Interview with Florence E. Yoder, January 8, 1915

Jane Addams, Knight Errant, Goes A-Tilting Against Plan to Bar All Aliens Who Can't Read

Hull House Worker Denies Literacy Is Fair Test of Immigrant's Worth As Citizen.

[image] JANE ADDAMS.

Hard, She Says, On Old Folks, Who Want To Join Children Here, and Never Had Chance To Learn.

By FLORENCE E. YODER.

Jane Addams: Knight Errant.

So long as there is no word of late coinage which adequately describes a certain type of courageous American women who have distinguished themselves as upholders of the suppressed and down-trodden, of those who do not seem able to get the square deal whether they be men or not, we must needs call Miss Addams a knight errant.

Her book, "Twenty Years at Hull House," has more than justified this appellation, and it seems as if there is to be a sequel to it, entitled "With the Immigrants of America."

For yesterday, in a short interview, Miss Addams announced in no undecided tones, her next step; in fact, one of the reasons for her being in this city, aside from her participation in the peace movement, was for the purpose of appealing to the members of the conference committee on the immigration bill, for the withdrawal of the literacy test. She holds that it is an unfair and useless discrimination against not only individuals, but races.

Tilts Against Literacy Test.

This means that she is out again tilting, this time for the immigrant. She volunteered her own information at an interview last night.

"I don't believe in the literacy test," she said, "for if it is passed it will work an inconceivable hardship to the older generation of immigrants who come over here to join their children. I don't believe in the literacy test because the fact that an immigrant cannot read or write is no reflection upon his character. Besides we are making a move against the very deficiency which we could easiest remedy. Our facilities for immediately [canceling] that one trouble, the inability of the foreigner to read and write, are unusual, and we should not exclude him for a deficiency which we can easily remedy and which is no index of the character or ability of the man himself."

Unlike any other person in the world whom we have ever seen, Miss Addams regulates her facial expressions by exactly the opposite method employed by the average person.

Eliminates Self In Talk.

When speaking of something in which she is very much interested, there is little or no animation, her face becomes a mask, she looks in one direction only, glancing occasionally full into the eyes of the listener. Her voice is pitched very low, almost a monotone, yet one never misses a word.

Then when something trivial comes up, something of almost childish interest, her face brightens she relaxes into a smile, and the mask does not slip on again until the more serious subject is revived.

It is almost as if she were trying to subjugate her own personality entirely, eliminate herself entirely from the discussion, and let only the ideas with which she wishes to impress her listener, register on the brain. The interview was made between courses at the dinner table, and the occasional glimpses which we obtained of Jane Addams, the woman, came only at the mention of a chocolate [éclair], a [demitasse], and some small photographs which [someone] was showing at the same table.

Ability To Work Vital.

It was Jane Addams, knight errant, who calmly and quietly spoke of her reasons for objecting to the literacy test:

"If they are trying to think of some legitimate reason for keeping out the immigrant on the grounds that he is an undesirable person since he complicates our own social system, why don’t they exclude him on the grounds that they can't give him a job, and that they don’t want any loafers. That would be far more reasonable than excluding him for a cause which we are amply able to rectify -- his inability to read and write. The question of whether or not he can obtain work in this country is a far more vital question," she continued.

"Then, again, this literacy test is a very unfair discrimination between races. For instance, the people in one portion of Italy are taught to read and write, they have the facilities for learning. Yet in another portion of the same country the people have not been taught to read or to write."

Denies Test Is Fair.

"Does the fact that a man cannot read and write in his own language, when he has not had the chance to learn, blacken his character or is he any the less capable of learning the English language in this country? No.

"The Greeks can read and write, so can the Hebrews, but many of the Italians cannot. Should we discriminate against one race in favor of the other? If each man has had the same opportunity to learn to read and write in his own language this literacy test would be sensible, but as long as they have not had such an opportunity -- but why talk further?"

And although we drew little designs on our note book, and inwardly prayed that she would talk further, she did not. Just then the chocolate [éclair] made its appearance high on a platter some distance away, and the woman, Jane Addams, began to beam forth.

Would Welcome Immigrants.

Then [someone] passed around some little snapshots.

Had the golden moment passed? Could we not see Jane Addams, knight errant, just once more? Yes, but only for a moment.

"What about the immigration after the war," we volunteered. "Do you think that it will be great, or that the people of impoverished Europe will want to stay at home?"

For one moment the mask fell --

"One can't say just what will happen," she said, "but suppose the immigration does increase, let it increase. There is a great problem of humanity to be worked out. What better place in all the world than America to try it in? Why not?" First the question, directed into the air, and then the straight look.

And we felt that we had been so small and selfish in even suggesting that America should withdraw into a shell of selfishness that we made our adieus, and with every attempt at gallantry left the field to the [demitasse], the chocolate [éclair], and Jane Addams, woman.