American merchant and philanthropist, born at Springfield, IL, on the 12th of August 1862, and educated in the public schools. From 1885 to 1906 he was president of Rosenwald & Weil, clothing manufacturers, Chicago. In 1895 he became vice-president and treasurer of the mail-order house of Sears, Roebuck & Co., Chicago, and in 1910 president. The gross sales of the company, which were $1,750,000 in 1896, increased under his management to $258,000,000 in 1919. He served during the World War under appointment by President Wilson as a member of the Advisory Commission of the Council of National Defense. In 1918 he was sent on a special mission of cheer by Secretary Baker, of the War Department, to the American troops in France. In 1919–20 he served in Washington as a member of the President’s Industrial Conference. He devoted much time to work for philanthropic, educational and civic organizations. He gave $150,000 to Tuskegee (AL) Normal and Industrial Institute; $250,000 for a building to house Jewish philanthropic organizations of Chicago; and (with Mrs. Rosenwald) $750,000 for new buildings for the university of Chicago. Of the latter sum $250,000 was used to erect a building, Julius Rosenwald Hall, for the departments of geology and geography, and $500,000 for buildings for the medical department. He founded dental infirmaries in the Chicago public schools. During the World War he gave large sums to relief organizations, in 1917 alone $1,000,000 to aid sufferers in eastern Europe. He contributed generously to, and took a leading part in securing contributions for, the Hoover Children’s Relief Fund in 1920–21. Beginning in 1914, he stimulated a programme for building rural schools for negroes in the southern states by agreeing to contribute toward their cost and toward the lengthening of the school terms, provided both the whites and the negroes of the neighbourhood contributed also and that public funds were appropriated. Up to 1920, 800 schools were thus constructed at a total cost of $1,500,000, of which Mr. Rosenwald gave $400,000. In 1920, 500 additional buildings were authorized for immediate construction at an approximate cost of $2,000,000, of which Mr. Rosenwald agreed to pay $500,000. At the close of 1920, 14 cities had Y.M.C.A. buildings for negroes, costing altogether $2,000,000, because of Mr. Rosenwald’s offer to contribute $25,000 to each city under certain conditions. His share in the cost was $350,000. He was an official of several leading philanthropic, civic and educational organizations of Chicago, including the university of Chicago; also of the Rockefeller Foundation, Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, the Baron de Hirsch Fund and the American Jewish Committee, and was identified with many other movements for public benefit throughout the country.
On December 29, 1921, it was announced that Mr. Rosenwald had pledged about $20,000,000 to safeguard the interests of Sears, Roebuck & Co. during the critical period of business readjustment after the World War. He increased the company’s fluid assets by purchasing for $16,000,000 part of the real estate owned by the company in Chicago, and gave the company from his own holdings 50,000 shares of its common stock (par value $100). In 1920 and 1921 the company had paid no dividends on its common stock and it was apparent that its accounts at the end of 1921 must show a deficit. But Mr. Rosenwald by this action enabled the company to readjust its finances without impairing its capital stock, and protected its stockholders, many of them employees. It was recognized generally that he established a precedent which raised the standards of business when he thus faced heavy loss in order to protect those who had bought shares because of their confidence in his leadership, and also in order to foster the practice of employees’ participative investment.
