Christina Merriman to Jane Addams, October 13, 1920

Oct. 13, 1920

My dear Miss Addams:

I am sorry to have been so long about acknowledging your note but we have been fairly snowed under since Mr. McDonald left. The letters reached him safely before he sailed. Miss Martin tells me that they were delayed because of some slip in the addressing but finally came through.

I was tremendously interested in Miss Royden's letter which I am re-enclosing. to you. I am sorry that it seems impossible for her to come over this winter; but I am not at all sure that she would not get a more sympathetic hearing if anything in the spring. Mr. McDonald will undoubtedly see her at the conference of the Fight the Famine Council and will talk it over with her. Mr. Gardiner, our treasurer, met her there and was much impressed with her ability and with the importance of getting her to come to America.

I have been wondering whether Mr. McDonald pressed you at all on the matter of getting some sort of financial support in Chicago for our project of getting Lord Robert Cecil, J. M. Keynes, Gilbert Murray and others to come over this winter. I believe he thought that you could possibly get funds through Bishop Anderson, who is one of the committee of invitation and who seemed much interested. We have a terribly respectable group who are backing us in extending the invitation to Lord Robert Cecil. The committee is composed of Bishop Anderson, R. Fulton Cutting, Charles W. Eliot, Raymond B. Fosdick, Robert H. Gardiner, Myron T. Herrick, Thomas W. Lamont, Bishop Lawrence, Samuel Mather, Dwight W. Morrow, George W. Wickersham, Paul D. Cravath. As you see, there are names of three or four men who have been outspoken against the present Covenant, notably Mr. Herrick and Mr. Cutting. Mr. Otto H. Kahn said that he could not conscientiously come on the committee as he had taken a public stand against the Covenant; but he believed that Lord Robert Cecil's visit would do so much towards bringing about better Anglo-American relations that he would like to back us financially to the extent of $500.

I was very much disappointed at not seeing you when you were here last month. It was impossible to go down to [page 2] the Brevoort that afternoon. Possibly later on I may be in Chicago to talk over with Graham ↑R.↓ Taylor the question of his working with us as soon as his report is completed.

We are having a luncheon Saturday on "Peace or War with Russia?" at which the Administration's policy will be thoroughly thrashed out. Norman Hapgood, Allen Wardwell and Lincoln Steffens are to speak; and on the other side, Lt. Brasol, an ex-Russian army officer, and Commander John Gade, who was the State Department's commissioner to the Baltic states and who actually drafted the Colby Note of August 10. It promises to be an extremely interesting discussion and I wish that you could be here. Paul D. Cravath is to be chairman.

Sincerely yours,

Christina Merriman [signed]

Executive Secretary