The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-03-21

TThe name of Clara Barton is known
throughout the world through her efforts
to alleviate the horrors of war. She was
president of the American National Red
Gross from its organization in 1881 to 1904.
During the American civil war she did
relief work on the battlefields. During the
Franco-Prussian war of 1870 and 1871 she
was associated with the International Red
Cross. She has represented the United
states in many international conferences.
During the Russian famine of 1892 and the
Armenian massacres of 1896 she distrib-
mted relief. At the time of the Spanish
American war she carried relief to Cuba.)
1t is probable that there are few
terms in general use among us, or few
subjects so frequently referred to of
which Sd little is correctly known as
the so-called Red Cross.
The causes for this obscurity are
many. Among The great movements
of civilization the Red Cross is COM
paratively new. 1t is of foreign birth,
consequently its literature is in for
'eign languages and in many languages,
while we are notably q one-language
people. The subject with which it
was born to deal-namely, human war
fare, was, until the Spanish-American
war, eXperimentally unknown to our
present generation, and the desire for
and the certainty of a perpetual peace
for the future had begotten an indiffer-
ence, not to say repulsion, in the
minds of the pEblic, which turned
1t instinctively - often impatiently =
away from all topics bearing upon the
subject of war.
The history of the world is largely
a history of its wars ana through the
1000 years, until three and a half
centuries ago, there is no official rec
ord of any movement to lessen the
woes of those who fought them. At
that date medical service was at
Eached to armies, and was thought to
be sufficient for any emergency that
could ever arise. Through all the ter
rible wars of Napoleon /. this service
was.never changed, increased or ques-
toned. But when the doors of Scutara
opened for Florence Nightingale and
her 40 nurses, the food of light which
followed them revealed serious de-
fects. Still so slow is the march of
Improvement that the war of Lom-
bardy in 1859 showed no amendment
On June "a of that same year the
armies of Napoleon III, equipped with
every facility then known to military
medical science, stood face to face
with the foe in northern Italy, 100000
combatants in line five leagues in
length, and fought 15 hours without
cessation or rest. The horrors of the
field, through the suffering of its
wounded from want of care-scarcely
one surgeon for SO men, bleeding,
fainting and famishing- wit
messed by a humane Swiss gentleman,
Henri Dumant, who stayed his trav-
cling carriage in the vicinity of the
battle and worked among the wound
ed The memories of the suffering he
had witnessed, haunted him, until at
leugth he wrote and published them,
and the Souvenir de Solferino" in
few months had been translated into
the leading languages Of the world,
and lay on the tables and on the
hearts of the best of Europe.
The seed had been well sown, and
in 1863 it took root in conference at
Geneva, Switzerland, which sought to
find if some way could be devised to
lessen the needless suffering of sol
diers on the field, which seemed to be
largely the result of customary mill
tary restrictions. 1t was proved that
no army ever had been found equal to
the needs of its wounded in battle.
It was equally decided that this never
could be, as no army could move,
march and fight, while burdened with
sufficient medical material or person
mel to meet the needs of dts wounded
in and after battle. The remedy sug-
gested struck blow at one of the
strongest, time-honored rules Of war
namely, that no civilian be allowed
upon field, especially in time of bat
tie; the proposition Of the conference
being that societies Of civilians be