The Nenana daily news. (Nenana, Alaska) 1918-1921, 1919-03-17
EDITOR.

The membership of the Asso-
ciated Board of Charities and the
names of the six organizations rep
resented on this board have been
published from time to time in the
columns of the Nenana Daily News,
and as you, as a subscriber. refer
/ TO our article of March 4, you
should not be in the dark as to who
and what this boasd is. But be-
fore explaining further our attitude
in the ice pool matter, we feel that
you and the public should know
more fully why and how this board
was organized. You say Alaskans
give willingly to charities, without
being forced and without board
Of charities being consulted. We
agree with you to a certain extent.
The Alaskans are broad minded, lib
eral and generous to a fault, but if
you were here a year ago. or pre-
vlous to the organization of this
board, you would also know that
generosity in many cases was abused
and abused to fare-you-well. The
town was flooded with appeals to
the businessmen and the public for
contributions in the form of sub
scriptions and raffles; but many of
these calls on the public were not
really deserving charity cases, and
in many of them the proceeds from
these calls, owing to the popularity
Of the beneficiaries and the energy
of their friends, ere far in excess
of the amount necessary or justi-
fled.
These lists were generally started
out and headed by the most liberal
contributors in order to set a pace
for the others, and if you were a
businessman, you naturally felt that
you had to follow suit, provided
you could afford it, whether you
considered the case deserving or not
Mr.. Subscriber, how does this
compare with your idea of giving
without being forced? We consider
this system the worst kind of coer-
sion. Then came the war, with its
paramount calls on all good citi-
zens. Our surplus resources were
strained to the utmost and it be-
came necessary to economic and
eliminate waste in every way, and.
realizing that our charity work could
be handled more economically and
just and satisfactorily to the public
by an organized body, whose duty it
is to investigate all calls for relief.
the plan was put up to the societies
of Nenana for their approval. and
they all elected or appointed their
respective representatives on that
board. This is why and how the
board was organized and the public.
we trust, will appreciate the fact
j that the beard is trying to protect
; them in seeing that they are not
imposed upon, as well as devising
means to assist the needy.
When the board conceived the
idea of splitting the ice pool money.
an idea that was partly carried out
last year, we took the matter up
with the pool rooms that handled
the pools last year, and obtained
their consent before adopting that
plan. That is how the arrangement
came to be made. The board did
not anticipate any serious opposi-
ton to this plan from the public
at large, taking it for granted that
the average man, or at least everv
; man who can afford to take a few
chances on the ice pools, generally
; contributes more money than that
to charities during the year. And
knowing that this portion will be
properly expended, will figure it
out that he can at least take twice
as many chances than he otherwise
would, and the result to the winner
would be the same. But whether
he does so or not, whether he is
the winner or one of the many
losers in the pool, he has this salts