UP 11%

Since early autumn, the Community Chests and United Funds have been conducting their usual intensive campaigns in 1,900 U.S. cities and towns. From last week's indications, the 1955 campaign has been the most successful in history.

In 277 cities that have added up the receipts, a total of $193,647,308 has been collected--99.7% of their aggregate goal (highest in history) and 11.1% (or $19,347,308) better than the record-breaking 1954 collections.

As usual, virtually all segments of the U.S. public have dug deep into pockets and purses. This year, as usual, organized labor has played a major part in the campaigns: 100,000 union members participated actively as fund-raisers, and fully one-third of the contributions came from the ranks of the unions.

In Akron, 2,000 trade unionists helped raise $2,387,243, in the biggest United Fund campaign in local history. In Detroit's Sheraton-Cadillac Hotel, at the height of the 1955 Torch Drive, four girls, escorted by armed Brinks' guards, dumped $1,471,319 on the speakers' table at a fund-raisers' luncheon. The money was the joint contribution of 66,647 General Motors employees ($1,096,319) and the company itself ($375,000).

Organized labor's activity in organized charity is a recent phenomenon. Until World War II, most labor unions looked skeptically on Community Chests as the preserves of the rich men who headed them. In wartime charity drives, leaders of the C.I.O. and A.F.L. rubbed elbows with millionaire philanthropists and professional fund-raisers. After the war both the A.F.L. and C.I.O. continued the association, iset up permanent community-service sections inside their national organizations.

Along with big labor, the chests and funds have won another notable convert.

The American Red Cross, traditionally aloof from federated charities, changed its policy last April, now gives its blessing to local chapters that decide to join the chests and United Funds. In the 1955 United Fund and>> Community Chest drives, nearly 600 Red Cross chapters (out of 3,713 chapters) joined up.

On the other hand, the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society, which have gone along with United Funds in the past, have decided to break off. Reason for the withdrawals: both organizations feel that they can raise more money through independent campaigns. In the case of the heart association, there is special reason for optimism: President Eisenhower may become a symbol for the crusade against heart disease, just as Franklin D. Roosevelt symbolized polio. Although the association has sternly forbidden any official use of the Eisenhower name, charitarians estimate that the President's heart attack will be worth at least $4,000,000 in additional revenue for the association in 1956.

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