Innocents at Home
Charity creates a multitude of sins.
—Oscar Wilde
American travelers are often shocked at the ragged beggars who gather around the cathedrals of Europe, the mosques and holy places of the Orient. The sight of a paretic Venetian pandering his nine-year-old daughter, or of a Calcutta mendicant clutching the withered body of a dead baby with one hand, a beggar's bowl in the other, is not easily forgotten. In such situations, Americans often assume the smug attitude that such things are not done at home; in the good old U.S.A., everything is organized, charity is tidily and efficiently handled.
Last week, from the doings in a Manhattan courtroom, Americans learned that the nation is nursing something far worse than the professional beggars of Europe and Asia. Millions of dollars are being siphoned away from charitable donations annually by professional promoters and racketeers. Even some of the worthiest causes pay fund-raisers up to 85% out of every donated dollar.
In Manhattan's County Courthouse in Foley Square, a committee headed by New York State Senator Bernard Tompkins and Assemblyman Samuel Rabin listened in stunned silence as a parade of witnesses, many of them very reluctant, unfolded a sordid tale of profit in the name of charity. Items:
¶ The National Kids Day Foundation, Inc., a West Coast organization headed by Hollywood Gossipist Jimmy Fidler, collected $3,978,000 in five years, disbursed a total of $302,000 for charitable purposes. The rest—82% of the take—went into the pockets of professional fundraisers . Whimpered Fidler: "It seems like they're picking on us for publicity."
¶Slick Chicago promoters started a "snowball" campaign by mailing 2,000 crisp dollar bills to "sucker lists" , eventually got back a clear $630,000 for a nonexistent "National Cancer Hospital." The cost of fundraising: $435,000. Another Chicago outfit raised $2,531,000 for the relief of war widows and orphans aided by Gold Star Wives of America, Inc. After fund-raising expenses were deducted, the widows' mite was $309,000.
¶The Kings County Council of the Marine Corps League collected $67,244 for veterans' welfare. The net take: $4,000. The rest went into the bank accounts, one hidden, of the promoters.
¶ The Disabled American Veterans collected $21,480,000 over a period of three years with a series of splashy contests and a campaign to flood the mails with unsolicited trinkets. Out of this sum, the expenses of the fund-raisers amounted to $14,529,000, "administrative costs" ate up another $2,400,000, and $3,837,000 more went for D.A.V. lobbying. Not a cent went for the direct aid of a needy veteran. The D.A.V. does maintain 1,800 local chapters, which help veterans, for example, with their claims against the Government.
¶An unestimated mountain of "clothing for Korea" was sold on the secondhand market and the profits pocketed by the pitchmen.
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