Date: September 30, 1930
Location: Northampton, MA
(Original document available here)
Even if the gift of $10,000,000 by Edward S. Harkness to British charity stood alone it would have important significance in the development of philanthropy. This great sum given for the promotion of human welfare in a foreign nation will emphasize again the common brotherhood and the interdependence of all people irrespective of national boundaries.
But this is only one of the generous responses reaching hundreds of millions made by the people of the United States for relief from suffering and for general improvement of conditions in nearly every country of Europe and Asia. These gifts are not only from the great philanthropists of our land, but, through the American Red Cross and the Near East Relief. have come to include benefactions created by the general public.
Nothing like it has occurred in all past history. The only approach to it in our own experience was the legacy of the British subject, James Smithson, of over half a million dollars to the United States for the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution. Such philanthropies draw the world closer together and demonstrate the power of the human race to rise above international antagonisms.
Citation: Calvin Coolidge Says: Dispatches Written by Former-President Coolidge and Syndicated to Newspapers in 1930-1931 (Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation)
The Coolidge Foundation gratefully acknowledges the volunteer efforts of Mary Oshoba who prepared this document for digital publication.