Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 89, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 April 1918 — Page 2

Demand for War Nurse Brings Problem

Public Must Aid bu Releasing Trained Workers for Armu Service ••• *

HE GROWING demand for nurses for service with the American army is ) creating a problem which eventually (\ must be solved by the civilian popula■hsf sfiß tiOQ of tlie Countr -V. Every city and town in the country is affecte d by the unparalleled call for yTr* » nurses, for upon every community ? $ there rests the responsibility of releasyjj ing as many nurses fts possible for military service and adapting itself to the new wartime conditions which are bound to follow. The country has shown a determination that its soldiers and sailors shall have proper care, declares Mfss Jane A. Delano, director of the department of nursing of the American Red Cross. Miss Delano has been responsible for the organization of the great war nursing service of the Red Cross. * “The calls made upon the Red Cross nursing service by the government have been met up to this time,” said Miss Delano, in discussing the growing need of nurses. “The gravity of the situation lies in the problem immediately confronting the country. It is Inconceivable that our boys and men, who are offering all they have for us, should not have the best care that the utmost skill and devotion can give them. Nurses have responded splendidly to military service, as soon as they have realized the enormity of the needs. “The nursing profession will not fail. But the fact that must be brought home to everyone is that every nurse released for military duty leaves a vacancy in civilian life. And this, too, at a time when there is an Increased amount of sickness and distress brought about by the very war conditions which decrease the number of nurses in civilian hospitals. - “By a recent estimate of the surgeon generars office not far from 30,000 nurses may be needed, if the wpr continues, for our army alone, and the allies are depending on us to supplement their own nursing service. There are between 80,000 and 90,000 nurses registered in the United States. Approximately 17,000 of this number are already enrolled Red Cross nurses. This enrollment is the reserve of the United States’ army nurse corps and navy nurse corps, and from it nurses are also supplied to the United States public health service ds required. “Since the declaration of war the department of nursing has selected and equipped for service with the army nurse corps 4.204 nurses, and with the navy nurse corps 570. It is maintaining several hundred more directly under the Red Cross, including 89 nurses in F.rance, 12 in Roumania, three in Greece and one in Serbia, and 56 Red Cross public health nurses on duty in the sanitary zones surrounding the cantonments. There are also over 2,000 nurses, organized into units and practically ready for mobilization. “Though the enrollment of nurses with the Red Cross averages 1,000 a month, not even this number will meet the constantly increasing needs of the government,” continued Miss Delano. “So far, by careful adjustment these demands have been met without seriously disorganizing the home conditions. But from now on every possible effort will have to be made by the general public, as well as by the nursing profession and nurses’,training schools to meet wisely and effectively the crisis that is created by the rapidly decreasing number of nurses in civilian hospitals.” When asked how the general public could contribute to bring this about. Miss Delano outlined several plans of co-operation. “The general public,” she said, “can co-operate in such vital matters, as releasing more private duty nurses for military duty. It can do this definitely and immediately by utilizing hospital facilities, visiting nurses, and similar agencies where one nurse can care for several patients; by families learning to care for minor illnesses in their own homes, and by preparing by whatever means are afforded in their communities to assist in all matters pertaining to public health, “A striking example of how the women of the country have already begun to take hold of the situation Is the fact that over 50,000 women have satisfactorily completed the Red Cross courses of. 15 lessons each in ‘Elementary Hygiene and Home Care for the Sick’ and ‘Home Dietetics,’ which were established for the purpose of aiding women to care for the sick in their own homes. Several groups of men, about to move into isolated districts, have also taken these courses. “Then,” continued Miss Delano, “public interest la needed In recruiting the nursing profession. The country through the surgeon general, through the lied Cross, through the council of national defense.

through training schools - everywhere, has expressed its need of more nurses. Capable and educated young women can perform no more patriotic service than by entering training schools for nurses and thus preparing to adopt nursing as a profession. This crisis is not just of this year and the next and perhaps the next, but for ma ny years to come. The sick and wounded may before long be crowding our civilian as well as our base hospitals. We shall be confronted by serious health problems for many years as an aftermath of the war.” Since the entrance of the United States into the war the number of pupil nurses entering training schools for nurses has increased 20 per cent over the year before. Very generally, Miss Delano said, superintendents and directors- of training schools throughout the country have, with great resourcefulness and energy, arranged for the training and housing of an increased numoer of studeffts. Sometimes when the latter has not been possible, pub-lic-spirited people have placed suitable accommodations at their disposal. In some cases, too, the hours of training have been arranged to permit students to take the course and live at their own homes. Miss Clara Noyes, one of the most distinguished women of her profession in the United States, recently superintendent of the training school for nurses in connection with Bellevue and its allied hospitals in New York, and at present director of the bureau of field nursing of the Red Cross, has been acting as field agent for this bureau for some weeks, addressing mass, meetings in a number of cities, urging the recruiting of nurses. Hospitals and training schools are undertaking arduous, difficult and heavily increased tasks with enthusiasm, as a patriotic duty, she reported. Also, they have given anti are giving in many Instances the most valued members of their staffs of nurses for military service, in the same spirit of sacrifice that has made the individual nurse give up all consideration of personal comfort or advantage, to face stern duties abroad; and the woman who would eagerly have gone, on foreign duty stands by her post when most* needed at home, with the steadfast purpose of serving the colors with all her ability wherever she might be assigned. The young probationer, just starting out on her hospital course, finds one of her greatest satisfactions in the knowledge that she, too, is serving the colors from the very first day of her training, which she does very literally by aiding in the care of the civilian sick and thus helping directly in the present emergency. another of the satisfactions of her workfis that immediately upon the completion of her course she enters upon the full responsibilities and opportunities for usefulness of the graduate nurse. Miss Delano pointed out further the wide scope of activities open to the4rained nurse, and the fact that after the war, when all the world will be looking to a new foundation of public hearth and welfare, women of superior ability will be needed in greater numbers Ilian ever before in hospitals and schools of nursing as superintendents and supervisors, Instructors and lecturers. The profession of nursing, Miss Delano emphasized, is not alone the care of the sick in hospitals and homes. It is the care of babies and prenatal instruction of mothers; supervision of the hearth of schoolchildren; instruction and care of tuberculosis patients; nursing and welfare work in industrial plants; mental hygiene work, and hospital social service; and It enters' into almost every branch of the social service structure. Bulletins dealing in the most concrete way with all the questions likely to be asked by young women considering the nurse’s training, have been issued by the committee on nursing of the council of

THE "EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER. IND.

national defense, and may be had on application to the committee on nursing, council of national defense, Washington, D. C. In the great majority of schools the pupil nurse is at no expense for tuition, board, room, laundry or uniform. The regularity and Interest of the life are strengthening physically and mentally. Salaries after graduation compare favorably with salaries of other professional women, and unlimited opporttjnities are waiting for the nurse at the completion of her course. “The training offers rich compensations for its exacting work,” said Miss Delano, “for the capable trained nurse has gained along with knowledge of suffering and tragedy, the broad, outlook of one who has learned to think in terms of humanity; and the realization that her work is helping to make the world a happier and a better place.” What it means to be a Bed Cross nurse is a question that is asked repeatedly at all chapter headquarters. To be a “Red Cross nurse” Is to . .have met the standards of enrollment of the Red Cross, and to be subject to such calls of duty from the Red Cross as are specified in the enrollment. Red Cross nurses receive no compensation except when on active duty. When called on for service with the United States army or navy nurse corps they reoeive the pay and maintenance provided by law for these corps, and are. entitled to the same war-risk insurance as-ofticers and enlisted men. All Red Cross nurses assigned to duty in military or naval hospitals automatically become members of.the Army and Navy Nurse corps, and after their assignment to duty are no longer under the supervision or direction of the Red Cross. In order to meet the increasing demands of the Army and Navy Nurse corps, the Red Cross has modified its former requirements for enrollment. The age limit has been lowered to twenty-one years, and in special cases nurses over forty may be accepted. Smaller schools for nurses have been placed on the accredited list, and applicants are judged on their merits. • The American Red Cross has no schools for nurses, nor does it give or authorize any short course which qualifies one as a trained nurse. Short courses which it does give in “Elementary Hygiene and Home Care of the Sick” and “Home Dietetics” are not equivalent to hospital training. But satisfactory’completion of the first course is the first step in becoming a Red Cross Volunteer Nurses’ Aid, the term which is applied to those women who, having met definite requirements of the Red Cross, are available for such service as they have voluntarily pledged themselves to give. If it becomes necessary to rely on the assistance of volunteers to aid in the care of Sick and wounded soldiers and sailors, they will be selected from among those who have had this instruction. The women so selected will be given an opportunity for practical experience of one month of eight hours dally in approved hospitals. No guarantee of selection for service is given by the Red Cross, but it urges upon the women of the country the practical value of these courses to home and community. “Every day, at the headquarters of .the Red Cross in Washington, nurses are being mobilized for duty at home or abroad,” sgid Miss Delano. “A call may come in the morning for a group of ifurses for service with the British expeditionary forces, in the aftemooh for another group specially skilled In contagious work for a cantonment hospital at home, or for public health nurses needed in the sanitary zones surrounding the cantonments. Sometimes they go in units of a hundred or more, sometimes in smaller companies and sometimes alone; prepared for any hardship, or any service, with the bronze letters ‘U. S.’ on the collars of those serving under the government In the Army and Navy Nurse corps, the Red Cross insignia marking the uniform of those serving directly under the Red Cross —small emblems of high service.”

PHOTOGRAPHS OF LIGHTNING.

Nothing is easier than to make lightning photograph itself. All you have to do Is place the camera facing the part of the sky in which the storm is raging and open it as for a time exposure. After the first flash close the shutter at once and develop the plate In the' usual way. Of course it is not certain the flash will come just. where the camera is directed.

Mistress —Susan, I understood that you wolk out with a young man; I hope he IS respectable? “Oh, yes, ma'am; and he is a Frenchman, and can’t speak no English.” “Then how in the world do yon manage your courting, Susan?”. “Law, ma’am, isn’t the kissin’ and huggin’ the same in every language?”

INDEED, YES.

AS IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIME

Old Tudor Architecture of Town of Stratford-on-Avon Haa Been Wonderfully Restored. I Americans, who in prewar days, delighted in visiting “Shakespeare’s country,” would find many changes there now. Quietly and unostentatiously through the unwearying efforts of Marie Corelli, the novelist, and a few who support her artistic tastes, these last three and a half years have disclosed the ancient mysteries-of Stratford. Old houses, with plastered walls, which were eyesores to the visitors and residents alike, have been stripped of their outward ugliness, to reveal the quaint picturesque Tudor architecture of Shakespeare’s time. Wherever It-has been possible the early appearance of the buildings has been restored, and the effect has been a transformation and the restoration of the place as Shakespeare knew It. The ancient “Sword of State” which hangs In Shakespeare’s birthplace was removed from its scabbard in August, 1014, as an official notice that England was at war and the people say tradition forbids them to sheathe the old sword, carried by Shakespeare’s father when he was high bailiff in 1568-9, until England is again at peace. Once at least, since war was declared, Shakespeare’s old home has given.expression to Its feeling of gratitude to Americans for the tributes they have been privileged to pay to it from time to time. That was when the United States entered the war. President Wilson’s memorable message to the congress was proclaimed aloud. Many of the townfolk had almost despaired of the momentous event, and it appears there were only two American flags in Stratford at the time. One was a great banner owned by Miss Marie Corelli and the other waving from the house of John Harvard’s njother. Both were promptly hurled out Into, the breeze of the “garden spot of England,” and thus America had again come Into the hearts of Shakespeare’s people.

War as a Leveler.

Witlrparents, limousines, chauffeurs, a new recruit arrived at the training camp, was registered, and assigned quarters. The chauffeur caught up the luggage. The held up a restraining hand. “Mr. So-and-So is now tn the United States service; he will attend to his own luggage and find his own quarters.” And thus, with no more aid or ceremony than a bricklayer would have received, the son of a man who could have bought the camp and all its appurtenances entered the American army. Not wealth, but what a man proves himself to be, places him as a soldier. Men start on the same leveh save when they have had special training. The work of the war in breaking down class distinctions and occasioning the mingling of classes on more democratic terms has often been noted abroad. The English assistant has learned that Tommy Atkins possesses those virtues of honor, loyalty, courage, chivalry supposed to be instinctive through heredity in those of long and well bred descent. The great wind of the revolution blew a good deal of 'flunkeyism out of France; the war is removing its vestiges.—Detroit Free Press.

Sugar Beet Pulp for Cattle.

The desert cattle ranchers of Arizona and New Mexico have learned that to raise cattle is one business and to fatten them is another. For this reason they ship their cattle to California, where sugar beet- pulp is obtained in abundance. One factory is located near the fields where the beets are grown. The cattle are turned into this field after the beets are harvested. Under the fence is placed a trough which projects outside of the fence just enough to allow the beet pulp to be thrown into it from the cars. The cars run on tracks from the factory to the field and follow the fences around the corral. More space is thus obtained for the beef cattle to feed, and there is but little waste of fodder. In these war days the cattlemen are learning to conserve stock food, as the cattle themselves are conserved for our use.—Popular Science Monthly.

War and the Churches.

One hears much nowadays about the growing reunion of the churches which the war has brought, about. But a dual service which recently took place is probably unique. Not far behind the lines twolservlces were held simultaneously tn the village church —the one tjeing the usual Roman Catholic service attended by the Inhabitants — while the other was a Protestant one for a battalion of Australians “resting” in the vicinity. The proceedings opened by the singing of a hymn by the Australians to music supplied by their own band. Then the French cure addressed his flock, after which it was the turn of the Protestants —and so on —each congregation taking it in turn until the service was concluded. — London Chronicle.

New Light on Anarchism.

It was at our last meeting in Tiflis that the indomitable optimist threw new light on his anarchism. "Kropotkin, Reclus and myself were sitting together in London once, discussing our theories. We were taking a great deal of satisfaction in-the thought that we were anarchists, who recognized no rights of coercive government “But.” he added with a smile, "I said to them: “There is one government br fore which we gladly bow and whosa petty oppressions we' wilUngly endure. You forget our wives.’ Maynard 3wen Williams, in Christian Herald.

DO WELL TO SPEND

Lecturer Upholds Extravagance of the Wealthy. Lavish Expenditure for Luxuries Means That the Prosperity of the Country Is Assured, Is Assertion He Makes. “Because we are the most luxuryloving people on earth, we are also the richest; therefore we have been called upon to finance and to fight to a finish this most extravagant of all wars, and we are able to do it,” said E. Leroy Pelletier, speaking on “Prosperity,” at Detroit "We hear a lot nowadays to the effect that we Americans are a wasteful and extravagant people. And it is said by way of condemnation, or at least of reproof. Yet when the war had been precipitated by the most frugal people on earth —except the more .primitive races of shvages—the extravagant nation was asked to finance and to prosecute the war to a successful finish. “We expect to do Ws from the surplus left from our extravagance. Test And it is because of our extravagance that we have the money to do it “China has great resources. Why are not the Chinese wealthy? Because they have worn the same style of clothes for a thousand years, and have subsisted on one diet —plain rice I The Japanese tried the same form of frugality for centuries and just man-aged-to subsist When they began .to copy American ’extravagances* they became a world power. “It doesn’t matter that the $5,000 roadster is a non-essential to the son of a rich man, or that the luxurious limousine could be dispensed with by the rich man himself —that doesn’t ‘matter. “The point is, those luxuries, those extravagances, those non-essentials are virtually essential to the millions of men and the families of the men whose jobs depend on the making of our twentieth-century vehicle. “The sewing machine, the phonograph, the electric light, the piano, the furniture; yes, the very schools wherein the workmen’s children are educated, are the direct result of the craving on the part of the rich man for those -luxuries. “Here’s to the wealthy man and to the rich, woman who is extravagant—for these play the game. They pass the prosperity around. Rank sophistry those phrases, ‘an old suit is a badge of honor,’ and ‘a dollar paid for a boy to play with is a traitor dollar.’ If taken seriously they would result In terrible suffering in a short time. “Food conservation, not by short rationing, but by changing our diet so as to use those meats and - grains that cannot be shipped so as to supply our allies with those that contain the most nourishment In the most compact form —that is commendable. Every intelligent, patriotic American indorses it and will gladly do his part. “The other is contrary to all laws of economics. And they are laws, not merely rules. 1 *

Music a War Horror.

A grim story is told of an air raid on Paris. If its -truth were not vouched for by the most respectable authority one would say that it was an invention of De Maupassant In his most nihcabre vein. While the work of ’rescue was going on by candle light in one of the houses which had suffered most the crowd was suddenly horrified by the defiant notes of the “Rakoczy March,” blared out apparently by a strong brass band. Every one was aghast at so brutal an Insult till the tenant of a flat on an upper floor said that he had an orchestrion which played that par- / tlcular tune. The explosion must have set it in motion. At the risk of their Ilves some firemen managed to reach the machine, but in the dark, and not knowing' about its mechanism, they could not stop it. It went on till the floor on’which It stood collapsed.

Women to Prove Their Heroism.

What with keeping the wolf from her own door and helping France, her next door neighbor, keep from her premises the groundhogs - who have overrun Europe, England has been having a tolerably busy time. But, undaunted. she Is now engaged tn a crusade to keep the rats from her food, according to an address on the war service being _rendered by the women of England which was recently dellv-? ered before the women’s department of the National Civic federation. If in listing the residences of the rodent population of 40.000,000 upon whom war is being relentlessly waged the women served as census takers and went without chairs upon which to stand at the first sound of a mouse’s squeak, it is evidence of the heights of heroism to which the necessities of. battle have lifted them.

Gulls as Submarine Detectors.

Dr. A. D. Pentz, Jr., of New Brighton, L. L, has developed a plan for using gulls to disclose the presence of C submarines. He suggests thaMioppers 54 Inches long be made of sheet steel and bolted to the tops of submarines, to be filled with chopped fish, which may be released from time to time by means of a crank apparatus inside the vessel. In this way gulls will be taught to associate submarines with food and will gather clamorously over any submarine that may appear In the waters. The scheme has the indorsement of the National Association of Audubon Societies and is receiving serious attention from the United States naval authoridea. ‘5 ?