_ Page Sheen
THE JEWISH NEWS
Friday, November 6, 1942
oiN NIUC SHOULD OMEN
GI E TO THE WAR CHEST?
You believe in the War Chest—and in its causes.
The War Chest is a great humanitarian mechanism—but it
is only a mechanism.
It was formed to unite effort, to save manpower and to do
justice to all of the causes included.
It took for granted that everybody who contributed during
the past year to one or more of the appeals now in the War
Chest was interested in those causes and wanted to continue
helping them.
Certainly it wasn't intended either on the part of the War
Chest or on the part of the past contributors to throw the
burden of support on someone else.
CArtainly it wasn't intended that the War Chest was to be
a mechanism for anyone to escape responsibility. On the con-
trary, it was a device' to make it possible for good-hearted
people to channel their responsibilities more effectively—and
to join forces in giving on a higher level to meet greatly in-
creased needs.
How are you personally, meeting that responsibility?
. If one of the causes—whichever one it may have been—
won your interest and support during the past year, you
wouldn't want to desert that cause for the coming year. You
wouldn't want someone else to pay a bill that you recognized
as legitimately yours last year.
If, out of your earnings in business, or from household
money or dividends, or any other way, you saw your way clear
to help one or more causes then, is your sense of generosity any
less today because a new fund-raising mechanism has been
evolved?
Do you plan to do less when the need of the times calls
urgently and insistently to do more?
Are you thinking of being technical, at the expense of our
boys in the service, at the expense of starving, driven souls—
helpless children among them—who cry out in agony to a well-
fed, war-busy, active Detroit?
As a contributor to one or more of the Li1;es, you joined
a partnership with citizens of other faiths. Your record was
before them; they believed that you would continue to do your
share—and, as the lawyers say, "in consideration of the gifts
f others," they stood prepared to do their share,
Now the first self-respecting step for all of us who have the
to give is to make sure that we are playing fair with
)Ur neighbors and with ourselves,
Is there anyone among us who believes that eleven great,
major, centralized services are entitled to less of our support
than one of these eleven received from us last year?
If one cause needed—and was entitled to—extra giving by
women, from whatever sources the gift came, earned or saved,
is that need less real now that eleven causes are involved?
We can almost hear some of you say, "There are other
women in the community who may not give independently, so
why should I?" Why, indeed! Since when has our decency and
our traditional generosity been determined by someone else's
non-giving? If it's a game of follow-the-leader, what kind of
a leader are we to follow? Is it a technical answer that suffer-
ing humanity expects from you?
But being technical is a game that two can play at, and you
may very well say, "I'm giving with my husband, not to dodge
responsibility. I'm not trying to evade my sense of duty. I'm
not turning a deaf ear to the helpless. Why insist on separate
giving, when my husband and I together are planning to give
our full share, except that we want to give jointly?"
Very well, let's not be technical. There are advantages,
regardless of who else might not follow the lead, of preserving
the dignity in independent giving by women—but let's pass
that point by.
Give together with your husband, if you wish, but give!
Really, now, give!
Add up what your husband gave to all of the organizations
which he helped last year. Add in what you gave, whether it
was to one cause or more. Consider that above and beyond
what everybody gave to all of the causes last year, much more
is needed for the coming year. Add in a proportionate increase
over your contributions last year to cover the causes that you
did not help, but that you would have aided if you had been
approached,
Remember that there is no magic in joint fund-raising that
will substitute for greater generosity.
Remember that above and beyond our special past giving,
the War Chest must raise twice as much as the Community
Fund obtained last year.
So be sure, whether you and your husband give separately
or jointly, that the answer of your heart conies out right.
Be sure that every dollar both of you gave last year is
matched in full—and that above that, you double the Com-
munity Fund gift. That's a minimum response. That much
each of us owes to ourselves and to the War Chest. There will
be others who have gone off to war, or who for other reasons
will not be able to give. It will be a splendid—and necessary—
act to add as much more for them as you possibly can.
Is this the time in the world's affairs to take advantage of
technicality?
If you have given before, keep your place in the ranks of
the good-hearted and the benevolent. If you didn't give before,
fill the otherwise empty place of someone whose war-time
duties away from home makes it impossible for him to give,
Is this the time for tt woman who gave her independent
&ft, as a separate contribution, to hide behind her husband?
In war-time, all of us, men and women alike, have jobs to do.
Giving adequately to the War Chest is not the least of these.