Hammond Times, Volume 12, Number 5, Hammond, Lake County, 22 June 1917 — Page 10

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Just What the Red Cross Is extracts from an JLddreis bw B. J. BOX.

Bate 190S, when Congress specially ehartrd Tbo American Red Cross, every resldet tnun, woman and child in America ia oatitlod to held membership In it. Tha American Red Crocs, while purely volunteer organization, is officially designated fcy the government to supply the work cl ta army and navy medical corps, and to officially receive and distribute on behalf of the government all moneys and supplies required to relieve communities overwhelmed by disaster, and to co-operate, through its base hospitals and other milt tary units, with the army and navy.

The machinery of the Society Interlocks closely with that of the government. Tha President of tha Society is the President of the United States; its Treasurer is the Federal Comptroller of Currency; the War Department audits its accounts; the Surgeon General of the United States Medical Corps and an Admiral of the Navy head its committees on military and naval relief.

Ia time of war the government takes over the equipment and personnel organised by the Society, and every physician, curse and officer on its roll is automatically given proper military rank. So, you see, it is not s mere incidental piece of relief machinery which the American Red Cross is building. Twenty-five movable base hospitals, each of them capable of providing for the needs ot an army division of twenty thousand men, have been organized during the past twelve months. Five have been provided for the Navy. The equipment for these iospitals. costing something like thirtyone thousand dollars each, has been provided and stored in orderly fashion, where it is instantly available. The trained personnel, consisting of 261 surgeons, pharmacists, dentists, nurses, assistant nurses, stretcher bearers, orderlies, clerks, hospital cooks, carpenters, etc. has been drawn from tho strongest hospitals and Red Cross Chapters in twenty-five of our great American cities, and, for a period of two years, ia pledged to respond to the call of tha government for active field service.

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HEN a'greaY sorrow b'efalls a household the bonds of relationship grow

stronger. In the brilliant revival of half-forgotten memories, joys and griefs of early life stand forth on the screen of memory, to remind us of the close ties of family. And so it is with our nation in this time

when our big American family is gathered in council. We count the cost, but we dare not shrink while we remember our traditions. J Some will suffer physical agony, and no one of us may hope to escape untouched by sorrow. Hardly do we wish for such immunity. With the time for sacrifice at hand, suffering in forms which in normal times we dread will almost be welcomed. : C And yet there are limits beyond which it has not been granted to humanity to endure. Iest those limits be reached we seek now to prepare in ways which later opportunity may not offer. J Friend and foe will find the men in whom the nation reposes its trust have not been wanting in the will and the courage to do their appointed tasks on field and sea. Nor shall those men find that the men and women with whom they place their hope for solace when they fall, shall have done less than their utmost to prepare for their tasks. tf To many a stout loyal heart the call of humanity and of country will be more peremptory than the sighs of those dependent upon them. Regardless of the fact that our Government seeks to absolve from risk of battle many of those who leave dependents, is there a man worthy of the Great Call of Country to whom some one does not, at least occasionally, look with confidence for some sort of necessary aid?

Here irtf-ilLj 'Chere may be many too young or too old or to fight their own or their nation's battles, who will feel most heavily less thrust depriving them of fond protection.

too weak the merci-

1 Whatever else we may be doing to help our country, and whatever else we may be willing and waiting to do, let us not lose this opportunity to help along the work of the Red Cross. J L'et us realize that every penny contributed to it will ease, the throb of pain in some human breast, somewhere, some time, in war or peace. I Let us not stop our contributions at one dollar if we can give one dollar and one cent, nor at two dollars if we can give ten, nor at twenty-five dollars if we may, in fairness to ourselves, make it one hundred dollars.

C The men and women of.ti!?"1 and of America to whose wisdom we look for guidance in'affairs of State, in affairs of religion, in affairs of science, in affairs of business, and in affairs of all other human activity, unite in saying: "This is a worthy cause," 9 and if you and I need more authoritative endorsement, it is not lacking. To have faith we must have hope, to have hope we must have charity, and it has been said: The greatest of these is charity Cf There is no charity more practical than the work of The American Red Cross

The American Red Cross is designated to take charge, under supervision of the Medical Corps, of all patitnts turned over to it in what we know as the second zone the zone of the military bate. Here, in the great base hospitals organized and equipped by the people in times of peace, the wounded soldier and sailor meet ior the first time what is comparable to a regular hospital establishment. Here he receives expert surgical attention and the; best care and nursing that a grateful people can provide. Letters from his dear ones at home are received and read to him here, and his letters home are written for him by clerks provided in the hospital. ' Here he stays until well enough to bo transported to one cf the great general hospitals commandeered by the government, back many miles from the war front, or until he is' discharged to his home. Let us build our machinery now com mensurate with our other resources. No organization holding a membership of two or three hundred thousand can truly reflect the generous impulses of our people. Japan has more than two million members enrolled in her Red Cross. May there not be a vital connection between this fact and the righting fitness of her armies and navies in her recent war? Germany had, at the outbreak of the war, nearly a million and a half members in her Red Cross. Does this not partially explain the fact that her military and civilian population have been cared for as no other nation ia Europe has been cared for in this terrible war? Austria's Red Cross, with a membership of 585,000, broke down in the early stages of the war; her machinery was not adequate. While men died on the battlefield and in her hospitals, she had to st,op, as God grant we may not be compelled to stop, to patch her machinery, to expand it, and to bring into being what every nation should have before the call to the flag goes out.

It Is An Honor To

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$ Ind., June 1917. Kama of City. For the purpose of providing for the relief work of the American Red Cross to be administered by the War Council appointed by tho President of the United States, and in consideration of the subscriptions of others. I promise to pay to the American lied Cross War Fund, William G. McAdoo, Treasurer, Dollars payable as follows: one-fourth July 1, 1917; one-fourth August 1. 1917; one-fourth September 1. 1917; tho balance October 1, 197, or as follows: if " contributor is not a member of the Bed Cross and desires to have $1.00 of this con- Signed trlbution ued as dues for Annual Membership, please so indicate on this card. . Address Yes or No

Tills page advertisement is donated to the Red Cros by The Times Newspapers

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