for specific events. She wrote regularly for the New York Call. In 1909, Pastor Stokes took part in the Shirtwaist Strike, to show support for the 40,000 garment workers in New York. She attracted media attention because of her marriage to Graham Phelps Stokes, and reporters came to cover her appearance at the strike headquarters at Clinton Hall. She said, "My ideal is that we all be economically interdependent. We should not be independent like millionaires, nor dependent like laborers. My ideal is that we all be interdependent. And I'm not working in a losing cause." In May and June 1912, Pastor Stokes helped lead a strike by the New York City restaurant and hotel workers. In the winter of 1913, she aided the New York garment workers in another "bitter strike." Graham began to devote more time to writing, but Rose continued her activism. She distributed birth control information, and frequently organized meetings with Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman, who led efforts for women to have birth control. She also continued writing, contributing poetry to such publications as The Masses, Independent and The Century Magazine. During this period she also wrote several plays; The Woman Who Wouldn't (1916), about a labor leader, was produced by the Washington Square Players. War and prosecution In 1917, the Socialists denounced the American war program. But Graham Stokes withdrew from the party and joined the New York Army National Guard. At first Rose also left the Socialists, as she was disappointed with the party's official position on the war, endorsing "active interference with the war effort". She believed that Germany was a threat to democratic nations. Shortly she rejoined the Socialists, as she doubted whether President Woodrow Wilson's policies furthered international democracy. She became associated with the left wing of the Socialists. In 1919, she was among the founders of the American Communist Party. Pastor Stokes began to travel throughout the United States, speaking and contributing articles to various newspapers. In 1918, after her comments following a speech in Kansas City were incorrectly reported, Pastor Stokes wrote a letter to the editor of the Kansas City Star in which she criticized US involvement in World War I. She accused the US government of being allied with profiteers. Controversy over the letter led to a federal indictment for violating the Espionage Act of 1917. Pastor Stokes was tried and convicted in Kansas City, Missouri.