The Washington herald., 1908-03-08
JANE ADDAMS PRAISED
CHICAGO SOCIAL SETTLEMENT WORKER
CALLED AMERICAS FOREMOST WOMAN

Who is Americas foremost living
woman?
This question is asked IN the current
issue Of the Ladies' Home Journal. And
the Journals answer Is: Miss Jane
Adams. OF Chicago.
This interesting question, though hard
" new. has come to US" says an edi-
torIal in the March number:
What one living woman would you
place at the head of all American women
as representative Of career OF actual
signal achievement? Then what FIVE
other women. by the same measurement.
would you name next. making "A round
hsIf-dozen Of the living American women
who have done most for womanknd%
Lists of this sort are invariably un-
satisfactory StiII. il is always attraC-
tive to compile one Bearing well in
mind. therefore. the basis on which we
are asked 10 make a selection. namely,
a career OF actual signal achievement,
We should unhesitatingly select for the
one living Americap woman. apart from
all others. Miss Jane Adams as the fore
most living woman in America to-day
known to us as having accomplished most
for womanklnd. and. for that matter. for
humankind.
''As to the other five women We arc
asked 10 select, there will be, Of neces-
sity. a wider difference OF opinion. II Is
significant, however, when one tries to
compile such a list as this upon the
broad basis OF actual achievement. that
the choice becomes narrowed to a very
few and that we must include. even in
a list of six, one woman of foreign birth,
Mrs. Booth. But her work has been so
splendidly and exclusively American that
we choose. for the moment, to forget the
accident OF birth:
L JANE ADDAMs for practical reform
? HELM KELLER. rs an example, Of oTcrcom-
Ing almost insumontable Obstacles
, HELEN MILLER GOULD. FOR philanthropy.
I. MAUD BALLINGToN BOOTH, for uplifting
J. JULIA WARD HOWE. for the fostering Of
g. FRANCES FOLSOM CLEVELAND. for the
embodiment Of American wifehood and
motherhood
Others there are worthy women with
careers Of actual signal achievement
But six We are asked for. and six 1t is!''
That this signal honor should be paid
20 Miss Adams by publication pre-
eminently devoted to the interests Of
American women will scarcely occasion
surprise in Chicago. where the scope of
Miss Adams work for the betterment
OF humanity on it's lower levels is thor
oughly known and appreciated. That
work. conceived and carried out upon the
broadest practical lines, has had a two
fold value and significance; first 10 the
individual and second TO the state. Vir-
tually, she has been engaged in the dif-
ficult task OF Transforming the polyglot
inhabitants OF Chicago's West Side tene-
ment district into useful and enlightened
American citizens-a task calling for the
maximum of tact, of patience. and of
wide human sympathies. TIE equipment
which she brought to this self-appointed
work and the success with which she has
pursued 1t year after year have brought
to her more than national celebrity as a
tireless worker in the cause of human
progress.
she was the first woman in America
to discern the need OF supplementing the
influence OF the public school and other
social center. and there are, in the larger
cities of this country to-day. hundreds of
institutions conducted along lines SINH
lar to those of Hull House, which she
founded.
Born at Cedarville H. on September G.
1860. Miss Adams is sprung from a
sturdy. upright American stock Her
father was John II. Adams, for eighteen
years a State senator from his district,
one of the States early abolitionists and
d personal friend Of Abraham Lincoln.
Miss Adams was the youngest member
OF a large family AS girl she attended
a country school near her home, and then
entered Rockford College, from which
she was graduated in 1851 She early
cvinced an interest IN the study of medi-
cine. and It was with the purpose Of max
ing its practice her life work that she
matriculated at the Woman's Medical Col
lege of Philadelphia. Perhaps the fact
that her mother had dad in her child
hood and her father the year that she left
Rockford College had tended TO develop
in the young woman those traits of self
reliance and of Independent thinking
which she has since manifested.
She had attended medical college but
year when a serious malady developed
which prevented her from doing the work
required for a degree. For year she
suffered from a persistent spinal fever
and when she had sufficiently recovered
TO be able to travel. visited Europe with
her stepmorher They spent two years
-t,so
and Italy. and it was during this period
that Miss Adams became interested in
the experiment that was being made at
Toynbee Hall among the poor of London.
When she returned 10 America the set
tlement idea had already taken shape in
her mind. and in 1857. with Miss Helen
Starr, Miss Adams again visited Europe.
In 1883. when she returned to America,
Miss Addams decided to try her expert
ment on small scale. She and Mss
Starr. with only their private purses u
draw upon. began TO cast about for a To-
cation which should offer the widest field
OF usefulness. The result was the es-
tablishnfent Of what afterward became
known as Hull House, situated at Polk
and South Halsted streets in the heart
OF as cosmopolitan a district as can be
found anywhere in Chicago.
The beginning OF the movement was
modest. At FIRST the two women rented
but portion of the structure to carry |
on their work, but by the opening of
the next spring. Miss Helen Culver. who
was In charge of the administration OF
the Hull estate, turned over the build |
ing and grounds, rent free, TO the social /