Jane Addams Of Hull House

Originally Aired: May 21, 1940 Cavalcade of America #188, "Jane Addams Of Hull House," starring Helen Hayes, tells the story of a young woman who trades a comfortable life for a mission to help the poor. As a girl in Cedarville, Illinois, Jane Addams shocks her father by rejecting conventional expectations of marriage and social propriety. A trip to Europe with her sister Ellen opens her eyes when she witnesses the desperate poverty in London's slums, where crowds fight over rotten vegetables. When a guide mentions that similar conditions exist on Halstead Street in Chicago, Jane's path becomes clear. Years later, Jane and her companion establish Hull House in the heart of Chicago's most impoverished district, a thirty-two-mile stretch of tenements housing immigrants from Poland, Slovakia, Italy, and Ireland. Her work helping factory girls demand better hours and tenant rights soon attracts the attention of political boss Regan and his lieutenant Callahan, who see her influence as a threat to their control. Factory owner Siller wants her gone before workers start demanding higher wages. As the ward politicians plot against her, Jane walks directly into their meeting to confront them about the neighborhood's problems.