Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 43, Number 157, 14 May 1918 — Page 8

PAGE EIGHT

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM, TUESDAY, MAY 14, 1918

Wha

Our

led Cross Is

The American National Red Cross is, by Act of Congress, the official medium of communication between the people of the United States and their Army and Navy. The President of the United States is the President of the Red Cross. The War Department audits its accounts. The work of the Red Cross for the war period is directed by a War Council created by President Wilson on May 10, 1917. In a statement announcing the appointment of the War Council, the President said :

"The best way in which to impart the greatest efficiency and energy to the relief work which this war will entail will be to concentrate it in the hands of a single experienced organization which has been recognized by law and by international convention as the public instrumentality for such purposes. Indeed, such a concentration of admin-

The Red Cross organization is world-wide .The American Red Cross today is world-wide. It reaches into every American village, and overreaches all national boundaries. There are chapters in our insular territories and in practically every Allied and Neutral country in the world: in Hawaii, the Philippines and Porto Rico, in .Cuba and Guatemala, in London and Paris, and the Eastern countries. A year ago there were 562 chapters in the United States and 486,194 members. Today there are 3,551 chapters, 11,000 branches, 50,000 auxiliaries, 22,000,000 adult members, and a Junior Membership comprising a large proportion of the school children of the land. American citizenship and Red Cross membership are coming to be coincident terms. Red Cross ideals The strength of the Red Cross is in its ideals. The War Council expresses these ideals in three 'reat aims: 1 To be ready to care for our soldiers and sailors on duty wherever and whenever that care may be needed. 2 To shorten the War by strengthening the morale of the allied peoples and their armies, by alleviating their sufferings in the period which must elapse until the American army can become fully effective abroad. 8 To lay foundations for an enduring peace by extending a message of practical relief and sympathy to the civilian population among our Allies, carrying to them an expression of the finest side of the American character. The American people are translating these Weals into facts into money and personal service. Last June the War Council asked for $100,000,000, and the people pledged $110,000,000, oi which $108,000,000 has thus far been collected collected at probably the lowest cost of collection in the history of such undertakings. The Red Cross active workers are estimated at millions, and they are doing almost everything known to commerce and science, from bookkeeping to surgery, from knitting socks to feeding American prisoners in Germany,

istrative action in this matter seems to me absolutely necessary, and I hereby earnestly call upon those who can contribute either great sums or small to the alleviation of the suffering and distress which must inevitably arise out of this fight for humanity and democracy, to contribute to the Red Cross."

The generosity of the American people keeps pace with the fast-growing scope of Red Cross activities. The growth of Red Cross has been so amazing, the multiplication of its activities so rapid, that few can be expected to know all that Red Cross means to the world in this hour of the world's need. Many who. are active in one Red Cross endeavor are unfamiliar with scores of other Red Cross pursuits. How Red Cross is organized The great secret of Red Cross effectiveness is organization. Millions of people are working together through the medium of an organized machinery which co-ordinates the work of each with the work of all, and transmits the vast quantity of finished products to the people who need them. Thus benevolent emotion is turned into practical aid. The organization co-relates and directs the work of the chapters, co-operates with the Army and Navy in relief measures, supports relief work abroad, recruits the personnel for overseas ser.ice and forwards to its agents in foreign lands the relief supplies produced by the chapter workers or purchased in the market. Red Cross administration in the United States is decentralized. Red Cross is too vast to be completely administered from one spot. It would disintegrate under its own weight. So the country is partitioned into thirteen Divisions, and there is a fourteenth Division for the territorial, insular and foreign chapters, with National Headquarters as the co-ordinating force. In each Division there is a manager and his staff, to whom the chapter officials are responsible, and the chapter workers deal directly with the Chapter Officers. The organization is military in its well ordered effort, but quite nonmilitary in its democratic equalities, for the chapter worker is quite as important as the National Headquarters official. The Red Cross is organized for efficiency, not for display of authority. Volunteer service All of the Division Managers, and many of those on their staffs, are volunteers. Unpaid service is the general 'rule in chapters, divisions, and at National Headquarters. Most of the department heads in Washington axe volunteers,

Service at National Headquarters Washington Headquarters is a type and sample cf the sort of service that Red Cross commands all over the country, high talent without remuneration. The staff is drawn from all parts of the country, made up of men and women experienced in large affairs, with various talents, each fitted into the department where his or her particular talent serves best. The treasurer of the Red Cross' is the Comptroller of the Currency of the United States. ' The comptroller of the Red Cross is the comptroller of a great national corporation. Civilian relief work is directed by one of America's ablest experts in social service work. Men of wide experience in purchasing, warehousing, and shipping conduct these several activities of Red Cross. Noted physicians and surgeons constitute the Advisory Medical Roard, and some of the most distinguished nurses of the country, the corresponding Committee on Nursing Service. Red Cross technical activities are in the hands of technical experts. Every dollar of the war fund goes to war relief Red Cross affairs are economically administered. Every penny has been spent under an appropriation by the War Council after careful study. Membership dues pay the entire cost of operation, with a large balance for the handling of disaster relief and other work. The work of women In all the volunteer service of Red Cross none is more notable for devotion, none so notable for extent as that which the loyal women of America are giving in their chapter work. It is estimated that there are two million of these women, many giving most of their time to this work, all giving unstintingly. It is they who do the handiwork of Red Cross; its surgical dressings, hospital garments, knitted garments. To meet the demand for these articles, appropriations of $11,000,000 for raw materials have been necessary so far. During the month of April, 1918, the women of the country produced approximately 25,000,000 surgical dressings, 400,000 hospital garments, 500,000 knitted garments, 400,000 pieces of clothing for refugees, and many other important and useful articles. The chapters are performing other great tasks. They are helping dependent families of soldiers and sailors. It is estimated that 100,000 such families are receiving help from the Red Cross at the present day. Co-operation with the Army and Navy The Red Cross is in close co-operation with the military authorities of the country. Officers of the Army, the Navy and the United States Public Health Service are assigned to National Headquarters of the Red Cross to ensure a thorough understanding at all times of the ways in which Red Cross service can be most helpful. By order of the Secretary of War, a Red Cross representative and an appropriate number cf assistants are accredited to each camp and cantonment, to each division of the army in the field, and to all army base hospitals. These Red Cross men, and others attached to naval training stations and hospitals and working in co-operation

with the military authorities, provide emergency hospital and other supplies where needful, keep the men. in the hospital in touch with their families, and in many other ways add to the comfort and morale of our men. Red Cross commissions abroad Red Cross Commissions operate in France, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Serbia, Russia, Roumania, Palestine and Great Britain. The Commissions and their staffs are in the theatres of war, cooperating with the Army and Navy forces and with the military and civil authorities of the' Allied Countries; co-operating also with other relief agencies, avoiding duplication of effort and confusion of purpose, assisting other, agencies and assisted by them. As in Headquarters at Home, so on the Com missions, are men and women of great ability, using their talents and their experience where they are most needed. These Commissions estimate the budgets for foreign relief, and the appropriations are made by the War Council after carefully scrutinizing and sometimes amending the budgets, e What the Red Cross'does The story of Red Cross accomplishment and its plans for the future will be told in more detail in other statements. Here are some of its principal activities, which suggest the importance and scope of its work: Organization of base-hospitals and ambulance companies, recruiting and training of nursing personnel for service in the army and navy medical corps, production of surgical dressings, Hospital garments, refugee clothing, knitted goods, emergency supply service for our Army and Navy at home and abroad, sanitary; service around cantonments, care of dependent families of soldiers and sailors, study of the problem of crippled soldiers and sailors, canteen service for troops en route, feeding of American prisoners in enemy countries, casualty information, service to convalescents, disaster relief, and relief for our Allies, including canteen work, tubercular work, hospital supply service, ambulance and hospital service, dispensaries, recreation centers, reconstruction of homes and villages, maternity; work, repatriation of refugees, rehabilitation of mutilated men and many other, forms of service. The Red Cross, supplements the work of the Army and Navy. The Red Cross War Council is endeavoring in every way to increase the effectiveness of the whole program of relief by the utmost co-operation with the Commission on Training Camp Activities, the Y. M. C. A., Knights of Columbus, Y. W. C. A., Y. M. II. A, and other great patriotic agencies. Red Cross Chapters have statements showing in detail how the War Fund is being expended. Ask your Chapter for these statements. This is the first of a series of five announcements covering the work of the Red Cross. Succeeding statements will deal with activities of the Red Cross in detail.

The American Red Cross

The space for this announcement has been contributed by" thia Nwr?'"- n the work of the Red Cross

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