Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 42, Number 183, 14 June 1917 — Page 8

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM. THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1917

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man a Henry P. Davison, of & Co, of Weir Yodc, a head of Way CbendL tae aanaeemeat t?Devfsoa rnmOA derate all bis time to ffl peobafcSy be the greatest money rsrfsft trimrf tot a boDvoPoloot purpose the Tt&aiem urn, are facta making the auuufatj bej&ad Csoae stands -next to the -,heYnft4alady war-tsm mjwm f the Liberty bonds, hre rotaatenUy Cross, jnOfSaals are asking; themWhy i PfeafAst Wflseaueo -ooaoanwd Of a support for the Red-Cross? avle?lsen, sacrifice .prrrfte rtha-Jtad: Canes financial oam-Ttaeticie-ia' written to be 'totsMVoestfens. f Xaufea a, mttm. for the first-tlm fn 'nnr prepares to send wtiu our oncantsed and well i look after the bodily welfare ItSHa. ere naotroid.y well prepared better prepared than ever baa 'been at the outset of war.. And Abe eqraimtatton, which has brought tijs aboat haa not offered Its invaluable kmdrj charter, aa it waa in Spanish ySm days, bo, its-goes under presidential order foenattraa an. integral pact of all 'America ia awmkenfaur to fbe oil tbe Bed Cross and askm to boat ft and itswork. Although 'Its r infirm ia one-ef the beat known, of all designs, these ia widespsead ignorance concerning the society ftsetf. This ia not astosfehmg, for, old athectablenia Cbe society h its present status ia a leaflet le fnf ant. It waa authorized by Congrew sad accepted as part of oar war structure by petal Jialljf proclamation- Just-five years ago. . i . .Five yean ago the entire- force of Bed Cross CMQatfref and employees occupied a single room Id tie- War DepartntemV Today the organizataoaecopiaa a large, new building of its own, a veritable poem in snowy marble and bronze, a ataractnre costing over $600,000, and occupies it to overflowing. Five years ago its membership was confined tothe philanthropic few who kept it afire with their annual contributions. Today the rofl, ia working vpward toward the half milA ROO CROSS AlXlC I ARY AT WORK lion mark, aa more anal mare Americans learn abeots the purposoa of the aasociation, while the for meaibentnp in a sinsle day to more than the total membership six yean ago. What is the Bed Cross? What does it dot Who doe its work? Can I help? These are the peUan asked most often in the marble building across from the White House. The 5cd Cress tries to keep up with these floods of queries by distributing its literature and by answering letters, but it is falling Vehhvd in the tak. The whole nation seems to br aakiug thece questions. And aparently as frt as individuals learn what, the Red Cross stands for and how they can help it along as individuals they add their names to the mounting irtmb'ship roll and stand ready as volunteers to assist in the work. No doubt two-thirds of the population of the United States either never knew that the Red Crois as an ideal came into existence since our CMl War or they have forgotten that.it is so yoothfuL It never occurs to the modern man to vender who takes care of the victims of wars and disasters. The modern man usually does 1 ot have to bother about such things, anyhow. When a fire breaks oat the apparatus quickly arrives, and when there is a riot the police are on band, and when we have trouble with a foreign country the army and navy are in evidence. Thesf things seem to provide themselves miraculously the modern man takes them for granted, like the mall delivery end the newspaper. And yet when a great disaster comes, or thousands are killed and wounded in battle, some expert, organised force has to take care of the victim 1, if they are to be taken care of at all, and until the Red Cross was organized less than sixty yean ago there was no such organised fore Even in our own Civil War tbe nursing of wounded men was done in a haphazard way "y volunteer women. The nation ia proud of .hese women-it has dedicated the beautiful new 3ed Cross building in Wash-L-rton to their mc: lory but at the same time wi. moat admit that the Cfrfl War nursing waa

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not what it might have been. - Some of the nurses had more pity than trained ability, and as a result men died or remained : hopeless cripples . throughout their lives when proper treatment the sort of treatment an injured man receives in a modern hospital might have saved them. The battle of Solferino occurred in 1859. " It went on for several days. In that time 80,000 wounded men lay on the field Frenchmen, Italians and Russians. Thousands of these remained for days in extreme agony, uncared for. Thousands of them died for want of care. It . was one of the supreme horrors of all history. - It happened that a Swiss Henri Dunant went upon this battlefield and saw these dying, neglected men. He told about it so vividly that the nations of the; world decided that it was time to take this atrocity out of war. The Treaty of Geneva in 1863 for the first time provided for -the immunity of medical and nursing services in battle, and the sign of that immunity was to.be a red cross. And from that authorization has sprung the great international order of mercy . The Red Cross. The United States did not adopt the Geneva Treaty until 1882. From then 'until the year" 1 900 the Red Cross was a ' struggling' organization largely a private charity without official recognition or national standing. - It first impressed itself upon the notice of the country by . its relief work at the Johnstown flood in 1888. When the Spanish War broke out it was still outside the Government and not organized 'or prepared along military lines. In 1904 Miss Mabel T. Boardman became the head of it " Her indefatigable work caused Congress in .1905 .to give the organization a federal - charter and designate it as the official relief organization of the United States of America. It is the only organization permitted to give volunteer aid to the victims of war. Other institutions seeking to be of humanitarian service in time of war must act through the Red Cross. J ' . ' ' The organization is two-fold in several particulars, and therefore not quickly -understood by the public. It is both official and private in its character. That is, the Government has adopted it officially as the auxiliary war relief . service. The President of the United States by

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JEFFERSOI K IAEAN Meo. Corps U S.A Director GenerdL PPfVZTrtM r 0f? Mlt-t TAR.Y fcUF. law, is also president of the Red Cross. The comptroller of the currency is its treasurer. Its accounts are audited by the War Department, and its annual reports are addressed to Congress. Yet the Government does not finance the Red Cross. On occasions Congress has voted contributions of money1 to it. Congress helped to build .the. new building, for instance. But the great volume of its funds spent for relief work is contributed by private individuals. In times past most, of its cash has come in the form of gifts, less than 80 per cent of its receipts being from membership fees! But with the quickened interest in the Red Cross the membership fees are becoming an important source of revenue. . Jn" time of war the Red Cross acts as the auxiliary to the medical and nursing services the sanitary services,, as .they are called, of Army and Navy. It is a case of the auxiliary being' greater- than the thing aided. Many doubtless wonder why the Army and Navy does not maintain its own hospital service on an adequate scale. The answer is that it has been found to be more efficient and less costly to give I this task over to the semi-private Red Cross.. If "there were no Red Cross doubtless the military services would have, had their enlisted reserves of surgeons and nurses, and their storehouses of ' hospital supplies. But it would have been a costly .thing to do, and the chances are that its service would have been no better prepared for war than many of the other departments of the Army and Navy. T But. the Red Cross is ready. Its enlisted 'nurses number 7,000. These are sufficient in" ' number to "care-for the victims of a fighting army 'of .1,400,000 .men. War experience is that five per cent of a fighting army are in the hos- . . pitals. That is, of 1,400,000 men at i the trenches, 70,000 will be sick or wounded. 0ne competent nurse can care for ten wounded men. " . In. this, work the Red Cross is merely !the auxiliary. . Both Army and . Navy have their ",,- medical -and nurse corps. But these are maintained only at such size as to meet the requirements of peace. When war comes the Red Cross furnishes the additional surgeons and nurses re-: quired for the enlarged Army and Navy. When serving together a Red Cross nurse is subordinate in rank to the regular service nurse, and the Red Cross surgeon does not rank equally with the Army and Navy surgeon, although all - are subject to the same discipline and rules.

Now the service within the Red Cross is also two-fold. Some timorous individuals seem to fear that in volunteering to help in the Red Cross work they are enlisting for definite terms and may. be dispatched to any point selected by their superior officers. But this is far from being the case. The stories we will read after the war of beautiful young girls who bravely joined the Red Cross and did heroic nursing service in tbe base hospitals will be purely fiction. The Red Cross will not let any woman serve at the front as a nurse even if she demands the privilege, unless she rs a graduate nurse of some recognized institution. The nursing service is already recruited up to its limit, and it will be a long time before all of its enrolled nurses see war hospital service. But a limited number of men and women volunteers who desire to experience Red Cross service with the Army will be given the chance. A few ambulance drivers and men who can do special executive work will be needed with the units sent abroad. And ths' hospitals also have work for non-professional women superintending the housework at the hospital and serving as matrons of the nurses' dormitories, and so on. These women are to be called nurses' aids. It is estimated that there will be as many of them as there are nurses, so that if 7,000 nurses are all sent across the ocean, that many nurses aids will accompany, them. - - The service which the Red Cross asks of the millions of American women anxious to help will be' purely a voluntary, unbossed, home service. For the most part it will be needlework, the preparation of supplies. ' These supplies include surgical dressings,, which cannot, be made for the Red Cross unless , the seamstress has had special instruction ' in the work; and other articles such as bed linen, pajamas, bathrobes, and other comforts which sick men in hospitals need. . Most of these latter can be made by any intelligent woman without special attention. All such articles must comply with standard specifications, bat these specifications and plain directions are furnished by, tbe Red Cross. The materials are bought by the volunteer. v To train Jay women for the tvarious tasks which must be done, in great numbers if, the nursing service is to have the home . support which will make it a success, the Red Cross in many cities conducts speciaL courses of instruction. - Classes for this instruction can be organized by any ten, women together, and except in 'extraordinary instances the expert teachers will be furnished. The" Red Cross now has a tremendous call upon it. for these, teachers, and in some cases it is impossible to supply them. . There are three of these courses, named respectively Elementary, Hygiene and . Home

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Care of tbe Sick, Home Dietetics, and Preparation of Surgical Dressings. It will be seen that the first two courses are designed to make every student more efficient in her own home aa well as to prepare her for possible voluntary service with the Red Cross. The instructors in the first two courses are trained nurses or other experts approved by the national organization. For the third course, that in tbe preparation of surgical dressings, lay teachers, approved by the Red Cross, are supplied. These teachers are usually graduates of the classes who have .proven themselves proficient. From the women bearing certificates of proficiency in the first two courses the nurses' aids, who will see real war service, are being selected, but always from those eager for the service. There is no compulsion upon anyone who has taken the courses to volunteer for active hospital work, nor even any obligation upon them to do so. Nevertheless, the Red Cross is not embarrassed for want of volunteers for such work. The problem is rather one of selection among those clamoring to enlist. , The surgical dressings course will have to be "repeated to many thousands of American women if the war proves to be serious for our Array. It is probable that before many months there will be in almost every city and town of the United States women with certificates of competency to teach classes in the preparation of bandages. The work is spreading out like an endless chain of letters. From each class a few are given authority to teach others, and tbe expert knowledge spreads quickly. Just now the service of the Red Cross in war is engaging the public's attention, but it should not be forgotten that if the Red Cross nerer went to war it would still justify its existence and its official status by the good works which it ' renders in time of peace. It has an emergency service ever ready to speed like a fire department to the scene of disaster. This work is carried on entirely by the professional, paid enlistment of the Red Cross. The organization carries on a wide first-aid , campaign, instructing men in mines, shops, quarries, and on the railroads, how to save their . own and their fellow-employees' lives. It maintains volunteer lifesaving corpc of swimmers along the rivers and coasts to save lives from drowning. Last but not by any means least it 1ms inaugurated the promising work of rural visiting nursing. In this it is extending to the poor and ignorant in the country districts the care which people in the congested quarters of our cities receive from the visiting nurse associations. The ..health statistics show that the rural districts need such a service more than do the cities. At present this service is still in its infancy, bat it seems safe to predict that the , day will come when it will be one of the most effective social service movements ever undertaken in the United States. The Red Cross came into existence through the desire of nations to soften, the hardships and suffering of war. It wes an act of mercy, of humanity. But now, thanks to the development of modern surgery and nursing, while retaining all its merciful qualities the Red Cross has become an important factor in the defense of a nation, in the nation's ability to endure. In our own Civil War when a man was wounded that usually ended his service with the army. It was just as effective for the enemy to wound a man as to kill him. But the Red Cross and the sanitary forces of modern armies have ended that condition. Germany has been returning as many as 80 per cent of her wounded to the trenches, and the Allies have been doing nearly as well. In large part the expert surgical and nursing care of the wounded explains the ability of modern, armies to keep up their strength of numbers in spite of tbe heavy casualties. American nursing has no equal anywhere else on earth, arid American surgery is not sur passed. ; Thus the American Red Cross becomes doubly important from the strategic point of view, from the selfish point of view of winning the war. If our troops engage the enemy in Europe to any large extent, it would not be surprising to learn that a higher percentage of - , wounded Americans are restored to fighting condition than was ever known .before in war, thanks to the Red Cross at the front supported . by a devoted population at home. " " J

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