Jane_Adams

  Introduction The idea of reform is intimidating to most people. After all, Webster defines reform as “the amendment of what is defective, vicious, corrupt, or depraved”. This implies that one who reforms is calling a current situation, and any person who supports this situation, “defective, vicious, corrupt, or depraved”. Who would be courageous enough to do such a thing' Yet no society is perfect, and sometimes, situations and circumstances in a society become so appalling and intolerable that it is necessary for someone, anyone, to step in and to take on the role of “reformer”. One of those brave individuals was Ms. Jane Addams. In the late 1800s and the early 1900s, Addams lived among the desperately poor immigrants in the Nineteenth Ward of Chicago. She created, built, and led the country’s first settlement house, a collaborative center where volunteers, including Addams, permanently resided, providing a multitude of programs and services of all types for the community. Moreover, Addams became increasingly active in causes that benefited not only those who lived in the Nineteenth Ward, but other groups she saw as being taken advantage of by society. Through both hands-on and legal methods, Addams reformed labor policies, tenement regulations, and juvenile courts; she also had a lasting influence on women’s suffrage, African-American rights, and the peace movement. While reforming the conditions of one immigrant community in Chicago was Addams’ starting point, and perhaps her most memorable contribution as a reformer, it was one of many ways in which she positively impacted society as a whole. Problem and Historical Context The dreadful conditions endured by immigrants in the late 1800s and the early 1900s was a social evil that still leaves scars on American society to this day. During this time, the immigration rate to America was at its highest in American history, as it more than doubled between the years of 1870 and 1910 (Nixon 17; Nixon 2). Obviously this influx of immigrants had a significant effect on the United States, especially in major cities and urban areas, such as New York and Chicago, to where most of these immigrants flocked (“Immigration in the early 1900s”). Specifically, in the city of Chicago, in 1888, 78 percent of the population was made up of either foreign-born immigrants or children of foreign-born immigrants (Nixon 5). Immigrants brought with them traditions, beliefs, and cultural practices that were vastly different than those living in the cities to which they moved. Thus, immigrants were isolated from the larger community. They lived in poverty, they faced bias, and their language barrier was used to mistreat them. Often, they only felt any relief in neighborhoods populated by those from their own ethnic background (Nixon 17; “Immigration in the early 1900s”). Workplace, living, and social conditions were difficult for immigrants. With the rise of industrialization, the many immigrants provided a constant and cheap supply of labor for factories. Working conditions in factories and sweatshops consisted of long hours, low pay, and hazardous environments. Industrial safety was a large concern, and a variety of sources cite between 25,000 and 30,000 deaths on average at the workplace during the first decade of 1900 (“The Gilded Age”). With the increase of mass transit, those who had already made money were able to move out of the cities and into suburbs, and combined with the rapid population growth, city slums developed (Streich). The majority of the people who lived here were, of course, new immigrants. Tenement apartments crammed people into disgusting, dangerous buildings, and overcrowded and filthy conditions caused outbreaks of diseases among immigrant populations (Streich). Finally, general discriminatory practices against these mostly poor, illiterate, religious peasants kept them even more isolated and trapped. The problems faced by immigrants are well summed up in this quote: “inadequate housing, sweatshop employment, and an intensely different world than they left behind” (Nixon 17). What the consequences of this “immigrant problem” were on Americans is an interesting question. That is one of the hearts of this problem itself: these immigrants were not considered nor treated as real Americans, yet they were expected to assimilate to American cultures and traditions and expectations. In general, the explosion of the cities’ populations led to a divide between the new class of the ‘urban poor’ and the wealthier citizens who, in part due to the development of mass transportation, were moving further and further from the cities’ centers. Inside the crowded cities, the factories were taking over apartment space; poverty was widespread; and pollution, disease, and crime were all increasing as fast as was the population of immigrants. Clearly, for the immigrants, the situation was dire. However, with limited, if any, political power, who was going to be there to help them reform their situation' The answer came from an unlikely candidate: Jane Addams. Motivation to Reform Jane Addams was an unlikely candidate to become a reformer because, first of all, she was born into an upper-middle class family. Her father was a successful businessman. She lived in a comfortable suburb outside of Chicago. Fortunately for Addams, she was extremely close to her father, and his “high principles and Quaker morality were an early and lasting influence on his daughter” (Nixon 3). He was said to be “so honest that bad men feared him” (McPherson 9). Moreover, Addams faced other troubles growing up which increased her sympathy for those less fortunate than she was. Her mother passed away when she was two years old. Addams herself had tuberculosis as a child, which left her with a deformed spine and with life-long health problems (Segal). It is important to note that while Jane Addams had a heart for service from a young age, she became more involved in other types of reform (such as child labor, women’s rights, and the peace movement) as her work at Hull House expanded and she understood the needs of her community more deeply (Nixon 11). Two specific influential experiences in Jane Addams’ early life are cited by nearly every source about Addams, including her own autobiography, as sparking her to become involved in helping the poor. The first is a memory of when she was seven years old and accompanying her father on a business trip. They traveled to the poorest section of Freeport, Illinois, a mill town. Addams was horrified by the living conditions she witnessed, and when speaking with her father afterwards, she remembered saying that when she grew up, she would live in a large house, “but it would not be built among the other large houses, but right in the midst of horrid little houses like those” (Addams 4-5). The second significant influential experience occurred after she graduated from college. At that time, women were expected either to get married and start a family, or to stay single and become a teacher. However, Jane Addams did not like either of those choices, so when her dad died, Addams took her inheritance and traveled to try to find her life’s calling (Segal). In 1888, while she was in England, she visited Toynbee Hall, a project in a “poverty-ridden section of London” (Kent 8) that “offered recreation and educational programs to the poor” (Segal). After seeing Toynbee Hall, she toured some more impoverished areas of Europe to try to get a clearer and deeper understanding of the lives of the poor (Nixon 3). Toynbee House, then, became her specific inspiration and general model for Hull House. She returned to Chicago and established Hull House, the first settlement house in America, in the Nineteenth Ward of Chicago, and dedicated herself to serving the needs of this poor, immigrant community in which she now resided. While it would be ideal to have her story end here, great change generally does not come easily or without challenges. During the early part of her work developing and launching Hull House, she was fortunate to be able to do so relatively smoothly. In fact, the biggest challenge that Jane Addams faced actually did not show itself until she was well into her work at Hull House. Challenge The biggest challenge that Jane Addams faced came to be the political climate of the day. By the time that politics began to affect Addams, the programs at Hull House were thriving. By 1891, they had expanded to include a day care and a kindergarten, adult classes in subjects such as Roman history and Shakespeare, and cultural events such as song and dance times for immigrants, as well as facilities that addressed practical needs such as a kitchen and a gym (Nixon 7-8). Yet Addams began to notice that the immigrants’ life circumstances, such as disease and hunger, terrible living conditions, and unfit work environments were affecting them more than she could just help them at Hull House. She wanted to do more (Nixon 14). “Soon Jane realized that Hull House could do more than offer classes and clubs to its neighbors. It could also work for new laws to improve the lives of people…” (McPherson 46). Addams understood that a way to more effectively change things for the better was by getting involved in politics. However, politics, especially Chicago politics, were corrupt at that time, and the implications of political policies touched upon almost every major issue affecting the lives of the immigrants whose lives Addams wanted to better. Therefore, politics became the biggest challenge facing Jane Addams as a reformer. For example, young immigrant children were working in factories for low wages and for long days. Addams and others decided that laws needed to be passed to protect the children. They investigated sweatshops and, as a result of their work, the Illinois legislature passed the first factory law of the state in 1893 that set a minimum age for workers and forced factories to clean their workplaces (Nixon 14) and that specifically “banned the exploitation of minors in the workplace” (Segal). However, this angered many of the factory owners who profited from the life-threatening, sweatshop conditions under which the immigrants worked, and by extension it angered others in power, and because of this, they started withdrawing support from Addams. In fact, one of her former allies said that what she was doing “ran counter to everything America stood for” (Kent 22). Another example of how politics became a challenge to Addams was when she attempted to get involved in cleaning up the garbage that filled the streets in the slums, causing sickness and disease among the immigrant population. There were “smells of rotting food, beer, and dead animal carcasses mingled with animal and human wastes” (Nixon 12). However, political leaders hired and managed the garbage collectors. In turn, these garbage collectors supported the political leaders. Generally, the collectors did not do their jobs. Jane Addams tried to protest to City Hall about this health issue, but politicians pushed back. Addams became even more involved in the politics surrounding this issue, determined to make a change. In 1895, her perseverance was rewarded, and she was appointed garbage inspector of Chicago’s Nineteenth Ward (Kent 21). A final example that shows how politics became Jane Addams’ biggest challenge as a reformer took shape after she became involved in larger political issues. Some of her positions were unpopular. These political views resulted in her losing popularity and support. The most prevalent, controversial issues in which she was involved were women’s suffrage (meaning the right to vote), the rights of African Americans (including participating in the NAACP), and the peace movement during World War I. These public political positions cost her many personal friends and financial supporters (McPherson 63-66, 67-76; Kent 25-27). Additionally, Addams refused to take money from people in whose practices she did not believe (for example, if they employed child laborers) (Nixon 16). So, it is apparent that both the corrupt political atmosphere of the time in general and Jane Addams’ personal politics were challenges to her work as a reformer. Clearly, Addams was able to navigate her way through challenges she faced as she became more and more influential as a reformer. As mentioned above, she worked with the political system to make positive changes. However, her initial strategy was very hands-on. She began weaving these two strategies together as she developed as a more active reformer. Therefore, Jane Addams used two main strategies and methods to seek to solve problems faced by the immigrants. Strategies and Methods Jane Addams’ hands-on strategy was apparent even before Hull House was built. When she was setting up her plan for Hull House, Addams went around the poorest sections of Chicago to learn about the people’s needs from the inside. She met with church groups, missions, women’s clubs, and charity workers to figure out how she could best help the poor as she lived among them (McPherson 29). Another example of Addams’ hands-on strategy is the way that she began gathering visitors at Hull House. She and her co-founder would sit on the front stoop and smile and say hello and assist people in any way they could. One popular story goes that one morning, a “harried young mother passed by, and asked if the women could care for her three-month old baby while she ran an errand,” and this led to the beginning of the day care center at Hull House (Kent 12-14). A third way that Addams acted hands-on was when she actually became the garbage inspector of the Nineteenth Ward. Addams did not oversee from an office, but rather she actually woke up at five am three times a week, dressed in old clothes, and followed around garbage wagons all morning until they reached the dump. Then she made effective suggestions and changes to the process. In the year 1895, this behavior was more than unusual (Nixon 12). One final example of Addams’ hands-on methodology is when she realized there were not enough schools for the kids in her district, so she literally went out and counted the number of school children (6,976) and the number of school seats (2,957). Then, she gathered other Hull House residents and local parents to present this information to every school official (Nixon 14). This exemplifies the connection between a hands-on strategy and a political strategy that became more and more and more prominent in Jane Addams’ work. Successes Some of the same political actions mentioned before that caused challenges for Jane Addams also resulted in great improvements for the immigrant population. The second method favored by Addams to effect change was utilizing political, or legal, channels. Her work, both in the schools themselves and with the public officials afterwards, brought about the building of the Andrew Jackson School in 1893 (Nixon 14). Additionally, as mentioned, the labor law known as the Factory Act of 1893 was passed due to the tireless work of Addams and her supporters (McPherson 47). Then, in 1899, noticing that young, hungry children were being sent to prison with hardened adult criminals for minor offenses, Addams worked with the legal system to establish the Juvenile Court of Chicago, which was the first juvenile court in the country (Segal). Furthermore, Addams became more and more involved in political reform on a larger scale: as mentioned before, she was actively involved in several progressive movements, such as women’s rights, African American equality, and civil liberties. It is apparent, then, that Jane Addams’ reform work went far beyond that in the neighborhood of Hull House. She did better the lives of immigrants in the Nineteenth Ward, yet the success of Jane Addams as a reformer had both short-term and long-term effects. The short-term effects were mostly apparent through her work at Hull House. She provided a space for poor immigrants, who otherwise were living difficult lives, to take classes, to gather together, and to find community. She believed that the settlement brought friendship, hope, and a break from the drudgery of daily life to those around her. Only a few doubted the value of her work at Hull House, calling it “a speck in the ocean of misery, suffering, and poverty” and stating that “Hull House cannot remake Chicago… a few hundred lives can be changed” (McPherson 88). However, there is evidence of Hull House’s impact on not only Chicago but on other urban areas, and not only then, but to the present day. In Chicago, Hull House Association still helps needy people in the city, running approximately thirty community centers that provide programs and services such as child care, family counseling and housing assistance (McPherson 89). Also, although they are not called “settlement houses,” around the country community centers, community houses, and neighborhood centers are common, and, “Jane Addams deserves some of the credit for the creation of those centers, for Hull House’s success helped make them possible” (Fradin and Fradin 196). Jane Addams also had an impact in Chicago on even more than just settlement houses. In addition to her accomplishments that have already been examined in detail, such as helping reform the garbage system in Chicago, helping a school become built in the city, helping pass the Factory Act, and helping set up the first juvenile court, she also helped establish Chicago’s first swimming pool, its first Boy Scout troop, and its first amateur theater (McPherson 91). On a larger scale, Jane Addams’ work for social equality, justice and peace may not be as measureable, but she was an integral part in both setting up organizations that worked for the above goals as well as setting an example for others to do so. For example, she was deeply involved in the women’s movement, and she became the vice president of the National American Women’s Suffrage Association in 1911. Then, in 1920 the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution gave women the right to vote (Fradin and Fradin 168). She was a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which promoted the rights of African-Americans. She worked closely with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) (Nixon 13). Her accomplishments regarding the peace movement are more arguable. She was elected president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. However, clearly the protests against World War I were unsuccessful, yet according to some historians, Addams did “establish a tradition of protest against wars” (Fradin and Fradin 199), and so, that legacy itself could be considered a success. Others certainly did. Jane Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. Evaluation Jane Addams had several qualities that caused her to be an effective and outstanding reformer. First, she was humble. One way she was humble is that although she was born into an upper-middle class family, she knew from an early age that she would dedicate her life to helping the poor. Another way that she was humble is that she did not only help the poor from afar, but she lived among them in the slums of Chicago. A third way that she humble was that she was not afraid to do “dirty work” – for example, she herself became a garbage collector when she realized the city was not doing an adequate job. Additionally, Jane Addams was motivated and active. One example that proves she was motivated is that when she was traveling through Europe and she saw the settlement house in London that would become her model for Hull House, she explored poor sections of Europe in more depth to learn more about the needs of the poor. A second example that shows she was motivated was that she did not stop her activism with Hull House, but she took larger steps for equality by going through the law. A third example that shows she was motivated was that she wrote many books and articles that extended beyond just the small neighborhood that surrounded Hull House. Jane Addams had a significant impact both on short-term history and long-term history. First, in the small area of the Ninth Ward of Chicago, she improved the quality of life of hundreds of poor immigrants around her. Long-term, this also set the model for settlement houses (now called, for example, community centers) that still exist today. Additionally, her efforts in the peace movement paved the way for future anti-war protesters, as she was among the first of these. Also, her participation in the women’s suffrage movement led to women finally winning the right to vote. Finally, Jane Addams was a member of many prominent organizations that still exist today. These organizations fight for the equality of all, such as the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the NAACP. A winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, Jane Addams certainly leaves a legacy today. Conclusion For me, the most fascinating a of Jane Addams’ reform work was the way she seamlessly combined her hands-on work with her clever use of the legal system and high-profile political activism to achieve her goals. No task seemed too “low” for her to do, and no goal seemed too “high” for her to reach. In today’s society, it is rare to see someone who incorporates every part of the spectrum in his or her efforts to do “reform” work. There are celebrities who donate large sums of money to charitable causes, young college students who join the Peace Corps and live among the poor for a year, and leftover hippies whose protests and causes are often seen as radical and even insane. So, for Jane Addams to be able to navigate all three territories is truly admirable to me. Additionally, she did so having originated from an upper-middle class background. I believe that Jane Addams possessed a rare combination of humility, strength, and drive, and that this led her to become one of the most successful reformers of early 20th century. Personally, as a researcher and a writer over these past few months, I feel I have grown and developed significantly. I always have been a student who has compiled copious amounts of information, and then surrounded myself with countless papers as I struggled to write even a first word. After initially struggling fiercely with the “largeness” of this project, I was forced to re-evaluate my entire approach. The greatest internal obstacle for me was a lack of understanding of the “big picture” of this paper, of a vision of what the final product would look like. I still had books, websites, and printed papers with information about Jane Addams, and I still had read more than a few sources, yet I still had no idea how to start writing. Slowing down my process and compartmentalizing the vast amount of material around me into the three main “parts” as outlined in class helped tremendously. I first assigned each “part” a color so I could visually organize my thinking as well. Without feeling as though I was “losing” any information, I was able to begin slowly whittling it down. Specifically, I placed color-coded post-its on the parts of sources I believed I would use, then transferred that information on to color-coded note cards, citing the source and the page on the note card, and then set the note cards into color-coded folders to shuffle around at a later time. This truly helped me complete “one step at a time” while still feeling as though I was always working towards the bigger picture. Finally, waiting to write the introduction until after the paper was finished was something new for me as well, but I noticed that it felt almost natural to write it at the same time as the conclusion, like they were two bookends that held this project together. Ultimately, I now realize that while it was at first extremely difficult to “reform” the process I had always used in the past to research and to write, this major change to slowing myself down, organizing my thinking, and collecting tangible information before even writing a word will be a method I use long after completing this project. Works Cited Addams, Jane. Twenty Years at Hull-House: With Autobiographical Notes. New York: Macmillan, 1910. Print. Fradin, Judith Bloom, and Dennis Brindell Fradin. Jane Addams: Champion of Democracy. New York: Clarion Books, 2006. Print. “Immigration in the early 1900s." www.eyewitnesstohistory.com, 2000. Web. 26 Feb. 2011. Kent, Deborah. Jane Addams and Hull House. Chicago: Children’s Press, 1992. Print. McPherson, Stephanie Sammartino. Peace and Bread: The Story of Jane Addams. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, Inc., 1993. Print. Nixon, Anne. “Jane Addams: The Founding of Hull House 1889-1920.” www.human-spirit-initiative.org, Oct. 2010. Web. Feb. 2011. Segal, Naomi. “Jane Addams of Hull House.” www.scholastic.com, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2011. Streich, Michael. “Immigrants and the Growth of Gilded Age Cities: Changes in American Urban Centers after the Civil War.” www.suite101.com, 23 Jan. 2009. Web. 26 Feb. 2011.