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Show WHA T YOUR AMERICAN RED CROSS IS DOING IN WORLD WAR Henry P. Davison Tells Something of Stupendous Program Undertaken With $100,000,000 National Subscription By Con st a n cc Drexcl IpiIE most stupendous and appealing appeal-ing call in the history of the world confronts us. Millions of men lie dead wounded; millions of women and children chil-dren are homeless; hundreds of towns and tillages have been destroyed. We havo been out of it; now we are part of it. The American people have the great opportunity, thrqugh their national na-tional relief agency, to place their country coun-try forever in the annals of civilization as the greatest exponent of humanitarian humanita-rian service." Speaking these words, Henry P. Davi- eon, at the helm of this program, did not look like an Atlas weary of the burden on his shoulders. Mr. Davison is -Die man whom the President chose as head of the new Red Cross War Council. As such, It was he who was r instrumental in instigating and direct--W ne recent campaign for $100,000,- m00 for the Red Cross. One hundred million dollars in one week, and that after it seemed as If the American peo- 4y pie must have -just about emptied their pockets, if not their hearts, for the Liberty Loan. What was the Red Cross doing with all this money? What were their plans H or the present and future, and were they justified in trying to gather all American relief work under one big head? A Big Job I had gone down to Washington to t find out. and Mr. Davison was kind enough to leave a busy conference to answer' a few questions. Of his readiness readi-ness to take the public into his confidence confi-dence there can be no doubt. "This is the American people's Red Cross," he said. "We of the War Council Coun-cil are merely servants of 100,000,000 people who have entrusted us with a very large amount of money to use on their behalf in the alleviation of misery, in- helping to make comfortable our own soldiers and sailors, and in giving renewed re-newed heart and courage to our allies. "We are only just beginning to spend ' the money. Every cent of it will be expended in the most careful way and v$th the utmost regard for what we brieve are the desires of the people. We.are making careful plans, all of Which will be announced as soon as te' mature. We arc effecting an or- gluiization which we believe is and Mill fce extraordinary in character. We are i getting about us talent and service that cannot be bought with money. Men i - of the greatest executive ability are giv-lijgheir giv-lijgheir time and best thought to the 1 service of the nation through the Red dross. "Rut we need the support of the wjlTlc world. We want criticism, con-sfnictive con-sfnictive and helpful. We thought a few. weeks ago that we had a vision of tho' mission of the Red Cross in this gigantic struggle, but we know now tljaV the call to service infinitely tran- sQcnds any conception we had when we t undertook our work. It is a very big jf Jcjb', a"d it's going to be hard to do it f wpll. Rut the Red Cross will do it well. Tile shall tell the people all about it, for i w( shall run the Red Cross as an open bojok, and we want everybody In this cquntry to know everything about the Red Cross every day. I"And we feel confident that the ultimate ulti-mate execution of this job, which will i ertgage the attention and effort of prob-ftVjly prob-ftVjly millions of American people, will bo something of which the whole nation C will be proud." V Genius for Harmony Ir. Davison had come out of his own sua ictum sanctorum and we were talk-i talk-i ln? in the reception room of the new t. Rd Cross building in Washington, situ-V situ-V ' atrt next to the Corcoran Art Gallery. On that hottest of hot August after noons the sun was streaming in through the glass roof of the marble hall and pc.'pple were streaming in and out, for i the new Red Cross is teeming with ac- 1 tivjity, Hut Mr. Davison was smiling, gehial and serene, and. like all really big people, simple and unaffected. Hs 4 eems to have a perfect genius for k smoothing ocople the right way, and r Rt .his magnetic touch the biggest prob-t prob-t lems melt away. Though he Is one of ou' big international financiers with the habit of "thinking in continents" (being a partner of J. P. Morgan and merely oil leave of absence to handle this big Red Cross job). I am certain T.iat even if the most violent of labor ' agitators could meet him he would not possibly decry him as one of the hated 2 capitalists. Mr. Davison's personality If fairly radiates sympathy and good will. Jn approach him on the question of v n,ic autocratic methods of which some 1 1 of the independent relief associations 1 1 h.v, d jmm ff( ( 7T!rl Five Months Ago, 6Z ((uf 1 Wn 1 Declared, There ' WM M M fey Mefr rou 'S mft -- - j! u. t- Z'f " IfFH r-yi-y-x - fO to centralize its work seemed rather -z ffn , v-5s "I - iJ 8VJ -i 4t, -3 i is delicate, but he smiled comprehendingly z -fj . 'v'f 1 h . V -n V as if he could well understand the objec- -1 ff '1" K & , " ' v. At 1 J r 1 ;i - -i "Without doubt," he said, "in building jf x f i f . J up an emergency plant like this, with 3 ' f j 't V "'J? 1 '"J speed as a . determining factor, we're "-T K &i i a iV" jv " 41 bound to make some mistakes. But the From his Wall slreat j ' 7 Vv ' Z ? f f .TH .'Vi. . main thing now is to get action! What "e, where he is a v H 1 f " J e jl partner in the J. P. fl -"V i,Sf 'tf 1b we a,m to do is to scrap all useless red Morgan Companyj . ? tvVI j ' 5" ' S tape and construct a machine that will Henry P. Davison haS U , ' ' e S i . . L 4 1jvs . I j! function swiftly and directly for the been transplanted to l?v'; - 1 " V ' " ). ' V . '"L T present emergency. We must avoid all Washington to head &iM X ? -,'' 'V,5?Sl'' '- ti t- v-v"! ! duplication of effort. We must get the Red Cross St , . , f-t ' , I V , " ' "i 0 things done. ' - a. f ii & ' v - -"" Wifi! A Letter From Paris I t' ? idi-. E S I "As for the situation on the other ' &liJlJ3ZZZmZJ&32? to centralize its work seemed rather delicate, but he smiled comprehendingly as if he could well understand the objections. objec-tions. "Without doubt," he said, "in building up an emergency plant like this, with speed as a . determining factor, we're bound to make some mistakes. But the main thing now is to get action! 'What we aim to do is to scrap all useless red tape and construct a machine that will function swiftly and directly for the present emergency. We must avoid all duplication of effort. We must get things done. A Letter From Paris "As for the situation on the other side,vI know something of the need of our allies, for I have been over three times since the war began. And the place to know what is needed is on the spot. iGrayson Murphy, of our War Council, is in Prance making a careful study of conditions, and we have already al-ready acted on his recommendations. It would seem absolutely essential that all the relief over there be centralized. I can get you a cablegram" we have just received in regard to the situation." In a moment the cablegram from Paris was there. It was addressed to Mr. Davison for transmission tonthe committee on co-operation, which has had in hand plans for co-ordinating the work of various war relief organizations with that of the Red Cross. The message mes-sage is so authoritative, coming as it did right from the source, and being the result of careful study and consultation consul-tation by Major Murphy and his aids in France, that it is given herewith in full: PARIS, August 14, 1917. To H. P. Davison: Referring to fund for French wounded and other relief society situations: Contact Con-tact witli conditions here constrains me to urge that in dealing witli problems of co-ordination the following principles must he admitted and applied in every case: First. Function of determination, requisition and distribution of supplies must be absolutely localized in Red Cross Commission here. This is the storm center. Only here and nowhere else can the character, decrees of necessity neces-sity and true destinations of supplies be fi.ved. Considering the proportions and complexities of the immediate and future problems here, no persons or so. cieties remote from this center of demands de-mands and emergencies should be willing will-ing to take the responsibility of taxing already overburdened careo space, i:f-land i:f-land transportation and labor with any supplies that have not been reqifisi-tioned reqifisi-tioned from here with careful and competent com-petent adjustment. Socond. The relief societies here should be aided and utilized by the Red Cross, so as to mature the best a.;e::cls of counsel, co-operative work and riis- From his Wall slreat office, where he is a partner in the J. P. Morgan Company, Henry P. Davison has been transplanted to Washington to head the Red Cross tribution of aid. This view is being recognized here and individual prepossessions prepos-sessions and preferences are disappearing disappear-ing in the 'general tendency to co-operate under a single guidance. This process proc-ess is rather one of evolution and education edu-cation than the fruit of formulated agreements. The requisitions of the commission from here should be met by he Red Cross at home not only through its own resources, but with the enlisted aid of existing societies, who can perform no more useful work than that of aiding in the line of their special experiences and aptitudes in meeting requirements thus formulated. It would seem that formal co-ordination of these established societies with Red Cross is far less important than t!ie abandonment of scattered initiatve in a field where centralized initiative, and direction are manifestly indispensable. indispens-able. Wants must be defined, classified and comparative urgency determined here, and I venture to suggest that the Red Cross at home should have some system of allotment of the task of meeting meet-ing these requirements which will pre serve and extend the elliciency of the established societies. MURPHY. Belongs to ihe People An illuminating telegram, that, for it was all in the family, as it were, and not meant for publication. Therefore, it would surely seem to prove Mr. Davison's Da-vison's point that the Red Cross wants other societies to go on with their work, but that, just as the Government for the purposes of the war has designated certain agencies for certain work, so the American Red Cross has been called upon to care for American relief. "It should be understood that the situation situ-ation as to relief organizations which prevails now as compared witli that before be-fore the declaration of war by the United States is wlioliy different. We earnestly hope that no one will feel that the Red Cross desires to do anything but help. The Red Cross is an American Ameri-can institution, chartered by the t'r.ited States Government, r.r.1 the President of the United States is its president, k The organization belongs to the American Ameri-can people and seeks in this great world emergency to do nothing more and nothing less than to co-ordinate the generosity and the effort of our people toward achieving a supreme aim." Clearly America is not going to repeat re-peat the experience of England and France at the beginning of the war. The fear of hurting the feelings of persons per-sons with great names or great wealth or both, and the fear of" driving away their donations unless they were allowed al-lowed an absolutely free hand, caused untold suffering which could have been avoided. There were great private houses in England turned into hospitals overloaded with every comfort and necessity, and no patients; whereas, in others, under direction of the army medical med-ical corps, thero were crowds of wounded without attention. This unfortunate un-fortunate state of affairs was particularly particu-larly true in France, which had the English wounded as well before they could be transported across the Chan nel. Prior to the outbreak of the war there were three principal relief organizations organi-zations which made up the French Croix Rouge, all of them largely managed man-aged by women and at least' one of them particularly chic and fashionable. When the war burst forth so suddenly the Corps Sanitaire de l'Armee Fran-caise Fran-caise immediately established its own military hospitals to. which mobilized men were attached as doctors and in-firmlers, in-firmlers, but the Government did little to direct the independent relief, fearing to alienate some of the private generosity gener-osity of which they stood in need. The result was confusion dire. I remember one dismal, freezing Xovembcr morning morn-ing in Paris after the war was on our laundress came in with a great tale of woe. Siie had been visiting her nephew in a small town about an hour away from Paris. "He and eighty others, madame." she said, "all young. !a jeunesse de France, madame. were there, mostly ill with typhoid. They were lying about on the floor on straw, and there was just one doctor and a few sol hers as nurses. The place was an unused stable taken over by the military. I said to the majeur, 'No one does anything for them; 1 Five Months Ago, When War Was I J Declared, There Were 286,000 I j Members Throughout the Country ; 1 Today More Than 2,000,000 i I they will die! ' 'Perhaps,' he replied, 'but it can't be helped. And oh, madame, mad-ame, in the very same town, a few streets away, was a great private house fitted up as a hospital and not a patient there. I saw it with my own eyes." Clearly this state of affairs with the Red Cross War Council under Henry P. Davison in action could not be duplicated, dupli-cated, and every American will have occasion oc-casion to be proud of his or her Red Cross. One example as to how some of the relief organizations are co-operating wRTi the Red Cross is the arrangement perfected between the national surgical dressings committee and the Red Cross committee on co-operation. The national na-tional surgical dressings committee, of which Mrs. Mary Hatch Willard, is chairman, has done a marvelous work, according to the statement of the Red Cross in announcing this arrangement. In the New Building 'Tt has made and forwarded more than lfi.000,000 surgical dressings for use in more, than 1500 hospitals on the Continent Con-tinent of Europe, and the organization or-ganization has about 25,000 working members In different parts of the United States. "The arrangement with the Red Cross provides that the surgical dressings committee shall retain its name and organization or-ganization and carry on Its present work in the United States as a national auxiliary aux-iliary of the Red Cross. "The French section of this committee commit-tee will become the Surgical Dressings Service Department of the American National Red Cross. It will administer In France all the surgical dressings work of the Red Cross, and will be in charge of Mrs. C. K. Austin, heretofore director in Paris of the French section of the surgical dressings committee." Such an o rrangement would seem to carry out President "Wilson's idea as ex-pressed ex-pressed in a public statemr nt dated May 12. 1?17: "The best wnv in which to impart the greatest efficiency and energy to the relief re-lief work which this war will entail wiil be to concentrate it in the hands of a single experienced organization which has been recognized by law and by international in-ternational convention as the public Instrumentality In-strumentality for such purposes.' 'as to what the Red Cross has accomplished accom-plished since its campaign to win the support of the American people, a tour of the building, after leaving Mr. Davison, Da-vison, told its story. I was given a bird's-eye view of what had been accomplished. ac-complished. If the Swiss humanitarian, M. Henri Dunant, who in 1859 first had an idea of the possibilities of the Red Cross, which resulted in an inter-national inter-national conference at Geneva in 1864, could see the present outcome of his thought, he certainly would rub his eyes with greater wonder than did Rip Van Winkle after his twenty years' sleep. In fact, the transformation as to the American Red Cross has taken place in two or three months. Instead of seventy-odd people there are now 73S paid employes and sixty-one volunteers at the national headquarters in Washington. Washing-ton. And the great new marble building, build-ing, dedicated to the memory of th "Heroic Women of the Civil War," was found too crowded. Therefore a wooden pavilion was added on behind, housing about 300 workers. It was put up in two or three days, for that is how the present American Red Cross gets action when necessary. More than 3000 letters are received every day. Five months ago, when war was declared, the membership mem-bership was 286,000. Today it's quite a bit more than 2,000,000, and Increasing, every day. There were 260 chapters; now there are more than 2000, with new ones springing uplike mushrooms. Going over headquarters one is told , that the administration may be outlined j under seven heads: (1) Military Relief, ' (2) Clvdlian Relief, (3) Nursing Service, (4) Standards, (5) Promotion of Chapter 1 Activities, (6) Transportation and Supply i Service, (7) Women's Work. I New Departments At the head of military relief you have Major Winford Smith; at the head of civilian relief is W. Frank Persons, for years associated with the Charity Organization Society of New York, a man who has spent his life in the study of civilian relief and social work in all its phases. At the head of the nursing service you have Miss Delano and Miss Noyes, well known in the Red Cross. TM-ia rlnorfmant r,P etoTirlnrils TV' a a OY - plained as something new. It is in reality the commercial engineering department de-partment of the Red Cross corporation. It will standardize all practices of the Red Cross. It has already established an accounting system. It will standardize stand-ardize chapter instructions, for every new plan suggested for adoption by chapters throughout the United States will be referred to this department, to be analyzed and tested. The relative merits of different propositions will be weighed, to decide In each case whether the possible gain will outweigh the cost of any particular change. At the head of this department is Frederick I. Small, assistant to the president of the American Express Company. He has had wide experience In determining whether propositions are practicable for a large number of offices widely scattered scat-tered through the country. Another new department In the list of seven is the fifth, promotion of chapter activities, which has absorbed what used to be the department of chapters. It was said that its function would be to organize new chapters and also to notify no-tify them of the supplies that must be furnished on certain dates. For in stance, recently the navy, through Admiral Ad-miral William C. Rraisted, surgeon general, gen-eral, requested the American Red Cross to make up. out of gauze to be supplied, surgical dressings for 188 United States battleships and destroyers. de-stroyers. Kach ship required thousands (if compresses and bandages, the entire consignment making a total of more than 300,000 surgical dressings. The navy stipulated that it would replace all materia Is thus taken from the I'.d Cross. It was the duty of the department depart-ment on cha pter activities to figure out and notify various cha pters as to the amount which each would lie called upon to supply by a certain date. Samuel Sam-uel Greer, commercial superintendent of the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Tele-phone Company, Is at the head of this department. The Woma n's P. urea u. a n other interesting in-teresting feature at national headquarters, headquar-ters, is in cha re nf Miss Florence M. Marshall, former principal of the Man hattan Trade School in New York and member of the United States Commission Commis-sion on Federal Aid to Vocational Education. Edu-cation. Its main functions will be to interest women workers throughout the "nited States in Red Cross work and to prepare standard directions for doing this work. For instance, it has Just issued a booklet giving implicit instructions instruc-tions for knitting certain articles which are In demand by the Red Cross, a booklet to be had on request at the nearest Red Cross chapter. As for specific instances of what the new Red Cross has accomplished, new announcements are made almost dally with startling rapidity. None, perhaps, illustrates the unlimited powers of our national relief society, backed by the Government as it Is. than its recent statement in regard to its shipping facilities. fa-cilities. It was able to' comb every single avenue of possible assistance, including in-cluding all the foreign shipping lines (our enemies excepted), even to the Japanese Jap-anese ships, which have promised right of way to Red Cross shipments. Th railroads of the country have also promised prom-ised immediate movement of goods, only strictly Government orders to take precedence, so that there will be no delay in getting supplies to the seaboard sea-board for shipment to Europe. Heretofore Hereto-fore there have been all kinds of delays, because too many cooks spoil the broth, but the new Transportation Board of the Red Cross now has the matter splendidly splen-didly in hand. Supplies for Europe Other announcements of what plana the Red Cross have started on the way include a Prisoners' Bureau, organized at Berne, Switzerland, under the supervision super-vision of Ellis L. Dresel, of the American Ameri-can Legation, who served in Berlin prior to the breaking off of diplomatic relations. There are now about 100 American prisoners held in Germany, and these have been supplied by the central prisoners of war committee of London. By arrangement with Germany, Ger-many, the food parcels are sent to the prisoners three times a fortnight. Ninety-five per cent of the British packages sent into Germany, with postal card receipts re-ceipts to be mailed back by the prisoner, have been duly receipted for. The American Amer-ican Red Cross, also, will inclose postal cards, so as to make sure that our prisoners pris-oners actually receive the parcels. To prepare for the worst, a Bureau of Information of Casualties, with W. R. Castle as chairman, has also been formed. The purpose of this bureau will be to give information of casualties to the families of men wounded, missing or taken prisoner in the war. Of course, the War Department will get and publish the casualties, but the War Department will only have time for the bare facts, and not always those. Therefore There-fore the Red Cross will ameliorate the terrible mental suffering of uncertainty by its means of communication through , the International Red Cross. The lists of supplies already sent over to Europe would make one dizzy, but they have all been planned under experts and will be distributed where the need is greatest. Of more far-reach? ing Interest is a recent announcement of our Red Cross to raise the mortgage on the next generation in France. Everybody is concerned with the do-population do-population problem of that country which It was facing even before the war. But In lftlG there were 1,100,000 deaths and only about a fourth as many births. Therefore it is clear that it la not enough to save the present generation of Frenchmen that part of it which remains from annihilation or conquest. Even more precious is the corning generation, gen-eration, and the American Jted Cross has sent over Its first infant welfare unit, headed by Dr. William I. Lucas, of California, who was under Mr, Hoover In Belgium. There are ten members mem-bers on the mission, hut the Rerl Cross announced that it is only the. pioneer. Other expeditionary forces of America's army of hygiene to save Die children of Fi ance wiil follow. ' isiou of llic Kut lire That our American Rei Cross is now neeesKirily slaving for the purposes of this war goes wit howl saying. And that its functions will by no means cease at the cessation of hostilities is also self-evident, sine? the terrible destruction de-struction which must be remedied is before every one. But the Fed Cross has a st ill wider sinilh-a nre. In the past. It has already distinguished itself in service all over the world during fiie and flood, famine and earth'juake, typhoon ty-phoon and cyclone. Though cruel, unnecessary un-necessary wars will be abolished, there are still una voidn hlo disasters visited upon man by nature. There lies tho vision of the Red Cross, a great International Inter-national Red Crnsg working and alive all over the world. Of course, America, willi a record for generosity in this war. will be In the lead, and the A men ran Rod Cross, now doing its full share, will be worthy of new larks before 1L |