Jane Addams Hull House - Essay Example

Jane Addams’ Hull House Jane Addams’ legacy in creating Hull House is widely recognized in the United States. Hull House provides services such as medical care, childcare and legal aid. Addams’s mission in fulfilling social reforms and education for world peace earned her the title “Beloved Lady” (Berson 30). She was also regarded as “the creator, the innovator, and the leader” (Jane Addams Biography). The idea behind establishing Hull House was after her visit in Toynbee Hall, London. She was fascinated by her experience and made up her mind to build a settlement house with her friend, Ellen Gates Starr. Finally, in 1889, Jane Addams’ Hull House was officially opened in Chicago, Illinois. It began as a place for educational and social support to meliorate the effects of poverty, women suffrage and means of improvement in the conditions of laborers. The first educational source was the kindergarten founded by a volunteer named Jenny Dow. Jane Addams was a strong supporter for women’s suffrage and eventually became a member of National Child Labor Committee, investigating the conditions of children working in factories. Hull House became an important place in Chicago. It served 50,000 people during its first year. Jane Addams’s contributions to the social welfare were addressed by her participation in issues such as women’s suffrage, child labor and medical care which she accomplished by establishing the Hull House. The struggle to achieve women’s suffrage in the United States took 72 years. In the 19th Century females had no voting rights. As argued by Antis “mass of women were too weak or passive or uninterested to vote” (Wheeler 190). Women are mostly stereotyped as people of less importance to the society. However, Jane Addams clarifies that “a woman’s vote would make them stronger, more responsible and civic-minded” (Wheeler 190). Jane Addams’s mentions from an editorial The Ladies’ Home Journal that it was based on “why women should vote” not “why women should have the vote”. Jane Addams was a strong supporter of women’s suffrage. She wanted to show how it would affect women if they were not included in the act of voting. The Ladies’ Home Journal describes that a man’s “point of view” is “quite as honest and valuable” as a woman’s (Wheeler 191). Her effort in supporting women’s suffrage made her attain an executive post in Women Suffrage Association between the years 1911-1914. By the year of 1920, women were granted the right to vote. Sweatshops and factories in Chicago exploited working women and children. Jane Addams’s colleague and volunteer Florence Kelley was appointed by the head of the Illinois State Bureau of Labor to investigate the sweating system in Chicago. Kelley investigated tenement houses and sweatshops around Chicago. She found out that wages were low, the working conditions were unfavorable with poor sanitation and surrounded by dangerous machines. Soon, Kelley also discovered that many workers were sick with small pox. As its virus is air borne, it can transfer through the manufactured clothes that were going to be shipped. Thus, The Illinois Factory Act (1893) banned child labor, limited the working hours for women and prohibited the production of garments in sweatshops. Jane Addams also discovered the unfortunate news that one of the dangerous machines injured three little boys who were frequent visitors of one of the Hull House Clubs. They were injured while working in a neighborhood factory. Kelley Helped Jane Addams in offering a helping hand to the children in need. One of Jane Addams’ missions is to abolish the exploitation of child labor and improve medical care and education. A young volunteer named Jenny Dow taught the kindergarten class conducted in the Hull House. Within the first three weeks, twenty-four children were already enlisted. Yet, 70 more children were on the waiting list. As time went by, more and more children started to join, thus resulted the kindergarten to grow from learning in a drawing room. It was also the first educational support organized in the Hull House. This showed the extent of the success of her contributions. Alice Hamilton was a resident staff member in the Hull-House. She was the main person to handle the medical care division of the Hull House. On one hand, Hamilton organized and managed the medical care for sick babies, children, and adults. She established the well-baby clinic in the Hull House that was soon made available for children up to eight years old. She treated sick babies, sent them to hospitals, taught basic hygiene and diet to mothers. One of her many lessons was to teach the mothers to only give milk to their babies when their teeth have grown but discovered that solid food like “ fried eggs and cupcakes did them no apparent harm” (Scherman 119). Her purpose for conducting baby-related lessons is to allow mothers to raise their children in a better and healthier way. Hamilton made medical care a great significance to the Hull House. This fulfilled one of many missions Jane Addams embarked on her charter. Many children were either working in a factory, locked inside their tenement houses or were physically abused. In 1901, Jane Addams and the Juvenile Court Committee founded the Juvenile Protective Association. One of the Juvenile Protective Association offices was located in the Hull House itself. One day Jane Addams brought in a little girl who was weeping; according to her, “she worked a night shift at a nut-shelling factory nearby; she had fallen asleep at work, been beaten by her father, and had run away” (Berson 41). As a result, 23 nut-shelling factories were caught exploiting children (Berson 42). Jane Addams’s goal was to eliminate child labor. She reported in 1907, that there were two million children working under the age of sixteen in the United States (Child labor) and that there were approximately “580,000 young children of age range between ten and fourteen, who neither could read nor write ”(Jane Addams, Newer Ideals). She became the founding member of the National Child Labor Committee that led to the formation of the Federal Childrens Bureau in the year 1912 (open collections program). In 1916, the Congress passed the nations first federal child labor law also known as the Keating-Owen Act. The establishment of Hull House achieved many aspects in its charter. One of Jane Addams successes in changing the condition of her neighborhood was the garbage system. The garbage system in her ward was unorganized and filthy. As Jane Addams offer for the garbage removal of the nineteenth ward were ignored, the mayor appointed her as the garbage inspector earning an annual salary of a thousand dollars. She made sure that the garbage collectors did their job properly. Thus, “The cautious examination collective with other causes, brought about a immense progress in the comfort and cleanliness of the neighborhood and one pleased day, when the death rate of our (nineteenth) ward was established to have dropped from third to seventh in the list of city wards” (Addams 288). Jane Addams and her colleagues accomplished Hull House’s mission as stated in its charter Her success in eliminating child labor, limiting the hours of working women, implementing factory inspection system (and many more) reflected her statement of the original charter. She did not only provide laws but also she changed services for working women, children and men. Jane Addams was a public figure that greatly influenced many people. She became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1931) and ranked second as the most useful Americans in the year 1911 (Wheeler 184). Without her ideas and continuous support in her missions to help the society, people in Illinois would not have created new laws and regulations that are still established today. Jane Addams’ hypothesis that “physical and social landscapes could influence the fate of subcultures” (Kantor) had proven that she had shaped the United Nations and improved the social condition of her Chicago neighborhood. Her contributions had made the Illinois society more aware of the implications of child labor, medical care, education and women suffrage. Addams’ legacy will be remembered from generation to generation as an inspiration to others. Read More