The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1917-12-22

is its sole object, and it has never withheld
its hand when there anguish TO be
soothed But in this case there another object to
be attained-caII it selfish If you will. In backing
up France and making her people stronger to en-
dure the Red Cross is saving the lives of Ameri-
can soldiers. This admirably expressed in the
great Chicago Red Cross conference by Henry z.
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. 'Il tell
you: We ask General Pershing what he wants,
and he says, 4 don't want anything, for our 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 and our boys make the people understand
that are here and are going to take our places
in the line as soon as we 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 terror holding much
of their land and hammering night and day at
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 Pershing's to stop the Germans
and, ready or not, they'll have to fill the gap. If
help the French line to hold, save
own boys until they all ready to take their
part"
coming out of the trenches for ten-day rest. He
is tired half to DEATH with dirt and vermn
his clothing worn. Does he go home? He has no
home, perhaps. His wife and children were swept
away before the German tide His home is gone
He says, 81 live in hell in the trenches, but
don't see why my family should be in hell too"
But now the American Red Cross is in France
1t meets the soldier when he comes from the
trenches, takes him to a house prepared with your
money and he is made comfortable. He is given
q bath, his clothing is cleaned and sterflzed his
hair cut, his whiskers trimmed, and he sleeps for
an hOur-maybe ten hours.
Then he is taken to his family, if the Red Cross
has been able to find his family. He finds his
wife and babes, his old mother in 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 new man. He knows
now that America, with her millions and millions
of fighting men, and her billions and billions of
money, and the tender care of her Red Cross, are
behind him. And he goes back into the war with
new determination and says, $50 long as I live,
will fight"
And long as he holds that line he is taking
the place of SOME American boy who is not yet
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 not
go into the hard fighting before February.
When they do go in, then will the real
test of the American Red Cross-then will be the
days of harvest, of which today is the day of SOW
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 not q member
trained to make and ship all these supplies in a
great, neVerfaltering stream the American soldier
viii be ashamed of the land for which he is fight
ing and many will lose limb life which could
have been saved.
These are not the opinions of a novice-they
the convictions of men who are now ut the
front in France and Belgium, and who see every
day, the horrors of which it 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, in 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 E1ili-
tary hospital conceive what enormous
amount Of supplies it requires. French surgeons
report that it often requires entire box of 600
gauze dressings for a single patient. There has
been such scarcity of dressings in France that
they have been driven to use these dressings over
and over, trying to boil and clean and sterilize
them well they can, instead OF throwing
them away and putting fresh ones.
There has. at times, been such dGarth that
wounded soldiers have had their bleeding wounds
Sanched with old newspapers, with the result that
they have always been infected, and gangrene and
1ockjaw have claimed many poor fellow who
could have been saved.
Terrible as it is to think Of they have at times
been driven to operate In France without chloro-
form or ether-none was to be had.
These, doubt, are 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 are about to go into the