And think what we have here! We call it the American Red Cross, but it
is merely a branch of a great international organization, which is not
only recognized by the statutes of each of the civilized Governments of
the world, but it is recognized by international agreement and treaty,
as the recognized and accepted instrumentality of mercy and succor. And
one of the deepest stains that rests upon the reputation of the German
Army is that they have not respected the Red Cross.
That goes to the root of the matter. They have not respected the
instrumentality they themselves participated in setting up as the
thing which no man was to touch, because it was the expression of
common humanity. We are members, by being members of the American Red
Cross, of a great fraternity and comradeship which extends all over the
world, and this cross which these ladies bore today is an emblem of
Christianity itself.
It fills my imagination, ladies and gentlemen, to think of the women
all over this country who are busy tonight and are busy every night and
every day doing the work of the Red Cross, busy with a great eagerness
to find out the most serviceable thing to do, busy with a forgetfulness
of all the old frivolities of their social relationships, ready to
curtail the duties of the household in order that they may contribute
to this common work that all their hearts are engaged in, and in doing
which their hearts become acquainted with each other.
When you think of this, you realize how the people of the United
States are being drawn together into a great intimate family whose
heart is being used for the service of the soldiers not only, but for
the service of civilians, where they suffer and are lost in a maze of
distresses and distractions. And you have, then, this noble picture
of justice and mercy as the two servants of liberty. For only where
men are free do they think the thoughts of comradeship; only where
they are free do they think the thoughts of sympathy; only where they
are free are they mutually helpful; only where they are free do they
realize their dependence upon one another and their comradeship in a
common interest and common necessity.