July 22d, 1915.
Miss Jane Addams
Dear Miss Addams: --
I want to say to you that I think your Carnegie Hall address is simply a marvel of beauty and of wisdom. To my mind it is the high water mark of utterance which you have yet achieved. Moreover it is the wisest word which has been spoken since the war began. It is quite extraordinary to have gotten a thing off in such perfect form in a free address.
Now it is a thing to which we must give the widest possible circulation and I am writing to Mr. Kellogg to see about reprints.
Meanwhile, your message is so unusual, so complex and subtle, reporting as it does situations unexampled in history and thus wholly new to the conception of man, that you ought to take every occasion to reiterate the message in every possible form. At present I am finding, as you no doubt are finding, that it is being absolutely interpreted even by many who conceive themselves in close sympathy with you and who certainly are in sympathy with the Peace movement. I hope, therefore, that you will answer misunderstandings and give interviews and perhaps arrange for syndicate articles in any way that you can. You will excuse me, I know, for offering you advice upon such a matter; but you err, as you know, on the side of modesty, and perhaps are failing to [page 2] [realize] that you have a word for the world which is absolutely unique and which is giving articulate expression to the aspiration which is burning unexpressed in so many hundreds of thousands of hearts. We are looking for you to speak for us, dear Miss Addams, to say what we long to say, to tell the blood stained world what it is aching to hear. This, I know, is putting an additional burden on you who already have all you can carry; but you are born to bear other people's burdens and you yourself would not ask to be delivered.
Yours affectionately and faithfully,
Elizabeth G. Evans. [signed]
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