say much about the human contact, but this is, of course, perhaps the most important aspect of these visits. We we do make personal contact and we do keep in touch and we doinformation and and do provida measure of suppt hope for people who are in such desperate circumstances, people, because of our governments dominant desire, necessity to dominate other countries of the world. No, may have we. Because i know. And probably. Will do great. They know how. We are here from all the states and the uniontions in the world. We represent the greatest cross of the American People and we are here to join in one voice to say no to a nuclear war. And in one voice to say yes to meeting human needs and providing justice for all people in our world. That that okay, whatever. But i dont know. I cant been working for 20 years and ive never never seen catching up with us. Its marvelous i will and im absolutely thrilled to be here today and bring greetings to everybody from new zealand and ive taken photographs and take it back. Yeah we have a kiwi on here and its tremendous excitement be amongst so many people doing this women for peace and so many people on the streets its just wonderful theres. A marvelous i say the earlier was that we took you know we did you show weakness so we said we will bring any more time we can show strength. So here we are what you say . Oh, you marching with women dressed leave for. The. So now without further adieu tonight, i am very excited to welcome dorothy and as