The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-02-23
By SIDNEY BLOOMFIELD.

AFTER having completed the annual Com
II nuf1ity Fund Drive, which netted hundreds
of thousands of dollars for the so-called "Upnft
organizations welfare" organizations and char
acter-b building organizations, etc, these organ
izations report that they are doing great deeds
of 'helpfulness' at the present time, with over
10000 workers unemployed in this city.
The workers who go from house to house
collecting signatures for the Unemployed In
suuance Bill Petition, sponsored by the Unem-
ployed Council and the T. U. U. L., find entire
families by the hundreds in the most pitiful and
starved conditions.
In the face of widespread misery and starva-
ton, the Community Chest funds are being used
for maintaining the so-caled organizations, their
buildings and officers on fat salaries. 1t has
been estimated, from reliable sources, that ap-
proximately ? per cent of the Community funds
contributions (Which come from the workers.
are spent by these organizations for welfare
work.
In order to ward off any suspicion, these or
CARNATIONS fill the pages of the local capitalist
press with lying, boasting and misleading state
ments concerning the so-caled welfare work
that they are supposed to be doing. In recent
story which appeared in the Seattle Star, under
the heading Relief Agencies Are Busy" and
with heading Community Fund Head Gives
Out Statement on Current Needs these fake
organizations expose themselves as the biggest
frauds since the days of Barnum whose slogan
was, There is a sucker born every minute"
The character of the needs of the masses is
apparent to the duInbest individual; the needs
are for food, clothing and shelter. But what do
these welfare organizations give the worker in
the face of this extreme need? Here is what
John F. Hall, executive secretary of the Com
munity Fund stated in an article which APP
peared in the paper:
Sympathetic suggestions from social work.
ers which help to increase the families ability
for self maintenance and independence are
often more important than the relief" "Relief.
however, is only one form of welfare" "These
timely statements are made by executives of
The family welfare agencies sharing in the
Seattle Community Fund, these agencies are:
Salvation Army Jewish Welfare Society," Ladies'
Montefiore Aid Society, Lighthouse for the
Blind, st. Vincent de Paul Society, Social We'll
fare League, Urban League Travellers Aid So
ciety"
These statements by the capitalist "relief"
agencies prove conclusvely that the role of these
bodies is to act as the shock-absorbers Of the
capitalist class. After having MIXED the work.
ers, when they are fortunate enough to have
few days work. by means of extortion and firing
the workers If they do not contribute days
pay to the Community Fund, they themselves
admit in the fact of all thioneed of the masses
that the only thing they can give a worker is
sympathetic suggestions" as being more ilnpor-
tant than relief"
In other words when there are no Jobs to be
bought or had, they play with the misery of the
masses and instead of food they kid along the
worker with sympathetic suggestions" as
though sympathetic suggestions" will fill hun