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Show "CHIEF OF AMERICAN RED CROSS ANSWERS CRITICS ! i For Every Dollar Received It Spends More Than a Dollar to Help Our Soldiers and to Relieve Our Allies at the Front By H5NBY P. DAVISON. TMs graphic account of the American Ked Cross work and methods was contained con-tained in a speech made at the Hippodrome, Hippo-drome, New York, on December 16 by the banker whom war called into seiv-ice seiv-ice as active head of the organization. WHEN $ 100.000,1)00 -was raised for the Ked Cross by voluntary volun-tary contribution in this country coun-try it thrilled the allies. They were amazed. Nothing of the kind had been known 'in the world before. The' vrcn delighted. When that news reached Germany through the transformer trans-former it read something like this: "It is reported that some fund, said to be $100,000,000, has been contributed to . the Eed Cross." " The Germans visualized some six or 'fTyht men at a table chipping in the hundred million dollars as their personal contribution. Now, "we want to send a Christmas message to the kaiser to the effect that there are 20,000.000 men and women sitting around that table. 1 want that number to be members of the lied Cross, and when they accept that membership we want them to accept a sense of responsibility in connection with it, and that responsibility is this: That they shall be loyal members of the Red Cross and that loyalty means many things. There is a propaganda going forth in this country. It is a German propaganda, propa-ganda, and it is very prevalent and fervent fer-vent in the east, more so than in the west, and it goes much like this: "Did you know that Mr. Bo and So told me last night that Mrs. So and So said that Mr. So and So had been told by Mrs. So and So such and such a thing about the Eed Cross? Of course I did not believe it, but that is what he said." Now that is nothing more than German Ger-man propaganda. It iB going to be stopped, not because of any authority exercised by the Ed Cross, but because the public are going to demand that it mast stop. Whatever else anybody is going to do in this country, if the people peo-ple kuoiv it, they are not going to contribute con-tribute to German propaganda. Thoughtless Criticism. There is another criticism of the American Eed Cross that is a thoughtless thought-less kind of criticism, and that also might to bo stopped, and the way to stop it is this: Somebody may say in very good faith that he is told such and Mich a tiling is so. It is your duty to say to that person: "Do you know it is so? If you don't, stop repeating it until you find out, and if you find out Ihnt it is so write a letter to the Eed Cross. Thev will thank you for your Vlctter." b- Do not make any mistake about it 'ilie Red Cross not only permits, but nrL'es, criticism when it is constructive add honest. But this idle talk going ou is harmful, and it must be stopped. Wo have an organization which is perfectly enormous. Six months ago we started with 200,000 members; today we havo 6,300,000 members! We started start-ed with 200 chapters; today, including branches and auxiliaries, we have 10,-OOO 10,-OOO chapters! Wo have 10,000,000 women working for us in this country all at the same salarv. It is a voluntary vol-untary organization, and we are getting on wonderfully. We have not 100 per cent efficiency, but if you people will see to it that the Red Cross is not criticised criti-cised except constructively we will get the efficiency. Let me quote here, to illustrate some of the criticisms, a letter I had from a United States senator, saying: "It grieves me greatlv that you will not take Roman Catholics into responsible nositions in your organization." I handed the letter to a member of the war council sitting at my side, John Rvan, and he handed it back. I handed it" to mv assistant on my left, Martin Egan, and he handed it back. Then 1 handed it to my little Trish-Catholic secretary, Foley, saying: " t-'will withdraw with-draw from the room and you will telephone tele-phone for the senator." No Lines Are Drawn. I had a letter from a very distinguished distin-guished Jew, a friend of mine, who wrote: "I am sorry you don't see fit to take important Jews into the organization organi-zation of the Red Cross. It sems to me that many of them could be used." He named five men. I replied that I "was exceedingly sorry that, as to those five, we could not ta'ke them, first, because we already had three of them, and then because w-'e did not know the other two. We can show you in the Eed Ctoss as fine a collection of Baptists, Methodists, colored people and every other kind of people there is on the face of the earth. As to German-Americans, I do not know any. There used to be some, and some of'these who were then German-Americans have been and are as loyal friends of the Red Cross as any men we ever knew. I want to say this: If you will show me a man or woman born in Germany, or born of parents born in Germany, who is as loyal and patriotic as we are, I will show you a man or woman that has severed home heartstrings that we have not had to sever,'' and my hat is off to him or her. As to whether we help the Germans or not, the answer is "No!" but if a wounded German or a wounded Turk falls within our lines he is treated just as tenderly and carefully as an American boy. I want to mention one or two other things, especially the question of salaries. sal-aries. The largest salary in our organization or-ganization is $7500. It is paid to one individual who was thero before, the war broke out. I can best give an idea of the expenses of the Red Cross by making this statement, and I make it with a great deal of pleasure. " It is this that for every dollar given to the Red Cross for relief a little more than a dollar goes for relief. There may be some who won't understand under-stand that, and so I will explain. Our overhead expenses are so low that we are able to pay them all from our membership mem-bership dues and still have left out of that fund enough to carry on relief work. The funds which mav be provided provid-ed from the Eed Cross for Halifax will not come out of the war relief fund, but out of membership dues. The contribution contribu-tion for work in China, $250,000, comes from that fund. When we get money for the war fund we take it to the bank. When we withdraw with-draw it to spend, there is attached to it the interest which has accrued to it while it was in the bauk. For every dollar we get for relief about a. dollar and two cents goes for relief. The reason we are able to do 'this is because be-cause we get such wonderful voluntary service. Wonderful Organization. We have a wonderful organization, due to the fact that we have the finest spirit put at our service that there is in the country. We have never summoned a man or woman who has not responded to do his part. . I want to mention one matter, just for a second, and I emphasize it because of its great importance, and it is this: The first obligation of the war council of the American Red Cross is to make every possible provision for our army and navy in this country and wherever it may be found. We are only supplemental supple-mental to the army and -navy, but we believe we have made every necessary provision. We have organized what is known as our iome service, which, though less spectacular, will some day be recognized as4ne of the most important impor-tant works done in America by an organization. or-ganization. The war council was appointed on the 10th day of May. On the 31st we sent to France seventeen men as a commission, commis-sion, headed bv Major Murphy. These men were leaders in medicine, surgery, bacteriology, typhus, house building, construction, transportation and in many other lines of work which we believed be-lieved we might be called upon to do. We have spent thus far in France $21,000,000, and have appropriated within, with-in, three days $21,000,000 more. We have sent commissions to Russia, to Rumania, Ru-mania, to Italy and to Serbia. We are working behind the lines in Turkey, through the Syrian and Armenian relief, and we are working behind the lines in Poland. But we are asked, Why does not the government do our work? This is a very natural question, and frequently asked. There are two answers. The first is that this is a work of emergency. emer-gency. No one can tell when or whence the call will come. It requires immediate imme-diate action, immediate response without with-out red tape. Governments tried for vears to do this kind of work, but found thev could not do it. Another reason is this that the war is not alone a war of armies and navies but a war of peoples. peo-ples. I want to illustrate the fact that the government cannot do the work in this way. If I were delegated to undertake to do this service of the Red Cross with the idea of rendering the greatest service serv-ice to the greatest number of people in the world, and if I had the alternative of choosing between a check for $500,-000,000 $500,-000,000 from the United States government govern-ment and a voluntary contribution of $100,000,000 from the people of the United States, plus the women, I would not look at the government check. Why Doing This Work? Now why are we doing this work? Why are the American people doing this? The reason the American people are doing this is because we are at war. We have been at war since August 2, 1914, though we did not know it until April 6, 1917, and, in saying that, I do not for one moment mean to imply that we should have gone to war before we did. But I do say that, having gone into that war on the same issues with no new principles involved, our very act of going into the war was an admission on our part that that war had been our war for thirty-two months, during which time those people around those 5u0u miles of hellish front had been fighting for us as well as for themselves. What are we accomplishing by doing all this! In the first place, we are carrying on the greatest humanitarian work the world ever knew. In the next place, we are directly saving the lives of American soldiers. How are we doing do-ing that? I wish I had the power to paint the picture so that you could see for yourselves. All that I can do is to give 3ou a few sketches and from them you may get some idea. i On the arrival of General Pershing we went to him and said, "What can we do for you?" He said, "Thank you very much. If you really want to do something for me. for God's sake buck up the French. They have been fighting fight-ing for three years and are getting ready for their fourth winter, and if they are not taken care of nobody can tell what will happen to us." A French soldier of the devastated region, after being in the war zone for four months, comes out for his ten days' leave. His clothes are covered with vermin ver-min and torn; his shoes are out of repair, re-pair, and his spirits are low. He came out to go to his home. But he had no home; his home had been swept from the earth as clean as that floor, and his mother or his wife or his children had gone he did not know where, any more than you know. Well Cared for. That Frenchman comes out of that trench, and he is met by your Eed Cross representative, and he is taken to a structure you have arranged; his clothes are taken from him and sterilized and mended. A bath and a hair cut are given to him, and a shave if lie needs it; if he has whiskers and wants them ' trimmed, they are trimmed. He gets three hours, or three days' rest. Then he is taken to the place where his home was, and there he finds a structure temporary tem-porary in character which you have built 'for him, and within that structure he finds his mother or his wife or children, chil-dren, whom you have found for him. He finds "them provided with food, with clothing and with fuel. He spends his holiday, and then goes back to the trench. What effect do you suppose that has had on that French" soldier? It has had the same effect upon that French soldier that it would have on you. Frenchmen are made of exactly the same kind of clay as we are made of. They are just as susceptible to encouragement en-couragement or discouragement as we are. When he goes back to the trench he stands there a moment and says: "Thank God the Americans are here. They are not yet ready in the line, but they are here to take care of the members mem-bers of my family; thev have found me and they will provide for them. 1 now have something to live for and something some-thing to fight for, and I will fight as long as I live." When that man takes his place there, have you ever thought that he takes the place of one of our boys? If there is any break in that line, there is just one thing to stop it with, and that is Pershing's Per-shing's army, prepared or unprepared. And so I submit that that is the way in which your Red Cross is directly saving the lives of your American boys. We believe also that we are directly contributing to the shortening of this war. We are working all over France and now also in Italy. I do not know whether you love Italy as I do, but when you read the news of the 28th and 29th of October your heart must have bled to conceive' of Germany going across Italy, having in mind Serbia, Eumania and Belnum. It was too terrible. The news from Russia has been de- pressing. The time has arrived "when we mav et and will get bad news, but j find that news oiily distressing, never discouraging. When we get news of that kind from now on it can have only one effect, and that is to lead us to put our feet a little more firmly on the ground, our shoulders a little further back, and take about two more hitches to our belt and say: "Well, if that is the hill we have got to go up, we will go up that one because we are going to win this war." And discouragement never helped anybody up any kind of a hill. Americans Thanked. On November 1 we received a cablegram cable-gram from Ambassador Page; on the 'Sid the Red Cross representatives were there; on the orb. we unloaded four or five o;ir'o:i'"l5 of supplies; on the 10th we received a cablegram from the ambassador am-bassador acknowledging on the part of the Italian government deepest appreciation appre-ciation 'for the generous and etiective aid given by the American Ked Cross. There was another message warmly thanking the American people for their generous gift, and also for its hish moral value. I want you to differentiate differen-tiate between governments and peoples, and I want you to remember that when the Italian peasant is met in any part of Italy by the American flag and by the things that are going to keep him warm and save his life he has his morale mo-rale raised. Not very long ago a representative of the Queen of Rumania sent in a card and within two weeks your Red Cross commission went to the queen and said to her: "The American people have sent us. We understand your situation and we have brought several carloads of the things most needed." Along with the supplies went fourteen doctors and twelve nurses. The queen of Rumania Ru-mania thanked the entire American nation na-tion for the assistance it had rendered in Rumania's hour of suffering. Then there was Russia. When we sent our commission we had Russia's address, and JJr. Billings went to a man whose niiiue was- Kerensky. He said to Mr. Kerensky: "The American people sent us here. We have such and such materials with us. What is the best thing we can do for Russia? ' ' Mr. Kerensky replied : ' If you want to help Russia, feed the babies of the Russian Rus-sian soldiers. M Dr. Billings cabled for 4.500.000 this of milk. We have sent 3000,000 tins and are sending the balance. bal-ance. We are sending them to our representative, rep-resentative, who is still in Petrograd and is going to remain therev - He is going" to feed that milk to those babies unless and until they become German babies. I have never been in Russia, but I have an idea that I know something about it. I think they -are in the position posi-tion of having their "boss gone away, and they are riding around on the cars. I would not trust one of them five minutes in tlie pantry, if there was any iam there, if I didn 't want them to get it. They would get it all over every- I thing, including the door knob, but that's all they could do. I don't believe be-lieve there is any more design or maliciousness ma-liciousness in a Russian peasant than in a child six years old, and I have not believed tho man lives today who can either put them in or out of the war. I may be wrong about that, but cer- tainly this is no time to go back on Russia or to give her up until she is lost. I could go around the circle of 3000 miles and quote you instance alter instance in-stance of Red Cross work. But I want to came back to this country for a moment. mo-ment. There is- not a man or woman here who will ever outlive this war or the effects of it, and there is nor a man or won.nn here who has not some circle of friends. A Final Observation. Let us look forward a few months I don't know how macV. 1 can sje ihat circle gathered in the parlor or in tin-shop, tin-shop, and there will be one ther with one eye or no eyes, one there; with one arm or no arm, one there with one leg ; or no logs, and they will be talking about one or two who are not there. Now I ask you what ; art in that ri-n-versation is the man or woman going to take who has not done everything in his or her power all the time for those boys while they were in hell for you and for me. I will tell you what part they are going to take. Thev ;: ingoing in-going to take no part. They are going to be strangers in their own land. The time has come when the man or woman is going to .be measured uov by money, not by name, not by family but by service. You don't have to be a general; you don't have to wear a unit'orm, nor go to a foreign land. You mav not have to get out of your chair, hut what you have to do is to play this game all 'the time, and to do whatever is put up to you to do. You have to stand by the administration. That does not "'mean that you canot criticise the administration administra-tion if you do it in a helpful way". V'ou have to stand bv the Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., the Knights of Columbus, the Red Cross, the Thrift campaign, the Liberty bond campaign. You are to do everything put up to vou to the full measure of your power. This waV is going to be won. but when it is going to be won and tho cost of winning it are going to be decided, not in the trench, but by the people at home. The sooner we concentrate every ounce of power in our bodies ro wiuniug this war the sconer the war will be over. It is going to be over. There is going to be a meeting around a table known as a peace table. I visualize it in this way: We are operating today in France i , a large artificial limb iju'torv, which is turning out the best artificial limb 1 i known to modern science. We are building build-ing another in Italy. Wounded I'rench I people, in future years, are going to i walk around on American limbs. Pos j sibly the people of the world are going I to walk around on American l'mbs or on that American spirit whi-'h the Amorn-au people are now sending to ! Kurope. 1 believe the very work the j , American Red Cross i-- doing for the peoples of the world is establishing a I relationship among those peop'es which j I will have a very marked effect on de- i termining the character of tkz peace to j he declared. And th work of the j American Rod (.Toss is going to make j you and your children and vour chil- Viren's children, in whatever pprt of the world they may be, proud of being Americans. |
