Page 1 of 7 
 
Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Helen Green Ansley 
April 24, 1985 
Cassette 2, Side 2 
 
 
Debra Ryan  00:04 
This is side two of my second interview with Helen Ansley in her home in Issaquah, 
Washington, on April 24, 1985. 
 
Helen Ansley  00:13 
Is it louder now? Oh, yes, after-- when the boys-- it's almost up, but in 1949, when our boys were 
both back in this country, my husband and I were very much concerned for the war, and got into 
the United World Federalists. 
 
Debra Ryan  00:49 
Tell me a little bit about that group, what kind of people joined it? 
 
Helen Ansley  00:53 
Really, it's occurred to me that, before I skip on to that, I should go back and tell you that 
between the-- between 1945 and 1949, I was developing a new curriculum for the junior church 
school at the Unitarian Church, I developed a new way of doing it. It was-- my husband and I 
were both active in that and also in adult education at the Unitarian Church. The adult education 
led us into mental health. Also, it was the time of my menopause, which made me interested in 
mental health, and my husband was on the board of the Cleveland Mental Hygiene Association, 
and because I had the Director of Mental Hygiene talk at the Unitarian Church and put on a 
whole workshop on mental health, he asked me to help start a Cleveland Council for Mental 
Health, and that was organized in 1948. 
 
Debra Ryan  02:20 
What were the goals of that group?  
 
Helen Ansley  02:24 
The goal was, really, better public education about what mental health was. And one of the talks 
that I give now, and one that I developed at that time, because up until then, really, mental health 
had been-- just they didn't think of it as that. You were crazy and you were sent to an insane 
asylum. One of the things that was part of that is when this same George came back another time 
for a work period. He spent it out at the insane asylum or mental health hospital in Cleveland. So 
he became interested in mental health, and I didn't-- what could be done, because I know we say 
Page 2 of 7 
 
mental health is feeling good about yourself, feeling good about the relationship with other 
people, and feeling good about your job, and that's the 1-2-3 of mental health. And we began to 
explain how that came about, and how it's the stresses that upset you that make people say 
you're-- you're crazy, but it's too much going on. And now we realize it's the stresses of what's 
happening, rather than anything going wrong with your mind. You [?started?]. So. 
 
Debra Ryan  03:50 
Did you meet with a lot of community resistance when you tried to-- when you tried to-- doing 
mental health [inaudible]? 
 
Helen Ansley  03:55 
Well, the way it was done, we had some 30 or 40 different organizations forming this mental 
health council. And I got into it because of the church. But we had the-- oh, there were other 
churches. There was a federation of women's clubs. There was a Jewish federation. A whole long 
list of community organizations, the Junior League, the different things who were all concerned. 
And that's what our council did. It brought those people together so that we could learn what was 
to be learned about mental health and how we can work on it. And I know that some of them 
developed little plays that they would put on that would help to understand. So I have, oh, I have 
other things about what I did with the Mental Health Council. And then., you see that led into 
the-- right after that came the World Federalists. But here I was, doing an Adult Education 
Council, which also was made up the same way, and the League of Women Voters in these 
things. And I have lots of material showing workshops that we put out. For instance, the Mental 
Health Council was caused-- the causes of peace, because peace begins in the minds of men. War 
begins in the minds of men. Peace was [?begins?] in the minds of men. We talked about peace 
between the generations and peace at work, on the job and-- so.  
 
Debra Ryan  04:52 
So what kinds of things did the World Federation do [inaudible]?  
 
Helen Ansley  06:01 
So then, from the-- from the-- that led us into the United World Federalists, which was an 
organization started in 1949-- well, and they met in Cleveland in '49. It was started in '47. 
Norman Cousins, and Cord Meyer, and Alan Cranston were early leaders in that, and they held 
a-- we helped to organize a Cleveland chapter, and that Cleveland chapter then was host to the 
national meeting in 1949 of World Federalists. Their idea was that peace is not just the absence 
of war, it's the presence of law, and order, and justice. And the reason we have peace in our 
communities is because we have law, and order, and justice. And we felt that there-- the United 
Nations must be given some powers of law in order to maintain law, and order, and justice. So, it 
was very much to study the United Nations and what it needed to give it enough power, what 
laws we should have. So, my husband became the president of the first Cleveland chapter, and 
later, the state branch of that. And then I went on to the National Council. And then, because we 
organized a mid-Lakes region, I--and we brought-- we had a regional director in Cleveland to 
organize the work of volunteer chapters all over. Many lawyers were getting into this. There 
were great interest there, but our Cleveland chapter was quite strong. And then the-- our 
Executive Director, went back to New England to work there, and I had been his assistant, so I 
had a paid job with the World Federalist, first as his assistant, and then I became the Regional 
Page 3 of 7 
 
Director of The World Federalists. And I guess that was about 1954, somewhere around there, 
maybe that's when he came. But-- so, we worked very-- so I was working on all these things at 
once. Mental health and adult education, keeping up with the League of Women Voters. This 
was the time when, you know, your children leave home and you have time, and fortunately, my 
husband and I had the same interests. One reason that we were-- they had a strong chapter in 
Cleveland is because of the World Affairs Council. The First World Affairs Council was in 
Cleveland, so it all tied together, and we were working with wonderful people for these ideas.  
 
Debra Ryan  10:01 
Tell me about the work that you did with--  
 
Helen Ansley  10:04 
What kind of work? 
 
Debra Ryan  10:05 
Kinds of activities did you help organize?  
 
Helen Ansley  10:07 
Well, I did some speaking as to the ideas of law and order, and how the community must be 
larger in order to do it. And now that the world is one community, there's better communication, 
and what happens one place affects the other almost immediately. And you see, during my 
lifetime, I saw all that happen, because back in 1916, I can remember when my brother was a 
senior in high school, and that was the year of the first transcontinental telephone, and then you 
see we-- I saw the the radio come, and then the the TV, and the whole communication 
developed. And that was all about the time, you see, tied in with me doing war work and-- oh, as 
I try to tell you, as I realized this tremendous change that was happening in the whole world. But 
then, along-- in 1951, that was the time that Clint was called back into the reserves, and he and 
Jean went to-- were stationed in Honolulu after he was married, and he was flying a transport 
plane between Honolulu and Korea. That was the time of the McCarthy period. We were 
attacked because we were talking about one world. We were attacked as being communists. 
World Federalists, anybody that was working for one world, for world government, were 
attacked as commies. And this-- at even a church, and in race relations, if you were a liberal, you 
were called a communist. And here we were, in the middle of this. And it frightens me now, to 
see so much of the same thing happening, coming from the extreme right. There's always 
emphasis on war and war, and not reports of the good things that are happening. I've maintained 
my membership in the World Federalists, and I was on their National Executive Council after I 
stopped having a paid job, and attended many national meetings. It's, it's frightening. Now, turn 
it off. 
 
Debra Ryan  13:29 
Okay, so-- 
 
Helen Ansley  13:31 
-- I'm going back to-- I said that we did the causes of peace, which was caused, and called an 
Institute on Human Relations, and that was in 1948. And because-- and I wrote a story of that for 
our denominational-- Unitarian denominational paper. In 1949 then, we did an Institute on 
Page 4 of 7 
 
Positive Steps Toward Peace. This was also sponsored by our-- I was chairman of this. But we 
involved-- were seven churches of different denominations, and we talked about, it was a two 
day thing, positive steps toward peace. Two phases. One, peace through understanding, the 
UNESCO problem-- the UNESCO program of the United Nations. And then, peace through law 
and order, the United World Federalist program, and that all came about through our Adult 
Education Committee in the Unitarian Church. 
 
Debra Ryan  14:56 
Let's just wait. [Bell rings.] 
 
Speaker 1  15:01 
Also, as part of that, we get out of a rather attractive folder. "What in the world interests you"? 
And we talked about current affairs, human relations, social action, town meetings, book 
reviews, philosophy. And we had a human relations forum, and where we put on three talks by a 
psychologist on emotional security. Those three topics were, Know yourself, help yourself and 
help others.  
 
Debra Ryan  15:38 
This is through your church.  
 
Helen Ansley  15:40 
That is through the church, but it tied in with what I was doing in the Council for Mental Health. 
Just as what I was doing in World Federalists tied in with what we were doing in the church. 
 
Debra Ryan  15:54 
So, were you doing some writing during that-- I noticed you not mentioning you wrote your 
story on [inaudible].  
 
Helen Ansley  15:59 
I wrote an article describing what we were doing at the church that was in our national 
publication. I wrote one-- I wrote this pamphlet on strengthening the United Nations, because at 
that time, there were these different proposals for how we could have a strong [?the?] United 
Nations. One was the Culbert-- one was-- first, there was a diagram of the General Assembly and 
the Security Council. And then the American Association for United Nations was making a 
called plan with showed the police, the courts, the legislature. There was a federal union plan 
proposed by Clarence Streit, and Culbertson proposed the [?Quote?] of Force, A-B-C, in which-- 
and I have the diagrams of that. One were to take the democracies all out by themselves, a 
federal union of the democracies. And then I presented and drew a diagram of the World 
Federalist plan, which would have the different things, quote, "Bonds of UNESCO", these 
countries working together, held together by how they were cooperating. And then around the 
whole Security Council and the General Assembly, there would be a legislature, courts, and 
police, and we would have law which would be enacted, interpreted, enforced upon the 
individual. Not law against a country, but what laws would be necessary for-- to have for an 
individual. 
 
Debra Ryan  18:00 
Page 5 of 7 
 
Okay, so tell me what again, what that is?  
 
Helen Ansley  18:02 
Well, in 1981, someone wrote me to say, What all have you done on world order? And I did this 
summary at that time, from age 15 to 17, that's 1915 to 1917. I was working with my mother for 
Women's Suffrage because we thought, when women have the vote, they'll put an end to war. 
See this, this was just at the time of the First World War. And then I remember, when I was 
between 18 and 27, chapel bells at college proclaiming Armistice Day in 1918. Hope for world 
peace through the League of Nations, followed by frustration and despair. And then, in 1922, I 
married Frank Ansley, a veteran of World War One. Age 41, Pearl Harbor came, and our oldest 
son was stationed in England navigating a bomber while I was working as an ordinance inspector 
in war plants in Cleveland. And it was in between 41 and 47 before-- that we began to think so 
much about what we could do. And Frank and I heard Judge Robert [?Wilkin?] speak at the 
Council on World Affairs about the possibility for world peace through World Federation. We 
helped start the Cleveland chapter of the United World Federalists, our younger station-- our 
younger son was, at this time, stationed over in occupied Germany. Then, 1948 to '51, there was 
rapid growth of the World Federalists. We were host to the first General Assembly, where Cord, 
Norman Cousins [?were opening?], Don Harrington, the [inaudible], Sally [?Ray?], Don 
[?Keis?], George Hope. All these became famous and very active leaders of the World 
Federalists. And we were working not just for the absence of war, but the presence of law, and 
order, and justice. In 1950, I authored an eight page illustrated pamphlet describing the 
Culbertson, Streit, and World Federalist proposals for strengthening United Nations, and chaired 
a seven church workshop on positive steps to peace. Then, when I was-- 1951, to '65-- in '51, our 
son was recalled to the Air Force, stationed in Honolulu. We continued our work for World 
Federalists. I served on the National Council, helped organize the mid-Lakes region, and then 
succeeded Don Wilson as regional director. I continued to work for World Federalists after 
moving to California to be near our children and grandchildren. I served on the Committee for 
the World Association of World Federalists Meeting in San Francisco in 1965, the 20th 
anniversary of the United Nations. Between age 65 and 75, I moved to a retirement home, 
carried a legal and voter study on the problems of aging while I was working with Robert Pickus 
at the World Without War Council. And that was the time of the Vietnam War, student violence, 
the National Guard. National Guard marching up and down the streets of Berkeley to keep peace. 
And I saw all that. Has all our effort been for nothing? And this was the time of my husband's 
slow death from cancer. Is this is the end of my world? But age 75 to 81, I was living alone in an 
apartment, still driving a 1964 car. Efforts now directed to changing the ageist attitudes which 
prevent the elderly from contributing to the solutions of today's problems unless, of course, it's 
money you're offering with no strings attached. Fortunate to now have a career as a consultant on 
aging, giving talks, attending workshops, teaching classes. I see new hope for eventual world 
order as individual leaders working for social change are becoming more spiritually oriented. I'm 
glad to be a part of Marilyn Ferguson's Aquarian Conspiracy, and to have attended two futures 
conferences. When I was in Berkeley, some of us in the-- that area, gathered to talk about what 
we would suggest as a code of personal responsibility for acts that lead to war. In other words, 
law is usually, "What would I give up for what I would get?", and as an individual, what would I 
give up for-- in order-- and thinking about, if everyone did this, could we have world peace? And 
I wrote, "I will not knowingly cross the border of any country against the wishes of that country, 
nor will I order, urge, or advise any other person so to do. I will not carry, or send, or cause to be 
Page 6 of 7 
 
sent any lethal weapon across the border of any country, nor will I order, urge, or advise any 
other person so to do. Three, I will not kill nor physically injure a citizen of another country, nor 
deprive him of his property or legal rights. Nor will I order, urge, or advise any other person so 
to do". It would be interesting to have those things discussed in our legislature, in our Congress 
right now, when we are doing all of those things across the borders of other countries. Yeah. 
[Inaudible.] Since all international conflict originates with the acts of individuals, and since wars 
are carried on by individuals, I've been trying to think what specific actions would need to be 
renounced by all individuals, not just heads of government. If warfare is to be eliminated, and 
world laws to be substituted as a way of settling international conflict. As I understand the origin 
of law, people agree to give up certain actions or freedoms to gain other and more important 
freedoms. The actions which we agreed to renounce as threats to the peace of the world would, if 
renounced by all individuals, give us freedom from the threat of war. Such actions might be 
listed as world crimes which should be tried in world courts, rather than in the courts of the 
country in which the crime is committed. That's my statement for world peace. Good. You put 
the whole [?bag?] in? 
 
Debra Ryan  25:54 
I will. One thing that-- that was a question in my mind is, by what means the Federation hope to 
bring about this through-- 
 
Helen Ansley  26:06 
Through the United Nations. If only people would emphasize the good things that are going on 
in the United Nations now. But our country is disregarding the United Nations, is threatening to 
pull out of the United Nations. And yet, I read the works of Robert Muller, who has been-- he 
was Assistant to the Secretary General for years, and he was secretary of all the UNESCO things. 
There is so much positive happening, bringing the world together, and yet here we are, just 
seeming to advocate nothing but force and war, and gee, what's the-- what's the use of all I've 
done? But then some nice gal comes and asks me for what I've done. Makes me realize I have 
done something. I've tried my best, but I wish there were more I could do about it now, but I 
don't know. I do see some positive things, but certainly, on TV and the newspapers, everywhere, 
we hear the negative things. There are other parts, other places, where they report even more 
positive. And I do get some of the positive things coming to me through my mail, and keep 
wondering what the world can do. You better turn it off, or I'll cry some more [laughs]. You 
asked me why I feel that I am not working-- can't work for peace now. The work for peace now 
seems to have gone from the positive to the negative. We knew what we were working for. We 
were working for law, and order, and justice. Now, what's called a work for peace is a work 
against Russia. It's against any thing of communism, or it's against nuclear weapons. We're 
working against things, and we can't get places by working against things. I have to find things to 
work for, and there are so-- it's discouraging to me to find so few of this, so little of this positive 
work going on nowadays. I'm thinking, I've gone on into work for aging, but the government and 
the most of the work is to work against what's wrong with aging. That's not how we can make it 
better. It's work against disease. It's work against mental illness, rather than the positive thing. 
And I keep talking about the positive thing, and trying to get people to work with but-- certainly 
the people my age are very few. I suppose they're in hiding almost, because, as I'm feeling 
isolated among the people my own age here in Issaquah, who don't see these things that I feel so 
strongly. And I know I feel too strongly to be-- to be much fun [laughs]. But anyway, I hope 
Page 7 of 7 
 
what I've done does some good, but this, this is, is fine. I can't find the place to work now. Even 
the women's movement is-- when we were working for the League of Women Voters, it was for 
what the women could have to contribute. And now so much of the women's movement is to get 
my share. I mean, it's not fair to me. It's all gone that way. And I-- my whole inclination is to 
bring people together. We have to solve it together. It's, it's hard to be a strong anything, because 
then you seem to take the other side. Here-- they try to make things-- so much of it is black and 
white. So, I don't know. So I get discouraged, very discouraged, but I have been asked to talk 
more, and I am-- ties in a little with what I've said about my work for mental health, the work 
that I do now. I'm talking about aging and the positive side of it, and particularly the talk that I 
give to high school groups and some other groups. Let's call the A's and the things, which is how 
to maintain your own mental health, and I do it so simply and with a touch of humor, but I find 
that the students take it. It's something that everybody can understand. And I'm trying to put 
things more-- I guess it goes back to my father and philosophy, because when you talk 
specifically about certain things, somebody-- it doesn't apply to them or it's wrong, but if you can 
talk generally and philosophically, then they make their own applications, and that's what I'm 
trying to do more and more to get another look from a different perspective, and one that'll bring 
us together, instead of emphasizing our differences. If I could only get-- I've seen-- I've gotten to 
the place where I can realize all the churches are working for the same thing, and I just wish they 
could see it. More [inaudible]. And if all the different people that are working on health could, 
instead of thinking they have the only answer, realize if-- well, if the individual will realize, you 
have to put it together for yourself, nobody can tell you what to think. I guess that's about enough 
for today.  
 
Debra Ryan  33:54 
Thanks. 
 