Evening star., 1935-03-17
BY MARY CHURCH TERRELL.

BY MAhf CHOhCh 1EnnELL.
IF YOU should happen to be mo-
toring in any one OF is Southern
States you might pass a school
i in a rural section and see colored
children either reciting their les
sons or playing in the yard at recess.
If this school we're particularly we'll
built and especially attractive the
chances are that it might be one Of
nearly 5000 which have been con-
structed either in the country or in
towns in more than 800 counties by
the Julius Rosenwald Fund. The
more one learns what this fund has
been and still is accomplishing for
an underprivileged group in this
country the more the wonder grows
that so much good could spring from
a single, solitary source. What that
one man did to promote the educa-
tional welfare Of thousands OF COL
ored children in section where this
help was most greatly needed, and
especially what is being done now
during the depression, when schools
all over the country are suffering,
reduS ike larry Idle.
When Julius Rosenwald estab-
lished this fund one cannot help
wondering whether he himself was
so far-sighted that he could visualize
and realize the miracle it would work
in the advancement of the group for
which it was created. In the first
place, when Mr.. RoSenwald decided
to donate money to promote the
cause in which he was so much in
terested, he did very wise thing, as
might have been expected. A board
of experts was appointed, whose duty
1t was to find the best way in which
his money could be spent. Having
done this, he displayed his wisdom
by following the plans which the
board advised. AS a consequence
the work is going on in the same
methodical, effective way today, three
years after his death, as it did when
he was actively engaged in carrying
it on himself.
Not So Much to Spend Now.
To be sure, there is not so much
to send today as there was q few
years ago. Like other endowments,
the Rosenwald Fund has felt the de-
preston keenly. Five years ago the
principal Of this fund was considera-
bly, more than $30,00O,OO0. 1t has
shrunk to $5,000,oO0 today. But
this decrease has not been entirely
due to the fact that securities have
collapsed. To a certain extent 1t is
because the board has followed Mr..
RoSenWald's instructions to spend the
principal as well as the income il
in their judgment the need was great
enough to justify such a course.
For several years, even when there
was no income at all nearly one mil
| lion dollars year was spent mainly
on schools for colored youth and for
promoting the welfare OF the race in
various ways. Recently not much has
been appearing in the newspapers
about the activities in which the fund
was engaged, because the policy of Its
managers has been to give credit to
the schools and to the people who
have actually done the work which
was planned rather than to the foun-
dation which furnished the means to
do it. If you talk with Mr.. Edwin EN-
bree, president Of the RoSenwald Fund
he will tell you that the board delib-
erately minimizes its part, so that
the individuals who succeed In doing
a piece Of work may have full credit
and assume full responsibility for it
He Is especially gratified at the
changed attitude Of Southern States
toward colored schools and wishes to