25 Years After Death

A rich and kindly merchant, who holds steadfastly to his home on Chicago's no longer fashionable South Side, within a few blocks of the densely populated Negro section, dictated a letter ten days ago: Trustees, Julius Rosenwald Fund.

Gentlemen : I am happy to present herewith to the Trustees of the Julius Rosenwald Fund certificate for twenty thousand shares of the stock of Sears, Roebuck and Company. . . .

My experience is that Trustees controlling large funds are not only desirous of conserving principal but often favor adding to it from surplus income. I am not in sympathy with this policy of perpetuating endowments and believe that more good can be accomplished by expending funds as Trustees find opportunities for constructive work than by storing up large sums of money for long periods of time. By adopting a policy of using the fund within this generation, we may avoid those tendencies toward bureaucracy and a formal or perfunctory attitude toward the work which almost inevitably develop in organizations which prolong their existence indefinitely. Coming generations can be relied upon to provide for their own needs as they arise.

In accepting the shares of stock now offered, I ask that the Trustees do so with the understanding that the entire fund in the hands of the Board, both income and principal, be expended within twenty-five years of the time of my death.

It gives me great pleasure to offer this additional fund at the time of the first meeting of the enlarged Board of Trustees.

Sincerely yours,

JULIUS ROSENWALD.

The value of Mr. Rosenwald's gift is circa $2,000,000 and it brings the capital assets of the Julius Rosenwald Fund to more than $20,000,000.

The original seed of the fund was planted on Mr. Rosenwald's 50th birthday (Aug. 12, 1912) when he gave $25,000 to Tuskegee Institute to be used as the late famed Booker Taliaferro Washington saw fit. Mr. Washington put $2,100 of the gift to work in the establishment of six Negro rural schools in Alabama, making the Negroes themselves raise an equivalent sum. Today, the Julius Rosenwald Fund helps support nearly 1,000 Negro schools in the South on the plan laid down by Mr. Washington. These schools have 8,000 teachers, 360,000 pupils. The fund aids Negro Y. M. C. A.s and trade schools in both North and South.

Mr. Rosenwald has also given $3,000,000 for the founding of an industrial museum in Chicago and various sums to Jewish charities; but he is unique in his concentration on Negro philanthropy, which is not in fashionable favor.