The sum of $100,000 will be provided for the relief of the unemployed of Philadelphia through a plan suggested today by Lessing J. Rosenwald, vice-president of Sears, Roebuck & Co., the son of Julius Rosenwald. Horatio Gates Lloyd, chairman of the committee for unemployment relief, announced that this sum had been promised by Mr. Rosenwald as a result of the astonishing initial success of a plan adopted at Mr. Rosenwald’s suggestion.
Employes of Sears, Roebuck & Co. throughout the country are voluntarily contributing one day’s pay every four weeks for the relief of the unemployed in the various communities where the plants are located. Ninety percent of the employes of certain departments of the company in this city contributed the first day the plan went into effect, Mr. Rosenwald reported and there was practically a 100 percent representation of the higher salaried officials and employes.
There are between 600 and 800 employes of the company in the Philadelphia area and the money contributed by the employes in this area will be matched dollar for dollar by the company and the entire sum turned over to the committee for unemployment relief every four weeks. “I am more than delighted at the response to my suggestion,” Mr. Rosenwald said, adding that he “can only hope that it will serve to influence other firms to adopt the idea. Should they do it this problem of relieving distress arising through lack of employment will be solved at once.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
