THE ORGANIZED CHARITY INDUSTRY
THE ORGANIZED CHARITY INDUSTRY Spasmodic Outpouring of Alms Points to Need Of System of Social Insurance H*HE Christmas season is here. It is the signal for a gush of sentimentality and a...
...The Division of Families, which handles the cases in which the newspapers are interested expended a total of $543,801...
...Whitney's Fortune How $16,000,000 Inherited From O. H. Payne Grew in Less Than a Generation to $178,000,000 ANOTHER Standard Oil fortune comes to light with the appraisal Of the estate left by Payne Whitney...
...Ladies bountiful begin to fill their baskets...
...are iafinl ti etnisl in comparison...
...Ar.d this particular joke has been pushed dear off the city mrn...
...The entire budget of the Relief Bureau of the A. I. C. P. was $499,5C6...
...Perhaps the regular charity societies did not like their independent rival...
...According to the annual report of Pres...
...Yo-trs resnectfnTbr, THE EDITORS OF THE NEW LEADER...
...The newspapers start collections of ggir own...
...In the Federation there is Felix M. Warburg, chairman of the Board and Arthur Lehman, associate chairman...
...if Spats Do Not A Commissioner Make, Nor Wise-cracks a Mayor We Write Mr...
...9,900 4,275,000 Prairie OU m Gas...
...Securities shares value Standard Oil of N. J...
...They receive a regular allot* ment annually irrespective of the "Times" or any other appeal...
...97,630 5,515 530 First National Bank...
...They gpitalize the holiday spirit into cold cash...
...It would wipe out the humiliations that go with private "benevolence...
...This year has aesa a record banana crop the world ever...
...114,921 13,763,278 American Tel...
...Probably it ¦ accounted for by the fact that death caught him napping...
...The letters sent to Santa Claus are supposed to be read by voluntary workers and the families of the poor children who have written to Santa Claus are then investigated by other volunteers...
...United Pratt hi ha a position to welcome such an Interruption of buotoeso as that afforded by the present strike provided troops keep the strikers from Injuring the corporation property, for n reduction to the banana snpetj win mean better prices...
...In closlr...
...The C. O. S. (Charity Organization Society) received $57,610 from the Times...
...SOCIO 5,410 395 Chase National Bank...
...1. P. Morgan $78,140,024...
...Some persons began to whisper about the shopping activities of the organization...
...Here ajraln as In the case of Ike estate of Anna M. Harkness is ample refutation of the contention *f Secretary of Treasury Mellon that great fortunes In America tend u> break op, thus removing the menace of the enormous power which *** hereditary wealth exercises...
...Ch»-!es W. H»-'--w $10,000,000...
...Here we get a quick insight Into the expansion of colossal wealth...
...In his 1928 Souvenir Report he has photographs of Cal, Al and Jimmie Walker with greetings to the Santa Claus Association in their own handwriting...
...Nevertheless, Gluck is undaunted...
...Since the outbreak of the war in Europe it has had the opportunity to absorb some of the surplus capital which has been accumulated in New York City and vicinity...
...During 1927 the company paid eat in the Oarrthean conn tries in which it owns plantations $23,972,639, ef which over 75 per cent went to the nationals of those countries.* This means that the Inhabitants of these Latin American nations are getting a little more than $20,000,000 a year to wages from United Fruit...
...The wealth of America's owning dam multiplies at such a rate that the separate parts of a divided ¦Ute soon eclipse in magnitude the wealth of the originator of the ftfteaa, Whitney's estate ia appraised at 1178 893.655...
...Why do people give to charity...
...Administrative and office expenses are shared by all cases insofar as the separate budgets are limited by the general funds available after expenses are deducted...
...One might as well give to the poor as to the government...
...The larger the surplus the more for charity and the more keen is the scramble of charity societies for "clients.'* So this work has become an essential industry, essential because huge fortunes at one pole of society mean inevitable distress for millions at the other pole...
...The Salvation Army agents tinkle their heart-rending little bells on the corners of busy greets...
...A multimillionaire normally anticipates *b death by a sufficient number of years to enable him to divide up his •sate in time to avoid the scrutiny of the tax gatherers and the public...
...All over the country Christmas funds of one sort or anjjber are being raised...
...The "Times" operates through seven charitable organizations: the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, the Charity Organization Society, the State Charities Aid Association, the New York Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies, the Catholic Charities, the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities and the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities, The Tunes" puts in a request for pathetic cases for the Christsat business...
...Understand that we have nothing against Grover, high-hat and morning clothes and buttoniere and all...
...The present strike, wish thousands ef hssnnia^stemn either destroyed or rotting- before they could he shipped, wffl seres the purpose fulfilled ta the past by trsplcnl storms...
...Ill-informed people see nothing bat "blessings" in the philanthropy of the rich...
...But in the same year 1927 the wealthy stockholders got a not Income of $22,864,609 from the exploitation ef these same Inhabitants, the peon workers on their huge estates...
...This Is the largest estate ever appraised In this country, the previous record beir>£ the Standard Oil fortune of Mrs...
...The pr^Sto of Ma rivals, Ouyamel Fruit, Standard Fruit and Atlantic Fruit * Sugar Co...
...Harkness which was appraised at $107,9B,494...
...Last year suspicions were raised concerning the conduct of the Santa Claus Association...
...E. H. Harriman $58,000,000 and W. K. VanderbUt $54,NtSfS, The Hst of big fortunes previously appraised by the Inheritance tax lataerers includes that of $32,000,000 left by a certain Oliver H. Payne, *oe of the early directors of Standard Oil of New Jersey...
...The Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York received in 1926 $36,429 from the "Times" and $7,282 from the "Post...
...If we take into account a 109 per cent stock dividend distributed by the company in 1921 and the Issuance ef 2'/i no par shares for each $100 par share In 192$ tt is apparent that the 1928 profit win mean a return of over 42 per cent on the original Investment of the owners...
...32,748 17343,611 Standard OU of Ind...
...The Santa Claus Association shopped for $9,898's worth in 1927...
...There is no deduction for office or administrative work, as the appeals generally state, for the very good reason that each client already has his or her budget...
...Look over the list of supporters of any of the charity organizations and you see the names of labor haters, of open shoppers occupying the honored positions...
...How long since have those earnestly setting to work to dean up a city department gone about it by firing its head, without any investigation whatsoever...
...We are referring once more to that subject with which you must be fed up by this time—the Rothstein shooting and the way the police department went about solving it...
...And of the upper classes who give one finds a solid array of opposition to government insurance against old age, unemployment, and other bitter fruits of this chance world of capitalism...
...Neither do other newspipers...
...The central office chooses the saddest and sends them on to the "Times...
...Isn't it the usual procedure to suspend heads of departments who are under suspicion until their affairs are looked into by some responsible, outside bodies...
...About twp thousand dollars went directly to the beneficiaries...
...All the charitable organizations operate on budgets and the budget system is also applied to their cases, which they prefer to call their "clients...
...Jamaica $1,692,020...
...Salaries and expenses amounted to $4,265...
...Its expenditures for relief and all other purposes amounted to $714,980 during the same period...
...The Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies turns over the money it receives from the "Times" and "Post" to one of its affiliated bodies the J. S. S. A. (the Jewish Social Service Association) which recently dropped its name of United Hebrew Charities, it is said, to a large extent in order to confound its clients, who were flocking to it in too great droves...
...V. H. Cutter to the stockholders, United Fruit wages were distributed among these countries as follows: Colombia $3,839,462...
...Ia the Catholic Charities we find Nicholas F. Brady, public utility magnate, a member of the Board of Trustees, headed by Cardinal Hayes...
...There the smart reporter picks out the ¦ost pitiful ones, powerful tear-gas bombs in disguise...
...Preliminary figures for 1928 Indicate that the corporation's net Income will undoubtedly exceed by a fairly wide margin the total wages which tt distributes annually throughout all Its Latin American domains...
...Panama $1,975,725...
...Goodwill to Men," (in spite of Paraguay and Bolivia and Nicaragua and Afghanistan and some other places that we won't bother you with mentioning, because then you might have to go and look them up...
...William Rockefeller $67,647,660...
...TeL...
...Russell Sa-re $64,153 800...
...The total income for general relief amounted to $270,290...
...The Hundred Neediest Cases are frequently several years old...
...This tmstpnifini I win has resulted ba aonaewrjat tower prices wtth the pisslhntty of reduced profits...
...But it seems to us in our ignorance of these matters, that the break-down of one of the most important departments in the city government requires something a bit more serious than high-hats and fawn spats...
...333,924 21,371,136 Standard oil of Calif...
...Gluck has built up a large organization sponsored by many notables...
...Well that sort of philosophy is a bit too unusual for us...
...Unfortunates would enjoy as a right what is now bestowed as a gift And this is the Socialist indictment of these annual parades, of professional charity...
...Mayors It hurt* uj more than it doet you to have to write you at this time of "Peace on Earth...
...Because what we are writing about isn't exaclly a peace and good-will subject...
...Ms In the mountains, by the sea, near noted race tracks, on 6th ^one, house boats, private railroad cars, more than a score of nutoy™k*> racing horses, stallions, tapestries, paintings by famous mas*JJ*» chintzes, rugs and furniture valued at tens of thousands of dolthese Jostle each ether in tins estate of a man described as a ^¦¦Bst and sportsman...
...958,463 23,961^575 Great Northern Paper...
...The societies cannot go out every autumn to round up some melodramatic cases for the Christmas rush...
...Then let us not forget the income tax...
...457,575 13,950,037 ' Reynolds Tobacco...
...The Jewish Social Service Association in 1926 received $32,844 from the "Times" and $6,348 from the "Post...
...They use the goods they have in stock...
...He still maintains all-year round offices in the Knickerbocker Building in New York City...
...of Appraised Corp...
...Because they know, as you know that the firing of Warren and the appointment of Grover medps absolutely nothing as far as the main issues arising out of that shooting of your boy friend Rothstein are concerned...
...We think that as a singing waiter in m night-club you have a great future and we hope to drop around some night after the next elrction and hear you do your stuff...
...The charity organizations make their annual onslaught...
...A comPfcte Ust of the blocks of stock held by this company shows how these P*at fortunes tie together the leading corporations under the control •I a small owning class...
...Payne Whlt•ej*i $178,893,655 fortune Is almost entirely an expansion of the half htereet which he inherited in the estate of this O. H. Payne who was >h ancle...
...More than 3,500 cases have been helped, involving 14,000 individuals...
...CARRYING A JOKE TOO FAR After all a man was murdered in the heart of town and that man had accumulated dirt of fifteen years on some of our most prominent dlixens, to say nothing of soma of our most prominent Communists...
...933.334 $31,533,358 British American Tobacco...
...It compares with other large estates as follows: John Jacob Aster 187,317,619...
...But as Mayor of New York City, wsK, Jimmy, yarn know that a joke can be pushed too far...
...In 1926 deductions on this account amounted to $484,205,308...
...Supposedly competing companies like AmerCigar, British-American Tobacco, Cuban Tobacco, Liggett fit My...
...In fact tt has been rather a custom for the corporation to declare dividends fas advenes tea the confine yes* out of the excess profits at prerioen years...
...Leriliard, Reynolds Tobacco and 17...
...Where the contributors are fooled is in thinking that they are really making a donation to aid the four hundred Om Hundred Neediest Cases...
...He boasted: "One of the most Important factors in stabilizing both currency and labor conditions Is the large amount of money paid out annually by the United Fruit Company ia wages...
...Outstanding blocks of stock held by the Northern Finance Corp...
...To tax the exploiters of human kind and care for the human wrecks would sociaMze the functions of private charity...
...Do justice and there will be little need of private alms...
...Contributors get a thrill from doing such noble work...
...The latest forecast ef the financial world figures its final profits for the year at around $8-50, which will mean a net Income of ever $24,400,000 before deduction of taxes, and over $21,000,009 clear profit for the stockholders...
...If one looks hurriedly at the situation as about ninety-nine out of one hundred of the citizens of the largest and richest and so on city in the world do look, it might appear that something big had gone on when you displaced a pair of wistful eyes with a high hat...
...Since 1916 the One Hundred Neediest Cares have numbered 200 and last year 400 cases were assisted...
...If the cases are found worthy the letters are placed with donors, who secure the thrill of getting in personal touch with the pauperkiddies, However, if these well-to-do contributors do not want to play Santa Claus themselves, the Association will take care of the details...
...JAMES J. WALKER i City Hall, New York...
...Gluck claims he got the Santa Claus habit from his father and grand-father...
...If the workers of these philanthropists were to receive decent wages even as capitalistic wages go— the charities which these employers support would be largely eliminated...
...50,035 8,426,397 Imperial Tobacco...
...The greater part of Whitney's wealth consisted of his half Interest * the Northern Finance Corp., a holding company created by his •**» Payne to manage the large blocks of stock which he owned...
...Now the old-line papers are talking about "shake-ups" and "housecleanings" at Headquarters and everybody seems to think that the cops are trembling in their capacious boots...
...In the C O. S. we find capitalists like Robert W. De Forest, George F. Baker, Jr., and J. P. Morgan...
...1) they like to, (2) they have to, and (3) it pays...
...Huge reserves of undivided profits assure the payment of dividends...
...As a result of the enormous gains poured into the laps of the ¦V rich by the oil and tobacco companies in less than a generation t>» half interest In a $32,000,000 estate has multiplied more than 10 •hnjs over...
...It wffl cut down the supply not amy of UnTtfed Frutt bat of Ms smafier eosnpeOtors nnd as ^DsftssSO PQbsVssbMbw KnMS9 JpSVsst*mtsaHssr fsms\w*Ws*m...
...A. N. Brady $77,042,443...
...As we have remarked, this was Graver's heavy job and he did it like the well-dressed man about town that he is...
...The rJarity organizations, however, are the biggest benefactors of alL New York City is a case Jn point Christmas charity fke every other business is carried on there on a large scale, probably most attention has been given to the "New York Tones" Annual Appeal for the One Hundred Neediest Cases, The fund was started in 1912 with only $3,631...
...Everybody, that it, except those "in the know" down-town...
...They rely upon the professional huntsmen for this, the charity workers...
...Newsboys are feted...
...243 800 16,182,225 Standard Oil of N. Y...
...Weisbecker's market...
...It is the signal for a gush of sentimentality and a splurge of begging and giving...
...The Federal Government permits a 15 per cent deduction from individual incomes for charitable contributions...
...For these years the net income rer.-ialn.ng for stockholders and the percentage return en harestment has been: United Fruit Amount Per cent of Profits Investment 1918 $14094,047 2S.C% 1919 20,163^518 40.1 1929 29,008,307 574 1921 16,975,76$ S3* 192* 18 851,319 87.7 192$ 23,097431 46.2 1924 17,2*4,208 $4.6 1925 22,546,880 45.1 1926 19,511,47* 89.0 1927 19,621,841 894 Total $201,164,186 401.7% In 10 years United Fruit stockholders have received pre fits totaling Snore than $200,000,000 after aO deductions, representing a return of more than 400% on their Investment or an average of 40% a year...
...Then, there is the Santa Claus Association, Inc., headed by John D. Gluck...
...The money that is collected at Christmas time goes into the general treasury...
...Walker About Rothstein and Grover Whalen JJOjV...
...In 1926 he founded the National Committee for the Celebration of Christmas Amongst the Children of the Poor to coordinate the activities of all Santa Claus associations and their unrelated units in the United States and Canada...
...The Volunteers of America dress up as Santa Claus it $3.50 per day and guard paper chimneys on the remainfcg corners of town...
...Now, now," you are saying, "must you carrion crows still go picking over that corpse...
...Colombia Is only one of 7 Caribbean and Sooth American uiiUlea In which United Fruit controls more than 2,000,000 acres of land, an area exceeding the combined states of Delaware and Rhode Island...
...And now, you figure that the whole nasty business is over because you grab off a walking show-window from a big department store and give him charge over these self-same police...
...Well our answer to that, Jimmy, is, "yes and no...
...At any rate this year the United States Post Office has ruled that Santa Claus letters would not be turned over to Gluck's organization, suspecting the philanthropic motives of his association...
...In 1927 the fond amounted to $285,834...
...It is spiritual compensation for these capitalists to throw a few pennies to those from whom they exploit millions of dollars...
...It was claimed that donors contributed $102,152...
...The story is the same...
...Haven't I cleaned up everything by firing my .old school-days friend Warren and appointing good, old Grover Whalen to the job of police commissioner...
...If isn't usual in m civilised com* munity to let a known dope-peddler, smuggler, bail-bond fixer, gambler and pimp walk around unmolested by the police, mixing in with our best politicians, • That's what happened in the Rothstein case...
...Honduras $5,1TM«1 and Cuba S5.660.317...
...The Hearst papers supply Christmas Jendles...
...The reasons are threefold...
...100 800 13,734,000 Uggett * Meyers...
...Remember, Jimmy, that we like you, even though we have to be a bit cross with you now and then...
...Half of this sum was expended at Chas...
...Costa Rica $3,159,659...
...You stand out of the common run of Mayors...
...to give her or him the glad mitt and ride around town and hnve torn-up telephone books thrown out the window at the pretty, shiny automobile...
...Everytime some second-class ladies and m'sies, mtrrked-down member of foreign nobility has hit our docks, Grover has been on hand and on time (someone has to be on time at these functions, does not someone, Jimmy...
...In a sense the donations are conscience money...
...In the A. I. C P. we find Cornelius N. Bliss, prominent New York banker, chairman of the Executive Committee and Dwight W. Morrow, lately of J. P. Morgan & Co., chairman of the Finance Committee...
...The overhead administration was estimated to cost $11,807...
...8,712 7,018,160 Ohio Oil...
...J. 8. KenSaiy $67,137,755...
...He founded his association in 1906 and incorporated it eight years later...
...This is the amount needed, as stated in the description of each case...
...Over the last 10 years United Fruit profits have been extraordinary, enabling the company to accumulate a big surplus to addition to paying generous dividends...
...And then th's whole "schmter" is out of the usual...
...H ¦ plied his various rackets for the last fifteen years under the noses, if not with the active connivance, of the police and the politicians and he rolled up a neat little wad and lived well and was taken into the confidence of the socalled "Big Shots" of this town...
...h private corporation, capitalization of which ia $5,000,000 in stock *ad $15,000,000 in bonds, holds securities worth $266,536,458...
...Thus, we may go down the lists...
...1,700 5,397,500 Prairie Pipe line...
...Thus in 1926-27 the A. I. C. P. (the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor) received $67,420 from the "Times" Hundred Neediest Cases and $6,919 from the New York "Evening Post's" Appeal for Aged Couples...
...400% Profit United Fruit Company, 100 of Whose Workers Died in Strike, Netted $201,000,000 in 10 Years '¦'rue rebellion of peon labor ia Colombia against the exploitation sf ± the United Fruit Oo„ which thus far has cost the Uvea of 100 strikers calls attention to the enormous profits of the giant trust which dominates the banana trade of the entire world...
...Huge surplus funds increase and a little trickles down to the "worthy poor...
...It took a plain civilian, presumably from out of town to put an end to that career...
...Henry C. Prick $74,826,226...
...8. Tobacco are here shown to ¦a ewned by the same men of wealth...
...The "New York Times" does not send out its smart reporters to hunt up needy cases...
...Then, they feel the power they exercise over the lives of the poor...
...The rest was handled by the Shopping Committee...
...Each organization sends word down the line to its district representatives to select some tear-generating cases...
...we wr*h you a Merry Christmas as this will be the last Christmas you will aelobrate as our Mayor...
...And what we crave to know, as we have been craving in all these necessarily annoy'r.g letters, is what you are going to do about it all, really and truly and cross-your-heart, wo mean...
...He has arrangements with the Post Office whereby all letters addressed to Santa Claus are turned over to him instead of being despatched to the Dead Letter Office...
...Of course, we understand that you are unusual, Jimmy Wa'ker...
...The funds collected make up a goodly portion of what the organizations receive throughout the year...
...83,157 8,211,546 Bankers Trust Co...
...87,840 4,122,900 'he appraisal of this estate also reveals the life of luxury, ease and g»rt which it Is the privilege of these multimillionaires to enjoy...
...You are a sort of play-boy of the lower West Side and wm don't aim to treat the eccentricities of genius as we would common mortals...
...The fact that Whitney left the largest estate ever appraised does set mean that he was the richest man who has yet died...
...tether with their appraised values are: Northern Finance No...
...The Christmas appeals are, therefore, no different from the regular beggings for charity...
...Hold until called for) Our Dear Mr...
...Whitney •*d Just passed his 50th year...
...United Fruit profits for the first 9 months of 1928 totaled shoot $17,700,009...
...Guatemala $*,483,096...
Vol. 7 • December 1928 • No. 53
