Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1917-10-31
found, someone may have hard time
explaining some things.

found, someone may have hard time
explaining some things.
Marcus Eaton, chairman of the Chi
cago chapter, is quoted as saying:
Nobody claims that the Red Cross
is perfect institution, but, because
OF the almost sacred character Of the
work it is charged with all of its Of
ficials have been determined from the
first that everything it does must be
as open as the day and free from
even the shadow of suspicion.
U. S. Aids Inquiry.
When last summer, soon after we
got to work on a great scale, scatter
ing stories began to come of sweaters
and other garments being sold or
stolen, | feared, at first, that some OF
them might be true-at least, as we
| lawyers say, colorably true, so that
people not overfriendly might be able
! to make out a somewhat plausible
case. From the start we investigated
every story which came to our ears.
We had the assistance of the govern
ment secret Service in running them
down. So far We never found the
| slightest proof that single garment
! has been sold or stolen.
! presently we found that exactly
the same stories had been started and
circulated all over the United States.
| We found that from time what seemed
| to be special campaigns of slander
were conducted in various parts OF the
country. For the last three weeks
Chicago has been the scene of perhaps
the most widespread and venomous
of these campaigns.
Each day / receive many written
complaints, some days as many as
fifty. All these complaints can be put
into one or the other of less than half
dozen classifications.
Perhaps the most common is that
of the woman who has sewed into
sweater or pair of socks an envelope
containing $40 bill and note ask
| ing the soldier who receives the gar
ment and the money to acknowledge
their receipt. In hundreds of such cas-
es, so the stories go, these women have
later received notes from farmers liv-
ing in remote corners of Maine or from
soldiers in France or at one of the ma.
tional cantonments stating that they
have received the sweaters or the
socks and the money, but that they had
to pay for the sweaters-from S6 to
SIS. ..'.
MANY of our complaints on this
brand of story are very specific. They
give names and dates, but so far no
complaint has ever come from the
actual woman who knitted the sweater,
inclosed the money, and received the
letter in reply. Every one OF them is
carefully Investigated. Allen J. Car
ter, son of Justice Carter OF the Su-
preme court, and himself former as
sistant district attorney, has charge OF
this work. He is assisted by corps
of investigators from the federal de-
been impossible to find single one of
these letters. In every case we run
up against a blind wall. Mrs. Jones
has heard the tale from Mrs. Smith,
and so on, until finally Mrs. Brown
cannot remember where she got it.
Seek Originsl Letters.
1--WE are extremely anxious to lay
our hands on at least one of these let
ters. Henry P. Davidson, president of
the National Red Cross, has instruct
ed us as soon as we can find a single
one of these alleged letters to bring it
at once to Washington.
Another favorite type of these
stories is that of the woman who, hav-
| ing knitted sweater and marked il
|
at a department store or on the back
/ of some one she passes on the street.
Every complaint of this kind-as OF
every Other-is also carefully run
down. So far we have failed to locate
even the woman whose sweater has
been so misused. -
"One thing our investigation is be-
ginning to show. In one or two in
stances we have run down tales until
we come to woman Of notoriouslY
pro German sympathies who admits
she has spread the stories and knows
them to be true, but refuses to answer
questions or to reveal the source Of
her information, We are beginning
to close in on two or three centers Of
this propaganda.
Ask for Information.
"The Red Cross will be obliged if
any one having even what sounds like
definite information as to sweaters or
other garments being sold or other
wise improperly disposed of will re-
port it to this office.
Meanwhile the duty of every pa
triotic citizen is clear. If one hears
one of these stories repeated he should
ask for proof of the statements made
or, at least, the authority for them.