Home Photo Gallery Classroom Documents Dear President Roosevelt: I am writing to you even though I have not received a letter asking for my views on the particular problems that are vexing our people today. The big reason for my writing is that I may express my displeasure at those members of the clergy who have read your letter and cast it aside. Personally I think you paid too great a compliment to many members of the cloth. I am a curate in one of the poorest sections of New York City, Williamsburgh nestling serenely on the waterfront of Brooklyn. Our Church is situated in the shadow of a bridge. If one were to expect poverty anywhere, this should be the place. Yet I assure you that conditions are better here than in many better sections of the city. Our people did not earn big money before depression and consequently did not have to readjust themselves to a lower wage scale. Christ said "The Poor you will always have with you." People are poor when they are in absolute need. People in absolute need are in that condition for the most part through carelessness. A man who has a job and a home is not a poor man. Our people demonstrate the point all too clearly, they have their own social life and are as happy as people who live in the most beautiful sections of the city. When I began my priestly labors, I worked among the colored people and I found that they too were able to weather the storm of depression much better than men who had a fairly large salary. They never made much and therefore had become used to hard times. After two years with the colored people I was transferred to a parish that is reputed to be the wealthiest parish in our diocese. While there I witnessed the real ravages of depression. Members of the parish who had earned anywhere from $15,000 up were asking the Saint Vincent de Paul Society to pay their rent. The point that I am attempting to drive home is the necessity for establishing not only old age security but social security. Your efforts to bring this about should meet with whole-hearted approval, I for one shall do whatever possible to further your cause along these lines. In closing I want to assure you that I was not the least angry in not receiving a letter as I do not consider myself worthy of that honor. In the past I have annoyed you on several occasions, once while Governor of the State when I asked you to make me Chaplain of the State Police on Long Island and again when you first came to the White House asking you to appoint me Chaplain in the Navy. I just don't seem to have the stuff. With every good wish and assuring you of my unfailing support and devotion. May God bless you and yours and give strength and health in abundance to all, Faithfully and sincerely
Rev. John McDonnell
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