by Anne Conover
While her plans to save the world were taking shape, Caresse happened upon a line from William Butler Yeats: “In dreams begin responsibilities . . .”
What do they know of love
Who do not know
She builds her nest
Upon a narrow ledge
Above a windy precipice?
Inspired by Yeats’s vision, Caresse wrote to Charles Olson that “love is the answer” to the horrors of war:
. . . I think I have hit upon the philosophy that the world has been waiting for, the philosophy so simple . . . that one wonders why it has never been expounded before. The philosophy of love.
Even philosophy means “love theory”—there is no other doctrine that can compare for universality . . . Enthusiasm, affection, and desire are all degrees of the same power . . . The power of love is far greater than the power of hate; love is faith, and “faith will remove mountains.”
We are now moving, herded, against our natural desires in a direction that we neither desire nor enjoy, and can we not realize that by turning away from resistance we can flow back into the stream of acceptance and ease and love? . . . I must preach love, not [only] the Christ love of “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Love is not to be introverted. It is an expansion, a sunrise. The only way to conquer the mistrust and hatred in the world today is with the forces of trust and love.
Summum Amor!! This is no Pollyanna doctrine—it is lusty!
Olson’s answer was quick and to the point: “God help us, you’re right. Love is the law—and precisely as you put it . . . tell ’em, the law breakers . . . it’s like a preface to the Summum Amor. It is lusty. To love or not to love. You are down to primaries . . . very exciting!”
Love is no commodity, but hedged now
trafficked with by states, vulgarities,
unburied dead who hid their hates in wrappers, lies;
steal impulse at its birth, choke off its breath,
a usury more fierce than money deals . . .
Not to be numbered among Olson’s “unburied dead,” Caresse wrote to Lord Boyd-Orr, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize: “I propose to form a World Association of Women. . . . The united strength of the women of the world will be so great that no destructive force can deter or stop it.” She dedicated her considerable energy and talent to organizing “a universal, trans-political association of women, based on the right to life, liberty and security of person” (a phrase borrowed from the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights). Boyd-Orr agreed that “Women do not know their own power. If they spoke with one voice, governments would grant their requests.”
To make her own voice heard, Caresse addressed the
WOMEN OF AMERICA:
Join me in my endeavor to bring about world accord . . . NOW! American women must take the initiative and have confidence in their own ability to lead world thinking. Only by standing together—by organizing for Civilization and Progress—can we exert our greatest influence. The time is here . . . to take positive action to make sure the basic idea of PEACE is not lost in the maelstrom of girding for war. . . .
(The letterhead on her stationery read: “Caresse Crosby, Director—All Women Against All Wars.”)
Using the popular chain letters of the era, she urged women of the U.S. to form a “chain reaction of friendship around the world—a Chain of Faith, so to speak. . . . If each woman who forms a link in this chain is considered to have the average arm span of five feet, it will take only some 26 million women to circle the globe—in unity, friendship and faith. Until now; my efforts have been personal, and self-financed, but in order to continue, I must have your help—spiritual, actual and financial,” she wrote. “Join this Chain of Faith by sending your contributions, even small ones—dollar bills.”
Launching a worldwide campaign, Caresse wrote to Maria Rozhneva, director of the Kupava Woolen Mills in Moscow, suggesting an exchange of letters.
I have chosen your name from those in an article which appeared in one of our newspapers, in the hope that you will care to answer and give me the names of Soviet women like yourself to correspond with . . .
I am an American woman, poet, and editor of an intercontinental review of art and literature. I am also interested in a movement to join women around the globe in an effort to prevent war and promote international peace by better understanding of each other’s problems and aspirations. . . .
An impulsive note to Queen Elizabeth II complimented one of the world’s great women on a recent telecast:
Your Majesty:
You rejoiced the hearts and gladdened the eyes of my countrywomen last night, when you appealed so warmly for international friendliness and better understanding, expressing the hope in every woman’s heart that there can be cooperation between those who desire peace rather than power, and who want to love rather than hate. May I thank you in the name of millions of women associated with me throughout the world?
As one mother to another, she added, “My son went to Cheam [the exclusive boys’ school], too.”
Caresse made full use of the new medium of television to denounce warfare as mass murder. She announced Eleven Points for World Peace—among them, the end of nationalism, the education of children as world citizens, and the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. The idealistic theme of her program was summed up in Point 9: to admire and support goodness, wherever we find it. “As Jesus Christ said, ‘I come to you from all the world. I don’t think the world was ever meant to be divided into warring, greedy nations.’”
In February 1950, Caresse registered to lobby the U.S. Congress “in the name of Women Against War, supporting a Peace Bond Bill . . . to create an account in the Treasury for peaceful uses only.” She asked Katharine Price Collier St. George, Representative from her native New York (27th District)—a first cousin of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and descendent from the original settlers at Plymouth Rock—to introduce the bill in Congress.
St. George’s straightforward manner appealed to Caresse, and her impressive bearing commanded her colleagues to take notice. An early, outspoken advocate of equal rights for women and the first woman to serve on the powerful House Rules Committee, St. George stated that “Women neither need nor want protective legislation . . . they want to be free to work as equals, asking for no special privileges, but insisting on equality of opportunity and pay.”
The two women drafted a Peace Bond Bill, providing for an issue of U.S. Government bonds to replace the war bonds issued as a patriotic fund-raising effort during World War II. St. George introduced the Bill—H.R. 7596, 81st Congress, 2nd Session—on the floor of the House on March 7, 1950. It stated, in part, that all proceeds of sales of Peace Bonds would be covered in a special account in the U.S. Treasury “to be used for housing, education, hospitalization, communication,” and other much-needed social programs. Specifically, no funds raised in this manner were to be used for payment of war debts or any military activity.
The ranking female member of Congress, the Honorable Frances P. Bolton (R.-Ohio), applauded the Bill: “That’s a grand idea . . . a smart move. It should make quite an appeal.” Edith Nourse Rogers (R.-Mass.), widely respected and influential among her colleagues, also sponsored the Bill, saying “Anything I can do for Peace, I am for . . .” Caresse used her acknowledged gifts of persuasion in the predominantly male bastions of Congress, but her efforts were the target of sexist jokes.
Her small, self-financed secretarial staff wrote to key women throughout the country to “do something REALISTIC about Peace”:
I appeal to you, Women of America, who now hold more than 75 percent of the wealth of the capitalist system. There is no investment in our Government today of which over 70 percent is not used for purposes of war. . . . We can stop this! Let us ask for Peace Bonds for 1950, which we women can get behind with our earnings, savings, and inherited wealth; support our cou
ntry so that it will grow greater, knowing that no part of what we invest will swell the atom stockpile or fabricate the tools that kill . . . OUR POWER IS COLOSSAL!!
Despite her tireless efforts, the Peace Bond Bill was defeated in the male-dominated Ways and Means Committee before it went up for vote in the House. St. George agreed to try again at the next Session. But this was—admittedly—a major setback for Women Against War.
Viewing the defeat as a temporary obstacle to be overcome, Caresse wrote:
The story of the Phoenix holds good in the life of ideas, perhaps more truly than in any other sphere. If we fail—and I do not, will not believe we shall—it only means that the women of later generations will take up the sword where we let it fall . . .Whether or not we are completely successful in our generation or not, at least we shall have lit the lamp by which future generations will be able to see.
In the spring, Caresse launched the first Women’s Party in the District of Columbia, a model for other states. “Woman has acquired the right to vote,” she wrote, and now has a sacred duty. She must not shirk or be afraid of politics, but use her moral weapon for peace and for the defense of freedom through law. Woman has come of age!”
Our representation in our government is woefully inadequate:
471 Congressmen (only 21 women)
81 Senators (only 1 woman)
1 Cabinet member
In other countries in which women have the vote, they are far more active on a government level . . . England, France, India (only two years), Italy—those other women wonder why we hold back, and I ask, why do we?
Our children need us, you say—but out of a woman’s active life, not more than one-fifth is given over to the bearing and care of children, and during those 1-5 years after marriage (usually between the ages of 25 and 35), she can still participate in government by her vote, study in preparation for a political career if she plans her life. Career women can and do accomplish as much as a man, help support the home, better the standards of their calling.
Why not do the same in government? We should have equal representation in Congress, equal positions in the Cabinet, equal rights in the manner in which our lives are governed; at present we accept the status of a minority group, but WHY?
Caresse was again a woman ahead of her time, a voice calling out in the wilderness to a generation still shackled by Betty Friedan’s “Feminine Mystique.”
Not content to make her views known only in her own country, Caresse flew to Paris to assist in establishing the World Center of Women’s Organizations in the 8th Arrondissement. A press release announced: “Now we must succeed in broadening the initiative, and in creating a national center in every country . . . an International Committee, with representatives of women’s organizations working together with National Executive Committees.”
She planned to travel around the world to gather the support of Mohandas Gandhi and other pacifist leaders, to spread the gospel among women “in every walk of life, in every land. We women need not infiltrate [with our propaganda], for in every land, we are already there!”
My hope . . . is to appeal simply as a woman to other women . . . to influence the leaders of East, West, North and South to believe that those they serve are citizens of ONE WORLD, with different problems and different faiths, to be sure, but with one hope, one prayer, for Universal Peace. . . .
Caresse was dressed in the height of ’50s fashion when she was spotted by a wire service photographer arriving from Athens at Rome’s Ciampino Airport. She was wearing immaculate white gloves and a two-piece suit with large pockets and wide lapels, carrying a para sol against the damaging effect of the sun. “Fashion is a world citizen,” she noted on a scrap of stationery (preserved in the archives). “My dress, from the U.S., my hat from Italy, my gloves from Germany, my sandals from Spain, my watch from Switzerland, my bracelet from England, my necklace from Egypt (a gift from Harry), my perfume from France, my scarf from Greece, my emblem from the World (i.e., the World Citizen’s pin).”
Among the press clippings Caresse collected are photographs of the World Citizens’ flag flying above the model city of Faridabad (a refugee community built by displaced persons outside New Delhi), a pass to a debate in the Bombay Legislative Assembly (about the use of English in the school system), and a transcript of the interview with Gandhi.
She described her journey to then-Secretary of State Dean Acheson:
. . . I have traveled to India and back, and have been able to reach leaders who represent, I believe, over 100 million women. . . . I have talked with Soviet Women in East Berlin, with the League of Anti-fascist Women in Yugoslavia, Socialists and others in India, and all parties in Europe and the Middle East.
I realize now that following the Marshall Plan which was so gratefully received and did so much to alleviate the immediate hardships of Europeans, it is now to the inner man, that we must offer a belief, almost a religion, that we can all work for . . . not the dollar economy, but a world ideal that transcends all -isms. World Citizenship could be that unifying allegiance we so desperately need.
Chapter XIII
DEDICATION AT DELPHI
“. . . facing universal disaster, man turns again to Delphi, the spiritual capital of the world.”
—Caresse
“I shall never forget my first sunrise at Delphi,” Caresse wrote. It was January, the harshest month of the year in Boetia, the village chilled to its marrow by the night winds that whirled down the slopes of Mount Parnassus . . . through the sacred olive groves. I pulled my heavy Burberry around me as I sat on the topmost round of that perfect Grecian amphitheater and waited for the first glow of dawn. . . .
Her quest for a permanent home for World Citizens led to this site, overlooking the sacred grove of Apollo. There, the first document of human rights was conceived by the Amphictyonic League, almost five centuries before the birth of Christ. The symbolism was not lost on Caresse.
As she awaited the dawn, cocks crowed, donkeys brayed, church bells began to peal, and the strident horn of the morning bus to Amfissa summoned its passengers. Caresse climbed aboard with the women carrying eggs in gaudy market baskets and bundles of kindling tied with woven bands. Beyond the village, where the road to Amfissa curved around the plateau, she caught a glimpse of a rocky promontory—a sheer drop of some 300 feet above the town of Krissa—”no vegetation there, only the silver and amethyst stones of the fields shining in the morning sun. I knew then that I had to reach that spot. Something inside me cried out to it.”
Once there, she asked the villagers to locate the man who owned the property. The Patriarch spent most of his days with his herds on the mountainside, but two young relatives, Iani and Pericles, were sent to search for him. They hiked for several hours and finally returned with the oldest member of the clan, a wrinkled shepherd who was astounded to see a petite American woman in his humble cottage. Even more amazing was the fact that she wanted to buy the small piece of rocky grazing land that the Patriarch’s family had owned since the year 900 A.D.
“No good, that land. Not even for goats!” the Patriarch said in his native tongue, using his gnarled hands in an attempt to put across his meaning. The young men interpreted that he would not sell the land, but he would give it to anyone foolish enough to buy it. Taken by surprise, she refused to accept the land without a token payment. Endless, polite negotiations were accompanied by meaningful gestures. In the end, the old man agreed to sell two acres of land for 250 dollars. But the entire family must be present, he insisted, to sign the deed to make the act official.
Iani and Pericles were sent to round up the Mayor and some 18 members of the Patriarch’s family. When all were assembled by candlelight, Caresse signed the document making Citizens of the World owners of that symbolic spot. Ceremonial toasts in retsina sealed the bargain and lasted until another dawn was breaking.
Caresse’s dreams were never
small ones. She planned to build a marble Thesaurus, or treasury, for World Citizens on the site. She had researched the classic meaning of the word “treasury”—a storage place—not for gold, but a spiritual bank for works of art and rare documents (in ancient times, the documents were often marble tablets). A press release announced the World Citizens’ plan to erect a pentagon of white pantellic marble—the marble of the Parthenon—as a meeting place, library, and school for instruction in world citizenship. Its five points would symbolize Truth, Beauty, Love, Justice, and CHOICE (emphasis on the latter). Each nation-state would be invited to deposit its greatest legacy to the world. (In her view, the Constitution should be the U.S. contribution.) On the outer rim of the building, CITIZENS OF THE WORLD would be carved in both English and Greek. Delphi would become the spiritual capital of the world.
In Athens, she discussed her plans with Prime Minister Venizelos, with poets and writers, with religious leaders. She never counted the cost of building materials in contemporary dollars, or the high cost of labor, never measured the impracticability of transporting marble to the site. (Since there was no native marble, the giant building blocks of the original temple at Delphi were carved on the other islands, then shipped in sailing vessels to Itea, where they were pulled up the path on the backs of mules.) Nonetheless, she consulted the prestigious architectural firm of Edward Durrell Stone in New York to confirm that she was serious about the construction and determined to see it through.
To followers of the movement, Caresse announced: “A new dawn is breaking! Today, . . . facing universal disaster, man turns again to Delphi.” Telegrams were sent from the Hotel Grande-Bretagne to the Big Four leaders of the Western world: Dwight D. Eisenhower at the White House; Anthony Eden at No. 10 Downing Street; Edgar Fauré at the Quai d’Orsay; and Marshal Bulganin at the Kremlin: