SOURCE: "Jane Addams's Views on the Responsibilities of Wealth," in The Responsibilites of Wealth, edited by Dwight F. Burlingame, Indiana University Press, 1992, pp. 118-37.

In the following essay, Knight presents Addams's views on charity, both as a member of a wealthy family and as a humanitarian seeking to raise funds.

The title of this paper is in a sense offered tongue in cheek. While the theme of this book, "The Responsibilities of Wealth," captures a point of view held by Andrew Carnegie and other late nineteenth century philanthropists, it does not reflect the view of their contemporary, Jane Addams. She rejected the belief that an individual's wealth defined his or her responsibilities to the poor. Herself a woman of inherited wealth, Addams gave careful thought to the moral aspect of the relations between the classes, but her conclusions went in another direction.

A better phrase to describe Addams's...