099. Emily Greene Balch: A radical champion of peace

Emily Greene Balch

When Emily Greene Balch (1867-1961), a US citizen, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 for her lifelong work for disarmament and peace, the US government did not congratulate her. The administration had declared her to be a dangerous socialist.

Emily Greene belonged to a wealthy family and studied Sociology and Economics at the prestigious Bryn Mawr College, US, and later in Europe. As a sociologist, Emily Greene studied the appalling living conditions of workers, immigrants, minorities, and women and maintained a lifelong interest in such issues. She declared herself a socialist as early as in 1906.

Emily Greene combined theoretical studies and field work. By 1913, she had become Professor of Economics and Sociology at Wellesley College. She was an extraordinary teacher, insisting on the importance of combining library research and field studies. She was also known for the clarity of her thought, the breadth of her experience, her compassion for the underprivileged, and her strong-mindedness. Emily Greene also began participating in movements for women’s suffrage, racial justice, control of child labor, and better wages and conditions of labour.

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, she decided to devote her life to peace initiatives. As a delegate to the International Congress of Women at The Hague in 1915, she played a prominent role in several important projects:

• Founding an organization called the Women’s International Committee for Permanent Peace, later renamed the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom;
• Preparing peace proposals for consideration by the nations at war;
• Joining a delegation, sponsored by the US Congress, to urge the Scandinavian countries and Russia to initiate mediation offers;

Emily Greene campaigned actively against the entry of the US into the War.

Due to her peace and public activism, she lost her teaching job and joined the liberal weekly The Nation. Later, she became the Secretary of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom based in Geneva. She donated her share of the Nobel Peace Prize money to the League. She helped set up summer schools on peace education and created new branches of the League in over 50 countries. Until the end of her life, she maintained her association with the League.

Between the two world wars, Emily Green was active in many projects of the League of Nations, working for causes such as disarmament, the internationalization of aviation, drug control, and US participation in the affairs of the League.

She sought ways and means to help the victims of Nazi persecution. The excesses of Nazism forced her to give up her pacifist position and support the War. She worked on peace initiatives characterized by the common spirit of internationalism, for example, the internationalization of important waterways, aviation, and certain regions of the world.

Along with her tremendous public work for peace and well-being of all, she was also an author, painter and poet. She remained single and died in 1961, a day after her 94^th birthday.