William Kent
Kentfield, Marin Co., Cal. January 6 1927
Dear Graham Taylor:
I was interested in your letter telling of the proposed complimentary dinner to Jane Addams, on the thirty-fifth anniversary of her going to Chicago.
I well recall her advent and the surprise that came to me when she talked to Jenkin Lloyd Jones' church, on the Hull House work, and the benefits that accrued to her and her colleagues from the association with the people of the neighborhood. It seemed so strange to place this mission on the basis of mutual benefit, that it took long to percolate through my mind. My admiration and respect made me think diligently, and I seemingly blundered upon the basis of her theory and practice of democracy.
I can understand how those who boast themselves from a hundred to a hundred and seventy five [percent] "American" can be shocked and overwhelmed by the idea that [illegible] people differing in language and culture-status may at the same time be considered as human beings, suffering human tribulations, loving and forgiving each other and making the best of a world full of questioning and trouble.
It ought to seem obvious that "there are others" in the world, and yet there is a general failure to recognize this fact. The "others" are neighbors and a part of human society, which simple statement calls for mental and physical hospitality, for charity and reciprocal kindliness.
And then too, when we recognize the bond of neighborhood we are not prone to plan destruction and collective murder. There comes to us a sense of utter futility and wickedness of injuring the other fellow or of depriving him of a due amount of control over his own destiny, and this leads toward peace, which does not fit the philosophy of the exaggerated "percenter." To him patriotism is a bumptious assertion of superiority, and with his morning coffee he imbibes the pestilential heading of the Chicago "Tribune," ↑"Daily Patrioteer"↓ preaching hatred, conceit and war -- "my country right or wrong" -- all of which things and thoughts are beyond the ken or the imagination of our friend, sister Jane. [page 2]
She has been a busybody throughout the world because without blatant pretensions, she has realized in what consists the "Father's business," whether it be in the social demands of self-government with a finer code of honesty and trustworthiness in the long struggle against dirt and disease, or in the preparation of human minds to understand each other and to realize the demands of human sympathy.
In Jane Addams, cool and calm understanding has been blended with a wondrous sense of proportion. The things for which she has striven are the fundamentals of human relationship and wellbeing.
Our modest self-effacing neighbor holds the leadership in the whole world, of those who are intelligently striving for practical idealism, and the better conditions of existence which may be realized here and now. From the beginning of her mission she has been subject to [misjudgment] and persecution, partly out of innate human cussedness, which makes some of us regret the untimely demise of the devil, upon whom we would like to heap the blame, but still more largely from the human weakness described by the chorus in the old Greek tragedy as "dark ignorance and hurrying unsure thought."
When we realize that Jane Addams has really eliminated from all calculations, prejudice and selfishness, and that by the gift of culture and common sense she is not only effective but utterly sane, we see the possibility of a better and kindlier world and the simplicity of the formula destined to bring it about.
Yours truly,
William Kent [signed]
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