My dear Miss Addams:--
As a student at Amherst College I am intensely interested in the [philanthropic] problems of the present day and also with social and labor problems. I have read several of your articles published in periodicals and have just finished reading your recent article published in the Ladies Home Journal. As my work in college has been chiefly along the lines of labor problems and political economy and philanthropy I have decided to devote my life to the helping of my fellow-men along [philanthropic] and social lines, to try to raise them to a high standard of living and to help them in their progressing lives.
As I have traveled somewhat through this country and especially east of the Mississippi I have great opportunities to note carefully the [page 2] terrible condition of life in the slums of large cities, especially in N.Y. City. A year ago I took the state census in a small town of R. I. where I had good opportunity to study the lives and morals of the people. There was a large foreign element in this district and to think of the way in ↑which↓ they live and suffer is almost overwhelming. My hopes of bettering existing conditions such as these was even stronger there [than] ever before. But the way in which I am to do this is a question at present in my mind. I still have two more years in college, but I would like to do something along those lines now if possible.
If you will give me some advice on the subject, I shall be very glad to set upon it. With a true appreciation of the good work you are doing for our great country, I am, very sincerely,
Henry H. Midwood
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