The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1914-12-03
RED CROSS SEALS FOR
TUBERCULOSIS WAR ONLY

DR.. j. c. Mahr, of the department
Of public health, has received the
following letter. My Dear Doctor
Mahr: So many requests Fave come
to us from all parts of the United
States relative to the use of Req
Cross funds for war relief purposes,
that we are obliged to address Of
ficially all of our agents relative to
this question.
Let me say emphatically at the
very beginning of this letter that
ncne of the proceeds from the sale
of Red Cross Christmas Seals will be
used or can be used for war relief
purposes. Any Red Cross Seal agent
who so uses funds violates his con-
tract agreement with his state and
national agent. The proceeds from
the sale of the Red Cross Christmas
Seals must be used exclusively fol
anti-tuberculosis work, and it is inn
possible by the widest stretch of i'm
agination to place Belgian or other
European war relief in this category.
The American Red Cross and the
National Association for the Study
and Prevention of tuberculosis, who
Jointly have carried ON the sale OF
the Red Cross Seals for several years
in the United States, are in full
harmony with regard to this ques-
ton. We feel that it would be un-
wise to divert from the permanent
anti tuberculosis campaign in this
country the funds which are so much
needed, even where the call for re-
lief across the waters is so urgent
While we recognize the needs of the
sufferers in the war zone. we also
recognize the need of the million
sufferers from tuberculosis within
our own borders. We are fully aware
of the daily slaughter which is TAX
ing place on the firing lines in
Europe, but we are not forgetting
that tuberculosis alone slaughters an
nually 100000 young men and young
women in this country, and that even
now it is leaving behind a trail of a
million wounded. We are not un-
mindful of the hunger and distress
which the European war is causing
but we see all around us families
where the bread winner has been
taken away or laid aside by tuber-
culosis, and where consequent dis
tress is dragging the mother and
children to despair. and we realize,
therefore, that our first duty is to-
wards our neighbors at home
Oklahoma may feel secure from the |
ray ages of tuberculosis, because itl
has a population made up Of younger
men and women than most states
If, however the actual death rate
from this disease is not as high at
present in your state as in others
unless an active movement to pre-
vent its spread is taken and carried
on now. within ten or fifteen years
Oklahoma viii be in a worse condi-
ton than many of the older Eastern
states, where centuries have given
certain immunity against bad hous
inr and working conditions and a
consequent greater resistance to the
ravages of the disease.
With more than 100000 popula-
ton. Oklahoma ought to have a sale
Of at least 100000 Red Cross Christ
mas Seals this year. South Dakota
With a population OF only 500 600 sold
is many seals last year as Oklahoma.
md il. 100. was South DaSotas firsl |
ttempt. The war against ubercu-
osis demands support. Every Red
ross Seal is a bullet in the fight s
gainst this disease. We feel sure
hat Oklahoma will provide the nee
ssary ammunition. Verly truly ,
5urs. Phil : ?. Jacobs. Assistant
OF National Association.