The first time Colonel Roosevelt ever came to Hull-House was when he was acting as [Vice President]. He was taken to the kindergarten and after all the children had shouted the name of the President of the United States in response to the teacher’s query, they were further asked who helped take care of the country. The little Jewish voices alone shouted Teddy Rosenfeld, which very much delighted the guest.
I recall Colonel Roosevelt at Hull-House when he reviewed the Boy Scouts of the entire west side of Chicago in our largest hall. Our Boy’s Club Band, the fifty members of which crowded the platform, played lustily throughout the ceremony. But never once did their distinguished visitor wince and indeed went the length of asking for one more tune before he tore himself away. I was also during this visit to Chicago that he spoke in the Armory before such immigrants as had received their second papers and had thereby been entitled to the first vote during the year. After the meeting, at which I had also spoken, my hat could not be found. It had most likely been trampled into an indistinguishable mass by the dense crowd of men. As we came back in an open motor Colonel Roosevelt insisted upon riding without a hat in order to make me more comfortable in my hatless state and was very much entertained by the incident which followed:
The Union League Club under whose auspices the meeting had been held, knowing of my loss, sent me $50.00 to buy a new hat. I returned it, stating the hat had cost $10.00 when it was new and was already two years old. Thew newspapers jocosely took up the incident as an example of admirable economy, stressing the fact that a hat which had cost so little had lasted so long; when the milliners in alarm also used the incident as a warning that one who had been so careless in securing a hat had never been able to secure a husband.
I also recall his being in Chicago at one time when the Hull-House Players were giving Galsworthy’s “Justice.” He was much impressed with the play and most generous in his praise of the young man who took the part of the “criminal at the bar.” He had at that time never heard of Galsworthy, but left Chicago with all the Galsworthy books obtainable in order that he might read them between Chicago and New York.
Original mailed to Miss Ethel Armes,
There had been, of course, opportunities to see Colonel Roosevelt during his Presidency. In 1905 a committee composed largely of Settlement people, with Mary McDowell from the University of Chicago Settlement as Chairman, with Lillian D. Wald of New York, Mrs. Raymond Robins and myself, had a very satisfactory interview concerning the need of a thorough knowledge of the industrial situation and woman’s part in it. It was, as I recall, not long after the entire country had been much concerned over the labor disturbances in Los Angeles and the unsatisfactory trial which followed. At the end of the interview, President Roosevelt assured us of his backing, but warned us that Congress would not appropriate the necessary funds unless there was a widespread public opinion back of the demand, and suggested that as woman’s volubility was very useful in creating public opinion that we get the women’s clubs behind the measure as well as the organized working women. After much effort in that direction, as well as in many others, Congress finally authorized the investigation by the Bureau of Labor and finally appropriated $300,000 for it. The investigation occupied four years and filled nineteen volumes, a wonderful source book for the years to come.
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