Truman, Harry S. | President Truman congratulates Emily Greene Balch on being awarded the 1946 Nobel Peace Prize, providing direct refutation of the claim on the official website of the Nobel Prize that Balch "received no congratulations from the US...
Property from the Collection of Elsie and Philip Sang
Truman, Harry S.
Typed letter signed ("Harry S Truman") as thirty-third President, to Emily Greene Balch, congratulating her on the award of the Nobel Peace Prize
One page (223 x 175 mm) on a bifolium of blue-embossed blue White House letterhead, Washington, 25 April 1947; lightly creased at horizontal fold.
Emily Greene Balch (1867−1961) was an economist and sociologist, with particular interests in women's rights, child labor, and immigration. She was a member of the first graduating class at Bryn Mawr, and studied subsequently at Harvard, the University of Chicago, and the University of Berlin. Beginning with foment of World War I, Balch focused her attention on the peace movement. Her contract at Wellesley, where she had taught since 1896, was terminated in 1919 after she requested an extension to her leave of absence to continue her pacifist work.
Balch became affiliated with the Geneva-based Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and it was for her work with WILPF that she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1946. Balch shared the Prize equally with John Raleigh Mott, the head of the Young Men's Christian Association, who was cited for his contribution "to the creation of a peace-promoting religious brotherhood across national boundaries." Balch gave her share of the monetary award to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Balch was not able to attend the award ceremony in Oslo in December 1946, and the "occasion" referenced by President Truman in his congratulatory letter was presumably some presentation ceremony service held in the United States:
"On the occasion honoring the award to you of the Nobel Peace Prize 1946, I extend my warmest congratulations.
"The attainment of an enduring peace is the most challenging problem facing the world today. As a result of our position of leadership, the United States bears a grave responsibility in the collective effort to free the world of the curse of war. in cooperation with other nations we have pledged our resources and energies to promote the conditions of a just and honorable peace.
"I join with you in the hope that this high purpose will be achieved in our day."
Both the tone and content of Truman's letter stand in sharp contrast to the reaction in Balch's homeland described on the official website of the Nobel Prize: "When Emily Greene Balch was given the Peace Prize in 1946 for her lifelong work for disarmament and peace, she received no congratulations from the US government. The official US had long regarded her as a dangerous radical" (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1946/balch/facts/).
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Property from the Collection of Elsie and Philip Sang
Truman, Harry S.
Typed letter signed ("Harry S Truman") as thirty-third President, to Emily Greene Balch, congratulating her on the award of the Nobel Peace Prize
One page (223 x 175 mm) on a bifolium of blue-embossed blue White House letterhead, Washington, 25 April 1947; lightly creased at horizontal fold.
Emily Greene Balch (1867−1961) was an economist and sociologist, with particular interests in women's rights, child labor, and immigration. She was a member of the first graduating class at Bryn Mawr, and studied subsequently at Harvard, the University of Chicago, and the University of Berlin. Beginning with foment of World War I, Balch focused her attention on the peace movement. Her contract at Wellesley, where she had taught since 1896, was terminated in 1919 after she requested an extension to her leave of absence to continue her pacifist work.
Balch became affiliated with the Geneva-based Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and it was for her work with WILPF that she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1946. Balch shared the Prize equally with John Raleigh Mott, the head of the Young Men's Christian Association, who was cited for his contribution "to the creation of a peace-promoting religious brotherhood across national boundaries." Balch gave her share of the monetary award to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
Balch was not able to attend the award ceremony in Oslo in December 1946, and the "occasion" referenced by President Truman in his congratulatory letter was presumably some presentation ceremony service held in the United States:
"On the occasion honoring the award to you of the Nobel Peace Prize 1946, I extend my warmest congratulations.
"The attainment of an enduring peace is the most challenging problem facing the world today. As a result of our position of leadership, the United States bears a grave responsibility in the collective effort to free the world of the curse of war. in cooperation with other nations we have pledged our resources and energies to promote the conditions of a just and honorable peace.
"I join with you in the hope that this high purpose will be achieved in our day."
Both the tone and content of Truman's letter stand in sharp contrast to the reaction in Balch's homeland described on the official website of the Nobel Prize: "When Emily Greene Balch was given the Peace Prize in 1946 for her lifelong work for disarmament and peace, she received no congratulations from the US government. The official US had long regarded her as a dangerous radical" (https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1946/balch/facts/).
Condition Report:
Condition as described in catalogue entry.
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