Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-02
REACHING THE NEEDY
Methods at Hull House Ex-
planned by Miss Adams.
CHICAGO INSTITUTION
SOCIAL SETTLEMENTS SUCCESS
IN A RIVER WARD.
Meeting of Associated Charities Pre-
sided Over by Judge Hagner-
Election of Officers.
CHICAGO INSTITUTION

Methods of reaching the needy classes of
every community and uplifting them In an
Intelligent manner were the subjects Tor
discussion at the regular annual meeting or
the Associated Charities In the First Con-
gregatlonal Church last evening. The fea-
ture of the evening was an address by MISS
Jane Adams. who. with Miss Helen starr,
founded in 1880 and has since conducted
Hull House." a social settlement in one of
Chicago's crowded river wards. Hull
House" has been the subject of numerous
newspaper and magazine articles, and Miss
Adams has always been the hero of the
little revolutionary movement, In which she
enlisted her services thirteen years ago.
The announcement that she was to tell tho
story of the social settlement in the darkest
Yard of the great city on the lakes WAS
sufficient to fill the First Congregational
Church to over1owing.
Miss Adams personality proclaims her
as a peer of the women whose intellectual
endowment and unselfsh impulse have sent
them into the world for the accomplishment
of reforms that have been lasting benefit
to mankind. Her reception last evening
was most cordial. The meeting at the Con-
gregatiOnal Church was called to order by
Mr.. Justice Hagner Many people, said
their means for charitable purposes If they
can be assured that the result of the giving
will not be more harmful than beneficial.
Every one could be assured that such work
as Is being carried on at Hull House and
elsewhere on the same plan cannot possibly
have any i'll effect.
Commissioner Macfarland's Welcome.
Mr.. Hagner presented Commissioner Mac
land, who formally welcomed Miss Adams
to the District of Columbia.
ION behalf of the government of the Dis
trict of Columbia 1 am happy to welcome
Miss Adams" said Mr.. Macfarland. We
honor her as one who has answered the
old, yet the new question, Who is my
4 neighbor? in a Chrstlike way. We can
say to her Thou hast been strength to
the poor. refuge for the distressed She
has shown us all by her example how best
to help those who need our help, instead of
hurting them by our unwisdom. AS pio
neer in the social settlement movement she
has come to represent II in the minds of
her countrymen. The gracious ministry of
that movement. it's self NAL, its sane and
sincere charity, working by association,
assistance and advice rather than by aims;
all this comes to our minds when We think
of her living all these years in the fellow
ship OF neighborhood life with the poor of
Chicago, to their uplifting and advance
ment. Her career is an inspiration, not
only TO the scores of similar social settle
! lLltlLlS NIiICil ttIe IuOueleN Oh Iiu4I flOuSe,
but to every one of us.
Upon arising to speak Miss Adams was
greeted with applause, and for an hour she
talked in conversational style of intelligent
methods used in helping the very poor, and
of her work in Chicago.
The Modern Way.
MANY people" she said, who are not at
tracted by the ideas of charity in the medl-
aevaI sense confuse modern methods with
the old"
Miss Adams spoke of the effort that is
being made on both sides of the Atlantic to
study the poor from a scientific standpoint
and the good results that are being at
tanned.
But they find" she said, they cannot
study the poor with only a sclentifice spirit.
With intelligence there must be sympathy"
If, she said, in studying the lives OF our
fellow men it is found that people are badly
fed, badly housed and clothed, then it Is
certain that great source of power is lost
60 tie community.
1T loses first the work these people ought
to perform" she said and 1t insures in the
course of time that they will become a bur
den upon the community. 1t means that
hospitals for their care, occasional aid and
finally poor houses for their last days must
be provided. Any city can provide means
so that it is possible for these people to be
brought back into the community as self
/ supporting members of society who are
. -.'4'te i4'N@ CONSEQUENT WIN sOOu ClilZSN-
ship"
She regarded it as more important to so
rescue the people and place them on plane
Of self-support than to care for them by
charity.
There should be plane of living that no
one should be allowed to go below and the
community should see to II that that Is
done. Shere was no excuse for diseases that
come from sewer gas escaping into houses
Diseases that come from insanitary houses
should be gotten rid of and the community
should see to it that conditions are kept
healthful in their own city outside of their
own homes. a city in which children are
broken down for want of food and work
during their years of immaturity Is city
that afterward has to bear the burden OF
their care. II conditions in that city have
been such that the head of the family is
removed prematurely oy bad conditions of
work and living. 1t will have widows and
orphans to care for.
Diseases and Prevention.
Miss Adams thought the time would
come when certain diseases would be con-
sIdered disgraceful
If it is womanly," she declared, ito nurse
those who suffer from diptheria and from
diseases that spring from conditions of
filth, then it is womanly to prevent condi-
lions that cause these Diseases
The method of work pursued in "Hull
House" was told by the speaker in a most
interesting way. During the last year the
clubs were composed of over 600 members,
and their interest was secured by various
methods. 1t was found that the Greeks
the Armenians, Scandinavians and all the
nauonaiities OF Europe that come to Chi
caSo have some forms of skill or special
capacity for work that cannot fail to make
them of interest when they are understood
Yet their skill Is generally abandoned and
frequently they are ashamed of their old
world ways, or at least their children are
In order to develop interest in these people
MISS Adams has organized IL. In he
r. in which the Greeks eXcelled, and the peo-
pie who had only connected the Greek with
fruit wagon came to regard him as really
an embodiment of the qualities of which
they read in history The Italian women
and women of other nationaities would
bring with them special skill in weaving OF
other handiwork which 1t was sought to
preserve and demonstrate to others.
museum gotten up on this principle had
become the greatest value in arousing In
terest among the people among whom the
work is being carried Not only did
others learn to value what could be done
by these men and women OF foreign coun-
hllf he mar and