The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-07-14

n large city or a county-sometimes several coun-
ties.
The chapter is governed, on a smaller. scale,
very much as the Red Cross as a whole is gov
erned. 1t has its chairman and other officers, its
board of directors and its executive committee, in
whose hands the active work is carried on. In
large chapters an executive secretary usually does
most Of the active work of the executive commit
tee.
Each chapter is divided into a section for mill
tary relief and a section for civilian relief, much
as the national organization is divided. And each
section has its committees to carry out the various
activities.
The section for military relief has its commit
tees on: Red Cross; instruction; hospital sup
plies; warehousing and. shipping; supplies for
fighting men, and special committees for such
work as organizing hospital companies, sanitary
detachments, surgical sections and supply depots.
The section for civilian relief has its commit
tees on: Care of families of soldiers and sailors;
relief for noncombatants care of discharged SOL
diers and sailors; training in volunteer civilian
relief, and special committees as needed on local
disaster, care Of refugees and other kindred sub
jects.
How the Red Cross operates is perhaps best
told by citing some of the concrete examples of its
work. To begin with, two of the most recent in
stances of civilian disaster relief, take the lorna
does which devasted Newcastle and New Albany,
Ind, at intervals of about two weeks.
When Newcastle was laid in ruins with the loss
of q score of lives, and several hundred persons
made homeless and thrown out of work, the pres
ent writer, learning the situation through tele-
graph and long distance telephone messages to
the press, notified Division Director John ]. O'Con-
nor Of Chicago. Within ten minutes MIR. O'Connor
was calling for Red Cross nurses, surgeons,
trained Investigators, and arranging with Wash
ington for whatever funds might be needed to
start the work Of rescuing the survivors, feeding
and housing them, getting them back to work, and
41IAak{- --I ,..,s-- 49, IAal All
night long, from his room in Chicago, he was put
ting this, that and the other agency to work at the
end of a wire, and the dawn Of the next day saw
order coming out of chaos.
Then, and not before, Mr.. O'Connor took train
for the scene, and when he arrived, found his or
ders being carried out. He took personal charge,
aided by the chairman and committees of the In
dianapolis and other nearby chapters, and the
work of rehabilitation went swiftly forward.
While the director was still at Newcastle he
received a message that an even worse disaster
had befallen New Albany. Again sending orders
by wire for surgeons, nurses, Investigators and
supplies, he took train for the scene of the latest
calamity, and again he arrived to find the system
already at work. The living were cared for and
work found for them, the dead buried, and all
with the least possible delay and Reorganization
Of the daily life of the community.
The June number of the Red Cross Magazine
contains a succinct account of the splendid relief
work accomplished.
The work of organizing base hospitals Illus
trates the forehanded methods Of the Red Cross.
With a clarity of vision for which the country
now blesses him, Colonel Kean called last autumn
for the Red Cross to organize for the army and
navy with the least possible delay SO base hospital
units. He did not want hospital buildings-what
he wanted was SO units of surgeons, dentists,
apothecaries, orderlles, nurses and assistants, with
all the cots, mattresses, bedding, laboratory appa-
ratus, b~andages, splints, surgical shirts, bed
-1--. a-I H. - kL4.-1 H. w,,ek 10
had before a single wounded man can be properly
cared for. Each of these 36 base hospital units
was to be enrolled and trained, all their perma-
nent equipment bought. and all their consumable
supplies bought or made, boxed, labeled and
stored, so that the whole could be shipped by train
or steamer on notice of a day or two.
Instantly, all over the country, the division d.
rectors passed the word to their chapters. and the
various committees took up the work of forming
base hospital units. Under the supervision Of
Washington itself the surgeons and nurses were
chosen and enrolled. Purchasing agents bought
at the lowest possible price the equipment. I'm
der each chapter engaged In the work a commit
tee Oh hospital supplies got standard patterns and
specifications from the war department, and set
hundreds and thousands of women to sewing ON
the b~andages, wound dressings and hospital gar
ments.
All that was long before the United States