ROSENWALD, JULIUS ( , _ ) , American merchant and philanthropist, was born in Springfield, Ill., on August 12, 1862, the son of Samuel Rosenwald and Augusta (Hammer slough) Rosenwald. His father came to the United States about 1854 from Germany and finally established himself as one of the leading clothing merchants of Springfield, Ill. Julius Rosenwald was educated in the public schools of Springfield. At the age of sixteen he went to New York City to learn the clothing business. In 1885, together with his brother, Morris S. Rosenwald, and his cousin, Julius Weil, he established the clothing business of Rosen wald & Weil in Chicago. In 1897, he became active as vice-presi dent of Sears, Roebuck & Company. The mail-order business prospered enormously, and the gross sales of Sears, Roebuck & Company increased from $3,020,557 in 1897 to in 1929. In 1909 Richard W. Sears retired as president of Sears, Roebuck & Company, and Julius Rosenwald succeeded him in that office and held the position until 1924, when he became chairman of the board and remained in that position until his death.
In 1916 Rosenwald, with Albert H. Loeb, treasurer of the com pany, was instrumental in establishing an employees' savings and profit-sharing pension fund. Provision was thus made for the old age of employees, and by voluntary contributions of employees and contributions of the company, both invested in the stock of Sears, Roebuck & Company, a profit-sharing pension fund was set up, which in the twenty years between its inception in 1916 and 1936 had paid 65,000 former employees the sum of 203,989 on deposits of their own of $10,042,304. In Dec. 1921, Rosenwald pledged from his personal fortune the sum of $21,000, 000 to safeguard the interests of Sears, Roebuck & Company dur ing the critical period of business readjustment after the war.
In December 1916, at the request of President Wilson, Julius Rosenwald began his service as a member of the Advisory Com mission of the Council of National Defense, and he served as chairman of the Committee on Supplies of that body until the summer of 1918. During the period of America's participation in
the war he made huge purchases of equipment and materials for the Army and Navy and for the Allies of the United States.
As soon as he began to acquire a large personal fortune, Rosen wald started to engage in charitable and philanthropic activities on a great scale. He was active in Jewish charities in Chicago from the early nineteen hundreds until the time of his death. He became actively interested in the welfare of the Negro in 1911 and maintained that interest throughout his lifetime. The Julius Ros enwald Fund, established in 1917, is dedicated to "the well-being of mankind." Rosenwald, who was firmly opposed to perpetual endowments, provided that the entire fund, which in 1928 was worth $40,000,000, must be expended within twenty-five years after his death. His propaganda against perpetual endowments ex ercised a creative influence on philanthropy throughout the world.
The chief effort at first of the Julius Rosenwald Fund was to better the condition of Negroes through education. The Fund has contributed to the construction of more than 5,000 schools for Negroes in fifteen southern states, with contributions from the Rosenwald Fund, local tax funds, Negroes themselves and other white friends interested in Negro education. It was always one of Rosenwald's principles of public giving to inspire others to give by the example of his own gifts, and frequently he made his offers, large and small, in such form that they had to be matched by other gifts before they were gained.
In addition to his work for Negro education through the Julius Rosenwald Fund, Rosenwald served as a trustee of Tuskegee Nor mal and Industrial Institute, founded by Booker T. Washington in 1881, from 1912 until the time of his death, and he donated approximately $200,000 to the activities of that institution.