1914-11-16yy

Fundraising for war-stricken people in Europe was the subject of two very different stories in the Hamilton Spectator during the month of November, 1914.

The first story concerned a donation, which was intended to help raise money for the assistance of the Belgian population devastated by the German invasion of their country:

“F. J. Howell, president of the Howell Lithographing company, announced today that he would donate 10,000 Belgian flags to the Belgian Relief committee.

“These flags will be sold on the street, a certain day being fixed for the campaign, and the proceeds will revert to the relief fund. Members of the committee were agreeably surprised when the announcement of the donation was made this morning.”¹

¹ Hamilton Spectator.   November 16, 1914.

Just two days later, some fundraising had a very different character:

“For the past two or three days, there have been a couple of foreigners canvassing the city, collecting funds for various charitable causes; sometimes for Belgian relief, at other times for Austrian relief, and again for Armenian missions.

“They appeared to have a measure of success in their efforts, but apparently met their Waterloo yesterday afternoon, when they went into some offices of the Bank of Hamilton building. In their canvas, they unfortunately came across one of the officials of the Belgian Relief fund, and he at once warned others in the building, with the result that the work of collecting funds there came to a sudden termination.”²

² “Not Authorized : Foreigners Were Collecting For Belgian Relief Fund.”

Hamilton Spectator.   November 18, 1914.

The “fund-raisers” managed to get out of the large office building at King and James streets, and then made their hurried exit from downtown Hamilton before the police could be alerted.

In response, an announcement about the scam was made public:

“The matter was reported to the members of the Belgian Relief committee, who have asked the Spectator to state that as yet there have been no collectors sent out, especially no foreigners.

“The committee has sent out circulars calling for assistance and intend to start a collecting campaign, but due notice of this will be given in the local press.”²