Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 281, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 December 1917 — RED CROSS EXPANDS [ARTICLE]

RED CROSS EXPANDS

Growth of Organization a Marvel of the War. f ■ From • Membership of 20,000 It Has Increased to More than 4,000,000 .f Members. Chicago.—The growth of the American Red Cross in the last year has been one of the marvels of the war. The public mind has in some measure kept track of the army, the navy, the aviation corps, the marines, and other parts of Uncle Sam’s great fighting machine as they expanded. But consider the case of the Red Cross —least known of all three years ago: When the war began there were 20,000 members of the Red Cross scattered about the country, chiefly In the larger cities. Not one citizen In twenty could have told how it worked or what it did. except that in great disasters it cared for the victims. Even one year ago, when the war had been going on fcr more than two years, and it seemed inevitable that we should be dragfird in. there were only 163.587 Red Cross members and 250 chapters. Today there are more than 4.000.000 Red Cross members, and 2.736 Chapters, with new chapters being formed and new members enrolled all the time. Four hundred thousand of these 4,000.000 members are paid subscribers of the Red Cross Magazine. Of course this tremendous expansion, coining in a single year, has utterly overwhelmed the scheme of administration which was adequate for 170,000 members. An entirely new system was imperative, and it is now being Installed. Briefly, this is how it works:

The active head of the Red Cross is General Manager Harvey D. Gibson, who has volunteered his time for the duration of the war. The work is apportioned among bureaus —those of development, publicity, women, nursing, civilian relief, military relief, supplies and accounting. The territory of the United States has been divided into thirteen sections, each headed by a division manager. Each of these managers, like Mr. Gibson, has volunteered his services without. pay 30 long as the war shall last. Each manager is now reorganizing the administration of his division te correspond with thatafWashington, with a director at the head of each bureau —many of them also volunteers, working without pay.