By WILLIAM H. ALLEN. Dodd, Mead & Co. 437 pp. Price $1.50; by mail of
THE SURVEY $1.64.
During 1910 and 1911, the years immediately succeeding the death of her
husband, Mrs. E. H. Harriman received many thousands of appeals from as
many individuals, charities, churches or other enterprises, most of whom
either felt that they had some claim upon her generosity or hoped that
their individual desires or necessities were particularly worthy of
support. These appeals, to the number of 6,000, Mrs. Harriman turned
over to the New York Bureau of Municipal Research for analysis and
study. They came from all corners of the globe. The plans and remedies
proposed ranged from a sage’s advice to a cheap cure-all emanating from
a freakish brain.
Using the results of this study as a text, the author has written this
volume, a part of which is a discourse on the relation of philanthropy
to the functions of government. Another part is more like a manual on
will making and successful appealing for private funds. The final
section is an argument in favor of a national clearing house for appeals
and charitable causes.
The details with which the analysis and classification of the 6,000
appeals is presented are so elaborate that they become tiresome and
confusing. Besides, many of them are so exceptional that while they
might be texts for discussions in social ethics, few general conclusions
of value can be reached from them.
The discussion of will making has greater value for our various
communities, and is receiving increasing attention among lawyers, social
workers and civic reformers. The author proposes that lawyers recognize
this value and equip themselves as experts or consultants for those who
in increasing number wish to leave of their resources a contribution
toward the betterment of social and civic conditions. He calls attention
to the fact that the terms of a will are generally an expression of a
previous generation’s interest and that it is altogether too commonly
true at the present time that the will maker’s thought is not kept
abreast with the development of the community and the needs of the
times. For instance, the important work in scientific research of the
present day is not provided for to any large extent by bequests but is
largely financed by gifts from the living.
The continuous education of prospective givers is urged so that their
bequests may express a vital interest of the donor’s present instead of
his past. The tendency of men to make their wills in middle life will,
however, always prove to be an obstacle to this desired result, and
hence the terms of a will must be made as general as a careful
description of the donor’s interest allows it to be, rather than so
restricted that its usefulness will soon be so lessened that the state
must set a limit to the life of the bequest.
The list of nation-wide needs that the book presents is certainly a
formidable one. Many of them require a paragraph while others ought to
have a whole chapter if not a whole volume to elucidate them and show
their value to the skeptical reader or legislator. In the shape in which
they are presented they bewilder all except the expert social scientist
or social reformer. That the needs have diverse values is easily seen by
examining two in the list of 4 per cent to 6 per cent investments,
combining public service and private profits. Here we find the enigmatic
suggestion that we discover the “application of the Child’s Restaurant
idea to boarding houses” placed side by side with the need of a “model
factory system that would net capital 4 per cent or 5 per cent and let
the earnings above that limit go to make high wages, shorter hours and
lower prices.” Many utopias are contained in these lists. The
enumeration is impressive and suggestive but not convincing.
The author’s tendency to question every social fact, every community
habit and every form of benevolence is found throughout the volume. This
undoubtedly arouses thought. It is nowhere better exemplified than in
the following statement: “It is doubtful whether the philosophy of
giving formulated by Mr. Carnegie or Mr. Rockefeller rings truer than
does that of begging letters. After all, philosophy is not much more
than straight seeing, and a person in trouble, needing help, can see
almost as much and as far as a person wanting to get rid of money.
Neither a multi-millionaire nor a professor of ethics could surpass the
good wife whose husband is harassed to pay $200 debts.” These half
truths challenge one to find the whole truth, but they do not much
enlighten him who is seeking to find a safe social policy.
Mr. Allen’s mind is fertile. He has the unusual gift of throwing out
sheaves of questions for arousing one’s interest, and for this purpose
the volume in question is particularly noteworthy.