“THE GREATEST MOTHER IN THE WORLD”
Before the world war the American Red Cross would have had ample
reason to complain, had it been so minded, of the indifference of the
great masses of the American people to its rightful claim upon their
interest, sympathy and support. But its world-wide works of compassion
during the war, that won for it the loving titles of “The Greatest
Mother in the World” and “The Universal Mother,” opened their eyes and
their hearts until they almost merged themselves in it and made it the
organization through which they themselves functioned for the help of
the war-made need and suffering.
The American Red Cross was transformed to a war basis within a month
after the United States entered the conflict. It had then less than
half a million members. Five months later they numbered five millions.
The membership rose to fifteen millions in the following spring and
a campaign for new members in December, 1918, for which arrangements
had been made before the end of the war, raised the number to nearly
18,000,000, an average of membership in the Red Cross for almost every
family in the Union. In addition, the Junior Red Cross, composed of
school children organized under their teachers into auxiliaries
for Red Cross work suitable to their ages, numbered approximately
10,000,000.
Whatever the Red Cross has asked of the American people for the
financing of its vast works of mercy they have given with overflowing
hands. In June, 1917, it went to them for a war fund of $100,000,000.
They gave it $115,000,000. In May of the following year the Red Cross
told them it needed another hundred million dollars and they gave it
$176,000,000. Altogether, more than 47,000,000 American people gave
to the Red Cross during our war period $325,000,000 in money and
manufactured products of a value of $60,000,000.
Of the 8,500 persons who carried on the administrative and executive
work of the organization in its national, divisional and foreign
headquarters 2,000 were volunteers. Many of these unpaid executives
gave up large salaries and important positions in private life to
devote their skilled and capable service to this world mother. Of the
paid employees more than 5,000 received no more, and some of them less,
than $1,500 a year.
Almost 4,000 chapters, with 16,000 branches, covered the entire country
with a network of busy groups whose willing hands contributed aid
and comfort that the Red Cross carried widely over land and sea. A
division in which were organized Americans outside of the continental
limits, called the Insular and Foreign Division, girdled the earth
and included a membership of 100,000 adults and 125,000 juniors. Its
members contributed almost $2,000,000 in money and finished products
representing a value of $1,500,000. They were scattered throughout
Central and South America, the West Indies, Hawaii, the Philippines,
little Guam, China, Japan, Siberia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and
Switzerland.
In nearly 4,000 Red Cross chapters more than 8,000,000 women gave
volunteer service so faithfully that, however untrained they were
at the beginning of the war, at its end the big majority of them
were skilled workers in all the Red Cross needs. They made a total
of 291,000,000 articles, in which were used raw materials costing
$40,000,000. All of these articles were standardized, army surgeons
establishing the standard for surgical dressings and a committee
of women, sent to Europe for that purpose, designing models and
illustrations of garments needed in the hospitals and in civilian
relief work. Knitted garments and comfort kits were also made by
uniform models. Practically every American fighting man who went
overseas during the last year of the war and every man in the training
camps who needed them were supplied with Red Cross knitted articles,
while many of the Allied soldiers and thousands of refugees wore them
with gratitude. These volunteer Red Cross workers, who at the same
time were busy upon their home duties, made over 250,000,000 surgical
dressings, 14,000,000 knitted articles, 1,400,000 garments for refugees
and 22,255,000 garments and supplies for hospitals. They also renovated
hundreds of thousands of soldiers’ garments and aided in the collection
of thousands of tons of clothing for the destitute in Europe.
Through the Home Service section of the Red Cross organization
communities all over the country, alike in cities and remote country
districts, found the opportunity of giving individual service which
would help in the winning of the war by sustaining the morale of
soldiers’ families and promoting the public welfare. Through this
branch of Red Cross activity, in which 10,000 local committees and
50,000 men and women participated, 300,000 families of soldiers were
aided with advice, counsel and practical helpfulness of whatever sort
was needed for the solving of business or legal tangles, household
perplexities, family problems, difficulties due to illness, worry
and loneliness. These Home Service workers carried on a nation-wide
campaign to encourage the writing of cheerful letters to the men
overseas, they spread a doctrine of neighborliness toward soldiers’
families, they enlisted the aid of physicians, lawyers, business men,
teachers and others who could give the special kinds of assistance that
were needed and they devoted to this work of conserving morale and
promoting welfare some $6,000,000, aside from their personal service,
which was far beyond money value. Training courses were instituted to
fit for more intelligent and efficient work those wishing to enter this
branch and were taken by several thousand persons.
The Red Cross carried on a camp service at all the camps and
cantonments in the United States which rendered emergency aid, looked
after the welfare of sick soldiers and maintained connection with the
Home Service section. It established soon after we entered the war
at more than five hundred railway stations a canteen service which
furnished refreshments to traveling soldiers and sailors, while its
sanitary service coöperated with the public health authorities to
maintain healthful conditions in military zones. It coöperated with
the Government by organizing base hospitals, naval hospital units,
and ambulance companies and by enrolling nurses, of whom over 30,000
answered its call, and forming them into units for service.
Overseas, the army service of the American Red Cross was to be found
wherever it could aid in caring for the wounded of the front line
forces or in safeguarding the health and improving the comfort of
soldiers in the rear of the battle zones. It built huge storehouses
for the temporary housing of its supplies at every American port in
France, at distributing points, at army concentration camps and behind
the lines. It erected two nitrous oxide plants that together produced
25,000 gallons per day. Its canteens and rest rooms were strung along
the lines of communication between front and rear, its rolling canteens
and hot drink kitchens carried comforts and refreshments even into the
front line trenches, it helped to maintain sanitary conditions wherever
there were American troops, it cared for the sick and the wounded in
base hospitals and convalescent homes, it looked out for American
soldiers in enemy prisons, learned their addresses and furnished them
with food, clothing and supplies, it searched for the missing, gave
counsel to the troubled, and was ready with instant help for any and
every need of the soldier or sailor.
While its first interest and care were for the men of the American
Expeditionary Forces, its similar services were always ready for the
needs of the soldiers of the Allied nations. To the French soldiers
the American Red Cross gave especial attention because, on account
of the long and desperate struggle which France had carried on with
the enemy on her own soil, their need was greatest. The advance guard
of the American Red Cross on its war footing which went to France
in June, 1917, numbered nineteen men. Within six months it had there
3,000 workers, whose numbers were constantly being augmented, it was
providing food, baths and beds to 20,000 French soldiers per day at
its canteens and rest rooms on the lines of communication, serving hot
and cold drinks from canteens at the front, while at its metropolitan
canteens an average of 750,000 French and Allied soldiers were being
fed each month and it was giving invaluable aid and service to French
hospitals.
[Illustration: WOUNDED MEN IN A HOSPITAL WEAVING RUGS]
Among the populations of the countries that were fighting the common
foe the work of the American Red Cross was of incalculable value in
the saving of life, the prevention of suffering and the conserving
of morale. Its civilian service was wide spread and included the
people of Palestine, Roumania, Greece, Serbia, Poland, Russia and
Siberia, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, and France. The service it gave
varied with the local needs. In Switzerland it dealt mainly with the
interned, the refugees and the prisoners that were being returned to
their own countries, providing food, clothing, comforts and whatever
assistance was needed. In Italy, where at the end of the war the Red
Cross had expended almost $17,000,000, its appearance in the summer
of 1917, the advance courier of American’s assistance, was of great
value in counteracting German propaganda against the United States and
proving to the people that they could depend upon American aid. It
fed thousands of the refugees from the invaded region: its canteens,
rest-houses and distributed comforts cheered the Italian armies at
the front and their supporting lines; it furnished hospital supplies
and scores of ambulances manned by Red Cross drivers; it sought out
the families of soldiers that needed aid and gave help to more than
400,000; it established work rooms for women, nurseries and schools for
children, homes and colonies in the mountains and at the seaside for
children who were ill; and at the end of the war it had under way a
campaign against tuberculosis.
In Belgium it carried on a children’s service by aiding existing
hospitals, building new ones, establishing colonies and nurseries
for children and organizing the aid of nurses and physicians for
baby-saving effort, gave to all in need dispensary and home service
and food, and supplied its usual army service for the Belgian soldiers
whether at the front, in hospitals or interned in Holland, and gave,
in addition, educational help. Among the half million and more Belgian
refugees it set up administrative relief units of its own which
coöperated with those of Belgium and aided with money, machinery, food,
clothing, materials and friendly help of every sort.
In England the Red Cross service was devoted to caring for the hundreds
of thousands of American soldiers and sailors passing through on their
way to and from the front, or in camps, nursing the wounded sent back
from France, and providing for those shipwrecked near British shores.
In France, in addition to its very great and important work among the
soldiers of our own and the Allied armies, with its many hospitals and
convalescent homes, its diet kitchens and hospital huts, its medical
supplies, its baths and sterilizing plants, its canteens and kitchen
service, and its expert service in searching for missing men, it
carried on extensive civilian relief in coöperation with the French
Government and with French societies. It cared for refugees, for
needy families whose men were at the front, provided clothing, food,
medical attention and better housing, helped to rehabilitate battle
devastated regions and enable their population to return, inaugurated
an anti-tuberculosis campaign and carried on a children’s service
for the saving of babies’ lives and the conserving of the health and
welfare of children. The American Red Cross had 9,000 persons in all
the activities of its service in France during our war period.
Long before the end of the war the Red Cross began to turn its
attention to the great problem of the reëducation of blind and maimed
soldiers. It gave them training in the use of artificial limbs so that
they could use these substitutes deftly and offered vocational training
that would fit them to support themselves and their families in new
occupations in which their mutilations would not be a handicap. In
France it worked in coöperation with the French Government, carrying
on by means of moving pictures and lectures an extensive educational
propaganda among the wounded in the hospitals to enlist their interest,
stimulate their courage and persuade them to undertake the training,
giving assistance to existing schools, establishing an electrical
training work shop and a large and well equipped farm for agricultural
training in modern scientific methods. In the United States it turned
the activities of the Red Cross Institute for Crippled and Disabled
Men to war service and carried on schools for the training of those
who wished to aid in the treatment by vocational therapy of wounded
convalescents.