Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-10
COUzENS PRAISES
CHEST FUND IDEA
Nation Provided Good Exam
Pile in D. C. Success,
Senator Declares.

The Community Chest idea was de-
scribed as lone of the country's major
instruments for guaranteeing adequate
public attention to the social order by
Senator Couzens of Michigan, in a
statement given out for publication to-
day.
The month of March marks the tenth
anniversary of the development OF the
Community Chest as a means of provid-
ing financially for various agencies of
charity through a centrally operated
agency, Senator Cou2enS is chairman
of the board of the Community Chest
in Detroit, his home city, and has
played conspicuous part in the growth
Of the movement
Inauguration of the chest in Wash |
ington met with outstanding success in
a campaign in January. Chest workers
seeking to raise funds for 81 member
agencies of the chest succeeded in OBJ |
tanning money and pledges aggregating
STATS 900. which was about $4,000 |
more than was asked. Since 1919, the |
plan has spread from 90 to $50 cities |
and towns. The success of the move |
ment here also is credited with arous- |
ing interest elsewhere in the country.
"The Community Chest movement" |
said Senator Couzens, has had rapid |
y
and has become one of the country's )
major instruments for guaranteeing adj !
eouate public attention to the social or |
der in this era of intense preoccupation |
with industrial and commercial expan- |
sion.
Pace Kept With Business.
att has enabled welfare enterprises to |
keep pace with business and to pass on |
the fruits of prosperity TO people IN need
of aid and encouragement and those
who have recognized the merits OF the
idea from the beginning are looking for
ward to still more rapid development
urder the influence of the new national
administration. President Hoover has
been a student and supporter of the
chest since it's inception, realizing that,
bv raising the tone of community life
wherever it operates 1t has become dis
tinctly an asset of national significance:
1.-THE rapid growth of the movement !
Is attributable to the fact that 1t mas |
proved itself peculiarly adapted to this !
period of postwar devotion to business |
and economic progress. The last decade |
has been one of marked impatlence |
with desultory methods in all lines OF
endeavor. With such spirit in the
ascendant vitality necessary welfare. |
health and educational activities would |
have been seriously jeopardized under !
the disorganized and competitive way |
In which their financial needs had prev1-
ously been presented.
1.-THE people would have had no time !
to participate in endless individual |
drives and the resultant neglect of /
local social service. in spite of preva-
lent prosperity, would soon have become /
a matter of national concern. 1t is no |
wonder, then, that welfare work has |
with few exceptions, Jared so much bet
ter In communities having chests than |
IN those which have not had them.
ID. C. Success Conspicuous.
eft is peculiarly fitting that, in this |
tenth anniversary year, the two latest |
evidences of the vitality of the move
ment should have come from the Capt.
tai City and from the Nations metrop- |
oils. Washington has just adopted the |
plan, and its first campaign, ending In
February. was conspicuous success.
The goal was $1.343,000, and in record
time the effort went over the top with
STATS, 900, giving the city a sense of
civic unity such as it had not expert
erlced since the war In New York,
where the problem of welfare admins
tration is more complex than anywhere
else, the Welfare Council, I am in
formed, whose business it is to CO.
ordinate the work of some 1900 agen-
cies, has approved study of central |
financing and is submitting plan of |
inquiry to its constituents.
sThe year 1919 found but 20 cities |
holding In permanent form the united |
Embarrassing structures erected for war
time purposes. Now there are $50 |
chests which have raised more than |
s70,000,U00 for welfare, health and |
character building work in 1929, and |
the National Association of Community |
Chests and Councils. at its headquarters |
in New York City, is constantly reeeiv- |!
ing requests for advice and guidance in |
chest organization.
1.-THE Community Chest was not a |
creation of the war, as many of the |
war chests did not provide for peace |
time work, but it was, nevertheless, the |
war which gave the movement i'm |
petus nationally. BY dramatizing in a |
time Of emergency the potentialities of |
united effort, the war fastened the de- |
velopment of movement which had |
been born as early as 1887 in Denver, |
and which had been recognized prior |
to 1917 in many Cities such as Cleve- |
land, Dayton, Baltimore and Detroit"