THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TWEEDLE-DUM AND TWEEDLE-DEE
Chicago, April 07. -- I see by this morning's issues of THE TRIBUNE that you have courteously printed a communication from my friend, Mrs. Gifford Pinchot. I am therefore emboldened to ask that you give space to correct the same misstatement in relation to the Women's International League, which you corrected in regard to Mrs. Pinchot.
The simplest form of that correction would be a reprint of the following letter: which I have just written to the president of the Chicago branch for the information of the Chicago membership:
"I am very happy to reply to your request for a statement in regard to any 'oath' taken by our Women's International league. The subject of a pledge against action in time of war was brought up at the international congress held in Vienna in June, 1921, and was fully discussed from the floor. The motion was lost, partly because many of our members are Quakers who refuse to take a pledge of any sort, and partly because of wide divergence of opinion. It was then felt that a clearer and shorter statement of our principles was needed, and a committee was at once appointed whose report was officially adopted by the congress.
"Objects of the league -- The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom aims at binding together women in every country who oppose all war and who desire to promote the following objects:
"1. The creation of international relations of mutual cooperation and good will in which all wars shall be impossible.
"2. The establishment of political, social, and moral equality between men and women.
"3. The introduction of these principles into all systems of education.
"The matters of an anti-war pledge also came up before the section of the U.S.A. in Washington at an annual meeting in April, 1922. The motion was again defeated and the object was reaffirmed as follows:
"The object of the section for the United States is to promote that peace between nations, races, and classes which is based on justice and good will, to outlaw war, to substitute law for war, and to cooperate with women from other countries who are working for the same ends. The membership consists of all women who support the object and pay the prescribed dues."
"There is therefore no possible basis for the assertion that the members of the Women's International league are committed to an oath or pledge of any sort. Several communications making this statement of fact, to my personal knowledge, have been sent to THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, but unfortunately none of them have been published.
"JANE ADDAMS."
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