Woman's Peace Party
[1] The American Peace Society (BBC), established in 1828, was the oldest of the previously existing pacifist organizations and suffered from what one historian has called "over seven decades of accumulated Victorianism.
[2] Typified by the detached conservative nobility of corporate attorney Elihu Root, the APS was dedicated to demonstrating the incompatibility between war and Christianity and throughout its existence had remained small, impoverished, and ineffectual.
[3] As with the Carnegie Foundation, the WPF limited its activities largely to research and publication, attempting to influence political decision-makers with ideas rather than to stir the fires of popular sentiment.
"[6] Although the establishment of a permanent organization did not follow for more than four months, the roots of the Woman's Peace Party lay in a protest march of 1,500 women in New York City on August 29, 1914.
[1] This "Woman's Peace Parade" was organized less than a month after the outbreak of hostilities in World War I and featured a silent procession down Fifth Avenue behind a white banner bearing a dove in front of somber crowds lining the streets.
[7] Her son, Oswald Garrison Villard, later recalled the scene: "There were no bands; there was dead silence and the crowds watched the parade in the spirit of the marchers, with sympathy and approval.
[7] Catt, a former associate of Susan B. Anthony, was fixated upon the struggle for women's right to vote and did not see the peace march as a likely vehicle for a change of public sentiment or national policy.
[18] In April 1915, 47 women, including many members of the Woman's Peace Party along with representatives of other organizations, boarded the Dutch cruise ship the MS Noordam for the dangerous journey to The Hague.
[19] Among those making the trip through mine-strewn waters were social worker Grace Abbott, epidemiologist Alice Hamilton, the labor journalist Mary Heaton Vorse, radical trade unionist Leonora O'Reilly, and academic and future Nobel Peace Prize winner Emily Balch.
"[18] The Noordam was held up for four days in the English Channel by the Royal Navy but was ultimately allowed to proceed to The Hague, which it arrived barely in time for the start of the three-day congress on the evening of April 28, 1915.
[21] Despite the decision of some combatant nations, such as Great Britain, to deny its citizens passports which would have allowed them to participate in the Congress, the gathering still proved to be a massive event, bringing together 1,136 delegates and more than 2,000 visitors.
[21] The congress drafted a series of resolutions detailing plans for a just peace, calling for general disarmament and the removal of the profit motive through nationalizing the production of armaments, and asserting the benefits of free trade and freedom of navigation on the high seas.
