The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1917-05-03
JOIN THE REDCRgSS.
REASONS ARE GIVEN BY HEAD
QUARTERS AT WASHINGTON.

What can | do in it?
Perhaps oftener than any other are
these two questions asked in the
mighty volume of genral mail pour
ing in at Red Cross headquarters in
Washington. The public is eager to
help the Red Cross if il needs help
and desires it. But there is an inn
mense amount of misre presentation
about the society-some believing it
to be a charitable institution, others
a ,woman's organization purely, while
still others imagine it to be pro-
fessional society of doctors and
nurses.
Its Special Mission.
But it is none of these; it is much
more. To quote and condense the
proclamation of Presi
dent Taft defining the status of the.
Red Cross, it is
The only volunteer society now
authorized by this government to rem
der aid to it's land and naval forces
in time of war;" and when 1t is so en-
Gagged its doctors and nurses become
part of the land and naval forces.
Thus we have in the Red Cross an
official part Of our fighting forces, yet
supported and maintained by funds
contributed by private individuals,
who are also members of the Red
Cross and in any great emergency
like the present maintained by the
fund created by thousands and mir
lions of small subscriptions. The
Red Cross is the great gift of mercy
from the public to the army and the
navy. 1t is the volunteer partner Of
Uncle Sam in the grim business of
waging war. ,..
Everyone May Assist.
Can the individual, not only of the
cities but OF the outlying villages and
the country really aid in this work?
And the answer to this is that not on
ly can Americans everywhere in all
walks of life assist, but they must
assist if this device of modern war
fare is to be effective. '
What can | do, is the universal
query. In the first place YOU can
join the Red Cross. That is the,
fundamental service. At the outbreak
of the war in Europe the Red Cross
had only few thousand members.
Now it has between 100000 and 4o0,-
600 members, but It ought to have
three or four million of them. Prin-
cipal.y from the membership fees
come the funds which the Red Cross
needs for it's work. 1t costs you on
ly 81 to join it., either with the near
est local chapter or directly with the
national headquarters in this city. A
better membership is the one costing
81 per year, because this ice pays for
a subscription for the Red Cross
Magazine which tells you every month
what your Red Cross is doing.
! Red Cross An Important Unit.
You can steel your unimaginative
heart to pity and still in pure selfish
ness or fear get value received for the
membership fee, for the Red Cross
! can be regarded as highly important
unit in the army as fighting machine.
In these days of modern surgery and
| skillful nursing an extraordinary
number of men wounded in battle are
returned to the firing linz. from the
Red Cross hospitals in good bodily
repair. This means an army always
kept up to its greatest fighting
strength. 1t means smaller drafts of
soldiers to fill the vacancies. In this
cold-blooded way the Red Cross is
taken by the government into the ma
tional strategy-to repair the rents in
the first line of defense.
But II your 81 or your 50 is the
remember that it was little more thar
half a century ago when there was
no Red Cross, and after the great
battles the wounded sometimes lay
| for DAYS on the open ground and
persisted miserably by the thousands,
when an organized, trained nursing
service could have saved many of
them. So it was at Solferino in
1859, where 10000 French, Italian,
and Austrian wounded were uncared
flora horror that remains today in
the memory of living men. The
world cried out in pity then, and as
a result of Solferino the intcrnation-
| al Red Cross movement was begun,
Today its brassard is respected on
the battlefield by all except savages
Still Personal Service.
When you have joined the Red
Cross there is much personal service
which you can render. If there is
no chapter or auxiliary where you
live you can be instrumental in
forming one, because it is through
this organization of chapters and
branches that the streams of supplies
flow into the hospitals at the front.
While women with their needles
are most conspicuous in Red Cross
activities, there is also work for men
to do. The various local headquar-
tiers will need muscle and executive
direction in the work of gathering
and moving supplies. Doctors obvi-
ously are needed by the Red Cross.
Red Cross sanitary detachmentS and