The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-01-25

methods of procedure of the medical and
hospital departments of all armies, but
,heir insignia, flags, etc. There is
but one military hospital flag in
the world today. The commander
who knows his own knows that of the
enemy. and he breaks an international
treaty II he knowingly turn even gun or
stray shot upon it. The convoy of pris-
oners under escort bearing that sign is
sale; no officer can fire upon that unarmed
aud defenseless body of men by ''mistake;"
no mistake" can be made, nor pretended
10 he made. No captured man can longer
suffer for lack of food the world is pledged
to supply this want, and the way opened
to do 1t, No fields nor hospitals at a field
can long lack assistance, nursing, nor the
necessarles of life; to this relief the way is
opened. No wounded man can lie unat-
tended upon captured field, and no at
tendant upon them can be captured, and
no distinction can be made in the care and
nursing; friend and foe are alike TO the
worArrs of the Red Cross.
These are the conditions, and this the
service which the Red Cross would assume
upon the first note of war in Europe. This
is our Red Cross, the same which would
come into instant action in similar ne
cessity IN America, and it is only another
feature of the same. duly recognized by the
great foreign powers, which, as | am so
well asked. rescued the people, fed the
starving cattle, and built and furnished
houses III Johnstown. 1t is this Red Cross
to which the public thought is turned
when news of great calamity falls upon
the ear. 1t IS simply another part of the
machine, moved by the same motor power
OF organized and practical humanity, act
ing under the same regulations, the same
strict discipline, as if the victims to be
served by 1t had become so through hui
man rather than elemental conflict.
l.. - eli
the duty and privilege of framing the
National Red Cross of America, upon our
accession to the treaty, that our great
woes and disasters would not lie in the
track of human warfare alone, but that
the elements would wage us wars more re-
lentless than men; that pestilence, floods,
fires, tornadoes and famine would call for
relief of their victims, and while organic
ing for the one the other was included
and granted by the international congress
abroad.
This ''civil'' branch. or service in
national calamities, is known among other
nations as the American Amendment"
While no actual call to aid in relief of
wars has come to us in our nine years
under the treaty, the Red Cross has taken
its place and performed service on twelve
fields of national disaster, and while re-
garded with grateful kindness by the peo-
pie OF our own country so far as under
stood by them, it is instructive to know
with what interest its new work is OBJ
served. and how closely it is watched by
the thirty nations within the treaty on the
other side of the sea. They realize its hit
ness to the needs of our land, and approve,
with grateful pride the additions made
to the great structure of humanity SO
nobly erected by themselves.
The last ten years have been notably
free from devastating wars in other
countries which might have called for our