BETHEL, MAINE May 9 1908
My dear Jane Addams
I have just read your statement in Charities and Commons under the heading "The Chicago Settlements and Social Unrest." At this range it seems to me to be a wise, temperate, rigorous and necessary afterword upon a very serious problem coming out of a difficult and critical situation. I can conceive that it was not at all easy nor pleasant for you to say anything reflecting in any way upon the Police Department in such a crisis, but it is brave to say the disagreeable word when it is necessary and when we know it is going to make things hard for ourselves afterward. [page 2]
I cannot be sure that had I been in Chicago I would not have been swept up by the turmoil and clamor of the administration Party; but after the event, and in the remote calm of then Maine [illegible], it seems to me that you have said what needed saying and have said it in a way that will convince the fair and unprejudiced on both sides; and I am glad to offer my little work of thanks to you for saying it.
Mrs. Greeley is here with me and joins me in this appreciation, which to a considerable extent she even inspired.
We are enjoying our Forest of Arden together immensely; learning all about important things like grass growing, and water running; and little dicky birds and eats pease beans and barley.
I have ↑found↓ a doctor in this little village who has discovered a cure for Cityitis, and who will make my system immune to the bacilli so that I can get back to the [page 3] hospital for the cure of Civilization and take up my work as one of the [interns] next fall.
Please present my affectionate regards to my playmates in your family at Hull House and say to them that the play microbe is under culture here in Maine and that we have organized a rudimentary "Play Fest" for the [eighth] grade of the public school this afternoon.
Yours
Frederick Greeley
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