18 July 1962

Dear, dear Virginia,

Well, the International is over and everyone has gone home again, or has started her tour around among the various branches here in the United States. I wish that I could show you a cartoon drawn by Giles, this famous English cartoonist. There is a picture of a woman in a streetcar, and on her lap she has a newspaper which says Macmillan to See Khrushchev News All UHO Waited For De Da De Da, and at the other end of the car is a very homely man with his hat on his foot. She is looking very bewildered, and he looks jovial and as if he had just enjoyed a pint of ale, or perhaps two pints. Underneath the cartoon it says "Lady, when they've all finished peace making, what's the betting everyone hates everyone else the same as usual?" Well, I think that this is perhaps true about our Congress. No one seems willing to transcend the personal rivalries and jealousies and idiosyncrasies in order to have a look at the real problems which menace the world today.

I want to say to you that Vera Foster was there, was fine, and I enjoyed talking with her several times. Moreover, she returned the check and I gave her another one, made out to Tuskeegee Institute, so you see this problem all worked out very well. I am sorry that I bothered you with this, but I want you to remember that in the beginning it was due to my great desire to have you yourself at the Congress. There were all too few of people who have a different idea than that which is the predominating one among the top officers. I was sorry to see that the most vocal people from Denmark, too, are of the same reactionary opinion. I do not mean to say, though, that there weren't a good number of people who understand what is the truth in the world today. Of course Gertrude Baer was there, and there was really a vicious effort made to remove her from the International Executive, and I am glad to say it did not succeed. Gertrude Baer is difficult, but her integrity is absolute, and she certainly knows more than anyone else - not only about the WIL but about international relations and what is needed. The members from Canada - two or three of them were excellent, too. Then the delegate from France, Mlle. Pontheil, who is also difficult, but who, too, always stands up for her point of view, which is, of course, the unpopular point of view. The delegate from Finland was also good, but the officers have a way of shushing these unpopular delegates in a way which I think is not proper. Then the people like Adelaide Baker, Emily Simon and Orlie Pell get to speak long and loudly.

Several interesting things happened, and I personally had a wonderful time, because I was with the delegate from Latin America, Lucila La Verde from Bogota, who knows a great deal and better is a warm, friendly, lovable person. We had many good laughs and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. She was one of my roommates. My other roommate was Jan Symons from Australia. She is also a volatile person. She had just returned from six weeks in Cuba and had a great deal which she would like to have been permitted to say. We had a good time. Perhaps you will remember her at St. Paul. She was, however, not very well then, as she was suffering from a thyroid crisis and was somewhat too emotional and too unstable. We had one or two parties in our room where all of the younger people came and made remarks about the Congress. One of the delegates from New York, if you will permit me to be very vulgar, after describing the amount of money she had spent, the time she had taken (her vacation), she had had to do all sorts of things to placate her husband in order to get permission to come, then said "And what was the Congress. What was the Congress", she said, "Nothing. Nothing but shit." I hope you will forgive me for saying this, and yet there were sort of nods of agreement. This girl is a bright woman who is a sociologist, and does some sort of welfare work on a scientific basis for the City of New York.

I succeeded in having the film about Russia shown one evening, which I think most of the delegates liked. This was a film made by Alice and Harvey Richards about women and children in the Soviet Union, and is a rather simple film, but I think a good one. It is, perhaps, the best amateur film that I have seen. It was shown, and many of the delegates seemed to like it, but I have heard that one or two felt that this propaganda should not be permitted at the Congress.

Well, what can we do. I do not believe that we can expect too much from WIL unless the reins fall into other hands, and I see no possibility of this.

The 1st of September I am going off to the conference in Montreal, Voice of Women, where we hope to see if some way can be found for international cooperative work among women all over the world. Linus will go with me and then go on to Europe, and then he will come back to Montreal and we will come home together.

I shall try and get hold of this book which you mentioned, and I shall write also to the Book of the Month Club. I have read a review of the book, but I cannot recall where it was. Perhaps I can find it again.

There is another reason that I am sorry that you were not at Asilomar. That is, simply, that Asilomar is such a beautiful place, and I would have liked you to see it - the pines growing right down to the sea, and this beautiful white sand and the lovely, dunes make it really a wonderful place. It is a great pity that we did not have enough time to really see it - only a few of the very adventuresome ones, such as myself, who got up very early in the morning and took a quick dip in the icy cold sea. We couldn't really swim, but at least got wet. The water was 50°, so you see it was not too terrible.

Vera Foster and Bess Walcott, and another excellent and beautiful girl whose name is Manley, were there, but, of course, our good Negro friends are not yet willing to just speak out of turn - that is, they remain quiet and do not change the situation very much. Sometimes I think the WIL puts them on the Board just in order to have people that they can influence, and whose vote they can control. Bess Walcott makes excellent reports when she is given an opportunity to do so. Otherwise, she remains rather quiet. Flemmie Kittrell was there, too, but she, too, did not say anything - at least not in the plenary sessions.

I believe that Mildred Olmsted is beginning to realize that the WIL is not doing the job that it should be doing. She still has confidence in Homer Jack and such people, however, and felt that Homer Jack's going to the Moscow Congress proved that we are beginning to cooperate with the Eastern Bloc. It is so hard for me to understand how she can be so naive. I am going to send her the next issue of The Minority of One, in which Arnoni discusses Homer Jack and his activities.

I, of course, understand any sympathize with these Negro people, and I feel terribly ashamed of the role that we white people have played and are playing in all of this. I only wish that they would be more vocal in their protest at meetings such as this one. The WIL feels that just having them there proves that everything is getting much better, and Mildred Olmsted even talked about how much had been accomplished by the non-violent methods in the South. Can you really believe that things have been non-violent in the South? I wanted so much to say something about that, but time is always short, and I feel that other people must have a chance to say something. The difficulty is, then, that it is always the same people who take the chance and say things which I think are not very pertinent. Emily Simon said, for example, that we could only talk with people who could talk to their governments, and not for their governments. I wanted to laugh, and wanted to say that perhaps we talk to our government, here in the United States, but we had never had the slightest inkling as to whether or not we are ever heard. At the next Board meeting I am going to ask straight out for concrete examples of when, if ever, the government has paid the slightest attention to what the WIL has ever said.

You are thinking bad things of me, I know, but I want to say again that I, of course, realize that the WIL does have a long tradition and that there are good people, particularly among the membership. But this doesn't excuse us for being so far behind the traditions of Jane Addams. I think this letter is long enough, now, and I only want to say that I hope that you are coming along well, and that you have the use of your foot again.

Please give our greetings to your husband, too. I have read again, just yesterday, his Jesus, A Free Speech Victim, and I am going to use some of this material in my talk in San Francisco at the Hiroshima Day Commemoration, which is being organized by the Women Strike for Peace there.

Again my fondest greetings.

Affectionately, [AHP]