New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1917-12-14

1890 ~ ~ ~ 49, $3.50 '>'"'
~ the sun sets On Christmas day.
lhey are to be known as Christmas members,
lhese lo'OOO,OOO new ones. and 1t Is In the Christ
mas spirit that they are to be recruited-the spirit
Oh unselfishness, of caring for the afflicted, OF
alternating suffering.
while 1t Is getting these new members, the
o.OOO,OOO who now wear the Red Cross emblem
are giving all the Christmas cheer they can to the
boys In khaki. They need 1t. Tens of thousands
OF them, and 1t may be hundreds Of thousands. are
now In France with Pershing. facing the terrible
Germans across the desOlate waste of No Mans
Land. Millions more are to go after them, and
other and still other millions until the foe which
claims the world for Germany Is willing to go
home and behave as a civilized nation.
They will have a CHEEKY Christmas this year.
Every man in France will have a little packet
from Nome with the love and good wishes OF the
American peOple-and that means a lot to the
young fellow who perhaps never before spent
Christmas away from his home folks. It will put
"""" spirit into him for the task ahead.
The men on this side, waiting in the training
camps for their turn to 90 across. will also have
as merry a Christmas ms the Red Cross can pro-
vide. Christmas trees, with gifts of some kind,
bearing a World Of cheer and hope from the great
heart of the American people. will greet every
man In uniform, wherever he may be.
This Christmas will be a merry one for the
whole of the army and navy. The boys have
DS,N Aoh9 o"uy hohiCt thCy hoNC iiuu
almost none Of the hardshIps of war, and they
come to the feast with light hearts.
War has taken almost no toll from them thus
far. Belgium and France, Serbia and ROumanIa,
Great Britain and her colonies. Russia and Italy,
have borne the brunt of frightfulness and our
boys have been spared. So it will be a merry
Christmas for them.
Next year 1t will be different. The pinch of
privation will be felt in the land-voluntary, to a
great extent, but It will be felt. There Will be less
to eat and less to wear, and millions to be fed
and clothed who no longer produce, and all the
will save all 1t can to give to those who
are fighting. and to those defenseless ones on the
other side who have nothing.
And there will be gaps In the ranks, and there
be full hospitals. There is where the Red
Cross comes in-wherever there is disaster. The
buildings. the equipment, the surgical sup
plies, the surgeons and nurses and orderlies, the
and the drivers and the stretcher
Of the Red Cross. n will carry II, be-
cause 1t has the backing of the American people;
and In the meantime 1t must carry the load Of
the nations which have already suffered more
han three years of frightfulness.
Here are some of the things the American Red
Cross is right now doing In France; where It has
spent $1O,OO0,OOO. These extracts were taken from
4 report by the Paris headquarters TO Henry p.
chairman of the Red Cross war council.
raised a fund Of 800, 10000 for its work:
wv navy just SiNNh wv II hVNh. y
md wounded French soldiers and their families.
"Our hospital distributing service sends supplies
% 3,423 French military hospitals, and is laying
n a large stock for future needs.
sour surgical dressings service supplies 1000
french hospitals, and is preparing immense sup
lilies for our own armies.
"We nrp operating at the front line, in co-opera-
ion with the French Red Cross, ten canteens,
md are preparing for 20 more: and at six can
Gems for French soldiers at railway stations we
ire serving about 10000 men a day.
"We have opened a children's refuge and hos
been gathered to keep them from danger of
.as and shell fire. At another point we have
a medical center and a travelling dis
'ensary to accommodate 200 children.
"We are making arrangements on a large scale
o help refugee families through the winter with
lOthlng, beds. shelter, and for this work the en-
re devastated portion of France has been divided
nto six districts with a resident Red Cross dele
ate In each. Warehouses have been established
t four points to which are shipped food. clothing,
edding, beds, household utensils and agricultural
Implements.
nd distribution warehouses at important points
the Swiss border to the sea. Two hundred
,ns of supplies are arriving In Paris daily. and
% tons are shipped to branch warehouses"
From other authorities word has come that the
the ragged, sick. hungry and home
{ France at the rate of $1,000 a month. Held in
lptivity for more than three years, they are
driven forth even from the ruins in which