The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-12-15

fighting line were not our own American boys, the
Red Cross would be bound to do all it could for
them. But they are our own. We do not fully
realize 1t yet, but we will later on. From every
city, every village, every farming community, from
almost every family in the whole land, one or more
boys will help fill the lines In France-and 1t Ia
for them, for your friends and mine, for your rela-
tives and mine, that the Red Cross is working.
1t is going to take men and women by the mil
lion, working all their spare time, and a good deal
Of time which they do not now think they can
spare. And 1t Is going to take hundreds of mil
lions of dollars-all we can spare, and maybe all
we have, whether or not we think we can spare
1t. Belgium is crushed, Serbia Is obliterated, RoU-
mania is little more than a memory, Russia is i'm
potent, Italy is bearing a heavy cross, France is
immortal in spirit but growing thin. There are
left chiefly the British lion and the American
eagle, and the English-speaking boys who bear
them aloft. If they fail, civilization is dead.
There Is no longer any question that civilization
is fighting for its very life. Germany has set out
to force the whole world to live under the German
imperialistic plan. President Wilson, In his now
famous Buffalo speech, said:
1T Is amazing to me that any group of people
should suppose that any reforms planned in the in
terest Of the people can live in the presence of
Germany strong enough to undermine or over
throw them by intrigue of force. Any man
who supposes that the free industry and enterprise
of the world can continue If the Pan-German plan
is achieved and German power fastened upon the
world, Is as fatuous as the dreamers Of Russia"
There never has been any question that the
American soldier will fight to death, If need be,
when once he begins the job. 1t is the task of
the American Red Cross to so supply and fortlfy
those boys that just as few of them as possible
may be sacrificed.
That is what the Red Cross has In mind when
1t comes to your house, or your office, or your
kitchen door, or wherever you may be found, and
0SES Won IN no ono of tha TX 0nO nOn pod CrOcc
members to stand back of those boys in khaki.
This is not to be a money campaign. Money is the
least important matter of this moment. What Is
wanted is members. The Red Cross wants these
100000 men, women and children banded to-
gether in chapters, organized into committees, and
trained to the minute to do whatever is needed for
the boys in France and for their families at home,
and for those suffering ones who have lost every.
thing but bare life.
If the call is for warm clothing, 1t wants these
100000 trained to make and turn out the kind
of garments needed so that they may go by train
load and shipload at once. If 1t Is for knitted
goods-there has already been a call for 5000, 900
Knitted articles and 1t Is almost or quite filled by
now-these $4,000, 600 must be organized to get
yarn and knit, or get others to knit, and deliver
the goods at once. And If 1t is for bandages and
gauze dressings and other things for the wounded,
as assuredly it will be many a time, there must
be a trained Red Cross membership to get them
made and in the hospitals In time to save life.
God help the American army in that day If the
people have not been quick to unite with the Red
Cross and supply the things the wounded boys
must have. And God pity you and me in the days
when the boys come back from over there-such
of them as come homeland listen to the excuses
we Will try to make If we fail to keep them sup
piled with everything they need in their fight
for us.
There will be another call for money before
long. When the country gave 500, DOC to the
Red Cross war council last summer, the great men
at the head of 1t estimated that, by careful spend
Ing, they could make it last six months. The
next call probably will be for a larger sum, may
De as much as a quarter of a million dollars. II
SO, the American people must give 1t. Every cent
goes Tor relief work. In what he termed his pub
lie accounting" Henry P. Dawson, chairman of the
Red Cross war council, said in a recent speech
that OF every dollar given the Red Cross for relief
work, about $1.02 is spent for relief. What he
meant is that not one cent goes for overhead
expense, which is cared for In another way, but
that the whole fund, together with about 2 per
cent interest which 1t accumulated while In bank,
goes for relief.
All that will come later, when the Red Cross
needs more money to carry on its work of mercy.
What 1t needs now is members--10,OOO, 600 add
ed to the 100000 1t now has. Every member
should be at least of the class called Magazine
Members" 1t costs 50 a year, and entities the
members to the really wonderful Red Cross Maya.
zine every month, filled with news and coloreS
pictures OF what the great order is doing all over
the earth.
If you are a member, renew; If not, become one
when the Red Cross committee comes. 1t is mere
~ trying TO get you to help win your war, and
cure TOT the unlucky-who may be some Of your
own family.