National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War Collected Records

Representatives of nine national women's organizations united to accomplish two goals: to lobby for the United States to join the World Court, and to hold a conference together. They chose Carrie Chapman Catt to be their leader, and they called their coalition the National Committee on the Cause and Cure of War (NCCCW).

The first Conference on the Cause and Cure of War took place in Washington, D.C. in January 1925. It was so successful that conferences thereafter were held annually until 1941, when the 16th was canceled due to lack of funds.

The National Committee itself was appointed as a "continuing committee" after the first conference, and was composed of Catt as chair, the presidents of the member organizations, and the chairs of their committees on peace or international relations. Later, other officers, elected by delegates at the conferences, were added. Though none of the member organizations was pacifist, they were all interested in promoting peace and international cooperation. In time, the Committee was composed of eleven organizations and claimed to represent five million American women. The NCCCW was supported financially by grants from its member organizations and individual contributions.

The NCCCW emphasized education. Besides its annual conferences, probably its most significant program was its "Marathon Round Tables," which represented a network of guided local study groups. Its stated goals were 1) "to learn how to discuss"; 2) "to find the best way for public opinion to function"; and 3) "to search for a bolder and faster moving program for the abolition of war." Each year a new set of questions on peace and international relations was posited and information for study on the questions was provided. The program was active from 1927 to 1939.

The member organizations of the NCCCW were: the American Association of University Women, Council of Women for Home Missions, Federation of Woman's Boards for Foreign Missions of North America, General Federation of Women's Clubs, National Board of the Young Women's Christian Associations, National Council of Jewish Women, National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, National League of Women Voters, National Woman's Christian Temperance Union, National Women's Trade Union League, and the National Women's Conference of American Ethical Union. The national office of the NCCCW was located at 1116 Grand Central Terminal Building, 100 East 45th Street, New York, New York.

Enthusiasm for the NCCCW waned during the second world war and it essentially became defunct; in 1943 it was resurrected into the Women's Action Committee for Victory and Lasting Peace (which name later became the Committee on Education for Lasting Peace).