The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-26
NJ M'GRATH WRITES
ON CHARITIES WORK
Takes Up Henderson Case
and Tells What Was Done
for the Sick Negro

| Hot Springs, where / was sent as rep
resentative of the American National
Red Cross. | devoted some little time
to Mr. silvers presentation. of alleged
Injustice TO a negro boy and to DR..
k,aves replies thereto.
perused Mr.. silver's statements with
mingled feelings of surprise and regret;
surprise that anyone should make asser-
tions of misconduct without first at
tempting verificaaon of same and regret
that so able young man as Mr.. Silver
undoubtedly is should be so deceived, or
so deceive himself, as to be the dupe
of such an imposition as the facts show
was practced on him by this negro boy
Henderson.
But really, this is not the sist of the
matter; that lies in the inspiration OF the
attack; what forced the issue and who
dropped the poison into the reportorial
ear? We do not mind the attack SO much
as we do the evident destructive desire
without any suggestion for betternelt-
No one should criticise without Offering
a good substitute for that which 1t is
proposed to eliminate. The strong white
light of publicity is good thing OCCASION
ally to turn on individual or institution.
good probing rebounds to the benefit
of we'll conducted concern as 1t destroys
an unworthy one. But before criticising
let us first be sure that the animus
prompting us is d spirit of true helpful
ness and not one OF envy, hatred and
malice. from which. quoting from the
Litany, good Lord deliver us"
Mr.. Silver says "a reform is needed
in the Associated Charities" We admit
this and constantly are we striving TO
improve; gladly will we welcome any
suggestions to this end. To quote fur
ther from Mr.. Silver's interesting ef-
fort: Investigate to ascertain what
becomes of the money given to the AS
sociated Charities" Well. 1t surely Is
marvel what becomes of all this
money, about $4,000 in the past 1G
months. when it is considered that in
over 2400 instances relief has been
given TO families suffering for the
veriest necessities of life and that in
ministering to this suffering our vis-
itors have made 1881 calls. either on
the family in question or in the effort
to interest someone in their behalf,
thus saving further drain on the sad
" insufficient funds of the Associated
Charities. In this connection ii might
be well to call attention to the fact
that comparisons are not always odious
but sometimes have a most salutary ef-s
feet, to-wit: Memphis, with approxi-
mately the same population as Bir-
mingham, spent last year through the
Associated Charities $4,000 IF which
sum the city contributed $1,000; Atlanta
spent over $4,000 and Little Rock, about
one-third as large, devoted $4,000 to
the care of its unfortunate. while
Jacksonville with 10000 population
spent last year through the Associated
Charities over $1o,500.
This statement must not be miscon-
strued: in no sense is It a criticism of
the generosity of Birminghams citizens
but only intended to illustrate how falla-
cious is any accusation that the Asso-
superabundance of funds. 1t Is well real
lied that all work of this character is a
new thing to a majority of people here,
and that it is necessary to devote a num-
ber of years to the effort toward a read
iustment of viewpoint. In this effort a
large amount of publicity has been given
to the work and methods of this organiza-
ton That this has had a good effect is
evident in the great increase in the num-.
ber of people taking an active interest in
cases of distress we have brought to their
attention and which have been materially
benefited by association with the Asso-
ciated Charities
valuable aid of his face pen by selecting
from the hundreds of cases in our office,
some where families have been restored
to self-respect and placed sef-sus-
tanning basis? OF course our association
is not perfect and equally of course do we
make mistakes, but the selection of a
case on which to base an attack on our
work has in this instance been peculiarly
unfortunate, as any who read the correct
presentation must admit.
SReverting to this subject of finance. II
might be Wen to call attention to another
one OF Mr.. Silver's "sacts.' ''The Asso~.
ciated Charities receives $50 month from
the city. which Is especially. intended for
the railroad farc of cases similar to that
of Henderson" The city gives this $50
a month to the Associated Charities with
out any restriction or qualification what
soever, and as a matter OF fact it is de-
voted to the visiting nurse department of
thc> Associated Charities. This depart
ment made in nine months, as the last
quarterly report shows. 1854 visits in ham.
ding 100 different cases; this at an ex-
pense of s225 for nurse; s25o1S for medi-
cine and $50 for car fare; total of S54o.15.
an excess of s9o13 over and above the
city appropriation for that period.
This, however, is only one of the de-
partments of the Associated Charities or
ganization. Our homeless man Depart
ment shows that 154O nonresident men
and women have passed through the
hands of the society in the three years Of
its existence In addition to this there
are a large number of resident men and
women who cannot be classed as home
less, but who must have consideration OF
a certain kind. 1t is. however, in our
work with the distressed families that the
resources of our organization feel the
greatest strain In this department our
records show that we have up to date
cared for in one way and another, 6004
different individuals of whom 2243 We're
under IA years old.
Mr.. Silver thus refers to Henderson's
first appeal to the Associated Charities:
''As usual they began their cold, inhuman,
scientific investigation, which lasted a
good while Gather indefinite this iasD
during which time Henderson was with
out home and money!. One scarcely
knows how to characterize such a state
ment To say it is libelous is treating
it mildly, but we believe in mild
treatment (Mr Silver to the contrary not
withstanding) we will let 1t go at that
The facts, as already stated by Dr.
E,aves, are that the first appeal to the
Associated Charities was made on the
27th of August, at which time Henderson
said he had a ticket to Jacksonville and
was leaving that Afternoon, but wanted