In the miserable streets of war-time Naples, the idea of the Boys' Towns of Italy was born.
Monsignor Carroll tells us that it was the words of an American Colonel In Naples that led him to reflect on the homeless children and on his own responsibility - the responsibility of every right-thinking man - to do something about it.
When he opened soup-kitchens and shelters for the street-boys, it was the American Relief for Italy and the American Red Cross that helped him. The first substantial help in money came from the wounded G Is in the General Hospital in Leghorn.
The U.S. Ambassador Myron Taylor visited the cellar refuge near the railroad station in Rome where Monsignor Carroll lived underground with his first community of fatherless and motherless children. So great was his admiration for this movement that he later accepted to be Chairman of the Board of the American organization set up specifically to help the Italian Boys Towns.
Only two years after this work began President Truman could already make a statement to the effect that "I cannot think of a more practical philanthropy nor one that breathes more deeply the spirit of true Christian brotherhood than this work."
The men who had led America's armies looked with admiration on the work of Monsignor Carroll. Only by bringing up a new generation of responsible young citizens could a more peaceful world be achieved.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower called it "A splendid enterprise."
General Mark Clark: "The work being accomplished by the Italian Boys' Towns should serve as a model for those concerned with guiding the future generation in the path of world peace and stability."
General Grunther, Supreme Commander, Allied Powers, Europe: "Your efforts fit in very closely with the objectives which the NATO nations are attempting to accomplish ."
Those who were most closely in contact with the Boys' Towns of Italy and could really see what was being accomplished were high in their praise. The U.S. Ambassador in Rome, J.D. Zellerbach, wrote: "It has been my privilege to observe at first hand the good done by Boys' Towns of Italy. I wish all Americans could (see.)"
These were not mere words. When this great Ambassador died, he left a large
legacy in his own will to help Monsignor Carroll and his work.
After him, Ambassador Clare Booth Luce, equally concerned about the terrible dispersion of funds among fly-by-night organizations, when asked by McCalls Magazine how she personally coped with so many appeals, gave her own practical philosophy, "Consider first the great and long-established organizations such as the Girl Scouts, Boys' Towns of Italy, etc." Again she wrote, "I cannot commend too highly the work being accomplished ."
- S. journalists, keen observers, gave their whole-hearted endorsement to the Boys' Towns of Italy. Bob Considine saw them as an embodiment of all that was best in American giving and called the Boys' Town of Rome, that he visited many times, "A miracle and a tribute not only to the work of a good man but to the heart of America ."
Sentiments of pride in American participation in the work of the Boys' Towns of Italy were echoed in Congress. Senator Irving Ives, "Every American who has learned of the thrilling, inspiring story of the Italian Boys' Towns has become intensely interested in this great humanitarian undertaking." Aqain, "Americans of every national origin and of every creed are proud of the Boys' Towns of Italy. They are the outstanding examples of what a voluntary foreign-aid program should be ."