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“Some of Us Who Deal with the Social Fabric”: Jane Addams Blends Peace and Social Justice, 1907–1919

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2010

Kathryn Kish Sklar
Kathryn Kish Sklar
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Binghamton
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Abstract

Have you ever wondered about the origin of the phrase: “If you want peace, work for justice?” I recently saw it on a bumper sticker that attributed the slogan to Pope Paul VI, and if you go to the Vatican sites for his annual peace messages between 1967 and 1969, you will find the general sentiment there. But the origin of the idea that peace requires social justice – not just the absence of warfare – is much older. In the twentieth century United States this idea originated in Jane Addams' book, Newer Ideals of Peace, published in 1907.

Type
Essays
Information
The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , January 2003 , pp. 80 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 2003

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References

1 The author gratefully acknowledges the help of those who contributed their expertise to this article. Victoria Brown provided crucial assistance with Jane Addams' correspondence in 1914. Conversations with Harriet Alonso clarified the history of women's peace movements. This paper was presented at a conference on Jane Addams at Swarthmore College in February, 2002, organized by Carol Nackenoff and Wendy Chmielewski, where I benefitted from their comments and those of other colleagues, including Mary Lynn McCree Bryan and Sandi Cooper.

Addams, Jane, Newer Ideals of Peace (New York, 1907)Google Scholar is available online at “The Mead Project” http://spartan.ac.brochu.ca/∼lward/Addams/_1907_toc.htm

2 For the older male-dominated peace movement in the United States, see Marchand, Roland C., The American Peace Movement and Social Reform, 1898–1918 (Princeton, 1972).Google Scholar

3 Addams', earlier writings include “Democracy or Militarism,” in Central Anti-Imperialist League of Chicago, Liberty Tract I (1899): 35–39Google Scholar; “What Peace Means,” Unity XLIII (May 4, 1899): 178; “What is the Greatest Menace to Twentieth Century Progress?” Sunset Club [of Chicago] Yearbook ( 1899/1901 ): 338–41; “Newer Ideals of Peace,” Chautauqua Assembly Herald XXVII (July 9, 1902): 2 and XXVII (July 10, 1902): 6; “Count Tolstoy,” ibid. XXVII (July 11, 1902): 5; “Tolstoy's Theory of Life,” ibid. XXVII (July 14, 1902): 2–3; “The Responsibilities and Duties of Women toward the Peace Movement,” in Universal Peace Congress, Official Report XIII (1904): 120–22Google Scholar; “The Interests of Labor in International Peace,” ibid.: 145–47.

4 Florence Kelley to Jane Addams, Augusta, Maine, January 23, 1907, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Jane Addams Papers, Series 1.

5 William James to Jane Addams, Cambridge, Mass., February 12, 1907, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Addams Papers, Series 1.

6 The most extensive treatment of the book is in Davis, Allen F., American Heroine: The Life and liegend of Jane Addams (New York, 1973), 135–46.Google Scholar

7 Mead, George Herbert, “Review of The Newer Ideas of Peace by Jane Addams,” American Journal of Sociology 13 (1907): 121–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For this and other writings by Mead, see “The Mead Project” at http://spartan.ac.brocku.ca

8 Quoted in Davis, , American Heroine, 148Google Scholar from an uncited review.

9 “‘Newer Ideals of Peace’: Jane Addams of Hull House,” The Daily Inter Ocean, February 9, 1907, 10.

10 See Alonso, Harriet Hyman, Peace as a Women's Issue: A History of the U.S. Movement for World Peace and Women's Rights (Syracuse, 1993).Google Scholar

11 Chamberlain, Mary, “The Women at the Hague,” Survey (June 5, 1915): 219.Google Scholar Reprinted in Sklar, Kathryn Kish, Schuler, Anja and Strasser, Susan, eds., Social Justice Feminism in the United States and Germany: A Dialogue in Documents, 1885–1933 (Ithaca, 1998), 203–12.Google Scholar

12 “Resolutions adopted by The International Congress of Women, The Hague, Holland, April 28, 29, 30, 1915,” in Addams, Jane, Balch, Emily Greene, and Hamilton, Alice, eds., Women at The Hague: The International Congress of Women and Its Results (New York, 1915), 150ff.Google Scholar Reprinted in Sklar, , et al, Social Justice Feminism, 213–17.Google Scholar The resolutions are also online at “Women and Social Movements in the U.S., 1775–2000: How Did Women Peace Envoys Promote Peace by Touring European Capitals in 1915?” http://womhist.binghamton.edu/hague/doc1.htm

13 Report of the International Congress of Women, Zurich, May 12 to 17, 1919 (Geneva: Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, [1919]), 243–46. Descriptions of the Zurich conference can be found in Sklar, , et al, Social Justice Feminism, 229–42.Google Scholar

14 For an enumeration of delegates at The Hague, see Sklar, , et al, Social Justice Feminism, 206–10.Google Scholar For Addams' prestige in Germany, see ibid., 168–79.

15 Alonso, , Peace as a Women's Issue, 50–53.Google Scholar

16 Carrie Chapman Catt to Jane Addams, New York City, December 16, 1914, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, WILPF Papers, Woman's Peace Party, Correspondence.

17 Jane Addams to Carrie Chapman Catt, Chicago, December 21, 1914, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, WILPF Papers, Woman's Peace Party, Correspondence.

18 Catt to Addams, December 16, 1914.

19 Addams to Catt, December 21, 1914. Addams also mentioned new groups in the following cities: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Nashville, and St. Paul.

20 See “‘Roll of Charter Members’ at the Organizational Conference,” January 10–11, 1915, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, WILPF Papers, Woman's Peace Party, microfilm reel 12, frame 17.

21 Jane Addams to Desha Breckinridge, Chicago, November 30, 1914, Library of Congress, Madeline McDowell Breckinridge Papers.

22 Lillian Wald to Emily Greene Balch, New York City, September 22, 1914, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Emily Greene Balch Papers.

23 Marchand, , The American Peace Movement, 231–58Google Scholar

24 Lillian Wald to Jane Addams, New York City, December 17, 1914, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, WILPF Papers, Woman's Peace Party, Correspondence.

25 Lillian Wald to Jane Addams, New York City, December 24, 1914, New York Public Library, Lillian D. Wald Papers, Outgoing Letters.

26 Jane Addams to Lillian Wald, Chicago, December 27, 1914, New York Public Library, Lillian D. Wald Papers, Incoming Letters. Lillian Wald had joined the women's peace movement by 1919 and attended the Zurich conference.

27 Jane Addams to Lucia Ames Mead, two letters, both Chicago, December 28,1914, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, WILPF Papers, Woman's Peace Party, Correspondence.

28 Carrie Chapman Catt to Jane Addams, New York City, December 29, 1914, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, WTLPF Papers, Woman's Peace Party, Correspondence.

29 “‘Roll of Charter Members.’ The Woman's Peace Party,” January 10, 1915, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, WILPF Papers, Woman's Peace Party. Among other resolutions, the meeting called for equal citizenship for women, legislative control of foreign policy, and the nationalization of the manufacturing of arms.

30 Jane Addams to Emily Greene Balch, Chicago, March 26, 1915, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Emily Greene Balch Papers.

31 Ibid.

32 For a photo of the American delegation to The Hague, see Sklar, , et al, Social Justice Feminists, 182.Google Scholar

33 “Journal of Miss Emily Greene Balch, Trip to The Hague,” 1915, Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Emily Greene Balch Papers, Box 19, folder 3.

34 “Journal of Miss Emily Greene Balch, Trip to The Hague.”

35 Alice Hamilton to Mary Smith, [on board the S. S. Noordam], April 22, [1915], printed in Sicherman, Barbara, Alice Hamilton: A Life in Letters (Cambridge, MA, 1984), 185–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36 “Journal of Miss Emily Greene Balch, Trip to The Hague.”