- Person
- Julius Rosenwald
- Lived
- 1862–1932
- Field
- Retail & philanthropy
- From
- American
The story
Sears, Roebuck built its fortune selling by mail to America's farm households. Under Julius Rosenwald, who became vice president in 1896 and president in 1908, the company offered dry goods, hardware, furniture, medicines and almost anything else a farm family could want, helped by the Post Office's Rural Free Delivery from 1896. Between 1895 and 1907 its annual sales climbed from about $750,000 to more than $50 million. Rosenwald knew rural America, and its needs, as well as any businessman of his time.
In the early twentieth century a new idea was spreading through American agriculture: placing a trained agricultural expert in each county to bring the latest research directly to farmers. The first county-based agricultural agent in America was hired in 1906. Rosenwald saw a need for such agents in the Midwest and in other states, and he believed that the farm advice Sears sent out by mail worked like a mail-order county agent.
In May 1912 he announced that Sears would offer $1,000 to each county in the United States that raised additional money to employ a trained agricultural expert. Like most of his giving, the offer was a challenge rather than a gift: local people had to put up funds of their own. Rosenwald gave $1,000 grants to the first 100 counties that hired an agent, helping the US Department of Agriculture launch a programme that proved highly valuable to rural Americans. A history of the programme based on company records reports that about $110,000 was spent and that the participating counties were in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.
Two years later, in 1914, Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act, which established the Cooperative Extension Service and made county agents a permanent, publicly funded part of American farming. Sears kept up its interest in rural education, founding an agricultural foundation in 1923 to help farmers farm better, sell better and live better.
The county agent grants show Rosenwald's approach to philanthropy at its clearest. He preferred seed money and matching funds that encouraged others, in this case county governments and farm communities, to take responsibility and keep the work going. The national extension system that followed still connects farmers and rural families with practical research across the United States.
Why it matters
Rosenwald’s seed money helped launch a programme that proved highly valuable to rural Americans.
About Julius Rosenwald
Clothier who turned Sears, Roebuck into America’s great mail-order retailer, then helped build nearly 5,000 schools for Black children across the segregated South.
More about Julius Rosenwald
- Julius Rosenwald founded Chicago’s science museumJulius Rosenwald was the principal founder of Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, giving it over $5 million and serving as its president from 1927 to 1932.
- Rosenwald fellowships backed Marian Anderson and HughesFrom 1928 the Rosenwald Fund gave over $400,000 in fellowships to rising artists and scholars, most of them Black, including Marian Anderson, Langston Hughes and James Baldwin.
- Julius Rosenwald helped the young NAACPJulius Rosenwald gave several thousand dollars to help establish the NAACP and found a venue for its 1912 Chicago meeting, at his own synagogue, Temple Sinai.
- Julius Rosenwald built 5,000 schools for Black childrenSears president Julius Rosenwald partnered with Booker T. Washington to build about 5,000 Rosenwald Schools for Black children in the segregated South, educating some 600,000 students.
- Julius Rosenwald gave Sears workers a share of the profitsIn 1916 Julius Rosenwald and Albert Loeb launched one of the first comprehensive profit-sharing plans at Sears, open to every employee; 90% of workers joined.
- Julius Rosenwald gave away $687,000 on his 50th birthdayTo mark his 50th birthday in 1912, Julius Rosenwald gave away $687,000, including $250,000 for the University of Chicago, and kept giving about $500,000 a year.
- Julius Rosenwald built good housing for Black ChicagoansIn 1929 Julius Rosenwald built the Michigan Boulevard Garden Apartments, 421 homes for African Americans in Chicago, investing $2.7 million for a modest return.
- Julius Rosenwald funded 25 YMCAs for Black AmericansJulius Rosenwald offered $25,000 to any city that raised $75,000 for a YMCA for African Americans; between 1911 and 1933 he helped build 25 YMCAs in 24 cities.
Sources
- Julius Rosenwald Wikipedia
- The Educational Activities of Sears and Roebuck The Friday Footnote, NC State University
- Magnanimous Merchant: Julius Rosenwald Archbridge Institute
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.