The Red Cross Society is an international organization for the relief of
the sick and wounded in any time of special distress. It has been of great
service in times of peace, yet it is readily seen that its constitution
makes it of particular service in time of war. Throughout its life, it has
given good account of itself in every time of need.
It bears the honorable distinction of being an agency which is designed to
minister to the needs of the living. There are always plenty of praises
for the dead, and enough tears are always shed over the graves heaped up
by the bloody hand of war. It is more especially needful that there should
be means of helping the living who still need it, and who are still able
to appreciate it when it is given. The Red Cross is a ministry to life in
the midst of the fields of death.
It owes its origin to the efforts of Jean Henri Dunant, a Swiss author and
philanthropist, whose whole life and fortune were both given to the
service of mankind. Great movements must always be fathered by
self-sacrificing spirits before they are finally taken upon the hearts of
the people. It sometimes even happens that the name of the originator of
a movement fails to cling to it in the days of its popularity and success.
M. Dunant was present at the battle of Solferino on June 24, 1859. There
he witnessed the suffering and need of the soldiers who fell wounded upon
the field and realized the powerlessness of any nation to provide adequate
hospital facilities in time of actual battle.
After three years of meditation and discussion, Dunant wrote and published
a book, in which he suggested the preparation of supplies and the training
of nurses against the time of need, in order that the volume of distress
might not be again so far beyond the power of any one to relieve it.
He was invited to speak before the Geneva Society of Public Utility. That
society took sufficient interest in his contention to call an
international conference to meet in Geneva in the autumn of 1863.
Delegates came from sixteen nations, and, after going into the subject,
they laid some plans for future action and adjourned.
A year from that time a more formally and authoritatively delegated
assembly met in the same city. Before it adjourned, the famous Geneva
Convention had been written and signed by its members. That convention did
not specifically outline the plan of the present Red Cross Society, but it
did make possible its organization and activity.
Fourteen nations ratified the Geneva Convention at that time. As it came
to be better understood and more greatly appreciated, others added their
approval. Today all the principal nations of the world have approved and
adopted it. It has long since come to be a movement of such influence and
proportions as to command the fullest sanction of international law.
The emblem chosen for this society was the familiar red cross design which
has long since become a symbol of sanitation and cleanliness. The Turkish
Government alone failed to adopt this uniform symbol. According to its
traditional ideals, it chose the use of the crescent instead.
It was not long until agreements were made by which the rules and
practices of the Red Cross Society were applied in the navy as well as in
the army. Now the man who falls wounded upon a battleship receives the
same helpful attentions as does the fallen hero of the land forces.
Moreover, the Red Cross symbol until this present war has been immune to
attack on sea as well as on land. Conventions have, of course, been
determined upon which are designed to prevent the wrongful use of the
familiar symbol of mercy in time of war.
The various national Red Cross organizations are independent in their
formation and responsibility, yet it to be regarded as the Geneva
Committee is to be regarded as central in its prestige and influence if
not in power and authority. From time to time, Americans have been
honored with places upon that committee. W. H. Taft was made president
of it some years ago and is today one of the world’s most enthusiastic
Red Cross workers.
The American Red Cross Society was organized in 1884 by Miss Clara
Barton, who throughout life interested herself in this and similar
labors of unselfish helpfulness. She has been to the American Red Cross
Society what M. Dunant was to the international organization.
In 1905 the American Congress realized the need for an organization
which should be more distinctly national in its scope and plan. The
existing society was therefore disbanded, and a reorganization was
effected along slightly different lines. The American Red Cross now
operates under distinctly governmental supervision and authority. Its
head is the President of the United States. Its chief officers are men
high in governmental councils. Its accounts are audited in the War
Department, and its activities in every way center in Washington.
Yet it is distinctively a civil organization. Its membership is made up
of the common people of the country. It accepts volunteers for medical,
surgical, and nursing work behind the battle lines in time of war, but
it also accepts as members all who care to enrol and pay the small
annual membership fee.
The average citizen is thus afforded an opportunity to have a part in the
better side of war—the care of the sick, the wounded, and the distressed.
It enables the last person, however far away and however lowly he may be,
to do his share together with the rest.
Even those who volunteer as doctors and nurses find that most of their
work is at a distance from the firing line. Strict observance must be
given to certain fixed rules governing the activities of Red Cross
workers, but so long as these rules are observed the danger is
comparatively small.
The American Red Cross has, since its organization in 1884, proven its
worth in a number of times of need. Its opportunity for wartime service
has, thus far, been limited. Until we had been touched by the present war,
our people had only been engaged in one brief struggle since the
organization of the Red Cross in America. It did its work well during the
Spanish-American War of 1898. It will now have an opportunity for much
greater wartime usefulness in a time of much greater need.
It has, however, been giving frequent service to the suffering in other
times of catastrophe. It gave notable aid in the time of the yellow fever
epidemic in the South, the Johnstown flood, the famines in Russia and
Japan, tidal-wave floods in South Carolina and Texas, the Armenian
massacre, the oppression of the Cuban people, the Mount Pelee volcanic
eruption, and earthquakes in Chile, Jamaica, and California.
These are but a few of the outstanding instances of Red Cross aid to
stricken people. In smaller disasters almost everywhere, the same helping
hand has been extended. The American Red Cross has expended about fifteen
millions upon its work thus far in its history. That sum will, of course,
be rapidly multiplied if the present war continues long. The whole
country has been roused to a spirit of co-operation, contributing both
work and money.
It seems a particularly hopeful thing that, although war has not yet been
recognized as a mere relic of the barbarous past, in the midst of its
bloodshed there are to be heard the hurrying feet of messengers of mercy
and help. One of the strongest forces now making for a day of lasting
peace is the beautiful suggestion that comes from the spirit of those who
make it their aim to help while others destroy. The spirit of positive
service will endure long after the work of destruction has been forsaken.
Those who assist in such a task will suffer no regrets.
The work of M. Dunant has been significant in the cause of peace. The
Nobel prize went to him in 1901 for distinguished services in behalf of
international arbitration and conciliation. The day will yet come when
the world will see the realization of his great dream of an age of
brotherly kindness.