Evening star., 1934-11-09
INCREASED BURDEN.
This WINTER SEEN.
BY CHEST SPEAKER.
Sir WiIImott Lewis Tells
Workers Relief Need Will
Be Greater Than Ever.
CITES NEED TO ALLEVIATE
UNDESERvED POVERTY
Two Divisions Of Government
Unit Revealed as Already
Over Top in Quotas.

Predicting that the coming Winter
will place upon Washington and other
communities relief burden greater
than they have yet known, Sir Will
mott Lewis, Washington correspondent
of the London Times, told Community
Chest workers last night that charity
is form Of devotion to the duties
OF citizenship which can be neglected
only by imperiling the general well
fare of the community.
Speaking to the leaders Of the Spe-
cial Gifts Unit of the Chest Campaign
Committee at a dinner meeting in
the Mayfiower Hotel. Sir Willmott de-
clared that such activities as that of
the Community Chest have become
an integral part of the increasingly
complex order of human civilization
There inevitably must be, always,
he said, degree of undeserved pow
erty which must be the business of
society to alleviate.
There is" he said, "above all
others. one truth to be remembered
by those who are about to appeal on
behalf of the Community Chest and
by those to whom the appeal is to be
made. 1t is that charity is a form
OF devotion to the duties Of citizen
ship.
Negligence Peril to Society.
1t Is no longer, as once it was
thought to be, merely the satisfaction
OF humanitarian instinct. noble in
its essence, but purely individual in
its expression. 1t has become, as the
life of the community has grown
more complex, a form Of organic
and concerted activity from which
those who abstain do so at peril to
the general welfare-and ultimately
at cost to themselves
The manner in which the need for
organized charity has been woven
into the fabric of modern society has
been revealed by the work of the So
biologists and statisticians, the speaker
explained. They have. he said, "as-
Sembled for us the data which illus
trate for us the condition and the
prospects Of the society in which we
live and who have helped US to
! deeper conception of the meaning
and responsibilities Of our life to-
gether"
Every inquiry made by the sociol-
oglst and the statistician and every
report they publish, Sir Willmott de-
clared, shows with increased force
that I'VE live in a social dependence
upon each other whose intricacy has
only in modern days been under
stood"
We know now, or We should
know" he said, that society is
more-inflnitely more-than a mere
concurrence of individuals, an aggre-
cation OF units; that the texture of
our community life is every day more
closely woven; that the more complex
our system, the more interdependent
We are; and the more urgent becomes
the need for concerted social action.
Life Becomes More Precarious.
"All this is but another way OF say
ing that the life of the individual in
the modern world becomes more pre-
carious with the passage of every day.
Inc farmer OF a hundred years ago,
living with his family upon his land,
was his own man, his world a self
contained world. Today, in the ma
1orlty OF cases, he is a specialist in
one crop, dependent for the fullness
OF his well being on the services of
a thousand others-some of whom
may even be naked coolies sweating
in the tropical jungles of Africa. If
this is true of the farmer, how much
more cruelty, more pressingly true it
is of the dweller in the city"
Soclolog1sts have shown clearly
that the causes of poverty and dis
tress are not purely individual or
accidental. Sir Willmott explained
There may, he explained. fall upon
men and women, as a result of con-
dltions rooted in our social life, in
voluntary and undeserved suffering.
1t Is here, he said. that the d.ficult
question enters of the limits of public
and private relief work.
That the State has intruded. and
must continue to intrude, upon the
Held once reserved to philanthrophy.
is apparent to ALL" he said. 1--WE
accept it nov as automatic that ele-
mentary education. war pensions,
public health. lunacy, chronic in
ebriacy, mental deficiency are matters
Tor the central authority, and in some
countries this field has been greatly
enlarged. 1t may not be too bold to
suggest that a reasonable division of
activity between the State and private
concerted effort would leave to the
citizens the task of alienation, and
prescribe for the State the task of
prevention and insurance"
Responsibility Increasing.
In the United States, Sir Willmott
said. this division of responsibility in
the field Of social activity has not yet
been made. He said that, no matter
how this division may be made. it will
still leave for ssuch organizations as
the Community Chest responsibility
which will not lessen, but will in
crease with the passage Of time.
And today" he concluded, "the
need of effort IS greater than ever,
the call for concerted action is not
only the call of the kindly instinct but
it is the summons of an enlightened
self-interest. Rugged individualism
cannot endure If there are too many
ragged individuals, sick in body or in
soul The success of the Community
Chest drive is test of citizenship"
Approximately 200 of the subchair-
men and key men of the Special Gifts
Unit. who will be charged under the
Community Chest campaign quota di-
vision with the raising of $50l 900,
were present at last nights mobiliza-
tion meeting. The quota Of this unit
is exceeded in size by that of the Gov
ernmental Unit alone.
Morgan Is Toastmaster,
Charles Carroll Morgan. chairman
Of the unit, presided and acted as
toastmaster. The invocation was de-
livered by Canon Anson Phelps Stokes.
Clarence Phelps Dodge, president OF