HULL HOUSE RESIDENTS PROTEST
The Charges of Communism and anti-National Sentiments Repudiated.
In a recent speech before an organization of women, Captain Ferre Watkins, commander of the Illinois department of the American Legion, attacked Hull House as a rallying point of radical and communistic movements and charged that the settlement leaders are trying to sell out their own country to some internationalist scheme for purely selfish reasons. He also denounced Miss Jane Addams, the head of Hull House and as an opponent of every form of legitimate national defense and one of the leaders who are "selling out their country."
We, residents of Hull House, are not "leaders" in any movement, but plain workers, but we feel that the recent assaults upon Miss Addams and Hull House are [too] vicious to be totally ignored. Miss Addams needs no defense at our hands, for no sane person will credit the utterly silly and puerile [charges] leveled at her by Captain Watkins. But we enter emphatic protest against the statement that Hull House is a rallying point for every radical or communist movement. Hull House believes in free speech and free discussion, but it is not in any way committed to communism or any other form of radicalism. The residents of Hull House carry on no propaganda whatever; they teach classes; they direct clubs; they do what they can for the neighborhood in the way of aid, advice, and instruction; they produce plays and supervise other recreational activities.
Those who say Hull House is a center of radical or revolutionary activity are either ignorant or irresponsible. In either case, their statements should be resented by all the intelligent friends and supporters of Hull House. [page 2]
Arthur J Todd [signed]
Nancy G. Todd [signed]
Rose M Gyles [signed]
Gertrude M. Smith [signed]
Ethel L. Dewey [signed]
Agnes Hope Pillsbury [signed]
Alma Birmingham [signed]
Clarence E. Carter [signed]
Claire Edgar McClure [signed]
Mary H Gleason [signed]
Ruth Shonle [signed]
E Witmer Vollentine [signed]
Elisabet v. Harnack [signed]
Wilson McGrath [signed]
Alice Hamilton [signed]
Robert Morss Lovett [signed]
Ida C. Lovett [signed]
Ellen Gates Starr [signed]
Jessie F. Binford [signed]
Robert A. Cairo [signed]
Emma Thomas [signed]
Anita Nieto [signed]
Thora Lund [signed]
Mary E. Sullivan [signed]
Helen Arpin [signed]
Jeannette F Stetson [signed]
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