The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-30
RED CROSS BOARD
 IN SESSION HERE Semi-Annnal Meeting Held at Home of w. H. Far
 nam Yesterday. WASHINGTON REHORT Interesting Description of National Meeting in
 That City.
WASHINGTON REHoRT

AA0G wy
 The semi-annual meeting of the gov erning board of the Connecticut Socie- ty of the Red Cross was held yesterday afternoon at the home of William W, Farnam on Prospect street. There are fifteen members of the board, but those present were: Mrs. Sara T. Kin ney, state secretary, Thomas Hooker, state treasurer; Charles Hopkins Clark, clerk. of Hartford; H, H, Bridgman of Norfolk, Mrs. s. IA. Willis of Litchfeld, Judge John H. Perry of Southport. Eli Whitney of New Haven. and c. E. Jackson of MiddIetown.
 The routine business was gone through with and reports of the various committees were read. Mr. Farnam reported on the national meeting of the society, which was held in Washington, D. C.. in December, to which he was a delegate. Mir. Farnam said that this meeting at Washington was one of the most interesting the society has ever had because Thomas Magee and Dr. Devine made reports on the Red Cross work in San Francisco just after the earthquake. General Bates, who had been sent to investigate the charges of extortion and nismanagement at that time reported that no such state of af- fairs existed, that the society made excellent use of the funds appropriated and he had nothing but praise for the efficiency of the workers. Secretary of State Taft, who Is national president of the society, said: we were at work in San Francisco before the fire started. The earthquake occurred at daybrealS, and the Red Cross society was on the ground before o'clock. It distributed s2, 2,SOo,o in relief, which the country at large contributed There was no scan dal. no misappropriation of funds, no troubles or controversies. and I am proud of the work the men did,"
 In an interview yesterday MT. Far nam gave some very interesting facts about the Red Cross society and its work. He said that the society has branches In forty-three countries of the world. and of these, Japan heads the llat in regard to members, work and funds There are 1,OS5,oO0 members in Japan and they have an emergency fund of $4,000,OOO, while here in the United States there is population of over S0,OOo,0OO we have no surplus fund at all.
 The best organization is In Germany and 1t stands as a model for other branches. It has mems branch and a women's branch which alone has S16,- 900 members. There are stations in every town and village, in every city ward, equipped with amhulances, lit- ters and other means of relief. The Germans are making great strides to- ward relief work in tuberculosis. They take the cases which occur in the army and remove them to places reserved for treatment of this disease, and the wom- en nurses devote all their time to saw ing as many cases as they can, and the results so far have been very success ful and well worth looking into by oth- CT countries.
 In Italy, also, the branches are doing wonderful work. The field is not so large as that of Germany or the other countries, but the degree of efficiency of the work far exceeds that of the United States.
 For some reason the people in this country are not interested in the Red Cross work. The membership fee is only $1, an absurdly small amount in proportion to the amount of good it can do. But the fact remains that there are barely 10000 in the whole of the United States, and yet when an emergency arises like that of San Francisco, the whole country talks about misappropriation of funds and inefficient service. The society is growing slowly and here in Connecti- cut the branch was established in 1905 and there are seven subdivisions, but the proportion is not what 1t ought to be- considering the population.
 There are branches in thirty-two states, but either the fee is too small or the enthusiasm is dormant, because the reports show absolutely no surplus fund to fall back on, and small returns when an appeal is sent out, Not that the workers are discouraged-the sit- uatlon is most encouraging -and the society is growing. but the associa- tion hopes for more interest on the part of Americans during the next year.
 The international conference will be held in London during the week of June 10th, and delegates from this country will attend. At this session, roxyaro1 on,,n {>,;o with