Dear [Mrs] Addams:
I'm not sure that you will recall my meeting you in Miss Wald's settlement in Henry St. more than a year ago. My home has been near the nurse's settlement ever since I was a child and I've grown up with the settlement movement of the East Side. I graduate from Harvard next month, having worked my way through, and I'm going to start a settlement in the North End of Boston next fall. The keynote of this settlement will be [page 2] civic and industrial rather than social. My object in writing you is to find out if you think I can see any of the settlement and kindred activities if I come on toward the end of June to Chicago. Of course much of the work will be about to close, but I am really [more] anxious to talk with you and other workers than to see the work itself. Would you advise me to come? I'm afraid it won't be easy to get away after next Fall and if there is any likelihood of my meeting [page 3] there those I ought to meet, I should come on.
I hope I am not asking too much of you. My work in New York has been with the University Settlement almost since the day that Stanton Coit founded it, and as one of the East Side boys I took part in the work that concerned the life of my neighborhood. I meant to return to the East Side after my graduation here but many kind Boston friends have made it possible for me to stay here. I've been giving talks [page 4] on social subjects here, to the Twentieth Century Club, Dr. Hale Church, and elsewhere, and I'm getting ready to carry out some civic settlement ideas which are very near to me. I am very anxious to have your experience bear on my plans. Prof. Felix Adler of New York, whom I know very intimately, outlined for me a scheme of civic instruction. I now want the personal word from others that have acheived in this work.
Comments