FLASHLIGHTS OF FAMOUS PEOPLE
Face To Face with Jane Addams
AMERICA'S GREAT WOMAN WHO TRULY MERITS THE TITLE OF WORLD CITIZEN
(By Joe Mitchell Chapple.)
Small towns have a way of contributing much to the big cities. It has been so for many years. Peacefully, there rests one of these small towns out in Illinois, about twelve miles from that mysterious line which divides the state from Wisconsin. This is a village with a blacksmith shop, a mill by the stream, and most of the homes have orchards in the [backyard]. You have never heard of it, so I will tell you the name by which it is recognized from either end of the "depot." It's Cedarville.
Cedarville surrendered its most valued product to Chicago. She was Miss Jane Addams -- and in fact still is Miss Jane Addams. Chicago gained much for she gave them the famous Hull House, the first social settlement in America.
The other day when I talked to Miss Addams in New York, she said with a twinkle in her eye, "I won't say how many years ago it was when I went to the Hull House, but it is more than twenty-five." In lieu of such modesty, I will have to say that she opened the Hull House in 1889. Then -- I might add to that little mathematical problem: She was four years old when President Lincoln was assassinated. Looking into those gray eyes which sparkle with youth and radiate their depth of understanding, it was difficult to comprehend the span of her great usefulness as America's most eminent woman. She is yet young gauged by the ardor and intensity with which she continues her work.
"My dear Double D'ed Addams:" is the way that Lincoln would start his letters to Miss Addams' father, who was his close personal friend and supporter, serving in the Illinois Senate during the Civil War period. The Addams family was large, there being three sisters older than Jane. When she went away to school, it was to Rockford College. After Rockford, she decided to become a physician and studied in the Woman's Medical College in Philadelphia. Her attitude was always that of a student, which led her to travel abroad at the end of a year's medical course. In London she saw Toynbee Hall and the work being done for the poor. It was the turning point of her career, for Jane Addams got her inspiration there to do the same thing in the United States. She returned to Chicago.
Hull House in the beginning was one small home formerly belonging to one of Chicago's pioneer citizens by the name of Charles Hull. A friend let her have it rent free. Generally speaking, it was located on [Halsted] street in the center of the Nineteenth Ward, amongst much squalor and confusion. Specifically speaking, it was located between an undertaking establishment and a saloon. She made a home among the poor of all nations, for there were Italians, Irish, Bohemians, Poles, Russians, Jews, Scandinavians and many other races in this most cosmopolitan section. She became [counselor], friend, nurse and chaplain to all. Eventually she made it the most complete social settlement in the world.
Truly Jane Addams has been a citizen of the world, for her interests have been [many] and she has been a mighty factor in labor legislation, [image], Child Welfare, Woman's Suffrage, and the Woman's Peace Party. At one time or another nearly all women have been enlisted under her leadership. She has always championed the causes of women. I wouldn't go so far as to say that she is a feminist, but I will say that from Miss Addams' conversation of her recent trip to the Orient, interesting though it was, I could not be sure that there were any "men in the picture" at all -- and she spoke of Shanghai, Bombay, Calcutta, Korea, [Tokyo] and Manila.
"The younger generation of India resent the idea that they ride around on painted elephants -- they wish to bury that ghost," commented Miss Addams. "Oriental women are very active in Oriental affairs. This impressed me most. You know England has given suffrage to the women of India. They are sitting in the council at Bombay. The women of India feel that it is up to them now to show what might have been if the men had not had such a great advantage in the start."
Referring to Great Britain, she added, "England was conquered by the Irish and given to the Scotch -- and now I must be on my way to make a radio address!" Jane Addams is busy -- and always will be.
JANE ADDAMS says:
"Oriental women are very active in Oriental affairs. Three are sitting in the council at Bombay."
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