ABSTRACT
Depression converted the hopes of welfare leaders for increased support from business corporations into concern for a host of problems which they confronted with limited preparation and even fewer resources. Private philanthropy had long emphasized preventive and "character-building" services rather than almsgiving. Thus, it was not equipped to deal with the circumstances of mass unemployment. Two legal issues hampered expansion of corporate donations to welfare agencies. The fundamental principle of management's right to give away property technically belonging to corporate shareholders had never been fully clarified by legislation, despite the special emergency acts of the state legislatures during the First World War. Association of Community Chests and Councils leaders had originally preferred to secure clarification of the legal status of company giving by administrative or judicial interpretation, rather than through legislation. The five per cent amendment, long sought by business and chest leaders, passed in conjunction with some of the most sweeping and fundamental New Deal reform legislation.
