The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1917-06-22
Red Cross Organization Asks
Folk To Be Liberal
need OF LARGE SUM
Solicitors viii Be Among the
People of Mankato Next
Few Days
From Mondays Daily.
JOHN w. HARRINGTON.

has the appeal for sympathy and
succor from suffering humanity
sWelled to such volumn as now. New
er has the American heart throbbed
so warmly in response or yearned SO
strongly to do the work of relief.
The organization for the attainment
OF these ends is the Red Cross. 1t alone
of all organizations of relief and mercy
is the legally constituted engine au-
thorized to work with the government
to aid the stricken and depend
ent
The Red Cross in all it's branches, in
many nations, is one of the greatest OF
human organizations. More persons
are working for it and to achieve its
ends than for any other single organ
ization in the world. They number
millions and are approaching two
millions in America alone.
The funds it handles run into hun
dreds OF millions. It's ships pillow all the
seas, it's trains, it's motors and other
means of conveyance are in every
land.
Since the opening of the great war
the Red Cross has grown at rate
hitherto unprecedented. In America
alone it has sprung from less than
$4,000 to more than a million. .
President Is Society's Head.
The president of the United States
is head of the Red Cross. Its growth,
it's whole future presented a problem,
providing an administration of it's af-
fairs second to nothing in the world
To administer the affairs of the Red
Cross efficiently, to coordinate the
efforts of it's millions of volunteer
workers, to affiliate with it the work
OF other relief organizations and pre-
vent duplication of effort, to spend
wisely hundreds of millions of dollars,
to see that hospitals and hospital
stats are taken all over the world
that whole populations are cared for
that whole sections of ravaged coun-
try are put on the road to restoration
that is the merest outline of work
the plan and scope of which demands
administrative talent without superb
or. The kind ofRmen' who span con-
tinents with railroads, furrow the
seven seas withagiant steamships or
handle the finances of nations-that
of the Red Cross
Theypeople giving their mites to the
ReaICress must have the utmost con-
fidsacein not only the ability of these
administrators, but in their singleness
of mind and purity of purpose.
To select such administrators for
the Red Cross in, it's, new work was
the problem of the president. 1t was
the greatest humanitarian responsible
itJ ever to be placed on the shoulders
of any, group OF, men. 1t is really a
new Red Cross, sc, greatly have con-
ditions changed, With these facts in
mind the president selected for the
Red Cross it's war council.
. Personnel of the Administration.
The personnel of this body is eff
cheney concentrated. At it's head is
Henry P. Dawson of the banking firm
of J. P Morgan & Co. Like his fellow
members of the war council, Mr. Davi-
son has dropped his regular business
to do his part in working for America
and for mankind.
The right hand man of the new or
der is Eliot Wadsworth of Boston, the
chairman of the Red Cross central
committee, who as member of the
council is the CO. ordinating link be-
tween it and the society itself. Mr.
Wadsworth has since he left Harvard
university been interested in large
contracting enterprises and is known
in contracting circles as the builder oil
the great KeOkuk dam.
William Howard Taft, formerly pres
ident of the United States and once
head of the American Red Cross, has
a record also as an administrators in
the once troubled Philippines.
Charles d. Norton, who is now the
first vice president of the First Ma
tional bank of New York city, also has
been assistant secretary of the treas
ury. He is an enthusiast in Red Gross
work and, owing to him, Mr.. Dawson
originally became interested in this
beneficient organization.
Cornelius N. Bliss, Jr., the head ol
several large corporations, is the sor
of the late political leader and cabinet
officer of the same name.
Edward N. Hurley of Chicago, is {
manufacturer of pneumatic tools
which are sold the world over, and is
accustomed to dealing with labor anG
material on a large scale. He was {
member of the Federal Trade com
mission. p e ~ -
Executive Head In France.
The executive head of the Ameri-
can Red Cross in France will be
Grayson M. p Murphy, the first vice
president of the Guaranty Trust com
pany of New York. He is graduate
of West Point and has seen active
military service in both Cuba and the
Philippines. He has the rank of major
With him in France, where they viii
stay during the war, are engineers
sanitarians and others to act for the
Red Cross in the reconstruction ant
relief work abroad.
! Men who have distinguished them
selves as organizers in large affair:
are giving their services as freely a.
are the members of the council witt
whom they are cooperating.
| The task of ordinating the worl
of the Red Cross chapters and that O
other organizations under one head i:
being worked out by Judge Robert
ILovett, formerly chairman of thu
Union Pacific railroad.
Like members of the war council HI
is giving his services free.
This organization is asking Man
kato people to subscribe literally.