The Dickinson press., 1917-03-10
RED CROSS SOCIETY
A BIG ORGANIZATION

The Red Cross can mobilize within
a few days an expert nursing force
for an army of 100000 men ac-
cording to Acting Chairman Eliot
Wadsworth, who gave an interview
recently on the present preparedness
Of the Rer Cross. The Dc department.
of Civilian Relief, alone, he added,
may need nearly a million dollars
a month, in the event of a SER
ious crisis, to care for dependent
families of soldiers.
Mr., Wadsworth said: "No nation
al emergency has ever found the
Red Cross better prepared than it
is today. Even without an actual
declaration of war, there is bound
to be an enormous strain upon
every department. But we find now
the full benefit of the plans we
have been preparing for years past.
"For example, it is quite possible
that the Government will raise a
large volunteer army. Our expert
ence with the recent mobilization of
the National Guard shows that car
ing for the dependent families of SOL
diers imposes a heavy burden OF. the
Department of Civilian. Relief. The
Director General of that Department,
Mr.. Bicknell, tells me that if the
country undertakes a really extensive
mobilization, the Red Cross must be
ready to spend, if necessary, several
hundred thousand dollars a month up
on dependent families alone. The
States and all large cities have hither-
to taken a considerable share Of this
burden because the National Guard is
conspicuously an institution of the
States. We might not have the same
such as the present crisis may de-
mand; and we do not yet know how
effectively the Government might be
during the first emergency. In other
words, the Civilian Relief Department
might need several million dollars In
the first year for n branch only OF
it's extensive work. 1t will still have
to care for the victims of flood, fire,
explosion or troubled conditions along
the Mexican border. The machinery
for distributing all funds, however,
has been prepared for many years
past.
"Lct me summarize this: Miss
Delano informs me that on first call
we could mobilize 1910 Rcd Cross
nurses. Estimating that only 80 per
cent of those to whom we have given
elementary instruction, and who are
already assigned, would be available
to assist the nurses, we would have
1929 nurses's aids, or a total of ap-
proximately 5000 nursing personnel.
With the customary assignment Of ten
patients to each nurse, we could thus
take care of fifty thousand sick .and
wounded at once. In the earlier
stages of war, the proportion Of sick
and wounded is about five per cent.
In other words, we r prepared to-
day to give expert nursing service to
an army of one million men.
1--WE have, besides, o than 12O
expert instructors in surgical dress
ings, and we have issued certificates
to 521 women, many of whom are I'M
doubtedly competent themselves to be-
come instructors. We have carefully
standardized the work of surgical
dressings ever since December, 1914,
when, after diligent experiment. we
found the kind of dressings and hos
pital supplies which gave the most
universal satisfaction in Europe. In
fact, in the two years Of val since
then, we have had to change hardly q
single item in our list Of standard
surgical dressings. Here, again, we
are ready to show the results Of ef-
fective preparedness"