The Monticellonian., 1917-12-14

once.
 American soldiers must not be for q single day without all of these things they need. The French have been. In the early days of the war-and 1t has been said i'll some later days-word went out that the French surgeons were operating without anesthetics be- cause they had none. It Is bad enough to lose an arm or q leg, but no one likes to think of being tied fast to table and the leg or arm cut off with no chloroform or ether to give the suf- ferer unconsciousness while the knife is wielded.
 Also, within the last year, word has come from the battlefelds of France that the little Poilus had to use old newspapers to stanch the blood from their wounds. That was because their supply of gauge had run out and no more was to be had. It meant infect ed wounds. gangrene, lockjaw, and the loss of legs and arms and lives that might hove been saved.
 AZ America will agree that none of these things must happen to Pershing's boys. But il will happen unless the American people get right behind the Red Cross. and make and ship those hospital supplies in never-ending stream. The surgeons at the French hospitals say that sometimes it takes q whole box of surgical dressings 1000 of them-for q single wounded man. They have been so short at the French hospitals that instead of throw ing the dressings away after using, they have been driven to try to clean them and use them over and over.
 That is what Maj Grayson NJ. P. Murphy had in mind q few weeks ago when he cabled to the Red Cross that nothing on earth is now of equal im- portance to getting a big supply of surgical supplies into France. Unless We do, he said. disaster and disgrace are ahead for America 4Sand the Red Cross and the American people cannot afford to incur that. No American sol dier must lose q leg or an arm or an eye, or give his life, when it can be saved by anything the American peo- pie can do Major Murphy is the Red Gfoss commissioner for France, and knows perhaps better than any other man in the world exactly what needs to be done for the army in medical and surgical way When he speaks America will do well to listen
 Money is not all the Red Cross must have for this work-money is not even the most important thing, though it will take millions of dollars What it needs most of all is an immense num- Der of members, and their personal service It needs, and has to have, the whole American people, fathers and n4oIhers, sisters and daughters, and the children. fo back up the govern ment and the Red Cross in this work Take, for example, the recent call of Major Murphy for 6000,0 ,000 warm knit ted articles for the soldiers and for the destitute of France If the money kaa been at hand to buy the lot there were not that many knitted things in the whole world of the kind wanted But the Red Cross appealed to it's members. and asked each chapter for it's quota. and the socks and sweaters and mutiers and wristlets rolled in by carloads, and are still coming. The mothers and sisters and daughters and wives went to knitting. and that an swered the call in an amazingly short time.
 The situation will be the same when the boys begin to need handages and gauge dressings and hospital garments in great numbers. Not all the stores in all the land will have enough such things to fill the demand. But the American people are being enrolled as Red Cross members, and they are i learning by tens of thousands how to make and pack and ship these things, and whatever the demand, they will meet it in full