Evening star., 1933-04-05
EXPLAINS CHEST DRIVE.
Newbold Noyes Shows All Units, Except
G0upHnnnnrf InnroaraI Csffn

Newbold Noyes Shows All Units, Except
Government, Increased Gifts.
Newbold Noyes, chairman of the
Chest campaign referred to by Repre-
sentative Cannon, issued the following
statement when the Representatives re-
marks were called to his attention:
THE Chest campaign conducted last
November to meet the needs of 1888
was very far from the failure that
Representative Cannon implies. Ap-
proximately $1,944,000 was subscribed
by the private contributors of Washing
ton, as against about $2,419,00O the
previous year. There were this year
roughly 114,000 subscribers, as against
$4,000 in the previous year. Every
element OF the contributing public con-
tributed a larger sum than ever previ-
ously except the Government unit.
This accomplishment, achieved de-
spite the fact that almost every WASH
ingtonian has been economically worse
off this year than last, is fine and elo-
quent testimony as to the humanity
and practical generosity of Washington.
am at loss to understand Mr.. Can
mons claim that incomes in the District
were unimpaired in the past year.
"It is true that the governmental
unit which in 1881 made the superb
contribution Of upward of a million
dollars, this year only felt able to give
about half Of that amount. But when
one considers the relatively low pay of
Government employees, and the fact that
vast majority Of them were in Novem-
Der legitimately deeply concerned with
Uhnt haI fv1 Fz-
them, their contribution must be re-
garded as a fine one. Had they been
able to equal their 1881 effort the Chest
as whole would have done better than
ever before.
Representative Cannon, in his OBJ
servations, falls into the error Of refer
ring to the appropriations under con-
sideration as Government contribu-
tions.' OF course, they are nothing of
the sort. They are purely local contri-
buttons from local tax funds, and in
seeking them the local government is
merely performing its proper function
Of doing everything that it can to care
for local distress by the use of Wash
ington's tax funds in conjunction with
Washington's privately contributed
Chest funds.
Other Cities Cited.
Every community in the country
which is comparable to Washington is
today employing both its tax funds and
its privately contributed funds for the
relief of its destitute citizens Last year
the breakdown of that relief work
in Washington showed that 32.4 per
cent came from public tax funds (paid
by Washingtonians) and 676 from pri-
vately subscribed funds. In a great ma
jority Of comparable cities those figures
are reversed-the bulk of the relief bur-
den being betrayed by public tax funds.
The tay iund contribution to our local
prot1em stands among the lowest of the
entire Nation and the full comparable
statistics are in the hands of the House
District Committee, of which Mr.. Can
non Is member. Any one studying
those figures cannot but come to a real
ization that Washington is fully playing
its part in the matter of Chest or pri-
vate contributions. There is no JUS
tiflcation for the fear expressed that it
will fail to continue to do SO. But addi-
tional private contributions are not
available at this time and it therefore
becomes essential that the steadily
mounting distress in our city shall be
adequately taken care of from our local
tax funds, expended under liberalized
regulations by the emergency relief di-
vision Of the Board of Public Welfare"