NATIONAL FEDERATION OF SETTLEMENTS
October 24, 1922
Dear Miss Addams:
From the memorandum sent to me by Mr. Kennedy for the Executive Committee meeting I do not see that the Mid-Western affairs are to be considered. However, I hope some one will want your personal opinion as to how things are going so I will provide you with some facts.
The first twenty-one days of October have been busy ones and the things which can be reduced to paper are as follows:
Letters written -- 168
Interviews -- 120
Visits to Settlements -- 15
Board of Directors have come to me officially regarding 10 settlements. Some of these have wanted help in finding head workers; 3 have asked me to review their fields and their work with the idea of reorganization and expansion.
Two women in an Ohio city where there is no settlement have written asking advice as to founding such an organization.
Head residents from 11 settlements have written to me or come to me for advice on various matters, most of them of considerable importance.
A number of interesting letters have been received from young people who have had vocational advice or placement through the Mid-Western Office who have heard that it was to be closed. They have all deplored this fact and have, in three cases, backed up their belief in the office by enclosed checks toward its support after December 31.
Just between you and me, Miss Addams, I believe that very little good will be accomplished by Mr. Kennedy’s making a tour of the Mid-West, even though he should visit every settlement, which, of course, he will not have time to do. He can perhaps raise money, and that is valuable, but I do not believe in the brief time which [page 2] he could spend that he, with all his wisdom, can give as much practical help as I am called upon to give every day.
I feel, as I always have, that I am not big enough for the work as it should be done, but I know that I understand the people in this part of the country better than had I spent my life in the East and that because of this the settlement people and their supporters have more confidence in what I say. I wish with all my heart that I were in a position to give more liberally to the work than I can do because to me it is the biggest opportunity for real development along all the lines on which settlement attention is being focused.
I wish that I were going to New York with you and since I am not I hope I may see you soon to hear all about it.
Sincerely yours,
Winifred Salisbury[signed]
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