Constance Drexel - World War I

World War I

Miss Drexel first received national publicity in early 1915, when American newspapers began to report that “Philadelphia Heiress” Constance Drexel had volunteered briefly as a Red Cross nurse near the front lines in France in the early months of World War I, and reported on her experiences. She became active nationally and internationally in the International Woman’s Congress, which met at The Hague in the neutral Netherlands, in April 1915. When she agreed to write dispatches regarding the Congress for American newspapers to publish, her career as a professional journalist began. She soon joined the staff of the Philadelphia Public Ledger. When her stories expanded to include not just her experiences but also her opinions, reactions were mixed. In one such article, she wrote “one must realize that an increase in horrors hastens the end of the war; so in the long run it’s the most humane thing to have no relief funds or nurses. That’s why I left the Red Cross.” A Chicago Herald editorial entitled “Horrible Logic” observed that her statement went far to confirm “that, when once moved to cruelty, women are infinitely more cruel than men.” In another column, she opined that “perhaps the greatest curse of war” was “the effect of the loss of men on women and on the race.” She explained that the most “harrowing sight in all of war-ridden Europe today” was “the spectacle of the young girls who must always live unmated, robbed of their birthright.” According to Edwards, “Her writings suggested an enthusiasm for Germany’s preparedness campaign, and especially women’s role in that effort.”

She also became involved in the women’s suffrage movement, and, in 1916, as a campaigner for the re-election of Woodrow Wilson.

After the United States declared war on the German Empire, she attempted to return to Europe with the announced purpose of visiting her ailing sister in Switzerland, but a complaint from a colleague at the Public Ledger who alleged she had made pro-German comments led to an FBI investigation. Her editors attested to her loyalty, but in part because of her German birth and her pacifism, the investigating agent concluded that she should not be permitted to use her passport.