William Arthur Maddox to Jane Addams, January 17, 1920

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January
Seventeenth
1920

My dear Miss Addams:

In reading your reply to some newspaper reporter who gave you a distorted account of one Mr. Ferguson's address here, I am constrained to say that no attack whatever was made on the college by Mr. Ferguson. Two weeks before his address, he made application for his daughter's entrance next September at the college. He made no protest against "foreign professors at Rockford College". There are none, as you yourself know. His unfortunate side remark had to do with Mrs. Alice [Beale] Parsons, a Rockford College graduate of 1908, who is one of the two most prominent Reds rounded up in the recent raids. He said that the college at that time must have inspired Mrs. Parsons to take up socialism. He then remarked, "Rockford College has had too much Hull House in it", which I think indicated that he did not know what he was talking about at all. In your reply, "I suppose that the college was being conducted as it always has been", I see that you did not get the text of Mr. Ferguson's address; but the second half of your statement protects the institution of ten years ago against any slander.

I am writing you this so that you may know that your Alma Mater is not subject to any unfavorable criticism or attack here. All three of the papers have come quickly to the rescue of the American college. This we are attempting to exemplify.

With best wishes, I am

Cordially yours,

Miss Jane Addams,
Hull House,
Chicago, Ill.