The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1917-12-15
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tried ones. Ine reuel OF human SuIeTlnS
Is its sole object, and 1t has never withheld
it's hand when there was anguish to be
soothed But in this there Is another object to
be attained-call 1t selfish If you WILL In backing
ND France, and making her people stronger to en-
dure the Red Cross is saving the lives Of Ameri-
can soldiers. This was admirably expressed In the
great Chicago Red Cross conference by Henry +.
Dawson. chairman of the Red Cross war 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. I'll tell
you: We ask General Pershing what he wants,
and he says Il 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 me and our boys, make the people understand
that We are here, and are going to take our places
in the line as soon as we can get ready"
Then Mr.. Dawson went on to show the strain
under which the French have lived Tor 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 not, they'll have to fill the gap II
we can help the French line to hold, we save our
own boys until they are all ready to take their
part"
Mr.. Dawson pictured the weary French soldier
Is tired half to death, covered with dirt and vermn
his clothing worn. Does he 60 home? He has no
home, perhaps. His wife and children were swept
away before the German tide. His home Is gone
He says, II can 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 hef comes from the
trenches, takes him to a house prepared with your
money, and he is made comfortable. He is given,
a bath, his clothing Is cleaned and sterilized, 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 or his old mother. in house or
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 nan. 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 live,
will fight"
And so 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 can help 1t, his boys shall not
60 into the hard fighting before February.
When they do 60 in, then win come 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 sun. And
in that day. If the Red Cross have not a member
ship Of something near the desired 15.OOOOOO,
trained to make and ship all these supplies In a
great, neverfaltering stream, the American soldier
xpit hn oft no nj for MI no ia oh
ing, and many will lose limb or life which could
have been saved.
These are not the opinions of a novice-they
are the convictions of men who are now at the
front in France and. Belgium, and who see, every
day, the horrors Of war which it is the work OF
the Red Cross to mitigate. 1t is only few weeks
since Maj. Grayson M. P. Murphy, an officer of
the regular army Of wide experience and great
ability, now Red Cross commissioner for France,
cabled his convictions on this subject. And what
he said was, In substance that unless the Red
Cross Immediately sent vast supply Of oil man.
ner OF hospital supplies, the American army weuld
stand In danger of disaster and disgrace. He
used those words-"disaster and disgrace"
Few who have not been through a modern r,lli-
tary hospital can conceive what an enormous
amount Of supplies 1t requires. French surgeons
report that 1t often requires an entire box OF 100
gauze dressings for single patient. There has
been such a 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 as well as they can, instead Of throwing
them away and putting on 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 a poor fellow who
could have been saved.
Terrible as 1t 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, no 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 Il the lads who arc shout IS 30 into the