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Show the Christmas sea', EcSltu iSTrs- fe?Q been passed and are being enforced; tuberculosis specialists and ' nurses reach the most remote country districts; dis-tricts; printed matter on disease prevention pre-vention is circulated in schools, homes and factories. The Christmas seal has become an annual institution. The Httle stamps help to pay for our own and our families' fam-ilies' health protection. They help to control tne sources of infection especially espe-cially to children, to taach health habits hab-its and to prevent economic loss due to the death of producers. Surely, the power of the Christmas seal penetrates pene-trates deeply into human life and happiness. 'The Power of the Christmas Seal . In 1927 millions of Christmas seals were sold in this country to control and prevent tuberculosis, but in 1904 they originated in a small way to give shelter and a chance for health to a group o tuberculous children in a foreign country. At that time a children's hospital was needed in Copenhagen, Denmark. Einar Holboell, a postal clerk in that city, heard of this and decided that stamps designed to decorate Christmas Christ-mas letters and packages could be made to finance the cost of the building. build-ing. He won the endorsement of the Danish royal family, and the first Christmas seal was designed and placed on sale in the post office. seals. The new arrangement was made because the American Red Cross desired to continue its annual Roll Call, begun in the years of the Great War, and because it did not wish to appeal to the public for funds twice a year. Since 1920 the saals have been known as "Tubercu- losis Christmas seals." There is no i longer in the United States any "Red Cross seal." Through' the power of the Christmas j seal, stats after state has been oi i ganized to attack tuberculosis with a scientific program. Together, led by the national body, they have brought into existence nearly all of the present-day community machinery , that combats tuberculosis. I As the money raised by the Christmas Christ-mas seal is not sufficient to build and conduct hospitals, clinics, open, air schools and other necessary measures, the tuberculosis association's program , consists largely of preventive work and of arousing public opinion to the 1 need for institutions that can be maintained by official agencies, state, county, municipal prJjeL. Through. - ; a i f H ' v ; , f ' ' 4 - ' i - MISS EMILY P. BISSELL Jacob Riis, a pioneer in social serr-ice serr-ice in America, received a letter bearing bear-ing one of the little stamps and inquired in-quired about its purpose. Impressed by its possibilities, he wrote an article that was published in the "Outlook" in which he described what the stamp had achieved in Denmark. In that article. Miss Emily P. Bissell, of Wilmington, Wil-mington, Delaware, found the solution to her own problem; namely, how to raise $3,000 for a tuberculosis pavilion in her state. As a result of this first successful sale held in December, 1907, Miss Bissell Bis-sell was able to induce the authorities authori-ties of the American Red Cross to undertake un-dertake a nation-wide sale of tuberculosis tuber-culosis Christmas stamps in 1908. 5 (HjlSTMASfeTINSS S 1907 SEAL 1928 SEAL' To strengthen the work ol the National Na-tional Tuberculosis Association, then a young organization, the American Red Cross joined forces with it for the purpose o conducting the Christmas Christ-mas seal sale jointly. The partnership between the American Red Cross and the National Tuberculosis . Association lasted for ten years. During that time only the scarlet emblem of the American Red Cross appeared on the annual issues of Christmas seals. In 1919, howevsr,-the howevsr,-the double-barred cross, international emblem of the anti-tuberculosis campaign cam-paign and trade mark of the Nation.--! Tuberculosis Association was also embodied in the seal. In 1D20 the relationship re-lationship between the two great organizations or-ganizations was finally dissolved and since then only the double-barred cross has. ap?)car; d cm. Christmas |
