The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-11-26
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

 to get a dollars worth for every dol lar spent.
 Anyway, even big business has learned that it pays to at least try and show that it gives value received. It learned before the government asked for information that it paid to take the public into it's confidence, and so now, great corporations are issuing statements that set out in detail their financial status.
 am glad that the old Vanderbilt idea about the public has been put into the discard. Like all other outworn machinery it had to be scrapped. The Missourian age has come into its own We all want to be shown.
 I can remember the time that chari- tological institutions looked on 1t as a bit of impertinence if their expendi- lures were scanned by those who were putting up the funds to keep them run ming. It has not been very long ago that even colleges were chary in mak- ing full reports of their income and outgo It is also in the memory ot man that mission boards were loath to pub fish in detail their receipts and ex- penses.
 But all this has changed for the bet ter. Our charities say come and ln- vestigate us and see if we are worthy of support. Our colleges urge their donors to take stock of gifts and dis bursements. Our mission boards are eager to have their finances carefully overhauled.
 Now, when those in charge of the raising of the $100, 900 for the Red Cross were called into service they were men who realized that the public had a right to know where every dol lar contributed went. When H. P. Davi- son was put at the head it meant that he would organize his forces in the same business-lixe way in which he con- ducted his banking business. It brought to the campaign the pres tige of a great name. In the old days he might have said, If you expect me to put aside my vast undertakings and give my time without salary, you will just have to trust me to take your money and expend it as I see proper without accounting for it." I am glad he belongs to the new type of indus trial leaders. Just because he was a big man, he undertook the work with no other idea than to account for every penny that was donated
 This was his mission to Birmingham. He came to give an account of his stewardship, and when he left I be- lieve every one who heard him is satis- fled that he is getting full dollar 8 l worth of Red Cross service for every 100 cents that he put into it. The strange fact was brought out that he was getting more than 100 cents, as the money was so placed that the in- terest added to the principal
 
 1 Now I have had much to do with the missionary propaganda, and have had 1 to defend the silly charge made by un- took dollar to get a dollar to the heathen Time and again the audited accounts of the boards showed that 1 collection, administration and all other charges consumed only about 10 per cent, yet year after year at the asso- 1 citations I have found the old lie about as hard to kill as the proverbial nine- lived cat.
 | It was therefore startling to hear MT. Davison explain that for each dol lar contributed more than dollar finally found it's way across the seas | to carry on the blessed work of caring ] for the sick, the wounded and the dy- ing. Let no one in the face of his eX- planation. backed with carefully pre- pared financial tables showing every dollar expended, feel that he is not getting his moneys worth when he in. vests it in the Red Cross work. l
 I knew that the Red Cross organiza. ton was not merely a humanitarian but great business enterprise, but never realized it's full magnitude unti heard MT. Davison relate the variou.
 phases of the work, and the care witt
 which every department of the service
 ability and integrity. He made it cleal } that the picked men of America wer,
 at the beck and call of the societ.
 without thought of reward, but witt
 prise their very best without stint.
 Those who heard the very painstak
 ing route he took to decide under wha
 terms women should be admitted a nurses, were convinced that he had no
 spared any trouble to get the con sensus of opinion of the men and tn
 various nursing staffs in arriving at
 just conclusion. 1t was a bit of con
 vincing testimony that assured me tha MT. Davison's success as one of tn worlds greatest bankers came from hi
 ability to utilize the best brains ob
 tainable before he made move on tn financial checker board of worl finance.
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