AS JANE ADDAMS SEES IT
CIVIC PROGRESS MUST CONTINUE, SAYS THE FAMOUS WOMAN.
The Founder of Hull House in Kansas City to Speak for the Benefit of a Local Social Settlement [Tonight] at Central High School.
Miss Jane Addams of Hull House, Chicago, sat in a cheerful front room, this morning at the home of Charles A. Young, 1741 Jefferson Street. Arrayed in black, her hair waving away from a high, unwrinkled brow, placid faced, she talked somewhat reluctantly of the nearly twenty years of work for humanity. Miss Addams is not a good promoter of publicity, although she believes in it. Her own name usually is the last she mentions.
"This is inauguration day in Kansas City," the visitor began, "and perhaps -- "
The front door was open and a painter, putting on the brightening touches of spring, paused in his work to hear Miss Addams voice these hopeful sentiments.
"No political party that hopes to have the people's confidence and support can afford to belittle the successes of its predecessor in power.
"The systems and schemes perfected or begun for better living and the protecting of life and health -- where life and health have to contend with adverse conditions -- will not be disturbed by politics in up-to-date American cities."
THE PEOPLE ARE AWAKENING.
The time for such things has passed. The people are awakening. For one reason or another they change their favors from one party to another, but party lines are disappearing in municipal affairs. No American city will go backward any more.
Miss Addams has lectured several times in Kansas City. Her last visit was in 1902.
"The city is changing wonderfully," she said. "It will be well for the city if the new buildings, business structures, homes or tenements shall be carefully thought out and so arranged for the future that the work may not soon have to be repeated. That is all a matter of education among property owners."
Miss Addams believes in city clubs, in civic leagues or any other form of non-partisan organization that investigates municipal needs and has members at every meeting of the city council to watch its work. Nothing is so strongly conducive to loyalty in public office, she believes, as the knowledge that the people are watching and listening.
TO TELL OF CHICAGO PLAYGROUNDS.
Also she believes in play for the children, and when she speaks in the Central High School auditorium [tonight] for the Franklin Institute she will tell of the fifteen playgrounds that Chicago has provided.
"Join the National Playground Association," Miss Addams said, "and get its president, Mr. Gulick, to come to Kansas City and help you. You have more than 2,000 acres of park [in] Kansas City; you surely should have playgrounds."
Miss Addams was born in Cedarville, Ill. She is the daughter of [J. H.] Addams, for many years a state senator. She was graduated from Rockford College in 1881. For years she traveled abroad, and during her stay in East London worked with the members of Toynbee Hall, a settlement after which Hull House was modeled when Miss Addams organized it in 1889.
SHE WAS A GARBAGE INSPECTOR.
Hull House is given by the owner free of rent until 1920, as are also the adjacent lots upon which other buildings have lately been added to the uses of the settlement. Hull House has worked a distinct change in the appearance of the ward and the manners of its people. So well is this recognized in Chicago that in 1895 the mayor appointed Miss Addams garage inspector of the Nineteenth Ward. She got up at 5:30 o'clock every morning, winter and summer, and sent out the garbage wagons over a carefully mapped route and later she made a tour of inspection to see that the work was done right. She kept the ward so clean that the Chicago newspapers published columns about it, the writers wondering all the time how a gently nurtured woman could get through with so much work in one day.
Miss Addams is the author of a notable book, "Democracy and Social Ethics." Her address [tonight] will be on "Recent Developments in Settlement Work."
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