Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 231, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1919 — Red Cross Peace-Service Includes Continued Care of Returning Fighters. [ARTICLE]

Red Cross Peace-Service Includes Continued Care of Returning Fighters.

SINCE the first call to ana* the chief aim of the American Red Cross hat been the comfort and welfare of the American boys in service. The Red Cross as an organization has been growing with the growing needs of the soldiers, sailors and mac rines since the first transport started overseas. Under the Department of Military Relief of the Red Cross a plan was formed and is being carried out which brings every possible comfort and help to the fighting men —out of lines or in—sick, well, convalescent, maimed or “whole!" Having taken them comfortably all the way over the Red Cross will continue to provide for their welfare until the last man steps off the gang plank of the last transport or leaves the doorway of the last hospital. Care of the returning soldier falls into three branches: Miscellaneous Service tor the comfort and Welfare of Soldiers —Home Service in the Camp—and Recreation. It is difficult to say which of these is the most im> portant, so greatly does each depend on the other, weaving an all-covering mantle of comfort and relief thilt spreads over each and every soldier. How the Red Cross Helps The soldier is not discouraged, but he can’t help thinking, as he lies there in the base hospital, with his stump of an arm or his twisted and waits for the transport that will take him home. When the* day comes at last, he is carried aboard on a stretcher. Beside him are a pair of new pajamas, a Red Cross comfort kit and plenty of “smokes.” Aboard there is a Red Cross man with his hands always filled with “extras.” On the way to the debarkation hospital, there is the same old Red Cross smile and the suocession of sandwiches, pies and coffee. At night, while the train speeds towards the army hospital near his own town, there are the canteen women at the stopping places. When the soldier reaches the convalescent stage, there is the Red Cross house with its home-like features, easy chairs, rugs, music, games, books, newspapers and magazines—the fireplace, the sun parlor or the porch, according to the season. On fine days there is the Motor Corps that takes the soldiers for delightful country spins. It is by these many small attentions, that mean so much, that the Red Cross endeavors to make “getfing well” easy. A sick or wounded soldier does not get well soon if his mind is not happily attuned and his personal troubles at rest. Sick, convalescent or well, a soldier may have recourse to Home Service, one phase of Red Cross work. Anxiety over home affairs —uncertainty’ over the safety and welfare of loved ones—have done more to weaken the morale of the men than most grievous wounds received in battle, or even the endurance of short rations, or trying days and nights under fire. Red Cross Home Service endeavors to bridge the gap between the soldier and his home, and to act as the intervening agent to whom all petitions may be trusted and all cares consigned. Five hundred Red Cross Home Service representar tives are working in the camps of this country and in the army hospitals, with their 60,000 patients. Among the latest innovations are the banking agencies, established in twenty-two demobilization camps, under the authority of some nearby clearing-house or bank, enabling a discharged soldier to deposit part of his discharge money for transmission to any bank he may designate, in exchange for a non-negotiable receipt. At Camp Taylor alone, 1152,216 was deposited in this way within the space of eleven days. The breadth and scope of the Red Cross peace program, as it concerns the returning soldier, is 'readily appreciated. He cannot feel neglected or forlorn as long as the Red Crosß is with him, and surely no possible comfort, no possible need has been overdooked. The three great arms work together amicably, smoothly, jointly, •ach performing the tasks that fall within it's immediate field, yet extending" its activity to dovetail happily with the other branches: _ m the field, in the camp, in (the borne, the Red Cross is omnipresent wherever the soldier goes or wherever bis interests lie. It knows no armistice 4n its fight against sickness, worry, despair or trouble. * ——if editor’s Notsi —This Is the first of o series of six articles Issued from the Lake Division headquarter* of the American Bed Cross giving official details of ths peace time extension of B*d Cross work In accordance with tne Meal of service to humanity which lathe basis of all Red Cross activity.