February 21, 1918.
My dear Miss Balch:
I am asking the other four members of the Permanent Committee to sign this letter with me. Will you not, therefore, please make suggestions? I think it might be well to find out more definitely whether people's convictions have changed. It is hard, however, to make a creedal test but perhaps something could be done with that first question to make it clear that we want to know where people stand.
The Permanent Committee of Five has authority to select delegates although, as you will remember, we more or less delegated [it to] the Executive Board of The Woman's Peace Party. I think, however, we might assume our power in filling vacancies. Mrs. Blankenburg has said several times that she is sure she will not be able to go to the Congress-After-the-War because of her husband's ill health, and Mrs. Charlotte Perkins Gilman has also written that she does not know, with her present attitude towards the war, whether she would still be qualified to go. Mrs. Hull, whose husband expects to attend the Official Peace Conference, would like to go with him, and I wish she could be made a delegate, perhaps in place of Mrs. Blankenburg.
I should like very much to add Crystal Eastman who, I am quite sure, would like to be a delegate, and perhaps, with Mrs. Williams and Miss Burritt already on the list, it would be only fair, in the light of recent events, to add her name. Will you kindly send to the office as soon as you can your opinion in regard to these last two suggestions?
I am sorry to postpone the meeting of the delegates until June, but my doctor is quite stern in regard to the month of March in California. We could probably have a meeting of the Board of The Woman's Peace Party at the same time.
Always affectionately yours,
Jane Addams [signed]
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