Random Reminiscences of Men and Events
end. Many of the good people who bestow their beneficence on education
may well give more thought to investigating the character of the
enterprises that they are importuned to help, and this study ought to
take into account the kind of people who are responsible for their
management, their location, and the facilities supplied by other
institutions round about. A thorough examination such as this is
generally quite impossible for an individual, and he either declines
to give from lack of accurate knowledge, or he may give without due
consideration. If, however, this work of inquiry is done, and well
done, by the General Education Board, through officers of
intelligence, skill, and sympathy, trained to the work, important and
needed service is rendered. The walls of sectarian exclusiveness are
fast disappearing, as they should, and the best people are standing
shoulder to shoulder as they attack the great problems of general
uplift.
ROMAN CATHOLIC CHARITIES
Just here it occurs to me to testify to the fact that the Roman
Catholic Church, as I have observed in my experience, has advanced a
long way in this direction. I have been surprised to learn how far a
given sum of money has gone in the hands of priests and nuns, and how
really effective is their use of it. I fully appreciate the splendid
service done by other workers in the field, but I have seen the
organization of the Roman Church secure better results with a given
sum of money than other Church organizations are accustomed to secure
from the same expenditure. I speak of this merely to point the value
of the principle of organization, in which I believe so heartily. It
is unnecessary to dwell upon the centuries of experience which the
Church of Rome has gone through to perfect a great power of
organization.
Studying these problems has been a source of the greatest interest to
me. My assistants, quite distinct from any board, have an organization
of sufficient size to investigate the many requests that come to us.
This is done from the office of our committee in New York. For an
individual to attempt to keep any close watch of single cases would be
impossible. I am called upon to explain this fact many times. To read
the hundreds of letters daily received at our office would be beyond
the power of any one man, and surely, if the many good people who
write would only reflect a little, they must realize that it is
impossible for me personally to consider their applications.
The plan that we have worked out, and I hope improved upon year after
year, has been the result of experience, and I refer to it now only as
one contribution to a general subject which is of such great moment to
earnest people; and this must be my excuse for speaking so frankly.
THE APPEALS THAT COME
The reading, assorting, and investigating of the hundreds of letters
of appeal which are received daily at my office are attended to by a
department organized for this purpose. The task is not so difficult as
at first it might seem. The letters are, to be sure, of great variety,
from all sorts of people in every condition of life, and indeed, from
all parts of the world. Four-fifths of these letters are, however,
requests for money for personal use, with no other title to
consideration than that the writer would be gratified to have it.
There remain numbers of requests which all must recognize as worthy of
notice. These may be divided, roughly, as follows:
The claims of local charities. The town or city in which one lives has
a definite appeal to all its citizens, and all good neighbours will
wish to cooeperate with friends and fellow townsmen. But these local
charities, hospitals, kindergartens, and the like, ought not to make
appeal outside the local communities which they serve. The burden
should be carried by the people who are on the spot and who are, or
should be, most familiar with local needs.
Then come the national and international claims. These properly appeal
especially to men of large means throughout the country, whose wealth
admits of their doing something more than assist in caring for the
local charities. There are many great national and international
philanthropic and Christian organizations that cover the whole field
of world-wide charity; and, while people of reputed wealth all receive
appeals from individual workers throughout the world for personal
assistance, the prudent and thoughtful giver will, more and more,
choose these great and responsible organizations as the medium for his
gifts and the distribution of his funds to distant fields. This has
been my custom, and the experience of every day serves only to confirm
its wisdom.
The great value of dealing with an organization which knows all the
facts, and can best decide just where the help can be applied to the
best advantage, has impressed itself upon me through the results of
long years of experience. For example, one is asked to give in a
certain field of missionary work a sum, for a definite purpose--let us
say a hospital. To comply with this request will take, say, $10,000.
It seems wise and natural to give this amount. The missionary who
wants this money is working under the direction of a strong and
capable religious denomination.
Suppose the request is referred to the manager of the board of this
denomination, and it transpires that there are many good reasons why a
new hospital is not badly needed at this point, and by a little good
management the need of this missionary can be met by another hospital
in its neighbourhood; whereas another missionary in another place has
no such possibility for any hospital facilities whatever. There is no
question that the money should be spent in the place last named. These
conditions the managers of all the mission stations know, although
perhaps the one who is giving the money never heard of them, and in my
judgment he is wise in not acting until he has consulted these men of
larger information.
It is interesting to follow the mental processes that some excellent
souls go through to cloud their consciences when they consider what
their duty actually is. For instance, one man says: "I do not believe
in giving money to street beggars." I agree with him, I do not believe
in the practice either; but that is not a reason why one should be
exempt from doing something to help the situation represented by the
street beggar. Because one does not yield to the importunities of
such people is exactly the reason one should join and uphold the
charity organization societies of one's own locality, which deal
justly and humanely with this class, separating the worthy from the
unworthy.
Another says: "I don't give to such and such a board, because I have
read that of the money given only half or less actually gets to the
person needing help." This is often not a true statement of fact, as
proved again and again, and even if it were true in part it does not
relieve the possible giver from the duty of helping to make the
organization more efficient. By no possible chance is it a valid
excuse for closing up one's pocketbook and dismissing the whole
subject from one's mind.
INSTITUTIONS AS THEY RELATE TO EACH OTHER
Surely it is wise to be careful not to duplicate effort and not to
inaugurate new charities in fields already covered, but rather to
strengthen and perfect those already at work. There is a great deal of
rivalry and a vast amount of duplication, and one of the most
difficult things in giving is to ascertain when the field is fully
covered. Many people simply consider whether the institution to which
they are giving is thoughtfully and well managed, without stopping to
discover whether the field is not already occupied by others; and for
this reason one ought not to investigate a single institution by
itself, but always in its relation to all similar institutions in the
territory. Here is a case in point:
A number of enthusiastic people had a plan for founding an orphan
asylum which was to be conducted by one of our strongest religious
denominations. The raising of the necessary funds was begun, and among
the people who were asked to subscribe was a man who always made it a
practice to study the situation carefully before committing himself to
a contribution. He asked one of the promoters of the new institution
how many beds the present asylums serving this community provided, how
efficient they were, where located, and what particular class of
institution was lacking in the community.
To none of these questions were answers forthcoming, so he had this
information gathered on his own account with the purpose of helping to
make the new plan effective. His studies revealed the fact that the
city where the new asylum was to be built was so well provided with
such institutions that there were already vastly more beds for
children than there were applicants to fill them, and that the field
was well and fully covered. These facts being presented to the
organizers of the enterprise, it was shown that no real need for such
an institution existed. I wish I might add that the scheme was
abandoned. It was not. Such charities seldom are when once the
sympathies of the worthy people, however misinformed, are heartily
enlisted.
It may be urged that doing the work in this systematic and apparently
cold-blooded way leaves out of consideration, to a large extent, the
merits of individual cases. My contention is that the organization of
work in combination should not and does not stifle the work of
individuals, but strengthens and stimulates it. The orderly
combination of philanthropic effort is growing daily, and at the same
time the spirit of broad philanthropy never was so general as it is
now.
THE CLAIM OF HIGHER EDUCATION
The giver who works out these problems for himself will, no doubt,
find many critics. So many people see the pressing needs of every-day
life that possibly they fail to realize those which are, if less
obvious, of an even larger significance--for instance, the great
claims of higher education. Ignorance is the source of a large part
of the poverty and a vast amount of the crime in the world--hence the
need of education. If we assist the highest forms of education--in
whatever field--we secure the widest influence in enlarging the
boundaries of human knowledge; for all the new facts discovered or set
in motion become the universal heritage. I think we cannot
overestimate the importance of this matter. The mere fact that most of
the great achievements in science, medicine, art, and literature are
the flower of the higher education is sufficient. Some great writer
will one day show how these things have ministered to the wants of all
the people, educated and uneducated, high and low, rich and poor, and
made life more what we all wish it to be.
The best philanthropy is constantly in search of the finalities--a
search for cause, an attempt to cure evils at their source. My
interest in the University of Chicago has been enhanced by the fact
that while it has comprehensively considered the other features of a
collegiate course, it has given so much attention to research.
DR. WILLIAM R. HARPER
The mention of this promising young institution always brings to my
mind the figure of Dr. William R. Harper, whose enthusiasm for its
work was so great that no vision of its future seemed too large.
My first meeting with Dr. Harper was at Vassar College, where one of
my daughters was a student. He used to come, as the guest of Dr. James
M. Taylor, the president, to lecture on Sundays; and as I frequently
spent week-ends there, I saw and talked much with the young professor,
then of Yale, and caught in some degree the contagion of his
enthusiasm.