Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-05-08
So. BRIEF HISTORY OF THE
RED CROSS.

The suferings of soldiers in the Crimean
War first directed the worlds humaner i'm
pulses toward measures for the systematic care
OF the wounded. In 1859 when the SWISS hu-
manitarian, NJ. Henri Dunant, was visiting
Italy as tourist he caught in the dread
fnl carnage of the battle OF Solferino. Dunant
personally ministered to the wounded. and
what is more important-he organized rolun-
feers in the vicinity to help him in the work.
Soon after he formulated the first. proposals for
volunteer associations to care for the wounded
OF war and for the naturalization OF the per
sonnet OF such relief associations. His pro-
phetic vision embraced the services which
such associations could render in time of epi-
denies. floods, and other eatastrophes.
NJ Dunants appeals resulted in prelimi-
nary conference held at Geneva in 1868,
which in turn led to official International
Conference at Geneva in 1864. During this
second conference the delegates from the Unit
ed States made a neutrality-suspicious. decisive
contribution by showing that the United
operations. had already solved problems which
were troubling the conference and were max
ing its success matter of doubt.
The Geneva Convention. adopted a. that
time, revised in 1906 and given additional
force by the Hague Conferences. was the for
NAL beginning Of the Red Cross and for that
reason is sometimes called the Red Cross
Treaty
The name Red Cross comes from the in
sigma adopted by the conferences Greek
cross in red white ground
II was not until 1882 that the Government
OF the United States ratified the Geneva Com
vention of 1864. But in 1877 a self.appoint-
ed committee to further the interests of the
ked Cross movement in America formed
IN Washington; in 1881 the Committee
enlarged and incorporated under the name of
The American Association of the Red Cross
IN 1893 1t was reincorporaed as the "Ameri-
can National Red Cross in ] 900 the Congress
OF the United States gave to this organization
national charter and in 1905, by Act of
congress, the existing organization was dis
solved and new association incorporated
under the name of the American National
Red Cross"
81. An ENDOWMENT FUND has
been established in order to provide stable
income for administrative and educational
purposes and a fund for any relief work of
Such extent that a national appeal is inadvis-
able. The trustees of this fund are:
The Secretary of the Treasury
The Treasurer of the United States
Jacob Henry Schiff of New York
lanes Parmelee Of the District Of
Columbia
Francis l.. Higginson, Jr., of Bos-
ton, Mass.
Henry Pomeroy Dawson of New
York
Charles Dyer Norton of New York
Charles James Bell of the District
of Columbia.
90. CHRISTMAS SEALS. In 1905
the American Red Cross began the annual pub
LEGATION and distribution of Christmas seals,
which since that time have become by far the
most important private means of maintaining
the active campaign against tuberculosis in
the United States The total receipts from the
sale of these seals from 1908 to 1916, incln-
sive. have aggregated over $4,000, 900. In
many States the antiiubercuosis work Tex
elusive of sanitariums) is supported almost
entirely by this source of income. The policy
long ago adopted, by which each State or
community retains 90 per cent of the gross
proceeds of its sales for the support of its own
work, assures the widest possible disribu
ton of the benefits. See Department of CT
william Relief, paragraph 10