philanthropies. I have never heard of the conclusion being adduced from this fact, that those who are about to start in business would better not do so at present, or until those who are not succeeding have turned over a new leaf. The question—when should any individual, or firm, or corporation, start in any particular line of business—is nevertheless, a pertinent one.

Begin With Personal Leadership

One thing is perfectly obvious and that is, that no business should be started by any one who knows nothing about it. The first essential to success in any undertaking is knowledge. I may start to become a mechanical engineer tomorrow, but I may hardly start tomorrow to practice mechanical engineering. The time for this second start will be on that day when my theoretical education is completed and I am ready to apply it practically.

A financial federation is a business just as much as merchandising or banking is a business. At its head must be an executive or a board, a man or men, possessing knowledge of the thing to be done, a practical knowledge of methods and a knowledge of the needs of the community. Quite obviously a bank will fail which is started by people ignorant of banking, or in a community of savages, or with a president and cashier who will run the institution for nobody but themselves and their own friends.

A financial federation of charities and philanthropies should never be started without a competent leader or leaders who possess such an understanding of the social needs and problems of a community as will enable them to pass a fairly correct judgment upon the necessity for existence of the associations that are to be affiliated, as well as upon the needs of the associations themselves as measured by scientifically prepared budgets. In other words, in all financial federation there must be a wise relating of financing to service; a correlation of the raising of money for institutions and of the community to which they minister.

It goes without saying that this is a pretty large order; that before starting to fill the order search must be made until there is found such an individual or combination of individuals (and generally it will be found to be a single individual) as will combine good executive ability with a rare social sense. In no other way may you ordinarily start such a business as that in question without fear of subsequent failure in whole or in part.

Where you will find the individual in question, it is perhaps hard to say, but it is my belief that as federations become better known and understood, and as progress is made in their development, there will be found among the personnel of these institutions young men of ability and with initiative, who have seen in the plan and its development a chance for a future career. I am sure that it should be the aim of those financial federations which are now in existence to provide in their offices training schools for this sort of work or profession and to invite to positions upon their force of workers young men or women who may give promise of ability of the kind that bids fair to eventually make them leaders in the work of financial federation there or elsewhere. It should be as true of these institutions as of banks, that in their offices or staffs may be found the material out of which to make the future heads of other similar institutions.

This may be a look ahead, but meantime what of the present? Cleveland was one of the earlier of recent financial federations to put its theories into practice, and Cleveland has furnished leaders for federations that have since been started in other cities with apparent success. If, however, financial federation is planned for any of the cities at present unfederated, and no leader can be bought, stolen or borrowed from any other city, one must be manufactured.

Agreement of Organizations

That leads me to my next proposition—for leaders in any direction, like poets, are born, not made. A man of the right calibre must be found, or may present himself, who believes in the plan and is willing to undertake its execution. Being found, his first business, if he is not already fully informed concerning the undertaking, is to inform himself. His education will take time, but time thus spent is not time lost and is of the essence of the undertaking. He must know the plan adopted in other communities; he must know the nature of the organizations that are to be federated and must understand the individual social units; he must look into and analyze and fully understand the financial status of his community and its ability to support its social institutions if its funds are properly mobilized, and he must be ready to efficiently organize whatever campaign is necessary for financing such institutions as may be federated.

In all of this we have dealt with the education of the leader. When he is sufficiently equipped for his undertaking, his first essay must not be the raising of funds, or the immediate federation of agencies, but the education of the social organizations and of the community, for these are as necessary as is the education of the leader. This again will take study as to methods of education and publicity and will take time.

It is scriptural truth that no body can work efficiently whose members are not working in harmony. The first essential in the new organization is harmony based on mutual understanding and co-operation. Our leader will be fortunate if he shall find in the city of his choice a well organized, unitedly working council of social agencies, for then his unifying work among the institutions themselves will probably be light. If, however, there is no such unifying organization in existence, it will be well either that such an organization be started prior to the starting of a financial organization, or that the leader himself proceed to inform the various organizations of the plan which it is sought to adopt and bring them into harmony with each other. If jealousies exist among them, they must disappear and mutual understandings must take their place; each must understand that in the new undertaking, it is to pull with all the others for the benefit of the whole with no question of individual benefit alone.

Once start a financial federation either as a separate entity, or as a group within a larger entity, and let any individual organization within the group be concerned for itself alone, or for anything else than the success of the entire group, and you have within the group an element of disintegration. The first work then must be to bring the individual organizations into harmony and the next to so thoroughly present to them the plan for financial federation that it shall be perfectly understood and that they shall be willing to pledge themselves to its adoption if shown feasible.

This pledging to the plan if it appears feasible is in my judgment as far as at the outset your leader may safely ask the organizations to go, for until he has actually undertaken to mobilize the financial resources of the community, he will hardly be able to pledge the institutions full support. He can as yet only promise to make the attempt to obtain this full support; the community may not be ready for his undertaking and he may have to fall short of absolute success. If he is a man of vision and initiative, however, and with a will to succeed that admits no alternative, and also a man of ability to impart the knowledge of which he is possessed, I believe that if he has proceeded thus far, he will hardly fail.

Analysis of Requirements

With the organizations pledged to the plan of federation and to its support if it shall be proven a feasible plan in the community in question, the next step must be to study the needs of the organizations and their budgets and subscription lists of previous years. I shall not attempt here to outline methods for such study, whether it be by an individual, or through a properly functioning committee, or a social council, or otherwise. A determination of the budgets and resources of the institutions in previous years, and of the budget needs for the current year, affords tht basis on which to start the final work of organizing the community for the raising of funds to meet the budget demands.

Our leader may have been proceeding in the education of the community contemporaneously with his education of the institutions, and probably will have been; but in any event this must be taken up at some point in his progress. The community must be taken into his confidence and that of the institutions and must be fully shown their needs and the whys and wherefores of the proposed new plan. Some of this education of the public will be through the press, some of it may be through the work of the organizations themselves among their patrons, some of it may be by lectures or talks by well-informed persons; but be the means what they may, the public must be made to understand the plan and to share in the leader's enthusiasm for it.

In order to obtain the co-operation of the public, your leader will have found at some step in his progress that it is necessary to enlist the sympathy and co-operation of the strongest men and women, both financially and socially, in the community. He must make these the actual backers of his undertaking, and without them he will not succeed; nor do I think that it will be difficult in the majority of cities to so present the plan that many leading citizens will cordially indorse it, and co-operate to make it a success; especially will this be true where the leading commercial organization of the city has had the plan presented to it and has on its part given its endorsement. It is with me axiomatic that finance is a business and must be conducted as a business, by business men and women. To this I will add, as of course, that it cannot, nevertheless, be conducted for social organizations without combining with the business management the finest and highest social sense.

Conclusion

I have not attempted in this discussion to outline a method of campaign, whether by correspondence, by personal interview, by a whirlwind campaign, or otherwise; the only question that I have been asked to discuss is the single one to which I have attempted to address myself, When Should Financial Federations Be Started.

My conclusion is that they should be started when there has been obtained in the community a leader of sufficient initiative and ability who is either educated to the knowledge of the social and community needs, or shall so educate himself, and who is a man of proven business and executive ability, with a working knowledge of the plan of financial federation; when, also, the organizations which are sought to be federated have been given an understanding of the plan and have approved it, and have been brought into complete harmony among themselves; and when, finally, the community in which financial federation is to be attempted has been educated to the plan and to the needs of its social organizations and has been won over to their and its indorsement; then, and only then, should financial federation be attempted.

INFORMAL DISCUSSION

1. Mr. White's paper was followed by spirited discussion, delegates from various sections of the United States bringing out many interesting observations on the progress or problems of federation of agencies. One delegate spoke of the necessity for conservation of effort as regards finance and workers, following the example of the federal government in its policy of conservation of labor, wealth and food. We cannot conduct the work of charity without capital and capital is useful only as it can be commandeered into service. Success in charitable work depends upon the amount of personal interest taken, but it is not possible to hire all the work done.

2. Father John R. Maguire of Bourbonnais, Illinois, warned against duplication of charitable work.

3. Then followed a discussion on the war chest idea.

4. 71/. /. Berger, secretary, Associated Jewish Charities of Chicago: In Chicago there are three groups of charitable organizations: Protestant, Catholic and Jewish. The Protestant group has entered into neither a financial federation nor an association other than the Central Council of Social Agencies. The Catholic group federated this present year after having carefully studied the effects of financial federation, both social and financial. The Associated Jewish Charities, a financial federation, has met with satisfactory success. Take, for example, the last fiscal year which began May 1st, 1917, with a shortage of $15,000.00. Unusual war-time costs and expenditures necessitated increased disbursements over previous year amounting to $150,000.00 and set collection goal at $750,000.00 With many drawbacks the required funds were raised and the year ended with the insignificant deficit of $747.00, which has since been wiped out.

5. /. Edwin Goldwasser, executive director of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York City, related the experience of the Jewish societies in his city. They carried out their initial federation campaign in 1916 and by January 1, 1917, they had 55 societies federated. The original plan called for 21 societies, but it was found that 34 additional societies had asked to be admitted. By the close of 1917 they had a total fund of $2,000,000. They have now finished their 1918 campaign, as a result of which they have a federation embracing 86 societies with 71,000 contributing members, and a total annual subscription of $2,900,000. Their societies range from the very large, with large funds, to the very small, with modest capital. The Jewish schools receive annually from the federation $125,000.

6. Others who participated were: Otto W. Davis, Minneapolis; J. M. Hansen, Youngstown; Raymond F. Clapp, Cleveland; Thomas J. Riley, Brooklyn.

SOCIAL AGENCIES AND PUBLIC OPINION

Introductory Statement by the Chairman, Roscoe C. Edlund, Director, Baltimore Alliance of Charitable and Social Agpncies

More than ever are social workers in these days interested in problems of publicity and educational work. New developments must be presented widely and effectively to win public support, and the general public in these war times must be brought to understand and appreciate the importance of the work of health and social agencies in helping to keep the people of our communities efficient. Publicity is not only necessary if social agencies are to carry forward their part in maintaining the morale of the people, but nothing can itself more directly contribute to this end than wise and continuous educational work, giving every one confidence that our necessary undertakings are going steadily forward.

With all the calls of the present day on public attention it is essential that social workers (and all others who must help to mould public opinion) shall sit at the feet of the best masters of the art. That is what we have the privilege of doing today.