Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-12-03
BY THOMAS r. HENRY,
Staff Correspondent of The Star.

ROCHESTER, N. Y, December s.
Ten years ago last Christmas little
Rochester girl wrote letter to Santa
Claus.
Her father was out of work, the fam
lily larder was running low, there were
doctor bills to pay, and it looked like
a rather gloomy holiday for the little
lady The chimney was so badly
plugged up with the SCOT Of poverty
and bad luck that 1t didn't seem likely
old Santa could squeeze his corpuIent
form through 1t to I'LL the empty stock
ing Christmas eve.
The genial old fellow, however, was
quite touched by the letter and, since
he was unable to attend to the request
personally, he referred it to some of his
friends who had long been interested in
his activities for children. The result
was that this poor little girl got Is
pounds of candy and 81 dolls. Dozens
of societies and individuals, each igno-
rant of what the other was doing, sent
her gifts.
On Christmas day she tried to eat all
the ID pounds of candy. That was a.
pretty stiff job for one little girl. Her
ambitions exceeded her capacity. She
got such a bad tunnmy ache that they
sent for the doctor, and social agency
had to pay the bill. Moreover, she had
just 36 dolls too many. The surfeit
took all the glamour out of dolls, and the
majority probably found their way into
the ash can in very few weeks.
A great deal of money was wasted in
trying to make this little girl happy
and the result was complete failure.
This, of course, was a trifle. It only
cost the community $40 or $50. But
the trouble was that the same sort of
things were going on throughout the
field of welfare and charity work in
this big industrial city with it's hun
dreds of needy families, its large for
e1gn born population, and its great
numbers OF children to be made happy
The spirit was there. 1t was not
only case of following the Biblical in
junction not to let the left hand know
what the right hand gave but to give
with both hands. each in ignorance of
the activities of the other. There were
scores of big-hearted persons with their
own ideas of how to make the commu-
nifty happier and better. They didn't
consult each other and. with the best
intentions in the world, worked at cross
purposes so that they may have done
more harm than good.
No Duplication of Effort.
Such situation now is impossible
Practically every welfare and charity
organization in the city-60 in all-de-
rives its public support from the COM
munity chest. There is almost no du-
pllcatton Of effort One society does one
job, and all the others let it alone. The
people do not contribute to the organ
izations as such but to the cause of
welfare and charity as a whole.
The Rochester Community Chest has
been in existence for 10 years. The
idea was derived from the war chest
procedure of 1918. 1t provides for so
local and 10 State and national or
ganlzations. Each year it conducts a
campaign of one week-the second week
In May, when, survey has shown, the
greatest number of Rochester people are
at their homes.
This campaign is supposed to cover
all the budgets of all the member or
Thus far it has succeed
ed In raising everything asked for, and
the different societies get much more
than they could hope to secure by their
own unaided and inefhciently organ
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