Weekly Trinity journal. [volume] (Weaverville, Calif.) 1857-1972, 1864-04-23
How TIE SANITARY CONFUSION SPENDS ITS

now the SANITARY COhAISsI0N SPENDS ITS
MoSEY.-The United States Sanitary Commission
is now receiving large amounts from the fairs
held all over the country, and its annual receipts
and expenditures are counted by millions. There
is natural and proper desire to know how ii
can spend so much money, how large part of il
is used up by the machinery of the organization,
and what proportion actually reaches and bene-
Is the soldiers. The questions are pressed the
more earnestly because many of the army sur
geons, especially those of the old regular army,
insist that the whole thing is superfuous, that
the Government supplies everything necessary
for the sick and wounded, that if they are no,
properly cared for it is the fault of the officers
: to whom this business belongs, and that outside
help only encourages and protects these men in
neglect of duty, Giving all the weight to these
objections that the facts warrant it still remains
evident that the medical bureau of the Govern
ment never has provided adequately for the great
emergencies Of this war, that it is next to impos
sible that it should The theory that it should
do is sound the fact is that it does not, and
there is no doubt that the Sanitary Commission
has saved many lives and obviated much suffer.
ing, and that the good it has accomplished is
richly worth the cost.
In late number of the Springfield Republican
we find statement made by DR.. Bellows
at the request of Henry Ward Beecher, as to the
expenses of the commission with reference more
particularly to the cost of running the organiza.
ton and receiving and distributing the supplies
This is his final summing up, after giving some
of the details;
!. The board of the U. S. Sanitary Commission
president, vice president, treasurer medical com
mittee and standing committee give their time
and services gratuitously. They are refunded
lin part their travelling expenses ; but nothing
more.
2. Their agents, two hundred in number, gen
eral and associate secretaries medical and san
itary inspectors, relief agents, clerks, depot ant
store-house keepers, wagoners, &C., receiving
some more and some less average, just So pc
day, or less than ordinary mechanics wages
Total, $l2, 900 per month for the vast human
machinery of the commission, stretching from
Texas to the Potomac, from before Charleston tt
Kansas.
3. About ffteen-sixteenths of all the eigh
millions the commission has received, goes o;
TO the backs or into the mouths of the soldiers
4. The cost of collecting and distributing sup
plies is less than three per cent
5. About twenty-three hundred men now
and for long time have been, in daily ant
enjoyment of the homes and lodges Of the com
mission
s. The battlefield service of the commission
requires large accumulation of funds and o
supplies. At Murfreesboro, Antetam, Gettys
burg, Chattanooga, Vicksburg, Port Hudson
sudden and vast demands were made, and arr
always likely to be made. Fifty thousand dollar
would not cover our whole service in the frs
two weeks after any one of our great battles a
Gettysburg it was $4,000.
I. We reckon that if we divide all the aid We
have given to the sick in regimental, general ant
other hospitals, to men in peril Of sickness from
scurvy and exposure, it would amount to Sd q
case many men haying received this severa
times, as often as they were sick. The serious
ly wounded have been often-as at Gettysburg
the receivers of as much $40 aid per man
We mention this to show not how much, but how
little, this sometimes called extravagant commits
sion costs, considering the blessings it is the al
moner of