American Commission on Conditions in Ireland

Wood was invited by "The Nation" [telegram, Sept. 9, 1920] to "serve as member nonpartisan committee of representative Americans with power to add to their number who shall designate a select commission to sit at Washington ... for impartial investigation of reported atrocities in Ireland regarding which the British Ambassador and Professor DeValera and others shall be invited to submit evidence."

From this "Committee of One Hundred" a small commission was elected which held six hearings in Washington, D.C. Nov. 1920 ­ Jan. 1921. Wood, Jane Addams, James H. Maurer, David I. Walsh and Frederic C. Howe were the original commissioners. Oliver P. Newman, George W. Norris, Norman Thomas and C. L. Knight were later added to the Commission.

Witnesses were invited to come and testify, the Commission paying expenses. The Commission was an unofficial body ­ it lacked subpoena powers or legal standing. Because the Commission had great difficulty in finding anyone willing to testify representing the British point of view (in large part because many saw the Commission's actions as interference in an internal matter), the report and activities of the Commission were considered biased and controversial in many quarters.

Topics include arrangements for witnesses' visits, financial matters, August 1921 efforts to extend truce between Ireland and Britain from 48 hours to 28 days, letters sent to Lloyd George and Eamon DeValera from prominent persons in support of truce, Anglo-­Irish treaty and its aftereffects.