[Handbill]: Full Text of the Manifesto Issued by Envoys of the International Congress of Women at the Hague, to the Governments of Europe, and the President of the United States

New York: International Congress of Women, 1915. Unbound. Fine. First edition. One quarto sheet measuring approximately 8½" 10¼", printed recto only. Trimmed a bit close at the bottom edge else a fine copy of a rather delicate handbill signed in type by Jacobs, Macmillan, Schwimmer, Balch, and Addams as representatives of Holland, Great Britain, Austro-Hungary, and The United States, respectively.

A manifesto articulating the results of the May 1915 International Congress of Women held in the Hague, as well as subsequent discussions held in various national capitals. The manifesto argues powerfully for peace, and a "conference of neutral nations as an agency of continuous mediation for the settlement of the war."

"As women, it was possible for us, from belligerent and neutral nations alike, to meet in the midst of war and to carry forward an interchange of question and answer between capitals which were barred to each other. It is now our duty to make articulate our convictions." The manifesto closes with a call to action: "The excruciating burden of responsibility for the hopeless continuance of this war no longer rests on the will of the belligerent nations alone. It rests also on the will of those neutral governments and people who have been spared its shock but cannot, if they would, absolve themselves from their full share of responsibility for the continuance of war."

An interesting document, authored in part by two future Nobel laureates. Jane Addams would win the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize (along with Nicholas Murray Butler), and Emily Greene Balch would win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 (along with John Raleigh Mott). *OCLC* locates a single copy of this manifesto, at the Peace Palace Library in the Netherlands.