Catt, Carrie Chapman General Correspondence Blackwell, Alice Stone 1939-43 [nothing to transcribe] Carrie Chapman Catt 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle New York September 20, 1939. Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Mass. Dear Alice Stone Blackwell: Twice a year you get payments from me on the annuity. The payments are made quarterly and you get two and I get two. This is the time for your second payment this year and here it is, - a check for $36.74. I received your letter about the synthetic book. I agree to all that you say and I think Mrs. Park will too. She has been voted the editor-in-chief. She is coming to New York in November to look after it. Some time, when you have nothing better to do, I wish you would tell me whether you ever knew about Frances Wright. Something of a sensational book about her has been issued. I have not read it, but I have read the reviews and they are not complimentary. I think the pioneer suffragists who lived through the battle were very devoted friends to the business of hiding ugly secrets. Frances Wright died before you and I were born and now there is no one to defend her. I never heard that she was a "free lover", but I do know very well that most of the suffragists of that day were accused not only of the belief in it, but also the practise in it. Blessings on you! Lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt CCC:HW. WOMAN'S CENTENNIAL CONGRESS 1840-1940 CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT Chairman 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle New York HEADQUARTERS 1624 Grand Central Terminal Bldg. 70 East 45th Street New York City Telephone: MUrray Hill 6-8273 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Josephine Schain, Chairman Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, Secretary Mrs. Fred S. Bennett, Treasurer Henrietta Roelofs, Program Mrs. Albin Johnson, Arrangements Alda H. Wilson, Budget Mary W. Hilyer, Executive Secretary Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Mass. May 14, 1940 Dear Alice Blackwell: The National American Woman Suffrage Association is completing a little book on how the vote was won for women in the United States. That is not its name and it is nameless at present. Seven women have written chapters. It was Mrs. Park's idea and she has written two chapters. When all the chapters were ready, the Book Committee arose, as one woman, and demanded pictures for it. They decided that these were to be Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone, and Miss Anthony. These were the pioneers who lived when things were interesting and persecutions numerous. When all the exciting over and there was not much left to do but the solid drudgery, Miss Shaw and I fell into the presidency and you fell into the editor's chair. A little biography of each one of these six women will be mentioned, limited to three hundred words each. That is very little. We want each person who writes the biography to state when and where the heroine was born and when she died. The rest may be outstanding things that were done by her during her life. Maud Wood Park says you must be made to write your mother's biography in three hundred words. Nobody expects that you will sit down and write it, but it will not be long and you could dictate it and thus get it done. We are asking Mrs. Blatch to write Mrs. Stanton's biography; Mrs. Emma B. Sweet to write Miss Anthony's; Anna Lord Strauss, a great-granddaughter of Lucretia Mott to write Mrs. Mott's, and you to write Lucy Stone's. Please do not fail us. I hope you are well. This is not a happy world we are living in just now. Lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt CCC:HW. NOVEMBER 25-26-27, 1940 HOTEL COMMODORE NEW YORK CITY WOMAN'S CENTENNIAL CONGRESS 1840-1940 CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT Chairman 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle New York HEADQUARTERS 1624 Grand Central Terminal Bldg. 70 East 45th Street New York City Telephone: MUrray Hill 6-8273 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Josephine Schain, Chairman Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, Secretary Mrs. Fred S. Bennett, Treasurer Henrietta Roelofs, Program Mrs. Albin Johnson, Arrangements Alda H. Wilson, Budget Mary W. Hilyer, Executive Secretary June 14, 1940 Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Mass. My dear Alice: I am very grateful to you for the picture of your mother which you sent. I think, however, we have one exactly like it which we were going to use. It is in the possession of Mrs. Halsey W. Wilson, of the National American Woman Suffrage Association Board, who, at this time, is substituting as Chairman of the Book Committee for Mrs. Park. I have, however, notified her of this new photograph and when we meet, we will compare the pictures and this one will be returned to you in time. I like it very much. We have young pictures of Miss Anthony and Mrs. Stanton also. I trust you are doing well. Mrs. Barkley, of Nebraska, who was the State Suffrage President there for some years, was taken with an eye affliction of some sort and others wrote me that she had got to the stage where she could no longer be called upon to do any responsible work. Imagine my surprise when some one told me that she had recovered, in part, the use of her eyes and I wrote her. The result is that she has taken the financial chairmanship for Nebraska for our Congress and she has told me that in California she has found a woman who has given her some kind of treatment for her eyes. She can now read coarse print and is so very much more comfortable than she ever expected to be that she will try to send me a book which tells of this treatment. The book has not yet appeared and, consequently, I do not know what it is all about, but if I get hold of anything definite, I shall certainly let you know instanter. I do not think you should get your hope too high, but any kind of hope is better than none. Lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt NOVEMBER 25-26-27 1940 HOTEL COMMODORE NEW YORK CITY CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 120 PAINE AVENUE NEW ROCHELLE NEW YORK August 1, 1941 Dear Alice: I thank you most sincerely for your letter and also for the book. I think you sent me a book like that, but if you did, it went to Washington with the Feminist Library; however, I am glad it is there for that is the place where people must turn to find the big stories of the woman movement. It is astonishing how little the girls of this time know. Some people were rather shocked at one write-up recently. They were having a radio display of women's work in the world. It was not much of an affair, but the papers published a few articles about it and one of them told a story, mostly untrue, about Susan B. Anthony and then told about her son, gave his name and his occupation! That was a bit shocking! I have corrected my little article about Elizabeth Blackwell and am sending it in again. She was a wonderful woman. There is very little I can do to assist them in the work of rebuilding the Infirmary, but the plain, unadulterated truth is that the men doctors no more want it re-built now than they wanted it built in the first place. If we get sick enough, we all want to send for a doctor and get his views about the case, but the truth is that most men doctors are jealous of women doctors, because they think they would have more patients if there were no women doctors, It is the same situation between the C.I.O. and the American Federation of Labor. The human race has a long way to go before any discriminating person would call it civilized. I note what you say about Laura Clay. Her father had a curious mind, so everyone said, and Laura had her queer points too. You will remember that we all served on the Board together for many, many years. I liked Laura Clay; I stayed at her home and talked with her at length many times and I never heard her say one word in opposition to the Federal Amendment until it was through both houses of Congress and depended only upon ratification. Then she came out against it and I could never quite forgive her for coming to Tennessee, the thirty-sixth state, and doing her best to work against ratification. I did not speak with her there; I did not turn aside from her, but I simply avoided her. I have written her since, when I got calmed down enough to do so and she wrote me a pleasant letter in reply, but just what ailed her at that moment was not quite sanity. She spent her last years playing the card game of "Bridge",so her neighbors tell me. She pretty largely lost her eyesight and was old and feeble like the rest of us. I have never seen a game of "Bridge" played through and I am not at all interested in it. I think I shall be looking through old papers and burning up refuse as long as I may live. Several boxes of papers were sent here when we closed the headquarters and are now in my attic awaiting my attention now; however, it is interesting to look through them if I only had the time to do it. I am repeatedly reminded of things I had forgotten. Lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 120 PAINE AVENUE NEW ROCHELLE NEW YORK September 25, 1941 Dear Alice Blackwell: As you know, I send you two payments a year and keep two on the joint annuity we have. You received one payment in March of this year and here is the second. I hope you are well and have had a very pleasant summer. Lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 120 PAINE AVENUE NEW ROCHELLE NEW YORK September 30, 1941 Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Mass. My dear Alice Blackwell: I have received your long letter and my heart aches for you for after the long and useful life you have lived, you deserve rest, quiet and contentment now. There is something wrong in the arrangements that you should be driven to worry about your situation. It was the intention of all of us who helped about the fund that you should be relieved of responsibility and care. I have sent a copy of your letter to Mrs. Raymond Brown, the Chairman of New York, Mrs. Park, and Mrs. Stantial, and I have asked each one for suggestions. In the meantime, I write you to ask a few questions. It is possible that you think you have had misfortune in not being able to sell the property you have at the prices you may have set. Perhaps it is possible that you have not realized that the bottom has dropped out of real estate from ocean to ocean. For example, I am paying in taxes here, in New Rochelle, on my home of one acre more than 200% more than my predecessor paid. At the same time, I could not sell this place at all probably. but if I could, I think I could not get more than one-tenth the actual cash I have put into it and that is about the rate things have been going all over the country. I had a certificated mortgage on a small piece of property in New York the tax appraisal of which was $14,000. but it has now been sold for less than half that value and a large part of the purchase price had to be taken in a mortgage which is always uncertain. I think you should not have any real estate on your hands. It should be disposed of for whatever you can get and that money should go into your fund. It may be that you have thought that about it but thought you could get larger sums than could possibly be realized now. It would not be just that your friends should pay the taxes on property you did not sell because they probably are all bound up in the same problems themselves. Is it possible for you to live in Martha's Vineyard or if not, could you not give up the house there and let it be sold? I think that property might sell, but not at the value previously set upon it. You would be relieved of much care and responsibility and you would sleep better nights if you did not have that responsibility. I am also wondering if you could not dispose now of the chief portion of your library rather than to have it near you. I, too, learned in my youth to love books and it was with considerable distress that I finally decided to do some of the work in my own lifetime which others would have to do when I go, so - 2 - I sent a library of one thousand books to my college. These were on the subject of war and peace. I have also taken all my library on feminism and added to it from friends of the cause, including some very valuable books which you gave me for the purpose. These have gone to the Library of Congress and are there as a gift of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. That gift also contained about one thousand volumes. At this moment, I am engaged in taking from my library some other books and disposing of them here and there as best I can where I think they will do the most good. I find myself reconciled to the departure of these books and my home is much more comfortable because they have been moved out. At this moment, I am also engaged in the task of going over papers which represent the tail-end of the National American Woman Suffrage headquarters and, before long, I am expecting to have a grand bonfire of all the speeches I have ever made. Somebody has to do these things after we are gone and that time is not very far away for you and me, so, not knowing just how you live and never having seen your present quarters, it seems to me that you might reduce your responsibility by getting rid of some things you have within it. Will you tell me how many pieces of real estate you have and where they are and whether you have a fixed price that you are inclined to depend upon? Would you be willing to put the real estate in the hands of reliable agents, if such there are in Boston, and sell for whatever you can get? What amount of taxes do you have to pay and from what source do you get the money with which to pay them. It seems to me that your extra expense on account of your eyes and having someone read to you, both of which are essential, may not have so much increased your living expenses as the care of this real estate which brings in nothing and causes outlays for upkeep and taxes. If we could remove that expense from your liabilities, perhaps the assets would more nearly cover your needs. I should like to have this settled before undertaking to raise any more money. I am not able to undertake any big job, because I am very far from well and now very rarely go out. Let me hear from you soon. Lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle New York October 20, 1941 Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. My dear Alice: Mrs. Stantial has been here and we have had a long and exhaustive conversation over you and your affairs. I have also heard from Mrs. Park and from Mrs. Brown who was Chairman of the New York Committee which raised what we call the Blackwell Fund. Although none of them have seen this letter, I believe that all of us are agreed about its contents; - that you should not be troubled or worried over the details of your numerous property problems and if you will accept certain suggesstions, we believe that the burden may be lifted from your shoulders. 1st We advise that you pay the pending tax due on November 1st from your checking account. That will leave the two Savings Bank accounts intact and also several hundred dollars in the checking account for you to go on. 2nd We suggest a change in the manner of keeping your accounts. We have plucked out of the statements Mrs. Stantial made at your house all the items derived from your personal property or interests including the commission to you lawyer and have put them in a statement as follows: - Alice Stone Blackwell 1940 RECEIPTS Real Estate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,564.65 Mortgages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255.45 Royalties. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.35 Union Pacific Dividend. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00 Miscellaneous. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.00 Interest on Savings Bank Accounts. . . . .$13.79 . . . . .21.88 35.67 Morgan Memorial (life use). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700.00 INCOME EXCLUSIVE OF BLACKWELL FUND. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $4,601.12 EXPENSES Real Estate (according to report() . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,050.44 Fee to Lawyer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266.66 EXPENSES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,317.10 NET GAIN ON PERSONAL PROPERTY EXCLUSIVE OF BLACKWELL FUND. . . . . .$1,284.02 Miss Blackwell. . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2 You will observe that your personal property pays its own expense and leaves a balance of $1,284.02 The annual receipts from the Blackwell Fund are $2,085.23 as follows: - RECEIPTS From Blackwell Fund Annuities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,579.72 Sewall Fund. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.00 Eliza Church Fund. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00 Interest on Savings Bank account (Melrose Savings Bank) 55.51 RECEIPTS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$2,085.23 NET PROFIT FROM PERSONAL PROPERTY. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,284.02 TOTAL INCOME AVAILABLE FOR PERSONAL EXPENSES. $3,369.25 From the figures Mrs. Stantial sent me, as representing your personal budget for the past year, we learned that the total was $3,654.64 but Mrs. Stantial has had talks with you and Mrs. Boyer and had learned that you had a cut in rent, that the storage charges were to be omitted, papers and magazines reduced, etc., so that the budget in the future would be $3,302.84. When this amount is subtracted from your receipts of $3,369.25, a balance of $66.41 in your favor is reached. The above expense account does not include two item which Mrs. Stantial took from your records when she was at your home. These were: - Gifts to organizations and individuals, and dues. . . . . . . . $1,025.23 Loans to Others. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 $1,040.23 We do not understand the meaning of these items, but it is clear that you must not lend money or give money to others when any part of it has been contributed to you for your personal use by those who think you are needy. You can make your income cover your necessities only by careful management, but you can do no more. For example, I have had several appeals for small loans from suffragists in trouble and I have made the loans, but not one has been repaid. I could easily keep that up to the point where I, myself, would have to go on relief. If anyone is to go on relief, let those who ask for contributions or loans go and not you. We beg you will separate your own personal affairs (that is, all that has been derived from your father's estate) from the fund that was raised for your needs. That is not difficult to do and the bookkeeping will be easier rather than more difficult and we beg you further, in this connection, to separate your bank accounts into a checking account and another which shall include your real estate. Into this real estate account you should put all receipts from real estate and all Miss Blackwell. . . . . . . . . . .Page 3 expenses in connection with it such as taxes, repairs, etc., and your lawyers commission should come out of that account. Into the checking account should go all that you receive from the Blackwell Fund together with any other sums which come to you from any source other than real estate. I personally begin on January 1st to save money with which to pay my taxes when due and to do this, I have had to avoid indulgence in gifts and other things for which I would rather spend money than pay it in taxes. I recommend the same method to you. I told Mrs. Stantial that I was amazed at the small sum set down as paid for doctors and drugs, because my bill is so very large. She explained that such obligations had doubtless been paid from the cash paid over to the housekeeper or others for handling. I suggest, therefore, that you pay your doctor and your drugstore bills, and any other items that are periodical, by check. That is a way of keeping books that is excellent and you will then know exactly how much you spend for different things and if there is an error made, it can be found. We believe that if you will follow these instructions, your present income will pay the cost of your living and leave your reserves, the emergency fund, and your two bank accounts to draw upon in case of necessity. The margin is close and it allows no surplus for gifts or loans to others. That, you must cut out. Those who ask you for either a loan or a gift may be "hard put", but when you loan money, you are yourself in distress and have called upon us to provide more money. It virtually means that we, who are also called upon for loans and gifts continually, are asked to supply something so that you may give. I think you will see that in the way we see it. 3rd This is a more painful theme. I asked Mrs. Stantial about the Gulesian situation. I have a letter from you, dated April 15, 1935 in which you told me some of the details of the manner in which he had made way with your cousin's $20,000.00 and pretty much all you possessed. It was because of his dishonesty that we came to your rescue; therefore, I asked what prospects there were of recovery. Mrs. Stantial reminded me of his note for $5,000.00 given to you for a loan of money to pay his taxes. You had mentioned that note in your letter. Mrs. Stantial tells me that when that note had run five years and was due, your lawyer had the note renewed with the five years of unpaid interest added. Now this note will soon be again due and no interest has been paid. Mrs. Stantial, when asked, said that this pair of Gulesians live in a good house, keep a car, dress well, and the lady wears diamonds. He may have put everything in his wife's name. Never- theless, the time has now come when something should be done about it. No one but you can do it. If you let this moment pass because it is easier to lose $5,000.00 than to do a disagreeable thing, do not expect the rest of us to forget it. What can you do? You can sue if the man has anything in his own name and he should be skinned! He is a criminal who is an expert at cheating. If your Mr. Davis cannot do it or is too unwilling to do that is necessary to make the effort successful, get some one else. If anything is Miss Blackwell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page 4 secured, it is a gain; if Mr. Gulesian finds himself in jail as a result, it is where he belongs and, as a good citizen, you have no right to shield him. The truth is that little money could be raised for you, no matter what your necessities while all people are scared over their own imaginary future prospects. Put your sympathies behind you and eliminate the word "can't". That man should be made to pay. 4th We recommend that the real estate be disposed of, but with care. You and I are old ladies, Alice. I will soon be as blind as are you and I can tell you that when an old lady has no spirited son or daughter to take over her obligations, a gang will be after her, composed of all kinds of folks, who will cheat her to their own advantage if they are clever enough. I've just gone through such an experience, so I know. Mrs. Stantial tells me that one dishonest offer was made you for land which would rob the remainder of much of its value. I suggest that you make a statement containing correct surveys of all the land you possess and get a lively real estate company in Boston to take it on altogether. They will advertise it and can sell it when your little folks at Chilmark cannot. You could then put whatever you get into a savings bank. Your best property is the garage, but I would advise that you take out the biggest mortgage on it that you can get, invest the proceeds in an annuity, and offer the garage for sale. Such things sell better with a mortgage. If these things could be accomplished, you would have no more taxes or burdens, and you might enjoy peace and quiet. Remember that all this impertinent comment on your affairs arose from your letter, saying you were in financial distress and asking if we, in New York, could raise more money to help you out, but as you gave me no hint as to the amount needed, I had to inquire. The answer to your question is that your income can meet your needs if gifts and loans are cut out and your property is better managed. I believe your chief difficulty is that you have no young person in your family who can do the necessary but disagreeable things for you. I wish that a small group of women, say three, as clever as Mrs. Stantial and as fond of you as she is, could take over all these problems and handle them for you instead of a lawyer who probably is slow and old-fashioned. Such women would be worth a dozen lawyers. This letter sounds curt and unfriendly, but, dear Alice, we only want to guarantee your security and to relieve you of continually recurring problems. As a matter of fact, we would gladly go out and set up another campaign to raise money for your benefit if this was easy of accomplishment. In truth, every human being is plagued at this moment with the many appeals which come to help the starving men and women and children in almost all the countries of the world and to keep up our own charities at home. Miss Blackwell.................Page 5 We are all sensitive in the region of the pocketbook these days, because the cost of living is higher, taxes have enormously increased and incomes have decreased. I am therefore glad you have something which will make you comfortable if it is properly managed. Very lovingly yours, Carrie Chapman Catt CCC:HW. Miss Blackwell............................Page 4 secured, it is a gain; if Mr. Gulesian finds himself in jail as a result, it is where he belongs and, as a good citizen, you have no right to shield him. The truth is that little money could be raised for you, no matter what your necessities while all people are scared over their own imaginary future prospects. Put your sympathies behind you and eliminate the word "can't". That man should be made to pay. 4th We recommend that the real estate be disposed of, but with care. You and I are old ladies, Alice. I will soon be as blind as are you and I can tell you that when an old lady has no spirited son or daughter to take over her obligations, a gang will be after her, composed of all kinds of folks, who will cheat her to their own advantage if they are clever enough. I've just gone through such an experience, so I know. Mrs. Stantial tells me that one dishonest offer was made you for land which would rob the remainder of much of its value. I suggest that you make a statement containing correct surveys of all the land you possess and get a lively real estate company in Boston to take it on altogether. They will advertise it and can sell it when your little folks at Chilmark cannot. You could then put whatever you get into a savings bank. Your best property is the garage, but I would advise that you take out the biggest mortgage on it that you can get, invest the proceeds in an annuity, and offer the garage for sale. Such things sell better with a mortgage. If these things could be accomplished, you would have no more taxes or burdens, and you might enjoy peace and quiet. Remember that all this impertinent comment on your affairs arose from your letter, saying you were in financial distress and asking if we, in New York, could raise more money to help you out, but as you gave me no hint as the amount needed, I had to inquire. The answer to your question is that your income can meet your needs if gifts and loans are out out and your property is better managed. I believe your chief difficulty is that you have no young person in your family who can do the necessary but disagreeable things for you. I wish that a small group of women, say three, as clever as Mrs. Stantial and as fond of you as she is, could take over all these problems and handle them for you instead of a lawyer who probably is slow and old-fashioned. Such women would be worth a dozen lawyers. This letter sounds curt and unfriendly, but, dear Alice, we only want to guarantee your security and to relieve you of continually recurring problems. As a matter of fact, we would gladly do out and set up another campaign to raise money for your benefit if this was easy of accomplishment. In truth, every human being is plagued at this moment with the many appeals which come to help the starving men and women and children in almost all the countries of the world and to keep up our own charities at home. Carrie Chapman Catt 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle New York October 28,1941 Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Mass. Dear Alice: When Mrs. Stantial was here, I reminded her that there was nothing in your budget for clothes. There are usually three articles that constitute a budget; - rent, food, and clothes, but you had no clothes in your budget, so I asked about them and she said that you insisted that you did not need clothes, that what you had were good enough and would last awhile. I do not believe that. I think you would like to have a new dress, but think you must not ask for it and you were never very "clothes proud"; nevertheless, by this time you must have discovered that there is such a thing as comfortable clothes. I think some one should take you on a shopping tour. You would know how a dress felt that you tried on and the person with you would be able to tell you how it looked. I think you would be one little bit happier if you had a new dress, so I am sending you a check for $100. which can only be used or one thing and that is. - clothes for Alice. You ought to be able to buy yourself a nice, comfortable dress and something more. Very lovingly yours, Carrie Chapman Catt CCC:HW. Carrie Chapman Catt 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle New York November 6, 1941 Dear Alice: How true it is that more comfortable clothes hang in one's closet than on one's back and that pockets are the best investment one can make in clothes. I have invented a petticoat, or slip, which I regard as my greatest achievement. The top is cut like a loose slip, going over my shoulders. It is very comfortable and is made of silk that feels good to the skin and is of sufficiently good quality to last. Below the waist, a straight piece of good, thick, warm flannel is sewed with a good hem which will not unravel. The whole thing slips over the head with no fastening and on either side of the petticoat is a pocket for money. All I have, I carry there, and when the pocket gets empty, I have to look for more to put into it. I hand my pattern on to you and if you have not such a device, you should get one. You should have a pair so that they may be washed. Another invention of mine was to buy a "Coat Jersey" at a men's store. While the colors are usually dark, they have some in blue and green that are feminine looking. They are made in Scotland and are very thick and warm. That is something you might invest in, if you have not already done so. Women's sweaters are too fancy for comfort. At any rate, you can find something to make you a little more cozy. I got a letter from Mr. Blood in which he stated something to the effect that he did not think it possible to do anything for Mr. Gulesian. I sent the letter to Mrs. Stantial, because she thought something could be done. I think the only comfort for you is to try hard to get rid of real estate, if you can, and if you cannot, stop paying taxes on the unimproved property which brings nothing back to you in return. Here is a piece of news which is pending and not completed, but in which you will take an interest. The three women most interested in the New York woman suffrage campaign, who moved in circles of greatest wealth and who, themselves, were supposed to be wealthy, namely Mrs. Whitehouse, Mrs. Reid of the Herald- Tribune, and Mrs. Vanderlip, are all interested in the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. They have raised some money in pledges for rebuilding, but, in comparison with the vast sums needed, it is very little, and I have just had a letter from Mrs. Whitehouse, begging for my advice and help as they do not know what to do. The building in which the Infirmary has continued is, apparently, so much out of repair as not to be a suitable and safe place for a hospital. If looks to me as though the Infirmary would have to come to an end. We have enormous sized hospitals of the very latest plan in New York and these have been built -2- at great cost to which, of course, men of wealth have largely contributed. They do not like to contribute to women's affairs and women do not have money enough to supply the needs of such things. I am afraid the enterprise began too late and I am very sorry. This is not a final report by any means, but it is the way it looks to me now. Lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Mass. Carrie Chapman Catt 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle New York March 18, 1942 Dear Alice Blackwell: Enclosed find check for $36.74 which is one of two you get every year. I hope that you are reasonably well and that you are not too much disturbed by the fact that all the world is at war. None of us can feel quite as contented nor enjoy life as much because it exists. As it has been my main object in life to keep up with the war and peace movement for the last twenty-five years, I must confess that the situation makes me very unhappy. I had a visit with Elizabeth Hauser last week. She was Mrs. Upton's secretary for about twenty years when Mrs. Upton was upon the National American Board and Elizabeth did the main work of bookkeeping. Other officers had a good deal to do with her and we were all fond of her. She now holds a position on a newspaper in Warren, Ohio. Mrs. Upton is eighty-seven years old. She lives with a cousin and they share housekeeping expenses. A fund for Mrs. Upton was raised some years ago and Elizabeth Hauser has it in charge. She says she has enough to keep Mrs. Upton, in a modest manner, for three years more. Mrs. Upton lives with a cousin who got pneumonia and was taken to the hospital. In consequence, Mrs. Upton got into a nervous state and had quite a time, but both she and her cousin are now much better. One of our New York suffragists, who was never known much outside of this State, gave out a public greeting to her friends last week on the occasion of her ninety-fourth birthday. Give my best wishes to Mrs. Boyer. I have never forgotten the day and night I planned to spend with her when she bought all the things that could be purchased at the country market to eat over Sunday, but as I could not stay over Sunday, she fed them all to me on Saturday! It was the best day's eating I ever had! Very lovingly yours, Carrie Chapman Catt Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Mass. Carrie Chapman Catt 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle New York December 21, 1942 Dear Alice, I thought, when you wrote about Miss Yates, that someone had been talking to you about her and you were trying to get information for that person. I do not know where Miss Yates is nor who she has with her, but somebody ought to help you in this matter. Miss Mandigo has everything in hand and will do the job wanted in a satisfactory manner, I think, provided she is notified when the death takes place as, undoubtedly, it will some one of these days. I have now closed my house for the winter and am on my way to Battle Creek Sanitarium, Battle Creek, Michigan. I will try the experiment of living there awhile and see what it will do for me. In the event you wish to write me during the next few weeks, you can reach me there, but, after that time, you can address me in care of the Women's University Club, Hotel Biltmore, New York City, where mail will be kept for me until I return. If you wish, you may write me in care of Henrietta Wald, 225 West 106th Street, New York City. She has been my secretary for many years and will see that your letter is forwarded to me wherever I may be. I am dictating a number of letters which cannot possibly get written for some days so, by the time you receive this letter, I will be at Battle Creek. Lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt Miss Alice Stone Blackwell 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. CCC:HW. Carrie Chapman Catt Battle Creek Sanatorium B.C. Michigan New Rochelle New York January 17th 1943 My dear Alice Blackwell; I too was troubled about the Miss Yates announcement, but this was the circumstance. I received a telegram on Christmas-eve, I thought that it was merely announcing to us the death of Miss Yates, but to make [sure] I sent a telegram to Miss Mandigo, at her house, as I knew all offices would be closed. I then wrote and asked her for more detailed information. I find that a telegram from the undertaker had gone direct to her and she had [proposed?] the publicity for the [paper?]. Now of the entire year just [????] Miss Yates could not have selected a worse time for getting a [?????] obituary in the papers. Aside from Christmas there were War on every continent which is the chief interest of every newspaper. So they cut out all the [????] Miss Yates cared most about, but I do not think either you or I are in the slightest degree [?lausable]. If this were a time of peace when people unencumbered that these had been a Suffrage Campaign all would have gone in as planned. You and I are [sorry?] but we have no failure of duty to regret. At least that is the way I feel. I will be back in New York City on January 21st, but I do not know, as yet, just where we shall live. Just send any communication you may wish to make to my address in New Rochelle. Blassings on you! Lovingly yours, Carrie Chapman Catt Carrie Chapman Catt 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle New York September 13, 1943 Dear Alice Blackwell: Once upon a time there was a great movement for the liberty of a subjected class and it was won without a single bullet being fired. I am very glad that you and I were in it and saw it through. I am grateful for the braver souls who began that movement. I remember a visit I paid to your mother in her last illness. She said: "I am so glad I have a daughter. She will carry on after I am gone." With gratitude to her, your father, and all the Blackwells, including your noble self, for all you have done, I wish you a happy birthday and many happy returns of the day. Blessings on you, now and ever. Very lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt No birthday telegrams are allowed for the duration! C.C.C. Carrie Chapman Catt 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle New York Copy [?] P2 September 14, 1943 Dear Alice Blackwell: I have just sent you a brief note to congratulate you upon your birthday. It is wonderful that you have reached the age you have and I sincerely hope that you and I will live to see the end of Hitler. Now I am answering your letter, written August 13th, about the list of books. It was necessary for me to check that list with the books sent to the Library of Congress in the name of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. As I knew that would consume some time, I put it aside until I had leisure to undertake the checking. Now I have done this and I find that the books I would regard as most valuable are duplicates of those which have already found their way into the Library of Congress. There are a few I have never seen: Famous Leaders Among Women A Group of Famous Women Life of Frances Power Cobbe Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe Representative Women of New England These are, undoubtedly, very interesting books, but I do not think they bear, fundamentally, upon the general woman movement and consequently, I would not regard them as an important loss to the list we have already placed in Washington. Since we placed the collection there, I have accumulated some books that are biographies of importance and I will see that these are added to the list already placed there. Otherwise, I think our collection is a very good one. Under the circumstances, the thing that makes this list you have sent me most valuable is the source of the early beginnings of the movement such as the Woman's Advocate, the Revolution, the Woman's Journal, and the Women's Column. We hope that something important may be done sometime to restore the paper in the Journal as that is the most valuable of all and it would be a great pity to lose it as a source of historic information. The other books in the list support and back up this list of Journals. I think the total makes a good library, but it is not different enough from the one already in the Library of Congress to place it there. I would suggest that you give it to the Radcliffe collection and let them build it up to be a good New England authority on the subject. I am sure they would be very glad to receive them and I know of no better place for them. You will be glad to get it off your shoulders, and your mind, I am sure. -2- Since the whole world is talking and thinking of nothing but this war and will not cease to think of it for many a year to come, the woman's movement will be forgotten and almost buried in the great tragedies that have succeeded it, so I think it is very important to put all the memorial collections available into museums and libraries while we are still alive. There may be some persons who desire to investigate in the direction of the woman's movement and there should be source material to aid them. I return the list and I apologize for having kept it so long. I want, once more, to thank you very cordially for having sent the books to me for the National American Woman Suffrage Collection in the Library of Congress. Those books were of great value and added much to the importance of the collection. I think you had an advantage that I never had and that was a knowledge of the early beginnings of the movement and the people who were connected with it. If I were to live my life over again and were interested in a new cause, I should certainly insist upon a school for the new workers. I would see that they got an education in the causes, personalities, and the arguments which were difficult to answer. I think the noble women who were the pioneers of our movement blundered when they did not give the pioneers of our movement blundered when they did not give that information. They started things and created history which we Western people knew nothing about. We might, by a better arrangement of method and a little more skillful strategy have gotten through before we did. I regret that loss of time, because there were so many other things we might have done in those wasted years. I think of you, dear Alice Blackwell, all the time and the eyes you have lost, for mine, too, are going. My brother is eighty-seven and he has lost his sight also, or most of it. That seems to be the penalty of old age. Blessings on you, dear friend. Very lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt Carrie Chapman Catt 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle New York August 28, 1943 Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, 1010 Cambridge Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dear Alice: When I was working on the library to go to the Library of Congress, we had considerable correspondence about the books being preserved in your attic at Dorchester. Some books were sent to me and the explanation was made that, at one time, the roof had leaked and had wet some of the books. Some of them were harmed quite a good deal. I do not know how good a place that attic is for safekeeping hereafter, but I am certain that no place of that kind is a very good preservative for old books. I am inclined to think that those books are more worthwhile to preserve than the modern books are, because the modern paper rots over night while the paper of long ago is still good. In consequence, my interest was aroused at that time when I learned that the Boston University was to give space to you papers and books and I thought that was very nice. I have inquired about the progress being made in the preparation of the books for removal and the replies I have received have not been altogether satisfactory. There was a hint in one letter that a fund was being raised for the cost of the removal and the care of the books thereafter. I wish to ask now if this is true? The Boston University ought to pay that cost and, until recently, I had supposed that that was to be the case. My second question is, when is the removal to take place and who is to do it? Have you a good, intelligent Committee for the purpose? I think no time should be wasted now. Having asked these questions, I want to make a proposal. I know nothing about the Boston University. It is a local university and local in its situation. Radcliffe is also local and neither of these schools is, in any sense, national when estimated by the rank and file of the people over these forty-eight states. During the last few years, I have had several inquiries from women I did not know, who were preparing some kind of an essay or book about the woman movement. In most cases, the woman was writing it as her final act of qualification for a super degree and, in each case, the woman was intending to print the thing she produced. I went to considerable trouble to tell these women where they could get their information, but, in the process, I began to realize how very difficult it would be for a serious investigator to get at the real source of all our history. I am inclined to think that the suffragists, who have written their own history, have not always known all the facts at the time of writing and perhaps they have not been free enough from prejudice to tell the whole truth. A person without such prejudices in the future, with access to all sources of information concerning the woman movement, might tell a better story than has yet been told. -2- I regard the two best sources of information as (1) The Woman's Journal, plus the few papers that women had published on the woman movement before the Journal was established. I have never seen so much as a copy of most of these, but I am sure they would be highly resourceful. After we had moved our library to the Library of Congress, I was in Washington for another purpose and I went to make an examination of how the library looked in place. While there, I looked at some of the earlier volumes of The Woman's Journal to note their condition. I found that the paper was falling into dust and a more careful research revealed, unmistakably, the fact that the Journal, despite its great value, would not long withstand the ravages of time. I was must distressed about that. The second source of information is the "History of Woman Suffrage." There is much in that which is of great value and very much there that is truthful, but you and I both know that there are many places where the whole truth is not told and I am inclined to think that some things are not even mentioned. I do not blame the women who wrote the history for these omissions, but the fact remains. I have now learned that there is a process for preserving old manuscripts. It is done by the process of photographing the printed page and reproducing it by photographic process. I should say that the system was probably expensive. I have no idea how expensive it is, but I have wished that we might so reproduce the Journal - the entire seventy-two years of its existence - for the benefit of those who wish to search it on behalf of future history. At the Library of Congress there is a department of what is called RARE BOOKS, although it is not occupied, as one might suppose, by books that are curios for their antiquity. First of all, it contains the library of Thomas Jefferson whose library, you will remember, was bought by Congress and placed in the first library built for the nation. When they realized that they were using up a valuable library, they took it away from ordinary circulation and put it in this department called RARE BOOKS. The so-called library of Susan B. Anthony is in the RARE BOOKS department. She was not a book collector, but she did have books given to her that bore upon the subject of her interest and she was a great saver of papers, documents, and letters. The most valuable of these were put in order by Ida Husted Harper and Lucy Anthony and the things are there. I am, by nature, a collector of books. I love books for their own sake and I had always bought and read everything on the subject of woman suffrage that appeared during the time I was at work in that cause. I did not buy useless books and there were many of that kind. Through your aid and that of others, I found quite a good many books to add to the library which covered earlier periods than I had any contact with. I consider the whole library we presented to the Library of Congress very valuable, but not, by any means, complete. I presented it in the name of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, because it contained books that were given by other members of the Association and for which I did not pay. In the general section of the Library of Congress I have found books bearing upon the subject of woman suffrage which I had never seen before and which I longed to have. -3- I am now proposing to you to do something which, I beg of you, think over very seriously before you reply [*do anything else*]. I feel sure that, among your possessions, are many valuable books and there will be some duplicates of those already [?] but, nevertheless, I think for a national cause, with a story of what a national group of people did for it, those books should not be placed in a local university, but put in a place where a researcher would naturally go for information. More, my ambition has been growing, ever since I worked upon the problem of putting these books of mine and other people into that Congressional Library, with the idea that there is one more thing we could do for the benefit of history which has not yet been done. It is, that a catalogue of the books and papers on the campaign for women's rights should be prepared and the place indicated where every book and paper can be found. In the event you should be willing to place your books and papers in the Congressional Library at Washington, all that the United States has to offer to the historian of the future would be housed under one roof. The Congressional Library has added a new addition recently and I believe it now has seventy-two new study rooms. These are small, well-lighted rooms, each containing a table or desk, a chair, and suitable accommodations for examinating manuscripts. I have had several talks with the head of this department about getting a catalogue made and putting all that concerns the woman questions into one catalogue with the understanding that it should include the collections in other colleges or public libraries. I think something would have been done about it had there not been a war. Mr. Mcleach[?] was taken from his business as librarian and put upon other work and all libraries are limited as to what they can do at present. I realize that you and I are not going to be in this world much longer and so I would like to ask that RARE BOOKS department whether it would accept your books and papers and give them place in this RARE BOOKS section and whether they would be willing to remove from other parts of the library the really rare books they have, re-classifying them and putting them in that department; third, whether they would be willing to catalogue all the collections of books on the woman movement, -those of Miss Anthony, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, the rare books of the Blackwell collection, and any other rare books that may now be in the library. There was a curious story which, perhaps, you remember. Mrs Harper sat at a table at a hotel, all winter, with a man who help some kind of a position in Washington, and, in the course of conversation, she learned that he had always had a hobby of collecting clippings on important subjects. She was a "clipper" too, so they found something of interest in each other. When he died, it was found that he had left to her, as a bequest, all his clippings. He had also left her some money, so that she could do something with these clippings for their preservation. She spent months in the library, going over those boxes of clippings and I presume it must have been a miserable part of her life. I presume those clippings are also somewhere in the Congressional Library and perhaps those relating to woman suffrage could be separated from the others and added to the general collection in the RARE BOOKS department. -4- If it were possible to bring all this about, the suffragists would have done something that no other people, in all the world, have ever done; that is collect the material from which their own history will be written in the future. That would be wonderful and the pioneers who began the movement would rise up and call us "blessed", if they knew how. Think it over, dear Alice, and let me know your opinion about it. I will make some inquiries as to the prospect of preserving the Journal. Perhaps it cannot be done. Maybe enough money could not be raised to do it, even though it was a physical possibility. It is easy enough to explain to the Boston University that you want to put it with the other material about the woman movement and they would give up any hold you may think they have upon it. * In the meantime, there is that little report about the necessity of raising a fund which I would like to have cleared up. If the Boston University has the idea it is going to get a fund for the endowment of your department, it might be a very difficult thing to raise it at this time. It looks to me as though we will all be bankrupt by the time we get to the end of this war. I have written you a long letter and have probably done it badly, but I have written it very earnestly and I do beg of you to think this over very carefully. Consult anyone you like for, of course, I am writing on my own responsibility. Lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt CCC:HW. * I have dedicated this letter and done it badly, but I do not wish to [?] the lives where I recopied my corrections so please excuse. *Or, if it be true that the collection goes to the University with the understanding that it be accompanied by an endowment, the difficulty of raising money would be sufficiently excused. Carrie Chapman Catt Carrie Chapman Catt 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle New York October 1, 1943 Miss Alice Stone Blackwell, 1010 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dear Alice Blackwell: Enclosed find check for $36.74 which is your semi-annual installment of an annuity which you and I hold together. One of the misfortunes of being a president of an association, which completes its work and leaves seventy-two years of accumulated rubbage on hand, is that there is no end to the old papers and the work involved in carefully scrutinizing everything that turns up. There is not so much of this material as once there was and we have done great things with much of it. When the vote was won, we had on hand a great deal of literature which was used in meetings. This was what I would call "cheap literature", on single sheets, etc. We sent a whole barrel of that literature to Quebec where they were struggling to get the right of Municipal Suffrage for many years. Although most of Canada had woman suffrage, Quebec did not have it. The French were opposed to having it in Quebec, but we sent the literature up there and perhaps it was the most effective thing. There was a very lively English woman who lived there, Mrs. Augusta Stowe Gullen, and she supplied the big push to the campaign which brought Quebec into the ring with the municipal suffrage. It was one of the queerest experiences in the whole suffrage history for, meanwhile, Canada had given the full suffrage history for, meanwhile, Canada had given the full suffrage to all the women of Canada, so that the women of Quebec could vote for the highest officials there were, but, still, could not vote for the municipal nominees. I am telling you this story now because that barrel of literature came, in large degree, from your pen. Every day, when I am able to do anything at all, I look over a few more papers. I burn some of them and some are put away for other eyes to investigate when I am gone. In the batch of papers I looked over yesterday, I came upon a pile of your leaflets. I did not know that any literature was left, but this assortment was there and it reminded me of the barrel of literature that was sent to Quebec. I also remembered how stupendously your leaflets, clear cut and logical, always helped our campaigns. We never could have won without them and I thought, in these days, you would not mind having one more expression of gratitude for all you did. Lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt CCC:HW. Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.