Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Address at the Golden Jubilee Dinner of the National Conference of Catholic Charities, New York City.

September 26, 1960

Cardinal Spellman, Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, Governor Rockefeller, Mayor Wagner, the Republican Senatorial delegation from Washington, members of the National Conference of Catholic Charities, and my friends:

The approach in early November of an all-important event upon which the eyes of the nation are centered, suggests that I begin my remarks tonight with a special footnote. The problem prompts me to cite the case of a tormented man in a troublesome time in Ireland's history who, feeling the need to relieve his conscience, sought out his local pastor. Having been admitted to the priest's study, the man said, "father, I have just killed a man." To which the priest replied, "This is neither the time nor the place for discussing politics."

So it is that I am sure we can all agree that we are gathered here tonight in a wholly unpartisan spirit. We have come to honor one of the noblest of all human qualities--charity--the benevolence of men of good will toward their brothers.

I have heard too often the word "charity" disparaged in public discussions, people saying there should be no need for charity and we should have none of it. I personally hold that when our country has lost the spirit of charity, then our government and our form of life will be changed for the worse.

Charity helps the recipient but if given in the right spirit it ennobles the giver, whether the gift be only a kind word or a fortune. So I make no apology for speaking of charity as one of the noblest of man's virtues.

Now quite possibly it would seem natural this evening to spend my time before such an audience in recounting the extraordinary accomplishments of the Catholic Charities. The list is indeed long and impressive. Moreover, Cardinal Spellman's record of alleviating human suffering would, in itself, provide material to interest, and excite the admiration, of every American.

But I have chosen as my subject not gifts themselves. for, as Lowell the American poet so movingly said, "The gift without the giver is bare." It is through the spirit of the giver and in the preservation of this spirit that we sustain one of the indispensable bulwarks of American life.

Over a century ago a keen french observer visiting our land wrote that the greatness of America springs out of the goodness of its people. More cynically minded persons, too deeply impressed by our unquestioned wealth and material progress, have tried to refute the truth of this conclusion. Such people not only ignore the transcendence of spiritual values--they are blind to our nation's history. Concern for a neighbor's welfare and a warm generosity have been more typical of the American way than any alleged worship of money or preoccupation with material

success.

Our literature abounds with tales of how early settlers helped one another build homes, clear land, establish schools, tend the sick, and rally when disaster struck. I remember very well that in my days of youth in Central Kansas, charity was primarily an individual matter. Helping one another was as common for parents as raising their own children.

But today, charity has taken on a corporate character and national breadth. Yet the spirit of true charity is the same.

The American people accept as a clear responsibility the combatting of privation and suffering. The growth in private philanthropic contributions in the past ten years has exceeded both the rate of growth of our population and our personal income. Another amazing fact is that in this year 1960, 45 million Americans will lend their time and talents in raising over 9 billion dollars for philanthropic causes.

Now this responsibility is not laid upon us by any constitutional or legal mandate. Our belief, that men are brothers in divine origin and destiny, is a part of our religious heritage that reaches back to the hills of Galilee and imposes upon each of us a spiritually-rooted obligation. Moreover, the methods by which we discharge this obligation must conform to the true spirit of the giver. And, today, they involve a lasting and fruitful partnership between citizens and their government.

While the government must be concerned about the welfare of all the people, we must exercise great care lest we encroach upon the domain of private philanthropy. We must be especially careful not to dilute local responsibility, self-reliance and the spirit of "taking care of one's

own."

Of course in those humanitarian undertakings that are so complex in character and so wide in scope as to make futile the efforts of the individual, whether acting singly or in voluntary cooperation, the responsibility for major action falls upon government--either local or central. But money raised by taxes, although willingly paid, can never wholly replace voluntary giving by individuals and groups.

Even as government cannot guarantee us happiness or satisfy the deepest aspirations of mankind, the State cannot more than partially and in special circumstances satisfy the obligation--the compulsion within us--to help our neighbor. Were it to assume entirely this or any other fundamentally personal obligation, the government--the instrument-would eventually become the master. Political considerations might easily become paramount over human values. A concern of heart and spirit would degenerate into a machine-like operation of bureaucratic processes. The will to sacrifice for others would be replaced by reliance on governmental administrative procedures.

The American people, instinctively sensitive to this, have developed a way, a method, an approach to charitable giving unmatched in its scale in human history. Thereby, men and women join voluntarily in discharge of self-imposed obligations, confident that proper goals can be achieved by individuals and organizations of citizens, either by supplementing or making unnecessary governmental activity in the same field.

Now we are met this evening to commemorate fifty years of service by one of these organizations--the National Conference of Catholic Charities. I suggest that, for a moment, we look at the spirit, purposes, and values exemplified by the Conference against a world-wide background of governments and men absorbed in the frantic pursuit of transitory temporal power, unworthy ambitions, and false greatness.

In our season of history, beyond any previous era, the world spectacle seems most violent in its surface turmoil; most intense in its inner passion; most titanic in its destructive potential. Our waking and working hours seem too often filled with the alarms of new threats, the clamor of the aggressive, and the cries of the fearful.

Against the dangers inherent in the attitude and announced purposes of a powerful, secretive dictatorship, we steadfastly maintain the military, moral, economic and political strength to assure the nation's safety. further, knowing that peace and freedom are weakened if not shared, we help other nations which, like ourselves, uphold the dignity of men and maintain their liberty. But in spite of these inescapable burdens, America, if true to herself, will never be tempted to abandon her noble goals.

For close to two centuries our nation has thrived under the bracing influence of belief in God and the dignity of the individual. Should this spiritual base of our society ever become dimmed, our faith in the destiny of America would disappear before a vain reliance on materialism, and crass political maneuver.

Then, even should we seem, for a while, victorious over world circumstances and all visible foes, we would be tragic losers--robbed of our heritage in ideals and our destiny as a leader for world peace with justice. An apparent triumph would become a soon-exposed illusion. A materialistic America--bereft of spiritual purpose--could be nothing more than a rudderless ship of state, and eventually a victim of the fury of international storms and internal decay.

That tragedy will never be visited upon us so long as our churches and our synagogues and chapels--and people who believe in God and in themselves--continue to give of their spirit, of their time, and of their substance, that they may be secure and their fellow men may have faith and hope and courage.

Clear it is that a great charitable and intensely dedicated organization like the Conference of Catholic Charities is far more than an agency for alleviating suffering; it is the collective expression of the spirit of the giver; it is a great bulwark against collapse into materialism and utter dependence on the omnipotent State.

The physical evidence of your work is, of course, immense; without such effort our American communities would lack priceless institutions to help the needy, to relieve suffering, to heal the sick.

Nevertheless, I say again that your greatest contribution is not your gifts; rather it is the example of selfless service you and others set for all Americans; the inspiration you give to your fellow citizens, and to the world; and the direct call you make to their hearts, whatever their creed.

For I am sure--and in this, I think Cardinal Spellman will be quick to support me--your works could hardly in these days be accomplished had you not the help and the prayers of many, many Americans who are not of your Church.

By the same token the men and women who support this Conference participate also in the good works of others. for the spirit of the giver is not narrow--it is as broad as his understanding of human need.

So, at this Golden Jubilee Dinner, I salute the devoted men and women--clergy and lay--joined in the National Conference of Catholic Charities. I applaud their record of achievement in helping the less fortunate, for the proof they provide that we live not by bread alone--or by dollars, or by machines.

So long as our America is served by such people and such organizations we shall go forward in self-reliance and confidence; we shall be recognized as good neighbors by all the world's people and we will remember that, despite our fears and ignorance of each other, we are of one brotherhood under God.

Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:52 p.m. at the Statler Hilton Hotel in New York City.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Address at the Golden Jubilee Dinner of the National Conference of Catholic Charities, New York City. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/235399

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