It is rumored that Alice Hamilton was “monitored” by the F.B.I. into her eighties! On her 100th birthday (she lived to be 101) the New York Times editorialized:

Alice Hamilton, whose long struggle to make factories safe for their workers has left an indelible mark on American industry, was 100 years old yesterday.

Whether it was the insidious effects of lead in in paint factories, the insanity that came from inhaling fumes in some viscose rayon plants, the “phossy jaw” acquired by match workers, Dr. Hamilton led the battle for safety.

She was a member of that special breed that lived at Hull House in the Chicago slums-a group headed by her close friend Jane Addams. Their efforts at reform before World War I helped bring into being such developments as Children’s courts and workmen’s compensation… She also anticipated a larger concern, the pollution of the entire environment with noxious substances-pesticides, automobile fumes, smog, and the like.

The battle that she began early in this century, riding by stage coach from copper mine to copper mine in Arizona, remains a battle still unwon as Dr. Hamilton passes the century mark.