Rebuke

If Manhattan were a kingdom, tall, dark Mrs. John Davison Rockefeller III might well be a princess. Like a good princess, 25-year-old Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller has a deep sense of social duty. Straight from Vassar in 1931 she jumped in as a volunteer worker for Manhattan's Charity Organization Society. Today while her husband helps administer the munificent charities of his House, she continues to work long & hard for the poor through two organizations, the C. O. S. and the Y. W. C. A.

Asked to address a luncheon for 450 welfare workers in Manhattan's Hotel Astor last week, Mrs. Rockefeller spent a fortnight writing the first public speech of her life, a gravely caustic lecture on the obligations of wealth. Excerpts:

"There is much committee forming and arranging of benefits and along with these a large amount of publicity. There is the use of influential names without much spirit behind them, and continual buying of tickets for one's own and one's friends' so-called 'pet charities.'. . . It is a fine thing to be known as a public spirited citizen and it is pleasant to read of one's activities in the paper. ... It is also much easier for some people to lend their names and subscribe a few dollars for tickets than to have to contribute time or thought. However, this is not the kind of contribution the social worker is primarily looking for, nor the finest type of layman seeking to give. . . .

"The layman has a fresh point of view unwearied by the constant burden of trouble which the professional carries in his heart. If the professional were to do his job without the realization that it was only a part of a larger social plan, he would become lost in discouragement. It is the layman who, by keeping close to the concrete experience of the professional, can help to form this larger plan. A comparatively small body of social workers cannot bring our hundreds of communities along very rapidly in their thinking unless they have the layman's help. The forces of status quo are much stronger than those of change and it takes a tremendous amount of energy to keep fluidity and growth in the movement. This interpretation to the community is the intelligent layman's job. . . ."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.