The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1917-10-12

woulc nave mad IN any great war that
has been fought. Base hospitals, as they
have been evolved in the present war.
together with superior methods of
surgery, are responsible for that
Roger Babson, the statistician, Is
quoted as saying that fourteen out of
fifteen men have been safe hitherto in
khe Great war-and the losses at first
were vastly greater than the losses now.
He continues:
Under present conditions, where man
bower is being saved, not more than one
IN thirty is killed. Only one man in 500
loses limb, chance no greater than
IA hazardous conditions at home"
M. Andre Tardieu, French High Com
missioner to the United States, has
yiven out figures showing that the per-
.entage of casualties in proportion to
the modified strength of France has
fallen from 2.39 for the first six months
Of 1915 to i.28 in the last six months
Of 1916.
How does It happen that soldiers to
fay are safer than ever beforei
Learning How to Care for the
Wounded
The answer, as suggested above, is
that the nation. have learned how to
bake care of their soldiers. Camp sani-
tation, scientific rationing. business Or
ganization of the supply service-these
things count. but the big vital factor in
saving husbands and sons for the
women who wait at home is the eff
riency of the medical service.
The second answer, also, is the Red
British Red Cross movement. said:
However well organized an Army
Medical Service may be, it never has
been, and never will be. able to cope
adequately with the sudden emergencies
Of war on large scale, and voluntary
organizations, unimpeded by official re-
strictions, are alone capable of giving
auxiliary relief and of providing extra
comforts and luxuries with the requisite
promptitude and rapidly"
That Is why, when America entered
the war, the frst organized forces of
the United States to go abroad were
Red Cross base hospital units which had
been mustered into the United States
Army Medical Corps. That is why
right now you would find American
doctors and nurses desperately hard
mt work behind the lines in France.
trying to keep British and French
soldiers from slipping out of the
Wounded" into the Death" lists. Be-
rause of the Red Cross they are ready,
lust as soon as they are needed, to per-
form the same service for American
boys.
How the Red Cross Prepared
Two years before America entered the
war, and thus suddenly had need OF all
The medical service at her command, the
Red Cross began the organization OF its
base hospital and ambulance company
units.
Under the direction of Colonel JET
ferson r. Kean, who had been detailed
10 the Red Cross from the Medical
Corps of the Army, the Military Relief
Department set out TO enlist the aid OF
the Red Cross chapters throughout the
country in providing trained PERSONALS
Of doctors and nurses available for in
slant duty in time of war or national
disaster.
Altogether a total of forty-seven base
hospitals were organized, financed, and
largely equipped. The national treasury
of the Red Cross was scarcely drawn
upon at all in this work. Not only did
the chapters recruit the stats for each
of these units from their city hospitals.
but in several cases they undertook to
purchase the necessary equipment and
to make the required amount of hos
pitaI supplies in the chapter workrooms.
In New York six hospitals were or
eanized, in Chicago four, and in Phila
delphia four. The New York County
chapter, not content with the minimum
requirements laid down by the Depart
ment of Military Relief and the medical
authorities of the Army, went ahead
on experiments to develop improvements
in equipment With some of the most
prominent surgeons and doctors in the
United StasAS enlisted on the stats, the
chapter organized committee on re-
search and Standardization. The work
of this committee has now resulted in
the development of a new type of NOV
able food kitchen to be attached as a
trailer to arnbulances or field columns.
1t has made similar experiments in the
field kitchen attached to base hospitals.
Other cities show the same initiative
All over the country the greatest in
terest was shown in the organization of
i&freSN crezf reserx.e reIiaE nrn~x.r:a.