Speaker Denounces
Red Cross Activity
As Charity Racket

Michael Klein Cites Misuse Of
      Funds For Russia, and Har-
            lan Strike Situation

            Michael Klein, secretary of the Social Service club spoke to the members at an informal meeting Tuesday, in 305J on "Charity Rackets." He divided charity corruptions into three types: government charity, which consists of federal, state and city aid; professional begging by people, who, upon investigation, were found to have bank accounts; and the third type, the one about which the speaker talked, private charity. He cited the case of the Gates of Mercy, a charity organization, .which uses the telephone racket; a method a method whereby all funds are solicited by the telephone, and the name of an important local or political person is used as bait.

            Quoting from an article which appeared in the American Mercury, Shady Deaings in the Red Cross, by John L. Spivack, the speaker told of twenty specific charges against the Red Cross, all of which evolve about two chief ones; first,:that the Red Cross is dominated by militaristic groups, and by big business men for their own good, and secondly, that the Red Cross was used as a strike breaker. As an illustration of the first charge, he mentioned the incident of money which was raised for the starving people of Russia, as being used to break the power of Soviet Russia. Explaining the second, the speaker referred to Harlan, Kentucky strike. Quoting from the book, Harlan Miners Talk, written by Theodore Dreiser, John Dos Passos, Sherwood Anderson, and others, the speaker said, "the Red Cross did not aid the strikers, but aided and abetted the terror and starvation of the strikers."

            On Wednesday, at 12:30 in 305J, the guest speaker of the Social Service club will be Mr. Douglas Faulkner, Executive Secretary of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities, who will speak on ''Social Work as a Vocation."

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May 20, 2004