Margaret Dreier Robins to Jane Addams, October 25, 1906

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October 25, 1906

372 WEST OHIO STREET
CHICAGO

Dear, dear Miss Addams,

I love and reverence you with all my heart, and in these days of bitter attack and calumny you must let me have my say.

I have just finished reading the accounts in the morning papers of the meeting of the Board last night.

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Never before have I felt so outraged, never before so indignant against the power for evil of a dishonest press. Can nothing be done? I feel so impotent against this organized prostitution of public opinion that I could cry aloud. As I write I think of one thing I can do. You have the greatest [page 3] responsibilities out of the Board of any member. I can appreciate how you must at times question whether it is your duty to put your other interests in jeopardy for the sake of the fight for the public schools in this crisis on the Board of Education. 

I can share a little in this splendid struggle of your burden and you must let me.

This is what I am thinking. Some of the men in this conspiracy against the majority in the Board of Education are plainly wicked enough to do anything. They will seek to injure Hull House & if possible to cripple its support. The money my father left me I hold in trust. I never earned a dollar of it. I believe he earned every dollar of his fortune honestly & I know he believed in fair play. [page 4] I want to, and I do hereby guarantee that for every dollar lost to the support of Hull House, directly or indirectly as the result of your work on the Board of Education, and for the years 1906 & 1907 I will subscribe to the support of the Hull House, dollar for dollar up to the sum of $20,000. (twenty thousand dollars.) I shall be glad to sign any document [page 5] your Board would suggest to make this guarantee a legal liability, and will if required deposit in trust ample security to realize this amount. 

This is my part in this great fight for a true public school system in Chicago, and you must let me serve with you.

I have told Raymond what I am going to do & he is happy that I should [page 6] wish to do it.

With love & reverence & gratitude, faithfully your friend,

Margaret Dreier Robins