Mr. Bok's Office
March 30. 1911
My dear Miss Addams:
You are right: you generally are (except on suffrage!): The enclosed is not suited to us as it stands. But it has the nucleus of an article in it. What we want is the article that will be more direct, -- not so much for the religious educator as for the average woman & man in the pew: an article more keyed to the popular tone: illustrated with some stories, as you say. Here and there, in the enclosed, you touch the subject & its core (for us) when you point out that the church is not close enough to the real things & that the no education of the individual workers for the betterment of humankind feels that & joins the ranks of those who are close to it. [page 2]
That is what I want to show: where lies the line between the church workers and the social welfarer, & how can the two get together. There are spots of light on the horizon here & there that the church is waking up & seeing the real conditions and the solution, but the lights are weak and ineffectually scattered. The church is pretty soundly asleep, asleep either on its past or in its comfortable velvet cushions, & it is going to take a clarion note to wake it up. That is why I came to you -- you can sound that note, & from you it will be heard and respected, for the church knows that you know. And where others would be questioned or attacked, you will be accepted & respected. The church may not like what you say, but it will not [fight]. [page 3]
Can you do it for me? I hope so for the subject is pressing and the time is ripe. I want to publish it early next autumn in time for the opening churches & their work: when folks will be fresh & keen & supportive to new ideas. When can you let me have the article, say by June 1st? That would be good time for September issue or July 1st for the October number. It should come not later than that.
In confidence = Do you know a Doctor William S. Sadler, who conducts an Institute of Physiologic Therapeutics, at 100 State Street, Chicago, & do you consider him trustworthy on the subject of the effect of the mind on health and disease?
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