Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1917-12-20

it could to comfort and help these sorely-
tried The relief of human suffering
x is its sole object, and it has never withheld
its hand when there was anguish to be
soothed But In this there is another object to
be attained-call it selfish If you will. backing
up France and making her people stronger to
dure the Red Cross is saving the lives of Ameri-
can soldiers. This admirably expressed in the
great Chicago Red Cross conference by Henry p.
Dawson. chairman of the Red Cross council.
you may ask how all this work among the
French people is of any help to our boys-how it
is saving their lives" said Mr. Dawson "Tn tell
you: We ask General Pershing what he wants,
and he says, 4 don't want anything for boys.
but for Gods sake buck up the French Give them
courage. Hearten them. They have been fighting
for three years, and If you want to do anything
for me and our boys, make the people understand
that are here and going to take places
in the line soon as can get ready"
Then Mr.. Dawson went to show the strain
under which the French have lived FOR more than
three years, with the German holding much
of their land and harnmering night and day
their lines to break through and take Paris
"And if that French line should break" he said.
you know what that means, There's nobody but
those boys of Pershings to stop the Germans.
and ready not. they'll have fill the gap. II
can help the French line to hold,
own boys until they all ready to take their
part"
Mr. Dawson pictured the weary French soldier
coming out of the trenches for ten-day rest He
is tired half to death. covered with dirt vernin
his clothing worn Does he go home? He has
home, perhaps. His wife and children swept
away before the German tide. His home is gone.
trenches
don't see why my family should be in hell too"
But now the American Red Cross is France.
1t meets the soldier when he from the
trenches takes him to house prepared with your
money, and he is made comfortable. He is given
bath. his clothing is cleaned and sterilized, his
hair cut, his whiskers trimmed, and he sleeps for
hour-maybe ten hours.
Then he is taken to his family IL the Red Cross
has been able to find his family. He finds his
wife and babes. his old mother, n a house or a
shelter of some kind supplied and furnished by
the Red Cross.
When the days of his leave are up, that soldier
goes back to the trenches man. He knows
now that America with her millions and millions
of fighting men, and her billions and billions of
money and the tender of her Red Cross are
behind him. And he goes back into the war with
new determination, and says, $50 long as live.
will fight"
And long he holds that line he is taking
the place of some American boy who is vet
trained to take the trenches. That line must be
made to hold for months yet, for General Pershing
has said that if he help it. his boys shall
go into the hard fighting before February.
When they do in then will come the real
test of the American Red Cross-then will be the
days of harvest. of which today is the day of
ing. For when the wounded begin to stream from
the evacuation hospitals back to the bases, the
warehouses of bandages and pads and gauze and
Splints and hospital garments and surgical sup
plies Will melt away like mist before the And
in that day if the Red Cross have a member
ship of something the desired 100000.
trained to make and ship all these supplies in a
great, neverfatering stream, the American soldier
will be ashamed of the land for which he is fight
ing, and many will lose limb or life which could
have been saved.
These the opinions of novice-they
the convictions of who Mt the
front in France and Belgium. and who every
day. the horrors of which 1T is the work of
the Red Cross TO mitigate 1t is only few weeks
since Maj Grayson NJ P. Murphy, officer of
the regular army of wide experience and great
ability, Red Cross commissioner for France,
cabled his convictions this subject. And what
he said was. substance, that unless the Red
Cross Immediately sent vast supply of all man
of hospital supplies, the American army would
stand in danger of disaster and disgrace He
used those words-"disaster and disgrace"
Few who have not been through modern r1ili-
tary hospital conceive what enormous
amount of supplies 1t requires French surgeons
report that 1t often requires entire box of 200
gauze dressings for a single patient There has
been such scarcity of dressings in France that
they have been driven to these dressings
and over. trying to boil and clean and sterilize
them well they cam instead of throwing
them away and putting fresh ones.
There has at times, been such dearth that
wounded soldiers have had their bleeding wounds
stanched with old newspapers with the result that
they have always been infected. and gangrene and
lockjaw have claimed many poor fellow who
could have been saved.
Terrible it is to think of. they have times
been driven operate In France without chloro- =
form ether-none be had
These, doubt. the things which Major
Murphy had in mind when he said that disaster
and disgrace awaited America less the supply of
surgical necessities is fastened
Even If the lads who about to 60 into the