John Henry Hopkins to Jane Addams, June 14, 1917

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The Church of The Redeemer
Blackstone Avenue and 56th Street
Chicago
[Miss] Jane Addams,
City

6/14/17.

Dear Miss Addams,

I appreciate very much your kindness in sending me the enclosed pages, which I have just read.

You will acquit me, I am sure of everything except courteously-meant frankness when I say that their vast irrelevance to the present situation is the chief impression I receive.

Germany plans world conquest. That means ourselves included. Germany will eventually carry out [page 2] their plans, unless we help to the utmost, in warfare.

That is the situation in a nut-shell and no philanthropic or poetic plans for radically different situations have anything to do with the case now.

Internationalism with Germany victorious would not even be an iridescent dream.

And to take anybody's time at this juncture for any other [thought] than the throttling of this murderer and assassin of everything that is decent & human & fair, is a very serious waste of time.

And to give any help to the forces in our midst that would gladly stay our uplifted arm, is a very questionable deed. There are sentences in your article which could very readily bear that interpretation. I thank you for your courtesy and must earnestly beg to repeat my original [written up the right margin] request that you cease this kind of lecturing!

Faithfully yours John Henry Hopkins

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