The rapidly increasing prominence and importance of the Red Cross will
still further tend to the abuse of its insignia. Unfortunately in the
United States the use of this insignia, created for the special purpose
of identifying and protecting in time of war those caring for the sick
and wounded, ambulances, hospitals and hospital equipments, has never
been properly safeguarded as has been done in most other countries which
are signatory powers of the treaty of Geneva, and which recognize the
necessity for the protection of this insignia.
A number of manufactured articles bear as a trademark this insignia,
their manufacturers having obtained from the Patent Office, previous to
the reincorporation of the Red Cross, a legal right to such use. Others
using that mark claim a right to use it because they had used it previous
to the granting of the charter. In a number of cases their attention
being called to the clause of the charter intending to prevent as far as
possible this use of the Red Cross for purposes of trade, manufacturers
and others have kindly and promptly abandoned their use of it. In other
cases the request to desist from its use—it might be called its abuse—was
refused.
In two cases that have been brought to the notice of the Executive
Committee so-called training schools for nurses that provide, in one case
a course of a few weeks with no hospital experience, and in another a
training by correspondence only, called their nurses Red Cross nurses.
As it is the object of the National Red Cross to enroll among its nurses
only such as have had a regular two or three years’ course with hospital
training, and whose efficiency and character have been thoroughly vouched
for so that our American National Red Cross nurses will rank as highly
as do the Red Cross nurses in many of the other countries, this use of
the Red Cross by such institutions as those mentioned above must act as a
strong detriment to the National Red Cross and prove especially injurious
to its efforts to secure the enrollment of the highest class of trained
nurses.
Red Cross nurses are enrolled for service in time of war or of great
calamity as provided in the charter and a false impression is conveyed
when nurses not enrolled by the National Red Cross make use of this
name of Red Cross nurse. There can be in each country but one Red Cross
Society as recognized by the International Red Cross Committee of Geneva
upon proof that the Society has received official recognition from the
Government of its own country and only its nurses are really Red Cross
nurses, so that all others using this name convey to the public a false
impression that they are nurses of the Red Cross.
Public opinion should most strongly oppose the abuse of the Red Cross
insignia, and its use, save for the purposes for which it was created,
earnestly discountenanced. The members of the Red Cross are requested
to report to the Executive Committee all such use of the Red Cross,
not connected with the National Society, that may come within their
cognizance. The Society has a list of those manufacturers who obtained
the Red Cross as a trademark previous to its reincorporation under the
present charter in January, 1905. It should be the duty of every American
to see to it that in our country this Red Cross insignia, created for
so beneficient a purpose, is protected as far as possible from the
degradation of becoming a mere advertisement for money making designs.