Rosika Schwimmer to Jane Addams, April 4, 1915

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WOMAN'S PEACE PARTY
NATIONAL OFFICE
ROOM 500, 116 S. MICHIGAN AVE.
CHICAGO

1915 Apr. 4.

My dear Miss Addams,

Thank you for your kind letters and the telegram. But I find after all it is better when I resign definitively. I beg you therefore to accept my resignation as my unalterable decision.

I enclose an article on Russian atrocities in Germany and wish to draw your attention to the N.Y. Times publication about the German atrocities in Belgium. If you see these things you will [realize] why I, who always knew of them -- syphilis for five generations to come, etc. -- cannot serve in a team with Mrs. Post, who looks to what President Wilson wants her to do, and with Mrs. Mead who does not want to trespass over the line between old peace theories and the imperative demands of this crisis in human history. [page 2]

Please do read the enclosed article!

Now, that I have definitively made up my mind to resign, I wish also to tell you, that in my mind it is a great mistake to make the distinction between women of bell. and neutral countries.

The I.W.S. Alliance kept its headquarters in a belligerent country, kept the editor of its paper belonging to a belligerent country. We ought not to feel any difference if we are convinced of our [mutual] bonafide.

I did not make this remark as long as I held the office, but now, having definitively resigned, I feel obliged to put this as an impersonal matter before you.

I will of course gladly cooperate internationally as I have done in your national work, but as an independent [page 3] worker in the common cause.

Denmark wrote also in very encouraging way about cooperation with the American party.

Looking forward to meet you again in The Hague,

very cordially yours,

Rosika Schwimmer