Jane Addams
by Sean Kirkpatrick

"I believe that peace is not merely an absence of war
but the nurture of human life, and that in time this nurture would
do away with war as a natural process."

Jane Addams is one of the foremost pioneers of peace and freedom. Her accomplishments and influence have been the inspiration for many all over the world. A devout Roman Catholic once said of the Protestant Addams, "There have been two very great women in history, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and Jane Addams, the Mother of Men." Jane Addams was truly a believer in the spirit and value of all humanity.

Born to a member of the Illinois State Legislature, John Addams, Jane sought to follow in the virtuous footsteps of her father. She spent long hours reading in order to expand her education, while at the same time showing sympathy for those who were less fortunate than she. According to her biography by Edna M. Baxter, "she was only six when her feeling for others was first reflected in her reaction to the poverty she saw in the back streets of Freeport near her own home town." It was here that Addams first started to show signs of sympathy and and began to directly help the impoverished.

Although she was very young when she first began to help the poor, it was not until later on that she decided to dedicate her life to it. Addams stated, as if in reaction to the good fortune she had been born into, "the blessings which we associate with a life of refinement and cultivation can be made universal and must be made universal if they are to be permanent."

In 1888 she established the Hull House, an organization internationally renowned for being a "Cathedral of Compassion." Activities included the Hull House Public Kitchen which provided food for working women who had previously always depended on canned goods and candy to feed their families, and the "Jane Club," a co-operative boarding club for girls who had to work

Jane Addams also established and developed many other community programs and services, all of which were guided by her ideology of peace. Addams once stated, "In my long advocacy of peace I had consistently used one line of appeal;... that a dynamic peace is found in that new internationalism promoted by the end of all nations who are determining upon the abolition of degrading poverty, disease and ignorance with the resulting inefficiency and tragedy." This thought process pushed Addams through a lifetime of achievements that made her one of the foremost leaders of peace.