May 10, 1918.
Dear Miss Addams:
On getting back after six months of the western front, I want to renew relationships with those whose generous interest has made the Survey a living force.
First of all, I want to make report (enclosed) of work done in behalf of the Survey for the Red Cross in Belgium, France, and Italy. This is going out to all members of Survey Associates, but in a special sense should be put in your hands as a member of our Board of Directors.
Quite as much, I want to tell you the impression I brought away from England, where I paid a civilian editorial visit before my return. It is this: the journals and agencies like the Survey, which have been able to keep going in the difficult war period and to help hold the [fabric] of social endeavor and well-being together, are already expanding in reach and service, as men's minds are turning more and more to the vision and practical problems of reconstruction and after-the-war relations. They are needed, these journals and [page 2] social agencies; tremendously needed.
If I ever had any tuggings to stay on for wartime work in Europe -- and there is the lure of patriotic adventure to it no less than the ringing appeal of human needs to be met, resistance to [be] built up to the thrusts of German militarism, -- to stay on over there rather than come back to my editorial desk three thousand miles away, the talks I had with English editors, social workers and government officials afforded a counter-weight. I wish I could really share with you their feeling of what this joint undertaking of ours can and should mean and how very much it may be worth any sacrifice you or I make for it.
I am sending you a few additional copies of the little report to Survey Associates in case you care to put them in the hands of friends who might be interested in this evidence of work done by Survey Associates -- friends, mayhap, who might be tempted to join our fellowship. We are in very real need of funds at the present time and are "up against" some very real and justifiable losses. For example, only recently I had a letter from one of our largest contributors, a physician now in the Officers Reserve Corps in France, who has sacrificed two-thirds of his income and more; and who sends us 250 as against $1000 last year.
We have sources, acquaintanceship, knowledge of the field which will, better than ever before, give a living background to our work from week to week, if we have but the means to meet half way the new measure of opportunity for constructive service which is beckoning us.
Sincerely,
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