"Penalize the Generous"

Ever since Eleanor Robson left the stage to marry the late rich, patrician August Belmont, she has specialized in philanthropy.* These last two years graceful, white-haired Mrs. Belmont has been the most conspicuous Unemployment Relief woman in New York. On May i she will retire. Last week, at a meeting of Jewish women, she began her valedictory speech: "If you will permit me I will be absolutely frank."

Three thousand women, including Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, hitched forward in their chairs.

Mrs. Belmont's point: private charity, keeping 13,000,000 idle alive, is haphazard, wasteful. Said she: "The major portion of the relief program should be assigned to the city, State or Federal Government, and the amount agreed upon ... as necessary to carry out an adequate program, should be obtained by special taxation. ... I do not believe it is a wise policy to carry on the work of serious emergency relief with voluntary contributions. The system is as wrong as that of voluntary enlistment in times of war. It simply means that you penalize the generous."

* It was for Actress Robson that George Bernard Shaw wrote Major Barbara, tale of a Salvation Army lass, his ablest document on social service (1907).

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