General Correspondence CATT, Carrie Chapman HUNT, Alice R. Clara American Commission to Negotiate Peace 3 Rue Henri Martin Paris, France, June 17th. 1919 My dear Mrs Catt:- Your letter of April 22nd. waited some time for me in Paris as I have been in central and eastern Europe for the past six weeks. During my travels I met several women who knew you and it is to fullfill promises given to them that I inflict another of my letters upon you. In Geneva Mlle. Emily Gourd the editor of the french edition of Jus Suffragil, came to see me and was much interested in my account of the last New York campaign as she feels that Switzerland and the United States have many troubles in common as far as suffrage is concerned. I sat with her in the gallery of the Geneva Cantonal Legislature when for the first time a proposal for granting women full political suffrage in the Canton was introduced. Mlle. Gourd is thoroughly french in her sympathies and feels that a meeting with german women can be deferred indefinitely. She had no sympathy with the letter I wrote you. She told me that she had always been forced to admire you from a distance as she had not been lucky enough to attend any of the International Congresses but made me promise to sent you her warmest greetings and good wishes for the final passage of the Federal amendment. In Vienna, Frau Ernestina Von Furth, the President of the Austrian Suffrage organization, told me of the work the women had done to bring all political party principles before the new women voters of Austria in preparation for their first election. I sat in the Rathaus gallery and heard a bill very ably discussed by the ten odd women members which one of them introduced as a remedy for the faulty food distribution to poor women and children. A week later I had one of the coveted seats in the gallery of the Austrian Parliament on the day the Peace terms were handed to the members and discussed by the leaders of each party. I met practically all the women members of both bodies (there are seven in the national parliament) and had long talks with several of them. Frau Von Furth, being a reactionary is not particularly happy that all the women should be socialists who were elected. She is a very intense patriot and has some doubt whether she cares to meet the English and French women in an international congress as it might be traitorous to her country! Thus the world "spins"! Frau Von Furth, asked me however to convey to you her warmest personal admiration and hope that at some future date you would visit Vienna again. In Budapest, Adel Spady and Yanka Gergely, asked me the very first thing how you were and what you are doing. I had a meeting with ten or fifteen of the women revolutionary leaders which Adel Spady arranged for me in her office in the Parliament House. For three hours they told me of their work under suppression and later under the first and the second Hungarian Revolution. American Commission to Negotiate Peace I sat on the floor of the Budapest Soviet with twenty of the women members the next day and two days later I attended twelve meetings in as many districts of Budapest arranged by the indefaticable Adel Spady and addressed by Bela Kun and many of these women all of whom seemed to hold the audience of women in the hollow of their hands. Bela Kun told me that he had not put Rosika Schwimmer in prison as that would be attaching too much importance to her even though she is a counter-revolutionaist. I wish you could have seen those Hungarian women! Especially the ones who made spontaneous speeches from the floor at the meetings and in the Soviet. Those meetings would have done credit to the very best "intensive" days of our New York campaigns. They were so crowded that even I the guest of Mrs Bela Kun and the women leaders was glad to get one foot on the edge of a precarious table where I could see the speakers through a reflecting mirror on the opposite wall and watch the faces of thousands of women of all classes. When I said good-bye to these women they ended as they had begun and asked me to convey to you their very best love. "Tell Mrs Catt that even if she is an imperialist reactionary we would go far to meet her again and shall always love and admire her greatness." were their exact words. These communist women being consistent internationalists know no national boundaries and consequently are not afraid of disobeying heresay treason laws either foreign or domestic, written or unwritten. They are strongly in favor of any international Congress though they confess to so much pressure of work at nome they could not promise to attend. In Zurich, I saw Dr. Alletta Jacobs, Miss Sheepshanks, Miss MacMillan, Miss Goldstein of Australia and other members of the International Alliance and understand that they were going to send you a letter in regard to an international congress. Of all these extraordinary and remarkable women I find noe who can hold a candle to you, my dear Mrs. Catt. That is why I feel that your letter to me has such tragic possibilities. The whole of Central Europe is indeed changed since my last visit in 1910 especially the cities of Budapest and Vienna which I remembered as being so gay and prosperous. The crying need of the world to-day is for a great international Leader. Perhaps the women need leadership even more than the men. My faith in women in general and in you in particular is very tenacious! Affectionately, Alice Riggs Hunt Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.