Evening star., 1946-04-06

ioliSCluCIlG lOT QOlIlg COIQpllCdJeQ
and important money-raising job.
We assume that the individuals who
make up the labor groups are as
patriotic as any others and that they
want to raise the standard of giving
to public causes within their groups.
2. No dollar has gone to any
union" Any outlay we have made
has gone for salaries and expenses.
duly audited, to individuals who
have given the great bulk of their
time to raising funds for the Red
Cross and the National War Fund.
Not an Ideal Nor a Theory.
3. Why are these workers not di-
rectly on Red Cross payrolls? If
they were on our payroll they would
not be as effective in their contacts
with the diverse groups in organized
labor. AS labor men, they are fully
accepted by labor. This is not an
ideal or a theory. 1t is merely a
fact.
4. Why does not labor pay them?
/ believe the Red Cross is better
served in having a friendly direc-
ton over those who are working for
Red Cross. Labor representatives
have said that the fact this staff
was paid by the Red Cross and the
National War Fund is a protection
to the men against efforts to divert
any of their time to other activities
Leaders in business and industry
who indorsed the program before
the current campaign included
irving S. Olds, chairman of the
Board of Directors of United States
Steel Corp. and member of the Exec
utlve Committee of the now defunct
National War Fund.
Appeal Base Broadened.
Most important of ALL" he said,
the arrangement has broadened the
base OF the appeal for the war-re-
lated causes to degree hitherto
unknown in American philanthropy.
The extra millions of dollars con-
tributed, at a low cost of approxi-
mately per cent, to the National
war Fund and the Red Cross are
scarcely less important than secur-
ing millions of new contributors. in
whom we hope there has now been
awakened a new sense of response
bility for health and welfare and
for a solution of community prob
lens.
Some may ask why the AFL and
|CIO did not defray the expense of
organizing and publicizing the war
related appeals to their own men,
bers. If union funds had been used
for the expenses, union member
gifts would have gone through union
treasures, just as it is done in the
exceptional case of the International
Ladies Garment Workers Union.
THE cost We should have had to
pay in any event. For, with separate
campaigns, we would have received
some part of the net; under this
arrangement we are dealing with the
gross. The control of the expense
differential has been in the hands
of the National War Fund and the
Red Gross.
TT is the firm conviction of the
officials of the National War Fund
that the arrangement was sound in
principle and has worked remark
ably well in practice"
Defended by Aldrich.
Winthrop Aldrich, president of
Chase National Bank, New York,
and of the National War Fund
when it was operating, stoutly de-
Tended the agreement as did E. A.
Roberts, president of the Fidelity
Mutual Insurance Co., Philadelphia,
and president of Community Chests
and Councils, Inc.
Most observers feel the Red Cross
may gracefully terminate the con-
tract by showing that in normal
times there is no demand for high
pressure campaigns to meet swollen
quotas.
| At any rate, the Red Cross noted
that in the current campaign, fund
raising went ahead with customary
enthusiasm. even in those cities re-
garded as hotbeds of the labor
a