CATT, Carrie Chapman Article: "The Idea and the Hour"

September, 1928
THE WOMANS PRESS
599

tional affairs for study-group leaders, each organization 
on the committee furnishing a qualified 
woman for this work; a course of easy reading in 
international affairs for individuals or study groups, 
with a circulating library of the necessary material 
(fee $1.00 for course and access to all reading 
matter); and a provision for supplying leaders for 
study groups for the winter, as well as aides for 
the smaller conferences to follow in the autumn. 
    The Georgia conference, at Athens, was for one 
day, opening with a business meeting at which a 
permanent organization was formed, followed by a 
luncheon and symposium, the symposium taking for 
its subject the topic suggested in the model program 
for a two-day conference supplied by the National 
Committee, viz: "What Has the World Done Thus 
Far to Prevent War?" The Hague Tribunal, the 
League of Nations, and the Locarno 
Pacts were discussed 
by members of the faculty 
of the University of Georgia 
and of the Georgia 
State Teachers' College, 
and by members of the conference. 
A round table in 
the afternoon took up the 
multilateral treaty and the 
Root and Bryan arbitration 
treaties, well known
speakers from within and 
without the state participating. 
Questions and answers 
followed, as they did 
at the close of the formal 
address at the mass meeting 
in the university chapel 
in the evening. Delegates 
and visitors representing 
twenty different organizations 
were present. 
     The state-wide meeting 
in Virginia was picturesque 
and delightful, although 
none the less thorough-going 
for that. It was held 
in the main auditorium of 
the University of Virginia 
during the summer session, 
while the round table was 
held out of doors on the 
steps of Cabell Hall, at the 
foot of Thomas Jefferson's 
beautiful lawn. The dean 
of the summer quarter and 
the head of the political 
science department were 
among the speakers. The 
university was selected as 
the setting for the conference because of the presence 
there during the summer quarter of "many 
from remoter places where international matters 
are rarely the subjects of public meetings." Plans 
are under way for conferences at Richmond, Lynchburg, 
and Norfolk.
     At Providence, Rhode Island, a highly successful 
preliminary study-conference was held--a luncheon 
attended by nearly 300, including a number of men, 
addressed by eminent speakers whose talks were 
broadcast by radio. At each plate was a list of 
books on international questions recommended for 
reading. The luncheon was followed by a round 
table the next morning, well attended, with lively
interest manifested. The committee is planning for 
local meetings in the autumn. 
     While during the summer months activities are 
at a low ebb, nevertheless thirty-two states have 
reported their organization meetings; most of these 
have met more than once and some are holding 
periodical meetings for study and planning; fifteen 
have fixed the dates for their state conferences and 
a number of local conferences have already been 
arranged. 
     Southern California will 
have its conference on Saturday, 
November 10th, co-incident 
with the tenth celebration 
of the signing of 
the armistice. They will 
close with a large evening 
meeting with notable 
speakers. Northern California 
will have its main 
conference at San Francisco 
early in November.
     Pennsylvania will have 
two major conferences, one 
at Philadelphia and the 
other at Pittsburgh, in the 
week of November 10th to 
16th. The arrangements 
for these are being carried 
forward under two cooperating 
conveners, with 
two fully officered and 
separately functioning committees. 
Pennsylvania is 
attempting to diffuse responsibility 
as widely as 
possible, in order to secure 
widespread participation. 
Influential women throughout 
the state, in addition 
to those who are members 
of the cooperating organizations, 
are being invited 
to act as sponsors.
     New York is preparing 
for a great mass meeting 
at Carnegie Hall on November 
24th, as the high 
spot of its conference. This 
meeting will be addressed 
by two or three speakers 
on international note. A very active committee is 
working among the organized women throughout 
the state to secure many local conferences and the 
adoption of the resolution by every New York 
branch of the affiliated bodies.
     In Utah the organizations of Mormon women 


The Idea and the Hour

"Nothing on earth is so powerful as an idea 
whose hour has come," said Victor Hugo. 
Has not the hour come now to give form to the idea 
of substituting for war the peaceful settlement of 
disputes between nations? I hope that it has, and 
that war will disappear from the earth when women 
make up their minds that the time has come.
     But it is only through organization that this belief 
may be made manifest. It is this conviction that 
has brought the organizations comprising the National 
Committee on the Cause and Cure of War 
to the point of embarking upon a movement to put 
before the women of the United States the conclusions 
they have reached during three years of intensive 
study, and to secure their reactions to those 
conclusions--the most important of which is that 
ratification of the multilateral treaty for the 
renunciation of war is the next step in setting the 
feet of mankind in the pathway of peace.
     The Young Women's Christian Associations are 
an international body, having set up in other countries 
the same work which is being done in the 
United States. They have met at once the feeling 
of nationalism which belongs to every country, but 
have realized as have few others the necessity of 
friendliness, and the fact that all nationalism is an 
inflated self-regard and that it would be better for 
all countries if it were deflated to the point 
where every nation would realize the unity of the 
human race. The representatives of the Young 
Women's Christian Associations, as I have met 
them in many countries, have had this feeling 
unanimously; for this reason it has seemed to me 
that something in the spirit of the organization 
must have inspired it. In consequence, I regard the 
Young Women's Christian Associations as one of 
the most important influences for international 
understanding that I know.

Carrie Chapman Catt.

600
THE WOMANS PRESS
September, 1928

are working in cooperation with the Committee organizations.
     Connecticut and Indiana will have the active cooperation of the Council on International Relations, the Council in Connecticut making work for ratification of the treaty its main objective for the autumn. It is expected that at least ten conferences will be held in Connecticut, starting with Hartford early in December.
     In Vermont the wife of the Governor has accepted the post of honorary chairman of the committee.
     In the Northwest several regional conferences are being arrange at strategic points.
     All this activity has been set up as the result of an idea put forth by Mrs. Catt as a means of giving effect to a resolution of the Third Conference on the Cause and Cure of War, held at Washington last January.
     At the annual meeting of the Committee, assignment of the states to the various organization comprising the committee, for the purpose of calling conferences in the interest of the treaty, was made, on the basis, approximately, of the strength of the organizations and the quality of leadership in the respective states. The representatives chosen to call the organizations together in the different states were supplied with material indicating the purpose and nature of the campaign and giving suggestions for organizing state and local conferences; with the resolution desired to have adopted by them, and instructions as to the disposition to be made of the resolutions; with newspaper editorials, and petitions. A suggested program for a two-day conference was supplied and the names of the state presidents, state chairmen of international relations, or other outstanding women representatives of the cooperating organizations, together with their addresses, were given.
     In nearly every state in the Union these leaders immediately got into action--action that ran the gamut from telephoning or writing a note to a nearby club woman to sending out hundreds of letters or motoring for miles, in Montana, Arizona, or Vermont, for example, to let the women know of the movement, enlist the interest of ladies who required little persuading, or to attend conferences and committee meetings. Women of all types and situations, from those who have every means at their command for getting things done to those who are employed part time, look after their families, and do the bookkeeping for their husbands were equally ready to act as conveners of the committees of arrangements, or to serve as general chairman of conferences, although this may mean six weeks of intensive work.
     The representatives of the various organizations having met and selected their officers and committee chairmen (each organization being requested, usually, to supply a chairman for a committee) the next step has been to decide what organizations not members of the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War it will be desirable to invite to join in the movement. The committees created in several states are:
Resolutions Endorsement     Petitions         Finance
Press and Publicity                 Hospitality      Speakers
Local Conferences                  Other Organizations
     One state has charged a sub-committee chairman from each organization with the responsibility of securing the adoption of the resolution by every type of organization in the state, from Chambers of Commerce to Ladies' Cemetery Improvement Associations.

The problem of meeting financial obligations has been worked out in several different ways. Some states ask each of the affiliated organizations to contribute a definite amount ($75.00 is the highest contribution and $5.00 the lowest), and hope to make the sum thus collected cover expenses, which will be mainly for speakers, halls, and local printing and postage. Practically all work is volunteer and conveners are in most instances meeting their own expenses. In some states gifts are being solicited from interested individuals. Some states are charging a registration fee for the conference, and some are planning to sell the boxes and choicest seats for their main evening meetings, which will generally take on the form of a mass meeting with distinguished speakers. Luncheon meetings have paid for themselves.
     The plan followed in setting up the state conferences is being used in organizing the local and rural meetings, some of the states preparing through their courses of study during the summer to send out informed conveners for the local conferences, others to send out four-minute speakers prepared to present the pros and cons of the treaty. All through the campaign stress has been laid upon the necessity for well informed leadership, as well as for real organizing ability.
     Every letter, every report indicates deep devotion to the work in hand and a sincere desire to do the job so thoroughly that when this task is finished the women who have given their fine talents to it may turn their thoughts toward building up a peaceful world mentally. When in these days of "cushioned ease" women take a 4 A. M. train to reach a meeting, as some have done, their interest is of a quality which will be stimulated by opposition.
     And opposition we shall--we do--have. One editor, approached for an editorial favoring the treaty and the campaign in its behalf, felt himself almost compelled to resign from one of his church organizations in order to be free properly and without restraint express his disapproval. One of the New York papers has given a column of editorial space to a statement of opinion of the folly of those who would press for such a treaty. And the broadcasting of the Providence luncheon was immediately followed by an attack "on the air" upon some of the statements in the altogether sane and well considered address of Dr. Faunce of Brown University. 
     In this campaign the Committee is striving to hasten the day when the people of the world shall become "adult-minded" enough to perceive that friendly relations with their neighbors constitute the only real basis for permanent peace.

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