a general subject which is of such great moment to
earnest people; and this must be my excuse for speaking so frankly.

THE APPEALS THAT COME

The reading, assorting, and investigating of the hundreds of letters
of appeal which are received daily at my office are attended to by a
department organized for this purpose. The task is not so difficult as
at first it might seem. The letters are, to be sure, of great variety,
from all sorts of people in every condition of life, and indeed, from
all parts of the world. Four-fifths of these letters are, however,
requests for money for personal use, with no other title to
consideration than that the writer would be gratified to have it.

There remain numbers of requests which all must recognize as worthy of
notice. These may be divided, roughly, as follows:

The claims of local charities. The town or city in which one lives has
a definite appeal to all its citizens, and all good neighbours will
wish to cooeperate with friends and fellow townsmen. But these local
charities, hospitals, kindergartens, and the like, ought not to make
appeal outside the local communities which they serve. The burden
should be carried by the people who are on the spot and who are, or
should be, most familiar with local needs.

Then come the national and international claims. These properly appeal
especially to men of large means throughout the country, whose wealth
admits of their doing something more than assist in caring for the
local charities. There are many great national and international
philanthropic and Christian organizations that cover the whole field
of world-wide charity; and, while people of reputed wealth all receive
appeals from individual workers throughout the world for personal
assistance, the prudent and thoughtful giver will, more and more,
choose these great and responsible organizations as the medium for his
gifts and the distribution of his funds to distant fields. This has
been my custom, and the experience of every day serves only to confirm
its wisdom.

The great value of dealing with an organization which knows all the
facts, and can best decide just where the help can be applied to the
best advantage, has impressed itself upon me through the results of
long years of experience. For example, one is asked to give in a
certain field of missionary work a sum, for a definite purpose--let us
say a hospital. To comply with this request will take, say, $10,000.
It seems w