Tombstone epitaph., 1917-12-23

American soldiers must not be for a
 >ihSIr day without all of these things
 they need. The French have been. In
 m" early days of the war-and it has
 been said in some later dayS-word
 went out that the French surgeons
 "'r" operating without anestheticS be 'al>" they had none. It Is bad enough
 lO I">e an arm or leg, but no one likes to think of being tied fast to n tabl" and the leg or arm cut off with no chl"rOforin or ether to give the sui lerer unc"nsciOuSneSs while the knife Is wieided
 Also, within the last year. word has come from the hattleiields 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. IL meant infect ed wounds, gangrene. lockjaw. and ih. loss "f legs and arms and lives that might have been saved.
 All America will agree that none of these things must happen to Pershings boys. But it 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 whole box of surgical dressings .,OJ of them-fOr a 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 M. P. Murphy had in mind few weeks ago when he cahied to the Red Cross that nothing on earth is now of equal i'm portance to getting q bis supply of surgical supplies into France. Unless We do. he said. disaster and disgrace nre ahead for America-and the Red Cross and the American people cannot afford to incur that. No American sol dier must lose leg or an arm or an eye. or give his life. when 1t can be saved by anything the American peo- f' ''A' N'- -AsAJ'A -'iuE PI. lS tilt Cross commissioner for France, and knows perhaps better than any other man In the world exactly what needs 10 be done for the army in q medical and surgical way. When he speaks America will do well to listen.
 Money is not all the Fed Cross must have for this work money is not even the most important thing, though il will take millions of dollars. What it needs most of all Is an immense num- Der of members. and their personal service. IL needs, and has to have. the whole American people, fathers and mothers, sisters and daughters, and the children. to back up the govern mcnt and the Red Cross in this work. Take. for example. the recent cali of Major Murphy for 6.Oc0,OJO warm knit ted articles for the soldiers and for the destitute of France If the money had 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 10 its members, and asked each chapter for its quota. and the socks and sweaters and mulllers and wristlets rolled in by 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 bandages and | gauge dressings and hospital garments | In great numbers. Not all the stores l in all the land will have enough such | things to fill the demand. But the people are being enrolled as Red Cross members. and they are by tens of thousands how to make and pack and ship these things. and whatever the demand, they will meet It in full.