Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 131, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 June 1918 — The Spending of Your Hundred Million Dollars [ARTICLE]

The Spending of Your Hundred Million Dollars

Busiest Budget in AU the World Is a Red Cross War Fund—Every Dollar Spent Alleviates Misery.

By WILL PAYNE

Last summer the public subscribed a hundred mllUon dollars to the Red Cross. M the latest statement over eighty-five millions of It had been appropriated. Where has/trigone ? you ask. Fer many mohthi the world has been spending over a hundred mil Hon dollars a day for the destruction of life, limb and means of subsistence. Call up what you have read about the war’s devastation. The American Red Cross’ enormous job is to do whatever It can to alleviate that —not after the war, not after governments have deuterated and resolved; but right now, at the minute, on the spot It's amazing that It has done m much with so little money. Last antumn the Italian army fell back precipitately. On your war map that meant rubbing out one Une and drawing another half an inch further! south. Over there in Italy it meant ] thousandsof poor families fleeing from] their homes. Major Murphy, Red Crow Commissioner la Europe, rushed to the scene and wired: “Indescribably pathetic conditions exist, involving separation of mothers and children, cold, hunger, disease, death.” In November and December the American Bed Creas appropriated three million dollars tor relief there —a large sum, yet small In comparison with the need. Condensed Milk for Children. Soldiers are only a part of the Red Cross’ work —probably the smaller part Every Instant, somewhere tn the vast flood of destruction, a band' reaches Bp in appeal. It Is pretty apt to be a child’s hand or a woman’s. When the. Red Crops commission reached Petrograd it asked the gov“What is the m« urgent

thing?” The government replied: “We must get condensed tank for the little children here.” The commission got the milk. At one spot in France farm work was stopped by lack of horses. That meant more hunger. The Red Cross got In a big tractor and set it to plowing for the community. There are a million needs. Cold, wet and the deadly physical strain of the trenches Wndermlne men’s constitutions. A frightful scourge of tuberculosis has developed In France. The Red Cfoss has built sanatoria, provided over a thousand beds and nurses. Thirty Millions for France. I have here a big sheaf of sheets filled with figures. One Item Is thirteen million and odd dollars —the amount which, up to that time, had gone to the local chapters'Of the Red Cross in the United States for local relief. Twentyfive per cent of *the money subscribed through the chapters eventually goes that why. Over thirty minions have been appropriated for work in France. Here is a million and a quarter —in round numbers — tor military- hospitals and dispensaries; over a million and a half for canteen service, whole French and American soldiers, relieved from the trenches, can get good food, a cot, a bath, and have their clothes disinfected —and so go on for their brief holiday clean, rested, nourished. There are over three millions for hospital supply service; half a million for rest stations for American troops. AM of refugees —eleven thousand families—accounts for nearly three million dollars; carte and prevention of tuberculosis takes over two millions; care of hapless children over a million ; rellet work in six devastated dis-

tricts, including care of five thousand families and sufficient reconstruction to make houses" habitable, required ever two millions. , Misery on an Unparalleled Scale. These are all largo items; but the Red Cross Is, grappling with human misery on an unparalleled scale —a world of it The item for relief of the blind amounts to four hundred thousand dollars. The dispensary service sends supplies to more than thirty-four hundred hospitals. The Red Cross receives and distributes more than two hundred tons of supplies dally at Paris For tixfe distribution and its other wwtk'ir rßiuJres a big transportation service of thdtoA and trucks. This transportation service has cost a million hM h half, and its operating expenses run to a million dollar* Ev«py dollar it spendb iheans mlbery alleviated. Its WOrtt is binding abroad for the United States the best good will in this world. It is building the best good win among ourselves. Whatever else the war may produce, we shall bo proud of our Red Croon

I weal to say to you toot so other eryotowtom tince the world beyaa bee ever done euc* yreet oonotonoMoe work with the efficiency. dtoyotoh and enderetonddM. often under edoerw oiroOMOstonoee, that has been dene by the Amerloon Rod Croat in France. General PertMng.