NAWSA Gen. Corresp. Wynner, Edith COPY Carrie Chapman Catt Rec'd February 13, 1947. 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle, New York February 11, 1947. Miss Edith Wynner 54 Riverside Drive New York 24, New York My dear Miss Wynner: In my old age I am going over long accumulated papers of various varieties and among them I find your statement without a date on it concerning Rosika Schwimmer's experiences with her attempt at citizenship. It says on it "please return to you", and find myself accused of bad behavior. I therefore am returning this paper herewith. Perhaps you know that if Miss Schwimmer is willing the lawyers have thought out a way to possibly gain citizenship for her and some others. I hope she will accept and let them try. It is understood that there will be no pay expected from her. If you are not too terribly busy, which I suspect you are, will you write me a little note and tell me how Rosika is these days. I know she has had diabetes and that she had to take continual treatment for it. Medicines of all varieties have grown more and more expensive and some of us will have to die because we cannot afford to live any longer, but that is not the main point. These remedies which are effective in the beginning lose their potency after awhile, and I would like to know how conditions are with Rosika. She is much younger tha I and ought to live quite a long time whereas my time must be coming to an end very soon. I met Rosika for the first time in 1904, which means forty-three years ago. Sincerely yours, (signed) CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT EDITH WYNNER 54 RIVERSIDE DRIVE NEW YORK 24, N. Y. ENDICOTT 2-4711 March 8, 1947. My dear Mrs. Catt: Your letter of February 11, caught me at the door when I was rushing to the railroad station. I was off for a few days' conference on world government in Asheville, North Carolina and read your letter on the train. I would have loved to dash off an answer but I am a bad traveler and cannot write while riding in train, bus or airplane. After the very strenuous conference and an absence of nearly a week, I returned with serious obligations to attend to a few exceedingly urgent matters. It is only today that I am free to answer your confidential inquiry about Mme. Schwimmer's health and needs. There is, alas, nothing good I can tell you about her physical condition. Her thirty-one year old diabetes has reached the stage where even 160 daily units of insulin cannot control it. That mysterious sleeping sickness which for a few years she could control through benzedrine for a few hours every day is also resisting this drug and every other means her physician has tried. This means that there is every day less and less time when she is able to work. But I who have worked with her for twelve years can say that even in the short periods of working ability which she now has, her creative thinking is as clear and sharp as it ever was. I am sure she could serve the world even in her deplorable physical condition better than any of those active today with full-time use of all their faculties. Amongst ailments in addition to her diabetes and sleeping sickness there are a few that should be attended to even if we must let her carry out her decision "to let go" and not to seek further medical attempts to ameliorate her condition or at least to halt further deterioration. The two things she must have are new dental plates and a dermatologist's continued burning off of skin cancer spots. As you know, my dear Mrs. Catt. Mme. Schwimmer used to go for annual hospitalization to the Chicago Presbyterian Hospital where she was under the care of the greatest specialists during all these decades. Most of them gave their services free or at a greatly reduced rate. The dermatologist, Dr. Mitchell, whose wife remembered Mme. Schwimmer's work for peace and woman suffrage in 1914/15, started the skin cancer treatment and urged her very emphatically to continue it in New York. She has not done so because she doesn't want Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt -2- March 8, 1947. to spend any more of the little money at her and her sister's disposal on herself. But Miss Franciska and I are greatly worried that we cannot break her resistance at least about new dental plates and a dermatologist's attention. Shall I tell you about all her other troubles? It would really need a medical encyclopedia. She has chronic bronchitis for which she would need vaccinations among ine trees. She has a chronic diverticulitis over the whole bowel system against which nothing can be done except observation of diet restrictions and constant use of an expensive medicine. Her arthritis has grown quite bad. Her inflamed joints are very painful and she would need a series of sulphur baths. The cataract on her eyes has grown to a stage where she has in general great difficulty in reading and writing and sometimes days go by when her vision is too blurred to read at all. Since contact with Europe has opened, she has directed Miss Schwimmer's and my work for giving and securing help to surviving leaders and co-workers of the causes to which she had devoted her life. You kindly responded to her first appeal for the Hungarian feminists for whom you had done so much since you helped them to get organized in 1904. Former suffragists and pacifists in many countries are provided with at least minimum help through Mme. Schwimmer's efforts. A considerable part of the legacy Mrs. Lola Maverick Lloyd left her was spent on the action to secure help for them. Today Mme. Schwimmer has only money enough left to carry her and her sister for about three-fourths or one year longer. And then ---. May I tell you in deepest confidence that I am exerting myself to the utmost to earn money enough to take over Mme. and Miss Schwimmer as "my dependents". But so far I haven't moved an inch toward achieving that. The situation of those who work for a cause, in my case peace through world government, is that there is plenty of work but never adequate pay for it, often not even covering expenses. For instance, after delivering eighty lectures in five weeks in 1944, I earned lots of money for the American Friends Service Committee, the sponsoring organization, but hardly covered expenses for myself. In addition to all this, Miss Franciska's health is also far from satisfactory but she does not submit herself to medical examination and works more than six person should. Because of the high cost of household help we haven't had an hour's help in the last three years and from scrubbing bath- Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt -3- March 8, 1947. room and kitchen floors to diet cooking we have to do everything ourselves. The same holds for clerical help and this holds up attending to the tremendous international mail which is coming in. And soon and so on. This is a frightful indictment of our so-called civilization that women who have spent their lives in service to mankind should be hampered in securing their minimum needs by lack of money. In summarizing the situation I must say that Mme. Schwimmer's condition is much worse than she permitted you to know and which on your request I describe to you very sketchily with a desperate feeling that even a few thousand dollars are not available for her most urgent needs. You asked me a confidential question. May I beg you not to let Mme. Schwimmer know about this correspondence. Hoping you may have some advice as to what could be done for her, possibly undertaking steps to secure the Nobel Peace Prize or something similar which would make it possible to prolong her life, I would appreciate your permission to visit you to discuss this problem with you in the near future. Respectfully yours, Edith Wynner Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle, New York EDITH WYNNER 54 RIVERSIDE DRIVE NEW YORK 24, N. Y. ENDICOTT 204711 March 12, 1947. Dear Miss Wilson: I felt yesterday it would be an intrusion if I spoke to you of any outside matter. It was clear to me that you were the only person in the crowd who was deeply affected by emotion at Mrs. Catt's bodily removal from the home you have shared with her for nineteen years. My deepest sympathy went out to you when the coffin was lowered into the grave that meant the final parting. I suppose you are now sorting and arranging Mrs. Catt's correspondence and I think a letter I had written and was about to send to her should be filed with the letter Mrs. Catt wrote to me on February 11th, a coy of which I enclose. I will always be grateful for the splendid opinion Mrs. Catt gave to my publishers on the book Miss Lloyd and I had written. Mrs. Catt had personally also congratulated us on our achievement and her pride in the fact that two young women had produced such a monumental work. With repeated expression of my deepest sympathy, Cordially, Edith Wynner Miss Alda Wilson 120 Paine Avenue New Rochelle, New York Biographical Data About Edith Wynner Attended school in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the United States. Speaks several languages. Extensive travel to Europe has provided her with an authoritative background for thorough grasp of current international events. (She is twenty-six years old and an American citizen.) Former national secretary of Griffin-O'Day Bill Committee working to amend the Naturalization Laws so as to admit alien pacifists to citizenship. Former New York Secretary of Campaign for World Government and its delegate to national and international youth conferences and the Academy of Social and Political Science. Engaged in research on plans and proposals for world government and post-war planning. Up-to-date reader of American foreign language press and European and British publications dealing with post-war problems. Has been speaking and conducting courses on problems of war and peace before adult and youth groups since 1934. ######### EDITH WYNNER - 54 RIVERSIDE DRIVE - NEW YORK 24, N.Y. - ENDICOTT 2-4711 October 15, 1950 Miss Mary Gray Peck 30 Eastchester Road New Rochelle, New York My dear Miss Peck: I am doing research for a book on the Life and Times of Rosika Schwimmer and to this end am interested in consulting supplementary sources of contemporary material on woman suffrage and peace efforts in addition to that contained in Rosika Schwimmer's papers. Mr. Robert W. Hill, Chief of the Manuscript Division of the New York Public Library, informs me that he as received some of Mrs. Catt's papers and that of these, two files of letters may not be consulted without your permission. I trust that you will permit me to examine this material in order to fill in gaps in my information on this period and to help me form a better perspective on these movements and their leaders. Looking forward to hearing from you and thanking you in advance for your assistance in this matter, Very sincerely yours, Edith Wynner Stamped return envelope enclosed. Miss Edith Wynner 54 Riverside Drive New York 24, New York [??] My dear Miss Wynner; - In reply to your letter of October 15 asking permission to consult restricted files of letters from the correspondence of Carrie Chapman Catt, I regret that I am unable to give you access to the papers in question. After considerable consideration it was decided at the time they were deposited in Mr. Hill's Division of the New York Public Library that a certain time should elapse before they were available for study, and the reasons for that decision are still good. In my opinion while the letters are of interest they do not contain material that is not already available to you elsewhere. Very sincerely yours 30 Eastchester Road New Rochelle, N. Y. October 18, 1950 [*copy mailed to R. W. Hill*] Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.