The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-08
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
By FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director,
Wellington, d. c.
RED CROSS YARNS.
Washington, D. c..

Washington, D. c., Nov. s.-Whol is
telling tales about the Red Cross?
Who is responsible for starting the
half dozen stock fables afioat all over
the country, whose sole object is to
convey some damaging insinuation
about the Red Cross organization? Is
! he a pro-German, a pGcifist, or a ma
licious practical joker? Or are the
stories started by a hidden but extern
sive organization of some sort? No
! body knows. The stories are in cir
culation, tho, and they present Curl
| GUS problem.
There IS no truth in any of them
| They are all designed to hamper and
bring into disrepute the Red Cross
knitting campaign. which is a move
ment deserving all the support any
American can give it. A knitting
campaign is rather a curious object
for any hostile power to select as the
object of underhand attack The
stories themselves are equally Curl
Gus, in their mingling of able and
| artistic lying with absurd details that
stamp them instantly as not only
false, but impossible, to one who has
any knowledge of the Red Cross work.
A typical tale, and one of the most
widely circulated, might be entitled
"A Pair of Socks for Sammy, or How
the Lumberman Got Stung" Ac-
cording to this tale, a young IadN
has knitted a beautiful pair of socks
for soldier, and entrusted them to
the Red Cross for delivery to any lad
| IN KHAKI. Moreover, the young lady,
| being of romantic Temperament. has
put note with her name and ad
dress in the toe of one of the socks
a rev weeks later she always gets an
answering note from a man in a INN
per camp The answer assures her
that the socks are fine job and the
Ium herman appreciates them. II
closes by saying, They are the host
life T-''V III NY
Ihere Are Yarns and Yarns.
from this tale an intelligent public
IS supposed to deduce that the Red
Sross is taxing the socks young ladies
S M LOT soldiers and selling them for
| SOU pair The most striking fact
ABOUT the yarn, and all its brethren. is
that IL crops up in exactly the same
FORM In every section of the country
The national headquarters of the Red
Cross have received literally Thousand
OF letters, each reporting that this tale
Is abroad east and west, north anc
south, with hardly a detail changed
The lumberman who was muIcted OF
$3.50 sometimes works in Maine
somet1mes ne works in Louisiana OF
michigan or Colorado or Washington
But the rest of the tale doesn't vary
This in itself is enough to throw it out
of court with those who can weigh evi-
dence. 1t bears a family resemblance
to the thousands of identical teIe-
grams that flooded congress wher
the question of declaring war; wa
|, pending. But who started it?
Another tale is that of the devoted
mother who kitted a sweater for hel
soldier boy. She gave it to the Rec
Cross chapter to forward, but her DO,
never got it She went TO the cI7antel
again to report, and the lady il
/ charge told her the sweater had beef
sent But the keen-eyed mother il
question noticed that the lady wa
wearing a sweater herself. A sec
J end glance. and she recognized tn,