Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
Scenic studios manufactured themed décor for a variety of charity balls and other fundraising events. These projects catered to a specific clientele, one that was often a repeat customer.
In 1921 Thomas G. Moses wrote, “The big pageant for the Municipal Pier gave us a good show for the Salvation Army, and one for the dance hall.” The next year, Moses mentioned Salvation Army work again, writing, “Had some Municipal Pier work, especially the Salvation Army work.”
As I combed through dozens of articles, searching for information about the Salvation Army and Municipal Pier events that year, one caught my eye. As we have entered a season of giving, it is time to remember those who sacrifice for good of others.
On May 29, 1921, the “Chicago tribune” published an article entitled, “Assaults on Our Finances” (page 72).
“Looking back, I can hardly remember a moment in the last few years when we have not been in the surge of some such drive. Sometimes the organizers of these assaults on the glorious inviolability of our private and personal finances try to disguise them under such terms as “presentation.” But the fact and act remain the same.
It is the selfish, untiring, devoted energy of the few in the interests of the many, in the interests of community itself, which accompanies the financing of such enterprises as the Red Cross, the Y.W.C.A., the Y.M.C.A., the Boy Scouts, the Salvation Army, and the various other great undertakings which are the hope of our civilization. These few take the exhausting, ungrateful, nerve racking task of soliciting money from the great and heedless majority of a self-absorbed world.
Instead of being grateful to them for taking the hardest part of the job off our hands, the tendency of the average citizen is to complain when so approached. Yet eliminate from our social system these various enterprises and what would be the residue? A rampant materialism which would suck the soul out of us all and breed anarchy and destruction.
So, the next time you are approached by one of these champions of reform and philanthropy, say, “Thank you for giving me the opportunity.”
To be continued…
