Helping Others Helping Ourselves

Power, Giving, and Community Identity in Cleveland, Ohio, 1880-1930

Laura Tuennerman-Kaplan

• Publisher: The Kent State University Press
• Year: 1997
• eBook ISBN: 9781612773001
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

"This study dramatically opens the door to view philanthropy in terms of who gives, the nature of those gifts, and the motivation of the givers. It becomes clear that no group could claim a monopoly on giving and that the poor, working class and middle classes had their own agendas for giving that differed… from the wealthy benefactors." — James Borchert, Cleveland State University

Individuals and communities have historically reinforced values and shaped society in ways that best fit their own objectives. This exciting new study reevaluates the crucial interaction between religious, ethnic-, racial, -gender-, and class-based values and ideals and giving. It explores the nature and meaning if giving in urban America by examining the African American and Italian populations of Cleveland.

Notes

Introduction. Reshaping American Society

1. Note that I use the term progressive throughout this book to signify Progressive Era ideas and have labeled progressive styles of giving as such, not because I am making a value judgment about how “progressive” they were, but because they were identified as such by people at the time.

2. Daniel Rodgers addresses the long-standing disagreement over the nature of Progressivism in his essay “In Search of Progressivism,” Reviews in American History (Dec. 1992): 113–30. Major works illustrating the variety of points of view include Clarke Chambers, Seedtime of Reform: American Social Service and Social Action, 1918–1933 (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1963); Alfred Chandler, The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1977); Ruth Crocker, Social Work and Social Order: The Settlement Movement in Two Industrial Cities, 1889–1930 (Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1992); Allen Davis, Spearheads for Reform: The Social Settlements and the Progressive Movement, 1890–1914 (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1967); Louis Galambos, “The Emerging Organizational Synthesis in Modern American History,” Business History Review 44.3 (1970); Peter Dobkin Hall, The Organization of American Culture, 1700–1900 (New York: New York Univ. Press, 1982); Gabriel Kolko, The Triumph of Conservatism: A Re-interpretation of American History 1900–1916 (New York: Free Press of Glencoe, 1963); Richard McCormick, “The Party Period and Public Policy,” Journal of American History 66 (1979); Raymond Mohl, The New City: Urban America in the Industrial Age, 1860–1920 (Arlington Heights, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 1985); and Robert Wiebe, Search for Order, 1877–1920 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1967). For one of the most recent and interesting treatments of Progressivism, and its ties to European reform, see Daniel T. Rodgers, Atlantic Crossings, Social Politics in a Progressive Age (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1998).

3. Rodgers, “In Search of Progressivism,” 114.

4. James Leiby, A History of Social Welfare and Social Work in the United States (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1978), 170; and Grace Goulder Izant, John D. Rockefeller: The Cleveland Years (Cleveland: Western Reserve Historical Society, 1972), 210, 236. Notably, estimates on fraternal membership and other types of philanthropic activity vary greatly. In his work, David Beito estimated that in 1920 nearly 30 percent of adults over the age of twenty belonged to fraternal lodges, bringing the total to around a staggering 18 million. David Beito, “Mutual Aid, State Welfare, and Organized Charity: Fraternal Societies and the ‘Deserving’ and ‘Undeserving’ Poor, 1900–1930,” Journal of Policy History 5.4 (1993): 420–21. Daniel Rodgers, in Atlantic Crossings, also provides some impressive figures relating to the importance of mutual aid associations and the number of people involved (219–20). Regardless of the exact numbers, as sociologist Sidney Verba and others have noted, it has become cliché to remark on the prevalence of voluntary activity in the United States. Recent studies of voluntarism in America have made it clear that the question facing scholars is not whether Americans give, but rather why and how they make giving choices that remain open to study. Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman, and Henry Brady, Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1995), 7.

5. Today political scientists continue to note the high levels of organizational participation in American life. For a brief summary of this topic see Verba et al., Voice and Equality, introduction.

6. For further discussion of giving as a social relation see chap. 1. See also Susan A. Ostrander and Paul G. Schervish, “Giving and Getting: Philanthropy as a Social Relation,” Critical Issues in American Philanthropy: Strengthening Theory and Practice, Jon Van Til and Associates, eds. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990), 67–98. For a related argument about the importance of mutual aid and civic involvement in the building of community and civil society see John Bodnar, Steelton: Immigration and Industrialization 1870–1940 (Pittsburgh: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, 1977), chap. 6; Robert D. Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1993); and Verba et. al, chap. 13.

7. Merle Curti, “Philanthropy,” Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas ed. Philip Wiener (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1973), 491.

8. For a recent historiographic summary of the importance of elite giving, particularly through the work of foundations, see Judith Sealander, Private Wealth and Public Life: Foundation Philanthropy and the Reshaping of American Social Policy from the Progressive Era to the New Deal (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1997), chap. 1. For a general summary of charity as a means of social control during the era see Mohl, chap. 8. See also Eleanor L. Brilliant, The United Way: Dilemmas of Organized Charity (New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1990); Hall, Organization of American Culture; and John Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1992).

9. For a discussion of Cleveland in relation to other Midwestern cities—and of the similarities and differences between Midwestern cities and east coast industrial centers—see Jon Teaford, Cities of the Heartland: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Midwest (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1993). For a period comparison of Cleveland and eleven other cities and their public funding priorities see Leonard P. Ayres, The Cleveland School Survey (Summary Volume), The Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation (Philadelphia: Wm. F. Fel, 1917), 26–27.

10. Teaford has suggested that as a region the Midwest was a leader in many areas during its heyday, a period that closely coincides with the period under study here, in many areas including culture, industry and reform. He suggests for example that “the Midwest had become a hub of municipal innovation and a guide for cities in New York as well as California.” Teaford, Cities of the Heartland, 123 and chap. 6. See also Brian Ross, “The New Philanthropy: The Reorganization of Charity in Turn of the Century Cleveland, 1896–1920,” (Ph.D. diss., Case Western Reserve University, 1989); and Brilliant, The United Way, chap. 1.

11. Edward Banfield, The Moral Basis of a Backward Society (New York: Free Press, 1958), 84; W. E. B. DuBois, ed. Some Efforts of American Negroes for Their Own Social Betterment (Atlanta: Atlanta Univ. Press, 1898); The Negro Church (Atlanta: Atlanta Univ. Press, 1903); and Efforts for Social Betterment Among Negro Americans (Atlanta: Atlanta Univ. Press, 1909).

12. This is not to suggest that there was no difference or diversity within these communities, for members in each varied greatly in terms of class, gender, and personal values and ideals. Divisiveness and exclusion within communities is as much a part of the story here as unity. These issues are discussed in great detail in chaps. 5 and 6.

13. John Briggs, An Italian Passage: Immigrants to Three American Cities, 1890–1930 (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1978); Donna Gabaccia, Militants and Migrants: Rural Sicilians Become American Workers (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Univ. Press, 1988); Judith Smith, Family Connections: A History of Italian and Jewish Immigrant Lives in Providence, Rhode Island, 1900–1940 (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1985); James Borchert, Alley Life in Washington: Family, Community, Religion, and Folklife in the City, 1850–1970 (Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1980); Earl Lewis, In Their Own Interests: Race, Class, and Power in Twentieth-Century Norfolk, Virginia (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1991); Robert Gregg, Sparks from the Anvil of Oppression: Philadelphia’s African Methodists and Southern Migrants, 1890–1940 (Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 1993); and Robin Kelley, Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class (New York: Free Press, 1994).

1. If We Help Others, We Help Ourselves

1. For an excellent, brief account of the development and current state of the field, see Stanley Katz, “Where Did the Serious Study of Philanthropy Come From, Anyway?” Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 28.1 (Mar. 1999): 74–82.

2. For excellent compilations of essays on the subject that attest ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Dedication
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction: Reshaping American Society: The Importance of Giving and Getting
• One: If We Help Others, We Help Ourselves: Giving as a Social Relation, or a History of Philanthropy from the Bottom Up
• Two: Making Cleveland a Better Place in Which to Live: The Beginnings of a City, the Beginnings of a Charitable Tradition
• Three: The Most Economical and Efficient Manner: Class, Socioeconomic Standing, and Progressive Philanthropy
• Four: Giving as a Community Responsibility: Gender, Ethnicity, Religion, and Traditional Philanthropy
• Five: Hoping to Do Our Share: Giving and Cleveland’s African American Communities
• Six: Pitching In and Saving Face: Giving and Cleveland’s Italian Communities
• Conclusion: Power, Giving, and Community
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index