North Carolina community progress, April 5, 1922

              NORTH   CAROLINA
H CAkOLi
VOLUME 3.
APRIL 5, 1922
NUMBER 13
JANE ADDAMS SPEAKS ON AMERICAN INTERNA
TIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Jane Addams, well known social welfare worker
and author, spoke to an enthusiastic Greensboro audience in the West Market Street Methodist church
Thursday night on "America's Responsibility to International Problems." Miss Addams gave her lecture
from a background of knowledge in World Problems
that she had gained from frequent trips to the European countries and from intensive study of her own
nation.
The fact that America has not entered the league
has, according to the speaker, caused a great many of
the reconstruction problems to be harder to
solve than they would
otherwise have been.
When she attended meetings of the League in
Geneva, she was often
asked why the country
that had done so much
toward the establishment
of world peace in other
ways had failed to show
interest in the organization. She mentioned
eight specific plans
which had failed because of the "non-participation" of the United
States among which was
the loan which had been
proposed for one of the most destitute of the countries.
The attitude toward the states is very different now
from that of a few years ago in that the people of
Europe feel that they are not exactly getting the
things that a country in the position of this one should
be expected to do much toward providing.
Miss Addams commended the work of the Social
Workers of the nation saying that they were doing a
great work and giving "the kind of help that the
world sorely needs." She spoke of the need on behalf
of the European peoples of intellectual help. The
schools there are not so numerous as they
were before the war and the people, naturally, are
finding it hard to get the type of education that they
desire.    Education, however, is destined to play one
of the most important roles in future European civilization since all people are realizing that no country
can be ideal and democratic unless the citizens are
able to understand the laws under which they live.
A humanitarian interest, she said, on the part of
American people should make them realize that here
they would find one of the most desirable channels of
service in helping the people of the other countries to
become reestablished on a firm intellectual footing
and, thus, to regain their positions in world affairs.
She cited several instances of the terrible conditions which now exist
in different parts of
Europe purely because
of the dearth of the
material necessities of
life. Here, she explained the attitude of the
starving people of Russia and other nations
when they heard that the
farmers of the United
States were burning
their corn. How could
they do it, they would
ask, when fuel is plentiful in America and the
people over here cannot
obtain enough to keep
them alive? Also, there
is much    concern   over
"Just as every robin's song tells us
that Spring is close by, in spite of ice and
snow, and the sweet arbutus is a sort of
John the Baptist to the June roses, and
both show that the old earth will swing
into the sunshine again, so the flowers of
sacrifice which cover the meadows of our
common and sordid life prove that God,
the great life-giving principle is still at
work and that even in the darkness we
may put our trust in Him."
the way that the citizens of the United States
are keeping their raw materials. The same
question was asked about the articles which would
keep them warm as was so frequently asked about the
food. To all of these Miss Addams said there was one
answer which might be found in the fact that the people of this country had not yet realized their responsibility toward those of foreign countries. That, this
is a great responsibility, she said, is certain and that
the people should be awakened to the realization of it
is very necessary. She paid a tribute to Wodorow
Wilson when she said that there could be no need of
saying a great deal in defense of the League of Nations
(Continued on next page.)