CATT, CARRIE CHAPMAN GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE Hooper, Mrs. Ben 1917-24 COPY. WISCONSIN WOMAN'S SUFFRAGE ASSOCIATE Mrs. Ben Hooper, Congressional Chairman January 20, 1917. Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, 171 Madison Ave. New York City. My dear Mrs. Catt: I [have] just returned last night from the State Convention. A new business woman's organization of five hundred, -two hundred and fifty members having been taken in, in the last two weeks, and the University Girls League, stormed the convention and carried a motion that we ask the Legislature for a referendum this year. Mrs. Victor Berger was the only member of the board anxious for a referendum and she had charge of the program for convention which was held in Madison. She went down there to arrange for the convention and encouraged those women who knew nothing about the situation, either in state or nation, to ask for a referendum. They came to the convention pledged to vote that way and nothing anyone could say made the slightest impression on their minds. I think I would be safe in saying that in the two organization there is not half a dozen women who have done any suffrage work to speak of. Miss Comstock who organized the Business Women's Club and who secured a large number of the of the members, was ill at the time this action was taken and was ill during the time of the convention. She is almost beside herself to think that they should have behaved themselves in such a manner. They "knocked" down the whole Board and State Officers, and "rolled us over in the dirt". One needs a sense of humor at this time. Mrs. Youmans and I laughed until we almost cried over the absurdity of the whole affair. You see I could take it very philosophically for the reason that I had interviewed the Governor before the Convention and had been told by him that he was against any suffrage measure and that he was telling me so that we might not waste our time down there. You see why we could laugh so heartily after it was all over. I have some very good news for you. I called upon Mr. Richard Lloyd Jones, Editor of the State Journal and asked him whether or not it was true that he had had an interview with President Wilson this fall and if the President had said to him that he he had changed his opinion on the Federal Amendment since going to Atlantic City, and Mrs. Jones said that he spent two and a half days with with the President in his private car and had talked over many matters and several times on suffrage. He said he had talked with another time this fall and said that the President did say that he had changed his opinion on the Federal Amendment. He said that he did not feel justified in publishing the President's statement and that he did not feel so now as the President was talking to him as a man, not as an editor, but he said he was glad to give me the information that we might know better just where the President stands. page. 2. -letter to Mrs. Catt from Mrs. Ben Hooper, Jan. 20, 1917. He said that he had also had an interview within a very short time, - I think he said within the last few days but am not sure as to that, - with Mr. Crane whom he says is closer to the President than any other man in the United States with the exception of Mr. House. He said that Mr. Crane told him that the President would sign the Federal Amendment for Womans Suffrage and when Mr. Jones asked him if the President would ask for the Federal Amendment in his message to Congress, Mr. Crane said he was not authorized to state but that he expected something of that sort. You will see by this clipping that I am enclosing that I have resigned as Legislative Chairman. I am very happy over it because I will have more time to put on my congressional work in the State. Most devotedly, (signed) Jessie Jack Hooper Mrs. Ben Hooper JJH GF Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission, Inc. President CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT Vice-President Mary Garrett Hay Secretary and Treasurer Mrs. Thomas B. Wells Directtors Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker....Texas Mrs. Raymond Robins.....Illinois Mrs. F. Louis Slade.....New York Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton....Ohio Telephone: 6770 Ashland 171 Madison Avenue New York, Dec. 26, 1923. Mrs. Ben Hooper, c/oMrs. L. M. Warfield, Ann Arbor, Michigan. My dear Mrs. Hooper: I have your three letters. I am extremely grateful to you for sending me your two letters to Mr. Lenroot and his reply. Certainly that is a revolation. I am going to treat it in an editorial for the Citizen. I do think the people of the country ought to know about it. I will not reveal my source of information. Many thanks for your excellent editorial. I believe myself that the attack on the Court is not what it appears to be, but is directly a strike at the League of Nations. I believe that bunch mean to kill it if they can. It is possible that they intend to put up something in its place which would be more effectively Republican. Is it not presumptuous in the beginning that one country should propose to overturn a constitution which has been accepted by most of the rest of the world? I promised to write you my conclusions when I got home and although I did arrive here ten days ago, I have had engagements out of town twice and such an overwhemling mess of things here to look after, that I have not kept my promise, but directly I shall write you fully. I have had great pleasure in remembering my visit to Ripon. I found a man in Kansas, whom I have long known, whose father was one of the original Republicans at that Ripon meeting. When I told the story to a Democrat in Texas and said "The President of the College who is probably a good Republican", he interrupted me and said, "Wait, wait, it is said down here that we do not consider any Republicans are good" whereupon, I left out the adjective and proceeded with my story. The thing that interested me was that there had been two years of agitation before the 1856 Convention and that campaign was educational. It took six years before they were able to elect their candidates. These efforts that are being made here and there on some minor questions will never succeed. There must be an emotional appeal to pry people away from their old affiliations. I do hope and pray that I may live to see the arrival of a new crusading party. There would be a good many who would "join up". Lovingly yours, Carrie Chapman Catt xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 669 Algoma Blvd., January 23, 1924 Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, 171 Madison Avenue, New York City. Dear Mrs. Catt: Mrs. Hooper returned from her trip to Michigan last Thursday, and after attending to the most important of the accumulated mail, she was on the point of writing to you when she was called back to Ann Arbor because of the serious illness of young Jack Warfield. Jack had pneumonia and is a very sick little boy though a message received from Mrs. Hooper yesterday, said that his general condition seemed a little better. We are hoping that todays message will give us the insurance that he is really better. Mrs. Hooper instructed me to write you and thank you for your good letter of December 26th and tell you that on her return she will write you more at length. Also she wished me to send you the last letter she received from Senator Lenroot, which I am inclosing with this. If Jack is sufficiently improved by the first of the week, Mrs. Hooper expects to attend the Democratic Conference in Cleveland on the 29th and 30th. I know Mrs. Hooper has much to write you but it will necessarily have to wait until her return home. During my Christmas vacation I spent about ten days in my old home town, Decorah, Iowa. While there I learned two interesting things, to me. One was, that and old pupil of mine, and one whom I have always admired for his many good qualities and his talent in music, Eugene Schall, is a relative of yours. The other item is, that the parents of Miss Helen Burling, Secretary to Mrs. Raymond Brown, live in Decorah. Mrs. Burling I met while in Decorah and found her a most attractive woman. Hoping you are keeping well this winter, I am Most sincerely yours, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 171 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK Feb. 13, 1924. Mrs. Ben Hooper, 669 Algoma Boulevard, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. My dear Mrs. Hooper: I am very sorry to hear that Master Jack has been ill, but I am glad he has a grandmother who could be with him. I sincerely hope he has entirely recovered by this time. I am going to send you a copy of a flirtation I have had with the National Republican Committee. One thing that is lacking is the publicity sheet in which the first article appeared. I do not want to let that go out of my hands. When I get to Florida, I am going to write you a letter that is a letter for I have much to write to you. Many thanks for the copy of the letter from Mr. Lenroot. Lovingly yours, Carrie Chapman Catt HW CCC:HW. Dictated but not read as Mrs. Catt has left the City. P.S. - All mail addressed to 171 Madison Avenue will be forwarded to me. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 171 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK February 23, 1924. Mrs. Ben Hooper, 669 Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh, Wisconsin. My dear Mrs. Hooper: I expected to write you a letter of thanks for the kindnesses shown me when in your town, but I have found it impossible to live up to my good intentions. Some of the Chairmen of the organizations arranging my lectures requested a letter giving my impressions of public sentiment as I found it and upon the supposition that others may be interested. I am sending this form letter to all the Chairmen. No acknowledgment is expected. Pray toss it in the waste basket if the contents do not prove interesting to you. I visited thirty-three cities in fifteen states and came in contact with many and diverse groups. From reading and interviewing I conclude the entire question of peace vs war centers around one fundamental dispute. 1. "The way to keep peace is to be prepared for war." This is the traditional and one time universal view and is held sincerely and stubbornly by most military men, politicians, and men in general. 2. The opposition claim that there must be a sane common sense method of abolishing wars altogether and we are probably in the minority. Both sides really want peace. The advocates of #1 oppose any proposal substituted for war and do it sincerely - thus the bitterness, the sneers, and jeers at the League of Nations and the Court. So loud and emphatic have these expressions been that they have hidden the real dispute and intimidated many of #2 who are not yet sure of their ground. The situation has thus revealed itself to me. and seems much simpler than before. In the Democratic States, I found sentiment for the League strong and for the Court indifferent. In Republican states I found women working zealously for the Court and timid about the League. I intended to ask the question everywhere as to whether sentiment for the League was stronger or weaker now than in 1920. I did ask in most places and Minnesota was the only state where it was definitely stated to be weaker. Both League and Court are stronger in the East than in the West and interest in international relations is also much keener in the East. I found lecture courses, individual lectures, forums, schools, speaking classes and etc. in operation not all in one spot, but something everywhere. The Bok Peace award I find has stimulated interest in points recently visited. Do get as many people to vote on it as possible - vote as they see fit. -2- My conclusion is that the determination to fight the way through to perpetual peace is stronger among women than men and that the premonitions of a coming crusade are unmistakable. Whether that will rally to the support of the League or some other policy, I cannot predict. It will have to be some remedy more certain than the Court. Women Republicans are not going to vote the Democratic ticket in order to support the League if that Party should endorse it and the Republican Party go against it. They will cherish a partisan suspicion of it under those circumstances. The task of non-partisan pro-Leaguers like myself and some of you is to find the way to dig the question out of politics. Mr. Bok thinks he has found it. So far as I mayIwish to cheer up your faith in the ultimate success of the campaign for peace, I do not much care what avenue it takes so long as it arrives. Thanking you for your many attentions, I am, Yours very truly, Carrie Chapman Catt xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 669 Algona Blvd. Oshkosh, Wisconsin. March 3, 1924 My Dear Mrs. Catt: I expected to write you long before this. As Miss Treat wrote you, I was called back to Michigan on account of young Jack's illness and was there for sometime. He is quite recovered now, for which we are all very grateful. During my first visit to Michigan I spoke once in Ann Arbor, twice in Bay City, four times in Saginaw and five times in Detroit. I got fine reaction in all the places where I spoke, for the world court, the Bok peace plan and general cooperation of this country with the rest of the world. I had an opportunity in Saginaw of speaking to a Rotary club of about one hundred and fifty men, and the Antlers club of two hundred men. I am always so glad to get hold of a mans dinner club because I can get the message across. The only trouble is to get a group of men to come and hear it. Mrs. Bross, in Detroit, said she could have kept me busy there for a month if she had only had notice in time to get the opportunities for me to speak in ready made meetings. My talks were largely to church organizations and womens clubs. I feel that the Michigan trip was well worthwhile. As Miss Treat wrote you, I was only home a few days before going back to Michigan and from there I went to Cleveland for a regional conference of democratic women and school of democracy. Mrs. Halsey Wilson was the teacher of the school of democracy. I had a very nice visit with her. The Cleveland women invited me to come there as one of their speakers. It goes without saying that my speechewas on peace. I also spoke to the Speakers Bureau of the League of Nations Non-Partisan Association. Newton D. Baker was the conference speaker for one evening; his talk was entirely on peace and I was very pleased to find that he was talking along exactly the same lines that I am, but of course very much better than I can. I spent about an hour and a half talking with him the [?] -2- Mrs. C.C.C. 3/3/24 importance compared with the securing of permanent peace. He is al so convinced that if we are to get peace in the world it will have to be done very largely by the women; that there are comparatively few men who will take the initiative and do hard work to secrue it. I told him I thought men were the more emotionable sex and he said he quite agreed with me and went one step farther and said he thought they were the sentimental sex, and I believe he is right. I have spoken in Wisconsin a couple of times since returning from Michigan, and am speaking again this week in the state, in fact I have several engagements this month. The Democratic party in Wisconsin have lined up in two groups, the Al Smith group which is the wets and old reactionaries of the state, and the McAdoo group which is the dry and progressive group. They had a meeting in Chicago, as you probably have read, to see whether or not McAdoo should continue to run. I was urged to go down to the meeting as they had put my name on the list of candidates at large for the democratic convention. I was very glad to let my name go on for the reason that if the progressive group is elected as delegates, it will give me an opportunity to get into the convention and perhaps have some influence on what is done on the peace question. The Wisconsin delegation were most insistent that I must say something in the meeting there, so I got up and made a few remarks on permanent peace. I was the only one who had mentioned the subject and it made a hit. I had storms of applause and many people thanked me for it afterward. Right funny when you think of old stagers like John Sharp Williams asking for an introduction and thanking me most profusely for my little speech. Then they put me on the resolutions committee and of all the funny things that ever happened that was the funniest. There were seven men and two women and the other woman never spoke a word except when they asked her to vote on acceptance of the resolutions. Those men had all of them been working on resolutions beforehand and each one of them had one to present and some of them were three full typewritten pages. Talk about sentiment, I never saw anything like it in my life, slushy and sloppy. I bullied those seven men until we got the resolutions down to what you undoubtedly read in the papers. I would have liked to cut them still more but I had not the heart to take all the joy out of life for those gentlemen. One of them said: "Oh, we sat up most all night getting these resolutions and now just look at them". I thought one of them was going to cry over it, and another said he was so nervous he did not know what to do and what would the people think of our staying up there all that time on the resolutions and then produce only those few words. I just cannot tell you how funny it was. This is just for your own entertainment because it is bad enough to have bullied the poor men and cut their resolutions to pieces, without letting them know I am laughing about it. But beneath all the fun it was, it gave me a pretty good line on the weakness of the position taken by old politicians. These men were all prominent in politics, from different parts of the country, and yet one woman with no knowledge whatever of inside political affairs, was able to manage them. It gives me more hope and courage about what we can do if we once get under way with a definite plan to work with. -3- Mrs. C.C.C 3/3/24 I went from Chicago to one of our state Normals and spoke, and then came back to Chicago and met my husband for a little outing, as I felt he needed it very much. They were having a Whist Tournament in Chicago and that [is] the greatest recreation for him when he can only be away a few days. As I am no expert at whist, I put in much of my time in other ways. I went to a luncheon at Hull House at which Frau Schreiber was the principle speaker. She was exceedingly intering and very charming. The luncheon was given by the League for Peace and Freedom. Miss Addams asked me to talk for a while on that subject, which I did. After the meeting was over Miss Addams said she wished she had as much confidence in women as I had. Then I was invited to a banquet given by the Sixth Ward League of Women Voters, at which Mrs. Beatrice Forbes-Robeson-Hale and Raymond Fosdick were the principle speakers. It was a gathering of about seven hundred people. The speakers were both fine and their talks dovetailed so beautifully. They said afterward, they thought they ought to go out as a tour. They asked Frau Schreiber and me to speak for five minutes, which we did and I told them plainly the situation in the foreign relations committee, asked them how they liked it. Mr. Fosdick was so enthusiastic over what I said. He said: "You certainly threw a bomb shell which needed to be thrown and you were absolutely fearless bout it," I let him have a copy of my correspondence with Senator Lenroot. I am sure if Senator Lenroot had time to think at all just how, he would very much regret the correspondence he carried on with me, because I have used it every time I have spoken in Michigan, Wisconsin or Illinois. I do not think he realized how much he was giving away in his letters. I just got under his skin and he was trying to square himself. When I came home the last time I found the copy of your correspondence with the Hon. John T. Adams/ That is most interesting, thank you so much for sending it to me. I certainly enjoyed reading it. I also received your letter of February 23rd, giving the impressions you received during your speaking tour. It is exceedingly interesting and valuable. I have felt for some time that we needed to do more work through the middle and western states and your letter convinced me that I am right about it. I had an interview with Frederick Bibby in Chicago and he told me that we needed to have strong women at the Biennial in Los Angeles, and I agreed that if I could get the club in my home town to make me a delegate to that convention, I would make a speaking trip to the coast and attend the convention and do what I could to get that organization lined up in the way they should go. I came home and announced that I might be making a speaking trip west and if they wanted me to go as a delegate I would make my itinerary so that I could be in Los Angeles for the convention. Mr. Bibby said he was going to take the question up with the League of Women Voters and see whether it was best to have me appear under their auspices or under that of the National Council for Prevention of War, or whether it might be better under both. -4- Mrs. C.C.C. 3/3/24 I had a letter from Mrs. O'Shea of Madison, recently, saying they were very anxious indeed to have you come there and speak for the League of Women Voters and the University, and asking me if I would use any influence I might have to persuade you to come. I do hope most sincerely that you will find it possible, and I shall hope to go down and hear you if you do. We saw in yesterday's paper that the Wisconsin women gave a dinner in your honor and that in presenting you with flowers, they spoke of the honor Ripon had received by being the birthplace of you and the Republican Party. Did you tell them what President Evans said about the Republican Party? I am looking anxiously for that letter you said you would write me after you got to Florida. Please give my love to Miss Hay and tell her I hope she is well on the way to recovery. Mr. Hooper and Miss Treat both join me in love to you. Yours as ever, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 171 Madison Avenue New York April 5, 1924. Mrs. Ben Hooper, 669 Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh, Wisc. My dear Mrs. Hooper: I have before me your long and precious letter of March 13th. In Florida I had nothing but my fingers with which to make reply and I wanted to write you at once. I put it off from day to day out of sheer sympathy for you and thus the days passed. Now I am back in New York and can write you a typewritten letter. I want to thank you for the letter you wrote and for everything that was in it, but instead of making comment on the things you have told me, I now propose to tell you a story. When I was in Washington just now I called on Mr. Libby whom I had never seen before. I had considerable curiosity and wanted to see him because he is a friend and of course will never retreat from his quest of peace. I thought him, however, very strenuous for a Quaker and so he impressed me when we met. He is, as you know, enthusiastic and I judge rather determined for his own opinion. He informed me that I had a great work to do and that it would be well worth my while to do it, even if I should die as a result of it within six months. I told him I had already died for one cause. I was to undertake the job of getting all the women's conventions to be held this spring and summer to endorse the same plan. Well this, of course, had originally been my hope when we talked about a National Women's Convention, but it developed that the Executive Committee of the National Council for the Prevention of War was to name a program which the women's organizations were to adopt. Their program was nothing more nor less than the Bok Peace plan, but he said this would line up all the women of the country and that would mean it would go through Congress. I told him that I did not think the Republicans would any more willingly endorse the Bok Peace plan than the League of Nations and that the Democrats would not like to do something less than they had done before and, therefore, it would not please any party. I finally told him I had an idea of my own which I had not made known to anyone, but the more I thought of it, the more I thought it the most feasible [thing I could do] policy at this time. I told him I am going to the National League Convention in Buffalo and also to the Federation Biennial in -2- Los Angeles. I told him, however, that there would be at least four distinct peace plans proposed to these Conventions for ratification and I thought my plan was the only one which could really be a substitute for the four. I then outlined it to him and was rather curious to see how he would take it as I had not at that time mentioned it to anyone but Miss Hay. With the true attitude of the pacifist he did not agree with me at all and he said that when I read a certain paper which he handed me, I would be quite convinced that the only thing is the Bok prize. Well, I have since outlined my idea to Mrs. Park and to Miss Morgan, but I have told them I have only given them the idea for the purpose of thinking it over. Directly, I am going to tell it to you. Mr. Libby told me that the Non-Partisan Ass'n. had called a conference to discuss policy concerning the way in which to get planks into the party platforms and that he was coming up to New York to that conference. He believed that he could convince the League of Nations people that the thing to do was to endorse the Bob prize plan. When I got home, I found a call to that conference which was to be held today. I was looking forward with great anticipation to the fur flying scene when the gentlemen of the two schools of peace should go to the mat with each other, but now, dear lady, the conference is called off! What do you think of that for a story? Now I want to lay my idea before you for your serious reflection and as early a reaction to it as you can possibly send me. Of course all of us have been lying awake nights and wasting time in trying to find a way out of the present impasse, and this is what has come to me. The more I think about it, the more I believe it could be done if we would get beyond the three or four of the first defenses of the opposition. My proposal is that we shall ask the political conventions, the women's organizations and everybody else to get behind the same propositions. Let us begin with the Republicans since they meet first. Everybody knows that they will not endorse the League of Nations and will probably go against it. They will certainly not endorse the Bok peace plan, but they probably will endorse the World Court. Some of those Republicans really want to do something to appeal to the peace sentiment of the country and cannot find a way. Now, I propose that they shall put a plank in their platform that if elected to power, they will offer to every country in the world with whom we have treaty relations a treaty of compulsory arbitration in the event any difficulties arise between them. This will be merely carrying out the policy of the League and will give us a peace program as a nation. This might be carried further and bear the same conditions as the pledge in the League - that is, to make no war until three months after the arbitration. I do not see how the Republicans could really refuse to put in that plank. Now let us turn to the Democrats. Their great problem is that the best ones want to reaffirm their adherence to the League and the worst ones do not want any peace planks at [*-3-*] all. I suggest that the Democrats should say: "While reaffirming our belief in the League of Nations and expressing our regret that this nation has not adhered to it, yet realizing that neither party will secure a two-thirds majority of the Senate, we realize that the Democrats, even if elected to power, might not be able to have our nation become a member of the League; therefore, we resolve, if elected, to offer to the nations a compulsory Arbitration Treaty, which will at least be in cooperation with the rest of the world." You will understand that I am not trying to put this in appropriate language. I am only giving you the idea. If this can be secure the Republican face and the Democratic face would both be saved and whatever Senate was elected, a two-thirds majority might be counted upon to ratify such a proposition and the President who is elected would be bound to offer it to the rest of the world. We would then be lifted from our present position into a peace leadership again. The question, thus being take out of party politics, would, I am sure, win the support of practically all the women's organizations. It would run counter to those advocates of the League who believe that we should merely hammer at that one point until we get it and it would influence the various peace societies that have this undemocratic centralized leadership. I do not think this, in the long run, would matter so much, for after all, peace is more important than any method of getting it. To my mind, it would follow that when and if such treaties of arbitration were secured and we entered the World Court, as I think we should, there would be very little left to dispute about with the League of Nations and that an adjustment could be made between this country and the League so that probably we could slip into it without any controversy at all. I can see this campaign from beginning to end successful all the way along. How does it strike you? I have only presented it to Mrs. Park, Miss Morgan and Mr. Libby. Such a proposal might go to the women's associations and if accepted by them all, would go far toward influencing the political conventions. These associations of women would not be willing to take the cue from each other and so I have wondered if we could get a committee representing all these different associations to endorse this idea and to elect a chairman and go to each association representing this body. What do you think of this plan? I wish you would go out to Los Angeles as a delegate. I will meet you there. That would be great frolic. Lovingly yours, Carrie Chapman Catt Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 669 Algoma Blvd. April 10, 1924 My dear Mrs. Watt: Your splendid letter reached me yesterday. I have read it several times and I want to assure you in the beginning, that I am thoroughly in sympathy with your plan; I believe it is by far the best that has been brought forward and I am ready to do anything to help. I wrote and asked the women for their opinions about a conference for the reason that I was getting absolutely desperate because of the lack of any definite plan on which we were concentrating. I now think that the most fortunate thing that ever happened was that Miss Morgan did not wish to have this conference under the auspices of the League of Women Voters. As it now stands it is simply a conference of women invited by me, to talk these matters over, and if you can arrange to present this plan to this group of women, which I hope will be about one hundred, we have then a group understanding what we want, with the question talked over before they come into the convention to vote on anything that is proposed. It does away with the feeling that any other organization might have, that this is a League of Women Voters proposal, as we will try to have it made very clear through the press that this has nothing whatever to do with the League of Women Voters Convention, but is simply taking advantage of the opportunity to reach so many women from different parts of the country to secure their view-point on this matter. I have already been made a delegate to the Biennial so will be able to meet you there. My sole purpose in going to the Biennial is to work for the peace movement. I have not attended one for years. I was most interested in your description of your meeting with Mr. Libby. He certainly does not give one the impression of being a quaker. He is a very earnest young man and I believe it will be possible before we get through, to swing him into line on this proposition. I met him for a few moments in Des Moines at the League of Women Voters Convention last spring. I met him again, by appointment, in Chicago at the time Raymond Fosdick and Mrs. Beatrice Forbes Robertson Hale spoke for the Sixth Ward League of Women Voters. He told me at that time that they were very anxious as to what might happen at the Biennial in Los Angeles, as the militarists were trying very hard to get resolutions through that organization and that he felt it was vitally important that some of the women strong in the peace movement attend that convention. I told him I would attend the convention if I could get appointed as a delegate, and that I would also make a speaking trip all the way out, talking for the world court and permanent peace; that I would be glad to have him take it up with the League of Women Voters in Washington, as they are both in the same building, and plan a skedule for me. -2- Mrs. C.C.C. 4/10/24 I have been asked by some Leagues of Women Voters if I could speak for them, and I sent the names on to Mr. Libby so they might make the schedule cover those places. I have just this morning received a tentative itinerary which would be: Chicago, Davenport, Des Moines, Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Cheyenne, Laramie, Salt Lake City and Reno. From Reno to Los Angeles. They suggested that if I were willing to do some speaking on the return trip, I might go by way of San Francisco, Tacoma, other cities in Washington and Oregon. I wrote you day before yesterday and asked if I could have a few moments with you the evening of the 24th. After receiving your letter I am sure I want more than a few moments because I want to have your ideas all firmly in my mind so I will make no blunders. If Mr. Libby could be swung into line for your plan,a their organization could be used to good advantage for the reason that they already have twenty-eight participating organizations and seven cooperating organizations. I have corresponded quite freely with Mrs. Raymond Brown about the conference to be held at the time of the Convention in Buffalo, and I wish you would talk with her and have her give the publicity in the next issue of the Woman Citizen, that will do the cause the most good. I am not a bit strong on publicity; I lobbied for suffrage too many years when it was my one aim to keep from telling anyone anything I knew. Just read your letter again and every time I read it I feel more enthusiastic about your plan and more sure that it can be accomplished. The great trouble with many of the people working for peace is that they lose sight of the political situation and are trying to accomplish something that is impossible at this time but that can be brought about in comparatively short time if the political side of it is handled right. I just feel sure that this plan will work; it must; and I am yours to command. Have you secured accommodations at Los Angeles and if so, at what Hotel, so that I may write and engage mine if possible at the same place. It makes it so much easier when you are working with anyone, to be in the same Hotel. Yours devotedly, Mrs. Ben Hooper. JJH/ET Oshkosh, Wisconsin. 669 Algoma Blvd. April 12, 1924 My dear Mrs. Catt: I just received a letter from Mrs. W. G. Bleyer of Madison, Wisconsin, regretting that she cannot attend the luncheon on the 25th because she will not arrive in Buffalo until the next day. She will be attending the Convention of the American Association of University Women in Washington, which does not end in time for her to reach Buffalo the 25th. Do you not think that a committee should present your plan to that Organization? Mrs. Bleyer Mrs. Bleyer will undoubtedly be the next President of the League of Women Voters in Wisconsin. She is a very bright, keen woman. Her husband is a Professor in the University of Wisconsin and they have only recently returned from a year spent abroad in the study. I think whoever presents the plan to the University women would do well to get in touch with Mrs. Bleyer because I feel quite sure she will be thoroughly in sympathy with this movement and may be able to give valuable help. I am thinking about your plan all the time and I can just see it work. I believe we can not only secure the consent of the republican party to put it into their platform, but I also think it is possible to keep them from mentioning the League of Nations at all in their platform if they are handled carefully. I also think that the provision to make no war until three months after the arbitration should be a part of the plan. I clipped from a paper, a notice of the meeting of the Y.W.C.A. Biennial in New York from April 30th to May 6th. I know one of the women going from Milwaukee, in fact, she is a sister-in-law of my niece. She is Mrs. Henry Hitz. If you think best I will write to her and if possible, have a little talk to her when I go through Milwaukee on my way to Buffalo. Please let me know about this at once as we are going to motor east and will leave Oshkosh the 20th. If we can get some women to have a real knowledge of what the plan is beforehand, it helps so much. You have given me a new lease on life because I can see ahead possibilities of really truly accomplishing something. Yours devotedly, Mrs. Ben Hooper. JJH/ET Dear Mrs. Catt: Since writing your letter I have received one from Miss Ruth Morgan in which she suggests that we have a 'dutch' luncheon on Friday, April 25th. It is rather late in the day for her to make that suggestion as I have already written invitations to women from all over the United States to be my guests at luncheon on that date, and have received quite a number of acceptances already. My hope was to have at least two representative women from each state. I have invited more than two in states where I have some acquaintances and cannot see how it is possible for me to change that part of it. However, I cannot see any reason why anyone who is interested and [wishes] likes to come, should not be permitted to come and pay for their own luncheon. My finances would not quite permit me to invite the whole convention. I only asked the Statler to serve a $1.00 luncheon similar to the one they are to serve the Regional Directors, as I consider the important thing was to get the women together. Miss Morgan suggests that she invite all of her committee to a 'dutch' treat and that I in my capacity as chairman might ask any representatives of other organizations whom I think valuable. I suggested that in the beginning and Miss Morgan said she would not consider that at all, so I gave up the idea of trying to get anyone who was not a member of the League of Women Voters, at the conference. I wrote to Headquarters for a list of the chairmen on International Co-operation to Prevent War, and so far have not received it. Wherever I have known the name of such a chairman I have invited her. I am going to inclose to you the list of all the women I have invited. Some of them have regretted because they are not going to be able to attend the convention, but everyone I have heard from, without exception, is enthusiastic about it and feels that it is most important. I have just today received a letter from the acting President of the Illinois League, saying they held a meeting of their department in International Co-operation to Prevent War and would not only like to have the members of that committee, but their whole delegation would like to attend the conference. This was written in reply to my first letter sent out. I have sent personal invitations to several of their members and will write to the acting President that I see no reason why if they will send the number of those wishing to attend the luncheon to the Hotel Statler, they should not be permitted to attend the conference and pay for their own luncheon. If there are any women whom you think would be valuable to have at that conference who are not members of the League of Women Voters, won't you please get them to me at once so I may send them invitations before leaving for Buffalo? Mrs. Raymond Brown sent me a short list of names she thought would be good if I were sending any invitations outside the League. She also not sure these names were a member of the League or not, so I sent the invitation saying "If you are going to be in Buffalo for the convention I would be glad to have you my guest at luncheon." As Miss Morgan has taken off the ban it is possible we might get some of these women to accept if you thought it worthwhile, even though they are not members of the League. I have had regrets from Miss Belle Baruch and Miss Evangeline Johnson. If you think they would be valuable to have and they might reconsider and go to the convention for that particular thing, take it up with them or let me know. Please let Miss Morgan see this list. Yours, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 171 Madison Avenue New York [* I will be with you on the 24th*] April 21, 1924. Mrs. Ben Hooper, c/o New Statler Hotel, Buffalo, N.Y. My dear Mrs. Hooper: I have your three letters before me. I thought I should see Miss Morgan before replying because she had spoke to me about this Conference and I wanted to learn what her attitude might be. I have just this moment seen her and this is what I learned. All the conferences are held on the 24th – that of the Prevention of War will be held then and in the evening the Committee is supposed to meet and draw up its final recommendations for the action of the Convention. These recommendations cannot again be altered by the Committee. It is my understanding that when they come before the Convention they may be amended and changed by the delegates themselves. Now, it has seemed to Miss Morgan as unethical that after this meeting of the 24th, which has been duly advertised and will be attended by the State Chairmen presumably, another meeting of persons who probably have not heard this discussion will meet and come to still other conclusions which may disturb the even tenor of the Convention's way. Do not be disturbed, I have never yet known anything out of the ordinary to be done in a convention when it did not disturb the official mind. I could give you many and amusing incidents of this kind. The officers work out a plan and to them that plan means holding the organization together. I accept your invitation to luncheon and suggest that it should be duly announced that all those desiring to attend it on their own, may do so. Miss Morgan says that you will preside over it. I had not intended to be in Buffalo on the 24th. The reason is that I have much to do here and especially because I have a guest from Holland who does not leave until the 24th. She attends a meeting and speaks here on the 23rd. She is one of the delegates to the Peace and Freedom League – Dr. Aletta Jacobs, who went around the world with me. I am living at a hotel and she is my guest there. When, however, Miss Morgan presented the situation to me and I saw that I would be one of those on the 25th who would discuss the whole peace situation without any reference to what had taken place in the official conference, I concluded that I must find a way, somehow, to get to that conference on the 24th. I do not now see my way plain to do it, but I shall do it if it is humanly possible. You will be there, of course. -2- I think we had better make up some plan of the discussion on the 25th, so it will not go too far astray. I have no proposal to make of those to be invited to the luncheon and I do not think at this time it is necessary to gather in representatives of other organizations. I might make considerable comment, but as we are likely to have a conference about it in Baltimore, I think it is not necessary for me to say anything now. Let me say in conclusion that I think your idea of a conference is quite all right and that no harm will come out of it – it is possible we shall jig a little nearer the end as a result of it. Anticipating the pleasure of seeing you, I am, Cordially yours, Carrie Chapman Catt May 13, 1924 My dear Mrs. Catt: I have been hustling ever since I came home getting ready to go out to the Pacific coast. I am leaving today and will speak in Des Moines Wednesday noon. Do not know beyond there just what their plans are for me as they have not sent my itinerary to me here; said I would get it in Des Moines. It seemed to me that the women who attended luncheon in Buffalo would be interested to know what the committee did, so I have written them a letter, one of which I am inclosing in this, giving them a little idea of what we planned at that committee meeting. I am also send you a list of names of the women who attended the luncheon. There are thirty-five states; the District of Columbia, and Canada represented. I have had a fine letter from Mrs. Solon Jacobs since I returned home, thanking me for giving her the privilege of attending the luncheon and strongly in sympathy with the idea of getting all women's organizations together on this question. I wrote quite a long letter to Mrs. Pennybacker giving her the number of members of the Federation present at the luncheon and making it very clear that it had nothing to do with the League of Women Voters convention. I received a very nice letter from her yesterday saying she looked forward to seeing me in Los Angeles, and that she was very strongly for this movement. My address in Los Angeles will be: Care of Mrs. H. O. Winkler, Beverly Hills, Box 451. Am looking forward with great pleasure to meeting you in the west. Yours devotedly, Mrs. Ben Hooper. The United League of Women Votes of Rhode Island Rhode Island Branch of the National League of Women Voters Headquarters: 109 Washington Street, Rooms 502-503-504, Providence, R.I. Telephone, Union 0356 Board of Directors Mrs. P.J. Clare, Providence President Mrs. Myron M. Newton, Cranston Mrs. W.A.H. Comstock, Cranston Mrs. James E. Cheesman, Providence Mrs. Robert E. Newton, Providence Mrs. George H. Crooker, Providence 1st Vice-President Mrs. Walter A. Peck, Providence Mrs. Jeremiah J. Fennessy, Providence Miss Mary B. Anthony, Providence Mrs. Theodore B. Pierce, Providence Mrs. Jerome M. FIttz, Providence 2nd Vice-President Mrs. F. G. Rowley, Pawtucket Miss Avis A. Hawkins, No. Providence Miss Alice W. Hunt, President Miss Harriet E. Thomas, Newport Mrs. Charles L. Johnson, Providence Secretary Mrs. Will J. Ward, Providence Mrs. Beverley S. Lake, Providence Mrs. Raymond F. Wolcott, Providence Mrs. C.C. Wilbur, Woonsocket Treasurer Mrs. Henry A. Whitmarsh, Providence The United League News, Mrs. Theodore B. Pierce Executive Secretary, Miss Mary I. Gallahan National President, Mrs. Maud Wood Park, 532 17th St., N. W., Washington, D.C. New England Regional Director, Mrs. R. L. De Normandie, Boston, Mass. May 21, 1924 Mrs. Ben Hooper, 669 Algoma Boulevard, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. My dear Mrs. Hooper: I have your letter of May 12th and have taken pains to interest two of my friends who are going as delegates to the Los Angeles convention of the General Federation. One of these delegates is Mrs. Caesar Misch, President of the Federation of Women's Clubs of Rhode Island, and a very fine and a very influential woman. In reading over the organizations which you are suggesting for your committee, she asked at once why you had not included the National Council of Jewish Women, saying that she knew that that organization is very much in favor of peace work. She gave me the name of their national president, Miss Rose Brenner, 45 St. Paul's Place, Brooklyn, New York, and I am sending it to you feeling that her suggestion is very wise. With all good wishes for you great work, I am Sincerely yours, Helen King Cheesman Mrs. James E. Cheeman President. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 171 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK September 6, 1924. Mrs. Jessie Hooper, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. My dear Mrs. Hooper: A group of women's organizations is tentatively planning a Conference in the winter on the subject, The Cause and Cure of War. The decision to hold this Conference has not as yet been reached, since several of the organizations referred the matter of their cooperation to their own National Conventions which do not meet until later; meanwhile, I am the temporary Chairman of Arrangements to carry on and make ready for the time when Committees can begin their work. I am, therefore, addressing this letter to a few people who have given much thought and study to the subject and I am asking the great favor that you will return to me the enclosed sheet in enclosed stamped envelope. It contains a list of ordinarily admitted causes and some of the cures or machinery for the cure of war. Will you kindly number both causes and cures in the rank you estimate their importance; crossing cut any you do not regard as vital and adding causes or cures that seem important to you. Positively the only use to be made of your reply is to refer the list of causes and cure thus obtained to the Program Committee, together with the list of names to which I have submitted these questions. I am expecting the Committee to base their program on these returns. I will esteem it a very great personal favor if you grant us the benefit of your experience. Very truly yours, Carrie Chapman Catt Oshkosh, Wisconsin. September 13, 1924 My dear Mrs. Catt: I wrote you a while ago asking whether you thought it would be best for Peace work for me to go into the democratic campaign in some of the doubtful states, or keep out entirely. I have not yet received your opinion. I am only desirous of doing what will help most in the Peace work, and I know your judgement on that would be much better than my own. To be perfectly honest, I have not an idea whether it would do harm or good. I am inclosing some statements in regard to my speaking tour in the west, in which I thought you might be interested. Am also inclosing a copy of the letter I sent President Coolidge. It has been published in the Milwaukee Journal. I have received quite a good deal of material from the Iowa League of Women Voters on what they were doing about Defense Day, so I sent them a copy of it. Today I received a long letter from a woman living some distance from Des Moines, saying she had seen my letter to President Coolidge, so I judge it was published in the Des Moines Register. I also received yesterday a letter from Secretary of War Weeks, saying the President had handed my letter to the War Department to be answered. Secretary Weeks answer to my letter was simply a printed copy of the President's letter to Frederick Libby. To use a slang expression, the President passed the buck to the War Department and they tried to pass it, by sending me this letter. I have answered the questionnaire to the best of my ability. Yours devotedly, JJH/ET Mrs. Ben Hooper CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 171 Madison Avenue New York September 26, 1924. Mrs. Jessie Hooper, 669 Algoma Boulevard, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. My dear Mrs. Hooper: Well we are moving. I am myself so tied up in a bag, that you get little account of what is going on. The cook was thrown out of a station wagon coming from church and has been in a hospital ever since. The second maid has been in bed with a cold, has had a doctor and her meals in bed! As we are far from town, the stenographer cannot run in. Enough, you can imagine the rest. A preliminary program committee has met and we have a skeleton program worked out with good promise of a splendid thing. The finance committee met a few days ago. It recommended that the registration fee for delegates be $5. As each organization is entitled to one hundred delegates, they have all been asked to make themselves responsible for $500, paying only for delegates who fail to come. Perhaps not all will do this. In any event, $5,500 must be raised and if any organization fails to guarantee one hundred delegates, more must be raised as the budget is $10,000. Further three organizations, the two Protestant Mission Federations and the Catholic women have not yet voted to come in as their Boards have not met. John Rockefeller, Jr. has promised $1,000 and the Finance Committee was inclined to get all the rest from rich men. I protested and told them that as we probably would be charged with being financed by Soviet Russia, we might wish to publish the list of contributors. I wanted it financed by women, so five agreed to try to raise $500 each from women and I agreed to write to a few whose names they suggested. Without telling them that I am doing so, I am writing Mrs. Gelhorn of St. Louis and Miss Wells of Minneapolis asking them to raise $500 each and to you to ask if you could not get some contributions in Wisconsin. The Finance Committee will meet again on Friday, Oct. 3rd, to report results and I would be glad if you can let me hear about the prospects by that time. Of course the money need not be paid now. You are appointed, so I hear, on the Committee on Arrangements. That has not yet been called. I thought we should get the money first and the program under way. However, we have engaged the accommodations of the Hotel Washington for the meeting with no rent to pay. The details all have to be made by the Committee on Arrangements. I shall call this Committee probably in New York sometime before Nov. 4th. I do not know whether it will be worth while to spend so much money to come on for that first meeting which will not settle much. What do you think? I could call it at your convenience if you would consider coming. On October 21st the Program Committee meets. It might be well to call them at my office from 10:30 A.M. to 12:30 and to call the Arrangements at 1 o'clock at the Women's City Club for lunch and then all meet together, the Program Committee retiring when its work was finished. Could and would you come for that day? -2- This is the story very briefly put. Let me hear from you. I am in the field from November 4th to December 2nd. I shall then pull things together here and go to Washington and stay there until the Conference is over. I hope you will come on in advance of the meeting in Washington so as to help with the final arrangements. More about that later. Very sincerely, Carrie Chapman Catt September 30, 1924 Dear Mrs. Catt: Your letter just received. You surely are having a hectec time with your household arrangement, hope things will soon be better. I have gone into the campaign for David and have told the democratic women that I am willing to speak for him and that I am going to make my speeches on world peace, and that I shall tell the people I am campaigning for Mr. David because he is the only man who has come out in a straight-forward manner on foreign relations, and I consider that the most vital thing in the world. I am telling the Speakers Bureau to use me after the 21st in the east or near east, so that I may attend your conference on the 21st. I am delighted that arrangements are coming on so well. I have no time at present to ask anyone for money for a conference but you can depend upon the $500.00 and I will get what I can of it and what I cannot raise I will give myself. I am leaving today for Decatur, Illinois, to speak tomorrow noon; I go from there to Iowa; then I am to represent the democratic women at a League of Women Voters Forum to be held at the Congress Hotel, Chicago, on the 11th. Yours devotedly, Mrs. Ben Hooper JJH/ET CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 171 Madison Avenue New York October 6, 1924. Mrs. Ben Hooper 669 Algoma Boulevard, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. My dear Mrs. Hooper: It is simply glorious of you to say you will raise or give $500. You are a booster. We have now changed our plans a little and the reason is that you can be here. The Program Committee will meet at 10 o'clock in the morning of the 21st. The Finance Committee will meet at 11:30 and the Committee on Arrangements will meet the other two committees at 1 o'clock sharp at a luncheon. All the meetings will be held at the Y.W.C.A., 600 Lexington Avenue. They have kindly offered to us without charge several rooms for our accommodations. We shall lunch there together and all three committees will discuss arrangements until we reach such a point as the Finance and Program Committees can be excused, when the Arrangements Committee will proceed. I hope nothing will happen to keep you away. Blessing on you! Lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt 171 Madison Avenue, New York City Telephone – Ashland 6770 October 7, 1924. To the Committee on Arrangements: I hereby call the Committee on Arrangements to its first meeting at a luncheon at the headquarters of the Y.W.C.A., 600 Lexington Avenue, 1 o'clock sharp, Tuesday, October 21st. The luncheon will be "Dutch treat" and the tickets will be $1.25 which may be paid that morning. That same day at 10 o'clock in the morning the Program Committee will meet and in a different room the Finance Committee will meet at 11:30. All three committees will unite at luncheon and proceed to discuss arrangements. The members of the other committees will depart when the chief questions have been discussed and the Committee on Arrangements will continue until the work is done. It will be necessary for us to know a few days in advance of the meeting who will be present, as we must notify the Y.W.C.A. on account of the luncheon. Very truly yours, Carrie Chapman Catt Report of Finance Committee Report of Program Committee Date of Conference Jan 18 Place of Conference Washington Headquarters for Conference Washington Hotel Delegates to Conference 100 from each Organization Shall organizations, other than those cooperating, be invited to participate? Womens Trade Union League What status shall be given contributors? Honorary Invitations 100 Registration Fee $5.00 How secure a Working Committee on Arrangements in Washington? Shall next meeting of all three committees be held in New York or Washington? The date should fall between December 5th and 10th. Distribution of honors and responsibility among the cooperating organizations, How decide at what meetings representatives of the nine organizations shall preside? Shall they be appointed alphabetically or shall special women be chosen for the more important meetings? October 7, 1924 Dear Mrs. Catt: Mrs. Hooper has left for Oklahoma City, having been sent there by the Democratic National Committee to spend a few days speaking for John W. Davis. Before leaving Mrs. Hooper instructed me to write you and ask you to what Hotel in New York she had better go on arriving there, in order to be near the conference you propose having on the twenty- first of this month. Mrs. Hooper speaks in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, on the 17th and will leave immediately thereafter for the east. Most sincerely, Sec'y to Mrs. Hooper. November 11, 1924. To the Arrangements Committee: I am glad to inform you that Mrs. William L. Darby, The Ontario, Washington, D.C., will accept the Chairmanship of the Arrangements Committee and that the W.C.T.U are glad to have her do this as their representative. I was asked to inquire whether colored delegates could be received at the Washington Hotel. The so-called first class hotels have an agreement that no colored person shall be accommodated either by room or in the dining room. The women in Washington think that entertainment could be secured in colored families of good status for any colored delegates who might come. They can be admitted to the Conference. Up to this point such delegates might be protected from the knowledge of the Washington hotel rules, but they could not enter the dining room and not even attend the banquet. The manager admitted it was a sad thing but said that an unalterable rule could not be violated. I also learned that the Hall of Nations seats 700 persons in the center or space within rows of large posts and that not more then 100 other persons could be seated in clear view of the stage. We will have to aim, therefore, at a Conference of 800 delegates instead of 1000. The hotel gives us free the Hall of Nations, office and press room space, space for exhibits, information and registration, but makes no reduction on rooms for delegates. Carrie Chapman Catt. December 3, 1924 Dear Mrs. Catt: I was terribly sorry no to be able to see you when you were in Milwaukee, but my sisterinlaw very thoughtlessly had planned a big party for that day, which she had postponed until my return from the east, so I might help her. I received an invitation to the party given for you in Detroit and was awfully sorry that it was impossible for me to be there. I have today received a letter which is rather interesting and I am writing to you for information in regard to it. A woman wrote me that she had the "Statement of Principles of the Womans' Committee for Political Action". She sent me a copy of the principles, which I have copied for you, and she also stated that a woman in her town was asked to be on the organization committee and if she would not serve on that, would she go on their advisory board, and gave as a reason for her accepting it that you were going to be a member of that board. I have no recollection of having heard of this committee. As I read over the principles it has a strong resemblance to the La Follette platform. Won't you write me at once what you know about this committee and whether or not you are a member of their advisory board? The woman writing to me about it seems quite upset over it and as I have no information whatever on it I am not able to impart any to her. Yours devotedly, Mrs. Ben Hooper JJH/ET CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 171 Madison Avenue New York December 31, 1924. Mrs. Ben Hooper, 669 Algoma Blvd., Oshkosh, Wisc. My dear Mrs. Hooper: I am just in receipt of your note. The truth is that we have a regular steam roller of a Chairman for the Arrangements Committee. You know, we chose our Chairmen by organizations and this one, Mrs. Darby, represents the W.C.T.U. and the missionary societies. She is terribly competent. It is a mighty pity we did not have her in the suffrage days. She is quite able to do everything without help from any of us. She came up to New York and while I thought that nothing had been done, I found she had all of her sub-committees arranged and had called a meeting for January 3rd, which I will attend. After that meeting, I can better judge what we, as outsiders, will need to do. Washington was always such a hopeless place, that I supposed we would have to do most of the arrangements; but as a matter of fact, she is going to do the whole thing for us as we never had it done in suffrage days. I now believe that if you are in Washington for the Friday and Saturday previous to the Conference, it will be enough. I may think differently after that meeting on January 3rd and if so, I will let you know, but I repeat that I have been amazed at the preliminary arrangements already made. I find a letter from you, dated Dec. 3rd, which is unanswered. It came while I was away and when I got back, there was such an accumulation of mail awaiting me, that I have only now come to your letter. You asked about my connection with the Woman's Committee for Political Action. When I was in Washington, some time last summer, I had a call from one of the women connected with the Council for the Prevention of War. She told me that they were forming a Woman's Committee and asked me to go on it, but I declined to do so. She then asked if I would advise them. I said that if I could advise her, I would do it, but it was with no intention of being on an Advisory Committee. She then connected my name with it and wrote letters to others suggesting them to join because I had. I had frankly said that I did not care to be among their members. As soon as my attention was brought to what had been done, I wrote and demanded that my name be removed from everything they sent out. I think the letter you sent me and which I now return, was one of those sent out in the interim and I believe they were good enough to remove my name after I wrote them. Very cordially yours, Carrie Chapman Catt Dictated but not read as Mrs. Catt has already left for Washington. Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.