February 1st, 1910.
My dear Miss Addams:
May I -- first of all -- take occasion to express my pleasure in the reports of your recovery from your recent illness. I hope that you are quite fit again.
I have wanted for some time to ask if you would write an article for us on the practical working of the subject which is so near to you, i.e. The Problem of the Growing Girl?
It is a feeling of mine, and one on which I frequently express myself, that the girl is shamelessly neglected. We are spending money in vast sums all over the country for the boy; whereas, the girl, who really needs thought more than the boy, has been allowed to shift for herself, more or less.
My object in printing the article would be to bring to fathers and mothers generally throughout the country a realization of how they are neglecting their duty; because as I see it, the neglected girls are by no means only those of the city streets. The only way to interest my readers is to put some practical facts before them, and I was wondering if you [page 2] could make some suggestions for an article along such lines, -- as, for example, what is being done for the girl and what are the results? With some suggestions as to what should be done.
I could not use an article of over about two thousand words, and I could pay you seventy-five dollars for it.
If you conclude to write a paper for me, please remember that you are addressing people who are perhaps not interested, and you must keep them alive in your paper. Therefore, avoid an essay, or a long editorial argument and confine yourself to practical statements of the problem, the difficulties, the work, and the results.
With kind regards, and trusting you will keep the good health you have regained, I am
Caspar Whitney [signed]
Dictated
W/S
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