diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:16:55 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:16:55 -0700 |
| commit | f9f56df843f3bf50e27c968bd90203135365777a (patch) | |
| tree | d39da7e05e985e6beb1d24f1c633fe3fb27ad5b4 | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1325.txt | 11324 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1325.zip | bin | 0 -> 243291 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
5 files changed, 11340 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1325.txt b/1325.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f11d24e --- /dev/null +++ b/1325.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11324 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext of 20 Years At Hull House by Jane Addams + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +Twenty Years At Hull House + +by Jane Addams + +May, 1998 [Etext #1325] + + +Project Gutenberg Etext of 20 Years At Hull House by Jane Addams +******This file should be named 1325.txt or 1325.zip****** + + +deHTML from allhull.htm 1998 Apr 10 <alhambra@CapAccess.org> +For Project Gutenberg, along with some anonymous volunteers. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This book has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK Initiative at the +Celebration of Women Writers through the combined work of: Adrienne +Fermoyle, Andrea Jeddi, David Cheezem, Diana Camden, Flo Carriere, Jill +Thoren, Judi Oswalt, Margaret Sylvia, Samantha M. Constant, Terri Perkins, +and Mary Mark Ockerbloom. + + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we do NOT keep these books +in compliance with any particular paper edition, usually otherwise. + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, for time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-two text +files per month, or 384 more Etexts in 1998 for a total of 1500+ +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach over 150 billion Etexts given away. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by the December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only 10% of the present number of computer users. 2001 +should have at least twice as many computer users as that, so it +will require us reaching less than 5% of the users in 2001. + + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- +Mellon University). + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +We would prefer to send you this information by email +(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail). + +****** +If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please +FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives: +[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type] + +ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd etext/etext90 through /etext96 +or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information] +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET INDEX?00.GUT +for a list of books +and +GET NEW GUT for general information +and +MGET GUT* for newsletters. + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + + + +deHTML from allhull.htm 1998 Apr 10 <alhambra@CapAccess.org> +For Project Gutenberg + + + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + + + + + +TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE + +WITH AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES + +BY JANE ADDAMS + +HULL-HOUSE, CHICAGO + +AUTHOR OF "DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL ETHICS," "NEWER IDEALS OF PEACE," "THE +SPIRIT OF YOUTH AND THE CITY STREETS," ETC. + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY +NORAH HAMILTON + +HULL-HOUSE, CHICAGO + + + + +TO +THE MEMORY OF +MY FATHER + + + + +PREFACE + + + +CONTENTS + +Preface vii +I. EARLIEST IMPRESSIONS 1 +II. INFLUENCE OF LINCOLN 23 +III. BOARDING-SCHOOL IDEALS 43 +IV. THE SNARE OF PREPARATION 65 +V. FIRST DAYS AT HULL-HOUSE 89 +VI. THE SUBJECTIVE NECESSITY FOR SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS 113 +VII. SOME EARLY UNDERTAKINGS AT HULL-HOUSE 129 +VIII. PROBLEMS OF POVERTY 154 +IX. A DECADE OF ECONOMIC DISCUSSION 177 +X. PIONEER LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS 198 +XI. IMMIGRANTS AND THEIR CHILDREN 231 +XII. TOLSTOYISM 259 +XIII. PUBLIC ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS 281 +XIV. CIVIC COOPERATION 310 +XV. THE VALUE OF SOCIAL CLUBS 342 +XVI. ARTS AT HULL-HOUSE 371 +XVII. ECHOES OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 400 +XVIII. SOCIALIZED EDUCATION 427 + + + +PLATES + +Jane Addams, from a photograph taken in 1899 Frontispiece +John H. Addams, from a photograph taken in 1880 22 +Ellen Gates Starr, from a photograph taken in 1906 64 +A Hull-House Interior 88 +A View from a Hull-House Window 112 +A Spent Old Man 154 +Sweatshop Workers 198 +Chicago River at Halsted Street 258 +Polk Street opposite Hull-House 280 +Julia C. Lathrop 310 +A Studio in Hull-House Court 370 +A View between Hull-House Gymnasium and Theater 426 + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT + +Birthplace, Jane Addams, Cedarville, Illinois 4 +Jane Addams, aged Seven, from a Photograph of 1867 7 +Mill at Cedarville, Illinois 10 +Stream at Cedarville, Illinois 22 +Old Abe 42 +Rockford College, Rockford, Illinois 44 +Porto del Popolo, Rome 76 +View of St. Peter's 88 +Polk Street opposite Hull-House 95 +South Halsted Street opposite Hull-House 96 +Consulting the Hull-House Bulletin Board, from a Photograph by +Lewis W. Hine 104 +A Boy's Club Member 105 +An Italian Woman with Grandchild 111 +Portrait, Jane Addams, from a Charcoal Drawing by Alice Kellogg +Tyler of 1892 114 +Main Entrance to Hull-House 128 +Head of Slavic Woman 134 +Head of Italian Woman 135 +A Doorway in Hull-House Court 149 +Woman and Child in Hull-House Reception Room 154 +In a Tenement House, Sick Mother and Children 164 +A Row of Nursery Babies 168 +A Neighborhood Alley 181 +Hull-House on Halsted Street, Apartment House in Foreground 197 +An Italian Sweatshop Worker 208 +Out of Work, from a Drawing by Alice Kellogg Tyler 220 +Head of Immigrant Woman 226 +Aniello 235 +Irish Spinner in the Hull-House Labor Museum 238 +Scandinavian Weaver in the Hull-House Labor Museum 239 +Italian Spinner in the Hull-House Labor Museum 241 +An Italian Grocery opposite Hull-House 258 +Sketches of Tolstoy Mowing 271 +Head of Russian Immigrant 275 +Rear Tenement in Hull-House Neighborhood 282 +An Alley near Hull-House 293 +A View from Hull-House Window 314 +Alley between Hull-House Buildings 321 +A Window in the Hull-House Library 346 +An Italian Mother and Child 354 +Facade of Bowen Hall 363 +A Club Child listening to a Story 367 +In the Hull-House Studio, from a Photograph by Lewis W. Hine 374 +Exterior Hull-House Music School 379 +In the Hull-House Music School 383 +Terrace in the Hull-House Court 398 +South Halsted Street 401 +Russian Immigrant on Halsted Street, from a Photograph by Lewis W. Hine 416 +Entrance to Hull-House Courtyard 426 +Boy at Forge, Hull-House Boy's Club, from a Photograph by Lewis W. Hine 439 +Steps to Hull-House Terrace 447 +Waiting in the Hull-House Hall 453 + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This book has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK Initiative at the +Celebration of Women Writers through the combined work of: Adrienne +Fermoyle, Andrea Jeddi, David Cheezem, Diana Camden, Flo Carriere, Jill +Thoren, Judi Oswalt, Margaret Sylvia, Samantha M. Constant, Terri Perkins, +and Mary Mark Ockerbloom. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Preface." by Jane Addams (1860-1935) +From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes. by Jane +Addams. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. vii-ix. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + + + +PREFACE + + +Every preface is, I imagine, written after the book has been +completed and now that I have finished this volume I will state +several difficulties which may put the reader upon his guard +unless he too postpones the preface to the very last. + +Many times during the writing of these reminiscences, I have +become convinced that the task was undertaken all too soon. +One's fiftieth year is indeed an impressive milestone at which +one may well pause to take an accounting, but the people with +whom I have so long journeyed have become so intimate a part of +my lot that they cannot be written of either in praise or blame; +the public movements and causes with which I am still identified +have become so endeared, some of them through their very +struggles and failures, that it is difficult to discuss them. + +It has also been hard to determine what incidents and experiences +should be selected for recital, and I have found that I might +give an accurate report of each isolated event and yet give a +totally misleading impression of the whole, solely by the +selection of the incidents. For these reasons and many others I +have found it difficult to make a [Page viii] faithful record of +the years since the autumn of 1889 when without any preconceived +social theories or economic views, I came to live in an +industrial district of Chicago. + +If the reader should inquire why the book was ever undertaken in +the face of so many difficulties, in reply I could instance two +purposes, only one of which in the language of organized charity, +is "worthy." Because Settlements have multiplied so easily in the +United States I hoped that a simple statement of an earlier +effort, including the stress and storm, might be of value in +their interpretation and possibly clear them of a certain charge +of superficiality. The unworthy motive was a desire to start a +"backfire," as it were, to extinquish two biographies of myself, +one of which had been submitted to me in outline, that made life +in a Settlement all too smooth and charming. + +The earlier chapters present influences and personal motives with +a detail which will be quite unpardonable if they fail to make +clear the personality upon whom various social and industrial +movements in Chicago reacted during a period of twenty years. No +effort is made in the recital to separate my own history from +that of Hull-House during the years in which I was "launched deep +into the stormy intercourse of human life" for, so far as a mind +is pliant under the pressure of events and experiences, it +becomes hard to detach it. + +It has unfortunately been necessary to abandon [Page ix] the +chronological order in favor of the topical, for during the early +years at Hull-House, time seemed to afford a mere framework for +certain lines of activity and I have found in writing this book, +that after these activities have been recorded, I can scarcely +recall the scaffolding. + +More than a third of the material in the book has appeared in The +American Magazine, one chapter of it in McClure's Magazine, and +earlier statements of the Settlement motive, published years ago, +have been utilized in chronological order because it seemed +impossible to reproduce their enthusiasm. + +It is a matter of gratification to me that the book is +illustrated from drawings made by Miss Norah Hamilton of +Hull-House, and the cover designed by another resident, Mr. Frank +Hazenplug. I am indebted for the making of the index and for +many other services to Miss Clara Landsberg, also of Hull-House. + +If the conclusions of the whole matter are similar to those I have +already published at intervals during the twenty years at +Hull-House, I can only make the defense that each of the earlier +books was an attempt to set forth a thesis supported by +experience, whereas this volume endeavors to trace the experiences +through which various conclusions were forced upon me. + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter I: Earliest Impressions." by Jane Addams (1860-1935) +From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes. by Jane +Addams. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. 1-22. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + + +TWENTY YEARS AT HULL-HOUSE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +EARLIEST IMPRESSIONS + + +On the theory that our genuine impulses may be connected with our +childish experiences, that one's bent may be tracked back to that +"No-Man's Land" where character is formless but nevertheless +settling into definite lines of future development, I begin this +record with some impressions of my childhood. + +All of these are directly connected with my father, although of +course I recall many experiences apart from him. I was one of +the younger members of a large family and an eager participant in +the village life, but because my father was so distinctly the +dominant influence and because it is quite impossible to set +forth all of one's early impressions, it has seemed simpler to +string these first memories on that single cord. Moreover, it +was this cord which not only held fast my supreme affections, but +also first drew me into the moral concerns of life, and later +afforded a clew there to which I somewhat wistfully clung in the +intricacy of its mazes. + +It must have been from a very early period that I recall "horrid +nights" when I tossed about in my bed because I had told a lie. I +was held in the grip of a miserable dread of death, a double +fear, first, that I myself should die in my sins and go straight +to that fiery Hell which was never mentioned at home, but which I +had heard all about from other children, and, second, that my +father--representing the entire adult world which I had basely +deceived--should himself die before I had time to tell him. My +only method of obtaining relief was to go downstairs to my +father's room and make full confession. The high resolve to do +this would push me out of bed and carry me down the stairs +without a touch of fear. But at the foot of the stairs I would +be faced by the awful necessity of passing the front door--which +my father, because of his Quaker tendencies, did not lock--and of +crossing the wide and black expanse of the living room in order +to reach his door. I would invariably cling to the newel post +while I contemplated the perils of the situation, complicated by +the fact that the literal first step meant putting my bare foot +upon a piece of oilcloth in front of the door, only a few inches +wide, but lying straight in my path. I would finally reach my +father's bedside perfectly breathless and having panted out the +history of my sin, invariable received the same assurance that if +he "had a little girl who told lies," he was very glad that she +"felt too bad to go to sleep afterward." No absolution was asked +for or received, but apparently the sense that the knowledge of +my wickedness was shared, or an obscure understanding of the +affection which underlay the grave statement, was sufficient, for +I always went back to bed as bold as a lion, and slept, if not +the sleep of the just, at least that of the comforted. + +I recall an incident which must have occurred before I was seven +years old, for the mill in which my father transacted his business +that day was closed in 1867. The mill stood in the neighboring +town adjacent to its poorest quarter. Before then I had always +seen the little city of ten thousand people with the admiring eyes +of a country child, and it had never occurred to me that all its +streets were not as bewilderingly attractive as the one which +contained the glittering toyshop and the confectioner. On that day +I had my first sight of the poverty which implies squalor, and +felt the curious distinction between the ruddy poverty of the +country and that which even a small city presents in its shabbiest +streets. I remember launching at my father the pertinent inquiry +why people lived in such horrid little houses so close together, +and that after receiving his explanation I declared with much +firmness when I grew up I should, of course, have a large house, +but it would not be built among the other large houses, but right +in the midst of horrid little houses like those. + +That curious sense of responsibility for carrying on the world's +affairs which little children often exhibit because "the old man +clogs our earliest years," I remember in myself in a very absurd +manifestation. I dreamed night after night that every one in the +world was dead excepting myself, and that upon me rested the +responsibility of making a wagon wheel. The village street +remained as usual, the village blacksmith shop was "all there," +even a glowing fire upon the forge and the anvil in its customary +place near the door, but no human being was within sight. They +had all gone around the edge of the hill to the village cemetery, +and I alone remained alive in the deserted world. I always stood +in the same spot in the blacksmith shop, darkly pondering as to +how to begin, and never once did I know how, although I fully +realized that the affairs of the world could not be resumed until +at least one wheel should be made and something started. Every +victim of nightmare is, I imagine, overwhelmed by an excessive +sense of responsibility and the consciousness of a fearful +handicap in the effort to perform what is required; but perhaps +never were the odds more heavily against "a warder of the world" +than in these reiterated dreams of mine, doubtless compounded in +equal parts of a childish version of Robinson Crusoe and of the +end-of-the-world predictions of the Second Adventists, a few of +whom were found in the village. The next morning would often +find me, a delicate little girl of six, with the further +disability of a curved spine, standing in the doorway of the +village blacksmith shop, anxiously watching the burly, +red-shirted figure at work. I would store my mind with such +details of the process of making wheels as I could observe, and +sometimes I plucked up courage to ask for more. "Do you always +have to sizzle the iron in water?" I would ask, thinking how +horrid it would be to do. "Sure!" the good-natured blacksmith +would reply, "that makes the iron hard." I would sigh heavily and +walk away, bearing my responsibility as best I could, and this of +course I confided to no one, for there is something too +mysterious in the burden of "the winds that come from the fields +of sleep" to be communicated, although it is at the same time too +heavy a burden to be borne alone. + +My great veneration and pride in my father manifested itself in +curious ways. On several Sundays, doubtless occurring in two or +three different years, the Union Sunday School of the village was +visited by strangers, some of those "strange people" who live +outside a child's realm, yet constantly thrill it by their close +approach. My father taught the large Bible class in the lefthand +corner of the church next to the pulpit, and to my eyes at least, +was a most imposing figure in his Sunday frock coat, his fine +head rising high above all the others. I imagined that the +strangers were filled with admiration for this dignified person, +and I prayed with all my heart that the ugly, pigeon-toed little +girl, whose crooked back obliged her to walk with her head held +very much upon one side, would never be pointed out to these +visitors as the daughter of this fine man. In order to lessen +the possibility of a connection being made, on these particular +Sundays I did not walk beside my father, although this walk was +the great event of the week, but attached myself firmly to the +side of my Uncle James Addams, in the hope that I should be +mistaken for his child, or at least that I should not remain so +conspicuously unattached that troublesome questions might +identify an Ugly Duckling with her imposing parent. My uncle, +who had many children of his own, must have been mildly surprised +at this unwonted attention, but he would look down kindly at me, +and say, "So you are going to walk with me to-day?" "Yes, +please, Uncle James," would be my meek reply. He fortunately +never explored my motives, nor do I remember that my father ever +did, so that in all probability my machinations have been safe +from public knowledge until this hour. + +It is hard to account for the manifestations of a child's adoring +affection, so emotional, so irrational, so tangled with the +affairs of the imagination. I simply could not endure the +thought that "strange people" should know that my handsome father +owned this homely little girl. But even in my chivalric desire +to protect him from his fate, I was not quite easy in the +sacrifice of my uncle, although I quieted my scruples with the +reflection that the contrast was less marked and that, anyway, +his own little girl "was not so very pretty." I do not know that +I commonly dwelt much upon my personal appearance, save as it +thrust itself as an incongruity into my father's life, and in +spite of unending evidence to the contrary, there were even black +moments when I allowed myself to speculate as to whether he might +not share the feeling. Happily, however, this specter was laid +before it had time to grow into a morbid familiar by a very +trifling incident. One day I met my father coming out of his +bank on the main street of the neighboring city which seemed to +me a veritable whirlpool of society and commerce. With a playful +touch of exaggeration, he lifted his high and shining silk hat +and made me an imposing bow. This distinguished public +recognition, this totally unnecessary identification among a mass +of "strange people" who couldn't possibly know unless he himself +made the sign, suddenly filled me with a sense of the absurdity +of the entire feeling. It may not even then have seemed as +absurd as it really was, but at least it seemed enough so to +collapse or to pass into the limbo of forgotten specters. + +I made still other almost equally grotesque attempts to express +this doglike affection. The house at the end of the village in +which I was born, and which was my home until I moved to +Hull-House, in my earliest childhood had opposite to it--only +across the road and then across a little stretch of +greensward--two mills belonging to my father; one flour mill, to +which the various grains were brought by the neighboring farmers, +and one sawmill, in which the logs of the native timber were +sawed into lumber. The latter offered the great excitement of +sitting on a log while it slowly approached the buzzing saw which +was cutting it into slabs, and of getting off just in time to +escape a sudden and gory death. But the flouring mill was much +more beloved. It was full of dusky, floury places which we +adored, of empty bins in which we might play house; it had a +basement, with piles of bran and shorts which were almost as good +as sand to play in, whenever the miller let us wet the edges of +the pile with water brought in his sprinkling pot from the +mill-race. + +In addition to these fascinations was the association of the mill +with my father's activities, for doubtless at that time I +centered upon him all that careful imitation which a little girl +ordinarily gives to her mother's ways and habits. My mother had +died when I was a baby and my father's second marriage did not +occur until my eighth year. + +I had a consuming ambition to posses a miller's thumb, and would +sit contentedly for a long time rubbing between my thumb and +fingers the ground wheat as it fell from between the millstones, +before it was taken up on an endless chain of mysterious little +buckets to be bolted into flour. I believe I have never since +wanted anything more desperately than I wanted my right thumb to +be flattened, as my father's had become, during his earlier years +of a miller's life. Somewhat discouraged by the slow process of +structural modification, I also took measures to secure on the +backs of my hands the tiny purple and red spots which are always +found on the hands of the miller who dresses millstones. The +marks on my father's hands had grown faint, but were quite +visible when looked for, and seemed to me so desirable that they +must be procured at all costs. Even when playing in our house or +yard, I could always tell when the millstones were being dressed, +because the rumbling of the mill then stopped, and there were few +pleasures I would not instantly forego, rushing at once to the +mill, that I might spread out my hands near the mill-stones in +the hope that the little hard flints flying form the miller's +chisel would light upon their backs and make the longed-for +marks. I used hotly to accuse the German miller, my dear friend +Ferdinand, "of trying not to hit my hands," but he scornfully +replied that he could not hit them if he did try, and that they +were too little to be of use in a mill anyway. Although I hated +his teasing, I never had the courage to confess my real purpose. + +This sincere tribute of imitation, which affection offers to its +adored object, had later, I hope, subtler manifestations, but +certainly these first ones were altogether genuine. In this +case, too, I doubtless contributed my share to that stream of +admiration which our generation so generously poured forth for +the self-made man. I was consumed by a wistful desire to +apprehend the hardships of my father's earlier life in that +faraway time when he had been a miller's apprentice. I knew that +he still woke up punctually at three o'clock because for so many +years he had taken his turn at the mill in the early morning, and +if by chance I awoke at the same hour, as curiously enough I +often did, I imagined him in the early dawn in my uncle's old +mill reading through the entire village library, book after book, +beginning with the lives of the signers of the Declaration of +Independence. Copies of the same books, mostly bound in +calfskin, were to be found in the library below, and I +courageously resolved that I too would read them all and try to +understand life as he did. I did in fact later begin a course of +reading in the early morning hours, but I was caught by some +fantastic notion of chronological order and early legendary form. +Pope's translation of the "Iliad," even followed by Dryden's +"Virgil," did not leave behind the residuum of wisdom for which I +longed, and I finally gave them up for a thick book entitled "The +History of the World" as affording a shorter and an easier path. + +Although I constantly confided my sins and perplexities to my +father, there are only a few occasions on which I remember having +received direct advice or admonition; it may easily be true, +however, that I have forgotten the latter, in the manner of many +seekers after advice who enjoyably set forth their situation but +do not really listen to the advice itself. I can remember an +admonition on one occasion, however, when, as a little girl of +eight years, arrayed in a new cloak, gorgeous beyond anything I +had ever worn before, I stood before my father for his approval. +I was much chagrined by his remark that it was a very pretty +cloak--in fact so much prettier than any cloak the other little +girls in the Sunday School had, that he would advise me to wear +my old cloak, which would keep me quite as warm, with the added +advantage of not making the other little girls feel badly. I +complied with the request but I fear without inner consent, and I +certainly was quite without the joy of self-sacrifice as I walked +soberly through the village street by the side of my counselor. +My mind was busy, however, with the old question eternally +suggested by the inequalities of the human lot. Only as we +neared the church door did I venture to ask what could be done +about it, receiving the reply that it might never be righted so +far as clothes went, but that people might be equal in things +that mattered much more than clothes, the affairs of education +and religion, for instance, which we attended to when we went to +school and church, and that it was very stupid to wear the sort +of clothes that made it harder to have equality even there. + +It must have been a little later when I held a conversation with +my father upon the doctrine of foreordination, which at one time +very much perplexed my childish mind. After setting the +difficulty before him and complaining that I could not make it +out, although my best friend "understood it perfectly," I settled +down to hear his argument, having no doubt that he could make it +quite clear. To my delighted surprise, for any intimation that +our minds were on an equality lifted me high indeed, he said that +he feared that he and I did not have the kind of mind that would +ever understand fore-ordination very well and advised me not to +give too much time to it; but he then proceeded to say other +things of which the final impression left upon my mind was, that +it did not matter much whether one understood foreordination or +not, but that it was very important not to pretend to understand +what you didn't understand and that you must always be honest +with yourself inside, whatever happened. Perhaps on the whole as +valuable a lesson as the shorter catechism itself contains. + +My memory merges this early conversation on religious doctrine +into one which took place years later when I put before my father +the situation in which I found myself at boarding school when +under great evangelical pressure, and once again I heard his +testimony in favor of "mental integrity above everything else." + +At the time we were driving through a piece of timber in which +the wood choppers had been at work during the winter, and so +earnestly were we talking that he suddenly drew up the horses to +find that he did not know where he was. We were both entertained +by the incident, I that my father had been "lost in his own +timber" so that various cords of wood must have escaped his +practiced eye, and he on his side that he should have become so +absorbed in this maze of youthful speculation. We were in high +spirits as we emerged from the tender green of the spring woods +into the clear light of day, and as we came back into the main +road I categorically asked him:- + +"What are you? What do you say when people ask you?" + +His eyes twinkled a little as he soberly replied: + +"I am a Quaker." + +"But that isn't enough to say," I urged. + +"Very well," he added, "to people who insist upon details, as some +one is doing now, I add that I am a Hicksite Quaker"; and not +another word on the weighty subject could I induce him to utter. + +These early recollections are set in a scene of rural beauty, +unusual at least for Illinois. The prairie around the village +was broken into hills, one of them crowned by pine woods, grown +up from a bag full of Norway pine seeds sown by my father in +1844, the very year he came to Illinois, a testimony perhaps that +the most vigorous pioneers gave at least an occasional thought to +beauty. The banks of the mill stream rose into high bluffs too +perpendicular to be climbed without skill, and containing caves +of which one at least was so black that it could not be explored +without the aid of a candle; and there was a deserted limekiln +which became associated in my mind with the unpardonable sin of +Hawthorne's "Lime-Burner." My stepbrother and I carried on games +and crusades which lasted week after week, and even summer after +summer, as only free-ranging country children can do. It may be +in contrast to this that one of the most piteous aspects in the +life of city children, as I have seen it in the neighborhood of +Hull-House, is the constant interruption to their play which is +inevitable on the streets, so that it can never have any +continuity--the most elaborate "plan or chart" or "fragment from +their dream of human life" is sure to be rudely destroyed by the +passing traffic. Although they start over and over again, even +the most vivacious become worn out at last and take to that +passive "standing 'round" varied by rude horseplay, which in time +becomes so characteristic of city children. + +We had of course our favorite places and trees and birds and +flowers. It is hard to reproduce the companionship which +children establish with nature, but certainly it is much too +unconscious and intimate to come under the head of aesthetic +appreciation or anything of the sort. When we said that the +purple wind-flowers--the anemone patens--"looked as if the winds +had made them," we thought much more of the fact that they were +wind-born than that they were beautiful: we clapped our hands in +sudden joy over the soft radiance of the rainbow, but its +enchantment lay in our half belief that a pot of gold was to be +found at its farther end; we yielded to a soft melancholy when we +heard the whippoorwill in the early twilight, but while he +aroused in us vague longings of which we spoke solemnly, we felt +no beauty in his call. + +We erected an altar beside the stream, to which for several years +we brought all the snakes we killed during our excursions, no +matter how long the toil--some journey which we had to make with +a limp snake dangling between two sticks. I remember rather +vaguely the ceremonial performed upon this altar one autumn day, +when we brought as further tribute one out of every hundred of +the black walnuts which we had gathered, and then poured over the +whole a pitcher full of cider, fresh from the cider mill on the +barn floor. I think we had also burned a favorite book or two +upon this pyre of stones. The entire affair carried on with such +solemnity was probably the result of one of those imperative +impulses under whose compulsion children seek a ceremonial which +shall express their sense of identification with man's primitive +life and their familiar kinship with the remotest past. + +Long before we had begun the study of Latin at the village +school, my brother and I had learned the Lord's Prayer in Latin +out of an old copy of the Vulgate, and gravely repeated it every +night in an execrable pronunciation because it seemed to us more +religious than "plain English." + +When, however, I really prayed, what I saw before my eyes was a +most outrageous picture which adorned a song-book used in Sunday +School, portraying the Lord upon his throne, surrounded by tiers +and tiers of saints and angels all in a blur of yellow. I am +ashamed to tell how old I was when that picture ceased to appear +before my eyes, especially when moments of terror compelled me to +ask protection from the heavenly powers. + +I recall with great distinctness my first direct contact with +death when I was fifteen years old: Polly was an old nurse who +had taken care of my mother and had followed her to frontier +Illinois to help rear a second generation of children. She had +always lived in our house, but made annual visits to her cousins +on a farm a few miles north of the village. During one of those +visits, word came to us one Sunday evening that Polly was dying, +and for a number of reasons I was the only person able to go to +her. I left the lamp-lit, warm house to be driven four miles +through a blinding storm which every minute added more snow to +the already high drifts, with a sense of starting upon a fateful +errand. An hour after my arrival all of the cousin's family went +downstairs to supper, and I was left alone to watch with Polly. +The square, old-fashioned chamber in the lonely farmhouse was +very cold and still, with nothing to be heard but the storm +outside. Suddenly the great change came. I heard a feeble call +of "Sarah," my mother's name, as the dying eyes were turned upon +me, followed by a curious breathing and in place of the face +familiar from my earliest childhood and associated with homely +household cares, there lay upon the pillow strange, august +features, stern and withdrawn from all the small affairs of life. +That sense of solitude, of being unsheltered in a wide world of +relentless and elemental forces which is at the basis of +childhood's timidity and which is far from outgrown at fifteen, +seized me irresistibly before I could reach the narrow stairs and +summon the family from below. + +As I was driven home in the winter storm, the wind through the +trees seemed laden with a passing soul and the riddle of life and +death pressed hard; once to be young, to grow old and to die, +everything came to that, and then a mysterious journey out into +the Unknown. Did she mind faring forth alone? Would the journey +perhaps end in something as familiar and natural to the aged and +dying as life is to the young and living? Through all the drive +and indeed throughout the night these thoughts were pierced by +sharp worry, a sense of faithlessness because I had forgotten the +text Polly had confided to me long before as the one from which +she wished her funeral sermon to be preached. My comfort as +usual finally came from my father, who pointed out what was +essential and what was of little avail even in such a moment as +this, and while he was much too wise to grow dogmatic upon the +great theme of death, I felt a new fellowship with him because we +had discussed it together. + +Perhaps I may record here my protest against the efforts, so +often made, to shield children and young people from all that has +to do with death and sorrow, to give them a good time at all +hazards on the assumption that the ills of life will come soon +enough. Young people themselves often resent this attitude on +the part of their elders; they feel set aside and belittled as if +they were denied the common human experiences. They too wish to +climb steep stairs and to eat their bread with tears, and they +imagine that the problems of existence which so press upon them +in pensive moments would be less insoluble in the light of these +great happenings. + +An incident which stands out clearly in my mind as an exciting +suggestion of the great world of moral enterprise and serious +undertakings must have occurred earlier than this, for in 1872, +when I was not yet twelve years old, I came into my father's room +one morning to find him sitting beside the fire with a newspaper in +his hand, looking very solemn; and upon my eager inquiry what had +happened, he told me that Joseph Mazzini was dead. I had never +even heard Mazzini's name, and after being told about him I was +inclined to grow argumentative, asserting that my father did not +know him, that he was not an American, and that I could not +understand why we should be expected to feel badly about him. It +is impossible to recall the conversation with the complete +breakdown of my cheap arguments, but in the end I obtained that +which I have ever regarded as a valuable possession, a sense of the +genuine relationship which may exist between men who share large +hopes and like desires, even though they differ in nationality, +language, and creed; that those things count for absolutely nothing +between groups of men who are trying to abolish slavery in America +or to throw off Hapsburg oppression in Italy. At any rate, I was +heartily ashamed of my meager notion of patriotism, and I came out +of the room exhilarated with the consciousness that impersonal and +international relations are actual facts and not mere phrases. I +was filled with pride that I knew a man who held converse with +great minds and who really sorrowed and rejoiced over happenings +across the sea. I never recall those early conversations with my +father, nor a score of others like them, but there comes into my +mind a line from Mrs. Browning in which a daughter describes her +relations with her father:-- + + "He wrapt me in his large + Man's doublet, careless did it fit or no." + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer David Cheezem. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter II: Influence of Lincoln." by Jane Addams (1860-1935) +From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes. by +Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. 23-43. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + +CHAPTER II + +INFLUENCE OF LINCOLN + + +I suppose all the children who were born about the time of the +Civil War have recollections quite unlike those of the children +who are living now. Although I was but four and a half years old +when Lincoln died, I distinctly remember the day when I found on +our two white gateposts American flags companioned with black. I +tumbled down on the harsh gravel walk in my eager rush into the +house to inquire what they were "there for." To my amazement I +found my father in tears, something that I had never seen before, +having assumed, as all children do, that grown-up people never +cried. The two flags, my father's tears, and his impressive +statement that the greatest man in the world had died, constituted +my initiation, my baptism, as it were, into the thrilling and +solemn interests of a world lying quite outside the two white +gateposts. The great war touched children in many ways: I +remember an engraved roster of names, headed by the words "Addams' +Guard," and the whole surmounted by the insignia of the American +eagle clutching many flags, which always hung in the family +living-room. As children we used to read this list of names again +and again. We could reach it only by dint of putting the family +Bible on a chair and piling the dictionary on top of it; using the +Bible to stand on was always accompanied by a little thrill of +superstitious awe, although we carefully put the dictionary above +that our profane feet might touch it alone. Having brought the +roster within reach of our eager fingers,--fortunately it was +glazed,--we would pick out the names of those who "had fallen on +the field" from those who "had come back from the war," and from +among the latter those whose children were our schoolmates. When +drives were planned, we would say, "Let us take this road," that +we might pass the farm where a soldier had once lived; if flowers +from the garden were to be given away, we would want them to go to +the mother of one of those heroes whose names we knew from the +"Addams' Guard." If a guest should become interested in the roster +on the wall, he was at once led by the eager children to a small +picture of Colonel Davis which hung next the opposite window, that +he might see the brave Colonel of the Regiment. The introduction +to the picture of the one-armed man seemed to us a very solemn +ceremony, and long after the guest was tired of listening, we +would tell each other all about the local hero, who at the head of +his troops had suffered wounds unto death. We liked very much to +talk to a gentle old lady who lived in a white farmhouse a mile +north of the village. She was the mother of the village hero, +Tommy, and used to tell us of her long anxiety during the spring +of '62; how she waited day after day for the hospital to surrender +up her son, each morning airing the white homespun sheets and +holding the little bedroom in immaculate readiness. It was after +the battle of Fort Donelson that Tommy was wounded and had been +taken to the hospital at Springfield; his father went down to him +and saw him getting worse each week, until it was clear that he +was going to die; but there was so much red tape about the +department, and affairs were so confused, that his discharge could +not be procured. At last the hospital surgeon intimated to his +father that he should quietly take him away; a man as sick as +that, it would be all right; but when they told Tommy, weak as he +was, his eyes flashed, and he said, "No, sir; I will go out of the +front door or I'll die here." Of course after that every man in +the hospital worked for it, and in two weeks he was honorably +discharged. When he came home at last, his mother's heart was +broken to see him so wan and changed. She would tell us of the +long quiet days that followed his return, with the windows open so +that the dying eyes might look over the orchard slope to the +meadow beyond where the younger brothers were mowing the early +hay. She told us of those days when his school friends from the +Academy flocked in to see him, their old acknowledged leader, and +of the burning words of earnest patriotism spoken in the crowded +little room, so that in three months the Academy was almost +deserted and the new Company who marched away in the autumn took +as drummer boy Tommy's third brother, who was only seventeen and +too young for a regular. She remembered the still darker days +that followed, when the bright drummer boy was in Andersonville +prison, and little by little she learned to be reconciled that +Tommy was safe in the peaceful home graveyard. + +However much we were given to talk of war heroes, we always fell +silent as we approached an isolated farmhouse in which two old +people lived alone. Five of their sons had enlisted in the Civil +War, and only the youngest had returned alive in the spring of +1865. In the autumn of the same year, when he was hunting for +wild ducks in a swamp on the rough little farm itself, he was +accidently shot and killed, and the old people were left alone to +struggle with the half-cleared land as best they might. When we +were driven past this forlorn little farm our childish voices +always dropped into speculative whisperings as to how the +accident could have happened to this remaining son out of all the +men in the world, to him who had escaped so many chances of +death! Our young hearts swelled in first rebellion against that +which Walter Pater calls "the inexplicable shortcoming or +misadventure on the part of life itself"; we were overwhelmingly +oppressed by that grief of things as they are, so much more +mysterious and intolerable than those griefs which we think dimly +to trace to man's own wrongdoing. + +It was well perhaps that life thus early gave me a hint of one of +her most obstinate and insoluble riddles, for I have sorely +needed the sense of universality thus imparted to that mysterious +injustice, the burden of which we are all forced to bear and with +which I have become only too familiar. + +My childish admiration for Lincoln is closely associated with a +visit made to the war eagle, Old Abe, who, as we children well +knew, lived in the state capital of Wisconsin, only sixty-five +miles north of our house, really no farther than an eagle could +easily fly! He had been carried by the Eighth Wisconsin Regiment +through the entire war, and now dwelt an honored pensioner in the +state building itself. + +Many times, standing in the north end of our orchard, which was +only twelve miles from that mysterious line which divided +Illinois from Wisconsin, we anxiously scanned the deep sky, +hoping to see Old Abe fly southward right over our apple trees, +for it was clearly possible that he might at any moment escape +from his keeper, who, although he had been a soldier and a +sentinel, would have to sleep sometimes. We gazed with thrilled +interest at one speck after another in the flawless sky, but +although Old Abe never came to see us, a much more incredible +thing happened, for we were at last taken to see him. + +We started one golden summer's day, two happy children in the +family carriage, with my father and mother and an older sister to +whom, because she was just home from boarding school, we +confidently appealed whenever we needed information. We were +driven northward hour after hour, past harvest fields in which +the stubble glinted from bronze to gold and the heavy-headed +grain rested luxuriously in rounded shocks, until we reached that +beautiful region of hills and lakes which surrounds the capital +city of Wisconsin. + +But although Old Abe, sitting sedately upon his high perch, was +sufficiently like an uplifted ensign to remind us of a Roman +eagle, and although his veteran keeper, clad in an old army coat, +was ready to answer all our questions and to tell us of the +thirty-six battles and skirmishes which Old Abe had passed +unscathed, the crowning moment of the impressive journey came to +me later, illustrating once more that children are as quick to +catch the meaning of a symbol as they are unaccountably slow to +understand the real world about them. + +The entire journey to the veteran war eagle had itself symbolized +that search for the heroic and perfect which so persistently +haunts the young; and as I stood under the great white dome of +Old Abe's stately home, for one brief moment the search was +rewarded. I dimly caught a hint of what men have tried to say in +their world-old effort to imprison a space in so divine a line +that it shall hold only yearning devotion and high-hearted hopes. + Certainly the utmost rim of my first dome was filled with the +tumultuous impression of soldiers marching to death for freedom's +sake, of pioneers streaming westward to establish self-government +in yet another sovereign state. Only the great dome of St. +Peter's itself has ever clutched my heart as did that modest +curve which had sequestered from infinitude in a place small +enough for my child's mind, the courage and endurance which I +could not comprehend so long as it was lost in "the void of +unresponsible space" under the vaulting sky itself. But through +all my vivid sensations there persisted the image of the eagle in +the corridor below and Lincoln himself as an epitome of all that +was great and good. I dimly caught the notion of the martyred +President as the standard bearer to the conscience of his +countrymen, as the eagle had been the ensign of courage to the +soldiers of the Wisconsin regiment. + +Thirty-five years later, as I stood on the hill campus of the +University of Wisconsin with a commanding view of the capitol +building a mile directly across the city, I saw again the dome +which had so uplifted my childish spirit. The University, which +was celebrating it's fiftieth anniversary, had honored me with a +doctor's degree, and in the midst of the academic pomp and the +rejoicing, the dome again appeared to me as a fitting symbol of the +state's aspiration even in its high mission of universal education. + +Thousands of children in the sixties and seventies, in the +simplicity which is given to the understanding of a child, caught a +notion of imperishable heroism when they were told that brave men +had lost their lives that the slaves might be free. At any moment +the conversation of our elders might turn upon these heroic events; +there were red-letter days, when a certain general came to see my +father, and again when Governor Oglesby, whom all Illinois children +called "Uncle Dick," spent a Sunday under the pine trees in our +front yard. We felt on those days a connection with the great +world so much more heroic than the village world which surrounded +us through all the other days. My father was a member of the state +senate for the sixteen years between 1854 and 1870, and even as a +little child I was dimly conscious of the grave march of public +affairs in his comings and goings at the state capital. + +He was much too occupied to allow time for reminiscence, but I +remember overhearing a conversation between a visitor and himself +concerning the stirring days before the war, when it was by no +means certain that the Union men in the legislature would always +have enough votes to keep Illinois from seceding. I heard with +breathless interest my father's account of the trip a majority of +the legislators had made one dark day to St. Louis, that there +might not be enough men for a quorum, and so no vote could be +taken on the momentous question until the Union men could rally +their forces. + +My father always spoke of the martyred President as Mr. Lincoln, +and I never heard the great name without a thrill. I remember +the day--it must have been one of comparative leisure, perhaps a +Sunday--when at my request my father took out of his desk a thin +packet marked "Mr. Lincoln's Letters," the shortest one of which +bore unmistakable traces of that remarkable personality. These +letters began, "My dear Double-D'ed Addams," and to the inquiry +as to how the person thus addressed was about to vote on a +certain measure then before the legislature, was added the +assurance that he knew that this Addams "would vote according to +his conscience," but he begged to know in which direction the +same conscience "was pointing." As my father folded up the bits +of paper I fairly held my breath in my desire that he should go +on with the reminiscence of this wonderful man, whom he had known +in his comparative obscurity, or better still, that he should be +moved to tell some of the exciting incidents of the +Lincoln-Douglas debates. There were at least two pictures of +Lincoln that always hung in my father's room, and one in our +old-fashioned upstairs parlor, of Lincoln with little Tad. For +one or all of these reasons I always tend to associate Lincoln +with the tenderest thoughts of my father. + +I recall a time of great perplexity in the summer of 1894, when +Chicago was filled with federal troops sent there by the +President of the United States, and their presence was resented +by the governor of the state, that I walked the wearisome way +from Hull-House to Lincoln Park--for no cars were running +regularly at that moment of sympathetic strikes--in order to look +at and gain magnanimous counsel, if I might, from the marvelous +St. Gaudens statue which had been but recently been placed at the +entrance of the park. Some of Lincoln's immortal words were cut +into the stone at his feet, and never did a distracted town more +sorely need the healing of "with charity towards all" than did +Chicago at that moment, and the tolerance of the man who had won +charity for those on both sides of "an irrepressible conflict." + +Of the many things written of my father in that sad August in +1881, when he died, the one I cared for most was written by an old +political friend of his who was then editor of a great Chicago +daily. He wrote that while there were doubtless many members of +the Illinois legislature who during the great contracts of the war +time and the demoralizing reconstruction days that followed, had +never accepted a bribe, he wished to bear testimony that he +personally had known but this one man who had never been offered a +bribe because bad men were instinctively afraid of him. + +I feel now the hot chagrin with which I recalled this statement +during those early efforts of Illinois in which Hull- House +joined, to secure the passage of the first factory legislation. I +was told by the representatives of an informal association of +manufacturers that if the residents of Hull-House would drop this +nonsense about a sweatshop bill, of which they knew nothing, +certain business men would agree to give fifty thousand dollars +within two years to be used for any of the philanthropic +activities of the Settlement. As the fact broke upon me that I +was being offered a bribe, the shame was enormously increased by +the memory of this statement. What had befallen the daughter of +my father that such a thing could happen to her? The salutary +reflection that it could not have occurred unless a weakness in +myself had permitted it, withheld me at least from an historic +display of indignation before the two men making the offer, and I +explained as gently as I could that we had no ambition to make +Hull-House "the largest institution on the West Side," but that we +were much concerned that our neighbors should be protected from +untoward conditions of work, and--so much heroics, youth must +permit itself--if to accomplish this the destruction of Hull-House +was necessary, that we would cheerfully sing a Te Deum on its +ruins. The good friend who had invited me to lunch at the Union +League Club to meet two of his friends who wanted to talk over the +sweat shop bill here kindly intervened, and we all hastened to +cover the awkward situation by that scurrying away from ugly +morality which seems to be an obligation of social intercourse. + +Of the many old friends of my father who kindly came to look up +his daughter in the first days of Hull-House, I recall none with +more pleasure than Lyman Trumbull, whom we used to point out to +members of the Young Citizen's Club as the man who had for days +held in his keeping the Proclamation of Emancipation until his +friend President Lincoln was ready to issue it. I remember the +talk he gave at Hull-House on one of our early celebrations of +Lincoln's birthday, his assertion that Lincoln was no cheap +popular hero, that the "common people" would have to make an +effort if they would understand his greatness, as Lincoln +painstakingly made a long effort to understand the greatness of +the people. There was something in the admiration of Lincoln's +contemporaries, or at least of those men who had known him +personally, which was quite unlike even the best of the devotion +and reverent understanding which has developed since. In the +first place, they had so large a fund of common experience; they +too had pioneered in a western country, and had urged the +development of canals and railroads in order that the raw prairie +crops might be transported to market; they too had realized that +if this last tremendous experiment in self-government failed here, +it would be the disappointment of the centuries and that upon +their ability to organize self-government in state, county, and +town depended the verdict of history. These men also knew, as +Lincoln himself did, that if this tremendous experiment was to +come to fruition, it must be brought about by the people +themselves; that there was no other capital fund upon which to +draw. I remember an incident occurring when I was about fifteen +years old, in which the conviction was driven into my mind that +the people themselves were the great resource of the country. My +father had made a little address of reminiscence at a meeting of +"the old settlers of Stephenson County," which was held every +summer in the grove beside the mill, relating his experiences in +inducing the farmers of the county to subscribe for stock in the +Northwestern Railroad, which was the first to penetrate the county +and make a connection with the Great Lakes at Chicago. Many of the +Pennsylvania German farmers doubted the value of "the whole +new-fangled business," and had no use for any railroad, much less +for one in which they were asked to risk their hard-earned +savings. My father told of his despair in one farmers' community +dominated by such prejudice which did not in the least give way +under his argument, but finally melted under the enthusiasm of a +high-spirited German matron who took a share to be paid for "out +of butter and egg money." As he related his admiration of her, an +old woman's piping voice in the audience called out: "I'm here +to-day, Mr. Addams, and I'd do it again if you asked me." The old +woman, bent and broken by her seventy years of toilsome life, was +brought to the platform and I was much impressed by my father's +grave presentation of her as "one of the public-spirited pioneers +to whose heroic fortitude we are indebted for the development of +this country." I remember that I was at that time reading with +great enthusiasm Carlyle's "Heroes and Hero Worship," but on the +evening of "Old Settlers' Day," to my surprise, I found it +difficult to go on. Its sonorous sentences and exaltation of the +man who "can" suddenly ceased to be convincing. I had already +written down in my commonplace book a resolution to give at least +twenty-five copies of this book each year to noble young people of +my acquaintance. It is perhaps fitting in this chapter that the +very first Christmas we spent at Hull-House, in spite of exigent +demands upon my slender purse for candy and shoes, I gave to a +club of boys twenty-five copies of the then new Carl Schurz's +"Appreciation of Abraham Lincoln." + +In our early effort at Hull-House to hand on to our neighbors +whatever of help we had found for ourselves, we made much of +Lincoln. We were often distressed by the children of immigrant +parents who were ashamed of the pit whence they were digged, who +repudiated the language and customs of their elders, and counted +themselves successful as they were able to ignore the past. +Whenever I held up Lincoln for their admiration as the greatest +American, I invariably pointed out his marvelous power to retain +and utilize past experiences; that he never forgot how the plain +people in Sangamon County thought and felt when he himself had +moved to town; that this habit was the foundation for his +marvelous capacity for growth; that during those distracting +years in Washington it enabled him to make clear beyond denial to +the American people themselves, the goal towards which they were +moving. I was sometimes bold enough to add that proficiency in +the art of recognition and comprehension did not come without +effort, and that certainly its attainment was necessary for any +successful career in our conglomerate America. + +An instance of the invigorating and clarifying power of Lincoln's +influence came to me many years ago in England. I had spent two +days in Oxford under the guidance of Arnold Toynbee's old friend +Sidney Ball of St. John's College, who was closely associated +with the group of scholars we all identify with the beginnings of +the Settlement movement. It was easy to claim the philosophy of +Thomas Hill Green, the road-building episode of Ruskin, the +experimental living in the east end by Frederick Maurice, the +London Workingman's College of Edward Dennison, as foundations +laid by university men for the establishment of Toynbee Hall. I +was naturally much interested in the beginnings of the movement +whose slogan was "Back to the People," and which could doubtless +claim the Settlement as one of its manifestations. Nevertheless +the processes by which so simple a conclusion as residence among +the poor in East London was reached, seemed to me very involved +and roundabout. However inevitable these processes might be for +class-conscious Englishmen, they could not but seem artificial to +a western American who had been born in a rural community where +the early pioneer life had made social distinctions impossible. +Always on the alert lest American Settlements should become mere +echoes and imitations of the English movement, I found myself +assenting to what was shown me only with that part of my +consciousness which had been formed by reading of English social +movements, while at the same time the rustic American looked on +in detached comment. + +Why should an American be lost in admiration of a group of Oxford +students because they went out to mend a disused road, inspired +thereto by Ruskin's teaching for the bettering of the common +life, when all the country roads in America were mended each +spring by self-respecting citizens, who were thus carrying out +the simple method devised by a democratic government for +providing highways. No humor penetrated my high mood even as I +somewhat uneasily recalled certain spring thaws when I had been +mired in roads provided by the American citizen. I continued to +fumble for a synthesis which I was unable to make until I +developed that uncomfortable sense of playing two roles at once. +It was therefore almost with a dual consciousness that I was +ushered, during the last afternoon of my Oxford stay, into the +drawingroom of the Master of Balliol. Edward Caird's "Evolution +of Religion," which I had read but a year or two before, had been +of unspeakable comfort to me in the labyrinth of differing +ethical teachings and religious creeds which the many immigrant +colonies of our neighborhood presented. I remember that I wanted +very much to ask the author himself how far it was reasonable to +expect the same quality of virtue and a similar standard of +conduct from these divers people. I was timidly trying to apply +his method of study to those groups of homesick immigrants +huddled together in strange tenement houses, among whom I seemed +to detect the beginnings of a secular religion or at least of a +wide humanitarianism evolved out of the various exigencies of the +situation; somewhat as a household of children, whose mother is +dead, out of their sudden necessity perform unaccustomed offices +for each other and awkwardly exchange consolations, as children +in happier households never dream of doing. Perhaps Mr. Caird +could tell me whether there was any religious content in this + + Faith to each other; this fidelity + Of fellow wanderers in a desert place. + +But when tea was over and my opportunity came for a talk with my +host, I suddenly remembered, to the exclusion of all other +associations, only Mr. Caird's fine analysis of Abraham Lincoln, +delivered in a lecture two years before. + +The memory of Lincoln, the mention of his name, came like a +refreshing breeze from off the prairie, blowing aside all the +scholarly implications in which I had become so reluctantly +involved, and as the philosopher spoke of the great American "who +was content merely to dig the channels through which the moral life +of his countrymen might flow," I was gradually able to make a +natural connection between this intellectual penetration at Oxford +and the moral perception which is always necessary for the +discovery of new methods by which to minister to human needs. In +the unceasing ebb and flow of justice and oppression we must all +dig channels as best we may, that at the propitious moment somewhat +of the swelling tide may be conducted to the barren places of life. + +Gradually a healing sense of well-being enveloped me and a quick +remorse for my blindness, as I realized that no one among his own +countrymen had been able to interpret Lincoln's greatness more +nobly than this Oxford scholar had done, and that vision and +wisdom as well as high motives must lie behind every effective +stroke in the continuous labor for human equality; I remembered +that another Master of Balliol, Jowett himself, had said that it +was fortunate for society that every age possessed at least a few +minds, which, like Arnold Toynbee's, were "perpetually disturbed +over the apparent inequalities of mankind." Certainly both the +English and American settlements could unite in confessing to +that disturbance of mind. + +Traces of this Oxford visit are curiously reflected in a paper I +wrote soon after my return at the request of the American Academy +of Political and Social Science. It begins as follows:-- + + The word "settlement," which we have borrowed from London, + is apt to grate a little upon American ears. It is not, + after all, so long ago that Americans who settled were + those who had adventured into a new country, where they + were pioneers in the midst of difficult surroundings. The + word still implies migrating from one condition of life to + another totally unlike it, and against this implication + the resident of an American settlement takes alarm. + + We do not like to acknowledge that Americans are divided + into two nations, as her prime minister once admitted of + England. We are not willing, openly and professedly, to + assume that American citizens are broken up into classes, + even if we make that assumption the preface to a plea that + the superior class has duties to the inferior. Our + democracy is still our most precious possession, and we do + well to resent any inroads upon it, even though they may + be made in the name of philanthropy. + +Is it not Abraham Lincoln who has cleared the title to our +democracy? He made plain, once for all, that democratic +government, associated as it is with all the mistakes and +shortcomings of the common people, still remains the most valuable +contribution America has made to the moral life of the world. + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Diana Camden. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter III: Boarding-School Ideals." by Jane Addams (1860-1935) +From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes. by +Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. +43-64. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BOARDING-SCHOOL IDEALS + + +As my three older sisters had already attended the seminary at +Rockford, of which my father was trustee, without any question I +entered there at seventeen, with such meager preparation in Latin +and algebra as the village school had afforded. I was very +ambitious to go to Smith College, although I well knew that my +father's theory in regard to the education of his daughters +implied a school as near at home as possible, to be followed by +travel abroad in lieu of the wider advantages which the eastern +college is supposed to afford. I was much impressed by the +recent return of my sister from a year in Europe, yet I was +greatly disappointed at the moment of starting to humdrum +Rockford. After the first weeks of homesickness were over, +however, I became very much absorbed in the little world which +the boarding school in any form always offers to its students. + +The school at Rockford in 1877 had not changed its name from +seminary to college, although it numbered, on its faculty and +among its alumnae, college women who were most eager that this +should be done, and who really accomplished it during the next +five years. The school was one of the earliest efforts for +women's higher education in the Mississippi Valley, and from the +beginning was called "The Mount Holyoke of the West." + +It reflected much of the missionary spirit of that pioneer +institution, and the proportion of missionaries among its early +graduates was almost as large as Mount Holyoke's own. In +addition there had been thrown about the founders of the early +western school the glamour of frontier privations, and the first +students, conscious of the heroic self-sacrifice made in their +behalf, felt that each minute of the time thus dearly bought must +be conscientiously used. This inevitably fostered an atmosphere +of intensity, a fever of preparation which continued long after +the direct making of it had ceased, and which the later girls +accepted, as they did the campus and the buildings, without +knowing that it could have been otherwise. + +There was, moreover, always present in the school a larger or +smaller group of girls who consciously accepted this heritage and +persistently endeavored to fulfill its obligation. We worked in +those early years as if we really believed the portentous +statement from Aristotle which we found quoted in Boswell's +Johnson and with which we illuminated the wall of the room +occupied by our Chess Club; it remained there for months, solely +out of reverence, let us hope, for the two ponderous names +associated with it; at least I have enough confidence in human +nature to assert that we never really believed that "There is the +same difference between the learned and the unlearned as there is +between the living and the dead." We were also too fond of quoting +Carlyle to the effect, "'Tis not to taste sweet things, but to do +noble and true things that the poorest son of Adam dimly longs." + +As I attempt to reconstruct the spirit of my contemporary group +by looking over many documents, I find nothing more amusing than +a plaint registered against life's indistinctness, which I +imagine more or less reflected the sentiments of all of us. At +any rate here it is for the entertainment of the reader if not +for his edification: "So much of our time is spent in +preparation, so much in routine, and so much in sleep, we find it +difficult to have any experience at all." We did not, however, +tamely accept such a state of affairs, for we made various and +restless attempts to break through this dull obtuseness. + +At one time five of us tried to understand De Quincey's marvelous +"Dreams" more sympathetically, by drugging ourselves with opium. +We solemnly consumed small white powders at intervals during an +entire long holiday, but no mental reorientation took place, and +the suspense and excitement did not even permit us to grow +sleepy. About four o'clock on the weird afternoon, the young +teacher whom we had been obliged to take into our confidence, +grew alarmed over the whole performance, took away our De Quincey +and all the remaining powders, administrated an emetic to each of +the five aspirants for sympathetic understanding of all human +experience, and sent us to our separate rooms with a stern +command to appear at family worship after supper "whether we were +able to or not." + +Whenever we had a chance to write, we took, of course, large +themes, usually from the Greek because they were the most +stirring to the imagination. The Greek oration I gave at our +Junior Exhibition was written with infinite pains and taken to +the Greek professor in Beloit College that there might be no +mistakes, even after the Rockford College teacher and the most +scholarly clergyman in town had both passed upon it. The oration +upon Bellerophon and his successful fight with the Chimera +contended that social evils could only be overcome by him who +soared above them into idealism, as Bellerophon mounted upon the +winged horse Pegasus, had slain the earthy dragon. + +There were practically no Economics taught in women's colleges--at +least in the fresh-water ones--thirty years ago, although we +painstakingly studied "Mental" and "Moral" Philosophy, which, +though far from dry in the classroom, became the subject of more +spirited discussion outside, and gave us a clew for animated +rummaging in the little college library. Of course we read a +great deal of Ruskin and Browning, and liked the most abstruse +parts the best; but like the famous gentleman who talked prose +without knowing it, we never dreamed of connecting them with our +philosophy. My genuine interest was history, partly because of a +superior teacher, and partly because my father had always insisted +upon a certain amount of historic reading ever since he had paid +me, as a little girl, five cents a "Life" for each Plutarch hero I +could intelligently report to him and twenty-five cents for every +volume of Irving's "Life of Washington." + +When we started for the long vacations, a little group of five +would vow that during the summer we would read all of Motley's +"Dutch Republic" or, more ambitious still, all of Gibbon's +"Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire." When we returned at the +opening of school and three of us announced we had finished the +latter, each became skeptical of the other two. We fell upon +each other in a sort of rough-and-tumble examination, in which no +quarter was given or received; but the suspicion was finally +removed that anyone had skipped. We took for a class motto the +early Saxon word for lady, translated into breadgiver, and we +took for our class color the poppy, because poppies grow among +the wheat, as if Nature knew that wherever there was hunger that +needed food there would be pain that needed relief. We must have +found the sentiment in a book somewhere, but we used it so much +it finally seemed like an idea of our own, although of course +none of us had ever seen a European field, the only page upon +which Nature has written this particular message. + +That this group of ardent girls, who discussed everything under +the sun with unabated interest, did not take it all out in talk +may be demonstrated by the fact that one of the class who married +a missionary founded a very successful school in Japan for the +children of the English and Americans living there; another of +the class became a medical missionary to Korea, and because of +her successful treatment of the Queen, was made court physician +at a time when the opening was considered of importance in the +diplomatic as well as in the missionary world; still another +became an unusually skilled teacher of the blind; and one of them +a pioneer librarian in that early effort to bring "books to the +people." + +Perhaps this early companionship showed me how essentially +similar are the various forms of social effort, and curiously +enough, the actual activities of a missionary school are not +unlike many that are carried on in a Settlement situated in a +foreign quarter. Certainly the most sympathetic and +comprehending visitors we have ever had at Hull-House have been +returned missionaries; among them two elderly ladies, who had +lived for years in India and who had been homesick and bewildered +since their return, declared that the fortnight at Hull-House had +been the happiest and most familiar they had had in America. + +Of course in such an atmosphere a girl like myself, of serious +not to say priggish tendency, did not escape a concerted pressure +to push her into the "missionary field." During the four years it +was inevitable that every sort of evangelical appeal should have +been made to reach the comparatively few "unconverted" girls in +the school. We were the subject of prayer at the daily chapel +exercise and the weekly prayer meeting, attendance upon which was +obligatory. + +I was singularly unresponsive to all these forms of emotional +appeal, although I became unspeakably embarrassed when they were +presented to me at close range by a teacher during the "silent +hour," which we were all required to observe every evening, and +which was never broken into, even by a member of the faculty, +unless the errand was one of grave import. I found these +occasional interviews on the part of one of the more serious +young teachers, of whom I was extremely fond, hard to endure, as +was a long series of conversations in my senior year conducted by +one of the most enthusiastic members of the faculty, in which the +desirability of Turkey as a field for missionary labor was +enticingly put before me. I suppose I held myself aloof from all +these influences, partly owing to the fact that my father was not +a communicant of any church, and I tremendously admired his +scrupulous morality and sense of honor in all matters of personal +and public conduct, and also because the little group to which I +have referred was much given to a sort of rationalism, doubtless +founded upon an early reading of Emerson. In this connection, +when Bronson Alcott came to lecture at the school, we all vied +with each other for a chance to do him a personal service because +he had been a friend of Emerson, and we were inexpressibly +scornful of our younger fellow-students who cared for him merely +on the basis of his grandfatherly relation to "Little Women." I +recall cleaning the clay of the unpaved streets off his heavy +cloth overshoes in a state of ecstatic energy. + +But I think in my case there were other factors as well that +contributed to my unresponsiveness to the evangelical appeal. A +curious course of reading I had marked out for myself in medieval +history, seems to have left me fascinated by an ideal of mingled +learning, piety and physical labor, more nearly exemplified by +the Port Royalists than by any others. + +The only moments in which I seem to have approximated in my own +experience to a faint realization of the "beauty of holiness," as +I conceived it, was each Sunday morning between the hours of nine +and ten, when I went into the exquisitely neat room of the +teacher of Greek and read with her from a Greek testament. We +did this every Sunday morning for two years. It was not exactly +a lesson, for I never prepared for it, and while I was held +within reasonable bounds of syntax, I was allowed much more +freedom in translation than was permitted the next morning when I +read Homer; neither did we discuss doctrines, for although it was +with this same teacher that in our junior year we studied Paul's +Epistle to the Hebrews, committing all of it to memory and +analyzing and reducing it to doctrines within an inch of our +lives, we never allowed an echo of this exercise to appear at +these blessed Sunday morning readings. It was as if the +disputations of Paul had not yet been, for we always read from +the Gospels. The regime of Rockford Seminary was still very +simple in the 70's. Each student made her own fire and kept her +own room in order. Sunday morning was a great clearing up day, +and the sense of having made immaculate my own immediate +surroundings, the consciousness of clean linen, said to be close +to the consciousness of a clean conscience, always mingles in my +mind with these early readings. I certainly bore away with me a +lifelong enthusiasm for reading the Gospels in bulk, a whole one +at a time, and an insurmountable distaste for having them cut up +into chapter and verse, or for hearing the incidents in that +wonderful Life thus referred to as if it were merely a record. + +My copy of the Greek testament had been presented to me by the +brother of our Greek teacher, Professor Blaisdell of Beloit +College, a true scholar in "Christian Ethics," as his department +was called. I recall that one day in the summer after I left +college--one of the black days which followed the death of my +father--this kindly scholar came to see me in order to bring such +comfort as he might and to inquire how far I had found solace in +the little book he had given me so long before. When I suddenly +recall the village in which I was born, its steeples and roofs +look as they did that day from the hilltop where we talked +together, the familiar details smoothed out and merging, as it +were, into that wide conception of the universe, which for the +moment swallowed up my personal grief or at least assuaged it with +a realization that it was but a drop in that "torrent of sorrow +and aguish and terror which flows under all the footsteps of man." +This realization of sorrow as the common lot, of death as the +universal experience, was the first comfort which my bruised +spirit had received. In reply to my impatience with the Christian +doctrine of "resignation," that it implied that you thought of +your sorrow only in its effect upon you and were disloyal to the +affection itself, I remember how quietly the Christian scholar +changed his phraseology, saying that sometimes consolation came to +us better in the words of Plato, and, as nearly as I can remember, +that was the first time I had ever heard Plato's sonorous argument +for the permanence of the excellent. + +When Professor Blaisdell returned to his college, he left in my +hands a small copy of "The Crito." The Greek was too hard for me, +and I was speedily driven to Jowett's translation. That +old-fashioned habit of presenting favorite books to eager young +people, although it degenerated into the absurdity of +"friendship's offerings," had much to be said for it, when it +indicated the wellsprings of literature from which the donor +himself had drawn waters of healing and inspiration. + +Throughout our school years, we were always keenly conscious of +the growing development of Rockford Seminary into a college. The +opportunity for our Alma Mater to take her place in the new +movement of full college education for women filled us with +enthusiasm, and it became a driving ambition with the +undergraduates to share in this new and glorious undertaking. We +gravely decided that it was important that some of the students +should be ready to receive the bachelor's degree the very first +moment that the charter of the school should secure the right to +confer it. Two of us, therefore, took a course in mathematics, +advanced beyond anything previously given in the school, from one +of those early young women working for a Ph.D., who was +temporarily teaching in Rockford that she might study more +mathematics in Leipsic. + +My companion in all these arduous labors has since accomplished +more than any of us in the effort to procure the franchise for +women, for even then we all took for granted the righteousness of +that cause into which I at least had merely followed my father's +conviction. In the old-fashioned spirit of that cause I might +cite the career of this companion as an illustration of the +efficacy of higher mathematics for women, for she possesses +singular ability to convince even the densest legislators of their +legal right to define their own electorate, even when they quote +against her the dustiest of state constitutions or city charters. + +In line with this policy of placing a woman's college on an +equality with the other colleges of the state, we applied for an +opportunity to compete in the intercollegiate oratorical contest +of Illinois, and we succeeded in having Rockford admitted as the +first woman's college. When I was finally selected as the +orator, I was somewhat dismayed to find that, representing not +only one school but college women in general, I could not resent +the brutal frankness with which my oratorical possibilities were +discussed by the enthusiastic group who would allow no personal +feeling to stand in the way of progress, especially the progress +of Woman's Cause. I was told among other things that I had an +intolerable habit of dropping my voice at the end of a sentence +in the most feminine, apologetic and even deprecatory manner +which would probably lose Woman the first place. + +Woman certainly did lose the first place and stood fifth, exactly +in the dreary middle, but the ignominious position may not have +been solely due to bad mannerisms, for a prior place was easily +accorded to William Jennings Bryan, who not only thrilled his +auditors with an almost prophetic anticipation of the cross of +gold, but with a moral earnestness which we had mistakenly +assumed would be the unique possession of the feminine orator. + +I so heartily concurred with the decision of the judges of the +contest that it was with a care-free mind that I induced my +colleague and alternate to remain long enough in "The Athens of +Illinois," in which the successful college was situated, to visit +the state institutions, one for the Blind and one for the Deaf and +Dumb. Dr Gillette was at that time head of the latter +institution; his scholarly explanation of the method of teaching, +his concern for his charges, this sudden demonstration of the care +the state bestowed upon its most unfortunate children, filled me +with grave speculations in which the first, the fifth, or the +ninth place in the oratorical contest seemed of little moment. + +However, this brief delay between our field of Waterloo and our +arrival at our aspiring college turned out to be most +unfortunate, for we found the ardent group not only exhausted by +the premature preparations for the return of a successful orator, +but naturally much irritated as they contemplated their garlands +drooping disconsolately in tubs and bowls of water. They did not +fail to make me realize that I had dealt the cause of woman's +advancement a staggering blow, and all my explanations of the +fifth place were haughtily considered insufficient before that +golden Bar of Youth, so absurdly inflexible! + +To return to my last year of school, it was inevitable that the +pressure toward religious profession should increase as +graduating day approached. So curious, however, are the paths of +moral development that several times during subsequent +experiences have I felt that this passive resistance of mine, +this clinging to an individual conviction, was the best moral +training I received at Rockford College. During the first decade +of Hull-House, it was felt by propagandists of diverse social +theories that the new Settlement would be a fine coign of vantage +from which to propagate social faiths, and that a mere +preliminary step would be the conversion of the founders; hence I +have been reasoned with hours at a time, and I recall at least +three occasions when this was followed by actual prayer. In the +first instance, the honest exhorter who fell upon his knees +before my astonished eyes, was an advocate of single tax upon +land values. He begged, in that phraseology which is deemed +appropriate for prayer, that "the sister might see the beneficent +results it would bring to the poor who live in the awful +congested districts around this very house." + +The early socialists used every method of attack,--a favorite one +being the statement, doubtless sometimes honestly made, that I +really was a socialist, but "too much of a coward to say so." I +remember one socialist who habitually opened a very telling +address he was in the habit of giving upon the street corners, by +holding me up as an awful example to his fellow socialists, as +one of their number "who had been caught in the toils of +capitalism." He always added as a final clinching of the +statement that he knew what he was talking about because he was a +member of the Hull-House Men's Club. When I ventured to say to +him that not all of the thousands of people who belong to a class +or club at Hull-House could possibly know my personal opinions, +and to mildly inquire upon what he founded his assertions, he +triumphantly replied that I had once admitted to him that I had +read Sombart and Loria, and that anyone of sound mind must see +the inevitable conclusions of such master reasonings. + +I could multiply these two instances a hundredfold, and possibly +nothing aided me to stand on my own feet and to select what +seemed reasonable from this wilderness of dogma, so much as my +early encounter with genuine zeal and affectionate solicitude, +associated with what I could not accept as the whole truth. + +I do not wish to take callow writing too seriously, but I reproduce +from an oratorical contest the following bit of premature +pragmatism, doubtless due much more to temperament than to +perception, because I am still ready to subscribe to it, although +the grandiloquent style is, I hope, a thing of the past: "Those who +believe that Justice is but a poetical longing within us, the +enthusiast who thinks it will come in the form of a millennium, +those who see it established by the strong arm of a hero, are not +those who have comprehended the vast truths of life. The actual +Justice must come by trained intelligence, by broadened sympathies +toward the individual man or woman who crosses our path; one item +added to another is the only method by which to build up a +conception lofty enough to be of use in the world." + +This schoolgirl recipe has been tested in many later experiences, +the most dramatic of which came when I was called upon by a +manufacturing company to act as one of three arbitrators in a +perplexing struggle between themselves, a group of +trade-unionists and a non-union employee of their establishment. +The non-union man who was the cause of the difficulty had ten +years before sided with his employers in a prolonged strike and +had bitterly fought the union. He had been so badly injured at +that time, that in spite of long months of hospital care he had +never afterward been able to do a full day's work, although his +employers had retained him for a decade at full pay in +recognition of his loyalty. At the end of ten years the once +defeated union was strong enough to enforce its demands for a +union shop and in spite of the distaste of the firm for the +arrangement, no obstacle to harmonious relations with the union +remained but for the refusal of the trade-unionists to receive as +one of their members the old crippled employee, whose spirit was +broken as last and who was now willing to join the union and to +stand with his old enemies for the sake of retaining his place. + +But the union men would not receive "a traitor," the firm flatly +refused to dismiss so faithful an employee, the busy season was +upon them, and everyone concerned had finally agreed to abide +without appeal by the decision of the arbitrators. The chairman +of our little arbitration committee, a venerable judge, quickly +demonstrated that it was impossible to collect trustworthy +evidence in regards to the events already ten years old which lay +at the bottom of this bitterness, and we soon therefore ceased to +interview the conflicting witnesses; the second member of the +committee sternly bade the men remember that the most ancient +Hebraic authority gave no sanction for holding even a just +resentment for more than seven years, and at last we all settled +down to that wearisome effort to secure the inner consent of all +concerned, upon which alone the "mystery of justice" as +Maeterlinck has told us, ultimately depends. I am not quite sure +that in the end we administered justice, but certainly employers, +trade-unionists, and arbitrators were all convinced that justice +will have to be established in industrial affairs with the same +care and patience which has been necessary for centuries in order +to institute it in men's civic relationships, although as the +judge remarked the search must be conducted without much help +from precedent. The conviction remained with me, that however +long a time might be required to establish justice in the new +relationships of our raw industrialism, it would never be stable +until it had received the sanction of those upon whom the present +situation presses so harshly. + +Towards the end of our four years' course we debated much as to +what we were to be, and long before the end of my school days it +was quite settled in my mind that I should study medicine and +"live with the poor." This conclusion of course was the result of +many things, perhaps epitomized in my graduating essay on +"Cassandra" and her tragic fate "always to be in the right, and +always to be disbelieved and rejected." + +This state of affairs, it may readily be guessed, the essay held +to be an example of the feminine trait of mind called intuition, +"an accurate perception of Truth and Justice, which rests +contented in itself and will make no effort to confirm itself or +to organize through existing knowledge." The essay then +proceeds--I am forced to admit, with overmuch conviction--with +the statement that women can only "grow accurate and intelligible +by the thorough study of at least one branch of physical science, +for only with eyes thus accustomed to the search for truth can +she detect all self-deceit and fancy in herself and learn to +express herself without dogmatism." So much for the first part of +the thesis. Having thus "gained accuracy, would woman bring this +force to bear throughout morals and justice, then she must find +in active labor the promptings and inspirations that come from +growing insight." I was quite certain that by following these +directions carefully, in the end the contemporary woman would +find "her faculties clear and acute from the study of science, +and her hand upon the magnetic chain of humanity." + +This veneration for science portrayed in my final essay was +doubtless the result of the statements the textbooks were then +making of what was called the theory of evolution, the acceptance +of which even thirty years after the publication of Darwin's +"Origin of Species" had about it a touch of intellectual +adventure. We knew, for instance, that our science teacher had +accepted this theory, but we had a strong suspicion that the +teacher of Butler's "Analogy" had not. We chafed at the +meagerness of the college library in this direction, and I used +to bring back in my handbag books belonging to an advanced +brother-in-law who had studied medicine in Germany and who +therefore was quite emancipated. The first gift I made when I +came into possession of my small estate the year after I left +school, was a thousand dollars to the library of Rockford +College, with the stipulation that it be spent for scientific +books. In the long vacations I pressed plants, stuffed birds and +pounded rocks in some vague belief that I was approximating the +new method, and yet when my stepbrother who was becoming a real +scientist, tried to carry me along with him to the merest outskirts +of the methods of research, it at once became evident that I had +no aptitude and was unable to follow intelligently Darwin's +careful observations on the earthworm. I made a heroic effort, +although candor compels me to state that I never would have +finished if I had not been pulled and pushed by my really ardent +companion, who in addition to a multitude of earthworms and a fine +microscope, possessed untiring tact with one of flagging zeal. + +As our boarding-school days neared the end, in the consciousness +of approaching separation we vowed eternal allegiance to our +"early ideals," and promised each other we would "never abandon +them without conscious justification," and we often warned each +other of "the perils of self-tradition." + +We believed, in our sublime self-conceit, that the difficulty of +life would lie solely in the direction of losing these precious +ideals of ours, of failing to follow the way of martyrdom and +high purpose we had marked out for ourselves, and we had no +notion of the obscure paths of tolerance, just allowance, and +self-blame wherein, if we held our minds open, we might learn +something of the mystery and complexity of life's purposes. + +The year after I had left college I came back, with a classmate, +to receive the degree we had so eagerly anticipated. Two of the +graduating class were also ready and four of us were dubbed B.A. +on the very day that Rockford Seminary was declared a college in +the midst of tumultuous anticipations. Having had a year outside +of college walls in that trying land between vague hope and +definite attainment, I had become very much sobered in my desire +for a degree, and was already beginning to emerge from that +rose-colored mist with which the dream of youth so readily +envelops the future. + +Whatever may have been the perils of self-tradition, I certainly +did not escape them, for it required eight years--from the time I +left Rockford in the summer of 1881 until Hull-House was opened +in the the autumn of 1889--to formulate my convictions even in +the least satisfactory manner, much less to reduce them to a plan +for action. During most of that time I was absolutely at sea so +far as any moral purpose was concerned, clinging only to the +desire to live in a really living world and refusing to be content +with a shadowy intellectual or aesthetic reflection of it. + + + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Diana Camden. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter IV: The Snare of Preparation." by Jane Addams +(1860-1935) From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with +Autobiographical Notes. by Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan +Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. 65-88. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE SNARE OF PREPARATION + + +The winter after I left school was spent in the Woman's Medical +College of Philadelphia, but the development of the spinal +difficulty which had shadowed me from childhood forced me into Dr. +Weir Mitchell's hospital for the late spring, and the next winter I +was literally bound to a bed in my sister's house for six months. +In spite of its tedium, the long winter had its mitigations, for +after the first few weeks I was able to read with a luxurious +consciousness of leisure, and I remember opening the first volume +of Carlyle's "Frederick the Great" with a lively sense of gratitude +that it was not Gray's "Anatomy," having found, like many another, +that general culture is a much easier undertaking than professional +study. The long illness inevitably put aside the immediate +prosecution of a medical course, and although I had passed my +examinations creditably enough in the required subjects for the +first year, I was very glad to have a physician's sanction for +giving up clinics and dissecting rooms and to follow his +prescription of spending the next two years in Europe. + +Before I returned to America I had discovered that there were +other genuine reasons for living among the poor than that of +practicing medicine upon them, and my brief foray into the +profession was never resumed. + +The long illness left me in a state of nervous exhaustion with +which I struggled for years, traces of it remaining long after +Hull-House was opened in 1889. At the best it allowed me but a +limited amount of energy, so that doubtless there was much +nervous depression at the foundation of the spiritual struggles +which this chapter is forced to record. However, it could not +have been all due to my health, for as my wise little notebook +sententiously remarked, "In his own way each man must struggle, +lest the moral law become a far-off abstraction utterly separated +from his active life." + +It would, of course, be impossible to remember that some of these +struggles ever took place at all, were it not for these selfsame +notebooks, in which, however, I no longer wrote in moments of +high resolve, but judging from the internal evidence afforded by +the books themselves, only in moments of deep depression when +overwhelmed by a sense of failure. + +One of the most poignant of these experiences, which occurred +during the first few months after our landing upon the other side +of the Atlantic, was on a Saturday night, when I received an +ineradicable impression of the wretchedness of East London, and +also saw for the first time the overcrowded quarters of a great +city at midnight. A small party of tourists were taken to the +East End by a city missionary to witness the Saturday night sale +of decaying vegetables and fruit, which, owing to the Sunday laws +in London, could not be sold until Monday, and, as they were +beyond safe keeping, were disposed of at auction as late as +possible on Saturday night. On Mile End Road, from the top of an +omnibus which paused at the end of a dingy street lighted by only +occasional flares of gas, we saw two huge masses of ill-clad +people clamoring around two hucksters' carts. They were bidding +their farthings and ha'pennies for a vegetable held up by the +auctioneer, which he at last scornfully flung, with a gibe for +its cheapness, to the successful bidder. In the momentary pause +only one man detached himself from the groups. He had bidden in +a cabbage, and when it struck his hand, he instantly sat down on +the curb, tore it with his teeth, and hastily devoured it, +unwashed and uncooked as it was. He and his fellows were types +of the "submerged tenth," as our missionary guide told us, with +some little satisfaction in the then new phrase, and he further +added that so many of them could scarcely be seen in one spot +save at this Saturday night auction, the desire for cheap food +being apparently the one thing which could move them +simultaneously. They were huddled into ill-fitting, cast-off +clothing, the ragged finery which one sees only in East London. +Their pale faces were dominated by that most unlovely of human +expressions, the cunning and shrewdness of the bargain-hunter who +starves if he cannot make a successful trade, and yet the final +impression was not of ragged, tawdry clothing nor of pinched and +sallow faces, but of myriads of hands, empty, pathetic, nerveless +and workworn, showing white in the uncertain light of the street, +and clutching forward for food which was already unfit to eat. + +Perhaps nothing is so fraught with significance as the human +hand, this oldest tool with which man has dug his way from +savagery, and with which he is constantly groping forward. I +have never since been able to see a number of hands held upward, +even when they are moving rhythmically in a calisthenic exercise, +or when they belong to a class of chubby children who wave them +in eager response to a teacher's query, without a certain revival +of this memory, a clutching at the heart reminiscent of the +despair and resentment which seized me then. + +For the following weeks I went about London almost furtively, +afraid to look down narrow streets and alleys lest they disclose +again this hideous human need and suffering. I carried with me +for days at a time that curious surprise we experience when we +first come back into the streets after days given over to sorrow +and death; we are bewildered that the world should be going on as +usual and unable to determine which is real, the inner pang or the +outward seeming. In time all huge London came to seem unreal save +the poverty in its East End. During the following two years on +the continent, while I was irresistibly drawn to the poorer +quarters of each city, nothing among the beggars of South Italy +nor among the salt miners of Austria carried with it the same +conviction of human wretchedness which was conveyed by this +momentary glimpse of an East London street. It was, of course, a +most fragmentary and lurid view of the poverty of East London, and +quite unfair. I should have been shown either less or more, for I +went away with no notion of the hundreds of men and women who had +gallantly identified their fortunes with these empty-handed +people, and who, in church and chapel, "relief works," and +charities, were at least making an effort towards its mitigation. + +Our visit was made in November, 1883, the very year when the Pall +Mall Gazette exposure started "The Bitter Cry of Outcast London," +and the conscience of England was stirred as never before over +this joyless city in the East End of its capital. Even then, +vigorous and drastic plans were being discussed, and a splendid +program of municipal reforms was already dimly outlined. Of all +these, however, I had heard nothing but the vaguest rumor. + +No comfort came to me then from any source, and the painful +impression was increased because at the very moment of looking +down the East London street from the top of the omnibus, I had +been sharply and painfully reminded of "The Vision of Sudden +Death" which had confronted De Quincey one summer's night as he +was being driven through rural England on a high mail coach. Two +absorbed lovers suddenly appear between the narrow, blossoming +hedgerows in the direct path of the huge vehicle which is sure to +crush them to their death. De Quincey tries to send them a +warning shout, but finds himself unable to make a sound because +his mind is hopelessly entangled in an endeavor to recall the +exact lines from the Iliad which describe the great cry with +which Achilles alarmed all Asia militant. Only after his memory +responds is his will released from its momentary paralysis, and +he rides on through the fragrant night with the horror of the +escaped calamity thick upon him, but he also bears with him the +consciousness that he had given himself over so many years to +classic learning--that when suddenly called upon for a quick +decision in the world of life and death, he had been able to act +only through a literary suggestion. + +This is what we were all doing, lumbering our minds with +literature that only served to cloud the really vital situation +spread before our eyes. It seemed to me too preposterous that in +my first view of the horror of East London I should have recalled +De Quincey's literary description of the literary suggestion +which had once paralyzed him. In my disgust it all appeared a +hateful, vicious circle which even the apostles of culture +themselves admitted, for had not one of the greatest among the +moderns plainly said that "conduct, and not culture is three +fourths of human life." + +For two years in the midst of my distress over the poverty which, +thus suddenly driven into my consciousness, had become to me the +"Weltschmerz," there was mingled a sense of futility, of +misdirected energy, the belief that the pursuit of cultivation +would not in the end bring either solace or relief. I gradually +reached a conviction that the first generation of college women +had taken their learning too quickly, had departed too suddenly +from the active, emotional life led by their grandmothers and +great-grandmothers; that the contemporary education of young +women had developed too exclusively the power of acquiring +knowledge and of merely receiving impressions; that somewhere in +the process of 'being educated' they had lost that simple and +almost automatic response to the human appeal, that old healthful +reaction resulting in activity from the mere presence of +suffering or of helplessness; that they are so sheltered and +pampered they have no chance even to make "the great refusal." + +In the German and French pensions, which twenty-five years ago +were crowded with American mothers and their daughters who had +crossed the seas in search of culture, one often found the mother +making real connection with the life about her, using her +inadequate German with great fluency, gaily measuring the +enormous sheets or exchanging recipes with the German Hausfrau, +visiting impartially the nearest kindergarten and market, making +an atmosphere of her own, hearty and genuine as far as it went, +in the house and on the street. On the other hand, her daughter +was critical and uncertain of her linguistic acquirements, and +only at ease when in the familiar receptive attitude afforded by +the art gallery and opera house. In the latter she was swayed +and moved, appreciative of the power and charm of the music, +intelligent as to the legend and poetry of the plot, finding use +for her trained and developed powers as she sat "being +cultivated" in the familiar atmosphere of the classroom which +had, as it were, become sublimated and romanticized. + +I remember a happy busy mother who, complacent with the knowledge +that her daughter daily devoted four hours to her music, looked up +from her knitting to say, "If I had had your opportunities when I +was young, my dear, I should have been a very happy girl. I always +had musical talent, but such training as I had, foolish little +songs and waltzes and not time for half an hour's practice a day." + +The mother did not dream of the sting her words left and that the +sensitive girl appreciated only too well that her opportunities +were fine and unusual, but she also knew that in spite of some +facility and much good teaching she had no genuine talent and +never would fulfill the expectations of her friends. She looked +back upon her mother's girlhood with positive envy because it was +so full of happy industry and extenuating obstacles, with +undisturbed opportunity to believe that her talents were unusual. +The girl looked wistfully at her mother, but had not the courage +to cry out what was in her heart: "I might believe I had unusual +talent if I did not know what good music was; I might enjoy half +an hour's practice a day if I were busy and happy the rest of the +time. You do not know what life means when all the difficulties +are removed! I am simply smothered and sickened with advantages. +It is like eating a sweet dessert the first thing in the morning." + +This, then, was the difficulty, this sweet dessert in the morning +and the assumption that the sheltered, educated girl has nothing +to do with the bitter poverty and the social maladjustment which +is all about her, and which, after all, cannot be concealed, for +it breaks through poetry and literature in a burning tide which +overwhelms her; it peers at her in the form of heavy-laden market +women and underpaid street laborers, gibing her with a sense of +her uselessness. + +I recall one snowy morning in Saxe-Coburg, looking from the window +of our little hotel upon the town square, that we saw crossing and +recrossing it a single file of women with semicircular, heavy, +wooden tanks fastened upon their backs. They were carrying in this +primitive fashion to a remote cooling room these tanks filled with +a hot brew incident to one stage of beer making. The women were +bent forward, not only under the weight which they were bearing, +but because the tanks were so high that it would have been +impossible for them to have lifted their heads. Their faces and +hands, reddened in the cold morning air, showed clearly the white +scars where they had previously been scalded by the hot stuff which +splashed if they stumbled ever so little on their way. Stung into +action by one of those sudden indignations against cruel conditions +which at times fill the young with unexpected energy, I found +myself across the square, in company with mine host, interviewing +the phlegmatic owner of the brewery who received us with +exasperating indifference, or rather received me, for the innkeeper +mysteriously slunk away as soon as the great magnate of the town +began to speak. I went back to a breakfast for which I had lost my +appetite, as I had for Gray's "Life of Prince Albert" and his +wonderful tutor, Baron Stockmar, which I had been reading late the +night before. The book had lost its fascination; how could a good +man, feeling so keenly his obligation "to make princely the mind of +his prince," ignore such conditions of life for the multitude of +humble, hard-working folk. We were spending two months in Dresden +that winter, given over to much reading of "The History of Art" and +after such an experience I would invariably suffer a moral +revulsion against this feverish search after culture. It was +doubtless in such moods that I founded my admiration for Albrecht +Durer, taking his wonderful pictures, however, in the most +unorthodox manner, merely as human documents. I was chiefly +appealed to by his unwillingness to lend himself to a smooth and +cultivated view of life, by his determination to record its +frustrations and even the hideous forms which darken the day for +our human imagination and to ignore no human complications. I +believed that his canvases intimated the coming religious and +social changes of the Reformation and the peasants' wars, that they +were surcharged with pity for the downtrodden, that his sad +knights, gravely standing guard, were longing to avert that +shedding of blood which is sure to occur when men forget how +complicated life is and insist upon reducing it to logical dogmas. + +The largest sum of money that I ever ventured to spend in Europe +was for an engraving of his "St. Hubert," the background of which +was said to be from an original Durer plate. There is little +doubt, I am afraid, that the background as well as the figures +"were put in at a later date," but the purchase at least +registered the high-water mark of my enthusiasm. + +The wonder and beauty of Italy later brought healing and some +relief to the paralyzing sense of the futility of all artistic +and intellectual effort when disconnected from the ultimate test +of the conduct it inspired. The serene and soothing touch of +history also aroused old enthusiasms, although some of their +manifestations were such as one smiles over more easily in +retrospection than at the moment. I fancy that it was no smiling +matter to several people in our party, whom I induced to walk for +three miles in the hot sunshine beating down upon the Roman +Campagna, that we might enter the Eternal City on foot through +the Porta del Popolo, as pilgrims had done for centuries. To be +sure, we had really entered Rome the night before, but the +railroad station and the hotel might have been anywhere else, and +we had been driven beyond the walls after breakfast and stranded +at the very spot where the pilgrims always said "Ecco Roma," as +they caught the first glimpse of St. Peter's dome. This +melodramatic entrance into Rome, or rather pretended entrance, +was the prelude to days of enchantment, and I returned to Europe +two years later in order to spend a winter there and to carry out +a great desire to systematically study the Catacombs. In spite of +my distrust of "advantages" I was apparently not yet so cured but +that I wanted more of them. + +The two years which elapsed before I again found myself in Europe +brought their inevitable changes. Family arrangements had so +come about that I had spent three or four months of each of the +intervening winters in Baltimore, where I seemed to have reached +the nadir of my nervous depression and sense of maladjustment, in +spite of my interest in the fascinating lectures given there by +Lanciani of Rome, and a definite course of reading under the +guidance of a Johns Hopkins lecturer upon the United Italy +movement. In the latter I naturally encountered the influence of +Mazzini, which was a source of great comfort to me, although +perhaps I went too suddenly from a contemplation of his wonderful +ethical and philosophical appeal to the workingmen of Italy, +directly to the lecture rooms at Johns Hopkins University, for I +was certainly much disillusioned at this time as to the effect of +intellectual pursuits upon moral development. + +The summers were spent in the old home in northern Illinois, and +one Sunday morning I received the rite of baptism and became a +member of the Presbyterian church in the village. At this time +there was certainly no outside pressure pushing me towards such a +decision, and at twenty-five one does not ordinarily take such a +step from a mere desire to conform. While I was not conscious of +any emotional "conversion," I took upon myself the outward +expressions of the religious life with all humility and +sincerity. It was doubtless true that I was + + "Weary of myself and sick of asking + What I am and what I ought to be," + +and that various cherished safeguards and claims to +self-dependence had been broken into by many piteous failures. +But certainly I had been brought to the conclusion that +"sincerely to give up one's conceit or hope of being good in +one's own right is the only door to the Universe's deeper +reaches." Perhaps the young clergyman recognized this as the test +of the Christian temper, at any rate he required little assent to +dogma or miracle, and assured me that while both the ministry and +the officers of his church were obliged to subscribe to doctrines +of well-known severity, the faith required to the laity was +almost early Christian in its simplicity. I was conscious of no +change from my childish acceptance of the teachings of the +Gospels, but at this moment something persuasive within made me +long for an outward symbol of fellowship, some bond of peace, +some blessed spot where unity of spirit might claim right of way +over all differences. There was also growing within me an almost +passionate devotion to the ideals of democracy, and when in all +history had these ideals been so thrillingly expressed as when +the faith of the fisherman and the slave had been boldly opposed +to the accepted moral belief that the well-being of a privileged +few might justly be built upon the ignorance and sacrifice of the +many? Who was I, with my dreams of universal fellowship, that I +did not identify myself with the institutional statement of this +belief, as it stood in the little village in which I was born, +and without which testimony in each remote hamlet of Christendom +it would be so easy for the world to slip back into the doctrines +of selection and aristocracy? + +In one of the intervening summers between these European journeys +I visited a western state where I had formerly invested a sum of +money in mortgages. I was much horrified by the wretched +conditions among the farmers, which had resulted from a long +period of drought, and one forlorn picture was fairly burned into +my mind. A number of starved hogs--collateral for a promissory +note--were huddled into an open pen. Their backs were humped in a +curious, camel-like fashion, and they were devouring one of their +own number, the latest victim of absolute starvation or possibly +merely the one least able to defend himself against their +voracious hunger. The farmer's wife looked on indifferently, a +picture of despair as she stood in the door of the bare, crude +house, and the two children behind her, whom she vainly tried to +keep out of sight, continually thrust forward their faces almost +covered by masses of coarse, sunburned hair, and their little bare +feet so black, so hard, the great cracks so filled with dust that +they looked like flattened hoofs. The children could not be +compared to anything so joyous as satyrs, although they appeared +but half-human. It seemed to me quite impossible to receive +interest from mortgages placed upon farms which might at any +season be reduced to such conditions, and with great inconvenience +to my agent and doubtless with hardship to the farmers, as +speedily as possible I withdrew all my investment. But something +had to be done with the money, and in my reaction against unseen +horrors I bought a farm near my native village and also a flock of +innocent-looking sheep. My partner in the enterprise had not +chosen the shepherd's lot as a permanent occupation, but hoped to +speedily finish his college course upon half the proceeds of our +venture. This pastoral enterprise still seems to me to have been +essentially sound, both economically and morally, but perhaps one +partner depended too much upon the impeccability of her motives +and the other found himself too preoccupied with study to know +that it is not a real kindness to bed a sheepfold with straw, for +certainly the venture ended in a spectacle scarcely less harrowing +than the memory it was designed to obliterate. At least the sight +of two hundred sheep with four rotting hoofs each, was not +reassuring to one whose conscience craved economic peace. A +fortunate series of sales of mutton, wool, and farm enabled the +partners to end the enterprise without loss, and they passed on, +one to college and the other to Europe, if not wiser, certainly +sadder for the experience. + +It was during this second journey to Europe that I attended a +meeting of the London match girls who were on strike and who met +daily under the leadership of well-known labor men of London. The +low wages that were reported at the meetings, the phossy jaw +which was described and occasionally exhibited, the appearance of +the girls themselves I did not, curiously enough, in any wise +connect with what was called the labor movement, nor did I +understand the efforts of the London trades-unionists, concerning +whom I held the vaguest notions. But of course this impression +of human misery was added to the others which were already making +me so wretched. I think that up to this time I was still filled +with the sense which Wells describes in one of his young +characters, that somewhere in Church or State are a body of +authoritative people who will put things to rights as soon as +they really know what is wrong. Such a young person persistently +believes that behind all suffering, behind sin and want, must lie +redeeming magnanimity. He may imagine the world to be tragic and +terrible, but it never for an instant occurs to him that it may +be contemptible or squalid or self-seeking. Apparently I looked +upon the efforts of the trades-unionists as I did upon those of +Frederic Harrison and the Positivists whom I heard the next +Sunday in Newton Hall, as a manifestation of "loyalty to +humanity" and an attempt to aid in its progress. I was +enormously interested in the Positivists during these European +years; I imagined that their philosophical conception of man's +religious development might include all expressions of that for +which so many ages of men have struggled and aspired. I vaguely +hoped for this universal comity when I stood in Stonehenge, on +the Acropolis in Athens, or in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. +But never did I so desire it as in the cathedrals of Winchester, +Notre Dame, Amiens. One winter's day I traveled from Munich to +Ulm because I imagined from what the art books said that the +cathedral hoarded a medieval statement of the Positivists' final +synthesis, prefiguring their conception of a "Supreme Humanity." + +In this I was not altogether disappointed. The religious history +carved on the choir stalls at Ulm contained Greek philosophers as +well as Hebrew prophets, and among the disciples and saints stood +the discoverer of music and a builder of pagan temples. Even then +I was startled, forgetting for the moment the religious revolutions +of south Germany, to catch sight of a window showing Luther as +he affixed his thesis on the door at Wittenberg, the picture +shining clear in the midst of the older glass of saint and symbol. + +My smug notebook states that all this was an admission that "the +saints but embodied fine action," and it proceeds at some length +to set forth my hope for a "cathedral of humanity," which should +be "capacious enough to house a fellowship of common purpose," +and which should be "beautiful enough to persuade men to hold +fast to the vision of human solidarity." It is quite impossible +for me to reproduce this experience at Ulm unless I quote pages +more from the notebook in which I seem to have written half the +night, in a fever of composition cast in ill-digested phrases +from Comte. It doubtless reflected also something of the faith +of the Old Catholics, a charming group of whom I had recently met +in Stuttgart, and the same mood is easily traced in my early +hopes for the Settlement that it should unite in the fellowship +of the deed those of widely differing religious beliefs. + +The beginning of 1887 found our little party of three in very +picturesque lodgings in Rome, and settled into a certain +student's routine. But my study of the Catacombs was brought to +an abrupt end in a fortnight by a severe attack of sciatic +rheumatism, which kept me in Rome with a trained nurse during +many weeks, and later sent me to the Riviera to lead an invalid's +life once more. Although my Catacomb lore thus remained +hopelessly superficial, it seemed to me a sufficient basis for a +course of six lectures which I timidly offered to a Deaconess's +Training School during my first winter in Chicago, upon the +simple ground that this early interpretation of Christianity is +the one which should be presented to the poor, urging that the +primitive church was composed of the poor and that it was they +who took the wonderful news to the more prosperous Romans. The +open-minded head of the school gladly accepted the lectures, +arranging that the course should be given each spring to her +graduating class of Home and Foreign Missionaries, and at the end +of the third year she invited me to become one of the trustees of +the school. I accepted and attended one meeting of the board, +but never another, because some of the older members objected to +my membership on the ground that "no religious instruction was +given at Hull-House." I remember my sympathy for the +embarrassment in which the head of the school was placed, but if +I needed comfort, a bit of it came to me on my way home from the +trustees' meeting when an Italian laborer paid my street-car +fare, according to the custom of our simpler neighbors. Upon my +inquiry of the conductor as to whom I was indebted for the little +courtesy, he replied roughly enough, "I cannot tell one dago from +another when they are in a gang, but sure, any one of them would +do it for you as quick as they would for the Sisters." + +It is hard to tell just when the very simple plan which afterward +developed into the Settlement began to form itself in my mind. It +may have been even before I went to Europe for the second time, +but I gradually became convinced that it would be a good thing to +rent a house in a part of the city where many primitive and +actual needs are found, in which young women who had been given +over too exclusively to study might restore a balance of activity +along traditional lines and learn of life from life itself; where +they might try out some of the things they had been taught and +put truth to "the ultimate test of the conduct it dictates or +inspires." I do not remember to have mentioned this plan to +anyone until we reached Madrid in April, 1888. + +We had been to see a bull fight rendered in the most magnificent +Spanish style, where greatly to my surprise and horror, I found +that I had seen, with comparative indifference, five bulls and +many more horses killed. The sense that this was the last +survival of all the glories of the amphitheater, the illusion +that the riders on the caparisoned horses might have been knights +of a tournament, or the matadore a slightly armed gladiator +facing his martyrdom, and all the rest of the obscure yet vivid +associations of an historic survival, had carried me beyond the +endurance of any of the rest of the party. I finally met them in +the foyer, stern and pale with disapproval of my brutal +endurance, and but partially recovered from the faintness and +disgust which the spectacle itself had produced upon them. I had +no defense to offer to their reproaches save that I had not +thought much about the bloodshed; but in the evening the natural +and inevitable reaction came, and in deep chagrin I felt myself +tried and condemned, not only by this disgusting experience but +by the entire moral situation which it revealed. It was suddenly +made quite clear to me that I was lulling my conscience by a +dreamer's scheme, that a mere paper reform had become a defense +for continued idleness, and that I was making it a raison d'etre +for going on indefinitely with study and travel. It is easy to +become the dupe of a deferred purpose, of the promise the future +can never keep, and I had fallen into the meanest type of +self-deception in making myself believe that all this was in +preparation for great things to come. Nothing less than the +moral reaction following the experience at a bullfight had been +able to reveal to me that so far from following in the wake of a +chariot of philanthropic fire, I had been tied to the tail of the +veriest ox-cart of self-seeking. + +I had made up my mind that next day, whatever happened, I would +begin to carry out the plan, if only by talking about it. I can +well recall the stumbling and uncertainty with which I finally +set it forth to Miss Starr, my old-time school friend, who was +one of our party. I even dared to hope that she might join in +carrying out the plan, but nevertheless I told it in the fear of +that disheartening experience which is so apt to afflict our most +cherished plans when they are at last divulged, when we suddenly +feel that there is nothing there to talk about, and as the golden +dream slips through our fingers we are left to wonder at our own +fatuous belief. But gradually the comfort of Miss Starr's +companionship, the vigor and enthusiasm which she brought to bear +upon it, told both in the growth of the plan and upon the sense +of its validity, so that by the time we had reached the +enchantment of the Alhambra, the scheme had become convincing and +tangible although still most hazy in detail. + +A month later we parted in Paris, Miss Starr to go back to Italy, +and I to journey on to London to secure as many suggestions as +possible from those wonderful places of which we had heard, +Toynbee Hall and the People's Palace. So that it finally came +about that in June, 1888, five years after my first visit in East +London, I found myself at Toynbee Hall equipped not only with a +letter of introduction from Canon Fremantle, but with high +expectations and a certain belief that whatever perplexities and +discouragement concerning the life of the poor were in store for +me, I should at least know something at first hand and have the +solace of daily activity. I had confidence that although life +itself might contain many difficulties, the period of mere +passive receptivity had come to an end, and I had at last +finished with the ever-lasting "preparation for life," however +ill-prepared I might be. + +It was not until years afterward that I came upon Tolstoy's phrase +"the snare of preparation," which he insists we spread before the +feet of young people, hopelessly entangling them in a curious +inactivity at the very period of life when they are longing to +construct the world anew and to conform it to their own ideals. + + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Judi Oswalt. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter V: First Days at Hull-House." by Jane Addams (1860-1935) +From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes. by +Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. +89-112. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + + +CHAPTER V + +FIRST DAYS AT HULL-HOUSE + + +The next January found Miss Starr and myself in Chicago, +searching for a neighborhood in which we might put our plans into +execution. In our eagerness to win friends for the new +undertaking, we utilized every opportunity to set forth the +meaning of the Settlement as it had been embodied at Toynbee +Hall, although in those days we made no appeal for money, meaning +to start with our own slender resources. From the very first the +plan received courteous attention, and the discussion, while +often skeptical, was always friendly. Professor Swing wrote a +commendatory column in the Evening Journal, and our early +speeches were reported quite out of proportion to their worth. I +recall a spirited evening at the home of Mrs. Wilmarth, which was +attended by that renowned scholar, Thomas Davidson, and by a +young Englishman who was a member of the then new Fabian society +and to whom a peculiar glamour was attached because he had +scoured knives all summer in a camp of high-minded philosophers +in the Adirondacks. Our new little plan met with criticism, not +to say disapproval, from Mr. Davidson, who, as nearly as I can +remember, called it "one of those unnatural attempts to +understand life through cooperative living." + +It was in vain we asserted that the collective living was not an +essential part of the plan, that we would always scrupulously pay +our own expenses, and that at any moment we might decide to +scatter through the neighborhood and to live in separate +tenements; he still contended that the fascination for most of +those volunteering residence would lie in the collective living +aspect of the Settlement. His contention was, of course, +essentially sound; there is a constant tendency for the residents +to "lose themselves in the cave of their own companionship," as +the Toynbee Hall phrase goes, but on the other hand, it is +doubtless true that the very companionship, the give and take of +colleagues, is what tends to keep the Settlement normal and in +touch with "the world of things as they are." I am happy to say +that we never resented this nor any other difference of opinion, +and that fifteen years later Professor Davidson handsomely +acknowledged that the advantages of a group far outweighed the +weaknesses he had early pointed out. He was at that later moment +sharing with a group of young men, on the East Side of New York, +his ripest conclusions in philosophy and was much touched by +their intelligent interest and absorbed devotion. I think that +time has also justified our early contention that the mere +foothold of a house, easily accessible, ample in space, +hospitable and tolerant in spirit, situated in the midst of the +large foreign colonies which so easily isolate themselves in +American cities, would be in itself a serviceable thing for +Chicago. I am not so sure that we succeeded in our endeavors "to +make social intercourse express the growing sense of the economic +unity of society and to add the social function to democracy". +But Hull-House was soberly opened on the theory that the +dependence of classes on each other is reciprocal; and that as +the social relation is essentially a reciprocal relation, it +gives a form of expression that has peculiar value. + +In our search for a vicinity in which to settle we went about +with the officers of the compulsory education department, with +city missionaries, and with the newspaper reporters whom I recall +as a much older set of men than one ordinarily associates with +that profession, or perhaps I was only sent out with the older +ones on what they must all have considered a quixotic mission. +One Sunday afternoon in the late winter a reporter took me to +visit a so-called anarchist sunday school, several of which were +to be found on the northwest side of the city. The young man in +charge was of the German student type, and his face flushed with +enthusiasm as he led the children singing one of Koerner's poems. +The newspaperman, who did not understand German, asked me what +abominable stuff they were singing, but he seemed dissatisfied +with my translation of the simple words and darkly intimated that +they were "deep ones," and had probably "fooled" me. When I +replied that Koerner was an ardent German poet whose songs +inspired his countrymen to resist the aggressions of Napoleon, +and that his bound poems were found in the most respectable +libraries, he looked at me rather askance and I then and there +had my first intimation that to treat a Chicago man, who is +called an anarchist, as you would treat any other citizen, is to +lay yourself open to deep suspicion. + +Another Sunday afternoon in the early spring, on the way to a +Bohemian mission in the carriage of one of its founders, we +passed a fine old house standing well back from the street, +surrounded on three sides by a broad piazza, which was supported +by wooden pillars of exceptionally pure Corinthian design and +proportion. I was so attracted by the house that I set forth to +visit it the very next day, but though I searched for it then and +for several days after, I could not find it, and at length I most +reluctantly gave up the search. + +Three weeks later, with the advice of several of the oldest +residents of Chicago, including the ex-mayor of the city, Colonel +Mason, who had from the first been a warm friend to our plans, we +decided upon a location somewhere near the junction of Blue +Island Avenue, Halsted Street, and Harrison Street. I was +surprised and overjoyed on the very first day of our search for +quarters to come upon the hospitable old house, the quest for +which I had so recently abandoned. The house was of course +rented, the lower part of it used for offices and storerooms in +connection with a factory that stood back of it. However, after +some difficulties were overcome, it proved to be possible to +sublet the second floor and what had been a large drawing-room on +the first floor. + +The house had passed through many changes since it had been built +in 1856 for the homestead of one of Chicago's pioneer citizens, +Mr. Charles J. Hull, and although battered by its vicissitudes, +was essentially sound. Before it had been occupied by the +factory, it had sheltered a second-hand furniture store, and at +one time the Little Sisters of the Poor had used it for a home +for the aged. It had a half-skeptical reputation for a haunted +attic, so far respected by the tenants living on the second floor +that they always kept a large pitcher full of water on the attic +stairs. Their explanation of this custom was so incoherent that +I was sure it was a survival of the belief that a ghost could not +cross running water, but perhaps that interpretation was only my +eagerness for finding folklore. + +The fine old house responded kindly to repairs, its wide hall and +open fireplace always insuring it a gracious aspect. Its +generous owner, Miss Helen Culver, in the following spring gave +us a free leasehold of the entire house. Her kindness has +continued through the years until the group of thirteen +buildings, which at present comprises our equipment, is built +largely upon land which Miss Culver has put at the service of the +Settlement which bears Mr. Hull's name. In those days the house +stood between an undertaking establishment and a saloon. "Knight, +Death and the Devil," the three were called by a Chicago wit, and +yet any mock heroics which might be implied by comparing the +Settlement to a knight quickly dropped away under the genuine +kindness and hearty welcome extended to us by the families living +up and down the street. + +We furnished the house as we would have furnished it were it in +another part of the city, with the photographs and other +impedimenta we had collected in Europe, and with a few bits of +family mahogany. While all the new furniture which was bought +was enduring in quality, we were careful to keep it in character +with the fine old residence. Probably no young matron ever placed +her own things in her own house with more pleasure than that with +which we first furnished Hull-House. We believed that the +Settlement may logically bring to its aid all those adjuncts +which the cultivated man regards as good and suggestive of the +best of the life of the past. + +On the 18th of September, 1889, Miss Starr and I moved into it, +with Miss Mary Keyser, who began performing the housework, but who +quickly developed into a very important factor in the life of the +vicinity as well as that of the household, and whose death five +years later was most sincerely mourned by hundreds of our neighbors. + +In our enthusiasm over "settling," the first night we forgot not +only to lock but to close a side door opening on Polk Street, and +we were much pleased in the morning to find that we possessed a +fine illustration of the honesty and kindliness of our new neighbors. + +Our first guest was an interesting young woman who lived in a +neighboring tenement, whose widowed mother aided her in the +support of the family by scrubbing a downtown theater every +night. The mother, of English birth, was well bred and carefully +educated, but was in the midst of that bitter struggle which +awaits so many strangers in American cities who find that their +social position tends to be measured solely by the standards of +living they are able to maintain. Our guest has long since +married the struggling young lawyer to whom she was then engaged, +and he is now leading his profession in an eastern city. She +recalls that month's experience always with a sense of amusement +over the fact that the succession of visitors who came to see the +new Settlement invariably questioned her most minutely concerning +"these people" without once suspecting that they were talking to +one who had been identified with the neighborhood from childhood. +I at least was able to draw a lesson from the incident, and I +never addressed a Chicago audience on the subject of the +Settlement and its vicinity without inviting a neighbor to go +with me, that I might curb any hasty generalization by the +consciousness that I had an auditor who knew the conditions more +intimately than I could hope to do. + +Halsted Street has grown so familiar during twenty years of +residence that it is difficult to recall its gradual changes,--the +withdrawal of the more prosperous Irish and Germans, and the slow +substitution of Russian Jews, Italians, and Greeks. A description +of the street such as I gave in those early addresses still stands +in my mind as sympathetic and correct. + + Halsted Street is thirty-two miles long, and one of the + great thoroughfares of Chicago; Polk Street crosses it + midway between the stockyards to the south and the + shipbuilding yards on the north branch of the Chicago + River. For the six miles between these two industries the + street is lined with shops of butchers and grocers, with + dingy and gorgeous saloons, and pretentious establishments + for the sale of ready-made clothing. Polk Street, running + west from Halsted Street, grows rapidly more prosperous; + running a mile east to State Street, it grows steadily + worse, and crosses a network of vice on the corners of + Clark Street and Fifth Avenue. Hull-House once stood in + the suburbs, but the city has steadily grown up around it + and its site now has corners on three or four foreign + colonies. Between Halsted Street and the river live about + ten thousand Italians--Neapolitans, Sicilians, and + Calabrians, with an occasional Lombard or Venetian. To + the south on Twelfth Street are many Germans, and side + streets are given over almost entirely to Polish and + Russian Jews. Still farther south, these Jewish colonies + merge into a huge Bohemian colony, so vast that Chicago + ranks as the third Bohemian city in the world. To the + northwest are many Canadian-French, clannish in spite of + their long residence in America, and to the north are + Irish and first-generation Americans. On the streets + directly west and farther north are well-to-do English + speaking families, many of whom own their own houses and + have lived in the neighborhood for years; one man is still + living in his old farmhouse. + + The policy of the public authorities of never taking an + initiative, and always waiting to be urged to do their + duty, is obviously fatal in a neighborhood where there is + little initiative among the citizens. The idea underlying + our self- government breaks down in such a ward. The + streets are inexpressibly dirty, the number of schools + inadequate, sanitary legislation unenforced, the street + lighting bad, the paving miserable and altogether lacking + in the alleys and smaller streets, and the stables foul + beyond description. Hundreds of houses are unconnected + with the street sewer. The older and richer inhabitants + seem anxious to move away as rapidly as they can afford + it. They make room for newly arrived immigrants who are + densely ignorant of civic duties. This substitution of + the older inhabitants is accomplished industrially also, + in the south and east quarters of the ward. The Jews and + Italians do the finishing for the great clothing + manufacturers, formerly done by Americans, Irish, and + Germans, who refused to submit to the extremely low prices + to which the sweating system has reduced their successors. + As the design of the sweating system is the elimination of + rent from the manufacture of clothing, the "outside work" + is begun after the clothing leaves the cutter. An + unscrupulous contractor regards no basement as too dark, + no stable loft too foul, no rear shanty too provisional, + no tenement room too small for his workroom, as these + conditions imply low rental. Hence these shops abound in + the worst of the foreign districts where the sweater + easily finds his cheap basement and his home finishers. + + The houses of the ward, for the most part wooden, were + originally built for one family and are now occupied by + several. They are after the type of the inconvenient + frame cottages found in the poorer suburbs twenty years + ago. Many of them were built where they now stand; others + were brought thither on rollers, because their previous + sites had been taken by factories. The fewer brick + tenement buildings which are three or four stories high + are comparatively new, and there are few large tenements. + The little wooden houses have a temporary aspect, and for + this reason, perhaps, the tenement-house legislation in + Chicago is totally inadequate. Rear tenements flourish; + many houses have no water supply save the faucet in the + back yard, there are no fire escapes, the garbage and + ashes are placed in wooden boxes which are fastened to the + street pavements. One of the most discouraging features + about the present system of tenement houses is that many + are owned by sordid and ignorant immigrants. The theory + that wealth brings responsibility, that possession entails + at length education and refinement, in these cases fails + utterly. The children of an Italian immigrant owner may + "shine" shoes in the street, and his wife may pick rags + from the street gutter, laboriously sorting them in a + dingy court. Wealth may do something for her + self-complacency and feeling of consequence; it certainly + does nothing for her comfort or her children's improvement + nor for the cleanliness of anyone concerned. Another + thing that prevents better houses in Chicago is the + tentative attitude of the real estate men. Many unsavory + conditions are allowed to continue which would be regarded + with horror if they were considered permanent. Meanwhile, + the wretched conditions persist until at least two + generations of children have been born and reared in them. + + In every neighborhood where poorer people live, because + rents are supposed to be cheaper there, is an element + which, although uncertain in the individual, in the + aggregate can be counted upon. It is composed of people + of former education and opportunity who have cherished + ambitions and prospects, but who are caricatures of what + they meant to be--"hollow ghosts which blame the living + men." There are times in many lives when there is a + cessation of energy and loss of power. Men and women of + education and refinement come to live in a cheaper + neighborhood because they lack the ability to make money, + because of ill health, because of an unfortunate marriage, + or for other reasons which do not imply criminality or + stupidity. Among them are those who, in spite of untoward + circumstances, keep up some sort of an intellectual life; + those who are "great for books," as their neighbors say. + To such the Settlement may be a genuine refuge. + +In the very first weeks of our residence Miss Starr started a +reading party in George Eliot's "Romola," which was attended by a +group of young women who followed the wonderful tale with +unflagging interest. The weekly reading was held in our little +upstairs dining room, and two members of the club came to dinner +each week, not only that they might be received as guests, but +that they might help us wash the dishes afterwards and so make +the table ready for the stacks of Florentine photographs. + +Our "first resident," as she gaily designated herself, was a +charming old lady who gave five consecutive readings from +Hawthorne to a most appreciative audience, interspersing the +magic tales most delightfully with recollections of the elusive +and fascinating author. Years before she had lived at Brook Farm +as a pupil of the Ripleys, and she came to us for ten days +because she wished to live once more in an atmosphere where +"idealism ran high." We thus early found the type of class which +through all the years has remained most popular--a combination of +a social atmosphere with serious study. + +Volunteers to the new undertaking came quickly; a charming young +girl conducted a kindergarten in the drawing room, coming +regularly every morning from her home in a distant part of the +North Side of the city. Although a tablet to her memory has +stood upon a mantel shelf in Hull-House for five years, we still +associate her most vividly with the play of little children, +first in her kindergarten and then in her own nursery, which +furnished a veritable illustration of Victor Hugo's definition of +heaven--"a place where parents are always young and children +always little." Her daily presence for the first two years made +it quite impossible for us to become too solemn and +self-conscious in our strenuous routine, for her mirth and +buoyancy were irresistible and her eager desire to share the life +of the neighborhood never failed, although it was often put to a +severe test. One day at luncheon she gaily recited her futile +attempt to impress temperance principles upon the mind of an +Italian mother, to whom she had returned a small daughter of five +sent to the kindergarten "in quite a horrid state of +intoxication" from the wine-soaked bread upon which she had +breakfasted. The mother, with the gentle courtesy of a South +Italian, listened politely to her graphic portrayal of the +untimely end awaiting so immature a wine bibber; but long before +the lecture was finished, quite unconscious of the incongruity, +she hospitably set forth her best wines, and when her baffled +guest refused one after the other, she disappeared, only to +quickly return with a small dark glass of whisky, saying +reassuringly, "See, I have brought you the true American drink." +The recital ended in seriocomic despair, with the rueful +statement that "the impression I probably made on her darkened +mind was, that it was the American custom to breakfast children +on bread soaked in whisky instead of light Italian wine." + +That first kindergarten was a constant source of education to us. +We were much surprised to find social distinctions even among its +lambs, although greatly amused with the neat formulation made by +the superior little Italian boy who refused to sit beside uncouth +little Angelina because "we eat our macaroni this way"--imitating +the movement of a fork from a plate to his mouth--"and she eat +her macaroni this way," holding his hand high in the air and +throwing back his head, that his wide-open mouth might receive an +imaginary cascade. Angelina gravely nodded her little head in +approval of this distinction between gentry and peasant. "But +isn't it astonishing that merely table manners are made such a +test all the way along--" was the comment of their democratic +teacher. Another memory which refuses to be associated with +death, which came to her all too soon, is that of the young girl +who organized our first really successful club of boys, holding +their fascinated interest by the old chivalric tales, set forth +so dramatically and vividly that checkers and jackstraws were +abandoned by all the other clubs on Boys' Day, that their members +might form a listening fringe to "The Young Heros." + +I met a member of the latter club one day as he flung himself out +of the House in the rage by which an emotional boy hopes to keep +from shedding tears. "There is no use coming here any more, +Prince Roland is dead," he gruffly explained as we passed. We +encouraged the younger boys in tournaments and dramatics of all +sorts, and we somewhat fatuously believed that boys who were +early interested in adventurers or explorers might later want to +know the lives of living statesmen and inventors. It is needless +to add that the boys quickly responded to such a program, and +that the only difficulty lay in finding leaders who were able to +carry it out. This difficulty has been with us through all the +years of growth and development in the Boys' Club until now, with +its five-story building, its splendid equipment of shops, of +recreation and study rooms, that group alone is successful which +commands the services of a resourceful and devoted leader. + +The dozens of younger children who from the first came to Hull- +House were organized into groups which were not quite classes and +not quite clubs. The value of these groups consisted almost +entirely in arousing a higher imagination and in giving the +children the opportunity which they could not have in the crowded +schools, for initiative and for independent social relationships. +The public schools then contained little hand work of any sort, +so that naturally any instruction which we provided for the +children took the direction of this supplementary work. But it +required a constant effort that the pressure of poverty itself +should not defeat the educational aim. The Italian girls in the +sewing classes would count the day lost when they could not carry +home a garment, and the insistence that it should be neatly made +seemed a super-refinement to those in dire need of clothing. + +As these clubs have been continued during the twenty years they +have developed classes in the many forms of handicraft which the +newer education is so rapidly adapting for the delight of +children; but they still keep their essentially social character +and still minister to that large number of children who leave +school the very week they are fourteen years old, only too eager +to close the schoolroom door forever on a tiresome task that is +at last well over. It seems to us important that these children +shall find themselves permanently attached to a House that offers +them evening clubs and classes with their old companions, that +merges as easily as possible the school life into the working +life and does what it can to find places for the bewildered young +things looking for work. A large proportion of the delinquent +boys brought into the juvenile court in Chicago are the oldest +sons in large families whose wages are needed at home. The +grades from which many of them leave school, as the records show, +are piteously far from the seventh and eighth where the very +first introduction in manual training is given, nor have they +been caught by any other abiding interest. + +In spite of these flourishing clubs for children early +established at Hull-House, and the fact that our first organized +undertaking was a kindergarten, we were very insistent that the +Settlement should not be primarily for the children, and that it +was absurd to suppose that grown people would not respond to +opportunities for education and social life. Our enthusiastic +kindergartner herself demonstrated this with an old woman of +ninety who, because she was left alone all day while her daughter +cooked in a restaurant, had formed such a persistent habit of +picking the plaster off the walls that one landlord after another +refused to have her for a tenant. It required but a few week's +time to teach her to make large paper chains, and gradually she +was content to do it all day long, and in the end took quite as +much pleasure in adorning the walls as she had formally taken in +demolishing them. Fortunately the landlord had never heard the +aesthetic principle that exposure of basic construction is more +desirable than gaudy decoration. In course of time it was +discovered that the old woman could speak Gaelic, and when one or +two grave professors came to see her, the neighborhood was filled +with pride that such a wonder lived in their midst. To mitigate +life for a woman of ninety was an unfailing refutation of the +statement that the Settlement was designed for the young. + +On our first New Year's Day at Hull-House we invited the older +people in the vicinity, sending a carriage for the most feeble +and announcing to all of them that we were going to organize an +Old Settlers' Party. + +Every New Year's Day since, older people in varying numbers have +come together at Hull-House to relate early hardships, and to take +for the moment the place in the community to which their pioneer +life entitles them. Many people who were formerly residents of +the vicinity, but whom prosperity has carried into more desirable +neighborhoods, come back to these meetings and often confess to +each other that they have never since found such kindness as in +early Chicago when all its citizens came together in mutual +enterprises. Many of these pioneers, so like the men and women of +my earliest childhood that I always felt comforted by their +presence in the house, were very much opposed to "foreigners," +whom they held responsible for a depreciation of property and a +general lowering of the tone of the neighborhood. Sometimes we had +a chance for championship; I recall one old man, fiercely +American, who had reproached me because we had so many "foreign +views" on our walls, to whom I endeavored to set forth our hope +that the pictures might afford a familiar island to the immigrants +in a sea of new and strange impressions. The old settler guest, +taken off his guard, replied, "I see; they feel as we did when we +saw a Yankee notion from Down East,"--thereby formulating the dim +kinship between the pioneer and the immigrant, both "buffeting the +waves of a new development." The older settlers as well as their +children throughout the years have given genuine help to our +various enterprises for neighborhood improvement, and from their +own memories of earlier hardships have made many shrewd +suggestions for alleviating the difficulties of that first sharp +struggle with untoward conditions. + +In those early days we were often asked why we had come to live +on Halsted Street when we could afford to live somewhere else. I +remember one man who used to shake his head and say it was "the +strangest thing he had met in his experience," but who was +finally convinced that it was "not strange but natural." In time +it came to seem natural to all of us that the Settlement should +be there. If it is natural to feed the hungry and care for the +sick, it is certainly natural to give pleasure to the young, +comfort to the aged, and to minister to the deep-seated craving +for social intercourse that all men feel. Whoever does it is +rewarded by something which, if not gratitude, is at least +spontaneous and vital and lacks that irksome sense of obligation +with which a substantial benefit is too often acknowledged. + +In addition to the neighbors who responded to the receptions and +classes, we found those who were too battered and oppressed to +care for them. To these, however, was left that susceptibility +to the bare offices of humanity which raises such offices into a +bond of fellowship. + +From the first it seemed understood that we were ready to perform +the humblest neighborhood services. We were asked to wash the +new-born babies, and to prepare the dead for burial, to nurse the +sick, and to "mind the children." + +Occasionally these neighborly offices unexpectedly uncovered ugly +human traits. For six weeks after an operation we kept in one of +our three bedrooms a forlorn little baby who, because he was born +with a cleft palate, was most unwelcome even to his mother, and +we were horrified when he died of neglect a week after he was +returned to his home; a little Italian bride of fifteen sought +shelter with us one November evening to escape her husband who +had beaten her every night for a week when he returned home from +work, because she had lost her wedding ring; two of us officiated +quite alone at the birth of an illegitimate child because the +doctor was late in arriving, and none of the honest Irish matrons +would "touch the likes of her"; we ministered at the deathbed of +a young man, who during a long illness of tuberculosis had +received so many bottles of whisky through the mistaken kindness +of his friends, that the cumulative effect produced wild periods +of exultation, in one of which he died. + +We were also early impressed with the curious isolation of many +of the immigrants; an Italian woman once expressed her pleasure +in the red roses that she saw at one of our receptions in +surprise that they had been "brought so fresh all the way from +Italy." She would not believe for an instant that they had been +grown in America. She said that she had lived in Chicago for six +years and had never seen any roses, whereas in Italy she had seen +them every summer in great profusion. During all that time, of +course, the woman had lived within ten blocks of a florist's +window; she had not been more than a five-cent car ride away from +the public parks; but she had never dreamed of faring forth for +herself, and no one had taken her. Her conception of America had +been the untidy street in which she lived and had made her long +struggle to adapt herself to American ways. + +But in spite of some untoward experiences, we were constantly +impressed with the uniform kindness and courtesy we received. +Perhaps these first days laid the simple human foundations which +are certainly essential for continuous living among the poor; +first, genuine preference for residence in an industrial quarter +to any other part of the city, because it is interesting and +makes the human appeal; and second, the conviction, in the words +of Canon Barnett, that the things that make men alike are finer +and better than the things that keep them apart, and that these +basic likenesses, if they are properly accentuated, easily +transcend the less essential differences of race, language, +creed, and tradition. + +Perhaps even in those first days we made a beginning toward that +object which was afterwards stated in our charter: "To provide a +center for higher civic and social life; to institute and +maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises, and to +investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial +districts of Chicago." + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Diana Camden. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter VI: The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements." by +Jane Addams (1860-1935) From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with +Autobiographical Notes. by Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan +Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. 113-127. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +SUBJECTIVE NECESSITY FOR SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS + +The Ethical Culture Societies held a summer school at Plymouth, +Massachusetts, in 1892, to which they invited several people +representing the then new Settlement movement, that they might +discuss with others the general theme of Philanthropy and Social +Progress. + +I venture to produce here parts of a lecture I delivered in +Plymouth, both because I have found it impossible to formulate +with the same freshness those early motives and strivings, and +because, when published with other papers given that summer, it +was received by the Settlement people themselves as a +satisfactory statement. + +I remember on golden summer afternoon during the sessions of the +summer school that several of us met on the shores of a pond in a +pine wood a few miles from Plymouth, to discuss our new movement. +The natural leader of the group was Robert A. Woods. He had +recently returned from a residence in Toynbee Hall, London, to +open Andover House in Boston, and had just issued a book, "English +Social Movements," in which he had gathered together and focused +the many forms of social endeavor preceding and contemporaneous +with the English Settlements. There were Miss Vida D. Scudder and +Miss Helena Dudley from the College Settlement Association, Miss +Julia C. Lathrop and myself from Hull-House. Some of us had +numbered our years as far as thirty, and we all carefully avoided +the extravagance of statement which characterizes youth, and yet I +doubt if anywhere on the continent that summer could have been +found a group of people more genuinely interested in social +development or more sincerely convinced that they had found a clue +by which the conditions in crowded cities might be understood and +the agencies for social betterment developed. + +We were all careful to avoid saying that we had found a "life +work," perhaps with an instinctive dread of expending all our +energy in vows of constancy, as so often happens; and yet it is +interesting to note that of all the people whom I have recalled as +the enthusiasts at that little conference have remained attached to +Settlements in actual residence for longer or shorter periods each +year during the eighteen years that have elapsed since then, +although they have also been closely identified as publicists or +governmental officials with movements outside. It is as if they +had discovered that the Settlement was too valuable as a method as +a way of approach to the social question to abandoned, although +they had long since discovered it was not a "social movement" in +itself. This, however, is anticipating the future, whereas the +following paper on "The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements" +should have a chance to speak for itself. It is perhaps too +late in the day to express regret for its stilted title. + +This paper is an attempt to analyze the motives which underlie a +movement based, not only upon conviction, but upon genuine +emotion, wherever educated young people are seeking an outlet for +that sentiment for universal brotherhood, which the best spirit of +our times is forcing from an emotion into a motive. These young +people accomplish little toward the solution of this social +problem, and bear the brunt of being cultivated into unnourished, +oversensitive lives. They have been shut off from the common +labor by which they live which is a great source of moral and +physical health. They feel a fatal want of harmony between their +theory and their lives, a lack of coordination between thought and +action. I think it is hard for us to realize how seriously many +of them are taking to the notion of human brotherhood, how eagerly +they long to give tangible expression to the democratic ideal. +These young men and women, longing to socialize their democracy, +are animated by certain hopes which may be thus loosely +formulated; that if in a democratic country nothing can be +permanently achieved save through the masses of the people, it +will be impossible to establish a higher political life than the +people themselves crave; that it is difficult to see how the +notion of a higher civic life can be fostered save through common +intercourse; that the blessings which we associate with a life of +refinement and cultivation can be made universal and must be made +universal if they are to be permanent; that the good we secure for +ourselves is precarious and uncertain, is floating in mid-air, +until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common +life. It is easier to state these hopes than to formulate the +line of motives, which I believe to constitute the trend of the +subjective pressure toward the Settlement. There is something +primordial about these motives, but I am perhaps overbold in +designating them as a great desire to share the race life. We all +bear traces of the starvation struggle which for so long made up +the life of the race. Our very organism holds memories and +glimpses of that long life of our ancestors, which still goes on +among so many of our contemporaries. Nothing so deadens the +sympathies and shrivels the power of enjoyment as the persistent +keeping away from the great opportunities for helpfulness and a +continual ignoring of the starvation struggle which makes up the +life of at least half the race. To shut one's self away from that +half of the race life is to shut one's self away from the most +vital part of it; it is to live out but half the humanity to which +we have been born heir and to use but half our faculties. We have +all had longings for a fuller life which should include the use of +these faculties. These longings are the physical complement of +the "Intimations of Immortality," on which no ode has yet been +written. To portray these would be the work of a poet, and it is +hazardous for any but a poet to attempt it. + +You may remember the forlorn feeling which occasionally seizes +you when you arrive early in the morning a stranger in a great +city: the stream of laboring people goes past you as you gaze +through the plate-glass window of your hotel; you see hard +working men lifting great burdens; you hear the driving and +jostling of huge carts and your heart sinks with a sudden sense +of futility. The door opens behind you and you turn to the man +who brings you in your breakfast with a quick sense of human +fellowship. You find yourself praying that you may never lose +your hold on it all. A more poetic prayer would be that the +great mother breasts of our common humanity, with its labor and +suffering and its homely comforts, may never be withheld from +you. You turn helplessly to the waiter and feel that it would be +almost grotesque to claim from him the sympathy you crave because +civilization has placed you apart, but you resent your position +with a sudden sense of snobbery. Literature is full of +portrayals of these glimpses: they come to shipwrecked men on +rafts; they overcome the differences of an incongruous multitude +when in the presence of a great danger or when moved by a common +enthusiasm. They are not, however, confined to such moments, and +if we were in the habit of telling them to each other, the +recital would be as long as the tales of children are, when they +sit down on the green grass and confide to each other how many +times they have remembered that they lived once before. If these +childish tales are the stirring of inherited impressions, just so +surely is the other the striving of inherited powers. + +"It is true that there is nothing after disease, indigence and a +sense of guilt, so fatal to health and to life itself as the want +of a proper outlet for active faculties." I have seen young girls +suffer and grow sensibly lowered in vitality in the first years +after they leave school. In our attempt then to give a girl +pleasure and freedom from care we succeed, for the most part, in +making her pitifully miserable. She finds "life" so different +from what she expected it to be. She is besotted with innocent +little ambitions, and does not understand this apparent waste of +herself, this elaborate preparation, if no work is provided for +her. There is a heritage of noble obligation which young people +accept and long to perpetuate. The desire for action, the wish +to right wrong and alleviate suffering haunts them daily. Society +smiles at it indulgently instead of making it of value to itself. +The wrong to them begins even farther back, when we restrain the +first childish desires for "doing good", and tell them that they +must wait until they are older and better fitted. We intimate +that social obligation begins at a fixed date, forgetting that it +begins at birth itself. We treat them as children who, with +strong-growing limbs, are allowed to use their legs but not their +arms, or whose legs are daily carefully exercised that after a +while their arms may be put to high use. We do this in spite of +the protest of the best educators, Locke and Pestalozzi. We are +fortunate in the meantime if their unused members do not weaken +and disappear. They do sometimes. There are a few girls who, by +the time they are "educated", forget their old childish desires +to help the world and to play with poor little girls "who haven't +playthings". Parents are often inconsistent: they deliberately +expose their daughters to knowledge of the distress in the world; +they send them to hear missionary addresses on famines in India +and China; they accompany them to lectures on the suffering in +Siberia; they agitate together over the forgotten region of East +London. In addition to this, from babyhood the altruistic +tendencies of these daughters are persistently cultivated. They +are taught to be self-forgetting and self-sacrificing, to +consider the good of the whole before the good of the ego. But +when all this information and culture show results, when the +daughter comes back from college and begins to recognize her +social claim to the "submerged tenth", and to evince a +disposition to fulfill it, the family claim is strenuously +asserted; she is told that she is unjustified, ill-advised in her +efforts. If she persists, the family too often are injured and +unhappy unless the efforts are called missionary and the +religious zeal of the family carry them over their sense of +abuse. When this zeal does not exist, the result is perplexing. +It is a curious violation of what we would fain believe a +fundamental law--that the final return of the deed is upon the +head of the doer. The deed is that of exclusiveness and caution, +but the return, instead of falling upon the head of the exclusive +and cautious, falls upon a young head full of generous and +unselfish plans. The girl loses something vital out of her life +to which she is entitled. She is restricted and unhappy; her +elders meanwhile, are unconscious of the situation and we have +all the elements of a tragedy. + +We have in America a fast-growing number of cultivated young +people who have no recognized outlet for their active faculties. +They hear constantly of the great social maladjustment, but no way +is provided for them to change it, and their uselessness hangs +about them heavily. Huxley declares that the sense of uselessness +is the severest shock which the human system can sustain, and that +if persistently sustained, it results in atrophy of function. +These young people have had advantages of college, of European +travel, and of economic study, but they are sustaining this shock +of inaction. They have pet phrases, and they tell you that the +things that make us all alike are stronger than the things that +make us different. They say that all men are united by needs and +sympathies far more permanent and radical than anything that +temporarily divides them and sets them in opposition to each +other. If they affect art, they say that the decay in artistic +expression is due to the decay in ethics, that art when shut away +from the human interests and from the great mass of humanity is +self-destructive. They tell their elders with all the bitterness +of youth that if they expect success from them in business or +politics or in whatever lines their ambition for them has run, +they must let them consult all of humanity; that they must let +them find out what the people want and how they want it. It is +only the stronger young people, however, who formulate this. Many +of them dissipate their energies in so-called enjoyment. Others +not content with that, go on studying and go back to college for +their second degrees; not that they are especially fond of study, +but because they want something definite to do, and their powers +have been trained in the direction of mental accumulation. Many +are buried beneath this mental accumulation with lowered vitality +and discontent. Walter Besant says they have had the vision that +Peter had when he saw the great sheet let down from heaven, +wherein was neither clean nor unclean. He calls it the sense of +humanity. It is not philanthropy nor benevolence, but a thing +fuller and wider than either of these. + +This young life, so sincere in its emotion and good phrases and +yet so undirected, seems to me as pitiful as the other great mass +of destitute lives. One is supplementary to the other, and some +method of communication can surely be devised. Mr. Barnett, who +urged the first Settlement,--Toynbee Hall, in East +London,--recognized this need of outlet for the young men of +Oxford and Cambridge, and hoped that the Settlement would supply +the communication. It is easy to see why the Settlement movement +originated in England, where the years of education are more +constrained and definite than they are here, where class +distinctions are more rigid. The necessity of it was greater +there, but we are fast feeling the pressure of the need and +meeting the necessity for Settlements in America. Our young +people feel nervously the need of putting theory into action, and +respond quickly to the Settlement form of activity. + +Other motives which I believe make toward the Settlement are the +result of a certain renaissance going forward in Christianity. +The impulse to share the lives of the poor, the desire to make +social service, irrespective of propaganda, express the spirit of +Christ, is as old as Christianity itself. We have no proof from +the records themselves that the early Roman Christians, who +strained their simple art to the point of grotesqueness in their +eagerness to record a "good news" on the walls of the catacombs, +considered this good news a religion. Jesus had no set of truths +labeled Religious. On the contrary, his doctrine was that all +truth is one, that the appropriation of it is freedom. His +teaching had no dogma to mark it off from truth and action in +general. He himself called it a revelation--a life. These early +Roman Christians received the Gospel message, a command to love +all men, with a certain joyous simplicity. The image of the Good +Shepherd is blithe and gay beyond the gentlest shepherd of Greek +mythology; the hart no longer pants, but rushes to the water +brooks. The Christians looked for the continuous revelation, but +believed what Jesus said, that this revelation, to be retained +and made manifest, must be put into terms of action; that action +is the only medium man has for receiving and appropriating truth; +that the doctrine must be known through the will. + +That Christianity has to be revealed and embodied in the line of +social progress is a corollary to the simple proposition, that +man's action is found in his social relationships in the way in +which he connects with his fellows; that his motives for action +are the zeal and affection with which he regards his fellows. By +this simple process was created a deep enthusiasm for humanity; +which regarded man as at once the organ and the object of +revelation; and by this process came about the wonderful +fellowship, the true democracy of the early Church, that so +captivates the imagination. The early Christians were +preeminently nonresistant. They believed in love as a cosmic +force. There was no iconoclasm during the minor peace of the +Church. They did not yet denounce nor tear down temples, nor +preach the end of the world. They grew to a mighty number, but +it never occurred to them, either in their weakness or in their +strength, to regard other men for an instant as their foes or as +aliens. The spectacle of the Christians loving all men was the +most astounding Rome had ever seen. They were eager to sacrifice +themselves for the weak, for children, and for the aged; they +identified themselves with slaves and did not avoid the plague; +they longed to share the common lot that they might receive the +constant revelation. It was a new treasure which the early +Christians added to the sum of all treasures, a joy hitherto +unknown in the world--the joy of finding the Christ which lieth +in each man, but which no man can unfold save in fellowship. A +happiness ranging from the heroic to the pastoral enveloped them. +They were to possess a revelation as long as life had new meaning +to unfold, new action to propose. + +I believe that there is a distinct turning among many young men +and women toward this simple acceptance of Christ's message. They +resent the assumption that Christianity is a set of ideas which +belong to the religious consciousness, whatever that may be. +They insist that it cannot be proclaimed and instituted apart +from the social life of the community and that it must seek a +simple and natural expression in the social organism itself. The +Settlement movement is only one manifestation of that wider +humanitarian movement which throughout Christendom, but +pre-eminently in England, is endeavoring to embody itself, not in +a sect, but in society itself. + +I believe that this turning, this renaissance of the early +Christian humanitarianism, is going on in America, in Chicago, if +you please, without leaders who write or philosophize, without +much speaking, but with a bent to express in social service and in +terms of action the spirit of Christ. Certain it is that +spiritual force is found in the Settlement movement, and it is +also true that this force must be evoked and must be called into +play before the success of any Settlement is assured. There must +be the overmastering belief that all that is noblest in life is +common to men as men, in order to accentuate the likenesses and +ignore the differences which are found among the people whom the +Settlement constantly brings into juxtaposition. It may be true, +as the Positivists insist, that the very religious fervor of man +can be turned into love for his race, and his desire for a future +life into content to live in the echo of his deeds; Paul's formula +of seeking for the Christ which lieth in each man and founding our +likenesses on him, seems a simpler formula to many of us. + +In a thousand voices singing the Hallelujah Chorus in Handel's +"Messiah," it is possible to distinguish the leading voices, but +the differences of training and cultivation between them and the +voices in the chorus, are lost in the unity of purpose and in the +fact that they are all human voices lifted by a high motive. +This is a weak illustration of what a Settlement attempts to do. +It aims, in a measure, to develop whatever of social life its +neighborhood may afford, to focus and give form to that life, to +bring to bear upon it the results of cultivation and training; +but it receives in exchange for the music of isolated voices the +volume and strength of the chorus. It is quite impossible for me +to say in what proportion or degree the subjective necessity +which led to the opening of Hull-House combined the three trends: +first, the desire to interpret democracy in social terms; +secondly, the impulse beating at the very source of our lives, +urging us to aid in the race progress; and, thirdly, the +Christian movement toward humanitarianism. It is difficult to +analyze a living thing; the analysis is at best imperfect. Many +more motives may blend with the three trends; possibly the desire +for a new form of social success due to the nicety of +imagination, which refuses worldly pleasures unmixed with the +joys of self-sacrifice; possibly a love of approbation, so vast +that it is not content with the treble clapping of delicate +hands, but wishes also to hear the bass notes from toughened +palms, may mingle with these. + +The Settlement then, is an experimental effort to aid in the +solution of the social and industrial problems which are +engendered by the modern conditions of life in a great city. It +insists that these problems are not confined to any one portion of +a city. It is an attempt to relieve, at the same time, the +overaccumulation at one end of society and the destitution at the +other; but it assumes that this overaccumulation and destitution +is most sorely felt in the things that pertain to social and +educational privileges. From its very nature it can stand for no +political or social propaganda. It must, in a sense, give the +warm welcome of an inn to all such propaganda, if perchance one of +them be found an angel. The only thing to be dreaded in the +Settlement is that it lose its flexibility, its power of quick +adaptation, its readiness to change its methods as its environment +may demand. It must be open to conviction and must have a deep and +abiding sense of tolerance. It must be hospitable and ready for +experiment. It should demand from its residents a scientific +patience in the accumulation of facts and the steady holding of +their sympathies as one of the best instruments for that +accumulation. It must be grounded in a philosophy whose +foundation is on the solidarity of the human race, a philosophy +which will not waver when the race happens to be represented by a +drunken woman or an idiot boy. Its residents must be emptied of +all conceit of opinion and all self-assertion, and ready to arouse +and interpret the public opinion of their neighborhood. They must +be content to live quietly side by side with their neighbors, +until they grow into a sense of relationship and mutual interests. + Their neighbors are held apart by differences of race and +language which the residents can more easily overcome. They are +bound to see the needs of their neighborhood as a whole, to +furnish data for legislation, and to use their influence to secure +it. In short, residents are pledged to devote themselves to the +duties of good citizenship and to the arousing of the social +energies which too largely lie dormant in every neighborhood given +over to industrialism. They are bound to regard the entire life +of their city as organic, to make an effort to unify it, and to +protest against its over-differentiation. + +It is always easy to make all philosophy point one particular +moral and all history adorn one particular tale; but I may be +forgiven the reminder that the best speculative philosophy sets +forth the solidarity of the human race; that the highest moralists +have taught that without the advance and improvement of the whole, +no man can hope for any lasting improvement in his own moral or +material individual condition; and that the subjective necessity +for Social Settlements is therefore identical with that necessity, +which urges us on toward social and individual salvation. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Diana Camden. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter VII: Some Early Undertakings at Hull-House." by Jane +Addams (1860-1935) From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with +Autobiographical Notes. by Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan +Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. 128-153. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SOME EARLY UNDERTAKINGS AT HULL-HOUSE + + +If the early American Settlements stood for a more exigent +standard in philanthropic activities, insisting that each new +undertaking should be preceded by carefully ascertained facts, +then certainly Hull-House held to this standard in the opening of +our new coffee-house first started as a public kitchen. An +investigation of the sweatshops had disclosed the fact, that +sewing women during the busy season paid little attention to the +feeding of their families, for it was only by working steadily +through the long day that the scanty pay of five, seven, or nine +cents for finishing a dozen pairs of trousers could be made into +a day's wage; and they bought from the nearest grocery the canned +goods that could be most quickly heated, or gave a few pennies to +the children with which they might secure a lunch from a +neighboring candy shop. + +One of the residents made an investigation, at the instance of +the United States Department of Agriculture, into the food values +of the dietaries of the various immigrants, and this was followed +by an investigation made by another resident, for the United +States Department of Labor, into the foods of the Italian colony, +on the supposition that the constant use of imported products +bore a distinct relation to the cost of living. I recall an +Italian who, coming into Hull-House one day as we were sitting at +the dinner table, expressed great surprise that Americans ate a +variety of food, because he believed that they partook only of +potatoes and beer. A little inquiry showed that this conclusion +was drawn from the fact that he lived next to an Irish saloon and +had never seen anything but potatoes going in and beer coming +out. + +At that time the New England kitchen was comparatively new in +Boston, and Mrs. Richards, who was largely responsible for its +foundation, hoped that cheaper cuts of meat and simpler +vegetables, if they were subjected to slow and thorough processes +of cooking, might be made attractive and their nutritive value +secured for the people who so sadly needed more nutritious food. +It was felt that this could be best accomplished in public +kitchens, where the advantage of scientific training and careful +supervision could be secured. One of the residents went to +Boston for a training under Mrs. Richards, and when the +Hull-House kitchen was fitted under her guidance and direction, +our hopes ran high for some modification of the food of the +neighborhood. We did not reckon, however, with the wide diversity +in nationality and inherited tastes, and while we sold a certain +amount of the carefully prepared soups and stews in the neigh- +boring factories--a sale which has steadily increased throughout +the years--and were also patronized by a few households, perhaps +the neighborhood estimate was best summed up by the woman who +frankly confessed, that the food was certainly nutritious, but +that she didn't like to eat what was nutritious, that she liked +to eat "what she'd ruther." + +If the dietetics were appreciated but slowly, the social value of +the coffee-house and the gymnasium, which were in the same +building, were quickly demonstrated. At that time the saloon +halls were the only places in the neighborhood where the immigrant +could hold his social gatherings, and where he could celebrate +such innocent and legitimate occasions as weddings and christenings. + +These halls were rented very cheaply with the understanding that +various sums of money should be "passed across the bar," and it +was considered a mean host or guest who failed to live up to this +implied bargain. The consequence was that many a reputable party +ended with a certain amount of disorder, due solely to the fact +that the social instinct was traded upon and used as a basis for +money making by an adroit host. From the beginning the young +people's clubs had asked for dancing, and nothing was more +popular than the increased space for parties offered by the +gymnasium, with the chance to serve refreshments in the room +below. We tried experiments with every known "soft drink," from +those extracted from an expensive soda water fountain to slender +glasses of grape juice, but so far as drinks were concerned we +never became a rival to the saloon, nor indeed did anyone imagine +that we were trying to do so. I remember one man who looked +about the cozy little room and said, "This would be a nice place +to sit in all day if one could only have beer." But the +coffee-house gradually performed a mission of its own and became +something of a social center to the neighborhood as well as a +real convenience. Business men from the adjacent factories and +school teachers from the nearest public schools, used it +increasingly. The Hull-House students and club members supped +together in little groups or held their reunions and social +banquets, as, to a certain extent, did organizations from all +parts of the town. The experience of the coffee-house taught us +not to hold to preconceived ideas of what the neighborhood ought +to have, but to keep ourselves in readiness to modify and adapt +our undertakings as we discovered those things which the +neighborhood was ready to accept. + +Better food was doubtless needed, but more attractive and safer +places for social gatherings were also needed, and the +neighborhood was ready for one and not for the other. We had no +hint then in Chicago of the small parks which were to be +established fifteen years later, containing the halls for dancing +and their own restaurants in buildings where the natural desire +of the young for gayety and social organization, could be safely +indulged. Yet even in that early day a member of the Hull-House +Men's Club who had been appointed superintendent of Douglas Park +had secured there the first public swimming pool, and his fellow +club members were proud of the achievement. + +There was in the earliest undertakings at Hull-House a touch of +the artist's enthusiasm when he translates his inner vision +through his chosen material into outward form. Keenly conscious +of the social confusion all about us and the hard economic +struggle, we at times believed that the very struggle itself +might become a source of strength. The devotion of the mothers +to their children, the dread of the men lest they fail to provide +for the family dependent upon their daily exertions, at moments +seemed to us the secret stores of strength from which society is +fed, the invisible array of passion and feeling which are the +surest protectors of the world. We fatuously hoped that we might +pluck from the human tragedy itself a consciousness of a common +destiny which should bring its own healing, that we might extract +from life's very misfortunes a power of cooperation which should +be effective against them. + +Of course there was always present the harrowing consciousness of +the difference in economic condition between ourselves and our +neighbors. Even if we had gone to live in the most wretched +tenement, there would have always been an essential difference +between them and ourselves, for we should have had a sense of +security in regard to illness and old age and the lack of these +two securities are the specters which most persistently haunt the +poor. Could we, in spite of this, make their individual efforts +more effective through organization and possibly complement them +by small efforts of our own? + +Some such vague hope was in our minds when we started the +Hull-House Cooperative Coal Association, which led a vigorous +life for three years, and developed a large membership under the +skillful advice of its one paid officer, an English workingman +who had had experience in cooperative societies at "'ome." Some +of the meetings of the association, in which people met to +consider together their basic dependence upon fire and warmth, +had a curious challenge of life about them. Because the +cooperators knew what it meant to bring forth children in the +midst of privation and to see the tiny creatures struggle for +life, their recitals cut a cross section, as it were, in that +world-old effort--the "dying to live" which so inevitably +triumphs over poverty and suffering. And yet their very +familiarity with hardship may have been responsible for that +sentiment which traditionally ruins business, for a vote of the +cooperators that the basket buyers be given one basket free out +of every six, that the presentation of five purchase tickets +should entitle the holders to a profit in coal instead of stock +"because it would be a shame to keep them waiting for the +dividend," was always pointed to by the conservative +quarter-of-a-ton buyers as the beginning of the end. At any +rate, at the close of the third winter, although the Association +occupied an imposing coal yard on the southeast corner of the +Hull-House block and its gross receipts were between three and +four hundred dollars a day, it became evident that the concern +could not remain solvent if it continued its philanthropic +policy, and the experiment was terminated by the cooperators +taking up their stock in the remaining coal. + +Our next cooperative experiment was much more successful, perhaps +because it was much more spontaneous. + +At a meeting of working girls held at Hull-House during a strike +in a large shoe factory, the discussions made it clear that the +strikers who had been most easily frightened, and therefore first +to capitulate, were naturally those girls who were paying board +and were afraid of being put out if they fell too far behind. +After a recital of a case of peculiar hardship one of them +exclaimed: "Wouldn't it be fine if we had a boarding club of our +own, and then we could stand by each other in a time like this?" +After that events moved quickly. We read aloud together Beatrice +Potter's little book on "Cooperation," and discussed all the +difficulties and fascinations of such an undertaking, and on the +first of May, 1891, two comfortable apartments near Hull-House +were rented and furnished. The Settlement was responsible for +the furniture and paid the first month's rent, but beyond that +the members managed the club themselves. The undertaking +"marched," as the French say, from the very first, and always on +its own feet. Although there were difficulties, none of them +proved insurmountable, which was a matter for great satisfaction +in the face of a statement made by the head of the United States +Department of Labor, who, on a visit to the club when it was but +two years old, said that his department had investigated many +cooperative undertakings, and that none founded and managed by +women had ever succeeded. At the end of the third year the club +occupied all of the six apartments which the original building +contained, and numbered fifty members. + +It was in connection with our efforts to secure a building for the +Jane Club, that we first found ourselves in the dilemma between +the needs of our neighbors and the kind-hearted response upon +which we had already come to rely for their relief. The adapted +apartments in which the Jane Club was housed were inevitably more +or less uncomfortable, and we felt that the success of the club +justified the erection of a building for its sole use. + +Up to that time, our history had been as the minor peace of the +early Church. We had had the most generous interpretation of our +efforts. Of course, many people were indifferent to the idea of +the Settlement; others looked on with tolerant and sometimes +cynical amusement which we would often encounter in a good story +related at our expense; but all this was remote and unreal to us, +and we were sure that if the critics could but touch "the life of +the people," they would understand. + +The situation changed markedly after the Pullman strike, and our +efforts to secure factory legislation later brought upon us a +certain amount of distrust and suspicion; until then we had been +considered merely a kindly philanthropic undertaking whose new +form gave us a certain idealistic glamour. But sterner tests +were coming, and one of the first was in connection with the new +building for the Jane Club. A trustee of Hull-House came to see +us one day with the good news that a friend of his was ready to +give twenty thousand dollars with which to build the desired new +clubhouse. When, however, he divulged the name of his generous +friend, it proved to be that of a man who was notorious for +underpaying the girls in his establishment and concerning whom +there were even darker stories. It seemed clearly impossible to +erect a clubhouse for working girls with such money and we at +once said that we must decline the offer. The trustee of +Hull-House was put in the most embarrassing situation; he had, of +course, induced the man to give the money and had had no thought +but that it would be eagerly received; he would now be obliged to +return with the astonishing, not to say insulting, news that the +money was considered unfit. + +In the long discussion which followed, it gradually became clear +to all of us that such a refusal could be valuable only as it +might reveal to the man himself and to others, public opinion in +regard to certain methods of money-making, but that from the very +nature of the case our refusal of this money could not be made +public because a representative of Hull-House had asked for it. +However, the basic fact remained that we could not accept the +money, and of this the trustee himself was fully convinced. This +incident occurred during a period of much discussion concerning +"tainted money" and is perhaps typical of the difficulty of +dealing with it. It is impossible to know how far we may blame +the individual for doing that which all of his competitors and +his associates consider legitimate; at the same time, social +changes can only be inaugurated by those who feel the +unrighteousness of contemporary conditions, and the expression of +their scruples may be the one opportunity for pushing forward +moral tests into that dubious area wherein wealth is accumulated. + +In the course of time a new clubhouse was built by an old friend of +Hull-House much interested in working girls, and this has been +occupied for twelve years by the very successful cooperating Jane +Club. The incident of the early refusal is associated in my mind +with a long talk upon the subject of questionable money I held with +the warden of Toynbee Hall, whom I visited at Bristol where he was +then canon in the Cathedral. By way of illustration he showed me a +beautiful little church which had been built by the last +slave-trading merchant in Bristol, who had been much disapproved of +by his fellow townsmen and had hoped by this transmutation of +ill-gotten money into exquisite Gothic architecture to reconcile +himself both to God and man. His impulse to build may have been +born from his own scruples or from the quickened consciences of his +neighbors who saw that the world-old iniquity of enslaving men must +at length come to an end. The Abolitionists may have regarded this +beautiful building as the fruit of a contrite heart, or they may +have scorned it as an attempt to magnify the goodness of a slave +trader and thus perplex the doubting citizens of Bristol in regard +to the entire moral issue. + +Canon Barnett did not pronounce judgment on the Bristol merchant. +He was, however, quite clear upon the point that a higher moral +standard for industrial life must be embodied in legislation as +rapidly as possible, that it may bear equally upon all, and that +an individual endeavoring to secure this legislation must forbear +harsh judgment. This was doubtless a sound position, but during +all the period of hot discussion concerning tainted money I never +felt clear enough on the general principle involved, to accept the +many invitations to write and speak upon the subject, although I +received much instruction in the many letters of disapproval sent +to me by radicals of various schools because I was a member of the +university extension staff of the then new University of Chicago, +the righteousness of whose foundation they challenged. + +A little incident of this time illustrated to me the confusion in +the minds of a least many older men between religious teaching +and advancing morality. One morning I received a letter from the +head of a Settlement in New York expressing his perplexity over +the fact that his board of trustees had asked money from a man +notorious for his unscrupulous business methods. My +correspondent had placed his resignation in the hands of his +board, that they might accept it at any time when they felt his +utterances on the subject of tainted money were offensive, for he +wished to be free to openly discuss a subject of such grave moral +import. The very morning when my mind was full of the questions +raised by this letter, I received a call from the daughter of the +same business man whom my friend considered so unscrupulous. She +was passing through Chicago and came to ask me to give her some +arguments which she might later use with her father to confute +the charge that Settlements were irreligious. She said, "You +see, he has been asked to give money to our Settlement and would +like to do it, if his conscience was only clear; he disapproves +of Settlements because they give no religious instruction; he has +always been a very devout man." + +I remember later discussing the incident with Washington Gladden +who was able to parallel it from his own experience. Now that +this discussion upon tainted money has subsided, it is easy to +view it with a certain detachment impossible at the moment, and +it is even difficult to understand why the feeling should have +been so intense, although it doubtless registered genuine moral +concern. + +There was room for discouragement in the many unsuccessful +experiments in cooperation which were carried on in Chicago +during the early nineties; a carpenter shop on Van Buren Street +near Halsted, a labor exchange started by the unemployed, not so +paradoxical an arrangement as it seems, and a very ambitious plan +for a country colony which was finally carried out at Ruskin, +Tennessee. In spite of failures, cooperative schemes went on, +some of the same men appearing in one after another with +irrepressible optimism. I remember during a cooperative +congress, which met at Hull-House in the World's Fair summer that +Mr. Henry D. Lloyd, who collected records of cooperative +experiments with the enthusiasm with which other men collect +coins or pictures, put before the congress some of the remarkable +successes in Ireland and North England, which he later embodied +in his book on "Copartnership." One of the old-time cooperators +denounced the modern method as "too much like cut-throat +business" and declared himself in favor of "principles which may +have failed over and over again, but are nevertheless as sound as +the law of gravitation." Mr. Lloyd and I agreed that the fiery +old man presented as fine a spectacle of devotion to a lost cause +as either of us had ever seen, although we both possessed +memories well stored with such romantic attachments. + +And yet this dream that men shall cease to waste strength in +competition and shall come to pool their powers of production is +coming to pass all over the face of the earth. Five years later +in the same Hull-House hall in which the cooperative congress was +held, an Italian senator told a large audience of his fellow +countrymen of the successful system of cooperative banks in north +Italy and of their cooperative methods of selling produce to the +value of millions of francs annually; still later Sir Horace +Plunkett related the remarkable successes in cooperation in +Ireland. + +I have seldom been more infected by enthusiasm than I once was in +Dulwich at a meeting of English cooperators where I was fairly +overwhelmed by the fervor underlying the businesslike proceedings +of the congress, and certainly when I served as a juror in the +Paris Exposition of 1900, nothing in the entire display in the +department of Social Economy was so imposing as the building +housing the exhibit, which had been erected by cooperative +trades-unions without the assistance of a single contractor. + +And so one's faith is kept alive as one occasionally meets a +realized ideal of better human relations. At least traces of +successful cooperation are found even in individualistic America. +I recall my enthusiasm on the day when I set forth to lecture at +New Harmony, Indiana, for I had early been thrilled by the tale +of Robert Owen, as every young person must be who is interested +in social reform; I was delighted to find so much of his spirit +still clinging to the little town which had long ago held one of +his ardent experiments, although the poor old cooperators, who +for many years claimed friendship at Hull-House because they +heard that we "had once tried a cooperative coal association," +might well have convinced me of the persistency of the +cooperative ideal. + +Many experiences in those early years, although vivid, seemed to +contain no illumination; nevertheless they doubtless permanently +affected our judgments concerning what is called crime and vice. +I recall a series of striking episodes on the day when I took the +wife and child, as well as the old godfather, of an Italian +convict to visit him in the State Penitentiary. When we +approached the prison, the sight of its heavy stone walls and +armed sentries threw the godfather into a paroxysm of rage; he +cast his hat upon the ground and stamped upon it, tore his hair, +and loudly fulminated in weird Italian oaths, until one of the +guards, seeing his strange actions, came to inquire if "the +gentleman was having a fit." When we finally saw the convict, his +wife, to my extreme distress, talked of nothing but his striped +clothing, until the poor man wept with chagrin. Upon our return +journey to Chicago, the little son aged eight presented me with +two oranges, so affectionately and gayly that I was filled with +reflections upon the advantage of each generation making a fresh +start, when the train boy, finding the stolen fruit in my lap, +violently threatened to arrest the child. But stranger than any +episode was the fact itself that neither the convict, his wife, +nor his godfather for a moment considered him a criminal. He had +merely gotten excited over cards and had stabbed his adversary +with a knife. "Why should a man who took his luck badly be kept +forever from the sun?" was their reiterated inquiry. + +I recall our perplexity over the first girls who had "gone +astray"--the poor, little, forlorn objects, fifteen and sixteen +years old, with their moral natures apparently untouched and +unawakened; one of them whom the police had found in a +professional house and asked us to shelter for a few days until +she could be used as a witness, was clutching a battered doll +which she had kept with her during her six months of an "evil +life." Two of these prematurely aged children came to us one day +directly from the maternity ward of the Cook County hospital, +each with a baby in her arms, asking for protection, because they +did not want to go home for fear of "being licked." For them were +no jewels nor idle living such as the storybooks portrayed. The +first of the older women whom I knew came to Hull-House to ask +that her young sister, who was about to arrive from Germany, +might live near us; she wished to find her respectable work and +wanted her to have the "decent pleasures" that Hull-House +afforded. After the arrangement had been completed and I had in +a measure recovered from my astonishment at the businesslike way +in which she spoke of her own life, I ventured to ask her +history. In a very few words she told me that she had come from +Germany as a music teacher to an American family. At the end of +two years, in order to avoid a scandal involving the head of the +house, she had come to Chicago where her child was born, but when +the remittances ceased after its death, finding herself without +home and resources, she had gradually become involved in her +present mode of life. By dint of utilizing her family +solicitude, we finally induced her to move into decent lodgings +before her sister arrived, and for a difficult year she supported +herself by her exquisite embroidery. At the end of that time, +she gave up the struggle, the more easily as her young sister, +well established in the dressmaking department of a large shop, +had begun to suspect her past life. + +But discouraging as these and other similar efforts often were, +nevertheless the difficulties were infinitely less in those days +when we dealt with "fallen girls" than in the years following +when the "white slave traffic" became gradually established and +when agonized parents, as well as the victims themselves, were +totally unable to account for the situation. In the light of +recent disclosures, it seems as if we were unaccountably dull not +to have seen what was happening, especially to the Jewish girls +among whom "the home trade of the white slave traffic" was first +carried on and who were thus made to break through countless +generations of chastity. We early encountered the difficulties +of that old problem of restoring the woman, or even the child, +into the society she has once outraged. I well remember our +perplexity when we attempted to help two girls straight from a +Virginia tobacco factory, who had been decoyed into a +disreputable house when innocently seeking a lodging on the late +evening of their arrival. Although they had been rescued +promptly, the stigma remained, and we found it impossible to +permit them to join any of the social clubs connected with +Hull-House, not so much because there was danger of +contamination, as because the parents of the club members would +have resented their presence most hotly. One of our trustees +succeeded in persuading a repentant girl, fourteen years old, +whom we tried to give a fresh start in another part of the city, +to attend a Sunday School class of a large Chicago church. The +trustee hoped that the contact with nice girls, as well as the +moral training, would help the poor child on her hard road. But +unfortunately tales of her shortcomings reached the +superintendent who felt obliged, in order to protect the other +girls, to forbid her the school. She came back to tell us about +it, defiant as well as discouraged, and had it not been for the +experience with our own clubs, we could easily have joined her +indignation over a church which "acted as if its Sunday School +was a show window for candy kids." + +In spite of poignant experiences or, perhaps, because of them, +the memory of the first years at Hull-House is more or less +blurred with fatigue, for we could of course become accustomed +only gradually to the unending activity and to the confusion of a +house constantly filling and refilling with groups of people. +The little children who came to the kindergarten in the morning +were followed by the afternoon clubs of older children, and those +in turn made way for the educational and social organizations of +adults, occupying every room in the house every evening. All +one's habits of living had to be readjusted, and any student's +tendency to sit with a book by the fire was of necessity +definitely abandoned. + +To thus renounce "the luxury of personal preference" was, +however, a mere trifle compared to our perplexity over the +problems of an industrial neighborhood situated in an unorganized +city. Life pressed hard in many directions and yet it has always +seemed to me rather interesting that when we were so distressed +over its stern aspects and so impressed with the lack of +municipal regulations, the first building erected for Hull-House +should have been designed for an art gallery, for although it +contained a reading-room on the first floor and a studio above, +the largest space on the second floor was carefully designed and +lighted for art exhibits, which had to do only with the +cultivation of that which appealed to the powers of enjoyment as +over against a wage-earning capacity. It was also significant +that a Chicago business man, fond of pictures himself, responded +to this first appeal of the new and certainly puzzling +undertaking called a Settlement. + +The situation was somewhat complicated by the fact that at the time +the building was erected in 1891, our free lease of the land upon +which Hull-House stood expired in 1895. The donor of the building, +however, overcame the difficulty by simply calling his gift a +donation of a thousand dollars a year. This restriction of course +necessitated the simplest sort of a structure, although I remember +on the exciting day when the new building was promised to us, that +I looked up my European notebook which contained the record of my +experience in Ulm, hoping that I might find a description of what I +then thought "a Cathedral of Humanity" ought to be. The +description was "low and widespreading as to include all men in +fellowship and mutual responsibility even as the older pinnacles +and spires indicated communion with God." The description did not +prove of value as an architectural motive I am afraid, although the +architects, who have remained our friends through all the years, +performed marvels with a combination of complicated demands and +little money. At the moment when I read this girlish outbreak it +gave me much comfort, for in those days in addition to our other +perplexities Hull-House was often called irreligious. + +These first buildings were very precious to us and it afforded us +the greatest pride and pleasure as one building after another was +added to the Hull-House group. They clothed in brick and mortar +and made visible to the world that which we were trying to do; +they stated to Chicago that education and recreation ought to be +extended to the immigrants. The boys came in great numbers to +our provisional gymnasium fitted up in a former saloon, and it +seemed to us quite as natural that a Chicago man, fond of +athletics, should erect a building for them, as that the boys +should clamor for more room. + +I do not wish to give a false impression, for we were often +bitterly pressed for money and worried by the prospect of unpaid +bills, and we gave up one golden scheme after another because we +could not afford it; we cooked the meals and kept the books and +washed the windows without a thought of hardship if we thereby +saved money for the consummation of some ardently desired +undertaking. + +But in spite of our financial stringency, I always believed that +money would be given when we had once clearly reduced the +Settlement idea to the actual deed. This chapter, therefore, +would be incomplete if it did not record a certain theory of +nonresistance or rather universal good will which I had worked +out in connection with the Settlement idea and which was later so +often and so rudely disturbed. At that time I had come to +believe that if the activities of Hull-House were ever +misunderstood, it would be either because there was not time to +fully explain or because our motives had become mixed, for I was +convinced that disinterested action was like truth or beauty in +its lucidity and power of appeal. + +But more gratifying than any understanding or response from +without could possibly be, was the consciousness that a growing +group of residents was gathering at Hull-House, held together in +that soundest of all social bonds, the companionship of mutual +interests. These residents came primarily because they were +genuinely interested in the social situation and believed that +the Settlement was valuable as a method of approach to it. A +house in which the men residents lived was opened across the +street, and at the end of the first five years the Hull-House +residential force numbered fifteen, a majority of whom still +remain identified with the Settlement. + +Even in those early years we caught glimpses of the fact that +certain social sentiments, which are "the difficult and +cumulating product of human growth" and which like all higher +aims live only by communion and fellowship, are cultivated most +easily in the fostering soil of a community life. + +Occasionally I obscurely felt as if a demand were being made upon +us for a ritual which should express and carry forward the hope +of the social movement. I was constantly bewildered by the +number of requests I received to officiate at funeral services +and by the curious confessions made to me by total strangers. +For a time I accepted the former and on one awful occasion +furnished "the poetic part" of a wedding ceremony really +performed by a justice of the peace, but I soon learned to +steadfastly refuse such offices, although I saw that for many +people without church affiliations the vague humanitarianism the +Settlement represented was the nearest approach they could find +to an expression of their religious sentiments. + +These hints of what the Settlement might mean to at least a few +spirits among its contemporaries became clear to me for the first +time one summer's day in rural England, when I discussed with John +Trevor his attempts to found a labor church and his desire to turn +the toil and danger attached to the life of the workingman into +the means of a universal fellowship. That very year a papyrus +leaf brought to the British Museum from Egypt, containing among +other sayings of Jesus, "Raise the stone, and there thou shalt +find me; cleave the wood and I am there," was a powerful reminder +to all England of the basic relations between daily labor and +Christian teaching. + +In those early years at Hull-House we were, however, in no danger +of losing ourselves in mazes of speculation or mysticism, and there +was shrewd penetration in a compliment I received from one of our +Scotch neighbors. He came down Polk Street as I was standing near +the foundations of our new gymnasium, and in response to his +friendly remark that "Hull-House was spreading out," I replied that +"Perhaps we were spreading out too fast." "Oh, no," he rejoined, +"you can afford to spread out wide, you are so well planted in the +mud," giving the compliment, however, a practical turn, as he +glanced at the deep mire on the then unpaved street. It was this +same condition of Polk Street which had caused the crown prince of +Belgium when he was brought upon a visit to Hull-House to shake his +head and meditatively remark, "There is not such a street--no, not +one--in all the territory of Belgium." + +At the end of five years the residents of Hull-House published +some first found facts and our reflections thereon in a book +called "Hull-House Maps and Papers." The maps were taken from +information collected by one of the residents for the United +States Bureau of Labor in the investigation into "the slums of +great cities" and the papers treated of various neighborhood +matters with candor and genuine concern if not with skill. The +first edition became exhausted in two years, and apparently the +Boston publisher did not consider the book worthy of a second. + + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Jill Thoren. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter VIII: Problems of Poverty." by Jane Addams (1860-1935) +From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes. by +Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. +154-176. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +PROBLEMS OF POVERTY + + +That neglected and forlorn old age is daily brought to the +attention of a Settlement which undertakes to bear its share of +the neighborhood burden imposed by poverty, was pathetically +clear to us during our first months of residence at Hull-House. +One day a boy of ten led a tottering old lady into the House, +saying that she had slept for six weeks in their kitchen on a bed +made up next to the stove; that she had come when her son died, +although none of them had ever seen her before; but because her +son had "once worked in the same shop with Pa she thought of him +when she had nowhere to go." The little fellow concluded by +saying that our house was so much bigger than theirs that he +thought we would have more roomfor beds. The old woman herself +said absolutely nothing, but looking on with that gripping fear +of the poorhouse in her eyes, she was a living embodiment of that +dread which is so heartbreaking that the occupants of the County +Infirmary themselves seem scarcely less wretched than those who +are making their last stand against it. + +This look was almost more than I could bear for only a few days +before some frightened women had bidden me come quickly to the +house of an old German woman, whom two men from the country +agent's office were attempting to remove to the County Infirmary. +The poor old creature had thrown herself bodily upon a small and +battered chest of drawers and clung there, clutching it so firmly +that it would have been impossible to remove her without also +taking the piece of furniture . She did not weep nor moan nor +indeed make any human sound, but between her broken gasps for +breath she squealed shrilly like a frightened animal caught in a +trap. The little group of women and children gathered at her +door stood aghast at this realization of the black dread which +always clouds the lives of the very poor when work is slack, but +which constantly grows more imminent and threatening as old age +approaches. The neighborhood women and I hastened to make all +sorts of promises as to the support of the old woman and the +country officials, only too glad to be rid of their unhappy duty, +left her to our ministrations. This dread of the poorhouse, the +result of centuries of deterrent Poor Law administration, seemed +to me not without some justification one summer when I found +myself perpetually distressed by the unnecessary idleness and +forlornness of the old women in the Cook County Infirmary, many +of whom I had known in the years when activity was still a +necessity, and when they yet felt bustlingly important. To take +away from an old woman whose life has been spent in household +cares all the foolish little belongings to which her affections +cling and to which her very fingers have become accustomed, is to +take away her last incentive to activity, almost to life itself. +To give an old woman only a chair and a bed, to leave her no +cupboard in which her treasures may be stowed, not only that she +may take them out when she desires occupation, but that their +mind may dwell upon them in moments of revery, is to reduce +living almost beyond the limit of human endurance. + +The poor creature who clung so desperately to her chest of +drawers was really clinging to the last remnant of normal +living--a symbol of all she was asked to renounce. For several +years after this summer I invited five or six old women to take a +two weeks' vacation from the poorhouse which was eagerly and even +gayly accepted. Almost all the old men in the County Infirmary +wander away each summer taking their chances for finding food or +shelter and return much refreshed by the little "tramp," but the +old women cannot do this unless they have some help from the +outside, and yet the expenditure of a very little money secures +for them the coveted vacation. I found that a few pennies paid +their car fare into town, a dollar a week procured lodging with +an old acquaintance; assured of two good meals a day in the +Hull-House coffee-house they could count upon numerous cups of +tea among old friends to whom they would airily state that they +had "come out for a little change" and hadn't yet made up their +minds about "going in again for the winter." They thus enjoyed a +two weeks' vacation to the top of their bent and returned with +wondrous tales of their adventures, with which they regaled the +other paupers during the long winter. + +The reminiscences of these old women, their shrewd comments upon +life, their sense of having reached a point where they may at +last speak freely with nothing to lose because of their +frankness, makes them often the most delightful of companions. I +recall one of my guests, the mother of many scattered children, +whose one bright spot through all the dreary years had been the +wedding feast of her son Mike,--a feast which had become +transformed through long meditation into the nectar and ambrosia +of the very gods. As a farewell fling before she went "in" +again, we dined together upon chicken pie, but it did not taste +like the "the chicken pie at Mike's wedding" and she was +disappointed after all. + +Even death itself sometimes fails to bring the dignity and +serenity which one would fain associate with old age. I recall +the dying hour of one old Scotchwoman whose long struggle to +"keep respectable" had so embittered her that her last words were +gibes and taunts for those who were trying to minister to her. +"So you came in yourself this morning, did you? You only sent +things yesterday. I guess you knew when the doctor was coming. +Don't try to warm my feet with anything but that old jacket that +I've got there; it belonged to my boy who was drowned at sea nigh +thirty years ago, but it's warmer yet with human feelings than +any of your damned charity hot-water bottles." Suddenly the harsh +gasping voice was stilled in death and I awaited the doctor's +coming shaken and horrified. + +The lack of municipal regulation already referred to was, in the +early days of Hull-House, parallelled by the inadequacy of the +charitable efforts of the city and an unfounded optimism that +there was no real poverty among us. Twenty years ago there was no +Charity Organization Society in Chicago and the Visiting Nurse +Association had not yet begun its beneficial work, while the +relief societies, although conscientiously administered, were +inadequate in extent and antiquated in method. + +As social reformers gave themselves over to discussion of general +principles, so the poor invariably accused poverty itself of their +destruction. I recall a certain Mrs. Moran, who was returning one +rainy day from the office of the county agent with her arms full of +paper bags containing beans and flour which alone lay between her +children and starvation. Although she had no money she boarded a +street car in order to save her booty from complete destruction by +the rain, and as the burst bags dropped "flour on the ladies' +dresses" and ""beans all over the place," she was sharply +reprimanded by the conductor, who was the further exasperated when +he discovered she had no fare. He put her off, as she had hoped he +would, almost in front of Hull-House. She related to us her state +of mind as she stepped off the car and saw the last of her wares +disappearing; she admitted she forgot the proprieties and "cursed a +little," but, curiously enough, she pronounced her malediction, not +against the rain nor the conductor, nor yet against the worthless +husband who had been set up to the city prison, but, true to the +Chicago spirit of the moment, went to the root of the matter and +roundly "cursed poverty." + +This spirit of generalization and lack of organization among the +charitable forces of the city was painfully revealed in that +terrible winter after the World's Fair, when the general +financial depression throughout the country was much intensified +in Chicago by the numbers of unemployed stranded at the close of +the exposition. When the first cold weather came the police +stations and the very corridors of the city hall were crowded by +men who could afford no other lodging. They made huge +demonstrations on the lake front, reminding one of the London +gatherings in Trafalgar Square. + +It was the winter in which Mr. Stead wrote his indictment of +Chicago. I can vividly recall his visits to Hull-House, some of +them between eleven and twelve o'clock at night, when he would +come in wet and hungry from an investigation of the levee +district, and while he was drinking hot chocolate before an open +fire, would relate in one of his curious monologues, his +experience as an out-of-door laborer standing in line without an +overcoat for two hours in the sleet, that he might have a chance +to sweep the streets; or his adventures with a crook, who mistook +him for one of this own kind and offered him a place as an agent +for a gambling house, which he promptly accepted. Mr. Stead was +much impressed with the mixed goodness in Chicago, the lack of +rectitude in many high places, the simple kindness of the most +wretched to each other. Before he published "If Christ Came to +Chicago" he made his attempt to rally the diverse moral forces of +the city in a huge mass meeting, which resulted in a temporary +organization, later developing into the Civic Federation. I was +a member of the committee of five appointed to carry out the +suggestions made in this remarkable meeting, and or first concern +was to appoint a committee to deal with the unemployed. But when +has a committee ever dealt satisfactorily with the unemployed? +Relief stations were opened in various part of the city, +temporary lodging houses were established, Hull-House undertaking +to lodge the homeless women who could be received nowhere else; +employment stations were opened giving sewing to the women, and +street sweeping for the men was organized. It was in connection +with the latter that the perplexing question of the danger of +permanently lowering wages at such a crisis, in the praiseworthy +effort to bring speedy relief, was brought home to me. I +insisted that it was better to have the men work half a day for +seventy-five cents than a whole day for a dollar, better that +they should earn three dollars in two days than in three days. I +resigned from the street-cleaning committee in despair of making +the rest of the committee understand that, as our real object was +not street cleaning but the help of the unemployed, we must treat +the situation in such wise that the men would not be worse off +when they returned to their normal occupations. The discussion +opened up situations new to me and carried me far afield in +perhaps the most serious economic reading I have ever done. + +A beginning also was then made toward a Bureau of Organized +Charities, the main office being put in charge of a young man +recently come from Boston, who lived at Hull-House. But to +employ scientific methods for the first time at such a moment +involved difficulties, and the most painful episode of the winter +came for me from an attempt on my part to conform to carefully +received instructions. A shipping clerk whom I had known for a +long time had lost his place, as so many people had that year, +and came to the relief station established at Hull-House four or +five times to secure help for his family. I told him one day of +the opportunity for work on the drainage canal and intimated that +if any employment were obtainable, he ought to exhaust that +possibility before asking for help. The man replied that he had +always worked indoors and that he could not endure outside work +in winter. I am grateful to remember that I was too uncertain to +be severe, although I held to my instructions. He did not come +again for relief, but worked for two days digging on the canal, +where he contracted pneumonia and died a week later. I have +never lost trace of the two little children he left behind him, +although I cannot see them without a bitter consciousness that it +was at their expense I learned that life cannot be administered +by definite rules and regulations; that wisdom to deal with a +man's difficulties comes only through some knowledge of his life +and habits as a whole; and that to treat an isolated episode is +almost sure to invite blundering. + +It was also during this winter that I became permanently +impressed with the kindness of the poor to each other; the woman +who lives upstairs will willingly share her breakfast with the +family below because she knows they "are hard up"; the man who +boarded with them last winter will give a month's rent because he +knows the father of the family is out of work; the baker across +the street who is fast being pushed to the wall by his downtown +competitors, will send across three loaves of stale bread because +he has seen the children looking longingly into his window and +suspects they are hungry. There are also the families who, +during times of business depression, are obliged to seek help +from the county or some benevolent society, but who are +themselves most anxious not to be confounded with the pauper +class, with whom indeed they do not in the least belong. Charles +Booth, in his brilliant chapter on the unemployed, expresses +regret that the problems of the working class are so often +confounded with the problems of the inefficient and the idle, +that although working people live in the same street with those +in need of charity, to thus confound two problems is to render +the solution of both impossible. + +I remember one family in which the father had been out of work +for this same winter, most of the furniture had been pawned, and +as the worn-out shoes could not be replaced the children could +not go to school. The mother was ill and barely able to come for +the supplies and medicines. Two years later she invited me to +supper one Sunday evening in the little home which had been +completely restored, and she gave as a reason for the invitation +that she couldn't bear to have me remember them as they had been +during that one winter, which she insisted had been unique in her +twelve years of married life. She said that it was as if she had +met me, not as I am ordinarily, but as I should appear misshapen +with rheumatism or with a face distorted by neuralgic pain; that +it was not fair to judge poor people that way. She perhaps +unconsciously illustrated the difference between the +relief-station relation to the poor and the Settlement relation +to its neighbors, the latter wishing to know them through all the +varying conditions of life, to stand by when they are in +distress, but by no means to drop intercourse with them when +normal prosperity has returned, enabling the relation to become +more social and free from economic disturbance. + +Possibly something of the same effort has to be made within the +Settlement itself to keep its own sense of proportion in regard +to the relation of the crowded city quarter to the rest of the +country. It was in the spring following this terrible winter, +during a journey to meet lecture engagements in California, that +I found myself amazed at the large stretches of open country and +prosperous towns through which we passed day by day, whose +existence I had quite forgotten. + +In the latter part of the summer of 1895, I served as a member on +a commission appointed by the mayor of Chicago, to investigate +conditions in the county poorhouse, public attention having +become centered on it through one of those distressing stories, +which exaggerates the wrong in a public institution while at the +same time it reveals conditions which need to be rectified. +However necessary publicity is for securing reformed +administration, however useful such exposures may be for +political purposes, the whole is attended by such a waste of the +most precious human emotions, by such a tearing of living tissue, +that it can scarcely be endured. Every time I entered Hull-House +during the days of the investigation, I would find waiting for me +from twenty to thirty people whose friends and relatives were in +the suspected institution, all in such acute distress of mind +that to see them was to look upon the victims of deliberate +torture. In most cases my visitor would state that it seemed +impossible to put their invalids in any other place, but if these +stories were true, something must be done. Many of the patients +were taken out only to be returned after a few days or weeks to +meet the sullen hostility of their attendants and with their own +attitude changed from confidence to timidity and alarm. + +This piteous dependence of the poor upon the good will of public +officials was made clear to us in an early experience with a +peasant woman straight from the fields of Germany, whom we met +during our first six months at Hull-House. Her four years in +America had been spent in patiently carrying water up and down +two flights of stairs, and in washing the heavy flannel suits of +iron foundry workers. For this her pay had averaged thirty-five +cents a day. Three of her daughters had fallen victims to the +vice of the city. The mother was bewildered and distressed, but +understood nothing. We were able to induce the betrayer of one +daughter to marry her; the second, after a tedious lawsuit, +supported his child; with the third we were able to do nothing. +This woman is now living with her family in a little house +seventeen miles from the city. She has made two payments on her +land and is a lesson to all beholders as she pastures her cow up +and down the railroad tracks and makes money from her ten acres. +She did not need charity for she had an immense capacity for hard +work, but she sadly needed the service of the State's attorney +office, enforcing the laws designed for the protection of such +girls as her daughters. + +We early found ourselves spending many hours in efforts to secure +support for deserted women, insurance for bewildered widows, +damages for injured operators, furniture from the clutches of the +installment store. The Settlement is valuable as an information +and interpretation bureau. It constantly acts between the +various institutions of the city and the people for whose benefit +these institutions were erected. The hospitals, the county +agencies, and State asylums are often but vague rumors to the +people who need them most. Another function of the Settlement to +its neighborhood resembles that of the big brother whose mere +presence on the playground protects the little one from bullies. + +We early learned to know the children of hard-driven mothers who +went out to work all day, sometimes leaving the little things in +the casual care of a neighbor, but often locking them into their +tenement rooms. The first three crippled children we encountered +in the neighborhood had all been injured while their mothers were +at work: one had fallen out of a third-story window, another had +been burned, and the third had a curved spine due to the fact that +for three years he had been tied all day long to the leg of the +kitchen table, only released at noon by his older brother who +hastily ran in from a neighboring factory to share his lunch with +him. When the hot weather came the restless children could not +brook the confinement of the stuffy rooms, and, as it was not +considered safe to leave the doors open because of sneak thieves, +many of the children were locked out. During our first summer an +increasing number of these poor little mites would wander into the +cool hallway of Hull-House. We kept them there and fed them at +noon, in return for which we were sometimes offered a hot penny +which had been held in a tight little fist "ever since mother left +this morning, to buy something to eat with." Out of kindergarten +hours our little guests noisily enjoyed the hospitality of our +bedrooms under the so-called care of any resident who volunteered +to keep an eye on them, but later they were moved into a +neighboring apartment under more systematic supervision. + +Hull-House was thus committed to a day nursery which we sustained +for sixteen years first in a little cottage on a side street and +then in a building designed for its use called the Children's +House. It is now carried on by the United Charities of Chicago +in a finely equipped building on our block, where the immigrant +mothers are cared for as well as the children, and where they are +taught the things which will make life in America more possible. +Our early day nursery brought us into natural relations with the +poorest women of the neighborhood, many of whom were bearing the +burden of dissolute and incompetent husbands in addition to the +support of their children. Some of them presented an impressive +manifestation of that miracle of affection which outlives abuse, +neglect, and crime,--the affection which cannot be plucked from +the heart where it has lived, although it may serve only to +torture and torment. "Has your husband come back?" you inquire +of Mrs. S., whom you have known for eight years as an overworked +woman bringing her three delicate children every morning to the +nursery; she is bent under the double burden of earning the money +which supports them and giving them the tender care which alone +keeps them alive. The oldest two children have at last gone to +work, and Mrs. S. has allowed herself the luxury of staying at +home two days a week. And now the worthless husband is back +again--the "gentlemanly gambler" type who, through all +vicissitudes, manages to present a white shirtfront and a gold +watch to the world, but who is dissolute, idle and extravagant. +You dread to think how much his presence will increase the drain +upon the family exchequer, and you know that he stayed away until +he was certain that the children were old enough to earn money +for his luxuries. Mrs. S. does not pretend to take his return +lightly, but she replies in all seriousness and simplicity, "You +know my feeling for him has never changed. You may think me +foolish, but I was always proud of his good looks and educated +appearance. I was lonely and homesick during those eight years +when the children were little and needed so much doctoring, but I +could never bring myself to feel hard toward him, and I used to +pray the good Lord to keep him from harm and bring him back to +us; so, of course, I'm thankful now." She passes on with a +dignity which gives one a new sense of the security of affection. + +I recall a similar case of a woman who had supported her three +children for five years, during which time her dissolute husband +constantly demanded money for drink and kept her perpetually +worried and intimidated. One Saturday, before the "blessed +Easter," he came back from a long debauch, ragged and filthy, but +in a state of lachrymose repentance. The poor wife received him +as a returned prodigal, believed that his remorse would prove +lasting, and felt sure that if she and the children went to +church with him on Easter Sunday and he could be induced to take +the pledge before the priest, all their troubles would be ended. +After hours of vigorous effort and the expenditure of all her +savings, he finally sat on the front doorstep the morning of +Easter Sunday, bathed, shaved and arrayed in a fine new suit of +clothes. She left him sitting there in the reluctant spring +sunshine while she finished washing and dressing the children. +When she finally opened the front door with the three shining +children that they might all set forth together, the returned +prodigal had disappeared, and was not seen again until midnight, +when he came back in a glorious state of intoxication from the +proceeds of his pawned clothes and clad once more in the dingiest +attire. She took him in without comment, only to begin again the +wretched cycle. There were of course instances of the criminal +husband as well as of the merely vicious. I recall one woman +who, during seven years, never missed a visiting day at the +penitentiary when she might see her husband, and whose little +children in the nursery proudly reported the messages from father +with no notion that he was in disgrace, so absolutely did they +reflect the gallant spirit of their mother. + +While one was filled with admiration for these heroic women, +something was also to be said for some of the husbands, for the +sorry men who, for one reason or another, had failed in the +struggle of life. Sometimes this failure was purely economic and +the men were competent to give the children, whom they were not +able to support, the care and guidance and even education which +were of the highest value. Only a few months ago I met upon the +street one of the early nursery mothers who for five years had +been living in another part of the city, and in response to my +query as to the welfare of her five children, she bitterly +replied, "All of them except Mary have been arrested at one time +or another, thank you." In reply to my remark that I thought her +husband had always had such admirable control over them, she +burst out, "That has been the whole trouble. I got tired taking +care of him and didn't believe that his laziness was all due to +his health, as he said, so I left him and said that I would +support the children, but not him. From that minute the trouble +with the four boys began. I never knew what they were doing, and +after every sort of a scrape I finally put Jack and the twins +into institutions where I pay for them. Joe has gone to work at +last, but with a disgraceful record behind him. I tell you I +ain't so sure that because a woman can make big money that she +can be both father and mother to her children." + +As I walked on, I could but wonder in which particular we are +most stupid--to judge a man's worth so solely by his wage-earning +capacity that a good wife feels justified in leaving him, or in +holding fast to that wretched delusion that a woman can both +support and nurture her children. + +One of the most piteous revelations of the futility of the latter +attempt came to me through the mother of "Goosie," as the +children for years called a little boy who, because he was +brought to the nursery wrapped up in his mother's shawl, always +had his hair filled with the down and small feathers from the +feather brush factory where she worked. One March morning, +Goosie's mother was hanging out the washing on a shed roof before +she left for the factory. Five-year-old Goosie was trotting at +her heels handing her clothes pins, when he was suddenly blown +off the roof by the high wind into the alley below. His neck was +broken by the fall, and as he lay piteous and limp on a pile of +frozen refuse, his mother cheerily called him to "climb up +again," so confident do overworked mothers become that their +children cannot get hurt. After the funeral, as the poor mother +sat in the nursery postponing the moment when she must go back to +her empty rooms, I asked her, in a futile effort to be of +comfort, if there was anything more we could do for her. The +overworked, sorrow-stricken woman looked up and replied, "If you +could give me my wages for to-morrow, I would not go to work in +the factory at all. I would like to stay at home all day and +hold the baby. Goosie was always asking me to take him and I +never had any time." This statement revealed the condition of +many nursery mothers who are obliged to forego the joys and +solaces which belong to even the most poverty-stricken. The long +hours of factory labor necessary for earning the support of a +child leave no time for the tender care and caressing which may +enrich the life of the most piteous baby. + +With all of the efforts made by modern society to nurture and +educate the young, how stupid it is to permit the mothers of +young children to spend themselves in the coarser work of the +world! It is curiously inconsistent that with the emphasis which +this generation has placed upon the mother and upon the +prolongation of infancy, we constantly allow the waste of this +most precious material. I cannot recall without indignation a +recent experience. I was detained late one evening in an office +building by a prolonged committee meeting of the Board of +Education. As I came out at eleven o'clock, I met in the +corridor of the fourteenth floor a woman whom I knew, on her +knees scrubbing the marble tiling. As she straightened up to +greet me, she seemed so wet from her feet up to her chin, that I +hastily inquired the cause. Her reply was that she left home at +five o'clock every night and had no opportunity for six hours to +nurse her baby. Her mother's milk mingled with the very water +with which she scrubbed the floors until she should return at +midnight, heated and exhausted, to feed her screaming child with +what remained within her breasts. + +These are only a few of the problems connected with the lives of +the poorest people with whom the residents in a Settlement are +constantly brought in contact. + +I cannot close this chapter without a reference to that gallant +company of men and women among whom my acquaintance is so large, +who are fairly indifferent to starvation itself because of their +preoccupation with higher ends. Among them are visionaries and +enthusiasts, unsuccessful artists, writers, and reformers. For +many years at Hull-House, we knew a well-bred German woman who was +completely absorbed in the experiment of expressing musical +phrases and melodies by means of colors. Because she was small +and deformed, she stowed herself into her trunk every night, where +she slept on a canvas stretched hammock-wise from the four corners +and her food was of the meagerest; nevertheless if a visitor left +an offering upon her table, it was largely spent for apparatus or +delicately colored silk floss, with which to pursue the +fascinating experiment. Another sadly crippled old woman, the +widow of a sea captain, although living almost exclusively upon +malted milk tablets as affording a cheap form of prepared food, +was always eager to talk of the beautiful illuminated manuscripts +she had sought out in her travels and to show specimens of her own +work as an illuminator. Still another of these impressive old +women was an inveterate inventor. Although she had seen prosperous +days in England, when we knew her, she subsisted largely upon the +samples given away at the demonstration counters of the department +stores, and on bits of food which she cooked on a coal shovel in +the furnace of the apartment house whose basement back room she +occupied. Although her inventions were not practicable, various +experts to whom they were submitted always pronounced them +suggestive and ingenious. I once saw her receive this +complimentary verdict--"this ribbon to stick in her coat"--with +such dignity and gravity that the words of condolence for her +financial disappointment, died upon my lips. + +These indomitable souls are but three out of many whom I might +instance to prove that those who are handicapped in the race for +life's goods, sometimes play a magnificent trick upon the jade, +life herself, by ceasing to know whether or not they possess any +of her tawdry goods and chattels. + + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Flo Carrierre. + +"I am a full-time staff at University, continuing my studies on a +part-time basis. I volunteer in the community, and thank you for +giving me the opportunity to make a difference in the Celebration +of Women Writers by contributing time to enter book +chapters."--Flo Carrierre. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter IX: A Decade of Economic Discussion." by Jane Addams +(1860-1935) From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with +Autobiographical Notes. by Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan +Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. 177-197. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A DECADE OF ECONOMIC DISCUSSION + + +The Hull-House residents were often bewildered by the desire for +constant discussion which characterized Chicago twenty years ago, +for although the residents in the early Settlements were in many +cases young persons who had sought relief from the consciousness +of social maladjustment in the "anodyne of work" afforded by +philanthropic and civic activities, their former experiences had +not thrown them into company with radicals. The decade between +1890-1900 was, in Chicago, a period of propaganda as over against +constructive social effort; the moment for marching and carrying +banners, for stating general principles and making a +demonstration, rather than the time for uncovering the situation +and for providing the legal measures and the civic organization +through which new social hopes might make themselves felt. + +When Hull-House was established in 1889, the events of the +Haymarket riot were already two years old, but during that time +Chicago had apparently gone through the first period of +repressive measures, and in the winter of 1889-1890, by the +advice and with the active participation of its leading citizens, +the city had reached the conclusion that the only cure for the +acts of anarchy was free speech and an open discussion of the +ills of which the opponents of government complained. Great open +meetings were held every Sunday evening in the recital hall of +the then new auditorium, presided over by such representative +citizens as Lyman Gage, and every possible shade of opinion was +freely expressed. A man who spoke constantly at these meetings +used to be pointed out to the visiting stranger as one who had +been involved with the group of convicted anarchists, and who +doubtless would have been arrested and tried, but for the +accident of his having been in Milwaukee when the explosion +occurred. One cannot imagine such meetings being held in Chicago +to-day, nor that such a man should be encouraged to raise his +voice in a public assemblage presided over by a leading banker. +It is hard to tell just what change has come over our philosophy +or over the minds of those citizens who were then convinced that +if these conferences had been established earlier, the Haymarket +riot and all its sensational results might have been avoided. + +At any rate, there seemed a further need for smaller clubs, where +men who differed widely in their social theories might meet for +discussion, where representatives of the various economic schools +might modify each other, and at least learn tolerance and the +futility of endeavoring to convince all the world of the truth of +one position. Fanaticism is engendered only when men, finding no +contradiction to their theories, at last believe that the very +universe lends itself as an exemplification of one point of view. +"The Working People's Social Science Club" was organized at +Hull-House in the spring of 1890 by an English workingman, and +for seven years it held a weekly meeting. At eight o'clock every +Wednesday night the secretary called to order from forty to one +hundred people; a chairman for the evening was elected, a speaker +was introduced who was allowed to talk until nine o'clock; his +subject was then thrown open to discussion and a lively debate +ensued until ten o'clock, at which hour the meeting was declared +adjourned. The enthusiasm of this club seldom lagged. Its zest +for discussion was unceasing, and any attempt to turn it into a +study or reading club always met with the strong disapprobation +of the members. + +In these weekly discussions in the Hull-House drawing room +everything was thrown back upon general principles and all +discussion save that which "went to the root of things," was +impatiently discarded as an unworthy, halfway measure. I recall +one evening in this club when an exasperated member had thrown out +the statement that "Mr. B. believes that socialism will cure the +toothache." Mr. B. promptly rose to his feet and said that it +certainly would, that when every child's teeth were systematically +cared for from the beginning, toothaches would disappear from the +face of the earth, belonging, as it did, to the extinct +competitive order, as the black plague had disappeared from the +earth with the ill-regulated feudal regime of the Middle Ages. +"But," he added, "why do we spend time discussing trifles like the +toothache when great social changes are to be considered which +will of themselves reform these minor ills?" Even the man who had +been humorous fell into the solemn tone of the gathering. It was, +perhaps, here that the socialist surpassed everyone else in the +fervor of economic discussion. He was usually a German or a +Russian, with a turn for logical presentation, who saw in the +concentration of capital and the growth of monopolies an +inevitable transition to the socialist state. He pointed out that +the concentration of capital in fewer hands but increased the mass +of those whose interests were opposed to a maintenance of its +power, and vastly simplified its final absorption by the +community; that monopoly "when it is finished doth bring forth +socialism." Opposite to him, springing up in every discussion was +the individualist, or, as the socialist called him, the anarchist, +who insisted that we shall never secure just human relations until +we have equality of opportunity; that the sole function of the +state is to maintain the freedom of each, guarded by the like +freedom of all, in order that each man may be able to work out the +problems of his own existence. + +That first winter was within three years of the Henry George +campaign in New York, when his adherents all over the country +were carrying on a successful and effective propaganda. When +Henry George himself came to Hull-House one Sunday afternoon, the +gymnasium which was already crowded with men to hear Father +Huntington's address on "Why should a free thinker believe in +Christ," fairly rocked on its foundations under the enthusiastic +and prolonged applause which greeted this great leader and +constantly interrupted his stirring address, filled, as all of +his speeches were, with high moral enthusiasm and humanitarian +fervor. Of the remarkable congresses held in connection with the +World's Fair, perhaps those inaugurated by the advocates of +single tax exceeded all others in vital enthusiasm. It was +possibly significant that all discussions in the department of +social science had to be organized by partisans in separate +groups. The very committee itself on social science composed of +Chicago citizens, of whom I was one, changed from week to week, +as partisan members had their feelings hurt because their cause +did not receive "due recognition." And yet in the same building +adherents of the most diverse religious creeds, eastern and +western, met in amity and good fellowship. Did it perhaps +indicate that their presentation of the eternal problems of life +were cast in an older and less sensitive mold than this +presentation in terms of social experience, or was it rather that +the new social science was not yet a science at all but merely a +name under cover of which we might discuss the perplexing +problems of the industrial situation? Certainly the difficulties +of our committee were not minimized by the fact that the then new +science of sociology had not yet defined its own field. The +University of Chicago, opened only the year before the World's +Fair, was the first great institution of learning to institute a +department of sociology. + +In the meantime the Hull-House Social Science Club grew in +numbers and fervor as various distinguished people who were +visiting the World's Fair came to address it. I recall a +brilliant Frenchwoman who was filled with amazement because one +of the shabbiest men reflected a reading of Schopenhauer. She +considered the statement of another member most remarkable--that +when he saw a carriage driving through the streets occupied by a +capitalist who was no longer even an entrepreneur, he felt quite +as sure that his days were numbered and that his very lack of +function to society would speedily bring him to extinction, as he +did when he saw a drunkard reeling along the same street. + +The club at any rate convinced the residents that no one so +poignantly realizes the failures in the social structure as the +man at the bottom, who has been most directly in contact with +those failures and has suffered most. I recall the shrewd +comments of a certain sailor who had known the disinherited in +every country; of a Russian who had served his term in Siberia; +of an old Irishman who called himself an atheist but who in +moments of excitement always blamed the good Lord for "setting +supinely" when the world was so horribly out of joint. + +It was doubtless owing largely to this club that Hull-House +contracted its early reputation for radicalism. Visitors refused +to distinguish between the sentiments expressed by its members in +the heat of discussion and the opinions held by the residents +themselves. At that moment in Chicago the radical of every shade +of opinion was vigorous and dogmatic; of the sort that could not +resign himself to the slow march of human improvement; of the +type who knew exactly "in what part of the world Utopia standeth." + +During this decade Chicago seemed divided into two classes; those +who held that "business is business" and who were therefore +annoyed at the very notion of social control, and the radicals, +who claimed that nothing could be done to really moralize the +industrial situation until society should be reorganized. + +A Settlement is above all a place for enthusiasms, a spot to which +those who have a passion for the equalization of human joys and +opportunities are early attracted. It is this type of mind which +is in itself so often obnoxious to the man of conquering business +faculty, to whom the practical world of affairs seems so supremely +rational that he would never vote to change the type of it even if +he could. The man of social enthusiasm is to him an annoyance and +an affront. He does not like to hear him talk and considers him +per se "unsafe." Such a business man would admit, as an abstract +proposition, that society is susceptible of modification and would +even agree that all human institutions imply progressive +development, but at the same time he deeply distrusts those who +seek to reform existing conditions. There is a certain +common-sense foundation for this distrust, for too often the +reformer is the rebel who defies things as they are, because of +the restraints which they impose upon his individual desires +rather than because of the general defects of the system. When +such a rebel poses for a reformer, his shortcomings are heralded +to the world, and his downfall is cherished as an awful warning to +those who refuse to worship "the god of things as they are." + +And yet as I recall the members of this early club, even those +who talked the most and the least rationally, seem to me to have +been particularly kindly and "safe." The most pronounced +anarchist among them has long since become a convert to a +religious sect, holding Buddhistic tenets which imply little food +and a distrust of all action; he has become a wraith of his +former self but he still retains his kindly smile. + +In the discussion of these themes, Hull-House was of course quite +as much under the suspicion of one side as the other. I remember +one night when I addressed a club of secularists, which met at the +corner of South Halsted and Madison streets, a rough-looking man +called out: "You are all right now, but, mark my words, when you +are subsidized by the millionaires, you will be afraid to talk like +this." The defense of free speech was a sensitive point with me, +and I quickly replied that while I did not intend to be subsidized +by millionaires, neither did I propose to be bullied by workingmen, +and that I should state my honest opinion without consulting either +of them. To my surprise, the audience of radicals broke into +applause, and the discussion turned upon the need of resisting +tyranny wherever found, if democratic institutions were to endure. +This desire to bear independent witness to social righteousness +often resulted in a sense of compromise difficult to endure, and at +many times it seemed to me that we were destined to alienate +everybody. I should have been most grateful at that time to accept +the tenets of socialism, and I conscientiously made my effort, both +by reading and by many discussions with the comrades. I found that +I could easily give an affirmative answer to the heated question +"Don't you see that just as the hand mill created a society with a +feudal lord, so the steam mill creates a society with an industrial +capitalist?" But it was a little harder to give an affirmative +reply to the proposition that the social relation thus established +proceeds to create principles, ideas and categories as merely +historical and transitory products. + +Of course I use the term "socialism" technically and do not wish +to confuse it with the growing sensitiveness which recognizes +that no personal comfort, nor individual development can +compensate a man for the misery of his neighbors, nor with the +increasing conviction that social arrangements can be transformed +through man's conscious and deliberate effort. Such a definition +would not have been accepted for a moment by the Russians, who +then dominated the socialist party in Chicago and among whom a +crude interpretation of the class conflict was the test of faith. + +During those first years on Halsted Street nothing was more +painfully clear than the fact that pliable human nature is +relentlessly pressed upon by its physical environment. I saw +nowhere a more devoted effort to understand and relieve that +heavy pressure than the socialists were making, and I should have +been glad to have had the comradeship of that gallant company had +they not firmly insisted that fellowship depends upon identity of +creed. They repudiated similarity of aim and social sympathy as +tests which were much too loose and wavering as they did that +vague socialism which for thousands has come to be a philosophy +or rather religion embodying the hope of the world and the +protection of all who suffer. + +I also longed for the comfort of a definite social creed, which +should afford at one and the same time an explanation of the +social chaos and the logical steps towards its better ordering. I +came to have an exaggerated sense of responsibility for the +poverty in the midst of which I was living and which the +socialists constantly forced me to defend. My plight was not +unlike that which might have resulted in my old days of +skepticism regarding foreordination, had I then been compelled to +defend the confusion arising from the clashing of free wills as +an alternative to an acceptance of the doctrine. Another +difficulty in the way of accepting this economic determinism, so +baldly dependent upon the theory of class consciousness, +constantly arose when I lectured in country towns and there had +opportunities to read human documents of prosperous people as +well as those of my neighbors who were crowded into the city. The +former were stoutly unconscious of any classes in America, and +the class consciousness of the immigrants was fast being broken +into by the necessity for making new and unprecedented +connections in the industrial life all about them. + +In the meantime, although many men of many minds met constantly +at our conferences, it was amazing to find the incorrigible good +nature which prevailed. Radicals are accustomed to hot +discussion and sharp differences of opinion and take it all in +the day's work. I recall that the secretary of the Hull-House +Social Science Club at the anniversary of the seventh year of its +existence read a report in which he stated that, so far as he +could remember, but twice during that time had a speaker lost his +temper, and in each case it had been a college professor who +"wasn't accustomed to being talked back to." + +He also added that but once had all the club members united in +applauding the same speaker; only Samuel Jones, who afterwards +became the "golden rule" mayor of Toledo, had been able to +overcome all their dogmatic differences, when he had set forth a +plan of endowing a group of workingmen with a factory plant and a +working capital for experimentation in hours and wages, quite as +groups of scholars are endowed for research. + +Chicago continued to devote much time to economic discussion and +remained in a state of youthful glamour throughout the nineties. +I recall a young Methodist minister who, in order to free his +denomination from any entanglement in his discussion of the +economic and social situation, moved from his church building +into a neighboring hall. The congregation and many other people +followed him there, and he later took to the street corners +because he found that the shabbiest men liked that best. +Professor Herron filled to overflowing a downtown hall every noon +with a series of talks entitled "Between Caesar and Jesus"--an +attempt to apply the teachings of the Gospel to the situations of +modern commerce. A half dozen publications edited with some +ability and much moral enthusiasm have passed away, perhaps +because they represented pamphleteering rather than journalism +and came to a natural end when the situation changed. Certainly +their editors suffered criticism and poverty on behalf of the +causes which they represented. + +Trades-unionists, unless they were also socialists, were not +prominent in those economic discussions, although they were +steadily making an effort to bring order into the unnecessary +industrial confusion. They belonged to the second of the two +classes into which Mill divides all those who are dissatisfied +with human life as it is, and whose feelings are wholly identified +with its radical amendment. He states that the thoughts of one +class are in the region of ultimate aims, of "the highest ideals +of human life," while the thoughts of the other are in the region +of the "immediately useful, and practically attainable." + +The meetings of our Social Science Club were carried on by men of +the former class, many of them with a strong religious bias who +constantly challenged the Church to assuage the human spirit thus +torn and bruised "in the tumult of a time disconsolate." These +men were so serious in their demand for religious fellowship, and +several young clergymen were so ready to respond to the appeal, +that various meetings were arranged at Hull-House, in which a +group of people met together to consider the social question, not +in a spirit of discussion, but in prayer and meditation. These +clergymen were making heroic efforts to induce their churches to +formally consider the labor situation, and during the years which +have elapsed since then, many denominations of the Christian +Church have organized labor committees; but at that time there +was nothing of the sort beyond the society in the established +Church of England "to consider the conditions of labor." + +During that decade even the most devoted of that pioneer church +society failed to formulate the fervid desire for juster social +conditions into anything more convincing than a literary statement, +and the Christian Socialists, at least when the American branch +held its annual meeting at Hull-House, afforded but a striking +portrayal of that "between-age mood" in which so many of our +religious contemporaries are forced to live. I remember that I +received the same impression when I attended a meeting called by +the canon of an English cathedral to discuss the relation of the +Church to labor. The men quickly indicted the cathedral for its +uselessness, and the canon asked them what in their minds should be +its future. The men promptly replied that any new social order +would wish, of course, to preserve beautiful historic buildings, +that although they would dismiss the bishop and all the clergy, +they would want to retain one or two scholars as custodians and +interpreters. "And what next?" the imperturbable ecclesiastic +asked. "We would democratize it," replied the men. But when it +came to a more detailed description of such an undertaking, the +discussion broke down into a dozen bits, although illuminated by +much shrewd wisdom and affording a clue, perhaps as to the +destruction of the bishop's palace by the citizens of this same +town, who had attacked it as a symbol of swollen prosperity during +the bread riots of the earlier part of the century. + +On the other hand the workingmen who continue to demand help from +the Church thereby acknowledge their kinship, as does the son who +continues to ask bread from the father who gives him a stone. I +recall an incident connected with a prolonged strike in Chicago +on the part of the typographical unions for an eight-hour day. +The strike had been conducted in a most orderly manner and the +union men, convinced of the justice of their cause, had felt +aggrieved because one of the religious publishing houses in +Chicago had constantly opposed them. Some of the younger +clergymen of the denominations who were friendly to the strikers' +cause came to a luncheon at Hull-House, where the situation was +discussed by the representatives of all sides. The clergymen, +becoming much interested in the idealism with which an officer of +the State Federation of Labor presented the cause, drew from him +the story of his search for fraternal relation: he said that at +fourteen years of age he had joined a church, hoping to find it +there; he had later become a member of many fraternal +organizations and mutual benefit societies, and, although much +impressed by their rituals, he was disappointed in the actual +fraternity. He had finally found, so it seemed to him, in the +cause of organized labor, what these other organizations had +failed to give him--an opportunity for sacrificial effort. + +Chicago thus took a decade to discuss the problems inherent in +the present industrial organization and to consider what might be +done, not so much against deliberate aggression as against brutal +confusion and neglect; quite as the youth of promise passed +through a mist of rose-colored hope before he settles in the land +of achievement where he becomes all too dull and literal minded. +And yet as I hastily review the decade in Chicago which followed +this one given over to discussion, the actual attainment of these +early hopes, so far as they have been realized at all, seem to +have come from men of affairs rather than from those given to +speculation. Was the whole decade of discussion an illustration +of that striking fact which has been likened to the changing of +swords in Hamlet; that the abstract minds at length yield to the +inevitable or at least grow less ardent in their propaganda, +while the concrete minds, dealing constantly with daily affairs, +in the end demonstrate the reality of abstract notions? + +I remember when Frederick Harrison visited Hull-House that I was +much disappointed to find that the Positivists had not made their +ardor for humanity a more potent factor in the English social +movement, as I was surprised during a visit from John Morley to +find that he, representing perhaps the type of man whom political +life seemed to have pulled away from the ideals of his youth, had +yet been such a champion of democracy in the full tide of +reaction. My observations were much too superficial to be of +value and certainly both men were well grounded in philosophy and +theory of social reform and had long before carefully formulated +their principles, as the new English Labor Party, which is +destined to break up the reactionary period, is now being created +by another set of theorists. There were certainly moments during +the heated discussions of this decade when nothing seemed so +important as right theory: this was borne in upon me one brilliant +evening at Hull-House when Benjamin Kidd, author of the much-read +"Social Evolution," was pitted against Victor Berger of Milwaukee, +even then considered a rising man in the Socialist Party. + +At any rate the residents of Hull-House discovered that while +their first impact with city poverty allied them to groups given +over to discussion of social theories , their sober efforts to +heal neighborhood ills allied them to general public movements +which were without challenging creeds. But while we discovered +that we most easily secured the smallest of much-needed +improvements by attaching our efforts to those of organized +bodies, nevertheless these very organizations would have been +impossible, had not the public conscience been aroused and the +community sensibility quickened by these same ardent theorists. + +As I review these very first impressions of the workers in +unskilled industries, living in a depressed quarter of the city, +I realize how easy it was for us to see exceptional cases of +hardship as typical of the average lot, and yet, in spite of +alleviating philanthropy and labor legislation, the indictment of +Tolstoy applied to Moscow thirty years ago still fits every +American city: "Wherever we may live, if we draw a circle around +us of a hundred thousand, or a thousand, or even of ten miles +circumference, and look at the lives of those men and women who +are inside our circle, we shall find half-starved children, old +people, pregnant women, sick and weak persons, working beyond +their strength, who have neither food nor rest enough to support +them, and who, for this reason, die before their time; we shall +see others, full grown, who are injured and needlessly killed by +dangerous and hurtful tasks." + +As the American city is awakening to self-consciousness, it +slowly perceives the civic significance of these industrial +conditions, and perhaps Chicago has been foremost in the effort +to connect the unregulated overgrowth of the huge centers of +population, with the astonishingly rapid development of +industrial enterprises; quite as Chicago was foremost to carry on +the preliminary discussion through which a basis was laid for +likemindedness and the coordination of diverse wills. I remember +an astute English visitor, who had been a guest in a score of +American cities, observed that it was hard to understand the +local pride he constantly encountered; for in spite of the +boasting on the part of leading citizens in the western, eastern, +and southern towns, all American cities seemed to him essentially +alike and all equally the results of an industry totally +unregulated by well-considered legislation. + +I am inclined to think that perhaps all this general discussion +was inevitable in connection with the early Settlements, as they +in turn were the inevitable result of theories of social reform, +which in their full enthusiasm reached America by way of England, +only in the last decade of the century. There must have been +tough fiber somewhere; for, although the residents of Hull-House +were often baffled by the radicalism within the Social Science +Club and harassed by the criticism from outside, we still +continued to believe that such discussion should be carried on, +for if the Settlement seeks its expression through social +activity, it must learn the difference between mere social unrest +and spiritual impulse. + +The group of Hull-House residents, which by the end of the decade +comprised twenty-five, differed widely in social beliefs, from the +girl direct from the country who looked upon all social unrest as +mere anarchy, to the resident, who had become a socialist when a +student in Zurich, and who had long before translated from the +German Engel's "Conditions of the Working Class in England," +although at this time she had been read out of the Socialist Party +because the Russian and German Impossibilists suspected her fluent +English, as she always lightly explained. Although thus diversified +in social beliefs, the residents became solidly united through our +mutual experience in an industrial quarter, and we became not only +convinced of the need for social control and protective legislation +but also of the value of this preliminary argument. + +This decade of discussion between 1890 and 1900 already seems +remote from the spirit of Chicago of to-day. So far as I have been +able to reproduce this earlier period, it must reflect the +essential provisionality of everything; "the perpetual moving on to +something future which shall supersede the present," that paramount +impression of life itself, which affords us at one and the same +time, ground for despair and for endless and varied anticipation. + + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Diana Camden. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration ofWomen Writers] + +"Chapter X: Pioneer Labor Legislation in Illinois by Jane Addams +(1860-1935) + +From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes. by +Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. +198-230. + +[Editor: Mary MarkOckerbloom] + + + + +CHAPTER X + +PIONEER LABOR LEGISLATION IN ILLINOIS + + +Our very first Christmas at Hull-House, when we as yet knew +nothing of child labor, a number of little girls refused the +candy which was offered them as part of the Christmas good cheer, +saying simply that they "worked in a candy factory and could not +bear the sight of it." We discovered that for six weeks they had +worked from seven in the morning until nine at night, and they +were exhausted as well as satiated. The sharp consciousness of +stern economic conditions was thus thrust upon us in the midst of +the season of good will. + +During the same winter three boys from a Hull-House club were +injured at one machine in a neighboring factory for lack of a +guard which would have cost but a few dollars. When the injury of +one of these boys resulted in his death, we felt quite sure that +the owners of the factory would share our horror and remorse, and +that they would do everything possible to prevent the recurrence +of such a tragedy. To our surprise they did nothing whatever, and +I made my first acquaintance then with those pathetic documents +signed by the parents of working children, that they will make no +claim for damages resulting from "carelessness." + +The visits we made in the neighborhood constantly discovered +women sewing upon sweatshop work, and often they were assisted by +incredibly small children. I remember a little girl of four who +pulled out basting threads hour after hour, sitting on a stool at +the feet of her Bohemian mother, a little bunch of human misery. +But even for that there was no legal redress, for the only +child-labor law in Illinois, with any provision for enforcement, +had been secured by the coal miners' unions, and was confined to +children employed in mines. + +We learned to know many families in which the working children +contributed to the support of their parents, not only because +they spoke English better than the older immigrants and were +willing to take lower wages, but because their parents gradually +found it easy to live upon their earnings. A South Italian +peasant who has picked olives and packed oranges from his +toddling babyhood cannot see at once the difference between the +outdoor healthy work which he had performed in the varying +seasons, and the long hours of monotonous factory life which his +child encounters when he goes to work in Chicago. An Italian +father came to us in great grief over the death of his eldest +child, a little girl of twelve, who had brought the largest wages +into the family fund. In the midst of his genuine sorrow he +said: "She was the oldest kid I had. Now I shall have to go back +to work again until the next one is able to take care of me." The +man was only thirty-three and had hoped to retire from work at +least during the winters. No foreman cared to have him in a +factory, untrained and unintelligent as he was. It was much +easier for his bright, English-speaking little girl to get a +chance to paste labels on a box than for him to secure an +opportunity to carry pig iron. The effect on the child was what +no one concerned thought about, in the abnormal effort she made +thus prematurely to bear the weight of life. Another little girl +of thirteen, a Russian-Jewish child employed in a laundry at a +heavy task beyond her strength, committed suicide, because she +had borrowed three dollars from a companion which she could not +repay unless she confided the story to her parents and gave up an +entire week's wages--but what could the family live upon that +week in case she did! Her child mind, of course, had no sense of +proportion, and carbolic acid appeared inevitable. + +While we found many pathetic cases of child labor and hard-driven +victims of the sweating system who could not possibly earn enough +in the short busy season to support themselves during the rest of +the year, it became evident that we must add carefully collected +information to our general impression of neighborhood conditions +if we would make it of any genuine value. + +There was at that time no statistical information on Chicago +industrial conditions, and Mrs. Florence Kelley, an early +resident of Hull-House, suggested to the Illinois State Bureau of +Labor that they investigate the sweating system in Chicago with +its attendant child labor. The head of the Bureau adopted this +suggestion and engaged Mrs. Kelley to make the investigation. +When the report was presented to the Illinois Legislature, a +special committee was appointed to look into the Chicago +conditions. I well recall that on the Sunday the members of this +commission came to dine at Hull-House, our hopes ran high, and we +believed that at last some of the worst ills under which our +neighbors were suffering would be brought to an end. + +As a result of its investigations, this committee recommended to +the Legislature the provisions which afterward became those of the +first factory law of Illinois, regulating the sanitary conditions +of the sweatshop and fixing fourteen as the age at which a child +might be employed. Before the passage of the law could be +secured, it was necessary to appeal to all elements of the +community, and a little group of us addressed the open meetings of +trades-unions and of benefit societies, church organizations, and +social clubs literally every evening for three months. Of course +the most energetic help as well as intelligent understanding came +from the trades-unions. The central labor body of Chicago, then +called the Trades and Labor Assembly, had previously appointed a +committee of investigation to inquire into the sweating system. +This committee consisted of five delegates from the unions and +five outside their membership. Two of the latter were residents of +Hull-House, and continued with the unions in their well-conducted +campaign until the passage of Illinois's first Factory Legislation +was secured, a statute which has gradually been built upon by many +public-spirited citizens until Illinois stands well among the +States, at least in the matter of protecting her children. The +Hull-House residents that winter had their first experience in +lobbying. I remember that I very much disliked the word and still +more the prospect of the lobbying itself, and we insisted that +well-known Chicago women should accompany this first little group +of Settlement folk who with trades-unionists moved upon the state +capitol in behalf of factory legislation. The national or, to use +its formal name, The General Federation of Woman's Clubs had been +organized in Chicago only the year before this legislation was +secured. The Federation was then timid in regard to all +legislation because it was anxious not to frighten its new +membership, although its second president, Mrs. Henrotin, was most +untiring in her efforts to secure this law. + +It was, perhaps, a premature effort, though certainly founded +upon a genuine need, to urge that a clause limiting the hours of +all women working in factories or workshops to eight a day, or +forty-eight a week, should be inserted in the first factory +legislation of the State. Although we had lived at Hull-House +but three years when we urged this legislation, we had known a +large number of young girls who were constantly exhausted by +night work; for whatever may be said in defense of night work for +men, few women are able to endure it. A man who works by night +sleeps regularly by day, but a woman finds it impossible to put +aside the household duties which crowd upon her, and a +conscientious girl finds it hard to sleep with her mother washing +and scrubbing within a few feet of her bed. One of the most +painful impressions of those first years is that of pale, +listless girls, who worked regularly in a factory of the vicinity +which was then running full night time. These girls also +encountered a special danger in the early morning hours as they +returned from work, debilitated and exhausted, and only too +easily convinced that a drink and a little dancing at the end of +the balls in the saloon dance halls, was what they needed to +brace them. One of the girls whom we then knew, whose name, +Chloe, seemed to fit her delicate charm, craving a drink to +dispel her lassitude before her tired feet should take the long +walk home, had thus been decoyed into a saloon, where the soft +drink was followed by an alcoholic one containing "knockout +drops," and she awoke in a disreputable rooming house--too +frightened and disgraced to return to her mother. + +Thus confronted by that old conundrum of the interdependence of +matter and spirit, the conviction was forced upon us that long and +exhausting hours of work are almost sure to be followed by lurid +and exciting pleasures; that the power to overcome temptation +reaches its limit almost automatically with that of physical +resistance. The eight-hour clause in this first factory law met +with much less opposition in the Legislature than was anticipated, +and was enforced for a year before it was pronounced +unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Illinois. During the +halcyon months when it was a law, a large and enthusiastic +Eight-Hour Club of working women met at Hull-House, to read the +literature on the subject and in every way to prepare themselves +to make public sentiment in favor of the measure which meant so +much to them. The adverse decision in the test case, the progress +of which they had most intelligently followed, was a matter of +great disappointment. The entire experience left on my mind a +mistrust of all legislation which was not preceded by full +discussion and understanding. A premature measure may be carried +through a legislature by perfectly legitimate means and still fail +to possess vitality and a sense of maturity. On the other hand, +the administration of an advanced law acts somewhat as a +referendum. The people have an opportunity for two years to see +the effects of its operation. If they choose to reopen the matter +at the next General Assembly, it can be discussed with experience +and conviction; the very operation of the law has performed the +function of the "referendum" in a limited use of the term. + +Founded upon some such compunction, the sense that the passage of +the child labor law would in many cases work hardship, was never +absent from my mind during the earliest years of its operation. I +addressed as many mothers' meetings and clubs among working women +as I could, in order to make clear the object of the law and the +ultimate benefit to themselves as well as to their children. I +am happy to remember that I never met with lack of understanding +among the hard-working widows, in whose behalf many prosperous +people were so eloquent. These widowed mothers would say, "Why, +of course, that is what I am working for--to give the children a +chance. I want them to have more education than I had"; or +another, "That is why we came to America, and I don't want to +spoil his start, even although his father is dead"; or "It's +different in America. A boy gets left if he isn't educated." +There was always a willingness, even among the poorest women, to +keep on with the hard night scrubbing or the long days of washing +for the children's sake. + +The bitterest opposition to the law came from the large glass +companies, who were so accustomed to use the labor of children +that they were convinced the manufacturing of glass could not be +carried on without it. + +Fifteen years ago the State of Illinois, as well as Chicago, +exhibited many characteristics of the pioneer country in which +untrammeled energy and an "early start" were still the most +highly prized generators of success. Although this first labor +legislation was but bringing Illinois into line with the nations +in the modern industrial world, which "have long been obliged for +their own sakes to come to the aid of the workers by which they +live--that the child, the young person and the woman may be +protected from their own weakness and necessity?" nevertheless +from the first it ran counter to the instinct and tradition, +almost to the very religion of the manufacturers of the state, +who were for the most part self-made men. + +This first attempt in Illinois for adequate factory legislation +also was associated in the minds of businessmen with radicalism, +because the law was secured during the term of Governor Altgeld +and was first enforced during his administration. While nothing +in its genesis or spirit could be further from "anarchy" than +factory legislation, and while the first law in Illinois was still +far behind Massachusetts and New York, the fact that Governor +Altgeld pardoned from the state's prison the anarchists who had +been sentenced there after the Haymarket riot, gave the opponents +of this most reasonable legislation a quickly utilized opportunity +to couple it with that detested word; the State document which +accompanied Governor Altgeld's pardon gave these ungenerous +critics a further opportunity, because a magnanimous action was +marred by personal rancor, betraying for the moment the infirmity +of a noble mind. For all of these reasons this first modification +of the undisturbed control of the aggressive captains of industry +could not be enforced without resistance marked by dramatic +episodes and revolts. The inception of the law had already become +associated with Hull-House, and when its ministration was also +centered there, we inevitably received all the odium which these +first efforts entailed. Mrs. Kelley was appointed the first +factory inspector with a deputy and a force of twelve inspectors +to enforce the law. Both Mrs. Kelley and her assistant, Mrs. +Stevens, lived at Hull-House; the office was on Polk Street +directly opposite, and one of the most vigorous deputies was the +president of the Jane Club. In addition, one of the early men +residents, since dean of a state law school, acted as prosecutor +in the cases brought against the violators of the law. + +Chicago had for years been notoriously lax in the administration +of law, and the enforcement of an unpopular measure was resented +equally by the president of a large manufacturing concern and by +the former victim of a sweatshop who had started a place of his +own. Whatever the sentiments toward the new law on the part of +the employers, there was no doubt of its enthusiastic reception +by the trades-unions, as the securing of the law had already come +from them, and through the years which have elapsed since, the +experience of the Hull-House residents would coincide with that +of an English statesman who said that "a common rule for the +standard of life and the condition of labor may be secured by +legislation, but it must be maintained by trades unionism." + +This special value of the trades-unions first became clear to the +residents of Hull-House in connection with the sweating system. +We early found that the women in the sewing trades were sorely in +need of help. The trade was thoroughly disorganized, Russian and +Polish tailors competing against English-speaking tailors, +unskilled Bohemian and Italian women competing against both. +These women seem to have been best helped through the use of the +label when unions of specialized workers in the trade are strong +enough to insist that the manufacturers shall "give out work" +only to those holding union cards. It was certainly impressive +when the garment makers themselves in this way finally succeeded +in organizing six hundred of the Italian women in our immediate +vicinity, who had finished garments at home for the most wretched +and precarious wages. To be sure, the most ignorant women only +knew that "you couldn't get clothes to sew" from the places where +they paid the best, unless "you had a card," but through the +veins of most of them there pulsed the quickened blood of a new +fellowship, a sense of comfort and aid which had been laid out to +them by their fellow-workers. + +During the fourth year of our residence at Hull-House we found +ourselves in a large mass meeting ardently advocating the passage +of a Federal measure called the Sulzer Bill. Even in our short +struggle with the evils of the sweating system it did not seem +strange that the center of the effort had shifted to Washington, +for by that time we had realized that the sanitary regulation of +sweatshops by city officials, and a careful enforcement of factory +legislation by state factory inspectors will not avail, unless +each city and State shall be able to pass and enforce a code of +comparatively uniform legislation. Although the Sulzer Act failed +to utilize the Interstate Commerce legislation for its purpose, +many of the national representatives realized for the first time +that only by federal legislation could their constituents in +remote country places be protected from contagious diseases raging +in New York or Chicago, for many country doctors testify as to the +outbreak of scarlet fever in rural neighborhoods after the +children have begun to wear the winter overcoats and cloaks which +have been sent from infected city sweatshops. + +Through our efforts to modify the sweating system, the Hull-House +residents gradually became committed to the fortunes of the +Consumers' League, an organization which for years has been +approaching the question of the underpaid sewing woman from the +point of view of the ultimate responsibility lodged in the +consumer. It becomes more reasonable to make the presentation of +the sweatshop situation through this League, as it is more +effectual to work with them for the extension of legal provisions +in the slow upbuilding of that code of legislation which is alone +sufficient to protect the home from the dangers incident to the +sweating system. + +The Consumers' League seems to afford the best method of approach +for the protection of girls in department stores; I recall a +group of girls from a neighboring "emporium" who applied to +Hull-House for dancing parties on alternate Sunday afternoons. +In reply to our protest they told us they not only worked late +every evening, in spite of the fact that each was supposed to +have "two nights a week off," and every Sunday morning, but that +on alternate Sunday afternoons they were required "to sort the +stock." Over and over again, meetings called by the Clerks Union +and others have been held at Hull-House protesting against these +incredibly long hours. Little modification has come about, +however, during our twenty years of residence, although one large +store in the Bohemian quarter closes all day on Sunday and many +of the others for three nights a week. In spite of the Sunday +work, these girls prefer the outlying department stores to those +downtown; there is more social intercourse with the customers, +more kindliness and social equality between the saleswomen and +the managers, and above all the girls have the protection +naturally afforded by friends and neighbors and they are free +from that suspicion which so often haunts the girls downtown, +that their fellow workers may not be "nice girls." + +In the first years of Hull-House we came across no trades-unions +among the women workers, and I think, perhaps, that only one +union, composed solely of women, was to be found in Chicago +then--that of the bookbinders. I easily recall the evening when +the president of this pioneer organization accepted an invitation +to take dinner at Hull-House. She came in rather a recalcitrant +mood, expecting to be patronized, and so suspicious of our +motives that it was only after she had been persuaded to become a +guest of the house for several weeks in order to find out about +us for herself, that she was convinced of our sincerity and of +the ability of "outsiders" to be of any service to working women. + She afterward became closely identified with Hull-House, and her +hearty cooperation was assured until she moved to Boston and +became a general organizer for the American Federation of Labor. + +The women shirt makers and the women cloak makers were both +organized at Hull-House as was also the Dorcas Federal Labor +Union, which had been founded through the efforts of a working +woman, then one of the residents. The latter union met once a +month in our drawing room. It was composed of representatives +from all the unions in the city which included women in their +membership and also received other women in sympathy with +unionism. It was accorded representation in the central labor +body of the city, and later it joined its efforts with those of +others to found the Woman's Union Label League. In what we +considered a praiseworthy effort to unite it with other +organizations, the president of a leading Woman's Club applied +for membership. We were so sure of her election that she stood +just outside of the drawing-room door, or, in trades-union +language, "the wicket gate," while her name was voted upon. To +our chagrin, she did not receive enough votes to secure her +admission, not because the working girls, as they were careful to +state, did not admire her, but because she "seemed to belong to +the other side." Fortunately, the big-minded woman so thoroughly +understood the vote and her interest in working women was so +genuine that it was less than a decade afterward when she was +elected to the presidency of the National Woman's Trades Union +League. The incident and the sequel registers, perhaps, the +change in Chicago toward the labor movement, the recognition of +the fact that it is a general social movement concerning all +members of society and not merely a class struggle. + +Some such public estimate of the labor movement was brought home +to Chicago during several conspicuous strikes; at least labor +legislation has twice been inaugurated because its need was thus +made clear. After the Pullman strike various elements in the +community were unexpectedly brought together that they might +soberly consider and rectify the weakness in the legal structure +which the strike had revealed. These citizens arranged for a +large and representative convention to be held in Chicago on +Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration. I served as secretary +of the committee from the new Civic Federation having the matter +in charge, and our hopes ran high when, as a result of the +agitation, the Illinois legislature passed a law creating a State +Board of Conciliation and Arbitration. But even a state board +cannot accomplish more than public sentiment authorizes and +sustains, and we might easily have been discouraged in those +early days could we have foreseen some of the industrial +disturbances which have since disgraced Chicago. This law +embodied the best provisions of the then existing laws for the +arbitration of industrial disputes. At the time the word +arbitration was still a word to conjure with, and many Chicago +citizens were convinced, not only of the danger and futility +involved in the open warfare of opposing social forces, but +further believed that the search for justice and righteousness in +industrial relations was made infinitely more difficult thereby. + +The Pullman strike afforded much illumination to many Chicago +people. Before it, there had been nothing in my experience to +reveal that distinct cleavage of society, which a general strike +at least momentarily affords. Certainly, during all those dark +days of the Pullman strike, the growth of class bitterness was +most obvious. The fact that the Settlement maintained avenues of +intercourse with both sides seemed to give it opportunity for +nothing but a realization of the bitterness and division along +class lines. I had known Mr. Pullman and had seen his genuine +pride and pleasure in the model town he had built with so much +care; and I had an opportunity to talk to many of the Pullman +employees during the strike when I was sent from a so-called +"Citizens' Arbitration Committee" to their first meetings held in +a hall in the neighboring village of Kensington, and when I was +invited to the modest supper tables laid in the model houses. +The employees then expected a speedy settlement and no one +doubted but that all the grievances connected with the "straw +bosses" would be quickly remedied and that the benevolence which +had built the model town would not fail them. They were sure +that the "straw bosses" had misrepresented the state of affairs, +for this very first awakening to class consciousness bore many +traces of the servility on one side and the arrogance on the +other which had so long prevailed in the model town. The entire +strike demonstrated how often the outcome of far-reaching +industrial disturbances is dependent upon the personal will of +the employer or the temperament of a strike leader. Those +familiar with strikes know only too well how much they are +influenced by poignant domestic situations, by the troubled +consciences of the minority directors, by the suffering women and +children, by the keen excitement of the struggle, by the +religious scruples sternly suppressed but occasionally asserting +themselves, now on one side and now on the other, and by that +undefined psychology of the crowd which we understand so little. +All of these factors also influence the public and do much to +determine popular sympathy and judgment. In the early days of +the Pullman strike, as I was coming down in the elevator of the +Auditorium hotel from one of the futile meetings of the +Arbitration Committee, I met an acquaintance, who angrily said +"that the strikers ought all to be shot." As I had heard nothing +so bloodthirsty as this either from the most enraged capitalist +or from the most desperate of the men, and was interested to find +the cause of such a senseless outbreak, I finally discovered that +the first ten thousand dollars which my acquaintance had ever +saved, requiring, he said, years of effort from the time he was +twelve years old until he was thirty, had been lost as the result +of a strike; he clinched his argument that he knew what he was +talking about, with the statement that "no one need expect him to +have any sympathy with strikers or with their affairs." + +A very intimate and personal experience revealed, at least to +myself, my constant dread of the spreading ill will. At the +height of the sympathetic strike my oldest sister, who was +convalescing from a long illness in a hospital near Chicago, +became suddenly very much worse. While I was able to reach her +at once, every possible obstacle of a delayed and blocked +transportation system interrupted the journey of her husband and +children who were hurrying to her bedside from a distant state. +As the end drew nearer and I was obliged to reply to my sister's +constant inquiries that her family had not yet come, I was filled +with a profound apprehension lest her last hours should be +touched with resentment toward those responsible for the delay; +lest her unutterable longing should at the very end be tinged +with bitterness. She must have divined what was in my mind, for +at last she said each time after the repetition of my sad news: +"I don't blame any one, I am not judging them." My heart was +comforted and heavy at the same time; but how many more such +moments of sorrow and death were being made difficult and lonely +throughout the land, and how much would these experiences add to +the lasting bitterness, that touch of self-righteousness which +makes the spirit of forgiveness well-nigh impossible. + +When I returned to Chicago from the quiet country I saw the +Federal troops encamped about the post office; almost everyone on +Halsted Street wearing a white ribbon, the emblem of the +strikers' side; the residents at Hull-House divided in opinion as +to the righteousness of this or that measure; and no one able to +secure any real information as to which side was burning the +cars. After the Pullman strike I made an attempt to analyze in a +paper which I called The Modern King Lear the inevitable revolt +of human nature against the plans Mr. Pullman had made for his +employees, the miscarriage of which appeared to him such black +ingratitude. It seemed to me unendurable not to make some effort +to gather together the social implications of the failure of this +benevolent employer and its relation to the demand for a more +democratic administration of industry. Doubtless the paper +represented a certain "excess of participation," to use a gentle +phrase of Charles Lamb's in preference to a more emphatic one +used by Mr. Pullman himself. The last picture of the Pullman +strike which I distinctly recall was three years later when one +of the strike leaders came to see me. Although out of work for +most of the time since the strike, he had been undisturbed for +six months in the repair shops of a street-car company, under an +assumed name, but he had at that moment been discovered and +dismissed. He was a superior type of English workingman, but as +he stood there, broken and discouraged, believing himself so +black-listed that his skill could never be used again, filled +with sorrow over the loss of his wife who had recently died after +an illness with distressing mental symptoms, realizing keenly the +lack of the respectable way of living he had always until now +been able to maintain, he seemed to me an epitome of the wretched +human waste such a strike implies. I fervently hoped that the +new arbitration law would prohibit in Chicago forever more such +brutal and ineffective methods of settling industrial disputes. +And yet even as early as 1896, we found the greatest difficulty +in applying the arbitration law to the garment workers' strike, +although it was finally accomplished after various mass meetings +had urged it. The cruelty and waste of the strike as an +implement for securing the most reasonable demands came to me at +another time, during the long strike of the clothing cutters. +They had protested, not only against various wrongs of their own, +but against the fact that the tailors employed by the custom +merchants were obliged to furnish their own workshops and thus +bore a burden of rent which belonged to the employer. One of the +leaders in this strike, whom I had known for several years as a +sober, industrious, and unusually intelligent man, I saw +gradually break down during the many trying weeks and at last +suffer a complete moral collapse. + +He was a man of sensitive organization under the necessity, as is +every leader during a strike, to address the same body of men day +after day with an appeal sufficiently emotional to respond to +their sense of injury; to receive callers at any hour of the day +or night; to sympathize with all the distress of the strikers who +see their families daily suffering; he must do it all with the +sickening sense of the increasing privation in his own home, and +in this case with the consciousness that failure was approaching +nearer each day. This man, accustomed to the monotony of his +workbench and suddenly thrown into a new situation, showed every +sign of nervous fatigue before the final collapse came. He +disappeared after the strike and I did not see him for ten years, +but when he returned he immediately began talking about the old +grievances which he had repeated so often that he could talk of +nothing else. It was easy to recognize the same nervous symptoms +which the broken-down lecturer exhibits who has depended upon the +exploitation of his own experiences to keep himself going. One +of his stories was indeed pathetic. His employer, during the +busy season, had met him one Sunday afternoon in Lincoln Park +whither he had taken his three youngest children, one of whom had +been ill. The employer scolded him for thus wasting his time and +roughly asked why he had not taken home enough work to keep +himself busy through the day. The story was quite credible +because the residents of Hull-House have had many opportunities +to see the worker driven ruthlessly during the season and left in +idleness for long weeks afterward. We have slowly come to +realize that periodical idleness as well as the payment of wages +insufficient for maintenance of the manual worker in full +industrial and domestic efficiency, stand economically on the +same footing with the "sweated" industries, the overwork of +women, and employment of children. + +But of all the aspects of social misery nothing is so +heartbreaking as unemployment, and it was inevitable that we +should see much of it in a neighborhood where low rents attracted +the poorly paid worker and many newly arrived immigrants who were +first employed in gangs upon railroad extensions and similar +undertakings. The sturdy peasants eager for work were either the +victims of the padrone who fleeced them unmercifully, both in +securing a place to work and then in supplying them with food, or +they became the mere sport of unscrupulous employment agencies. +Hull-House made an investigation both of the padrone and of the +agencies in our immediate vicinity, and the outcome confirming +what we already suspected, we eagerly threw ourselves into a +movement to procure free employment bureaus under State control +until a law authorizing such bureaus and giving the officials +intrusted with their management power to regulate private +employment agencies, passed the Illinois Legislature in 1899. The +history of these bureaus demonstrates the tendency we all have to +consider a legal enactment in itself an achievement and to grow +careless in regard to its administration and actual results; for +an investigation into the situation ten years later discovered +that immigrants were still shamefully imposed upon. A group of +Bulgarians were found who had been sent to work in Arkansas where +their services were not needed; they walked back to Chicago only +to secure their next job in Oklahoma and to pay another railroad +fare as well as another commission to the agency. Not only was +there no method by which the men not needed in Arkansas could +know that there was work in Oklahoma unless they came back to +Chicago to find it out, but there was no certainty that they +might not be obliged to walk back from Oklahoma because the +Chicago agency had already sent out too many men. + +This investigation of the employment bureau resources of Chicago +was undertaken by the League for the Protection of Immigrants, +with whom it is possible for Hull-House to cooperate whenever an +investigation of the immigrant colonies in our immediate +neighborhood seems necessary, as was recently done in regard to +the Greek colonies of Chicago. The superintendent of this +League, Miss Grace Abbott, is a resident of Hull-House and all of +our later attempts to secure justice and opportunity for +immigrants are much more effective through the League, and when +we speak before a congressional committee in Washington +concerning the needs of Chicago immigrants, we represent the +League as well as our own neighbors. + +It is in connection with the first factory employment of newly +arrived immigrants and the innumerable difficulties attached to +their first adjustment that some of the most profound industrial +disturbances in Chicago have come about. Under any attempt at +classification these strikes belong more to the general social +movement than to the industrial conflict, for the strike is an +implement used most rashly by unorganized labor who, after they +are in difficulties, call upon the trades-unions for organization +and direction. They are similar to those strikes which are +inaugurated by the unions on behalf of unskilled labor. In +neither case do the hastily organized unions usually hold after +the excitement of the moment has subsided, and the most valuable +result of such strikes is the expanding consciousness of the +solidarity of the workers. This was certainly the result of the +Chicago stockyard strike in 1905, inaugurated on behalf of the +immigrant laborers and so conspicuously carried on without +violence that, although twenty-two thousand workers were idle +during the entire summer, there were fewer arrests in the +stockyards district than the average summer months afford. +However, the story of this strike should not be told from +Hull-House, but from the University of Chicago Settlement, where +Miss Mary McDowell performed such signal public service during +that trying summer. It would be interesting to trace how much of +the subsequent exposure of conditions and attempts at +governmental control of this huge industry had their genesis in +this first attempt of the unskilled workers to secure a higher +standard of living. Certainly the industrial conflict when +epitomized in a strike, centers public attention on conditions as +nothing else can do. A strike is one of the most exciting +episodes in modern life, and as it assumes the characteristics of +a game, the entire population of a city becomes divided into two +cheering sides. In such moments the fair-minded public, who +ought to be depended upon as a referee, practically disappears. +Anyone who tries to keep the attitude of nonpartisanship, which +is perhaps an impossible one, is quickly under suspicion by both +sides. At least that was the fate of a group of citizens +appointed by the mayor of Chicago to arbitrate during the stormy +teamsters' strike which occurred in 1905. We sat through a long +Sunday afternoon in the mayor's office in the City Hall, talking +first with the labor men and then with the group of capitalists. +The undertaking was the more futile in that we were all +practically the dupes of a new type of "industrial conspiracy" +successfully inaugurated in Chicago by a close compact between +the coal teamsters' union and the coal team owners' association, +who had formed a kind of monopoly hitherto new to a +monopoly-ridden public. + +The stormy teamsters' strike, ostensibly undertaken in defense of +the garment workers, but really arising from causes so obscure +and dishonorable that they have never yet been made public, was +the culmination of a type of trades-unions which had developed in +Chicago during the preceding decade in which corruption had +flourished almost as openly as it had previously done in the City +Hall. This corruption sometimes took the form of grafting after +the manner of Samuel Parks in New York; sometimes that of +political deals in the "delivery of the labor vote"; and +sometimes that of a combination between capital and labor hunting +together. At various times during these years the better type of +trades-unionists had made a firm stand against this corruption +and a determined effort to eradicate it from the labor movement, +not unlike the general reform effort of many American cities +against political corruption. This reform movement in the +Chicago Federation of Labor had its martyrs, and more than one +man nearly lost his life through the "slugging" methods employed +by the powerful corruptionists. And yet even in the midst of +these things were found touching examples of fidelity to the +earlier principles of brotherhood totally untouched by the +corruption. At one time the scrubwomen in the downtown office +buildings had a union of their own affiliated with the elevator +men and the janitors. Although the union was used merely as a +weapon in the fight of the coal teamsters against the use of +natural gas in downtown buildings, it did not prevent the women +from getting their first glimpse into the fellowship and the +sense of protection which is the great gift of trades-unionism to +the unskilled, unbefriended worker. I remember in a meeting held +at Hull-House one Sunday afternoon, that the president of a +"local" of scrubwomen stood up to relate her experience. She +told first of the long years in which the fear of losing her job +and the fluctuating pay were harder to bear than the hard work +itself, when she had regarded all the other women who scrubbed in +the same building merely as rivals and was most afraid of the +most miserable, because they offered to work for less and less as +they were pressed harder and harder by debt. Then she told of +the change that had come when the elevator men and even the +lordly janitors had talked to her about an organization and had +said that they must all stand together. She told how gradually +she came to feel sure of her job and of her regular pay, and she +was even starting to buy a house now that she could "calculate" +how much she "could have for sure." Neither she nor any of the +other members knew that the same combination which had organized +the scrubwomen into a union later destroyed it during a strike +inaugurated for their own purposes. + +That a Settlement is drawn into the labor issues of its city can +seem remote to its purpose only to those who fail to realize that +so far as the present industrial system thwarts our ethical +demands, not only for social righteousness but for social order, +a Settlement is committed to an effort to understand and, as far +as possible, to alleviate it. That in this effort it should be +drawn into fellowship with the local efforts of trades-unions is +most obvious. This identity of aim apparently commits the +Settlement in the public mind to all the faiths and works of +actual trades-unions. Fellowship has so long implied similarity +of creed that the fact that the Settlement often differs widely +from the policy pursued by trades-unionists and clearly expresses +that difference does not in the least change public opinion in +regard to its identification. This is especially true in periods +of industrial disturbance, although it is exactly at such moments +that the trades-unionists themselves are suspicious of all but +their "own kind." It is during the much longer periods between +strikes that the Settlement's fellowship with trades-unions is +most satisfactory in the agitation for labor legislation and +similar undertakings. The first officers of the Chicago Woman's +Trades Union League were residents of Settlements, although they +can claim little share in the later record the League made in +securing the passage of the Illinois Ten-Hour Law for Women and +in its many other fine undertakings. + +Nevertheless the reaction of strikes upon Chicago Settlements +affords an interesting study in social psychology. For whether +Hull-House is in any wise identified with the strike or not, +makes no difference. When "Labor" is in disgrace we are always +regarded as belonging to it and share the opprobrium. In the +public excitement following the Pullman strike Hull-House lost +many friends; later the teamsters' strike caused another such +defection, although my office in both cases had been solely that +of a duly appointed arbitrator. + +There is, however, a certain comfort in the assumption I have +often encountered that wherever one's judgment might place the +justice of a given situation, it is understood that one's +sympathy is not alienated by wrongdoing, and that through this +sympathy one is still subject to vicarious suffering. I recall +an incident during a turbulent Chicago strike which brought me +much comfort. On the morning of the day of a luncheon to which I +had accepted an invitation, the waitress, whom I did not know, +said to my prospective hostess that she was sure I could not +come. Upon being asked for her reason she replied that she had +seen in the morning paper that the strikers had killed a "scab" +and she was sure that I would feel quite too badly about such a +thing to be able to keep a social engagement. In spite of the +confused issues, she evidently realized my despair over the +violence in a strike quite as definitely as if she had been told +about it. Perhaps that sort of suffering and the attempt to +interpret opposing forces to each other will long remain a +function of the Settlement, unsatisfactory and difficult as the +role often becomes. + +There has gradually developed between the various Settlements of +Chicago a warm fellowship founded upon a like-mindedness +resulting from similar experiences, quite as identity of interest +and endeavor develop an enduring relation between the residents +of the same Settlement. This sense of comradeship is never +stronger than during the hardships and perplexities of a strike +of unskilled workers revolting against the conditions which drag +them even below the level of their European life. At such time +the residents in various Settlements are driven to a standard of +life argument running somewhat in this wise--that as the very +existence of the State depends upon the character of its +citizens, therefore if certain industrial conditions are forcing +the workers below the standard of decency, it becomes possible to +deduce the right of State regulation. Even as late as the +stockyard strike this line of argument was denounced as +"socialism" although it has since been confirmed as wise +statesmanship by a decision of the Supreme Court of the United +States which was apparently secured through the masterly argument +of the Brandeis brief in the Oregon ten-hour case. + +In such wise the residents of an industrial neighborhood +gradually comprehend the close connection of their own +difficulties with national and even international movements. The +residents in the Chicago Settlements became pioneer members in +the American branch of the International League for Labor +Legislation, because their neighborhood experiences had made them +only too conscious of the dire need for protective legislation. +In such a league, with its ardent members in every industrial +nation of Europe, with its encouraging reports of the abolition +of all night work for women in six European nations, with its +careful observations on the results of employer's liability +legislation and protection of machinery, one becomes identified +with a movement of world-wide significance and manifold +manifestation. + + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Terri Perkins. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration ofWomen Writers] + +"Chapter XI: Immigrants and Their Children. by Jane Addams +(1860-1935) From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with +Autobiographical Notes. by Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan +Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. 230-258. + +[Editor: Mary MarkOckerbloom] + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +IMMIGRANTS AND THEIR CHILDREN + + +From our very first months at Hull-House we found it much easier +to deal with the first generation of crowded city life than with +the second or third, because it is more natural and cast in a +simpler mold. The Italian and Bohemian peasants who live in +Chicago still put on their bright holiday clothes on a Sunday and +go to visit their cousins. They tramp along with at least a +suggestion of having once walked over plowed fields and breathed +country air. The second generation of city poor too often have +no holiday clothes and consider their relations a "bad lot." I +have heard a drunken man in a maudlin stage babble of his good +country mother and imagine he was driving the cows home, and I +knew that his little son who laughed loud at him would be drunk +earlier in life and would have no pastoral interlude to his +ravings. Hospitality still survives among foreigners, although it +is buried under false pride among the poorest Americans. One +thing seemed clear in regard to entertaining immigrants; to +preserve and keep whatever of value their past life contained and +to bring them in contact with a better type of Americans. For +several years, every Saturday evening the entire families of our +Italian neighbors were our guests. These evenings were very +popular during our first winters at Hull-House. Many educated +Italians helped us, and the house became known as a place where +Italians were welcome and where national holidays were observed. +They come to us with their petty lawsuits, sad relics of the +vendetta, with their incorrigible boys, with their hospital +cases, with their aspirations for American clothes, and with +their needs for an interpreter. + +An editor of an Italian paper made a genuine connection between +us and the Italian colony, not only with the Neapolitans and the +Sicilians of the immediate neighborhood, but with the educated +connazionali throughout the city, until he went south to start an +agricultural colony in Alabama, in the establishment of which +Hull-House heartily cooperated. + +Possibly the South Italians more than any other immigrants +represent the pathetic stupidity of agricultural people crowded +into city tenements, and we were much gratified when thirty +peasant families were induced to move upon the land which they +knew so well how to cultivate. The starting of this colony, +however, was a very expensive affair in spite of the fact that +the colonists purchased the land at two dollars an acre; they +needed much more than raw land, and although it was possible to +collect the small sums necessary to sustain them during the hard +time of the first two years, we were fully convinced that +undertakings of this sort could be conducted properly only by +colonization societies such as England has established, or, +better still, by enlarging the functions of the Federal +Department of Immigration. + +An evening similar in purpose to the one devoted to the Italians +was organized for the Germans, in our first year. Owing to the +superior education of our Teutonic guests and the clever leading +of a cultivated German woman, these evenings reflected something +of that cozy social intercourse which is found in its perfection +in the fatherland. Our guests sang a great deal in the tender +minor of the German folksong or in the rousing spirit of the +Rhine, and they slowly but persistently pursued a course in +German history and literature, recovering something of that +poetry and romance which they had long since resigned with other +good things. We found strong family affection between them and +their English-speaking children, but their pleasures were not in +common, and they seldom went out together. Perhaps the greatest +value of the Settlement to them was in placing large and pleasant +rooms with musical facilities at their disposal, and in reviving +their almost forgotten enthusiams. I have seen sons and +daughters stand in complete surprise as their mother's knitting +needles softly beat time to the song she was singing, or her worn +face turned rosy under the hand-clapping as she made an +old-fashioned curtsy at the end of a German poem. It was easy to +fancy a growing touch of respect in her children's manner to her, +and a rising enthusiasm for German literature and reminiscence on +the part of all the family, an effort to bring together the old +life and the new, a respect for the older cultivation, and not +quite so much assurance that the new was the best. + +This tendency upon the part of the older immigrants to lose the +amenities of European life without sharing those of America has +often been deplored by keen observers from the home countries. +When Professor Masurek of Prague gave a course of lectures in the +University of Chicago, he was much distressed over the +materialism into which the Bohemians of Chicago had fallen. The +early immigrants had been so stirred by the opportunity to own +real estate, an appeal perhaps to the Slavic land hunger, and +their energies had become so completely absorbed in money-making +that all other interests had apparently dropped away. And yet I +recall a very touching incident in connection with a lecture +Professor Masurek gave at Hull-House, in which he had appealed to +his countrymen to arouse themselves from this tendency to fall +below their home civilization and to forget the great enthusiasm +which had united them into the Pan-Slavic Movement. A Bohemian +widow who supported herself and her two children by scrubbing, +hastily sent her youngest child to purchase, with the twenty-five +cents which was to have supplied them with food the next day, a +bunch of red roses which she presented to the lecturer in +appreciation of his testimony to the reality of the things of the +spirit. + +An overmastering desire to reveal the humbler immigrant parents +to their own children lay at the base of what has come to be +called the Hull-House Labor Museum. This was first suggested to +my mind one early spring day when I saw an old Italian woman, her +distaff against her homesick face, patiently spinning a thread by +the simple stick spindle so reminiscent of all southern Europe. I +was walking down Polk Street, perturbed in spirit, because it +seemed so difficult to come into genuine relations with the +Italian women and because they themselves so often lost their +hold upon their Americanized children. It seemed to me that +Hull-House ought to be able to devise some educational enterprise +which should build a bridge between European and American +experiences in such wise as to give them both more meaning and a +sense of relation. I meditated that perhaps the power to see +life as a whole is more needed in the immigrant quarter of a +large city than anywhere else, and that the lack of this power is +the most fruitful source of misunderstanding between European +immigrants and their children, as it is between them and their +American neighbors; and why should that chasm between fathers and +sons, yawning at the feet of each generation, be made so +unnecessarily cruel and impassable to these bewildered +immigrants? Suddenly I looked up and saw the old woman with her +distaff, sitting in the sun on the steps of a tenement house. She +might have served as a model for one of Michelangelo's Fates, but +her face brightened as I passed and, holding up her spindle for +me to see, she called out that when she had spun a little more +yarn, she would knit a pair of stockings for her goddaughter. +The occupation of the old woman gave me the clue that was needed. +Could we not interest the young people working in the +neighborhood factories in these older forms of industry, so that, +through their own parents and grandparents, they would find a +dramatic representation of the inherited resources of their daily +occupation. If these young people could actually see that the +complicated machinery of the factory had been evolved from simple +tools, they might at least make a beginning toward that education +which Dr. Dewey defines as "a continuing reconstruction of +experience." They might also lay a foundation for reverence of +the past which Goethe declares to be the basis of all sound +progress. + +My exciting walk on Polk Street was followed by many talks with +Dr. Dewey and with one of the teachers in his school who was a +resident at Hull-House. Within a month a room was fitted up to +which we might invite those of our neighbors who were possessed +of old crafts and who were eager to use them. + +We found in the immediate neighborhood at least four varieties of +these most primitive methods of spinning and three distinct +variations of the same spindle in connection with wheels. It was +possible to put these seven into historic sequence and order and +to connect the whole with the present method of factory spinning. +The same thing was done for weaving, and on every Saturday +evening a little exhibit was made of these various forms of labor +in the textile industry. Within one room a Syrian woman, a +Greek, an Italian, a Russian, and an Irishwoman enabled even the +most casual observer to see that there is no break in orderly +evolution if we look at history from the industrial standpoint; +that industry develops similarly and peacefully year by year +among the workers of each nation, heedless of differences in +language, religion, and political experiences. + +And then we grew ambitious and arranged lectures upon industrial +history. I remember that after an interesting lecture upon the +industrial revolution in England and a portrayal of the appalling +conditions throughout the weaving districts of the north, which +resulted from the hasty gathering of the weavers into the new +towns, a Russian tailor in the audience was moved to make a +speech. He suggested that whereas time had done much to +alleviate the first difficulties in the transition of weaving +from hand work to steam power, that in the application of steam +to sewing we are still in our first stages, illustrated by the +isolated woman who tries to support herself by hand needlework at +home until driven out by starvation, as many of the hand weavers +had been. + +The historical analogy seemed to bring a certain comfort to the +tailor, as did a chart upon the wall showing the infinitesimal +amount of time that steam had been applied to manufacturing +processes compared to the centuries of hand labor. Human +progress is slow and perhaps never more cruel than in the advance +of industry, but is not the worker comforted by knowing that +other historical periods have existed similar to the one in which +he finds himself, and that the readjustment may be shortened and +alleviated by judicious action; and is he not entitled to the +solace which an artistic portrayal of the situation might give +him? I remember the evening of the tailor's speech that I felt +reproached because no poet or artist has endeared the sweaters' +victim to us as George Eliot has made us love the belated weaver, +Silas Marner. The textile museum is connected directly with the +basket weaving, sewing, millinery, embroidery, and dressmaking +constantly being taught at Hull-House, and so far as possible +with the other educational departments; we have also been able to +make a collection of products, of early implements, and of +photographs which are full of suggestion. Yet far beyond its +direct educational value, we prize it because it so often puts +the immigrants into the position of teachers, and we imagine that +it affords them a pleasant change from the tutelage in which all +Americans, including their own children, are so apt to hold them. + I recall a number of Russian women working in a sewing room near +Hull-House, who heard one Christmas week that the House was going +to give a party to which they might come. They arrived one +afternoon, when, unfortunately, there was no party on hand and, +although the residents did their best to entertain them with +impromptu music and refreshments, it was quite evident that they +were greatly disappointed. Finally it was suggested that they be +shown the Labor Museum--where gradually the thirty sodden, tired +women were transformed. They knew how to use the spindles and +were delighted to find the Russian spinning frame. Many of them +had never seen the spinning wheel, which has not penetrated to +certain parts of Russia, and they regarded it as a new and +wonderful invention. They turned up their dresses to show their +homespun petticoats; they tried the looms; they explained the +difficulty of the old patterns; in short, from having been +stupidly entertained, they themselves did the entertaining. +Because of a direct appeal to former experiences, the immigrant +visitors were able for the moment to instruct their American +hostesses in an old and honored craft, as was indeed becoming to +their age and experience. + +In some such ways as these have the Labor Museum and the shops +pointed out the possibilities which Hull-House has scarcely begun +to develop, of demonstrating that culture is an understanding of +the long-established occupations and thoughts of men, of the arts +with which they have solaced their toil. A yearning to recover +for the household arts something of their early sanctity and +meaning arose strongly within me one evening when I was attending +a Passover Feast to which I had been invited by a Jewish family +in the neighborhood, where the traditional and religious +significance of the woman's daily activity was still retained. +The kosher food the Jewish mother spread before her family had +been prepared according to traditional knowledge and with +constant care in the use of utensils; upon her had fallen the +responsibility to make all ready according to Mosaic instructions +that the great crisis in a religious history might be fittingly +set forth by her husband and son. Aside from the grave religious +significance in the ceremony, my mind was filled with shifting +pictures of woman's labor with which travel makes one familiar; +the Indian women grinding grain outside of their huts as they +sing praises to the sun and rain; a file of white-clad Moorish +women whom I had once seen waiting their turn at a well in +Tangiers; south Italian women kneeling in a row along the stream +and beating their wet clothes against the smooth white stones; +the milking, the gardening, the marketing in thousands of +hamlets, which are such direct expressions of the solicitude and +affection at the basis of all family life. + +There has been some testimony that the Labor Museum has revealed +the charm of woman's primitive activities. I recall a certain +Italian girl who came every Saturday evening to a cooking class +in the same building in which her mother spun in the Labor Museum +exhibit; and yet Angelina always left her mother at the front +door while she herself went around to a side door because she did +not wish to be too closely identified in the eyes of the rest of +the cooking class with an Italian woman who wore a kerchief over +her head, uncouth boots, and short petticoats. One evening, +however, Angelina saw her mother surrounded by a group of +visitors from the School of Education who much admired the +spinning, and she concluded from their conversation that her +mother was "the best stick-spindle spinner in America." When she +inquired from me as to the truth of this deduction, I took +occasion to describe the Italian village in which her mother had +lived, something of her free life, and how, because of the +opportunity she and the other women of the village had to drop +their spindles over the edge of a precipice, they had developed a +skill in spinning beyond that of the neighboring towns. I +dilated somewhat on the freedom and beauty of that life--how hard +it must be to exchange it all for a two-room tenement, and to +give up a beautiful homespun kerchief for an ugly department +store hat. I intimated it was most unfair to judge her by these +things alone, and that while she must depend on her daughter to +learn the new ways, she also had a right to expect her daughter +to know something of the old ways. + +That which I could not convey to the child, but upon which my own +mind persistently dwelt, was that her mother's whole life had +been spent in a secluded spot under the rule of traditional and +narrowly localized observances, until her very religion clung to +local sanctities--to the shrine before which she had always +prayed, to the pavement and walls of the low vaulted church--and +then suddenly she was torn from it all and literally put out to +sea, straight away from the solid habits of her religious and +domestic life, and she now walked timidly but with poignant +sensibility upon a new and strange shore. + +It was easy to see that the thought of her mother with any other +background than that of the tenement was new to Angelina, and at +least two things resulted; she allowed her mother to pull out of +the big box under the bed the beautiful homespun garments which +had been previously hidden away as uncouth; and she openly came +into the Labor Museum by the same door as did her mother, proud +at least of the mastery of the craft which had been so much +admired. + +A club of necktie workers formerly meeting at Hull-House +persistently resented any attempt on the part of their director +to improve their minds. The president once said that she +"wouldn't be caught dead at a lecture," that she came to the club +"to get some fun out of it," and indeed it was most natural that +she should crave recreation after a hard day's work. One evening +I saw the entire club listening to quite a stiff lecture in the +Labor Museum and to my rather wicked remark to the president that +I was surprised to see her enjoying a lecture, she replied that +she did not call this a lecture, she called this "getting next to +the stuff you work with all the time." It was perhaps the +sincerest tribute we have ever received as to the success of the +undertaking. + +The Labor Museum continually demanded more space as it was +enriched by a fine textile exhibit lent by the Field Museum, and +later by carefully selected specimens of basketry from the +Philippines. The shops have finally included a group of three or +four women, Irish, Italian, Danish, who have become a permanent +working force in the textile department which has developed into +a self-supporting industry through the sale of its homespun +products. + +These women and a few men, who come to the museum to utilize +their European skill in pottery, metal, and wood, demonstrate +that immigrant colonies might yield to our American life +something very valuable, if their resources were intelligently +studied and developed. I recall an Italian, who had decorated +the doorposts of his tenement with a beautiful pattern he had +previously used in carving the reredos of a Neapolitan church, +who was "fired" by his landlord on the ground of destroying +property. His feelings were hurt, not so much that he had been +put out of his house, as that his work had been so disregarded; +and he said that when people traveled in Italy they liked to look +at wood carvings but that in America "they only made money out of +you." + +Sometimes the suppression of the instinct of workmanship is +followed by more disastrous results. A Bohemian whose little +girl attended classes at Hull-House, in one of his periodic +drunken spells had literally almost choked her to death, and +later had committed suicide when in delirium tremens. His poor +wife, who stayed a week at Hull-House after the disaster until a +new tenement could be arranged for her, one day showed me a gold +ring which her husband had made for their betrothal. It +exhibited the most exquisite workmanship, and she said that +although in the old country he had been a goldsmith, in America +he had for twenty years shoveled coal in a furnace room of a +large manufacturing plant; that whenever she saw one of his +"restless fits," which preceded his drunken periods, "coming on," +if she could provide him with a bit of metal and persuade him to +stay at home and work at it, he was all right and the time passed +without disaster, but that "nothing else would do it." This story +threw a flood of light upon the dead man's struggle and on the +stupid maladjustment which had broken him down. Why had we never +been told? Why had our interest in the remarkable musical +ability of his child blinded us to the hidden artistic ability of +the father? We had forgotten that a long-established occupation +may form the very foundations of the moral life, that the art +with which a man has solaced his toil may be the salvation of his +uncertain temperament. + +There are many examples of touching fidelity to immigrant parents +on the part of their grown children; a young man who day after +day attends ceremonies which no longer express his religious +convictions and who makes his vain effort to interest his Russian +Jewish father in social problems; a daughter who might earn much +more money as a stenographer could she work from Monday morning +till Saturday night, but who quietly and docilely makes neckties +for low wages because she can thus abstain from work Saturdays to +please her father; these young people, like poor Maggie Tulliver, +through many painful experiences have reached the conclusion that +pity, memory, and faithfulness are natural ties with paramount +claims. + +This faithfulness, however, is sometimes ruthlessly imposed upon +by immigrant parents who, eager for money and accustomed to the +patriarchal authority of peasant households, hold their children +in a stern bondage which requires a surrender of all their wages +and concedes no time or money for pleasures. + +There are many convincing illustrations that this parental +harshness often results in juvenile delinquency. A Polish boy of +seventeen came to Hull-House one day to ask a contribution of +fifty cents "towards a flower piece for the funeral of an old +Hull-House club boy." A few questions made it clear that the +object was fictitious, whereupon the boy broke down and +half-defiantly stated that he wanted to buy two twenty-five cent +tickets, one for his girl and one for himself, to a dance of the +Benevolent Social Twos; that he hadn't a penny of his own +although he had worked in a brass foundry for three years and had +been advanced twice, because he always had to give his pay +envelope unopened to his father; "just look at the clothes he +buys me" was his concluding remark. + +Perhaps the girls are held even more rigidly. In a recent +investigation of two hundred working girls it was found that only +five per cent had the use of their own money and that sixty-two +per cent turned in all they earned, literally every penny, to +their mothers. It was through this little investigation that we +first knew Marcella, a pretty young German girl who helped her +widowed mother year after year to care for a large family of +younger children. She was content for the most part although her +mother's old-country notions of dress gave her but an +infinitesimal amount of her own wages to spend on her clothes, +and she was quite sophisticated as to proper dressing because she +sold silk in a neighborhood department store. Her mother +approved of the young man who was showing her various attentions +and agreed that Marcella should accept his invitation to a ball, +but would allow her not a penny toward a new gown to replace one +impossibly plain and shabby. Marcella spent a sleepless night +and wept bitterly, although she well knew that the doctor's bill +for the children's scarlet fever was not yet paid. The next day +as she was cutting off three yards of shining pink silk, the +thought came to her that it would make her a fine new waist to +wear to the ball. She wistfully saw it wrapped in paper and +carelessly stuffed into the muff of the purchaser, when suddenly +the parcel fell upon the floor. No one was looking and quick as +a flash the girl picked it up and pushed it into her blouse. The +theft was discovered by the relentless department store detective +who, for "the sake of example," insisted upon taking the case +into court. The poor mother wept bitter tears over this downfall +of her "frommes Madchen" and no one had the heart to tell her of +her own blindness. + +I know a Polish boy whose earnings were all given to his father +who gruffly refused all requests for pocket money. One Christmas +his little sisters, having been told by their mother that they +were too poor to have any Christmas presents, appealed to the big +brother as to one who was earning money of his own. Flattered by +the implication, but at the same time quite impecunious, the +night before Christmas he nonchalantly walked through a +neighboring department store and stole a manicure set for one +little sister and a string of beads for the other. He was caught +at the door by the house detective as one of those children whom +each local department store arrests in the weeks before Christmas +at the daily rate of eight to twenty. The youngest of these +offenders are seldom taken into court but are either sent home +with a warning or turned over to the officers of the Juvenile +Protective Association. Most of these premature law breakers are +in search of Americanized clothing and others are only looking +for playthings. They are all distracted by the profusion and +variety of the display, and their moral sense is confused by the +general air of openhandedness. + +These disastrous efforts are not unlike those of many younger +children who are constantly arrested for petty thieving because +they are too eager to take home food or fuel which will relieve +the distress and need they so constantly hear discussed. The +coal on the wagons, the vegetables displayed in front of the +grocery shops, the very wooden blocks in the loosened street +paving are a challenge to their powers to help out at home. A +Bohemian boy who was out on parole from the old detention home of +the Juvenile Court itself, brought back five stolen chickens to +the matron for Sunday dinner, saying that he knew the Committee +were "having a hard time to fill up so many kids and perhaps +these fowl would help out." The honest immigrant parents, totally +ignorant of American laws and municipal regulations, often send a +child to pick up coal on the railroad tracks or to stand at three +o'clock in the morning before the side door of a restaurant which +gives away broken food, or to collect grain for the chickens at +the base of elevators and standing cars. The latter custom +accounts for the large number of boys arrested for breaking the +seals on grain freight cars. It is easy for a child thus trained +to accept the proposition of a junk dealer to bring him bars of +iron stored in freight yards. Four boys quite recently had thus +carried away and sold to one man two tons of iron. + +Four fifths of the children brought into the Juvenile Court in +Chicago are the children of foreigners. The Germans are the +greatest offenders, Polish next. Do their children suffer from +the excess of virtue in those parents so eager to own a house and +lot? One often sees a grasping parent in the court, utterly +broken down when the Americanized youth who has been brought to +grief clings as piteously to his peasant father as if he were +still a frightened little boy in the steerage. + +Many of these children have come to grief through their premature +fling into city life, having thrown off parental control as they +have impatiently discarded foreign ways. Boys of ten and twelve +will refuse to sleep at home, preferring the freedom of an old +brewery vault or an empty warehouse to the obedience required by +their parents, and for days these boys will live on the milk and +bread which they steal from the back porches after the early +morning delivery. Such children complain that there is "no fun" +at home. One little chap who was given a vacant lot to cultivate +by the City Garden Association insisted upon raising only popcorn +and tried to present the entire crop to Hull-House "to be used +for the parties," with the stipulation that he would have "to be +invited every single time." Then there are little groups of +dissipated young men who pride themselves upon their ability to +live without working and who despise all the honest and sober +ways of their immigrant parents. They are at once a menace and a +center of demoralization. Certainly the bewildered parents, +unable to speak English and ignorant of the city, whose children +have disappeared for days or weeks, have often come to +Hull-House, evincing that agony which fairly separates the marrow +from the bone, as if they had discovered a new type of suffering, +devoid of the healing in familiar sorrows. It is as if they did +not know how to search for the children without the assistance of +the children themselves. Perhaps the most pathetic aspect of +such cases is their revelation of the premature dependence of the +older and wiser upon the young and foolish, which is in itself +often responsible for the situation because it has given the +children an undue sense of their own importance and a false +security that they can take care of themselves. + +On the other hand, an Italian girl who has had lessons in cooking +at the public school will help her mother to connect the entire +family with American food and household habits. That the mother +has never baked bread in Italy--only mixed it in her own house +and then taken it out to the village oven--makes all the more +valuable her daughter's understanding of the complicated cooking +stove. The same thing is true of the girl who learns to sew in +the public school, and more than anything else, perhaps, of the +girl who receives the first simple instruction in the care of +little children--that skillful care which every tenement-house +baby requires if he is to be pulled through his second summer. As +a result of this teaching I recall a young girl who carefully +explained to her Italian mother that the reason the babies in +Italy were so healthy and the babies in Chicago were so sickly, +was not, as her mother had firmly insisted, because her babies in +Italy had goat's milk and her babies in America had cow's milk, +but because the milk in Italy was clean and the milk in Chicago +was dirty. She said that when you milked your own goat before +the door, you knew that the milk was clean, but when you bought +milk from the grocery store after it had been carried for many +miles in the country, you couldn't tell whether it was fit for +the baby to drink until the men from the City Hall who had +watched it all the way said that it was all right. + +Thus through civic instruction in the public schools, the Italian +woman slowly became urbanized in the sense in which the word was +used by her own Latin ancestors, and thus the habits of her +entire family were modified. The public schools in the immigrant +colonies deserve all the praise as Americanizing agencies which +can be bestowed upon them, and there is little doubt that the +fast-changing curriculum in the direction of the vacation-school +experiments will react more directly upon such households. + +It is difficult to write of the relation of the older and most +foreign-looking immigrants to the children of other people--the +Italians whose fruit-carts are upset simply because they are +"dagoes," or the Russian peddlers who are stoned and sometimes +badly injured because it has become a code of honor in a gang of +boys to thus express their derision. The members of a Protective +Association of Jewish Peddlers organized at Hull-House related +daily experiences in which old age had been treated with such +irreverence, cherished dignity with such disrespect, that a +listener caught the passion of Lear in the old texts, as a +platitude enunciated by a man who discovers in it his own +experience thrills us as no unfamiliar phrases can possibly do. +The Greeks are filled with amazed rage when their very name is +flung at them as an opprobrious epithet. Doubtless these +difficulties would be much minimized in America, if we faced our +own race problem with courage and intelligence, and these very +Mediterranean immigrants might give us valuable help. Certainly +they are less conscious than the Anglo-Saxon of color +distinctions, perhaps because of their traditional familiarity +with Carthage and Egypt. They listened with respect and +enthusiasm to a scholarly address delivered by Professor Du Bois +at Hull-House on a Lincoln's birthday, with apparently no +consciousness of that race difference which color seems to +accentuate so absurdly, and upon my return from various +conferences held in the interest of "the advancement of colored +people," I have had many illuminating conversations with my +cosmopolitan neighbors. + +The celebration of national events has always been a source of +new understanding and companionship with the members of the +contiguous foreign colonies not only between them and their +American neighbors but between them and their own children. One +of our earliest Italian events was a rousing commemoration of +Garibaldi's birthday, and his imposing bust, presented to +Hull-House that evening, was long the chief ornament of our front +hall. It called forth great enthusiasm from the connazionali +whom Ruskin calls, not the "common people" of Italy, but the +"companion people" because of their power for swift sympathy. + +A huge Hellenic meeting held at Hull-House, in which the +achievements of the classic period were set forth both in Greek +and English by scholars of well-known repute, brought us into a +new sense of fellowship with all our Greek neighbors. As the +mayor of Chicago was seated upon the right hand of the dignified +senior priest of the Greek Church and they were greeted +alternately in the national hymns of America and Greece, one felt +a curious sense of the possibility of transplanting to new and +crude Chicago some of the traditions of Athens itself, so deeply +cherished in the hearts of this group of citizens. + +The Greeks indeed gravely consider their traditions as their most +precious possession and more than once in meetings of protest +held by the Greek colony against the aggressions of the +Bulgarians in Macedonia, I have heard it urged that the +Bulgarians are trying to establish a protectorate, not only for +their immediate advantage, but that they may claim a glorious +history for the "barbarous country." It is said that on the basis +of this protectorate, they are already teaching in their schools +that Alexander the Great was a Bulgarian and that it will be but +a short time before they claim Aristotle himself, an indignity +the Greeks will never suffer! + +To me personally the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of +Mazzini's birth was a matter of great interest. Throughout the +world that day Italians who believed in a United Italy came +together. They recalled the hopes of this man who, with all his +devotion to his country was still more devoted to humanity and +who dedicated to the workingmen of Italy, an appeal so +philosophical, so filled with a yearning for righteousness, that +it transcended all national boundaries and became a bugle call +for "The Duties of Man." A copy of this document was given to +every school child in the public schools of Italy on this one +hundredth anniversary, and as the Chicago branch of the Society +of Young Italy marched into our largest hall and presented to +Hull-House an heroic bust of Mazzini, I found myself devoutly +hoping that the Italian youth, who have committed their future to +America, might indeed become "the Apostles of the fraternity of +nations" and that our American citizenship might be built without +disturbing these foundations which were laid of old time. + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Terri Perkins. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration ofWomen Writers] + +"Chapter XII: Tolstoyism." by by Jane Addams (1860-1935) From: +Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes. by Jane +Addams. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. +259-280. + +[Editor: Mary MarkOckerbloom] + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +TOLSTOYISM + + +The administration of charity in Chicago during the winter +following the World's Fair had been of necessity most difficult, +for, although large sums had been given to the temporary relief +organization which endeavored to care for the thousands of +destitute strangers stranded in the city, we all worked under a +sense of desperate need and a paralyzing consciousness that our +best efforts were most inadequate to the situation. + +During the many relief visits I paid that winter in tenement +houses and miserable lodgings, I was constantly shadowed by a +certain sense of shame that I should be comfortable in the midst +of such distress. This resulted at times in a curious reaction +against all the educational and philanthropic activities in which +I had been engaged. In the face of the desperate hunger and +need, these could not but seem futile and superficial. The hard +winter in Chicago had turned the thoughts of many of us to these +stern matters. A young friend of mine who came daily to +Hull-House consulted me in regard to going into the paper +warehouse belonging to her father that she might there sort rags +with the Polish girls; another young girl took a place in a +sweatshop for a month, doing her work so simply and thoroughly +that the proprietor had no notion that she had not been driven +there by need; still two others worked in a shoe factory;--and +all this happened before such adventures were undertaken in order +to procure literary material. It was in the following winter +that the pioneer effort in this direction, Walter Wyckoff's +account of his vain attempt to find work in Chicago, compelled +even the sternest businessman to drop his assertion that "any man +can find work if he wants it." + +The dealing directly with the simplest human wants may have been +responsible for an impression which I carried about with me +almost constantly for a period of two years and which culminated +finally in a visit to Tolstoy--that the Settlement, or Hull-House +at least, was a mere pretense and travesty of the simple impulse +"to live with the poor," so long as the residents did not share +the common lot of hard labor and scant fare. + +Actual experience had left me in much the same state of mind I +had been in after reading Tolstoy's "What to Do," which is a +description of his futile efforts to relieve the unspeakable +distress and want in the Moscow winter of 1881, and his +inevitable conviction that only he who literally shares his own +shelter and food with the needy can claim to have served them. + +Doubtless it is much easier to see "what to do" in rural Russia, +where all the conditions tend to make the contrast as broad as +possible between peasant labor and noble idleness, than it is to +see "what to do" in the interdependencies of the modern +industrial city. But for that very reason perhaps, Tolstoy's +clear statement is valuable for that type of conscientious person +in every land who finds it hard, not only to walk in the path of +righteousness, but to discover where the path lies. + +I had read the books of Tolstoy steadily all the years since "My +Religion" had come into my hands immediately after I left +college. The reading of that book had made clear that men's poor +little efforts to do right are put forth for the most part in the +chill of self-distrust; I became convinced that if the new social +order ever came, it would come by gathering to itself all the +pathetic human endeavor which had indicated the forward +direction. But I was most eager to know whether Tolstoy's +undertaking to do his daily share of the physical labor of the +world, that labor which is "so disproportionate to the +unnourished strength" of those by whom it is ordinarily +performed, had brought him peace! + +I had time to review carefully many things in my mind during the +long days of convalescence following an illness of typhoid fever +which I suffered in the autumn of 1895. The illness was so +prolonged that my health was most unsatisfactory during the +following winter, and the next May I went abroad with my friend, +Miss Smith, to effect if possible a more complete recovery. + +The prospect of seeing Tolstoy filled me with the hope of finding +a clue to the tangled affairs of city poverty. I was but one of +thousands of our contemporaries who were turning toward this +Russian, not as to a seer--his message is much too confused and +contradictory for that--but as to a man who has had the ability +to lift his life to the level of his conscience, to translate his +theories into action. + +Our first few weeks in England were most stimulating. A dozen +years ago London still showed traces of "that exciting moment in +the life of the nation when its youth is casting about for new +enthusiasms," but it evinced still more of that British capacity +to perform the hard work of careful research and self-examination +which must precede any successful experiments in social reform. +Of the varied groups and individuals whose suggestions remained +with me for years, I recall perhaps as foremost those members of +the new London County Council whose far-reaching plans for the +betterment of London could not but enkindle enthusiasm. It was a +most striking expression of that effort which would place beside +the refinement and pleasure of the rich, a new refinement and a +new pleasure born of the commonwealth and the common joy of all +the citizens, that at this moment they prized the municipal +pleasure boats upon the Thames no less than the extensive schemes +for the municipal housing of the poorest people. Ben Tillet, who +was then an alderman, "the docker sitting beside the duke," took +me in a rowboat down the Thames on a journey made exciting by the +hundreds of dockers who cheered him as we passed one wharf after +another on our way to his home at Greenwich; John Burns showed us +his wonderful civic accomplishments at Battersea, the plant +turning street sweepings into cement pavements, the technical +school teaching boys brick laying and plumbing, and the public +bath in which the children of the Board School were receiving a +swimming lesson--these measures anticipating our achievements in +Chicago by at least a decade and a half. The new Education Bill +which was destined to drag on for twelve years before it +developed into the children's charter, was then a storm center in +the House of Commons. Miss Smith and I were much pleased to be +taken to tea on the Parliament terrace by its author, Sir John +Gorst, although we were quite bewildered by the arguments we +heard there for church schools versus secular. + +We heard Keir Hardie before a large audience of workingmen +standing in the open square of Canning Town outline the great +things to be accomplished by the then new Labor Party, and we +joined the vast body of men in the booming hymn + + When wilt Thou save the people, + O God of Mercy, when! + +finding it hard to realize that we were attending a political +meeting. It seemed that moment as if the hopes of democracy were +more likely to come to pass on English soil than upon our own. +Robert Blatchford's stirring pamphlets were in everyone's hands, +and a reception given by Karl Marx's daughter, Mrs. Aveling, to +Liebknecht before he returned to Germany to serve a prison term +for his lese majeste speech in the Reichstag, gave us a glimpse +of the old-fashioned orthodox Socialist who had not yet begun to +yield to the biting ridicule of Bernard Shaw although he flamed +in their midst that evening. + +Octavia Hill kindly demonstrated to us the principles upon which +her well-founded business of rent collecting was established, and +with pardonable pride showed us the Red Cross Square with its +cottages marvelously picturesque and comfortable, on two sides, +and on the third a public hall and common drawing room for the +use of all the tenants; the interior of the latter had been +decorated by pupils of Walter Crane with mural frescoes +portraying the heroism in the life of the modern workingman. + +While all this was warmly human, we also had opportunities to see +something of a group of men and women who were approaching the +social problem from the study of economics; among others Mr. and +Mrs. Sidney Webb who were at work on their Industrial Democracy; Mr. +John Hobson who was lecturing on the evolution of modern capitalism. + +We followed factory inspectors on a round of duties performed with +a thoroughness and a trained intelligence which were a revelation +of the possibilities of public service. When it came to visiting +Settlements, we were at least reassured that they were not falling +into identical lines of effort. Canon Ingram, who has since +become Bishop of London, was then warden of Oxford House and in +the midst of an experiment which pleased me greatly, the more +because it was carried on by a churchman. Oxford House had hired +all the concert halls--vaudeville shows we later called them in +Chicago--which were found in Bethnal Green, for every Saturday +night. The residents had censored the programs, which they were +careful to keep popular, and any workingman who attended a show in +Bethnal Green on a Saturday night, and thousands of them did, +heard a program the better for this effort. + +One evening in University Hall Mrs. Humphry Ward, who had just +returned from Italy, described the effect of the Italian salt tax +in a talk which was evidently one in a series of lectures upon the +economic wrongs which pressed heaviest upon the poor; at Browning +House, at the moment, they were giving prizes to those of their +costermonger neighbors who could present the best cared-for +donkeys, and the warden, Herbert Stead, exhibited almost the +enthusiasm of his well-known brother, for that crop of kindliness +which can be garnered most easily from the acreage where human +beings grow the thickest; at the Bermondsey Settlement they were +rejoicing that their University Extension students had +successfully passed the examinations for the University of London. + The entire impression received in England of research, of +scholarship, of organized public spirit, was in marked contrast to +the impressions of my next visit in 1900, when the South African +War had absorbed the enthusiasm of the nation and the wrongs at +"the heart of the empire" were disregarded and neglected. + +London, of course, presented sharp differences to Russia where +social conditions were written in black and white with little +shading, like a demonstration of the Chinese proverb, "Where one +man lives in luxury, another is dying of hunger." + +The fair of Nijni-Novgorod seemed to take us to the very edge of +civilization so remote and eastern that the merchants brought +their curious goods upon the backs of camels or on strange craft +riding at anchor on the broad Volga. But even here our letter of +introduction to Korolenko, the novelist, brought us to a +realization of that strange mingling of a remote past and a +self-conscious present which Russia presents on every hand. This +same contrast was also shown by the pilgrims trudging on pious +errands to monasteries, to tombs, and to the Holy Land itself, +with their bleeding feet bound in rags and thrust into bast +sandals, and, on the other hand, by the revolutionists even then +advocating a Republic which should obtain not only in political +but also in industrial affairs. + +We had letters of introduction to Mr. and Mrs. Aylmer Maude of +Moscow, since well known as the translators of "Resurrection" and +other of Tolstoy's later works, who at that moment were on the eve +of leaving Russia in order to form an agricultural colony in South +England where they might support themselves by the labor of their +hands. We gladly accepted Mr. Maude's offer to take us to Yasnaya +Polyana and to introduce us to Count Tolstoy, and never did a +disciple journey toward his master with more enthusiasm than did +our guide. When, however, Mr. Maude actually presented Miss Smith +and myself to Count Tolstoy, knowing well his master's attitude +toward philanthropy, he endeavored to make Hull-House appear much +more noble and unique than I should have ventured to do. + +Tolstoy, standing by clad in his peasant garb, listened gravely +but, glancing distrustfully at the sleeves of my traveling gown +which unfortunately at that season were monstrous in size, he +took hold of an edge and pulling out one sleeve to an +interminable breadth, said quite simply that "there was enough +stuff on one arm to make a frock for a little girl," and asked me +directly if I did not find "such a dress" a "barrier to the +people." I was too disconcerted to make a very clear explanation, +although I tried to say that monstrous as my sleeves were they +did not compare in size with those of the working girls in +Chicago and that nothing would more effectively separate me from +"the people" than a cotton blouse following the simple lines of +the human form; even if I had wished to imitate him and "dress as +a peasant," it would have been hard to choose which peasant among +the thirty-six nationalities we had recently counted in our ward. + Fortunately the countess came to my rescue with a recital of her +former attempts to clothe hypothetical little girls in yards of +material cut from a train and other superfluous parts of her best +gown until she had been driven to a firm stand which she advised +me to take at once. But neither Countess Tolstoy nor any other +friend was on hand to help me out of my predicament later, when I +was asked who "fed" me, and how did I obtain "shelter"? Upon my +reply that a farm a hundred miles from Chicago supplied me with +the necessities of life, I fairly anticipated the next scathing +question: "So you are an absentee landlord? Do you think you +will help the people more by adding yourself to the crowded city +than you would by tilling your own soil?" This new sense of +discomfort over a failure to till my own soil was increased when +Tolstoy's second daughter appeared at the five-o'clock tea table +set under the trees, coming straight from the harvest field where +she had been working with a group of peasants since five o'clock +in the morning, not pretending to work but really taking the +place of a peasant woman who had hurt her foot. She was plainly +much exhausted, but neither expected nor received sympathy from +the members of a family who were quite accustomed to see each +other carry out their convictions in spite of discomfort and +fatigue. The martyrdom of discomfort, however, was obviously +much easier to bear than that to which, even to the eyes of the +casual visitor, Count Tolstoy daily subjected himself, for his +study in the basement of the conventional dwelling, with its +short shelf of battered books and its scythe and spade leaning +against the wall, had many times lent itself to that ridicule +which is the most difficult form of martyrdom. + +That summer evening as we sat in the garden with a group of +visitors from Germany, from England and America, who had traveled +to the remote Russian village that they might learn of this man, +one could not forbear the constant inquiry to one's self, as to +why he was so regarded as sage and saint that this party of +people should be repeated each day of the year. It seemed to me +then that we were all attracted by this sermon of the deed, +because Tolstoy had made the one supreme personal effort, one +might almost say the one frantic personal effort, to put himself +into right relations with the humblest people, with the men who +tilled his soil, blacked his boots, and cleaned his stables. +Doubtless the heaviest burden of our contemporaries is a +consciousness of a divergence between our democratic theory on +the one hand, that working people have a right to the +intellectual resources of society, and the actual fact on the +other hand, that thousands of them are so overburdened with toil +that there is no leisure nor energy left for the cultivation of +the mind. We constantly suffer from the strain and indecision of +believing this theory and acting as if we did not believe it, and +this man who years before had tried "to get off the backs of the +peasants," who had at least simplified his life and worked with +his hands, had come to be a prototype to many of his generation. + +Doubtless all of the visitors sitting in the Tolstoy garden that +evening had excused themselves from laboring with their hands +upon the theory that they were doing something more valuable for +society in other ways. No one among our contemporaries has +dissented from this point of view so violently as Tolstoy +himself, and yet no man might so easily have excused himself from +hard and rough work on the basis of his genius and of his +intellectual contributions to the world. So far, however, from +considering his time too valuable to be spent in labor in the +field or in making shoes, our great host was too eager to know +life to be willing to give up this companionship of mutual labor. + One instinctively found reasons why it was easier for a Russian +than for the rest of us to reach this conclusion; the Russian +peasants have a proverb which says: "Labor is the house that love +lives in," by which they mean that no two people nor group of +people can come into affectionate relations with each other +unless they carry on together a mutual task, and when the Russian +peasant talks of labor he means labor on the soil, or, to use the +phrase of the great peasant, Bondereff, "bread labor." Those +monastic orders founded upon agricultural labor, those +philosophical experiments like Brook Farm and many another have +attempted to reduce to action this same truth. Tolstoy himself +has written many times his own convictions and attempts in this +direction, perhaps never more tellingly than in the description +of Lavin's morning spent in the harvest field, when he lost his +sense of grievance and isolation and felt a strange new +brotherhood for the peasants, in proportion as the rhythmic +motion of his scythe became one with theirs. + +At the long dinner table laid in the garden were the various +traveling guests, the grown-up daughters, and the younger +children with their governess. The countess presided over the +usual European dinner served by men, but the count and the +daughter, who had worked all day in the fields, ate only porridge +and black bread and drank only kvas, the fare of the hay-making +peasants. Of course we are all accustomed to the fact that those +who perform the heaviest labor eat the coarsest and simplest fare +at the end of the day, but it is not often that we sit at the +same table with them while we ourselves eat the more elaborate +food prepared by someone else's labor. Tolstoy ate his simple +supper without remark or comment upon the food his family and +guests preferred to eat, assuming that they, as well as he, had +settled the matter with their own consciences. + +The Tolstoy household that evening was much interested in the fate +of a young Russian spy who had recently come to Tolstoy in the +guise of a country schoolmaster, in order to obtain a copy of +"Life," which had been interdicted by the censor of the press. +After spending the night in talk with Tolstoy, the spy had gone +away with a copy of the forbidden manuscript but, unfortunately for +himself, having become converted to Tolstoy's views he had later +made a full confession to the authorities and had been exiled to +Siberia. Tolstoy, holding that it was most unjust to exile the +disciple while he, the author of the book, remained at large, had +pointed out this inconsistency in an open letter to one of the +Moscow newspapers. The discussion of this incident, of course, +opened up the entire subject of nonresidence, and curiously enough +I was disappointed in Tolstoy's position in the matter. It seemed +to me that he made too great a distinction between the use of +physical force and that moral energy which can override another's +differences and scruples with equal ruthlessness. + +With that inner sense of mortification with which one finds one's +self at difference with the great authority, I recalled the +conviction of the early Hull-House residents; that whatever of +good the Settlement had to offer should be put into positive +terms, that we might live with opposition to no man, with +recognition of the good in every man, even the most wretched. We +had often departed from this principle, but had it not in every +case been a confession of weakness, and had we not always found +antagonism a foolish and unwarrantable expenditure of energy? + +The conversation at dinner and afterward, although conducted with +animation and sincerity, for the moment stirred vague misgivings +within me. Was Tolstoy more logical than life warrants? Could +the wrongs of life be reduced to the terms of unrequited labor and +all be made right if each person performed the amount necessary to +satisfy his own wants? Was it not always easy to put up a strong +case if one took the naturalistic view of life? But what about the +historic view, the inevitable shadings and modifications which +life itself brings to its own interpretation? Miss Smith and I +took a night train back to Moscow in that tumult of feeling which +is always produced by contact with a conscience making one more of +those determined efforts to probe to the very foundations of the +mysterious world in which we find ourselves. A horde of perplexing +questions, concerning those problems of existence of which in +happier moments we catch but fleeting glimpses and at which we +even then stand aghast, pursued us relentlessly on the long +journey through the great wheat plains of South Russia, through +the crowded Ghetto of Warsaw, and finally into the smiling fields +of Germany where the peasant men and women were harvesting the +grain. I remember that through the sight of those toiling +peasants, I made a curious connection between the bread labor +advocated by Tolstoy and the comfort the harvest fields are said +to have once brought to Luther when, much perturbed by many +theological difficulties, he suddenly forgot them all in a gush of +gratitude for mere bread, exclaiming, "How it stands, that golden +yellow corn, on its fine tapered stem; the meek earth, at God's +kind bidding, has produced it once again!" At least the toiling +poor had this comfort of bread labor, and perhaps it did not +matter that they gained it unknowingly and painfully, if only they +walked in the path of labor. In the exercise of that curious +power possessed by the theorist to inhibit all experiences which +do not enhance his doctrine, I did not permit myself to recall +that which I knew so well--that exigent and unremitting labor +grants the poor no leisure even in the supreme moments of human +suffering and that "all griefs are lighter with bread." + +I may have wished to secure this solace for myself at the cost of +the least possible expenditure of time and energy, for during the +next month in Germany, when I read everything of Tolstoy's that +had been translated into English, German, or French, there grew +up in my mind a conviction that what I ought to do upon my return +to Hull-House was to spend at least two hours every morning in +the little bakery which we had recently added to the equipment of +our coffeehouse. Two hours' work would be but a wretched +compromise, but it was hard to see how I could take more time out +of each day. I had been taught to bake bread in my childhood not +only as a household accomplishment, but because my father, true +to his miller's tradition, had insisted that each one of his +daughters on her twelfth birthday must present him with a +satisfactory wheat loaf of her own baking, and he was most +exigent as to the quality of this test loaf. What could be more +in keeping with my training and tradition than baking bread? I +did not quite see how my activity would fit in with that of the +German union baker who presided over the Hull-House bakery, but +all such matters were secondary and certainly could be arranged. +It may be that I had thus to pacify my aroused conscience before +I could settle down to hear Wagner's "Ring" at Beyreuth; it may +be that I had fallen a victim to the phrase, "bread labor"; but +at any rate I held fast to the belief that I should do this, +through the entire journey homeward, on land and sea, until I +actually arrived in Chicago when suddenly the whole scheme seemed +to me as utterly preposterous as it doubtless was. The half +dozen people invariably waiting to see me after breakfast, the +piles of letters to be opened and answered, the demand of actual +and pressing wants--were these all to be pushed aside and asked +to wait while I saved my soul by two hours' work at baking bread? + +Although my resolution was abandoned, this may be the best place +to record the efforts of more doughty souls to carry out Tolstoy's +conclusions. It was perhaps inevitable that Tolstoy colonies +should be founded, although Tolstoy himself has always insisted +that each man should live his life as nearly as possible in the +place in which he was born. The visit Miss Smith and I made a +year or two later to a colony in one of the southern States +portrayed for us most vividly both the weakness and the strange +august dignity of the Tolstoy position. The colonists at +Commonwealth held but a short creed. They claimed in fact that +the difficulty is not to state truth but to make moral conviction +operative upon actual life, and they announced it their intention +"to obey the teachings of Jesus in all matters of labor and the +use of property." They would thus transfer the vindication of +creed from the church to the open field, from dogma to experience. + +The day Miss Smith and I visited the Commonwealth colony of +threescore souls, they were erecting a house for the family of a +one-legged man, consisting of a wife and nine children who had +come the week before in a forlorn prairie schooner from Arkansas. +As this was the largest family the little colony contained, the +new house was to be the largest yet erected. Upon our surprise +at this literal giving "to him that asketh," we inquired if the +policy of extending food and shelter to all who applied, without +test of creed or ability, might not result in the migration of +all the neighboring poorhouse population into the colony. We +were told that this actually had happened during the winter until +the colony fare of corn meal and cow peas had proved so +unattractive that the paupers had gone back, for even the poorest +of the southern poorhouses occasionally supplied bacon with the +pone if only to prevent scurvy from which the colonists +themselves had suffered. The difficulty of the poorhouse people +had thus settled itself by the sheer poverty of the situation, a +poverty so biting that the only ones willing to face it were +those sustained by a conviction of its righteousness. The fields +and gardens were being worked by an editor, a professor, a +clergyman, as well as by artisans and laborers, the fruit thereof +to be eaten by themselves and their families or by any other +families who might arrive from Arkansas. The colonists were very +conventional in matters of family relationship and had broken +with society only in regard to the conventions pertaining to +labor and property. We had a curious experience at the end of +the day, when we were driven into the nearest town. We had taken +with us as a guest the wife of the president of the colony, +wishing to give her a dinner at the hotel, because she had +girlishly exclaimed during a conversation that at times during +the winter she had become so eager to hear good music that it had +seemed to her as if she were actually hungry for it, almost as +hungry as she was for a beefsteak. Yet as we drove away we had +the curious sensation that while the experiment was obviously +coming to an end, in the midst of its privations it yet embodied +the peace of mind which comes to him who insists upon the logic +of life whether it is reasonable or not--the fanatic's joy in +seeing his own formula translated into action. At any rate, as +we reached the common-place southern town of workaday men and +women, for one moment its substantial buildings, its solid brick +churches, its ordered streets, divided into those of the rich and +those of the poor, seemed much more unreal to us than the little +struggling colony we had left behind. We repeated to each other +that in all the practical judgments and decisions of life, we +must part company with logical demonstration; that if we stop for +it in each case, we can never go on at all; and yet, in spite of +this, when conscience does become the dictator of the daily life +of a group of men, it forces our admiration as no other modern +spectacle has power to do. It seemed but a mere incident that +this group should have lost sight of the facts of life in their +earnest endeavor to put to the test the things of the spirit. + +I knew little about the colony started by Mr. Maude at Purleigh +containing several of Tolstoy's followers who were not permitted +to live in Russia, and we did not see Mr. Maude again until he +came to Chicago on his way from Manitoba, whither he had +transported the second group of Dukhobors, a religious sect who +had interested all of Tolstoy's followers because of their +literal acceptance of non-resistance and other Christian +doctrines which are so strenuously advocated by Tolstoy. It was +for their benefit that Tolstoy had finished and published +"Resurrection," breaking through his long-kept resolution against +novel writing. After the Dukhobors were settled in Canada, of +the five hundred dollars left from the "Resurrection" funds, one +half was given to Hull-House. It seemed possible to spend this +fund only for the relief of the most primitive wants of food and +shelter on the part of the most needy families. + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Terri Perkins. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter XIII: Public Activities and Investigations." by by Jane +Addams (1860-1935) From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with +Autobiographical Notes. by Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan +Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. 281-309. + +[Editor: Mary MarkOckerbloom] + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +PUBLIC ACTIVITIES AND INVESTIGATIONS + + +One of the striking features of our neighborhood twenty years +ago, and one to which we never became reconciled, was the +presence of huge wooden garbage boxes fastened to the street +pavement in which the undisturbed refuse accumulated day by day. +The system of garbage collecting was inadequate throughout the +city but it became the greatest menace in a ward such as ours, +where the normal amount of waste was much increased by the +decayed fruit and vegetables discarded by the Italian and Greek +fruit peddlers, and by the residuum left over from the piles of +filthy rags which were fished out of the city dumps and brought +to the homes of the rag pickers for further sorting and washing. + +The children of our neighborhood twenty years ago played their +games in and around these huge garbage boxes. They were the +first objects that the toddling child learned to climb; their +bulk afforded a barricade and their contents provided missiles in +all the battles of the older boys; and finally they became the +seats upon which absorbed lovers held enchanted converse. We are +obliged to remember that all children eat everything which they +find and that odors have a curious and intimate power of +entwining themselves into our tenderest memories, before even the +residents of Hull-House can understand their own early enthusiasm +for the removal of these boxes and the establishment of a better +system of refuse collection. + +It is easy for even the most conscientious citizen of Chicago to +forget the foul smells of the stockyards and the garbage dumps, +when he is living so far from them that he is only occasionally +made conscious of their existence but the residents of a +Settlement are perforce constantly surrounded by them. During +our first three years on Halsted Street, we had established a +small incinerator at Hull-House and we had many times reported +the untoward conditions of the ward to the city hall. We had +also arranged many talks for the immigrants, pointing out that +although a woman may sweep her own doorway in her native village +and allow the reuse to innocently decay in the open air and +sunshine, in a crowded city quarter, if the garbage is not +properly collected and destroyed, a tenement-house mother may see +her children sicken and die, and that the immigrants must +therefore not only keep their own houses clean, but must also +help the authorities to keep the city clean. + +Possibly our efforts slightly modified the worst conditions, but +they still remained intolerable, and the fourth summer the +situation became for me absolutely desperate when I realized in a +moment of panic that my delicate little nephew for whom I was +guardian, could not be with me at Hull-House at all unless the +sickening odors were reduced. I may well be ashamed that other +delicate children who were torn from their families, not into +boarding school but into eternity, had not long before driven me +to effective action. Under the direction of the first man who +came as a resident to Hull-House we began a systematic +investigation of the city system of garbage collection, both as +to its efficiency in other wards and its possible connection with +the death rate in the various wards of the city. + +The Hull-House Woman's Club had been organized the year before by +the resident kindergartner who had first inaugurated a mother's +meeting. The new members came together, however, in quite a new +way that summer when we discussed with them the high death rate +so persistent in our ward. After several club meetings devoted +to the subject, despite the fact that the death rate rose highest +in the congested foreign colonies and not in the streets in which +most of the Irish American club women lived, twelve of their +number undertook in connection with the residents, to carefully +investigate the conditions of the alleys. During August and +September the substantiated reports of violations of the law sent +in from Hull-House to the health department were one thousand and +thirty-seven. For the club woman who had finished a long day's +work of washing or ironing followed by the cooking of a hot +supper, it would have been much easier to sit on her doorstep +during a summer evening than to go up and down ill-kept alleys +and get into trouble with her neighbors over the condition of +their garbage boxes. It required both civic enterprise and moral +conviction to be willing to do this three evenings a week during +the hottest and most uncomfortable months of the year. +Nevertheless, a certain number of women persisted, as did the +residents, and three city inspectors in succession were +transferred from the ward because of unsatisfactory services. +Still the death rate remained high and the condition seemed +little improved throughout the next winter. In sheer +desperation, the following spring when the city contracts were +awarded for the removal of garbage, with the backing of two +well-known business men, I put in a bid for the garbage removal +of the nineteenth ward. My paper was thrown out on a +technicality but the incident induced the mayor to appoint me the +garbage inspector of the ward. + +The salary was a thousand dollars a year, and the loss of that +political "plum" made a great stir among the politicians. The +position was no sinecure whether regarded from the point of view +of getting up at six in the morning to see that the men were +early at work; or of following the loaded wagons, uneasily +dropping their contents at intervals, to their dreary destination +at the dump; or of insisting that the contractor must increase +the number of his wagons from nine to thirteen and from thirteen +to seventeen, although he assured me that he lost money on every +one and that the former inspector had let him off with seven; or +of taking careless landlords into court because they would not +provide the proper garbage receptacles; or of arresting the +tenant who tried to make the garbage wagons carry away the +contents of his stable. + +With the two or three residents who nobly stood by, we set up six +of those doleful incinerators which are supposed to burn garbage +with the fuel collected in the alley itself. The one factory in +town which could utilize old tin cans was a window weight +factory, and we deluged that with ten times as many tin cans as +it could use--much less would pay for. We made desperate +attempts to have the dead animals removed by the contractor who +was paid most liberally by the city for that purpose but who, we +slowly discovered, always made the police ambulances do the work, +delivering the carcasses upon freight cars for shipment to a soap +factory in Indiana where they were sold for a good price although +the contractor himself was the largest stockholder in the +concern. Perhaps our greatest achievement was the discovery of a +pavement eighteen inches under the surface in a narrow street, +although after it was found we triumphantly discovered a record +of its existence in the city archives. The Italians living on +the street were much interested but displayed little +astonishment, perhaps because they were accustomed to see buried +cities exhumed. This pavement became the casus belli between +myself and the street commissioner when I insisted that its +restoration belonged to him, after I had removed the first eight +inches of garbage. The matter was finally settled by the mayor +himself, who permitted me to drive him to the entrance of the +street in what the children called my "garbage phaeton" and who +took my side of the controversy. + +A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, who had done some +excellent volunteer inspection in both Chicago and Pittsburg, +became my deputy and performed the work in a most thoroughgoing +manner for three years. During the last two she was under the +regime of civil service for in 1895, to the great joy of many +citizens, the Illinois legislature made that possible. + +Many of the foreign-born women of the ward were much shocked by +this abrupt departure into the ways of men, and it took a great +deal of explanation to convey the idea even remotely that if it +were a womanly task to go about in tenement houses in order to +nurse the sick, it might be quite as womanly to go through the +same district in order to prevent the breeding of so-called +"filth diseases." While some of the women enthusiastically +approved the slowly changing conditions and saw that their +housewifely duties logically extended to the adjacent alleys and +streets, they yet were quite certain that "it was not a lady's +job." A revelation of this attitude was made one day in a +conversation which the inspector heard vigorously carried on in a +laundry. One of the employees was leaving and was expressing her +mind concerning the place in no measured terms, summing up her +contempt for it as follows: "I would rather be the girl who goes +about in the alleys than to stay here any longer!" + +And yet the spectacle of eight hours' work for eight hours' pay, +the even-handed justice to all citizens irrespective of "pull," +the dividing of responsibility between landlord and tenant, and +the readiness to enforce obedience to law from both, was, +perhaps, one of the most valuable demonstrations which could have +been made. Such daily living on the part of the office holder is +of infinitely more value than many talks on civics for, after +all, we credit most easily that which we see. The careful +inspection combined with other causes, brought about a great +improvement in the cleanliness and comfort of the neighborhood +and one happy day, when the death rate of our ward was found to +have dropped from third to seventh in the list of city wards and +was so reported to our Woman's Club, the applause which followed +recorded the genuine sense of participation in the result, and a +public spirit which had "made good." But the cleanliness of the +ward was becoming much too popular to suit our all-powerful +alderman and, although we felt fatuously secure under the regime +of civil service, he found a way to circumvent us by eliminating +the position altogether. He introduced an ordinance into the +city council which combined the collection of refuse with the +cleaning and repairing of the streets, the whole to be placed +under a ward superintendent. The office of course was to be +filled under civil service regulations but only men were eligible +to the examination. Although this latter regulation was +afterwards modified in favor of one woman, it was retained long +enough to put the nineteenth ward inspector out of office. + +Of course our experience in inspecting only made us more +conscious of the wretched housing conditions over which we had +been distressed from the first. It was during the World's Fair +summer that one of the Hull-House residents in a public address +upon housing reform used as an example of indifferent landlordism +a large block in the neighborhood occupied by small tenements and +stables unconnected with a street sewer, as was much similar +property in the vicinity. In the lecture the resident spared +neither a description of the property nor the name of the owner. +The young man who owned the property was justly indignant at this +public method of attack and promptly came to investigate the +condition of the property. Together we made a careful tour of +the houses and stables and in the face of the conditions that we +found there, I could not but agree with him that supplying South +Italian peasants with sanitary appliances seemed a difficult +undertaking. Nevertheless he was unwilling that the block should +remain in its deplorable state, and he finally cut through the +dilemma with the rash proposition that he would give a free lease +of the entire tract to Hull-House, accompanying the offer, +however, with the warning remark, that if we should choose to use +the income from the rents in sanitary improvements we should be +throwing our money away. + +Even when we decided that the houses were so bad that we could +not undertake the task of improving them, he was game and stuck +to his proposition that we should have a free lease. We finally +submitted a plan that the houses should be torn down and the +entire tract turned into a playground, although cautious advisers +intimated that it would be very inconsistent to ask for +subscriptions for the support of Hull-House when we were known to +have thrown away an income of two thousand dollars a year. We, +however, felt that a spectacle of inconsistency was better than +one of bad landlordism and so the worst of the houses were +demolished, the best three were sold and moved across the street +under careful provision that they might never be used for junk- +shops or saloons, and a public playground was finally +established. Hull-House became responsible for its management +for ten years, at the end of which time it was turned over to the +City Playground Commission although from the first the city +detailed a policeman who was responsible for its general order +and who became a valued adjunct of the House. + +During fifteen years this public-spirited owner of the property +paid all the taxes, and when the block was finally sold he made +possible the playground equipment of a near-by schoolyard. On +the other hand, the dispossessed tenants, a group of whom had to +be evicted by legal process before their houses could be torn +down, have never ceased to mourn their former estates. Only the +other day I met upon the street an old Italian harness maker, who +said that he had never succeeded so well anywhere else nor found +a place that "seemed so much like Italy." + +Festivities of various sorts were held on this early playground, +always a May day celebration with its Maypole dance and its May +queen. I remember that one year that honor of being queen was +offered to the little girl who should pick up the largest number +of scraps of paper which littered all the streets and alleys. The +children that spring had been organized into a league, and each +member had been provided with a stiff piece of wire upon the +sharpened point of which stray bits of paper were impaled and +later soberly counted off into a large box in the Hull-House +alley. The little Italian girl who thus won the scepter took it +very gravely as the just reward of hard labor, and we were all so +absorbed in the desire for clean and tidy streets that we were +wholly oblivious to the incongruity of thus selecting "the queen +of love and beauty." + +It was at the end of the second year that we received a visit from +the warden of Toynbee Hall and his wife, as they were returning to +England from a journey around the world. They had lived in East +London for many years, and had been identified with the public +movements for its betterment. They were much shocked that, in a +new country with conditions still plastic and hopeful, so little +attention had been paid to experiments and methods of amelioration +which had already been tried; and they looked in vain through our +library for blue books and governmental reports which recorded +painstaking study into the conditions of English cities. + +They were the first of a long line of English visitors to express +the conviction that many things in Chicago were untoward not +through paucity of public spirit but through a lack of political +machinery adapted to modern city life. This was not all of the +situation but perhaps no casual visitor could be expected to see +that these matters of detail seemed unimportant to a city in the +first flush of youth, impatient of correction and convinced that +all would be well with its future. The most obvious faults were +those connected with the congested housing of the immigrant +population, nine tenths of them from the country, who carried on +all sorts of traditional activities in the crowded tenements. +That a group of Greeks should be permitted to slaughter sheep in +a basement, that Italian women should be allowed to sort over +rags collected from the city dumps, not only within the city +limits but in a court swarming with little children, that +immigrant bakers should continue unmolested to bake bread for +their neighbors in unspeakably filthy spaces under the pavement, +appeared incredible to visitors accustomed to careful city +regulations. I recall two visits made to the Italian quarter by +John Burns--the second, thirteen years after the first. During +the latter visit it seemed to him unbelievable that a certain +house owned by a rich Italian should have been permitted to +survive. He remembered with the greatest minuteness the +positions of the houses on the court, with the exact space +between the front and rear tenements, and he asked at once +whether we had been able to cut a window into a dark hall as he +had recommended thirteen years before. Although we were obliged +to confess that the landlord would not permit the window to be +cut, we were able to report that a City Homes Association had +existed for ten years; that following a careful study of tenement +conditions in Chicago, the text of which had been written by a +Hull-House resident, the association had obtained the enactment +of a model tenement-house code, and that their secretary had +carefully watched the administration of the law for years so that +its operation might not be minimized by the granting of too many +exceptions in the city council. Our progress still seemed slow +to Mr. Burns because in Chicago, the actual houses were quite +unchanged, embodying features long since declared illegal in +London. Only this year could we have reported to him, had he +again come to challenge us, that the provisions of the law had at +last been extended to existing houses and that a conscientious +corps of inspectors under an efficient chief, were fast remedying +the most glaring evils, while a band of nurses and doctors were +following hard upon the "trail of the white hearse." + +The mere consistent enforcement of existing laws and efforts for +their advance often placed Hull-House, at least temporarily, into +strained relations with its neighbors. I recall a continuous +warfare against local landlords who would move wrecks of old +houses as a nucleus for new ones in order to evade the provisions +of the building code, and a certain Italian neighbor who was +filled with bitterness because his new rear tenement was +discovered to be illegal. It seemed impossible to make him +understand that the health of the tenants was in any wise as +important as his undisturbed rents. + +Nevertheless many evils constantly arise in Chicago from +congested housing which wiser cities forestall and prevent; the +inevitable boarders crowded into a dark tenement already too +small for the use of the immigrant family occupying it; the +surprisingly large number of delinquent girls who have become +criminally involved with their own fathers and uncles; the school +children who cannot find a quiet spot in which to read or study +and who perforce go into the streets each evening; the +tuberculosis superinduced and fostered by the inadequate rooms +and breathing spaces. One of the Hull-House residents, under the +direction of a Chicago physician who stands high as an authority +on tuberculosis and who devotes a large proportion of his time to +our vicinity, made an investigation into housing conditions as +related to tuberculosis with a result as startling as that of the +"lung block" in New York. + +It is these subtle evils of wretched and inadequate housing which +are often the most disastrous. In the summer of 1902 during an +epidemic of typhoid fever in which our ward, although containing +but one thirty-sixth of the population of the city, registered +one sixth of the total number of deaths, two of the Hull-House +residents made an investigation of the methods of plumbing in the +houses adjacent to conspicuous groups of fever cases. They +discovered among the people who had been exposed to the +infection, a widow who had lived in the ward for a number of +years, in a comfortable little house of her own. Although the +Italian immigrants were closing in all around her, she was not +willing to sell her property and to move away until she had +finished the education of her children. In the meantime she held +herself quite aloof from her Italian neighbors and could never be +drawn into any of the public efforts to secure a better code of +tenement-house sanitation. Her two daughters were sent to an +eastern college. One June when one of them had graduated and the +other still had two years before she took her degree, they came +to the spotless little house and their self-sacrificing mother +for the summer holiday. They both fell ill with typhoid fever +and one daughter died because the mother's utmost efforts could +not keep the infection out of her own house. The entire disaster +affords, perhaps, a fair illustration of the futility of the +individual conscience which would isolate a family from the rest +of the community and its interests. + +The careful information collected concerning the juxtaposition of +the typhoid cases to the various systems of plumbing and +nonplumbing was made the basis of a bacteriological study by +another resident, Dr. Alice Hamilton, as to the possibility of +the infection having been carried by flies. Her researches were +so convincing that they have been incorporated into the body of +scientific data supporting that theory, but there were also +practical results from the investigation. It was discovered that +the wretched sanitary appliances through which alone the +infection could have become so widely spread, would not have been +permitted to remain, unless the city inspector had either been +criminally careless or open to the arguments of favored +landlords. + +The agitation finally resulted in a long and stirring trial +before the civil service board of half of the employees in the +Sanitary Bureau, with the final discharge of eleven out of the +entire force of twenty-four. The inspector in our neighborhood +was a kindly old man, greatly distressed over the affair, and +quite unable to understand why he should have not used his +discretion as to the time when a landlord should be forced to put +in modern appliances. If he was "very poor," or "just about to +sell his place," or "sure that the house would be torn down to +make room for a factory," why should one "inconvenience" him? The +old man died soon after the trial, feeling persecuted to the very +last and not in the least understanding what it was all about. +We were amazed at the commercial ramifications which graft in the +city hall involved and at the indignation which interference with +it produced. Hull-House lost some large subscriptions as the +result of this investigation, a loss which, if not easy to bear, +was at least comprehensible. We also uncovered unexpected graft +in connection with the plumbers' unions, and but for the fearless +testimony of one of their members, could never have brought the +trial to a successful issue. + +Inevitable misunderstanding also developed in connection with the +attempt on the part of Hull-House residents to prohibit the sale +of cocaine to minors, which brought us into sharp conflict with +many druggists. I recall an Italian druggist living on the edge +of the neighborhood, who finally came with a committee of his +countryman to see what Hull-House wanted of him, thoroughly +convinced that no such effort could be disinterested. One dreary +trial after another had been lost through the inadequacy of the +existing legislation and after many attempts to secure better +legal regulation of its sale, a new law with the cooperation of +many agencies was finally secured in 1907. Through all this the +Italian druggist, who had greatly profited by the sale of cocaine +to boys, only felt outraged and abused. And yet the thought of +this campaign brings before my mind with irresistible force, a +young Italian boy who died,--a victim of the drug at the age of +seventeen. He had been in our kindergarten as a handsome merry +child, in our clubs as a vivacious boy, and then gradually there +was an eclipse of all that was animated and joyous and promising, +and when I at last saw him in his coffin, it was impossible to +connect that haggard shriveled body with what I had known before. + +A midwife investigation, undertaken in connection with the +Chicago Medical Society, while showing the great need of further +state regulation in the interest of the most ignorant mothers and +helpless children, brought us into conflict with one of the most +venerable of all customs. Was all this a part of the unending +struggle between the old and new, or were these oppositions so +unexpected and so unlooked for merely a reminder of that old bit +of wisdom that "there is no guarding against interpretations"? +Perhaps more subtle still, they were due to that very +super-refinement of disinterestedness which will not justify +itself, that it may feel superior to public opinion. Some of our +investigations of course had no such untoward results, such as +"An Intensive Study of Truancy" undertaken by a resident of +Hull-House in connection with the compulsory education department +of the Board of Education and the Visiting Nurses Association. +The resident, Mrs. Britton, who, having had charge of our +children's clubs for many years, knew thousands of children in +the neighborhood, made a detailed study of three hundred families +tracing back the habitual truancy of the child to economic and +social causes. This investigation preceded a most interesting +conference on truancy held under a committee of which I was a +member from the Chicago Board of Education. It left lasting +results upon the administration of the truancy law as well as the +cooperation of volunteer bodies. + +We continually conduct small but careful investigations at +Hull-House, which may guide us in our immediate doings such as two +recently undertaken by Mrs. Britton, one upon the reading of school +children before new books were bought for the children's club +libraries, and another on the proportion of tuberculosis among +school children, before we opened a little experimental outdoor +school on one of our balconies. Some of the Hull-House +investigations are purely negative in result; we once made an +attempt to test the fatigue of factory girls in order to determine +how far overwork superinduced the tuberculosis to which such a +surprising number of them were victims. The one scientific +instrument it seemed possible to use was an ergograph, a +complicated and expensive instrument kindly lent to us from the +physiological laboratory of the University of Chicago. I remember +the imposing procession we made from Hull-House to the factory full +of working women, in which the proprietor allowed us to make the +tests; first there was the precious instrument on a hand truck +guarded by an anxious student and the young physician who was going +to take the tests every afternoon; then there was Dr. Hamilton the +resident in charge of the investigation, walking with a scientist +who was interested to see that the instrument was properly +installed; I followed in the rear to talk once more to the +proprietor of the factory to be quite sure that he would permit the +experiment to go on. The result of all this preparation, however, +was to have the instrument record less fatigue at the end of the +day than at the beginning, not because the girls had not worked +hard and were not "dog tired" as they confessed, but because the +instrument was not fitted to find it out. + +For many years we have administered a branch station of the federal +post office at Hull-House, which we applied for in the first +instance because our neighbors lost such a large percentage of the +money they sent to Europe, through the commissions to middle men. +The experience in the post office constantly gave us data for +urging the establishment of postal savings as we saw one perplexed +immigrant after another turning away in bewilderment when he was +told that the United States post office did not receive savings. + +We find increasingly, however, that the best results are to be +obtained in investigations as in other undertakings, by combining +our researches with those of other public bodies or with the +State itself. When all the Chicago Settlements found themselves +distressed over the condition of the newsboys who, because they +are merchants and not employees, do not come under the provisions +of the Illinois child labor law, they united in the investigation +of a thousand young newsboys, who were all interviewed on the +streets during the same twenty-four hours. Their school and +domestic status was easily determined later, for many of the boys +lived in the immediate neighborhoods of the ten Settlements which +had undertaken the investigation. The report embodying the +results of the investigation recommended a city ordinance +containing features from the Boston and Buffalo regulations, and +although an ordinance was drawn up and a strenuous effort was +made to bring it to the attention of the aldermen, none of them +would introduce it into the city council without newspaper +backing. We were able to agitate for it again at the annual +meeting of the National Child Labor Committee which was held in +Chicago in 1908, and which was of course reported in papers +throughout the entire country. This meeting also demonstrated +that local measures can sometimes be urged most effectively when +joined to the efforts of a national body. Undoubtedly the best +discussions ever held upon the operation and status of the +Illinois law were those which took place then. The needs of the +Illinois children were regarded in connection with the children +of the nation and advanced health measures for Illinois were +compared with those of other states. + +The investigations of Hull-House thus tend to be merged with +those of larger organizations, from the investigation of the +social value of saloons made for the Committee of Fifty in 1896, +to the one on infant mortality in relation to nationality, made +for the American Academy of Science in 1909. This is also true +of Hull-House activities in regard to public movements, some of +which are inaugurated by the residents of other Settlements, as +the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, founded by the +splendid efforts of Dr. Graham Taylor for many years head of +Chicago Commons. All of our recent investigations into housing +have been under the department of investigation of this school +with which several of the Hull-House residents are identified, +quite as our active measures to secure better housing conditions +have been carried on with the City Homes Association and through +the cooperation of one of our residents who several years ago was +appointed a sanitary inspector on the city staff. + +Perhaps Dr. Taylor himself offers the best possible example of +the value of Settlement experience to public undertakings, in his +manifold public activities of which one might instance his work +at the moment upon a commission recently appointed by the +governor of Illinois to report upon the best method of Industrial +Insurance or Employer's Liability Acts, and his influence in +securing another to study into the subject of Industrial +Diseases. The actual factory investigation under the latter is +in charge of Dr. Hamilton, of Hull-House, whose long residence in +an industrial neighborhood as well as her scientific attainment, +give her peculiar qualifications for the undertaking. + +And so a Settlement is led along from the concrete to the +abstract, as may easily be illustrated. Many years ago a tailors' +union meeting at Hull-House asked our cooperation in tagging the +various parts of a man's coat in such wise as to show the money +paid to the people who had made it; one tag for the cutting and +another for the buttonholes, another for the finishing and so on, +the resulting total to be compared with the selling price of the +coat itself. It quickly became evident that we had no way of +computing how much of this larger balance was spent for salesmen, +commercial travelers, rent and management, and the poor tagged +coat was finally left hanging limply in a closet as if discouraged +with the attempt. But the desire of the manual worker to know the +relation of his own labor to the whole is not only legitimate but +must form the basis of any intelligent action for his improvement. + It was therefore with the hope of reform in the sewing trades +that the Hull-House residents testified before the Federal +Industrial Commission in 1900, and much later with genuine +enthusiasm joined with trades-unionists and other public-spirited +citizens in an industrial exhibit which made a graphic +presentation of the conditions and rewards of labor. The large +casino building in which it was held was filled every day and +evening for two weeks, showing how popular such information is, if +it can be presented graphically. As an illustration of this same +moving from the smaller to the larger, I might instance the +efforts of Miss McDowell of the University of Chicago Settlement +and others in urging upon Congress the necessity for a special +investigation into the conditions of women and children in +industry because we had discovered the insuperable difficulties of +smaller investigations, notably one undertaken for the Illinois +Bureau of Labor by Mrs. Van der Vaart of Neighborhood House and by +Miss Breckinridge of the University of Chicago. This +investigation made clear that it was as impossible to detach the +girls working in the stockyards from their sisters in industry as +it was to urge special legislation on their behalf. + +In the earlier years of the American Settlements, the residents +were sometimes impatient with the accepted methods of charitable +administration and hoped, through residence in an industrial +neighborhood, to discover more cooperative and advanced methods +of dealing with the problems of poverty which are so dependent +upon industrial maladjustment. But during twenty years, the +Settlements have seen the charitable people, through their very +knowledge of the poor, constantly approach nearer to those +methods formerly designated as radical. The residents, so far +from holding aloof from organized charity, find testimony, +certainly in the National Conferences, that out of the most +persistent and intelligent efforts to alleviate poverty will in +all probability arise the most significant suggestions for +eradicating poverty. In the hearing before a congressional +committee for the establishment of a Children's Bureau, residents +in American Settlements joined their fellow philanthropists in +urging the need of this indispensable instrument for collecting +and disseminating information which would make possible concerted +intelligent action on behalf of children. + +Mr. Howells has said that we are all so besotted with our novel +reading that we have lost the power of seeing certain aspects of +life with any sense of reality because we are continually looking +for the possible romance. The description might apply to the +earlier years of the American settlement, but certainly the later +years are filled with discoveries in actual life as romantic as +they are unexpected. If I may illustrate one of these romantic +discoveries from my own experience, I would cite the indications +of an internationalism as sturdy and virile as it is unprecedented +which I have seen in our cosmopolitan neighborhood: when a South +Italian Catholic is forced by the very exigencies of the situation +to make friends with an Austrian Jew representing another +nationality and another religion, both of which cut into all his +most cherished prejudices, he finds it harder to utilize them a +second time and gradually loses them. He thus modifies his +provincialism, for if an old enemy working by his side has turned +into a friend, almost anything may happen. When, therefore, I +became identified with the peace movement both in its +International and National Conventions, I hoped that this +internationalism engendered in the immigrant quarters of American +cities might be recognized as an effective instrument in the cause +of peace. I first set it forth with some misgiving before the +Convention held in Boston in 1904 and it is always a pleasure to +recall the hearty assent given to it by Professor William James. + +I have always objected to the phrase "sociological laboratory" +applied to us, because Settlements should be something much more +human and spontaneous than such a phrase connotes, and yet it is +inevitable that the residents should know their own neighborhoods +more thoroughly than any other, and that their experiences there +should affect their convictions. + +Years ago I was much entertained by a story told at the Chicago +Woman's Club by one of its ablest members in the discussion +following a paper of mine on "The Outgrowths of Toynbee Hall." +She said that when she was a little girl playing in her mother's +garden, she one day discovered a small toad who seemed to her +very forlorn and lonely, although she did not in the least know +how to comfort him, she reluctantly left him to his fate; later +in the day, quite at the other end of the garden, she found a +large toad, also apparently without family and friends. With a +heart full of tender sympathy, she took a stick and by exercising +infinite patience and some skill, she finally pushed the little +toad through the entire length of the garden into the company of +the big toad, when, to her inexpressible horror and surprise, the +big toad opened his mouth and swallowed the little one. The +moral of the tale was clear applied to people who lived "where +they did not naturally belong," although I protested that was +exactly what we wanted--to be swallowed and digested, to +disappear into the bulk of the people. + +Twenty years later I am willing to testify that something of the +sort does take place after years of identification with an +industrial community. + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Adrienne Fermoyle. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter XIV: Civic Cooperation." by by Jane Addams (1860-1935) +From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes. by +Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. +310-341. + +[Editor: Mary MarkOckerbloom] + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CIVIC COOPERATION + + +One of the first lessons we learned at Hull-House was that private +beneficence is totally inadequate to deal with the vast numbers of +the city's disinherited. We also quickly came to realize that +there are certain types of wretchedness from which every private +philanthropy shrinks and which are cared for only in those wards +of the county hospital provided for the wrecks of vicious living +or in the city's isolation hospital for smallpox patients. + +I have heard a broken-hearted mother exclaim when her erring +daughter came home at last too broken and diseased to be taken +into the family she had disgraced, "There is no place for her but +the top floor of the County Hospital; they will have to take her +there," and this only after every possible expedient had been +tried or suggested. This aspect of governmental responsibility +was unforgettably borne in upon me during the smallpox epidemic +following the World's Fair, when one of the residents, Mrs. +Kelley, as State Factory Inspector, was much concerned in +discovering and destroying clothing which was being finished in +houses containing unreported cases of smallpox. The deputy most +successful in locating such cases lived at Hull-House during the +epidemic because he did not wish to expose his own family. +Another resident, Miss Lathrop, as a member of the State Board of +Charities, went back and forth to the crowded pest house which +had been hastily constructed on a stretch of prairie west of the +city. As Hull-House was already so exposed, it seemed best for +the special smallpox inspectors from the Board of Health to take +their meals and change their clothing there before they went to +their respective homes. All of these officials had accepted +without question and as implicit in public office the obligation +to carry on the dangerous and difficult undertakings for which +private philanthropy is unfitted, as if the commonalty of +compassion represented by the State was more comprehending than +that of any individual group. + +It was as early as our second winter on Halsted Street that one +of the Hull-House residents received an appointment from the Cook +County agent as a county visitor. She reported at the agency +each morning, and all the cases within a radius of ten blocks +from Hull-House were given to her for investigation. This gave +her a legitimate opportunity for knowing the poorest people in +the neighborhood and also for understanding the county method of +outdoor relief. The commissioners were at first dubious of the +value of such a visitor and predicted that a woman would be a +perfect "coal chute" for giving away county supplies, but they +gradually came to depend upon her suggestion and advice. + +In 1893 this same resident, Miss Julia C. Lathrop, was appointed +by the governor a member of the Illinois State Board of +Charities. She served in this capacity for two consecutive terms +and was later reappointed to a third term. Perhaps her most +valuable contribution toward the enlargement and reorganization +of the charitable institutions of the State came through her +intimate knowledge of the beneficiaries, and her experience +demonstrated that it is only through long residence among the +poor that an official could have learned to view public +institutions as she did, from the standpoint of the inmates +rather than from that of the managers. Since that early day, +residents of Hull-House have spent much time in working for the +civil service methods of appointment for employees in the county +and State institutions; for the establishment of State colonies +for the care of epileptics; and for a dozen other enterprises +which occupy that borderland between charitable effort and +legislation. In this borderland we cooperate in many civic +enterprises for I think we may claim that Hull-House has always +held its activities lightly, ready to hand them over to whosoever +would carry them on properly. + +Miss Starr had early made a collection of framed photographs, +largely of the paintings studied in her art class, which became +the basis of a loan collection first used by the Hull-House +students and later extended to the public schools. It may be +fair to suggest that this effort was the nucleus of the Public +School Art Society which was later formed in the city and of +which Miss Starr was the first president. + +In our first two summers we had maintained three baths in the +basement of our own house for the use of the neighborhood, and +they afforded some experience and argument for the erection of +the first public bathhouse in Chicago, which was built on a +neighboring street and opened under the city Board of Health. The +lot upon which it was erected belonged to a friend of Hull-House +who offered it to the city without rent, and this enabled the +city to erect the first public bath from the small appropriation +of ten thousand dollars. Great fear was expressed by the public +authorities that the baths would not be used, and the old story +of the bathtubs in model tenements which had been turned into +coal bins was often quoted to us. We were supplied, however, +with the incontrovertible argument that in our adjacent third +square mile there were in 1892 but three bathtubs and that this +fact was much complained of by many of the tenement-house +dwellers. Our contention was justified by the immediate and +overflowing use of the public baths, as we had before been +sustained in the contention that an immigrant population would +respond to opportunities for reading when the Public Library +Board had established a branch reading room at Hull-House. + +We also quickly discovered that nothing brought us so absolutely +into comradeship with our neighbors as mutual and sustained +effort such as the paving of a street, the closing of a gambling +house, or the restoration of a veteran police sergeant. + +Several of these earlier attempts at civic cooperation were +undertaken in connection with the Hull-House Men's Club, which +had been organized in the spring of 1893, had been incorporated +under a State charter of its own, and had occupied a club room in +the gymnasium building. This club obtained an early success in +one of the political struggles in the ward and thus fastened upon +itself a specious reputation for political power. It was at last +so torn by the dissensions of two political factions which +attempted to capture it that, although it is still an existing +organization, it has never regained the prestige of its first +five years. Its early political success came in a campaign +Hull-House had instigated against a powerful alderman who has +held office for more than twenty years in the nineteenth ward, +and who, although notoriously corrupt, is still firmly intrenched +among his constituents. + +Hull-House has had to do with three campaigns organized against +him. In the first one he was apparently only amused at our +"Sunday School" effort and did little to oppose the election to +the aldermanic office of a member of the Hull-House Men's Club +who thus became his colleague in the city council. When +Hull-House, however, made an effort in the following spring +against the re-election of the alderman himself, we encountered +the most determined and skillful opposition. In these campaigns +we doubtless depended too much upon the idealistic appeal for we +did not yet comprehend the element of reality always brought into +the political struggle in such a neighborhood where politics deal +so directly with getting a job and earning a living. + +We soon discovered that approximately one out of every five +voters in the nineteenth ward at that time held a job dependent +upon the good will of the alderman. There were no civil service +rules to interfere, and the unskilled voter swept the street and +dug the sewer, as secure in his position as the more +sophisticated voter who tended a bridge or occupied an office +chair in the city hall. The alderman was even more fortunate in +finding places with the franchise-seeking corporations; it took +us some time to understand why so large a proportion of our +neighbors were street-car employees and why we had such a large +club composed solely of telephone girls. Our powerful alderman +had various methods of entrenching himself. Many people were +indebted to him for his kindly services in the police station and +the justice courts, for in those days Irish constituents easily +broke the peace, and before the establishment of the Juvenile +Court, boys were arrested for very trivial offenses; added to +these were hundreds of constituents indebted to him for personal +kindness, from the peddler who received a free license to the +businessman who had a railroad pass to New York. Our third +campaign against him, when we succeeded in making a serious +impression upon his majority, evoked from his henchmen the same +sort of hostility which a striker so inevitably feels against the +man who would take his job, even sharpened by the sense that the +movement for reform came from an alien source. + +Another result of the campaign was an expectation on the part of +our new political friends that Hull-House would perform like +offices for them, and there resulted endless confusion and +misunderstanding because in many cases we could not even attempt +to do what the alderman constantly did with a right good will. +When he protected a law breaker from the legal consequences of +his act, his kindness appeared, not only to himself but to all +beholders, like the deed of a powerful and kindly statesman. When +Hull-House on the other hand insisted that a law must be +enforced, it could but appear like the persecution of the +offender. We were certainly not anxious for consistency nor for +individual achievement, but in a desire to foster a higher +political morality and not to lower our standards, we constantly +clashed with the existing political code. We also unwittingly +stumbled upon a powerful combination of which our alderman was +the political head, with its banking, its ecclesiastical, and its +journalistic representatives, and as we followed up the clue and +naively told all we discovered, we of course laid the foundations +for opposition which has manifested itself in many forms; the +most striking expression of it was an attack upon Hull-House +lasting through weeks and months by a Chicago daily newspaper +which has since ceased publication. + +During the third campaign I received many anonymous +letters--those from the men often obscene, those from the women +revealing that curious connection between prostitution and the +lowest type of politics which every city tries in vain to hide. +I had offers from the men in the city prison to vote properly if +released; various communications from lodging-house keepers as to +the prices of the vote they were ready to deliver; everywhere +appeared that animosity which is evoked only when a man feels +that his means of livelihood is threatened. + +As I look back, I am reminded of the state of mind of Kipling's +newspapermen who witnessed a volcanic eruption at sea, in which +unbelievable deep-sea creatures were expelled to the surface, +among them an enormous white serpent, blind and smelling of musk, +whose death throes thrashed the sea into a fury. With +professional instinct unimpaired, the journalists carefully +observed the uncanny creature never designed for the eyes of men; +but a few days later, when they found themselves in a comfortable +second-class carriage, traveling from Southampton to London +between trim hedgerows and smug English villages, they concluded +that the experience was too sensational to be put before the +British public, and it became improbable even to themselves. + +Many subsequent years of living in kindly neighborhood fashion +with the people of the nineteenth ward has produced upon my +memory the soothing effect of the second-class railroad carriage +and many of these political experiences have not only become +remote but already seem improbable. On the other hand, these +campaigns were not without their rewards; one of them was a +quickened friendship both with the more substantial citizens in +the ward and with a group of fine young voters whose devotion to +Hull-House has never since failed; another was a sense of +identification with public-spirited men throughout the city who +contributed money and time to what they considered a gallant +effort against political corruption. I remember a young +professor from the University of Chicago who with his wife came +to live at Hull-House, traveling the long distance every day +throughout the autumn and winter that he might qualify as a +nineteenth-ward voter in the spring campaign. He served as a +watcher at the polls and it was but a poor reward for his +devotion that he was literally set upon and beaten up, for in +those good old days such things frequently occurred. Many another +case of devotion to our standard so recklessly raised might be +cited, but perhaps more valuable than any of these was the sense +of identification we obtained with the rest of Chicago. + +So far as a Settlement can discern and bring to local +consciousness neighborhood needs which are common needs, and can +give vigorous help to the municipal measures through which such +needs shall be met, it fulfills its most valuable function. To +illustrate from our first effort to improve the street paving in +the vicinity, we found that when we had secured the consent of +the majority of the property owners on a given street for a new +paving, the alderman checked the entire plan through his kindly +service to one man who had appealed to him to keep the +assessments down. The street long remained a shocking mass of +wet, dilapidated cedar blocks, where children were sometimes +mired as they floated a surviving block in the water which +speedily filled the holes whence other blocks had been extracted +for fuel. And yet when we were able to demonstrate that the +street paving had thus been reduced into cedar pulp by the +heavily loaded wagons of an adjacent factory, that the expense of +its repaving should be borne from a general fund and not by the +poor property owners, we found that we could all unite in +advocating reform in the method of repaving assessments, and the +alderman himself was obliged to come into such a popular +movement. The Nineteenth Ward Improvement Association which met +at Hull-House during two winters, was the first body of citizens +able to make a real impression upon the local paving situation. +They secured an expert to watch the paving as it went down to be +sure that their half of the paving money was well expended. In +the belief that property values would be thus enhanced, the +common aim brought together the more prosperous people of the +vicinity, somewhat as the Hull-House Cooperative Coal Association +brought together the poorer ones. + +I remember that during the second campaign against our alderman, +Governor Pingree of Michigan came to visit at Hull-House. He said +that the stronghold of such a man was not the place in which to +start municipal regeneration; that good aldermen should be elected +from the promising wards first, until a majority of honest men in +the city council should make politics unprofitable for corrupt +men. We replied that it was difficult to divide Chicago into good +and bad wards, but that a new organization called the Municipal +Voters' League was attempting to give to the well-meaning voter in +each ward throughout the city accurate information concerning the +candidates and their relation, past and present, to vital issues. +One of our trustees who was most active in inaugurating this +League always said that his nineteenth-ward experience had +convinced him of the unity of city politics, and that he +constantly used our campaign as a challenge to the unaroused +citizens living in wards less conspicuously corrupt. + +Certainly the need for civic cooperation was obvious in many +directions, and in none more strikingly than in that organized +effort which must be carried on unceasingly if young people are to +be protected from the darker and coarser dangers of the city. The +cooperation between Hull-House and the Juvenile Protective +Association came about gradually, and it seems now almost +inevitably. From our earliest days we saw many boys constantly +arrested, and I had a number of most enlightening experiences in +the police station with an Irish lad whose mother upon her +deathbed had begged me "to look after him." We were distressed by +the gangs of very little boys who would sally forth with an +enterprising leader in search of old brass and iron, sometimes +breaking into empty houses for the sake of the faucets or lead +pipe which they would sell for a good price to a junk dealer. With +the money thus obtained they would buy cigarettes and beer or even +candy, which could be conspicuously consumed in the alleys where +they might enjoy the excitement of being seen and suspected by the +"coppers." From the third year of Hull-House, one of the residents +held a semiofficial position in the nearest police station; at +least, the sergeant agreed to give her provisional charge of every +boy and girl under arrest for a trivial offense. + +Mrs. Stevens, who performed this work for several years, became +the first probation officer of the Juvenile Court when it was +established in Cook County in 1899. She was the sole probation +officer at first, but at the time of her death, which occurred at +Hull-House in 1900, she was the senior officer of a corps of six. + Her entire experience had fitted her to deal wisely with wayward +children. She had gone into a New England cotton mill at the age +of thirteen, where she had promptly lost the index finger of her +right hand, through "carelessness" she was told, and no one then +seemed to understand that freedom from care was the prerogative +of childhood. Later she became a typesetter and was one of the +first women in America to become a member of the typographical +union, retaining her "card" through all the later years of +editorial work. As the Juvenile Court developed, the committee +of public-spirited citizens who first supplied only Mrs. Stevens' +salary later maintained a corps of twenty-two such officers; +several of these were Hull-House residents who brought to the +house for many years a sad little procession of children +struggling against all sorts of handicaps. When legislation was +secured which placed the probation officers upon the payroll of +the county, it was a challenge to the efficiency of the civil +service method of appointment to obtain by examination men and +women fitted for this delicate human task. As one of five people +asked by the civil service commission to conduct this first +examination for probation officers, I became convinced that we +were but at the beginning of the nonpolitical method of selecting +public servants, but even stiff and unbending as the examination +may be, it is still our hope of political salvation. + +In 1907, the Juvenile Court was housed in a model court building +of its own, containing a detention home and equipped with a +competent staff. The committee of citizens largely responsible +for this result thereupon turned their attention to the +conditions which the records of the court indicated had led to +the alarming amount of juvenile delinquency and crime. They +organized the Juvenile Protective Association, whose twenty-two +officers meet weekly at Hull-House with their executive committee +to report what they have found and to discuss city conditions +affecting the lives of children and young people. + +The association discovers that there are certain temptations into +which children so habitually fall that it is evident that the +average child cannot withstand them. An overwhelming mass of +data is accumulated showing the need of enforcing existing +legislation and of securing new legislation, but it also +indicates a hundred other directions in which the young people +who so gaily walk our streets, often to their own destruction, +need safeguarding and protection. + +The effort of the association to treat the youth of the city with +consideration and understanding has rallied the most unexpected +forces to its standard. Quite as the basic needs of life are +supplied solely by those who make money out of the business, so +the modern city has assumed that the craving for pleasure must be +ministered to only by the sordid. This assumption, however, in a +large measure broke down as soon as the Juvenile Protective +Association courageously put it to the test. After persistent +prosecutions, but also after many friendly interviews, the +Druggists' Association itself prosecutes those of its members who +sell indecent postal cards; the Saloon Keepers' Protective +Association not only declines to protect members who sell liquor +to minors, but now takes drastic action to prevent such sales; +the Retail Grocers' Association forbids the selling of tobacco to +minors; the Association of Department Store Managers not only +increased the vigilance in their waiting rooms by supplying more +matrons, but as a body they have become regular contributors to +the association; the special watchmen in all the railroad yards +agree not to arrest trespassing boys but to report them to the +association; the firms manufacturing moving picture films not +only submit their films to a volunteer inspection committee, but +ask for suggestions in regard to new matter; and the Five-Cent +Theaters arrange for "stunts" which shall deal with the subject +of public health and morals, when the lecturers provided are +entertaining as well as instructive. + +It is not difficult to arouse the impulse of protection for the +young, which would doubtless dictate the daily acts of many a +bartender and poolroom keeper if they could only indulge it +without giving their rivals an advantage. When this difficulty +is removed by an even-handed enforcement of the law, that simple +kindliness which the innocent always evoke goes from one to +another like a slowly spreading flame of good will. Doubtless +the most rewarding experience in any such undertaking as that of +the Juvenile Protective Association is the warm and intelligent +cooperation coming from unexpected sources--official and +commercial as well as philanthropic. Upon the suggestion of the +association, social centers have been opened in various parts of +the city, disused buildings turned into recreation rooms, vacant +lots made into gardens, hiking parties organized for country +excursions, bathing beaches established on the lake front, and +public schools opened for social purposes. Through the efforts +of public-spirited citizens a medical clinic and a Psychopathic +Institute have become associated with the Juvenile Court of +Chicago, in addition to which an exhaustive study of +court-records has been completed. To this carefully collected +data concerning the abnormal child, the Juvenile Protective +Association hopes in time to add knowledge of the normal child +who lives under the most adverse city conditions. + +It was not without hope that I might be able to forward in the +public school system the solution of some of these problems of +delinquency so dependent upon truancy and ill-adapted education +that I became a member of the Chicago Board of Education in July, +1905. It is impossible to write of the situation as it became +dramatized in half a dozen strong personalities, but the entire +experience was so illuminating as to the difficulties and +limitations of democratic government that it would be unfair in a +chapter on Civic Cooperation not to attempt an outline. + +Even the briefest statement, however, necessitates a review of +the preceding few years. For a decade the Chicago school +teachers, or rather a majority of them who were organized into +the Teachers' Federation, had been engaged in a conflict with the +Board of Education both for more adequate salaries and for more +self-direction in the conduct of the schools. In pursuance of +the first object, they had attacked the tax dodger along the +entire line of his defense, from the curbstone to the Supreme +Court. They began with an intricate investigation which uncovered +the fact that in 1899, $235,000,000 of value of public utility +corporations paid nothing in taxes. The Teachers' Federation +brought a suit which was prosecuted through the Supreme Court of +Illinois and resulted in an order entered against the State Board +of Equalization, demanding that it tax the corporations mentioned +in the bill. In spite of the fact that the defendant companies +sought federal aid and obtained an order which restrained the +payment of a portion of the tax, each year since 1900, the +Chicago Board of Education has benefited to the extent of more +than a quarter of a million dollars. Although this result had +been attained through the unaided efforts of the teachers, to +their surprise and indignation their salaries were not increased. +The Teachers' Federation, therefore, brought a suit against the +Board of Education for the advance which had been promised them +three years earlier but never paid. The decision of the lower +court was in their favor, but the Board of Education appealed the +case, and this was the situation when the seven new members +appointed by Mayor Dunne in 1905 took their seats. The +conservative public suspected that these new members were merely +representatives of the Teachers' Federation. This opinion was +founded upon the fact that Judge Dunne had rendered a favorable +decision in the teachers' suit and that the teachers had been +very active in the campaign which had resulted in his election as +mayor of the city. It seemed obvious that the teachers had +entered into politics for the sake of securing their own +representatives on the Board of Education. These suspicions +were, of course, only confirmed when the new board voted to +withdraw the suit of their predecessors from the Appellate Court +and to act upon the decision of the lower court. The teachers, +on the other hand, defended their long effort in the courts, the +State Board of Equalization, and the Legislature against the +charge of "dragging the schools into politics," and declared that +the exposure of the indifference and cupidity of the politicians +was a well-deserved rebuke, and that it was the politicians who +had brought the schools to the verge of financial ruin; they +further insisted that the levy and collection of taxes, tenure of +office, and pensions to civil servants in Chicago were all +entangled with the traction situation, which in their minds at +least had come to be an example of the struggle between the +democratic and plutocratic administration of city affairs. The +new appointees to the School Board represented no concerted +policy of any kind, but were for the most part adherents to the +new education. The teachers, confident that their cause was +identical with the principles advocated by such educators as +Colonel Parker, were therefore sure that the plans of the "new +education" members would of necessity coincide with the plans of +the Teachers' Federation. In one sense the situation was an +epitome of Mayor Dunne's entire administration, which was founded +upon the belief that if those citizens representing social ideals +and reform principles were but appointed to office, public +welfare must be established. + +During my tenure of office I many times talked to the officers of +the Teachers' Federation, but I was seldom able to follow their +suggestions and, although I gladly cooperated in their plans for +a better pension system and other matters, only once did I try to +influence the policy of the Federation. When the withheld +salaries were finally paid to the representatives of the +Federation who had brought suit and were divided among the +members who had suffered both financially and professionally +during this long legal struggle, I was most anxious that the +division should voluntarily be extended to all of the teachers +who had experienced a loss of salary although they were not +members of the Federation. It seemed to me a striking +opportunity to refute the charge that the Federation was +self-seeking and to put the whole long effort in the minds of the +public, exactly where it belonged, as one of devoted public +service. But it was doubtless much easier for me to urge this +altruistic policy than it was for those who had borne the heat +and burden of the day to act upon it. + +The second object of the Teachers' Federation also entailed much +stress and storm. At the time of the financial stringency, and +largely as a result of it, the Board had made the first +substantial advance in a teacher's salary dependent upon a +so-called promotional examination, half of which was upon +academic subjects entailing a long and severe preparation. The +teachers resented this upon two lines of argument: first, that +the scheme was unprofessional in that the teacher was advanced on +her capacity as a student rather than on her professional +ability; and, second, that it added an intolerable and +unnecessary burden to her already overfull day. The +administration, on the other hand, contended with much justice +that there was a constant danger in a great public school system +that teachers lose pliancy and the open mind, and that many of +them had obviously grown mechanical and indifferent. The +conservative public approved the promotional examinations as the +symbol of an advancing educational standard, and their sympathy +with the superintendent was increased because they continually +resented the affiliation of the Teachers' Federation with the +Chicago Federation of Labor, which had taken place several years +before the election of Mayor Dunne on his traction platform. + +This much talked of affiliation between the teachers and the +trades-unionists had been, at least in the first instance, but +one more tactic in the long struggle against the tax-dodging +corporations. The Teachers' Federation had won in their first +skirmish against that public indifference which is generated in +the accumulation of wealth and which has for its nucleus +successful commercial men. When they found themselves in need of +further legislation to keep the offending corporations under +control, they naturally turned for political influence and votes +to the organization representing workingmen. The affiliation had +none of the sinister meaning so often attached to it. The +Teachers' Federation never obtained a charter from the American +Federation of Labor, and its main interest always centered in the +legislative committee. + +And yet this statement of the difference between the majority of +the grade-school teachers and the Chicago School Board is totally +inadequate, for the difficulties were stubborn and lay far back +in the long effort of public school administration in America to +free itself from the rule and exploitation of politics. In every +city for many years the politician had secured positions for his +friends as teachers and janitors; he had received a rake-off in +the contract for every new building or coal supply or adoption of +school-books. In the long struggle against this political +corruption, the one remedy continually advocated was the transfer +of authority in all educational matters from the Board to the +superintendent. The one cure for "pull" and corruption was the +authority of the "expert." The rules and records of the Chicago +Board of Education are full of relics of this long struggle +honestly waged by honest men, who unfortunately became content +with the ideals of an "efficient business administration." These +businessmen established an able superintendent with a large +salary, with his tenure of office secured by State law so that he +would not be disturbed by the wrath of the balked politician. +They instituted impersonal examinations for the teachers both as +to entrance into the system and promotion, and they proceeded "to +hold the superintendent responsible" for smooth-running schools. +All this, however, dangerously approximated the commercialistic +ideal of high salaries only for the management with the final +test of a small expense account and a large output. + +In this long struggle for a quarter of a century to free the public +schools from political interference, in Chicago at least, the high +wall of defense erected around the school system in order "to keep +the rascals out" unfortunately so restricted the teachers inside +the system that they had no space in which to move about freely and +the more adventurous of them fairly panted for light and air. Any +attempt to lower the wall for the sake of the teachers within was +regarded as giving an opportunity to the politicians without, and +they were often openly accused, with a show of truth, of being in +league with each other. Whenever the Dunne members of the Board +attempted to secure more liberty for the teachers, we were warned +by tales of former difficulties with the politicians, and it seemed +impossible that the struggle so long the focus of attention should +recede into the dullness of the achieved and allow the energy of +the Board to be free for new effort. + +The whole situation between the superintendent supported by a +majority of the Board and the Teachers' Federation had become an +epitome of the struggle between efficiency and democracy; on one +side a well-intentioned expression of the bureaucracy necessary in +a large system but which under pressure had become unnecessarily +self-assertive, and on the other side a fairly militant demand for +self-government made in the name of freedom. Both sides inevitably +exaggerated the difficulties of the situation, and both felt that +they were standing by important principles. + +I certainly played a most inglorious part in this unnecessary +conflict; I was chairman of the School Management Committee +during one year when a majority of the members seemed to me +exasperatingly conservative, and during another year when they +were frustratingly radical, and I was of course highly +unsatisfactory to both. Certainly a plan to retain the undoubted +benefit of required study for teachers in such wise as to lessen +its burden, and various schemes devised to shift the emphasis +from scholarship to professional work, were mostly impatiently +repudiated by the Teachers' Federation, and when one badly +mutilated plan finally passed the Board, it was most reluctantly +administered by the superintendent. + +I at least became convinced that partisans would never tolerate +the use of stepping-stones. They are much too impatient to look +on while their beloved scheme is unstably balanced, and they +would rather see it tumble into the stream at once than to have +it brought to dry land in any such half-hearted fashion. Before +my School Board experience, I thought that life had taught me at +least one hard-earned lesson, that existing arrangements and the +hoped for improvements must be mediated and reconciled to each +other, that the new must be dovetailed into the old as it were, +if it were to endure; but on the School Board I discerned that +all such efforts were looked upon as compromising and unworthy, +by both partisans. In the general disorder and public excitement +resulting from the illegal dismissal of a majority of the "Dunne" +board and their reinstatement by a court decision, I found myself +belonging to neither party. During the months following the +upheaval and the loss of my most vigorous colleagues, under the +regime of men representing the leading Commercial Club of the +city who honestly believed that they were rescuing the schools +from a condition of chaos, I saw one beloved measure after +another withdrawn. Although the new president scrupulously gave +me the floor in the defense of each, it was impossible to +consider them upon their merits in the lurid light which at the +moment enveloped all the plans of the "uplifters." Thus the +building of smaller schoolrooms, such as in New York mechanically +avoid overcrowding, the extension of the truant rooms so +successfully inaugurated, the multiplication of school +playgrounds, and many another cherished plan was thrown out or at +least indefinitely postponed. + +The final discrediting of Mayor Dunne's appointees to the School +Board affords a very interesting study in social psychology; the +newspapers had so constantly reflected and intensified the ideals +of a business Board, and had so persistently ridiculed various +administration plans for the municipal ownership of street +railways, that from the beginning any attempt the new Board made +to discuss educational matters only excited their derision and +contempt. Some of these discussions were lengthy and disorderly +and deserved the discipline of ridicule, but others which were +well conducted and in which educational problems were seriously +set forth by men of authority were ridiculed quite as sharply. I +recall the surprise and indignation of a University professor who +had consented to speak at a meeting arranged in the Board rooms, +when next morning his nonpartisan and careful disquisition had +been twisted into the most arrant uplift nonsense and so +connected with a fake newspaper report of a trial marriage +address delivered, not by himself, but by a colleague, that a +leading clergyman of the city, having read the newspaper account, +felt impelled to preach a sermon, calling upon all decent people +to rally against the doctrines which were being taught to the +children by an immoral School Board. As the bewildered professor +had lectured in response to my invitation, I endeavored to find +the animus of the complication, but neither from editor in chief +nor from the reporter could I discover anything more sinister +than that the public expected a good story out of these School +Board "talk fests," and that any man who even momentarily allied +himself with a radical administration must expect to be ridiculed +by those papers which considered the traction policy of the +administration both foolish and dangerous. + +As I myself was treated with uniform courtesy by the leading +papers, I may perhaps here record my discouragement over this +complicated difficulty of open discussion, for democratic +government is founded upon the assumption that differing policies +shall be freely discussed and that each party shall have an +opportunity for at least a partisan presentation of its +contentions. This attitude of the newspapers was doubtless +intensified because the Dunne School Board had instituted a +lawsuit challenging the validity of the lease for the school +ground occupied by a newspaper building. This suit has since +been decided in favor of the newspaper, and it may be that in +their resentment they felt justified in doing everything possible +to minimize the prosecuting School Board. I am, however, +inclined to think that the newspapers but reflected an opinion +honestly held by many people, and that their constant and +partisan presentation of this opinion clearly demonstrates one of +the greatest difficulties of governmental administration in a +city grown too large for verbal discussions of public affairs. + +It is difficult to close this chapter without a reference to the +efforts made in Chicago to secure the municipal franchise for +women. During two long periods of agitation for a new city +charter, a representative body of women appealed to the public, to +the charter convention, and to the Illinois legislature for this +very reasonable provision. During the campaign when I acted as +chairman of the federation of a hundred women's organizations, +nothing impressed me so forcibly as the fact that the response +came from bodies of women representing the most varied traditions. + We were joined by a church society of hundreds of Lutheran women, +because Scandinavian women had exercised the municipal franchise +since the seventeenth century and had found American cities +strangely conservative; by organizations of working women who had +keenly felt the need of the municipal franchise in order to secure +for their workshops the most rudimentary sanitation and the +consideration which the vote alone obtains for workingmen; by +federations of mothers' meetings, who were interested in clean +milk and the extension of kindergartens; by property-owning women, +who had been powerless to protest against unjust taxation; by +organizations of professional women, of university students, and +of collegiate alumnae; and by women's clubs interested in municipal +reforms. There was a complete absence of the traditional women's +rights clamor, but much impressive testimony from busy and useful +women that they had reached the place where they needed the +franchise in order to carry on their own affairs. A striking +witness as to the need of the ballot, even for the women who are +restricted to the most primitive and traditional activities, +occurred when some Russian women waited upon me to ask whether +under the new charter they could vote for covered markets and so +get rid of the shocking Chicago grime upon all their food; and +when some neighboring Italian women sent me word that they would +certainly vote for public washhouses if they ever had the chance +to vote at all. It was all so human, so spontaneous, and so +direct that it really seemed as if the time must be ripe for +political expression of that public concern on the part of women +which had so long been forced to seek indirection. None of these +busy women wished to take the place of men nor to influence them +in the direction of men's affairs, but they did seek an +opportunity to cooperate directly in civic life through the use of +the ballot in regard to their own affairs. + +A Municipal Museum which was established in the Chicago public +library building several years ago, largely through the activity +of a group of women who had served as jurors in the departments +of social economy, of education, and of sanitation in the World's +Fair at St. Louis, showed nothing more clearly than that it is +impossible to divide any of these departments from the political +life of the modern city which is constantly forced to enlarge the +boundary of its activity. + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Margaret Sylvia. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter XV: The Value of Social Clubs." by Jane Addams +(1860-1935) From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with +Autobiographical Notes. by Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan +Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. 342-370. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE VALUE OF SOCIAL CLUBS + + +From the early days at Hull-House, social clubs composed of +English speaking American born young people grew apace. So eager +were they for social life that no mistakes in management could +drive them away. I remember one enthusiastic leader who read +aloud to a club a translation of "Antigone," which she had +selected because she believed that the great themes of the Greek +poets were best suited to young people. She came into the club +room one evening in time to hear the president call the restive +members to order with the statement, "You might just as well keep +quiet for she is bound to finish it, and the quicker she gets to +reading, the longer time we'll have for dancing." And yet the +same club leader had the pleasure of lending four copies of the +drama to four of the members, and one young man almost literally +committed the entire play to memory. + +On the whole we were much impressed by the great desire for +self-improvement, for study and debate, exhibited by many of the +young men. This very tendency, in fact, brought one of the most +promising of our earlier clubs to an untimely end. The young men in +the club, twenty in number, had grown much irritated by the +frivolity of the girls during their long debates, and had finally +proposed that three of the most "frivolous" be expelled. Pending a +final vote, the three culprits appealed to certain of their friends +who were members of the Hull-House Men's Club, between whom and the +debating young men the incident became the cause of a quarrel so +bitter that at length it led to a shooting. Fortunately the shot +missed fire, or it may have been true that it was "only intended +for a scare," but at any rate, we were all thoroughly frightened by +this manifestation of the hot blood which the defense of woman has +so often evoked. After many efforts to bring about a +reconciliation, the debating club of twenty young men and the +seventeen young women, who either were or pretended to be sober +minded, rented a hall a mile west of Hull-House severing their +connection with us because their ambitious and right-minded efforts +had been unappreciated, basing this on the ground that we had not +urged the expulsion of the so-called "tough" members of the Men's +Club, who had been involved in the difficulty. The seceding club +invited me to the first meeting in their new quarters that I might +present to them my version of the situation and set forth the +incident from the standpoint of Hull-House. The discussion I had +with the young people that evening has always remained with me as +one of the moments of illumination which life in a Settlement so +often affords. In response to my position that a desire to avoid +all that was "tough" meant to walk only in the paths of smug +self-seeking and personal improvement leading straight into the pit +of self-righteousness and petty achievement and was exactly what +the Settlement did not stand for, they contended with much justice +that ambitious young people were obliged for their own reputation, +if not for their own morals, to avoid all connection with that +which bordered on the tough, and that it was quite another matter +for the Hull-House residents who could afford a more generous +judgment. It was in vain I urged that life teaches us nothing more +inevitably than that right and wrong are most confusingly +confounded; that the blackest wrong may be within our own motives, +and that at the best, right will not dazzle us by its radiant +shining and can only be found by exerting patience and +discrimination. They still maintained their wholesome bourgeois +position, which I am now quite ready to admit was most reasonable. + +Of course there were many disappointments connected with these +clubs when the rewards of political and commercial life easily +drew the members away from the principles advocated in club +meetings. One of the young men who had been a shining light in +the advocacy of municipal reform deserted in the middle of a +reform campaign because he had been offered a lucrative office in +the city hall; another even after a course of lectures on +business morality, "worked" the club itself to secure orders for +custom-made clothing from samples of cloth he displayed, although +the orders were filled by ready-made suits slightly refitted and +delivered at double their original price. But nevertheless, there +was much to cheer us as we gradually became acquainted with the +daily living of the vigorous young men and women who filled to +overflowing all the social clubs. + +We have been much impressed during our twenty years, by the ready +adaptation of city young people to the prosperity arising from +their own increased wages or from the commercial success of their +families. This quick adaptability is the great gift of the city +child, his one reward for the hurried changing life which he has +always led. The working girl has a distinct advantage in the +task of transforming her whole family into the ways and +connections of the prosperous when she works down town and +becomes conversant with the manners and conditions of a +cosmopolitan community. Therefore having lived in a Settlement +twenty years, I see scores of young people who have successfully +established themselves in life, and in my travels in the city and +outside, I am constantly cheered by greetings from the rising +young lawyer, the scholarly rabbi, the successful teacher, the +prosperous young matron buying clothes for blooming children. +"Don't you remember me? I used to belong to a Hull-House club." +I once asked one of these young people, a man who held a good +position on a Chicago daily, what special thing Hull-House had +meant to him, and he promptly replied, "It was the first house I +had ever been in where books and magazines just lay around as if +there were plenty of them in the world. Don't you remember how +much I used to read at that little round table at the back of the +library? To have people regard reading as a reasonable +occupation changed the whole aspect of life to me and I began to +have confidence in what I could do." + +Among the young men of the social clubs a large proportion of the +Jewish ones at least obtain the advantages of a higher education. +The parents make every sacrifice to help them through the high +school after which the young men attend universities and +professional schools, largely through their own efforts. From +time to time they come back to us with their honors thick upon +them; I remember one who returned with the prize in oratory from +a contest between several western State universities, proudly +testifying that he had obtained his confidence in our Henry Clay +Club; another came back with a degree from Harvard University +saying that he had made up his mind to go there the summer I read +Royce's "Aspects of Modern Philosophy" with a group of young men +who had challenged my scathing remark that Herbert Spencer was +not the only man who had ventured a solution of the riddles of +the universe. Occasionally one of these learned young folk does +not like to be reminded he once lived in our vicinity, but that +happens rarely, and for the most part they are loyal to us in +much the same spirit as they are to their own families and +traditions. Sometimes they go further and tell us that the +standards of tastes and code of manners which Hull-House has +enabled them to form, have made a very great difference in their +perceptions and estimates of the larger world as well as in their +own reception there. Five out of one club of twenty-five young +men who had held together for eleven years, entered the +University of Chicago but although the rest of the Club called +them the "intellectuals," the old friendships still held. + +In addition to these rising young people given to debate and +dramatics, and to the members of the public school alumni +associations which meet in our rooms, there are hundreds of others +who for years have come to Hull-House frankly in search of that +pleasure and recreation which all young things crave and which +those who have spent long hours in a factory or shop demand as a +right. For these young people all sorts of pleasure clubs have +been cherished, and large dancing classes have been organized. +One supreme gayety has come to be an annual event of such +importance that it is talked of from year to year. For six weeks +before St. Patrick's day, a small group of residents put their +best powers of invention and construction into preparation for a +cotillion which is like a pageant in its gayety and vigor. The +parents sit in the gallery, and the mothers appreciate more than +anyone else perhaps, the value of this ball to which an invitation +is so highly prized; although their standards of manners may +differ widely from the conventional, they know full well when the +companionship of the young people is safe and unsullied. + +As an illustration of this difference in standard, I may instance +an early Hull-House picnic arranged by a club of young people, +who found at the last moment that the club director could not go +and accepted the offer of the mother of one of the club members +to take charge of them. When they trooped back in the evening, +tired and happy, they displayed a photograph of the group wherein +each man's arm was carefully placed about a girl; no feminine +waist lacked an arm save that of the proud chaperon, who sat in +the middle smiling upon all. Seeing that the photograph somewhat +surprised us, the chaperon stoutly explained, "This may look +queer to you, but there wasn't one thing about that picnic that +wasn't nice," and her statement was a perfectly truthful one. + +Although more conventional customs are carefully enforced at our +many parties and festivities, and while the dancing classes are +as highly prized for the opportunity they afford for enforcing +standards as for their ostensible aim, the residents at +Hull-House, in their efforts to provide opportunities for clean +recreation, receive the most valued help from the experienced +wisdom of the older women of the neighborhood. Bowen Hall is +constantly used for dancing parties with soft drinks established +in its foyer. The parties given by the Hull-House clubs are by +invitation and the young people themselves carefully maintain +their standard of entrance so that the most cautious mother may +feel safe when her daughter goes to one of our parties. No club +festivity is permitted without the presence of a director; no +young man under the influence of liquor is allowed; certain types +of dancing often innocently started are strictly prohibited; and +above all, early closing is insisted upon. This standardizing of +pleasure has always seemed an obligation to the residents of +Hull-House, but we are, I hope, saved from that priggishness +which young people so heartily resent, by the Mardi Gras dance +and other festivities which the residents themselves arrange and +successfully carry out. + +In spite of our belief that the standards of a ball may be almost +as valuable to those without as to those within, the residents +are constantly concerned for those many young people in the +neighborhood who are too hedonistic to submit to the discipline +of a dancing class or even to the claim of a pleasure club, but +who go about in freebooter fashion to find pleasure wherever it +may be cheaply on sale. + +Such young people, well meaning but impatient of control, become +the easy victims of the worst type of public dance halls, and of +even darker places, whose purposes are hidden under music and +dancing. We were thoroughly frightened when we learned that +during the year which ended last December, more than twenty-five +thousand young people under the age of twenty-five passed through +the Juvenile and Municipal Courts of Chicago--approximately one +out of every eighty of the entire population, or one out of every +fifty-two of those under twenty-five years of age. One's heart +aches for these young people caught by the outside glitter of +city gayety, who make such a feverish attempt to snatch it for +themselves. The young people in our clubs are comparatively +safe, but many instances come to the knowledge of Hull-House +residents which make us long for the time when the city, through +more small parks, municipal gymnasiums, and schoolrooms open for +recreation, can guard from disaster these young people who walk +so carelessly on the edge of the pit. + +The heedless girls believe that if they lived in big houses and +possessed pianos and jewelry, the coveted social life would come +to them. I know a Bohemian girl who surreptitiously saved her +overtime wages until she had enough money to hire for a week a +room with a piano in it where young men might come to call, as +they could not do in her crowded untidy home. Of course she had +no way of knowing the sort of young men who quickly discover an +unprotected girl. + +Another girl of American parentage who had come to Chicago to +seek her fortune, found at the end of a year that sorting +shipping receipts in a dark corner of a warehouse not only failed +to accumulate riches but did not even bring the "attentions" +which her quiet country home afforded. By dint of long sacrifice +she had saved fifteen dollars; with five she bought an imitation +sapphire necklace, and the balance she changed into a ten dollar +bill. The evening her pathetic little snare was set, she walked +home with one of the clerks in the establishment, told him that +she had come into a fortune, and was obliged to wear the heirloom +necklace to insure its safety, permitted him to see that she +carried ten dollars in her glove for carfare, and conducted him +to a handsome Prairie Avenue residence. There she gayly bade him +good-by and ran up the steps shutting herself in the vestibule +from which she did not emerge until the dazzled and bewildered +young man had vanished down the street. + +Then there is the ever-recurring difficulty about dress; the +insistence of the young to be gayly bedecked to the utter +consternation of the hardworking parents who are paying for a +house and lot. The Polish girl who stole five dollars from her +employer's till with which to buy a white dress for a church +picnic was turned away from home by her indignant father who +replaced the money to save the family honor, but would harbor no +"thief" in a household of growing children who, in spite of the +sister's revolt, continued to be dressed in dark heavy clothes +through all the hot summer. There are a multitude of working +girls who for hours carry hair ribbons and jewelry in their +pockets or stockings, for they can wear them only during the +journey to and from work. Sometimes this desire to taste +pleasure, to escape into a world of congenial companionship takes +more elaborate forms and often ends disastrously. I recall a +charming young girl, the oldest daughter of a respectable German +family, whom I first saw one spring afternoon issuing from a tall +factory. She wore a blue print gown which so deepened the blue +of her eyes that Wordsworth's line fairly sung itself: + + The pliant harebell swinging in the breeze + On some gray rock. + +I was grimly reminded of that moment a year later when I heard +the tale of this seventeen-year-old girl, who had worked steadily +in the same factory for four years before she resolved "to see +life." In order not to arouse her parents' suspicions, she +borrowed thirty dollars from one of those loan sharks who require +no security from a pretty girl, so that she might start from home +every morning as if to go to work. For three weeks she spent the +first part of each dearly bought day in a department store where +she lunched and unfortunately made some dubious acquaintances; in +the afternoon she established herself in a theater and sat +contentedly hour after hour watching the endless vaudeville until +the usual time for returning home. At the end of each week she +gave her parents her usual wage, but when her thirty dollars was +exhausted it seemed unendurable that she should return to the +monotony of the factory. In the light of her newly acquired +experience she had learned that possibility which the city ever +holds open to the restless girl. + +That more such girls do not come to grief is due to those mothers +who understand the insatiable demand for a good time, and if all +of the mothers did understand, those pathetic statistics which +show that four fifths of all prostitutes are under twenty years +of age would be marvelously changed. We are told that "the will +to live" is aroused in each baby by his mother's irresistible +desire to play with him, the physiological value of joy that a +child is born, and that the high death rate in institutions is +increased by "the discontented babies" whom no one persuades into +living. Something of the same sort is necessary in that second +birth at adolescence. The young people need affection and +understanding each one for himself, if they are to be induced to +live in an inheritance of decorum and safety and to understand +the foundations upon which this orderly world rests. No one +comprehends their needs so sympathetically as those mothers who +iron the flimsy starched finery of their grown-up daughters late +into the night, and who pay for a red velvet parlor set on the +installment plan, although the younger children may sadly need +new shoes. These mothers apparently understand the sharp demand +for social pleasure and do their best to respond to it, although +at the same time they constantly minister to all the physical +needs of an exigent family of little children. We often come to +a realization of the truth of Walt Whitman's statement, that one +of the surest sources of wisdom is the mother of a large family. + +It is but natural, perhaps, that the members of the Hull-House +Woman's Club whose prosperity has given them some leisure and a +chance to remove their own families to neighborhoods less full of +temptations, should have offered their assistance in our attempt +to provide recreation for these restless young people. In many +instances their experience in the club itself has enabled them to +perceive these needs. One day a Juvenile Court officer told me +that a woman's club member, who has a large family of her own and +one boy sufficiently difficult, had undertaken to care for a ward +of the Juvenile Court who lived only a block from her house, and +that she had kept him in the path of rectitude for six months. In +reply to my congratulations upon this successful bit of reform to +the club woman herself, she said that she was quite ashamed that +she had not undertaken the task earlier for she had for years +known the boy's mother who scrubbed a downtown office building, +leaving home every evening at five and returning at eleven during +the very time the boy could most easily find opportunities for +wrongdoing. She said that her obligation toward this boy had not +occurred to her until one day when the club members were making +pillowcases for the Detention Home of the Juvenile Court, it +suddenly seemed perfectly obvious that her share in the salvation +of wayward children was to care for this particular boy and she +had asked the Juvenile Court officer to commit him to her. She +invited the boy to her house to supper every day that she might +know just where he was at the crucial moment of twilight, and she +adroitly managed to keep him under her own roof for the evening +if she did not approve of the plans he had made. She concluded +with the remark that it was queer that the sight of the boy +himself hadn't appealed to her, but that the suggestion had come +to her in such a roundabout way. + +She was, of course, reflecting upon a common trait in human +nature,--that we much more easily see the duty at hand when we +see it in relation to the social duty of which it is a part. +When she knew that an effort was being made throughout all the +large cities in the United States to reclaim the wayward boy, to +provide him with reasonable amusement, to give him his chance for +growth and development, and when she became ready to take her +share in that movement, she suddenly saw the concrete case which +she had not recognized before. + +We are slowly learning that social advance depends quite as much +upon an increase in moral sensibility as it does upon a sense of +duty, and of this one could cite many illustrations. I was at one +time chairman of the Child Labor Committee in the General +Federation of Woman's Clubs, which sent out a schedule asking each +club in the United States to report as nearly as possible all the +working children under fourteen living in its vicinity. A Florida +club filled out the schedule with an astonishing number of Cuban +children who were at work in sugar mills, and the club members +registered a complaint that our committee had sent the schedule +too late, for if they had realized the conditions earlier, they +might have presented a bill to the legislature which had now +adjourned. Of course the children had been working in the sugar +mills for years, and had probably gone back and forth under the +very eyes of the club women, but the women had never seen them, +much less felt any obligation to protect them, until they joined a +club, and the club joined a Federation, and the Federation +appointed a Child Labor Committee who sent them a schedule. With +their quickened perceptions they then saw the rescue of these +familiar children in the light of a social obligation. Through +some such experiences the members of the Hull-House Woman's Club +have obtained the power of seeing the concrete through the general +and have entered into various undertakings. + +Very early in its history the club formed what was called "A +Social Extension Committee." Once a month this committee gives +parties to people in the neighborhood who for any reason seem +forlorn and without much social pleasure. One evening they +invited only Italian women, thereby crossing a distinct social +"gulf," for there certainly exists as great a sense of social +difference between the prosperous Irish-American women and the +South-Italian peasants as between any two sets of people in the +city of Chicago. The Italian women, who were almost eastern in +their habits, all stayed at home and sent their husbands, and the +social extension committee entered the drawing room to find it +occupied by rows of Italian workingmen, who seemed to prefer to +sit in chairs along the wall. They were quite ready to be +"socially extended," but plainly puzzled as to what it was all +about. The evening finally developed into a very successful +party, not so much because the committee were equal to it, as +because the Italian men rose to the occasion. + +Untiring pairs of them danced the tarantella; they sang +Neapolitan songs; one of them performed some of those wonderful +sleight-of-hand tricks so often seen on the streets of Naples; +they explained the coral finger of St. Januarius which they wore; +they politely ate the strange American refreshments; and when the +evening was over, one of the committee said to me, "Do you know I +am ashamed of the way I have always talked about 'dagos,' they +are quite like other people, only one must take a little more +pains with them. I have been nagging my husband to move off M +Street because they are moving in, but I am going to try staying +awhile and see if I can make a real acquaintance with some of +them." To my mind at that moment the speaker had passed from the +region of the uncultivated person into the possibilities of the +cultivated person. The former is bounded by a narrow outlook on +life, unable to overcome differences of dress and habit, and his +interests are slowly contracting within a circumscribed area; +while the latter constantly tends to be more a citizen of the +world because of his growing understanding of all kinds of people +with their varying experiences. We send our young people to +Europe that they may lose their provincialism and be able to +judge their fellows by a more universal test, as we send them to +college that they may attain the cultural background and a larger +outlook; all of these it is possible to acquire in other ways, as +this member of the woman's club had discovered for herself. + +This social extension committee under the leadership of an +ex-president of the Club, a Hull-House resident with a wide +acquaintance, also discover many of those lonely people of which +every city contains so large a number. We are only slowly +apprehending the very real danger to the individual who fails to +establish some sort of genuine relation with the people who +surround him. We are all more or less familiar with the results +of isolation in rural districts; the Bronte sisters have +portrayed the hideous immorality and savagery of the remote +dwellers on the bleak moorlands of northern England; Miss Wilkins +has written of the overdeveloped will of the solitary New +Englander; but tales still wait to be told of the isolated city +dweller. In addition to the lonely young man recently come to +town, and the country family who have not yet made their +connections, are many other people who, because of temperament or +from an estimate of themselves which will not permit them to make +friends with the "people around here," or who, because they are +victims to a combination of circumstances, lead a life as lonely +and untouched by the city about them as if they were in remote +country districts. The very fact that it requires an effort to +preserve isolation from the tenement-house life which flows all +about them, makes the character stiffer and harsher than mere +country solitude could do. + +Many instances of this come into my mind; the faded, ladylike +hairdresser, who came and went to her work for twenty years, +carefully concealing her dwelling place from the "other people in +the shop," moving whenever they seemed too curious about it, and +priding herself that no neighbor had ever "stepped inside her +door," and yet when discovered through an asthma which forced her +to crave friendly offices, she was most responsive and even gay +in a social atmosphere. Another woman made a long effort to +conceal the poverty resulting from her husband's inveterate +gambling and to secure for her children the educational +advantages to which her family had always been accustomed. Her +five children, who are now university graduates, do not realize +how hard and solitary was her early married life when we first +knew her, and she was beginning to regret the isolation in which +her children were being reared, for she saw that their lack of +early companionship would always cripple their power to make +friends. She was glad to avail herself of the social resources +of Hull-House for them, and at last even for herself. + +The leader of the social extension committee has also been able, +through her connection with the vacant lot garden movement in +Chicago, to maintain a most flourishing "friendly club" largely +composed of people who cultivate these garden plots. During the +club evening at least, they regain something of the ease of the +man who is being estimated by the bushels per acre of potatoes he +has raised, and not by that flimsy city judgment so often based +upon store clothes. Their jollity and enthusiasm are unbounded, +expressing itself in clog dances and rousing old songs often in +sharp contrast to the overworked, worn aspects of the members. + +Of course there are surprising possibilities discovered through +other clubs, in one of Greek women or in the "circolo Italiano," +for a social club often affords a sheltered space in which the +gentler social usages may be exercised, as the more vigorous +clubs afford a point of departure into larger social concerns. + +The experiences of the Hull-House Woman's Club constantly react +upon the family life of the members. Their husbands come with +them to the annual midwinter reception, to club concerts and +entertainments; the little children come to the May party, with +its dancing and games; the older children, to the day in June +when prizes are given to those sons and daughters of the members +who present a good school record as graduates either from the +eighth grade or from a high school. + +It seemed, therefore, but a fit recognition of their efforts when +the president of the club erected a building planned especially +for their needs, with their own library and a hall large enough +for their various social undertakings, although of course Bowen +Hall is constantly put to many other uses. + +It was under the leadership of this same able president that the +club achieved its wider purposes and took its place with the +other forces for city betterment. The club had begun, as nearly +all women's clubs do, upon the basis of self-improvement, +although the foundations for this later development had been laid +by one of their earliest presidents, who was the first probation +officer of the Juvenile Court, and who had so shared her +experiences with the club that each member felt the truth as well +as the pathos of the lines inscribed on her memorial tablet +erected in their club library:- + + "As more exposed to suffering and distress + Thence also more alive to tenderness." + +Each woman had discovered opportunities in her own experience for +this same tender understanding, and under its succeeding +president, Mrs. Pelham, in its determination to be of use to the +needy and distressed, the club developed many philanthropic +undertakings from the humble beginnings of a linen chest kept +constantly filled with clothing for the sick and poor. It +required, however, an adequate knowledge of adverse city +conditions so productive of juvenile delinquency and a sympathy +which could enkindle itself in many others of divers faiths and +training, to arouse the club to its finest public spirit. This +was done by a later president, Mrs. Bowen, who, as head of the +Juvenile Protective Association, had learned that the moralized +energy of a group is best fitted to cope with the complicated +problems of a city; but it required ability of an unusual order +to evoke a sense of social obligation from the very knowledge of +adverse city conditions which the club members possessed, and to +connect it with the many civic and philanthropic organizations of +the city in such wise as to make it socially useful. This +financial and representative connection with outside +organizations, is valuable to the club only as it expresses its +sympathy and kindliness at the same time in concrete form. A +group of members who lunch with Mrs. Bowen each week at +Hull-House discuss, not only topics of public interest, sometimes +with experts whom they have long known through their mutual +undertakings, but also their own club affairs in the light of +this larger knowledge. + +Thus the value of social clubs broadens out in one's mind to an +instrument of companionship through which many may be led from a +sense of isolation to one of civic responsibility, even as another +type of club provides recreational facilities for those who have +had only meaningless excitements, or, as a third type, opens new +and interesting vistas of life to those who are ambitious. + +The entire organization of the social life at Hull-House, while it +has been fostered and directed by residents and others, has been +largely pushed and vitalized from within by the club members +themselves. Sir Walter Besant once told me that Hull-House stood +in his mind more nearly for the ideal of the "Palace of Delight" +than did the "London People's Palace" because we had depended upon +the social resources of the people using it. He begged me not to +allow Hull-House to become too educational. He believed it much +easier to develop a polytechnic institute than a large recreational +center, but he doubted whether the former was as useful. + +The social clubs form a basis of acquaintanceship for many people +living in other parts of the city. Through friendly relations +with individuals, which is perhaps the sanest method of approach, +they are thus brought into contact, many of them for the first +time, with the industrial and social problems challenging the +moral resources of our contemporary life. During our twenty +years hundreds of these non-residents have directed clubs and +classes, and have increased the number of Chicago citizens who +are conversant with adverse social conditions and conscious that +only by the unceasing devotion of each, according to his +strength, shall the compulsions and hardships, the stupidities +and cruelties of life be overcome. The number of people thus +informed is constantly increasing in all our American cities, and +they may in time remove the reproach of social neglect and +indifference which has so long rested upon the citizens of the +new world. I recall the experience of an Englishman who, not +only because he was a member of the Queen's Cabinet and bore a +title, but also because he was an able statesman, was entertained +with great enthusiasm by the leading citizens of Chicago. At a +large dinner party he asked the lady sitting next to him what our +tenement-house legislation was in regard to the cubic feet of air +required for each occupant of a tenement bedroom; upon her +disclaiming any knowledge of the subject, the inquiry was put to +all the diners at the long table, all of whom showed surprise +that they should be expected to possess this information. In +telling me the incident afterward, the English guest said that +such indifference could not have been found among the leading +citizens of London, whose public spirit had been aroused to +provide such housing conditions as should protect tenement +dwellers at least from wanton loss of vitality and lowered +industrial efficiency. When I met the same Englishman in London +five years afterward, he immediately asked me whether Chicago +citizens were still so indifferent to the conditions of the poor +that they took no interest in their proper housing. I was quick +with that defense which an American is obliged to use so often in +Europe, that our very democracy so long presupposed that each +citizen could care for himself that we are slow to develop a +sense of social obligation. He smiled at the familiar phrases +and was still inclined to attribute our indifference to sheer +ignorance of social conditions. + +The entire social development of Hull-House is so unlike what I +predicted twenty years ago, that I venture to quote from that +ancient writing as an end to this chapter. + + The social organism has broken down through large + districts of our great cities. Many of the people living + there are very poor, the majority of them without leisure + or energy for anything but the gain of subsistence. + + They live for the moment side by side, many of them + without knowledge of each other, without fellowship, + without local tradition or public spirit, without social + organization of any kind. Practically nothing is done to + remedy this. The people who might do it, who have the + social tact and training, the large houses, and the + traditions and customs of hospitality, live in other parts + of the city. The club houses, libraries, galleries, and + semi-public conveniences for social life are also blocks + away. We find workingmen organized into armies of + producers because men of executive ability and business + sagacity have found it to their interests thus to organize + them. But these workingmen are not organized socially; + although lodging in crowded tenement houses, they are + living without a corresponding social contact. The chaos + is as great as it would be were they working in huge + factories without foremen or superintendent. Their ideas + and resources are cramped, and the desire for higher + social pleasure becomes extinct. They have no share in + the traditions and social energy which make for progress. + Too often their only place of meeting is a saloon, their + only host a bartender; a local demagogue forms their + public opinion. Men of ability and refinement, of social + power and university cultivation, stay away from them. + Personally, I believe the men who lose most are those who + thus stay away. But the paradox is here; when cultivated + people do stay away from a certain portion of the + population, when all social advantages are persistently + withheld, it may be for years, the result itself is + pointed to as a reason and is used as an argument, for the + continued withholding. + + It is constantly said that because the masses have never + had social advantages, they do want them, that they are + heavy and dull, and that it will take political or + philanthropic machinery to change them. This divides a + city into rich and poor; into the favored, who express + their sense of the social obligation by gifts of money, + and into the unfavored, who express it by clamoring for a + "share"--both of them actuated by a vague sense of justice. + This division of the city would be more justifiable, + however, if the people who thus isolate themselves on + certain streets and use their social ability for each + other, gained enough thereby and added sufficient to the + sum total of social progress to justify the withholding of + the pleasures and results of that progress from so many + people who ought to have them. But they cannot accomplish + this for the social spirit discharges itself in many + forms, and no one form is adequate to its total + expression. + + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry, proof-reading, and html layout of this chapter were the +work of volunteer Adrienne Fermoyle. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter XVI: Arts at Hull-House." by Jane Addams (1860-1935) +From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes. by +Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. +371-400. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +ARTS AT HULL-HOUSE + + +The first building erected for Hull-House contained an art gallery +well lighted for day and evening use, and our first exhibit of +loaned pictures was opened in June, 1891, by Mr. And Mrs. Barnett +of London. It is always pleasant to associate their hearty +sympathy with that first exhibit, and thus to connect it with +their pioneer efforts at Toynbee Hall to secure for working people +the opportunity to know the best art, and with their establishment +of the first permanent art gallery in an industrial quarter. + +We took pride in the fact that our first exhibit contained some of +the best pictures Chicago afforded, and we conscientiously insured +them against fire and carefully guarded them by night and day. + +We had five of these exhibits during two years, after the gallery +was completed: two of oil paintings, one of old engravings and +etchings, one of water colors, and one of pictures especially +selected for use in the public schools. These exhibits were +surprisingly well attended and thousands of votes were cast for the +most popular pictures. Their value to the neighborhood of course +had to be determined by each one of us according to the value he +attached to beauty and the escape it offers from dreary reality +into the realm of the imagination. Miss Starr always insisted that +the arts should receive adequate recognition at Hull-House and +urged that one must always remember "the hungry individual soul +which without art will have passed unsolaced and unfed, followed by +other souls who lack the impulse his should have given." + +The exhibits afforded pathetic evidence that the older immigrants +do not expect the solace of art in this country; an Italian +expressed great surprise when he found that we, although +Americans, still liked pictures, and said quite naively that he +didn't know that Americans cared for anything but dollars--that +looking at pictures was something people only did in Italy. + +The extreme isolation of the Italian colony was demonstrated by the +fact that he did not know that there was a public art gallery in +the city nor any houses in which pictures were regarded as treasures. + +A Greek was much surprised to see a photograph of the Acropolis +at Hull-House because he had lived in Chicago for thirteen years +and had never before met any Americans who knew about this +foremost glory of the world. Before he left Greece he had +imagined that Americans would be most eager to see pictures of +Athens, and as he was a graduate of a school of technology, he +had prepared a book of colored drawings and had made a collection +of photographs which he was sure Americans would enjoy. But +although from his fruit stand near one of the large railroad +stations he had conversed with many Americans and had often tried +to lead the conversation back to ancient Greece, no one had +responded, and he had at last concluded that "the people of +Chicago knew nothing of ancient times." + +The loan exhibits were continued until the Chicago Art Institute +was opened free to the public on Sunday afternoons and parties +were arranged at Hull-House and conducted there by a guide. In +time even these parties were discontinued as the galleries became +better known in all parts of the city and the Art Institute +management did much to make pictures popular. + +From the first a studio was maintained at Hull-House which has +developed through the changing years under the direction of Miss +Benedict, one of the residents who is a member of the faculty in +the Art Institute. Buildings on the Hull-House quadrangle +furnish studios for artists who find something of the same spirit +in the contiguous Italian colony that the French artist is +traditionally supposed to discover in his beloved Latin Quarter. +These artists uncover something of the picturesque in the foreign +colonies, which they have reproduced in painting, etching, and +lithography. They find their classes filled not only by young +people possessing facility and sometimes talent, but also by +older people to whom the studio affords the one opportunity of +escape from dreariness; a widow with four children who +supplemented a very inadequate income by teaching the piano, for +six years never missed her weekly painting lesson because it was +"her one pleasure"; another woman, whose youth and strength had +gone into the care of an invalid father, poured into her +afternoon in the studio once a week, all of the longing for +self-expression which she habitually suppressed. + +Perhaps the most satisfactory results of the studio have been +obtained through the classes of young men who are engaged in the +commercial arts, and who are glad to have an opportunity to work +out their own ideas. This is true of young engravers and +lithographers; of the men who have to do with posters and +illustrations in various ways. The little pile of stones and the +lithographer's handpress in a corner of the studio have been used +in many an experiment, as has a set of beautiful type loaned to +Hull-House by a bibliophile. + +The work of the studio almost imperceptibly merged into the +crafts and well within the first decade a shop was opened at +Hull-House under the direction of several residents who were also +members of the Chicago Arts and Crafts Society. This shop is not +merely a school where people are taught and then sent forth to +use their teaching in art according to their individual +initiative and opportunity, but where those who have already been +carefully trained, may express the best they can in wood or +metal. The Settlement soon discovers how difficult it is to put +a fringe of art on the end of a day spent in a factory. We +constantly see young people doing overhurried work. Wrapping +bars of soap in pieces of paper might at least give the pleasure +of accuracy and repetition if it could be done at a normal pace, +but when paid for by the piece, speed becomes the sole +requirement and the last suggestion of human interest is taken +away. In contrast to this the Hull-House shop affords many +examples of the restorative power in the exercise of a genuine +craft; a young Russian who, like too many of his countrymen, had +made a desperate effort to fit himself for a learned profession, +and who had almost finished his course in a night law school, +used to watch constantly the work being done in the metal shop at +Hull-House. One evening in a moment of sudden resolve, he took +off his coat, sat down at one of the benches, and began to work, +obviously as a very clever silversmith. He had long concealed +his craft because he thought it would hurt his efforts as a +lawyer and because he imagined an office more honorable and "more +American" than a shop. As he worked on during his two leisure +evenings each week, his entire bearing and conversation +registered the relief of one who abandons the effort he is not +fitted for and becomes a man on his own feet, expressing himself +through a familiar and delicate technique. + +Miss Starr at length found herself quite impatient with her role +of lecturer on the arts, while all the handicraft about her was +untouched by beauty and did not even reflect the interest of the +workman. She took a training in bookbinding in London under Mr. +Cobden-Sanderson and established her bindery at Hull-House in +which design and workmanship, beauty and thoroughness are taught +to a small number of apprentices. + +From the very first winter, concerts which are still continued +were given every Sunday afternoon in the Hull-House drawing-room +and later, as the audiences increased, in the larger halls. For +these we are indebted to musicians from every part of the city. +Mr. William Tomlins early trained large choruses of adults as his +assistants did of children, and the response to all of these +showed that while the number of people in our vicinity caring for +the best music was not large, they constituted a steady and +appreciative group. It was in connection with these first +choruses that a public-spirited citizen of Chicago offered a +prize for the best labor song, competition to be open to the +entire country. The responses to the offer literally filled +three large barrels and speaking at least for myself as one of +the bewildered judges, we were more disheartened by their quality +than even by their overwhelming bulk. Apparently the workers of +America are not yet ready to sing, although I recall a creditable +chorus trained at Hull-House for a large meeting in sympathy with +the anthracite coal strike in which the swinging lines + + "Who was it made the coal? + Our God as well as theirs." + +seemed to relieve the tension of the moment. Miss Eleanor Smith, +the head of the Hull-House Music School, who had put the words to +music, performed the same office for the "Sweatshop" of the +Yiddish poet, the translation of which presents so graphically +the bewilderment and tedium of the New York shop that it might be +applied to almost any other machinery industry as the first verse +indicates: -- + + "The roaring of the wheels has filled my ears, + The clashing and the clamor shut me in, + Myself, my soul, in chaos disappears, + I cannot think or feel amid the din." + +It may be that this plaint explains the lack of labor songs in +this period of industrial maladjustment when the worker is +overmastered by his very tools. In addition to sharing with our +neighborhood the best music we could procure, we have +conscientiously provided careful musical instruction that at +least a few young people might understand those old usages of +art; that they might master its trade secrets, for after all it +is only through a careful technique that artistic ability can +express itself and be preserved. + +From the beginning we had classes in music, and the Hull-House +Music School, which is housed in quarters of its own in our +quieter court, was opened in 1893. The school is designed to +give a thorough musical instruction to a limited number of +children. From the first lessons they are taught to compose and +to reduce to order the musical suggestions which may come to +them, and in this wise the school has sometimes been able to +recover the songs of the immigrants through their children. Some +of these folk songs have never been committed to paper, but have +survived through the centuries because of a touch of undying +poetry which the world has always cherished; as in the song of a +Russian who is digging a post hole and finds his task dull and +difficult until he strikes a stratum of red sand, which in +addition to making digging easy, reminds him of the red hair of +his sweetheart, and all goes merrily as the song lifts into a +joyous melody. I recall again the almost hilarious enjoyment of +the adult audience to whom it was sung by the children who had +revived it, as well as the more sober appreciation of the hymns +taken from the lips of the cantor, whose father before him had +officiated in the synagogue. + +The recitals and concerts given by the school are attended by +large and appreciative audiences. On the Sunday before Christmas +the program of Christmas songs draws together people of the most +diverging faiths. In the deep tones of the memorial organ +erected at Hull-House, we realize that music is perhaps the most +potent agent for making the universal appeal and inducing men to +forget their differences. + +Some of the pupils in the music school have developed during the +years into trained musicians and are supporting themselves in +their chosen profession. On the other hand, we constantly see +the most promising musical ability extinguished when the young +people enter industries which so sap their vitality that they +cannot carry on serious study in the scanty hours outside of +factory work. Many cases indisputably illustrate this: a +Bohemian girl, who, in order to earn money for pressing family +needs, first ruined her voice in a six months' constant +vaudeville engagement, returned to her trade working overtime in +a vain effort to continue the vaudeville income; another young +girl whom Hull-House had sent to the high school so long as her +parents consented, because we realized that a beautiful voice is +often unavailable through lack of the informing mind, later +extinguished her promise in a tobacco factory; a third girl who +had supported her little sisters since she was fourteen, eagerly +used her fine voice for earning money at entertainments held late +after her day's work, until exposure and fatigue ruined her +health as well as a musician's future; a young man whose +music-loving family gave him every possible opportunity, and who +produced some charming and even joyous songs during the long +struggle with tuberculosis which preceded his death, had made a +brave beginning, not only as a teacher of music but as a +composer. In the little service held at Hull-House in his +memory, when the children sang his composition, "How Sweet is the +Shepherd's Sweet Lot," it was hard to realize that such an +interpretive pastoral could have been produced by one whose +childhood had been passed in a crowded city quarter. + +Even that bitter experience did not prepare us for the sorrowful +year when six promising pupils out of a class of fifteen, +developed tuberculosis. It required but little penetration to +see that during the eight years the class of fifteen school +children had come together to the music school, they had +approximately an even chance, but as soon as they reached the +legal working age only a scanty moiety of those who became +self-supporting could endure the strain of long hours and bad +air. Thus the average human youth, "With all the sweetness of +the common dawn," is flung into the vortex of industrial life +wherein the everyday tragedy escapes us save when one of them +becomes conspicuously unfortunate. Twice in one year we were +compelled + + "To find the inheritance of this poor child + His little kingdom of a forced grave." + +It has been pointed out many times that Art lives by devouring +her own offspring and the world has come to justify even that +sacrifice, but we are unfortified and unsolaced when we see the +children of Art devoured, not by her, but by the uncouth +stranger, Modern Industry, who, needlessly ruthless and brutal to +her own children, is quickly fatal to the offspring of the +gentler mother. And so schools in art for those who go to work +at the age when more fortunate young people are still sheltered +and educated, constantly epitomize one of the haunting problems +of life; why do we permit the waste of this most precious human +faculty, this consummate possession of civilization? When we +fail to provide the vessel in which it may be treasured, it runs +out upon the ground and is irretrievably lost. + +The universal desire for the portrayal of life lying quite outside +of personal experience evinces itself in many forms. One of the +conspicuous features of our neighborhood, as of all industrial +quarters, is the persistency with which the entire population +attends the theater. The very first day I saw Halsted Street a +long line of young men and boys stood outside the gallery entrance +of the Bijou Theater, waiting for the Sunday matinee to begin at +two o'clock, although it was only high noon. This waiting crowd +might have been seen every Sunday afternoon during the twenty +years which have elapsed since then. Our first Sunday evening in +Hull-House, when a group of small boys sat on our piazza and told +us "about things around here," their talk was all of the theater +and of the astonishing things they had seen that afternoon. + +But quite as it was difficult to discover the habits and purposes +of this group of boys because they much preferred talking about +the theater to contemplating their own lives, so it was all along +the line; the young men told us their ambitions in the phrases of +stage heroes, and the girls, so far as their romantic dreams +could be shyly put into words, possessed no others but those +soiled by long use in the melodrama. All of these young people +looked upon an afternoon a week in the gallery of a Halsted +Street theater as their one opportunity to see life. The sort of +melodrama they see there has recently been described as "the ten +commandments written in red fire." Certainly the villain always +comes to a violent end, and the young and handsome hero is +rewarded by marriage with a beautiful girl, usually the daughter +of a millionaire, but after all that is not a portrayal of the +morality of the ten commandments any more than of life itself. + +Nevertheless the theater, such as it was, appeared to be the one +agency which freed the boys and girls from that destructive +isolation of those who drag themselves up to maturity by +themselves, and it gave them a glimpse of that order and beauty +into which even the poorest drama endeavors to restore the +bewildering facts of life. The most prosaic young people bear +testimony to this overmastering desire. A striking illustration +of this came to us during our second year's residence on Halsted +Street through an incident in the Italian colony, where the men +have always boasted that they were able to guard their daughters +from the dangers of city life, and until evil Italians entered +the business of the "white slave traffic," their boast was well +founded. The first Italian girl to go astray known to the +residents of Hull-House, was so fascinated by the stage that on +her way home from work she always loitered outside a theater +before the enticing posters. Three months after her elopement +with an actor, her distracted mother received a picture of her +dressed in the men's clothes in which she appeared in vaudeville. +Her family mourned her as dead and her name was never mentioned +among them nor in the entire colony. In further illustration of +an overmastering desire to see life as portrayed on the stage are +two young girls whose sober parents did not approve of the +theater and would allow no money for such foolish purposes. In +sheer desperation the sisters evolved a plot that one of them +would feign a toothache, and while she was having her tooth +pulled by a neighboring dentist the other would steal the gold +crowns from his table, and with the money thus procured they +could attend the vaudeville theater every night on their way home +from work. Apparently the pain and wrongdoing did not weigh for +a moment against the anticipated pleasure. The plan was carried +out to the point of selling the gold crowns to a pawnbroker when +the disappointed girls were arrested. + +All this effort to see the play took place in the years before +the five-cent theaters had become a feature of every crowded city +thoroughfare and before their popularity had induced the +attendance of two and a quarter million people in the United +States every twenty-four hours. The eagerness of the penniless +children to get into these magic spaces is responsible for an +entire crop of petty crimes made more easy because two children +are admitted for one nickel at the last performance when the hour +is late and the theater nearly deserted. The Hull-House +residents were aghast at the early popularity of these mimic +shows, and in the days before the inspection of films and the +present regulations for the five-cent theaters we established at +Hull-House a moving picture show. Although its success justified +its existence, it was so obviously but one in the midst of +hundreds that it seemed much more advisable to turn our attention +to the improvement of all of them or rather to assist as best we +could, the successful efforts in this direction by the Juvenile +Protective Association. + +However, long before the five-cent theater was even heard of, we +had accumulated much testimony as to the power of the drama, and +we would have been dull indeed if we had not availed ourselves of +the use of the play at Hull-House, not only as an agent of +recreation and education, but as a vehicle of self-expression for +the teeming young life all about us. + +Long before the Hull-House theater was built we had many plays, +first in the drawing-room and later in the gymnasium. The young +people's clubs never tired of rehearsing and preparing for these +dramatic occasions, and we also discovered that older people were +almost equally ready and talented. We quickly learned that no +celebration at Thanksgiving was so popular as a graphic portrayal on +the stage of the Pilgrim Fathers, and we were often put to it to +reduce to dramatic effects the great days of patriotism and religion. + +At one of our early Christmas celebrations Longfellow's "Golden +Legend" was given, the actors portraying it with the touch of the +miracle play spirit which it reflects. I remember an old blind +man, who took the part of a shepherd, said, at the end of the last +performance, "Kind Heart," a name by which he always addressed me, +"it seems to me that I have been waiting all my life to hear some +of these things said. I am glad we had so many performances, for +I think I can remember them to the end. It is getting hard for me +to listen to reading, but the different voices and all made this +very plain." Had he not perhaps made a legitimate demand upon the +drama, that it shall express for us that which we have not been +able to formulate for ourselves, that it shall warm us with a +sense of companionship with the experiences of others; does not +every genuine drama present our relations to each other and to the +world in which we find ourselves in such wise as may fortify us to +the end of the journey? + +The immigrants in the neighborhood of Hull-House have utilized +our little stage in an endeavor to reproduce the past of their +own nations through those immortal dramas which have escaped from +the restraining bond of one country into the land of the universal. + +A large colony of Greeks near Hull-House, who often feel that +their history and classic background are completely ignored by +Americans, and that they are easily confused with the more +ignorant immigrants from other parts of southeastern Europe, +welcome an occasion to present Greek plays in the ancient text. +With expert help in the difficulties of staging and rehearsing a +classic play, they reproduced the Ajax of Sophocles upon the +Hull-House stage. It was a genuine triumph to the actors who felt +that they were "showing forth the glory of Greece" to "ignorant +Americans." The scholar who came with a copy of Sophocles in hand +and followed the play with real enjoyment, did not in the least +realize that the revelation of the love of Greek poets was mutual +between the audience and the actors. The Greeks have quite +recently assisted an enthusiast in producing "Electra," while the +Lithuanians, the Poles, and other Russian subjects often use the +Hull-House stage to present plays in their own tongue, which shall +at one and the same time keep alive their sense of participation +in the great Russian revolution and relieve their feelings in +regard to it. There is something still more appealing in the +yearning efforts the immigrants sometimes make to formulate their +situation in America. I recall a play written by an Italian +playwright of our neighborhood, which depicted the insolent break +between Americanized sons and old country parents, so touchingly +that it moved to tears all the older Italians in the audience. +Did the tears of each express relief in finding that others had +had the same experience as himself, and did the knowledge free +each one from a sense of isolation and an injured belief that his +children were the worst of all? + +This effort to understand life through its dramatic portrayal, to +see one's own participation intelligibly set forth, becomes +difficult when one enters the field of social development, but +even here it is not impossible if a Settlement group is +constantly searching for new material. + +A labor story appearing in the Atlantic Monthly was kindly +dramatized for us by the author who also superintended its +presentation upon the Hull-House stage. The little drama +presented the untutored effort of a trades-union man to secure +for his side the beauty of self-sacrifice, the glamour of +martyrdom, which so often seems to belong solely to the nonunion +forces. The presentation of the play was attended by an audience +of trades-unionists and employers and those other people who are +supposed to make public opinion. Together they felt the moral +beauty of the man's conclusion that "it's the side that suffers +most that will win out in this war--the saints is the only ones +that has got the world under their feet--we've got to do the way +they done if the unions is to stand," so completely that it +seemed quite natural that he should forfeit his life upon the +truth of this statement. + +The dramatic arts have gradually been developed at Hull-House +through amateur companies, one of which has held together for +more than fifteen years. The members were originally selected +from the young people who had evinced talent in the plays the +social clubs were always giving, but the association now adds to +itself only as a vacancy occurs. Some of them have developed +almost a professional ability, although contrary to all +predictions and in spite of several offers, none of them have +taken to a stage career. They present all sorts of plays from +melodrama and comedy to those of Shaw, Ibsen, and Galsworthy. +The latter are surprisingly popular, perhaps because of their +sincere attempt to expose the shams and pretenses of contemporary +life and to penetrate into some of its perplexing social and +domestic situations. Through such plays the stage may become a +pioneer teacher of social righteousness. + +I have come to believe, however, that the stage may do more than +teach, that much of our current moral instruction will not endure +the test of being cast into a lifelike mold, and when presented +in dramatic form will reveal itself as platitudinous and effete. +That which may have sounded like righteous teaching when it was +remote and wordy, will be challenged afresh when it is obliged to +simulate life itself. + +This function of the stage, as a reconstructing and reorganizing +agent of accepted moral truths, came to me with overwhelming +force as I listened to the Passion Play at Oberammergau one +beautiful summer's day in 1900. The peasants who portrayed +exactly the successive scenes of the wonderful Life, who used +only the very words found in the accepted version of the Gospels, +yet curiously modernized and reorientated the message. They made +clear that the opposition to the young Teacher sprang from the +merchants whose traffic in the temple He had disturbed and from +the Pharisees who were dependent upon them for support. Their +query was curiously familiar, as they demanded the antecedents of +the Radical who dared to touch vested interests, who presumed to +dictate the morality of trade, and who insulted the marts of +honest merchants by calling them "a den of thieves." As the play +developed, it became clear that this powerful opposition had +friends in Church and State, that they controlled influences +which ramified in all directions. They obviously believed in +their statement of the case and their very wealth and position in +the community gave their words such weight that finally all of +their hearers were convinced that the young Agitator must be done +away with in order that the highest interests of society might be +conserved. These simple peasants made it clear that it was the +money power which induced one of the Agitator's closest friends +to betray him, and the villain of the piece, Judas himself, was +only a man who was so dazzled by money, so under the domination +of all it represented, that he was perpetually blind to the +spiritual vision unrolling before him. As I sat through the long +summer day, seeing the shadows on the beautiful mountain back of +the open stage shift from one side to the other and finally grow +long and pointed in the soft evening light, my mind was filled +with perplexing questions. Did the dramatization of the life of +Jesus set forth its meaning more clearly and conclusively than +talking and preaching could possibly do as a shadowy following of +the command "to do the will"? + +The peasant actors whom I had seen returning from mass that +morning had prayed only to portray the life as He had lived it +and, behold, out of their simplicity and piety arose this modern +version which even Harnack was only then venturing to suggest to +his advanced colleagues in Berlin. Yet the Oberammergau fold +were very like thousands of immigrant men and women of Chicago, +both in their experiences and in their familiarity with the hard +facts of life, and throughout that day as my mind dwelt on my +far-away neighbors, I was reproached with the sense of an +ungarnered harvest. + +Of course such a generally uplifted state comes only at rare +moments, while the development of the little theater at +Hull-House has not depended upon the moods of any one, but upon +the genuine enthusiasm and sustained effort of a group of +residents, several of them artists who have ungrudgingly given +their time to it year after year. This group has long fostered +junior dramatic associations, through which it seems possible to +give a training in manners and morals more directly than through +any other medium. They have learned to determine very cleverly +the ages at which various types of the drama are most congruous +and expressive of the sentiments of the little troupes, from the +fairy plays such as "Snow-White" and "Puss-in-Boots" which appeal +to the youngest children, to the heroic plays of "William Tell," +"King John," and "Wat Tyler" for the older lads, and to the +romances and comedies which set forth in stately fashion the +elaborated life which so many young people admire. A group of +Jewish boys gave a dramatic version of the story of Joseph and +his brethren and again of Queen Esther. They had almost a sense +of proprietorship in the fine old lines and were pleased to bring +from home bits of Talmudic lore for the stage setting. The same +club of boys at one time will buoyantly give a roaring comedy and +five years later will solemnly demand a drama dealing with modern +industrial conditions. The Hull-House theater is also rented +from time to time to members of the Young People's Socialist +League who give plays both in Yiddish and English which reduce +their propaganda to conversation. Through such humble +experiments as the Hull-House stage, as well as through the more +ambitious reforms which are attempted in various parts of the +country, the theatre may at last be restored to its rightful +place in the community. + +There have been times when our little stage was able to serve the +theatre libre. A Chicago troupe, finding it difficult to break into +a trust theater, used it one winter twice a week for the +presentation of Ibsen and old French comedy. A visit from the Irish +poet Yeats inspired us to do our share towards freeing the stage +from its slavery to expensive scene setting, and a forest of stiff +conventional trees against a gilt sky still remains with us as a +reminder of an attempt not wholly unsuccessful, in this direction. + +This group of Hull-House artists have filled our little foyer +with a series of charming playbills and by dint of painting their +own scenery and making their own costumes have obtained beguiling +results in stage setting. Sometimes all the artistic resources +of the House unite in a Wagnerian combination; thus, the text of +the "Troll's Holiday" was written by one resident, set to music +by another; sung by the Music School, and placed upon the stage +under the careful direction and training of the dramatic +committee; and the little brown trolls could never have tumbled +about so gracefully in their gleaming caves unless they had been +taught in the gymnasium. + +Some such synthesis takes place every year at the Hull-House +annual exhibition, when an effort is made to bring together in a +spirit of holiday the nine thousand people who come to the House +every week during duller times. Curiously enough the central +feature at the annual exhibition seems to be the brass band of +the boys' club which apparently dominates the situation by sheer +size and noise, but perhaps their fresh boyish enthusiasm +expresses that which the older people take more soberly. + +As the stage of our little theater had attempted to portray the +heroes of many lands, so we planned one early spring seven years +ago, to carry out a scheme of mural decoration upon the walls of +the theater itself, which should portray those cosmopolitan heroes +who have become great through identification with the common lot, +in preference to the heroes of mere achievement. In addition to +the group of artists living at Hull-House several others were in +temporary residence, and they all threw themselves +enthusiastically into the plan. The series began with Tolstoy +plowing his field which was painted by an artist of the Glasgow +school, and the next was of the young Lincoln pushing his flatboat +down the Mississippi River at the moment he received his first +impression of the "great iniquity." This was done by a promising +young artist of Chicago, and the wall spaces nearest to the two +selected heroes were quickly filled with their immortal sayings. + +A spirited discussion thereupon ensued in regard to the heroes for +the two remaining large wall spaces, when to the surprise of all of +us the group of twenty-five residents who had lived in unbroken +harmony for more than ten years, suddenly broke up into cults and +even camps of hero worship. Each cult exhibited drawings of its +own hero in his most heroic moment, and of course each drawing +received enthusiastic backing from the neighborhood, each according +to the nationality of the hero. Thus Phidias standing high on his +scaffold as he finished the heroic head of Athene; the young David +dreamily playing his harp as he tended his father's sheep at +Bethlehem; St. Francis washing the feet of the leper; the young +slave Patrick guiding his master through the bogs of Ireland, which +he later rid of their dangers; the poet Hans Sachs cobbling shoes; +Jeanne d'Arc dropping her spindle in startled wonder before the +heavenly visitants, naturally all obtained such enthusiastic +following from our cosmopolitan neighborhood that it was certain to +give offense if any two were selected. Then there was the cult of +residents who wished to keep the series contemporaneous with the +two heroes already painted, and they advocated William Morris at +his loom, Walt Whitman tramping the open road, Pasteur in his +laboratory, or Florence Nightingale seeking the wounded on the +field of battle. But beyond the socialists, few of the neighbors +had heard of William Morris, and the fame of Walt Whitman was still +more apocryphal; Pasteur was considered merely a clever scientist +without the romance which evokes popular affection and in the +provisional drawing submitted for votes, gentle Florence +Nightingale was said "to look more as if she were robbing the dead +than succoring the wounded." The remark shows how high the feeling +ran, and then, as something must be done quickly, we tried to unite +upon strictly local heroes such as the famous fire marshal who had +lived for many years in our neighborhood-- but why prolong this +description which demonstrates once more that art, if not always +the handmaid of religion, yet insists upon serving those deeper +sentiments for which we unexpectedly find ourselves ready to fight. + When we were all fatigued and hopeless of compromise, we took +refuge in a series of landscapes connected with our two heroes by a +quotation from Wordsworth slightly distorted to meet our dire need, +but still stating his impassioned belief in the efficacious spirit +capable of companionship with man which resides in "particular +spots." Certainly peace emanates from the particular folding of the +hills in one of our treasured mural landscapes, yet occasionally +when a guest with a bewildered air looks from one side of the +theater to the other, we are forced to conclude that the connection +is not convincing. + +In spite of its stormy career this attempt at mural decoration +connects itself quite naturally with the spirit of our earlier +efforts to make Hull-House as beautiful as we could, which had in +it a desire to embody in the outward aspect of the House something +of the reminiscence and aspiration of the neighborhood life. + +As the House enlarged for new needs and mellowed through +slow-growing associations, we endeavored to fashion it from +without, as it were, as well as from within. A tiny wall fountain +modeled in classic pattern, for us penetrates into the world of +the past, but for the Italian immigrant it may defy distance and +barriers as he dimly responds to that typical beauty in which +Italy has ever written its message, even as classic art knew no +region of the gods which was not also sensuous, and as the art of +Dante mysteriously blended the material and the spiritual. + +Perhaps the early devotion of the Hull-House residents to the +pre-Raphaelites recognized that they above all English speaking +poets and painters reveal "the sense of the expressiveness of outward +things" which is at once the glory and the limitation of the arts. + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Andrea Jeddi. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter XVII: Echoes of the Russian Revolution." by Jane Addams +(1860-1935) + +From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes. by +Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. +400-426. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +ECHOES OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION + + +The residents of Hull-House have always seen many evidences of +the Russian Revolution; a forlorn family of little children whose +parents have been massacred at Kishinev are received and +supported by their relatives in our Chicago neighborhood; or a +Russian woman, her face streaming with tears of indignation and +pity, asks you to look at the scarred back of her sister, a young +girl, who has escaped with her life from the whips of the Cossack +soldiers; or a studious young woman suddenly disappears from the +Hull-House classes because she has returned to Kiev to be near +her brother while he is in prison, that she may earn money for +the nourishing food which alone will keep him from contracting +tuberculosis; or we attend a protest meeting against the newest +outrages of the Russian government in which the speeches are +interrupted by the groans of those whose sons have been +sacrificed and by the hisses of others who cannot repress their +indignation. At such moments an American is acutely conscious of +our ignorance of this greatest tragedy of modern times, and at +our indifference to the waste of perhaps the noblest human +material among our contemporaries. Certain it is, as the +distinguished Russian revolutionists have come to Chicago, they +have impressed me, as no one else ever has done, as belonging to +that noble company of martyrs who have ever and again poured +forth blood that human progress might be advanced. Sometimes +these men and women have addressed audiences gathered quite +outside the Russian colony and have filled to overflowing +Chicago's largest halls with American citizens deeply touched by +this message of martyrdom. One significant meeting was addressed +by a member of the Russian Duma and by one of Russia's oldest and +sanest revolutionists; another by Madame Breshkovsky, who later +languished a prisoner in the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul. + +In this wonderful procession of revolutionists, Prince Kropotkin, +or, as he prefers to be called, Peter Kropotkin, was doubtless +the most distinguished. When he came to America to lecture, he +was heard throughout the country with great interest and respect; +that he was a guest of Hull-House during his stay in Chicago +attracted little attention at the time, but two years later, when +the assassination of President McKinley occurred, the visit of +this kindly scholar, who had always called himself an "anarchist" +and had certainly written fiery tracts in his younger manhood, +was made the basis of an attack upon Hull-House by a daily +newspaper, which ignored the fact that while Prince Kropotkin had +addressed the Chicago Arts and Crafts Society at Hull-House, +giving a digest of his remarkable book on "Fields, Factories, and +Workshops," he had also spoken at the State Universities of +Illinois and Wisconsin and before the leading literary and +scientific societies of Chicago. These institutions and +societies were not, therefore, called anarchistic. Hull-House had +doubtless laid itself open to this attack through an incident +connected with the imprisonment of the editor on an anarchistic +paper, who was arrested in Chicago immediately after the +assassination of President McKinley. In the excitement following +the national calamity and the avowal by the assassin of the +influence of the anarchistic lecture to which he had listened, +arrests were made in Chicago of every one suspected of anarchy, +in the belief that a widespread plot would be uncovered. The +editor's house was searched for incriminating literature, his +wife and daughter taken to a police station, and his son and +himself, with several other suspected anarchists, were placed in +the disused cells in the basement of the city hall. + +It is impossible to overstate the public excitement of the moment +and the unfathomable sense of horror with which the community +regarded an attack upon the chief executive of the nation, as a +crime against government itself which compels an instinctive +recoil from all law-abiding citizens. Doubtless both the horror +and recoil have their roots deep down in human experience; the +earliest forms of government implied a group which offered +competent resistance to outsiders, but assuming no protection was +necessary between any two of its own members, promptly punished +with death the traitor who had assaulted anyone within. An +anarchistic attack against an official thus furnishes an +accredited basis both for unreasoning hatred and for prompt +punishment. Both the hatred and the determination to punish +reached the highest pitch in Chicago after the assassination of +President McKinley, and the group of wretched men detained in the +old-fashioned, scarcely habitable cells, had not the least idea +of their ultimate fate. They were not allowed to see an attorney +and were kept "in communicado" as their excited friends called +it. I had seen the editor and his family only during Prince +Kropotkin's stay at Hull-House, when they had come to visit him +several times. The editor had impressed me as a quiet, scholarly +man, challenging the social order by the philosophic touchstone +of Bakunin and of Herbert Spencer, somewhat startled by the +radicalism of his fiery young son and much comforted by the +German domesticity of his wife and daughter. Perhaps it was but +my hysterical symptom of the universal excitement, but it +certainly seemed to me more than I could bear when a group of his +individualistic friends, who had come to ask for help, said: "You +see what becomes of your boasted law; the authorities won't even +allow an attorney, nor will they accept bail for these men, +against whom nothing can be proved, although the veriest +criminals are not denied such a right." Challenged by an +anarchist, one is always sensitive for the honor of legally +constituted society, and I replied that of course the men could +have an attorney, that the assassin himself would eventually be +furnished with one, that the fact that a man was an anarchist had +nothing to do with his rights before the law! I was met with the +retort that that might do for a theory, but that the fact still +remained that these men had been absolutely isolated, seeing no +one but policemen, who constantly frightened them with tales of +public clamor and threatened lynching. + +The conversation took place on Saturday night and, as the final +police authority rests in the mayor, with a friend who was +equally disturbed over the situation, I repaired to his house on +Sunday morning to appeal to him in the interest of a law and +order that should not yield to panic. We contended that to the +anarchist above all men it must be demonstrated that law is +impartial and stands the test of every strain. The mayor heard +us through with the ready sympathy of the successful politician. +He insisted, however, that the men thus far had merely been +properly protected against lynching, but that it might now be +safe to allow them to see some one; he would not yet, however, +take the responsibility of permitting an attorney, but if I +myself chose to see them on the humanitarian errand of an +assurance of fair play, he would write me a permit at once. I +promptly fell into the trap, if trap it was, and within half an +hour was in a corridor in the city hall basement, talking to the +distracted editor and surrounded by a cordon of police, who +assured me that it was not safe to permit him out of his cell. +The editor, who had grown thin and haggard under his suspense, +asked immediately as to the whereabouts of his wife and daughter, +concerning whom he had heard not a word since he had seen them +arrested. Gradually he became composed as he learned, not that +his testimony had been believed to the effect that he had never +seen the assassin but once and had then considered him a foolish +half-witted creature, but that the most thoroughgoing "dragnet" +investigations on the part of the united police of the country +had failed to discover a plot and that the public was gradually +becoming convinced that the dastardly act was that of a solitary +man with no political or social affiliations. + +The entire conversation was simple and did not seem to me unlike, +in motive or character, interviews I had had with many another +forlorn man who had fallen into prison. I had scarce returned to +Hull-House, however, before it was filled with reporters, and I +at once discovered that whether or not I had helped a brother out +of a pit, I had fallen into a deep one myself. A period of sharp +public opprobrium followed, traces of which, I suppose, will +always remain. And yet in the midst of the letters of protest +and accusation which made my mail a horror every morning came a +few letters of another sort, one from a federal judge whom I had +never seen and another from a distinguished professor in the +constitutional law, who congratulated me on what they termed a +sane attempt to uphold the law in time of panic. + +Although one or two ardent young people rushed into print to +defend me from the charge of "abetting anarchy," it seemed to me +at the time that mere words would not avail. I had felt that the +protection of the law itself extended to the most unpopular +citizen was the only reply to the anarchistic argument, to the +effect that this moment of panic revealed the truth of their +theory of government; that the custodians of law and order have +become the government itself quite as the armed men hired by the +medieval guilds to protect them in the peaceful pursuit of their +avocations, through sheer possession of arms finally made +themselves rulers of the city. At that moment I was firmly +convinced that the public could only be convicted of the +blindness of its course, when a body of people with a +hundred-fold of the moral energy possessed by a Settlement group, +should make clear that there is no method by which any community +can be guarded against sporadic efforts on the part of half- +crazed, discouraged men, save by a sense of mutual rights and +securities which will include the veriest outcast. + +It seemed to me then that in the millions of words uttered and +written at that time, no one adequately urged that +public-spirited citizens set themselves the task of patiently +discovering how these sporadic acts of violence against +government may be understood and averted. We do not know whether +they occur among the discouraged and unassimilated immigrants who +might be cared for in such a way as enormously to lessen the +probability of these acts, or whether they are the result of +anarchistic teaching. By hastily concluding that the latter is +the sole explanation for them, we make no attempt to heal and +cure the situation. Failure to make a proper diagnosis may mean +treatment of a disease which does not exist, or it may +furthermore mean that the dire malady from which the patient is +suffering be permitted to develop unchecked. And yet as the +details of the meager life of the President's assassin were +disclosed, they were a challenge to the forces for social +betterment in American cities. Was it not an indictment to all +those whose business it is to interpret and solace the wretched, +that a boy should have grown up in an American city so uncared +for, so untouched by higher issues, his wounds of life so +unhealed by religion that the first talk he ever heard dealing +with life's wrongs, although anarchistic and violent, should yet +appear to point a way of relief? + +The conviction that a sense of fellowship is the only implement +which will break into the locked purpose of a half-crazed creature +bent upon destruction in the name of justice, came to me through +an experience recited to me at this time by an old anarchist. + +He was a German cobbler who, through all the changes in the +manufacturing of shoes, had steadily clung to his little shop on +a Chicago thoroughfare, partly as an expression of his +individualism and partly because he preferred bitter poverty in a +place of his own to good wages under a disciplinary foreman. The +assassin of President McKinley on his way through Chicago only a +few days before he committed his dastardly deed had visited all +the anarchists whom he could find in the city, asking them for +"the password" as he called it. They, of course, possessed no +such thing, and had turned him away, some with disgust and all +with a certain degree of impatience, as a type of the +ill-balanced man who, as they put it, was always "hanging around +the movement, without the slightest conception of its meaning." +Among other people, he visited the German cobbler, who treated +him much as the others had done, but who, after the event had +made clear the identity of his visitor, was filled with the most +bitter remorse that he had failed to utilize his chance meeting +with the assassin to deter him from his purpose. He knew as well +as any psychologist who has read the history of such solitary men +that the only possible way to break down such a persistent and +secretive purpose, was by the kindliness which might have induced +confession, which might have restored the future assassin into +fellowship with normal men. + +In the midst of his remorse, the cobbler told me a tale of his +own youth; that years before, when an ardent young fellow in +Germany, newly converted to the philosophy of anarchism, as he +called it, he had made up his mind that the Church, as much as +the State, was responsible for human oppression, and that this +fact could best be set forth "in the deed" by the public +destruction of a clergyman or priest; that he had carried +firearms for a year with this purpose in mind, but that one +pleasant summer evening, in a moment of weakness, he had confided +his intention to a friend, and that from that moment he not only +lost all desire to carry it out, but it seemed to him the most +preposterous thing imaginable. In concluding the story he said; +"That poor fellow sat just beside me on my bench; if I had only +put my hand on his shoulder and said, 'Now, look here, brother, +what is on your mind? What makes you talk such nonsense? Tell +me. I have seen much of life, and understand all kinds of men. I +have been young and hot-headed and foolish myself,' if he had +told me of his purpose then and there, he would never have +carried it out. The whole nation would have been spared this +horror." As he concluded he shook his gray head and sighed as if +the whole incident were more than he could bear--one of those +terrible sins of omission; one of the things he "ought to have +done," the memory of which is so hard to endure. + +The attempt a Settlement makes to interpret American institutions +to those who are bewildered concerning them either because of their +personal experiences, or because of preconceived theories, would +seem to lie in the direct path of its public obligation, and yet it +is apparently impossible for the overwrought community to +distinguish between the excitement the Settlements are endeavoring +to understand and to allay and the attitude of the Settlement +itself. At times of public panic, fervid denunciation is held to +be the duty of every good citizen, and if a Settlement is convinced +that the incident should be used to vindicate the law and does not +at the moment give its strength to denunciation, its attitude is at +once taken to imply a championship of anarchy itself. + +The public mind at such a moment falls into the old medieval +confusion--he who feeds or shelters a heretic is upon prima facie +evidence a heretic himself--he who knows intimately people among +whom anarchists arise is therefore an anarchist. I personally am +convinced that anarchy as a philosophy is dying down, not only in +Chicago, but everywhere; that their leading organs have +discontinued publication, and that their most eminent men in +America have deserted them. Even those groups which have +continued to meet are dividing, and the major half in almost +every instance calls itself socialist-anarchists, an apparent +contradiction of terms, whose members insist that the socialistic +organization of society must be the next stage of social +development and must be gone through with, so to speak, before +the ideal state of society can be reached, so nearly begging the +question that some orthodox socialists are willing to recognize +them. It is certainly true that just because anarchy questions +the very foundations of society, the most elemental sense of +protection demands that the method of meeting the challenge +should be intelligently considered. + +Whether or not Hull-House has accomplished anything by its method +of meeting such a situation, or at least attempting to treat it +in a way which will not destroy confidence in the American +institutions so adored by refugees from foreign governmental +oppression, it is of course impossible for me to say. + +And yet it was in connection with an effort to pursue an +intelligent policy in regard to a so-called "foreign anarchist" +that Hull-House again became associated with that creed six years +later. This again was an echo of the Russian revolution, but in +connection with one of its humblest representatives. A young +Russian Jew named Averbuch appeared in the early morning at the +house of the Chicago chief of police upon an obscure errand. It +was a moment of panic everwhere in regard to anarchists because +of a recent murder in Denver which had been charged to an Italian +anarchist, and the chief of police, assuming that the dark young +man standing in his hallway was an anarchist bent upon his +assassination, hastily called for help. In a panic born of fear +and self-defense, young Averbuch was shot to death. The members +of the Russian-Jewish colony on the west side of Chicago were +thrown into a state of intense excitement as soon as the +nationality of the young man became known. They were filled with +dark forebodings from a swift prescience of what it would mean to +them were the oduim of anarchy rightly or wrongly attached to one +of their members. It seemed to the residents of Hull-House most +important that every effort should be made to ascertain just what +did happen, that every means of securing information should be +exhausted before a final opinion should be formed, and this odium +fastened upon a colony of law-abiding citizens. The police might +be right or wrong in their assertion that the man was an +anarchist. It was, to our minds, also most unfortunate that the +Chicago police in the determination to uncover an anarchistic +plot should have utilized the most drastic methods of search +within the Russian-Jewish colony composed of families only too +familiar with the methods of Russian police. Therefore, when the +Chicago police ransacked all the printing offices they could +locate in the colony, when they raided a restaurant which they +regarded as suspicious because it had been supplying food at cost +to the unemployed, when they searched through private houses for +papers and photographs of revolutionaries, when they seized the +library of the Edelstadt group and carried the books, including +Shakespeare and Herbert Spencer, to the city hall, when they +arrested two friends of young Averbuch and kept them in the +police station forty-eight hours, when they mercilessly "sweated" +the sister, Olga, that she might be startled into a +confession--all these things so poignantly reminded them of +Russian methods that indignation fed both by old memory and +bitter disappointment in America, swept over the entire colony. +The older men asked whether constitutional rights gave no +guarantee against such violent aggression of police power, and +the hot-headed younger ones cried out at once that the only way +to deal with the police was to defy them, which was true of +police the world over. It was said many times that those who are +without influence and protection in a strange country fare +exactly as hard as do the poor in Europe; that all the talk of +guaranteed protection through political institutions is nonsense. + +Every Settlement has classes in citizenship in which the +principles of American institutions are expounded, and of these +the community, as a whole, approves. But the Settlements know +better than anyone else that while these classes and lectures are +useful, nothing can possibly give lessons in citizenship so +effectively and make so clear the constitutional basis of a +self-governing community as the current event itself. The +treatment at a given moment of that foreign colony which feels +itself outraged and misunderstood, either makes its constitutional +rights clear to it, or forever confuses it on the subject. + +The only method by which a reasonable and loyal conception of +government may be substituted for the one formed upon Russian +experiences is that the actual experience of refugees with +government in America shall gradually demonstrate what a very +different thing government means here. Such an event as the +Averbuch affair affords an unprecedented opportunity to make +clear this difference and to demonstrate beyond the possibility +of misunderstanding that the guarantee of constitutional rights +implies that officialism shall be restrained and guarded at every +point, that the official represents, not the will of a small +administrative body, but the will of the entire people, and that +methods therefore have been constituted by which official +aggression may be restrained. The Averbuch incident gave an +opportunity to demonstrate this to that very body of people who +need it most; to those who have lived in Russia where autocratic +officers represent autocratic power and where government is +officialism. It seemed to the residents in the Settlements +nearest the Russian-Jewish colony that it was an obvious piece of +public spirit to try out all the legal value involved, to insist +that American institutions were stout enough to break down in +times of stress and public panic. + +The belief of many Russians that the Averbuch incident would be +made a prelude to the constant use of the extradition treaty for +the sake of terrorizing revolutionists both at home and abroad +received a certain corroboration when an attempt was made in 1908 +to extradite a Russian revolutionist named Rudovitz who was living +in Chicago. The first hearing before a United States Commissioner +gave a verdict favorable to the Russian Government although this +was afterward reversed by the Department of State in Washington. +Partly to educate American sentiment, partly to express sympathy +with the Russian refugees in their dire need, a series of public +meetings was arranged in which the operations of the extradition +treaty were discussed by many of us who had spoken at a meeting +held in protest against its ratification fifteen years before. It +is impossible for anyone unacquainted with the Russian colony to +realize the consternation produced by this attempted extradition. I +acted as treasurer of the fund collected to defray the expenses of +halls and printing in the campaign against the policy of extradition +and had many opportunities to talk with members of the colony. One +old man, tearing his hair and beard as he spoke, declared that all +his sons and grandsons might thus be sent back to Russia; in fact, +all of the younger men in the colony might be extradited, for every +high-spirited young Russian was, in a sense, a revolutionist. + +Would it not provoke to ironic laughter that very nemesis which +presides over the destinies of nations, if the most autocratic +government yet remaining in civilization should succeed in +utilizing for its own autocratic methods the youngest and most +daring experiment in democratic government which the world has +ever seen? Stranger results have followed a course of stupidity +and injustice resulting from blindness and panic! + +It is certainly true that if the decision of the federal office +in Chicago had not been reversed by the department of state in +Washington, the United States government would have been +committed to return thousands of spirited young refugees to the +punishments of the Russian autocracy. + +It was perhaps significant of our need of what Napoleon called a +"revival of civic morals" that the public appeal against such a +reversal of our traditions had to be based largely upon the +contributions to American progress made from other revolutions; +the Puritans from the English, Lafayette from the French, Carl +Schurz and many another able man from the German upheavals in the +middle of the century. + +A distinguished German scholar writing at the end of his long +life a description of his friends of 1848 who made a gallant +although premature effort to unite the German states and to +secure a constitutional government, thus concludes: "But not a +few saw the whole of their lives wrecked, either in prison or +poverty, though they had done no wrong, and in many cases were +the finest characters it has been my good fortune to know. They +were before their time; the fruit was not ripe, as it was in +1871, and Germany but lost her best sons in those miserable +years." When the time is ripe in Russia, when she finally yields +to those great forces which are molding and renovating +contemporary life, when her Cavour and her Bismark finally throw +into the first governmental forms all that yearning for juster +human relations which the idealistic Russian revolutionists +embody, we may look back upon these "miserable years" with a +sense of chagrin at our lack of sympathy and understanding. + +Again it is far from easy to comprehend the great Russian +struggle. I recall a visit from the famous revolutionist +Gershuni, who had escaped from Siberia in a barrel of cabbage +rolled under the very fortress of the commandant himself, had +made his way through Manchuria and China to San Francisco, and on +his way back to Russia had stopped in Chicago for a few days. +Three months later we heard of his death, and whenever I recall +the conversation held with him, I find it invested with that +dignity which last words imply. Upon the request of a comrade, +Gershuni had repeated the substance of the famous speech he had +made to the court which sentenced him to Siberia. As +representing the government against which he had rebelled, he +told the court that he might in time be able to forgive all of +their outrages and injustices save one; the unforgivable outrage +would remain that hundreds of men like himself, who were +vegetarians because they were not willing to participate in the +destruction of living creatures, who had never struck a child +even in punishment, who were so consumed with tenderness for the +outcast and oppressed that they had lived for weeks among +starving peasants only that they might cheer and solace +them,--that these men should have been driven into terrorism, +until impelled to "execute," as they call it,--"assassinate" the +Anglo-Saxon would term it,--public officials, was something for +which he would never forgive the Russian government. It was, +perhaps, the heat of the argument, as much as conviction, which +led me to reply that it would be equally difficult for society to +forgive these very revolutionists for one thing they had done, +their institution of the use of force in such wise that it would +inevitably be imitated by men of less scruple and restraint; that +to have revived such a method in civilization, to have justified +it by their disinterestedness of purpose and nobility of +character, was perhaps the gravest responsibility that any group +of men could assume. With a smile of indulgent pity such as one +might grant to a mistaken child, he replied that such Tolstoyan +principles were as fitted to Russia as "these toilettes," +pointing to the thin summer gowns of his listeners, "were fitted +to a Siberian winter." And yet I held the belief then, as I +certainly do now, that when the sense of justice seeks to express +itself quite outside the regular channels of established +government, it has set forth on a dangerous journey inevitably +ending in disaster, and that this is true in spite of the fact +that the adventure may have been inspired by noble motives. + +Still more perplexing than the use of force by the revolutionists +is the employment of the agent-provocateur on the part of the +Russian government. The visit of Vladimir Bourtzeff to Chicago +just after his exposure of the famous secret agent, Azeff, filled +one with perplexity in regard to a government which would connive +at the violent death of a faithful official and that of a member +of the royal household for the sake of bringing opprobrium and +punishment to the revolutionists and credit to the secret police. + +The Settlement has also suffered through its effort to secure +open discussion of the methods of the Russian government. During +the excitement connected with the visit of Gorki to this country, +three different committees of Russians came to Hull-House begging +that I would secure a statement in at least one of the Chicago +dailies of their own view, that the agents of the Czar had +cleverly centered public attention upon Gorki's private life and +had fomented a scandal so successfully that the object of Gorki's +visit to America had been foiled; he who had known intimately the +most wretched of the Czar's subjects, who was best able to +sympathetically portray their wretchedness, not only failed to +get a hearing before an American audience, but could scarcely +find the shelter of a roof. I told two of the Russian committees +that it was hopeless to undertake any explanation of the bitter +attack until public excitement had somewhat subsided; but one +Sunday afternoon when a third committee arrived, I said that I +would endeavor to have reprinted in a Chicago daily the few +scattered articles written for the magazines which tried to +explain the situation, one by the head professor in political +economy of a leading university, and others by publicists well +informed as to Russian affairs. + +I hoped that a cosmopolitan newspaper might feel an obligation to +recognize the desire for fair play on the part of thousands of its +readers among the Russians, Poles, and Finns, at least to the +extent of reproducing these magazine articles under a noncommittal +caption. That same Sunday evening, in company with one of the +residents, I visited a newspaper office only to hear its +representative say that my plan was quite out of the question, as +the whole subject was what newspaper men called "a sacred cow." He +said, however, that he would willingly print an article which I +myself should write and sign. I declined this offer with the +statement that one who had my opportunities to see the struggles +of poor women in securing support for their children, found it +impossible to write anything which would however remotely justify +the loosening of marriage bonds, even if the defense of Gorki made +by the Russian committees was sound. We left the newspaper office +somewhat discouraged with what we thought one more unsuccessful +effort to procure a hearing for the immigrants. + +I had considered the incident closed, when to my horror and +surprise several months afterward it was made the basis of a +story with every possible vicious interpretation. One of the +Chicago newspapers had been indicted by Mayor Dunne for what he +considered an actionable attack upon his appointees to the +Chicago School Board of whom I was one, and the incident enlarged +and coarsened was submitted as evidence to the Grand Jury in +regard to my views and influence. Although the evidence was +thrown out, an attempt was again made to revive this story by the +managers of Mayor Dunne's second campaign, this time to show how +"the protector of the oppressed" was traduced. The incident is +related here as an example of the clever use of that old device +which throws upon the radical in religion, in education, and in +social reform, the oduim of encouraging "harlots and sinners" and +of defending their doctrines. + +If the under dog were always right, one might quite easily try to +defend him. The trouble is that very often he is but obscurely +right, sometimes only partially right, and often quite wrong; but +perhaps he is never so altogether wrong and pig-headed and +utterly reprehensible as he is represented to be by those who add +the possession of prejudices to the other almost insuperable +difficulties of understanding him. It was, perhaps, not +surprising that with these excellent opportunities for misjudging +Hull-House, we should have suffered attack from time to time +whenever any untoward event gave an opening as when an Italian +immigrant murdered a priest in Denver, Colorado. Although the +wretched man had never been in Chicago, much less at Hull-House, +a Chicago ecclesiastic asserted that he had learned hatred of the +Church as a member of the Giordano Bruno Club, an Italian Club, +one of whose members lived at Hull-House, and which had +occasionally met there, although it had long maintained clubrooms +of its own. This club had its origin in the old struggles of +united Italy against the temporal power of the Pope, one of the +European echoes with which Chicago resounds. The Italian +resident, as the editor of a paper representing new Italy, had +come in sharp conflict with the Chicago ecclesiastic, first in +regard to naming a public school of the vicinity after Garibaldi, +which was of course not tolerated by the Church, and then in +regard to many another issue arising in anticlericalism, which, +although a political party, is constantly involved, from the very +nature of the case, in theological difficulties. The contest had +been carried on with a bitterness impossible for an American to +understand, but its origin and implications were so obvious that +it did not occur to any of us that it could be associated with +Hull-House either in its motive or direction. + +The ecclesiastic himself had lived for years in Rome, and as I +had often discussed the problems of Italian politics with him, I +was quite sure he understood the raison d'etre for the Giordano +Bruno Club. Fortunately in the midst of the rhetorical attack, +our friendly relations remained unbroken with the neighboring +priests from whom we continued to receive uniform courtesy as we +cooperated in cases of sorrow and need. Hundreds of devout +communicants identified with the various Hull-House clubs and +classes were deeply distressed by the incident, but assured us it +was all a misunderstanding. Easter came soon afterwards, and it +was not difficult to make a connection between the attack and the +myriad of Easter cards which filled my mail. + +Thus a Settlement becomes involved in the many difficulties of +its neighbors as its experiences make vivid the consciousness of +modern internationalism. And yet the very fact that the sense of +reality is so keen and the obligation of the Settlement so +obvious may perhaps in itself explain the opposition Hull-House +has encountered when it expressed its sympathy with the Russian +revolution. We were much entertained, although somewhat +ruefully, when a Chicago woman withdrew from us a large annual +subscription because Hull-House had defended a Russian refugee +while she, who had seen much of the Russian aristocracy in +Europe, knew from them that all the revolutionary agitation was +both unreasonable and unnecessary! + +It is, of course impossible to say whether these oppositions were +inevitable or whether they were indications that Hull-House had +somehow bungled at its task. Many times I have been driven to +the confession of the blundering Amiel: "It requires ability to +make what we seem agree with what we are." + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Jill Thoren. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +[A Celebration of Women Writers] + +"Chapter XVIII: Socialized Education." by Jane Addams (1860-1935) +From: Twenty Years at Hull-House with Autobiographical Notes. by +Jane Addams. New York: The MacMillan Company, 1912 (c.1910) pp. +427-453. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +SOCIALIZED EDUCATION + + +In a paper written years ago I deplored at some length the fact +that educational matters are more democratic in their political +than in their social aspect, and I quote the following extract +from it as throwing some light upon the earlier educational +undertakings at Hull-House:- + + Teaching in a Settlement requires distinct methods, for it + is true of people who have been allowed to remain + undeveloped and whose facilities are inert and sterile, + that they cannot take their learning heavily. It has to be + diffused in a social atmosphere, information must be held + in solution, in a medium of fellowship and good will. + + Intellectual life requires for its expansion and + manifestation the influences and assimilation of the + interests and affections of others. Mazzini, that + greatest of all democrats, who broke his heart over the + condition of the South European peasantry, said: + "Education is not merely a necessity of true life by which + the individual renews his vital force in the vital force + of humanity; it is a Holy Communion with generations dead + and living, by which he fecundates all his faculties. + When he is withheld from this Communion for generations, + as the Italian peasant has been, we say, 'He is like a + beast of the field; he must be controlled by force.'" Even + to this it is sometimes added that it is absurd to educate + him, immoral to disturb his content. We stupidly use the + effect as an argument for a continuance of the cause. It + is needless to say that a Settlement is a protest against + a restricted view of education. + +In line with this declaration, Hull-House in the very beginning +opened what we called College Extension Classes with a faculty +finally numbering thirty-five college men and women, many of whom +held their pupils for consecutive years. As these classes +antedated in Chicago the University Extension and Normal +Extension classes and supplied a demand for stimulating +instruction, the attendance strained to their utmost capacity the +spacious rooms in the old house. The relation of students and +faculty to each other and to the residents was that of guest and +hostess, and at the close of each term the residents gave a +reception to students and faculty which was one of the chief +social events of the season. Upon this comfortable social basis +some very good work was done. + +In connection with these classes a Hull-House summer school was +instituted at Rockford College, which was most generously placed at +our disposal by the trustees. For ten years one hundred women +gathered there for six weeks, in addition there were always men on +the faculty, and a small group of young men among the students who +were lodged in the gymnasium building. The outdoor classes in bird +study and botany, the serious reading of literary masterpieces, the +boat excursions on the Rock River, the cooperative spirit of doing +the housework together, the satirical commencements in +parti-colored caps and gowns, lent themselves toward a reproduction +of the comradeship which college life fosters. + +As each member of the faculty, as well as the students, paid +three dollars a week, and as we had little outlay beyond the +actual cost of food, we easily defrayed our expenses. The +undertaking was so simple and gratifying in results that it might +well be reproduced in many college buildings which are set in the +midst of beautiful surroundings, unused during the two months of +the year when hundreds of people, able to pay only a moderate +price for lodgings in the country, can find nothing comfortable +and no mental food more satisfying than piazza gossip. + +Every Thursday evening during the first years, a public lecture +came to be an expected event in the neighborhood, and Hull-House +became one of the early University Extension centers, first in +connection with an independent society and later with the +University of Chicago. One of the Hull-House trustees was so +impressed with the value of this orderly and continuous +presentation of economic subjects that he endowed three courses +in a downtown center, in which the lectures were free to anyone +who chose to come. He was much pleased that these lectures were +largely attended by workingmen who ordinarily prefer that an +economic subject shall be presented by a partisan, and who are +supremely indifferent to examinations and credits. They also +dislike the balancing of pro and con which scholarly instruction +implies, and prefer to be "inebriated on raw truth" rather than +to sip a carefully prepared draught of knowledge. + +Nevertheless Bowen Hall, which seats seven hundred and fifty +people, is often none too large to hold the audiences of men who +come to Hull-House every Sunday evening during the winter to attend +the illustrated lectures provided by the faculty of the University +of Chicago and others who kindly give their services. These courses +differ enormously in their popularity: one on European capitals and +their social significance was followed with the most vivid +attention and sense of participation indicated by groans and hisses +when the audience was reminded of an unforgettable feud between +Austria and her Slavic subjects, or when they wildly applauded a +Polish hero endeared through his tragic failure. + +In spite of the success of these Sunday evening courses, it has +never been an easy undertaking to find acceptable lectures. A +course of lectures on astronomy illustrated by stereopticon slides +will attract a large audience the first week, who hope to hear of +the wonders of the heavens and the relation of our earth thereto, +but instead are treated to spectrum analyses of star dust, or the +latest theory concerning the milky way. The habit of research and +the desire to say the latest word upon any subject often overcomes +the sympathetic understanding of his audience which the lecturer +might otherwise develop, and he insensibly drops into the dull +terminology of the classroom. There are, of course, notable +exceptions; we had twelve gloriously popular talks on organic +evolution, but the lecturer was not yet a professor--merely a +university instructor--and his mind was still eager over the +marvel of it all. Fortunately there is an increasing number of +lecturers whose matter is so real, so definite, and so valuable, +that in an attempt to give it an exact equivalence in words, they +utilize the most direct forms of expression. + +It sometimes seems as if the men of substantial scholarship were +content to leave to the charletan the teaching of those things +which deeply concern the welfare of mankind, and that the mass of +men get their intellectual food from the outcasts of scholarship, +who provide millions of books, pictures, and shows, not to +instruct and guide, but for the sake of their own financial +profit. A Settlement soon discovers that simple people are +interested in large and vital subjects, and the Hull-House +residents themselves at one time, with only partial success, +undertook to give a series of lectures on the history of the +world, beginning with the nebular hypothesis and reaching Chicago +itself in the twenty-fifth lecture! Absurd as the hasty review +appears, there is no doubt that the beginner in knowledge is +always eager for the general statement, as those wise old teachers +of the people well knew, when they put the history of creation on +the stage and the monks themselves became the actors. I recall +that in planning my first European journey I had soberly hoped in +two years to trace the entire pattern of human excellence as we +passed from one country to another, in the shrines popular +affection had consecrated to the saints, in the frequented statues +erected to heroes, and in the "worn blasonry of funeral +brasses"--an illustration that when we are young we all long for +those mountaintops upon which we may soberly stand and dream of +our own ephemeral and uncertain attempts at righteousness. I have +had many other illustrations of this; a statement was recently +made to me by a member of the Hull-House Boys' club, who had been +unjustly arrested as an accomplice to a young thief and held in +the police station for three days, that during his detention he +"had remembered the way Jean Valjean behaved when he was +everlastingly pursued by that policeman who was only trying to do +right"; "I kept seeing the pictures in that illustrated lecture +you gave about him, and I thought it would be queer if I couldn't +behave well for three days when he had kept it up for years." + +The power of dramatic action may unfortunately be illustrated in +other ways. During the weeks when all the daily papers were full +of the details of a notorious murder trial in New York and all +the hideous events which preceded the crime, one evening I saw in +the street a knot of working girls leaning over a newspaper, +admiring the clothes, the beauty, and "sorrowful expression" of +the unhappy heroine. In the midst of the trial a woman whom I +had known for years came to talk to me about her daughter, +shamefacedly confessing that the girl was trying to dress and +look like the notorious girl in New York, and that she had even +said to her mother in a moment of defiance, "Some day I shall be +taken into court and then I shall dress just as Evelyn did and +face my accusers as she did in innocence and beauty." + +If one makes calls on a Sunday afternoon in the homes of the +immigrant colonies near Hull-House, one finds the family absorbed +in the Sunday edition of a sensational daily newspaper, even +those who cannot read, quite easily following the comic +adventures portrayed in the colored pictures of the supplement or +tracing the clew of a murderer carefully depicted by a black line +drawn through a plan of the houses and streets. + +Sometimes lessons in the great loyalties and group affections come +through life itself and yet in such a manner that one cannot but +deplore it. During the teamsters' strike in Chicago several years +ago when class bitterness rose to a dramatic climax, I remember +going to visit a neighborhood boy who had been severely injured +when he had taken the place of a union driver upon a coal wagon. +As I approached the house in which he lived, a large group of boys +and girls, some of them very little children, surrounded me to +convey the exciting information that "Jack T. was a 'scab'," and +that I couldn't go in there. I explained to the excited children +that his mother, who was a friend of mine, was in trouble, quite +irrespective of the way her boy had been hurt. The crowd around +me outside of the house of the "scab" constantly grew larger and +I, finally abandoning my attempt at explanation, walked in only to +have the mother say: "Please don't come here. You will only get +hurt, too." Of course I did not get hurt, but the episode left +upon my mind one of the most painful impressions I have ever +received in connection with the children of the neighborhood. In +addition to all else are the lessons of loyalty and comradeship to +come to them as the mere reversals of class antagonism? And yet +it was but a trifling incident out of the general spirit of +bitterness and strife which filled the city. + +Therefore the residents of Hull-House place increasing emphasis +upon the great inspirations and solaces of literature and are +unwilling that it should ever languish as a subject for class +instruction or for reading parties. The Shakespeare club has +lived a continuous existence at Hull-House for sixteen years +during which time its members have heard the leading interpreters +of Shakespeare, both among scholars and players. I recall that +one of its earliest members said that her mind was peopled with +Shakespeare characters during her long hours of sewing in a shop, +that she couldn't remember what she thought about before she +joined the club, and concluded that she hadn't thought about +anything at all. To feed the mind of the worker, to lift it above +the monotony of his task, and to connect it with the larger world, +outside of his immediate surroundings, has always been the object +of art, perhaps never more nobly fulfilled than by the great +English bard. Miss Starr has held classes in Dante and Browning +for many years, and the great lines are conned with never failing +enthusiasm. I recall Miss Lathrop's Plato club and an audience +who listened to a series of lectures by Dr. John Dewey on "Social +Psychology" as geniune intellectual groups consisting largely of +people from the immediate neighborhood, who were willing to make +"that effort from which we all shrink, the effort of thought." But +while we prize these classes as we do the help we are able to give +to the exceptional young man or woman who reaches the college and +university and leaves the neighborhood of his childhood behind +him, the residents of Hull-House feel increasingly that the +educational efforts of a Settlement should not be directed +primarily to reproduce the college type of culture, but to work +out a method and an ideal adapted to the immediate situation. +They feel that they should promote a culture which will not set +its possessor aside in a class with others like himself, but which +will, on the contrary, connect him with all sorts of people by his +ability to understand them as well as by his power to supplement +their present surroundings with the historic background. Among +the hundreds of immigrants who have for years attended classes at +Hull-House designed primarily to teach the English language, +dozens of them have struggled to express in the newly acquired +tongue some of these hopes and longings which had so much to do +with their emigration. + +A series of plays was thus written by a young Bohemian; essays by +a Russian youth, outpouring sorrows rivaling Werther himself and +yet containing the precious stuff of youth's perennial revolt +against accepted wrong; stories of Russian oppression and petty +injustices throughout which the desire for free America became a +crystallized hope; an attempt to portray the Jewish day of +Atonement, in such wise that even individualistic Americans may +catch a glimpse of that deeper national life which has survived +all transplanting and expresses itself in forms so ancient that +they appear grotesque to the ignorant spectator. I remember a +pathetic effort on the part of a young Russian Jewess to describe +the vivid inner life of an old Talmud scholar, probably her uncle +or father, as of one persistently occupied with the grave and +important things of the spirit, although when brought into sharp +contact with busy and overworked people, he inevitably appeared +self-absorbed and slothful. Certainly no one who had read her +paper could again see such an old man in his praying shawl bent +over his crabbed book, without a sense of understanding. + +On the other hand, one of the most pitiful periods in the drama +of the much-praised young American who attempts to rise in life, +is the time when his educational requirements seem to have locked +him up and made him rigid. He fancies himself shut off from his +uneducated family and misunderstood by his friends. He is bowed +down by his mental accumulations and often gets no farther than +to carry them through life as a great burden, and not once does +he obtain a glimpse of the delights of knowledge. + +The teacher in a Settlement is constantly put upon his mettle to +discover methods of instruction which shall make knowledge +quickly available to his pupils, and I should like here to pay my +tribute of admiration to the dean of our educational department, +Miss Landsberg, and to the many men and women who every winter +come regularly to Hull-House, putting untiring energy into the +endless task of teaching the newly arrived immigrant the first +use of a language of which he has such desperate need. Even a +meager knowledge of English may mean an opportunity to work in a +factory versus nonemployment, or it may mean a question of life +or death when a sharp command must be understood in order to +avoid the danger of a descending crane. + +In response to a demand for an education which should be +immediately available, classes have been established and grown +apace in cooking, dressmaking, and millinery. A girl who attends +them will often say that she "expects to marry a workingman next +spring," and because she has worked in a factory so long she +knows "little about a house." Sometimes classes are composed of +young matrons of like factory experiences. I recall one of them +whose husband had become so desperate after two years of her +unskilled cooking that he had threatened to desert her and go +where he could get "decent food," as she confided to me in a +tearful interview, when she followed my advice to take the +Hull-House courses in cooking, and at the end of six months +reported a united and happy home. + +Two distinct trends are found in response to these classes; the +first is for domestic training, and the other is for trade +teaching which shall enable the poor little milliner and +dressmaker apprentices to shorten the years of errand running +which is supposed to teach them their trade. + +The beginning of trade instruction has been already evolved in +connection with the Hull-House Boys' club. The ample Boys' club +building presented to Hull-House three years ago by one of our +trustees has afforded well-equipped shops for work in wood, iron, +and brass; for smithing in copper and tin; for commercial +photography, for printing, for telegraphy, and electrical +construction. These shops have been filled with boys who are +eager for that which seems to give them a clew to the industrial +life all about them. These classes meet twice a week and are +taught by intelligent workingmen who apparently give the boys +what they want better than do the strictly professional teachers. +While these classes in no sense provide a trade training, they +often enable a boy to discover his aptitude and help him in the +selection of what he "wants to be" by reducing the trades to +embryonic forms. The factories are so complicated that the boy +brought in contact with them, unless he has some preliminary +preparation, is apt to become confused. In pedagogical terms, he +loses his "power of orderly reaction" and is often so discouraged +or so overstimulated in his very first years of factory life that +his future usefulness is seriously impaired. + +One of Chicago's most significant experiments in the direction of +correlating the schools with actual industry was for several years +carried on in a public school building situated near Hull-House, +in which the bricklayers' apprentices were taught eight hours a +day in special classes during the non-bricklaying season. This +early public school venture anticipated the very successful +arrangement later carried on in Cincinnati, in Pittsburgh and in +Chicago itself, whereby a group of boys at work in a factory +alternate month by month with another group who are in school and +are thus intelligently conducted into the complicated processes of +modern industry. But for a certain type of boy who has been +demoralized by the constant change and excitement of street life, +even these apprenticeship classes are too strenuous, and he has to +be lured into the path of knowledge by all sorts of appeals. + +It sometimes happens that boys are held in the Hull-House classes +for weeks by their desire for the excitement of placing burglar +alarms under the door mats. But to enable the possessor of even +a little knowledge to thus play with it, is to decoy his feet at +least through the first steps of the long, hard road of learning, +although even in this, the teacher must proceed warily. A +typical street boy who was utterly absorbed in a wood-carving +class, abruptly left never to return when he was told to use some +simple calculations in the laying out of the points. He +evidently scented the approach of his old enemy, arithmetic, and +fled the field. On the other hand, we have come across many +cases in which boys have vainly tried to secure such +opportunities for themselves. During the trial of a boy of ten +recently arrested for truancy, it developed that he had spent +many hours watching the electrical construction in a downtown +building, and many others in the public library "reading about +electricity." Another boy who was taken from school early, when +his father lost both of his legs in a factory accident, tried in +vain to find a place for himself "with machinery." He was +declared too small for any such position, and for four years +worked as an errand boy, during which time he steadily turned in +his unopened pay envelope for the use of the household. At the +end of the fourth year the boy disappeared, to the great distress +of his invalid father and his poor mother whose day washings +became the sole support of the family. He had beaten his way to +Kansas City, hoping "they wouldn't be so particular there about a +fellow's size." He came back at the end of six weeks because he +felt sorry for his mother who, aroused at last to a realization +of his unbending purpose, applied for help to the Juvenile +Protective Association. They found a position for the boy in a +machine shop and an opportunity for evening classes. + +Out of the fifteen hundred members of the Hull-House Boy's club, +hundreds seem to respond only to the opportunities for +recreation, and many of the older ones apparently care only for +the bowling and the billiards. And yet tournaments and match +games under supervision and regulated hours are a great advance +over the sensual and exhausting pleasures to be found so easily +outside the club. These organized sports readily connect +themselves with the Hull-House gymnasium and with all those +enthusiasms which are so mysteriously aroused by athletics. + +Our gymnasium has been filled with large and enthusiastic classes +for eighteen years in spite of the popularity of dancing and other +possible substitutes, while the Saturday evening athletic contests +have become a feature of the neighborhood. The Settlement strives +for that type of gymnastics which is at least partly a matter of +character, for that training which presupposes abstinence and the +curbing of impulse, as well as for those athletic contests in +which the mind of the contestant must be vigilant to keep the body +closely to the rules of the game. As one sees in rhythmic motion +the slim bodies of a class of lads, "that scrupulous and +uncontaminate purity of form which recommended itself even to the +Greeks as befitting messengers from the gods, if such messengers +should come," one offers up in awkward prosaic form the very +essence of that old prayer, "Grant them with feet so light to pass +through life." But while the glory stored up for Olympian winners +was at the most a handful of parsley, an ode, fame for family and +city, on the other hand, when the men and boys from the Hull-House +gymnasium bring back their cups and medals, one's mind is filled +with something like foreboding in the reflection that too much +success may lead the winners into the professionalism which is so +associated with betting and so close to pugilism. Candor, +however, compels me to state that a long acquaintance with the +acrobatic folk who have to do with the circus, a large number of +whom practice in our gymnasium every winter, has raised our +estimate of that profession. + +Young people who work long hours at sedentary occupations, +factories and offices, need perhaps more than anything else the +freedom and ease to be acquired from a symmetrical muscular +development and are quick to respond to that fellowship which +athletics apparently affords more easily than anything else. The +Greek immigrants form large classes and are eager to reproduce +the remnants of old methods of wrestling, and other bits of +classic lore which they still possess, and when one of the Greeks +won a medal in a wrestling match which represented the +championship of the entire city, it was quite impossible that he +should present it to the Hull-House trophy chest without a +classic phrase which he recited most gravely and charmingly. + +It was in connection with a large association of Greek lads that +Hull-House finally lifted its long restriction against military +drill. If athletic contests are the residuum of warfare first +waged against the conqueror without and then against the tyrants +within the State, the modern Greek youth is still in the first +stage so far as his inherited attitude against the Turk is +concerned. Each lad believes that at any moment he may be called +home to fight this long-time enemy of Greece. With such a +genuine motive at hand, it seemed mere affectation to deny the +use of our boys' club building and gymnasium for organized drill, +although happily it forms but a small part of the activities of +the Greek Educational Association. + +Having thus confessed to military drill countenanced if not +encouraged at Hull-House, it is perhaps only fair to relate an +early experience of mine with the "Columbian Guards," and +organization of the World's Fair summer. Although the Hull-House +squad was organized as the others were with the motto of a clean +city, it was very anxious for military drill. This request not +only shocked my nonresistant principles, but seemed to afford an +opportunity to find a substitute for the military tactics which +were used in the boys' brigades everywhere, even in those +connected with churches. As the cleaning of the filthy streets +and alleys was the ostensible purpose of the Columbian guards, I +suggested to the boys that we work out a drill with sewer spades, +which with their long narrow blades and shortened handles were +not so unlike bayoneted guns in size, weight, and general +appearance, but that much of the usual military drill could be +readapted. While I myself was present at the gymnasium to +explain that it was nobler to drill in imitation of removing +disease-breeding filth than to drill in simulation of warfare; +while I distractedly readapted tales of chivalry to this modern +rescuing of the endangered and distressed, the new drill went +forward in some sort of fashion, but so surely as I withdrew, the +drillmaster would complain that our troops would first grow +self-conscious, then demoralized, and finally flatly refuse to go +on. Throughout the years since the failure of this Quixotic +experiment, I occasionally find one of these sewer spades in a +Hull-House storeroom, too truncated to be used for its original +purpose and too prosaic to serve the purpose for which it was +bought. I can only look at it in the forlorn hope that it may +foreshadow that piping time when the weapons of warfare shall be +turned into the implements of civic salvation. + +Before closing this chapter on Socialized Education, it is only +fair to speak of the education accruing to the Hull-House +residents themselves during their years of living in what at least +purports to be a center for social and educational activity. + +While a certain number of the residents are primarily interested +in charitable administration and the amelioration which can be +suggested only by those who know actual conditions, there are +other residents identified with the House from its earlier years +to whom the groups of immigrants make the historic appeal, and who +use, not only their linguistic ability, but all the resource they +can command of travel and reading to qualify themselves for +intelligent living in the immigrant quarter of the city. I +remember one resident lately returned from a visit in Sicily, who +was able to interpret to a bewildered judge the ancient privilege +of a jilted lover to scratch the cheek of his faithless sweetheart +with the edge of a coin. Although the custom in America had +degenerated into a knife slashing after the manner of foreign +customs here, and although the Sicilian deserved punishment, the +incident was yet lifted out of the slough of mere brutal assault, +and the interpretation won the gratitude of many Sicilians. + +There is no doubt that residents in a Settlement too often move +toward their ends "with hurried and ignoble gait," putting forth +thorns in their eagerness to bear grapes. It is always easy for +those in pursuit of ends which they consider of overwhelming +importance to become themselves thin and impoverished in spirit +and temper, to gradually develop a dark mistaken eagerness +alternating with fatigue, which supersedes "the great and +gracious ways" so much more congruous with worthy aims. + +Partly because of this universal tendency, partly because a +Settlement shares the perplexities of its times and is never too +dogmatic concerning the final truth, the residents would be glad +to make the daily life at the Settlement "conform to every shape +and mode of excellence." + +It may not be true + + "That the good are always the merry + Save by an evil chance," + +but a Settlement would make clear that one need not be heartless +and flippant in order to be merry, nor solemn in order to be wise. +Therefore quite as Hull-House tries to redeem billiard tables from +the association of gambling, and dancing from the temptations of +the public dance halls, so it would associate with a life of +upright purpose those more engaging qualities which in the experience +of the neighborhood are too often connected with dubious aims. + +Throughout the history of Hull-House many inquiries have been made +concerning the religion of the residents, and the reply that they +are as diversified in belief and in the ardor of the inner life as +any like number of people in a college or similar group, apparently +does not carry conviction. I recall that after a house for men +residents had been opened on Polk Street and the residential force +at Hull-House numbered twenty, we made an effort to come together +on Sunday evenings in a household service, hoping thus to express +our moral unity in spite of the fact that we represented many +creeds. But although all of us reverently knelt when the High +Church resident read the evening service and bowed our heads when +the evangelical resident led in prayer after his chapter, and +although we sat respectfully through the twilight when a resident +read her favorite passages from Plato and another from Abt Vogler, +we concluded at the end of the winter that this was not religious +fellowship and that we did not care for another reading club. So +it was reluctantly given up, and we found that it was quite as +necessary to come together on the basis of the deed and our common +aim inside the household as it was in the neighborhood itself. I +once had a conversation on the subject with the warden of Oxford +House, who kindly invited me to the evening service held for the +residents in a little chapel on the top floor of the Settlement. +All the residents were High Churchmen to whom the service was an +important and reverent part of the day. Upon my reply to a query +of the warden that the residents of Hull-House could not come +together for religious worship because there were among us Jews, +Roman Catholics, English Churchmen, Dissenters, and a few +agnostics, and that we had found unsatisfactory the diluted form of +worship which we could carry on together, he replied that it must +be most difficult to work with a group so diversified, for he +depended upon the evening service to clear away any difficulties +which the day had involved and to bring the residents to a +religious consciousness of their common aim. I replied that this +diversity of creed was part of the situation in American +Settlements, as it was our task to live in a neighborhood of many +nationalities and faiths, and that it might be possible that among +such diversified people it was better that the Settlement corps +should also represent varying religious beliefs. + +A wise man has told us that "men are once for all so made that +they prefer a rational world to believe in and to live in," but +that it is no easy matter to find a world rational as to its +intellectual, aesthetic, moral, and practical aspects. Certainly +it is no easy matter if the place selected is of the very sort +where the four aspects are apparently furthest from perfection, +but an undertaking resembling this is what the Settlement +gradually becomes committed to, as its function is revealed +through the reaction on its consciousness of its own experiences. +Because of this fourfold undertaking, the Settlement has gathered +into residence people of widely diversified tastes and interests, +and in Hull-House, at least, the group has been surprisingly +permanent. The majority of the present corp of forty residents +support themselves by their business and professional occupations +in the city, giving only their leisure time to Settlement +undertakings. This in itself tends to continuity of residence +and has certain advantages. Among the present staff, of whom the +larger number have been in residence for more than twelve years, +there are the secretary of the City club, two practicing +physicians, several attorneys, newspapermen, businessmen, +teachers, scientists, artists, musicians, lecturers in the School +of Civics and Philanthropy, officers in The Juvenile Protective +Association and in The League for the Protection of Immigrants, a +visiting nurse, a sanitary inspector, and others. + +We have also worked out during our years of residence a plan of +living which may be called cooperative, for the families and +individuals who rent the Hull-House apartments have the use of +the central kitchen and dining room so far as they care for them; +many of them work for hours every week in the studios and shops; +the theater and drawing-rooms are available for such social +organization as they care to form; the entire group of thirteen +buildings is heated and lighted from a central plant. During the +years, the common human experiences have gathered about the +House; funeral services have been held there, marriages and +christenings, and many memories hold us to each other as well as +to our neighbors. Each resident, of course, carefully defrays +his own expenses, and his relations to his fellow residents are +not unlike those of a college professor to his colleagues. The +depth and strength of his relation to the neighborhood must +depend very largely upon himself and upon the genuine friendships +he has been able to make. His relation to the city as a whole +comes largely through his identification with those groups who +are carrying forward the reforms which a Settlement neighborhood +so sadly needs and with which residence has made him familiar. + +Life in the Settlement discovers above all what has been called +"the extraordinary pliability of human nature," and it seems +impossible to set any bounds to the moral capabilities which might +unfold under ideal civic and educational conditions. But in order +to obtain these conditions, the Settlement recognizes the need of +cooperation, both with the radical and the conservative, and from +the very nature of the case the Settlement cannot limit its +friends to any one political party or economic school. + +The Settlement casts side none of those things which cultivated +men have come to consider reasonable and goodly, but it insists +that those belong as well to that great body of people who, +because of toilsome and underpaid labor, are unable to procure +them for themselves. Added to this is a profound conviction that +the common stock of intellectual enjoyment should not be +difficult of access because of the economic position of him who +would approach it, that those "best results of civilization" upon +which depend the finer and freer aspects of living must be +incorporated into our common life and have free mobility through +all elements of society if we would have our democracy endure. + +The educational activities of a Settlement, as well its +philanthropic, civic, and social undertakings, are but differing +manifestations of the attempt to socialize democracy, as is the +very existence of the Settlement itself. + + + + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + +This chapter has been put on-line as part of the BUILD-A-BOOK +Initiative at the Celebration of Women Writers. Initial text +entry and proof-reading of this chapter were the work of +volunteer Samantha M. Constant. + +[Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of 20 Years At Hull House by Jane Addams + diff --git a/1325.zip b/1325.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..961a86b --- /dev/null +++ b/1325.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cddd2e5 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #1325 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1325) |