Miss Jane Addams,
Hull House, Chicago, Ill.
Dear Miss Addams:--
I wish you would send me a copy of your address before the National Educational Association, or anything else that you have on the economic "shortage" of our public schools.
Confidentially, I am very much inclined to think that the essential trouble, especially in Pennsylvania, is that children learn so little in the schools that the parents feel that they are justified in putting the children in the factories where they learn fully as much that is of use in the world. Frankly, I find the school situation, not only the parochial school but the public school, throughout this state in a frightful condition, and while I do not know that we can officially go into the matter, it does seem to me that it would be a good thing for you to pass the tip along that the place for the child labor people to begin is to make the schools worth attending before insisting that the children shall do nothing but go to school.
I want your address and whatever else you have that I can use for the purpose of "quoting in my report."
Yours very truly,
Ethelbert Stewart [signed]
Comments