The Twin City star. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1910-19??, 1917-12-15

VSOn
fighting line were not our own American boys, the
Red Cross would be bound to do all 1t cotild for
them. But they are our own We do not fully
realize 1t yet, but we will later on. From every
city, every village, every farming community, from
almost every family in the whole land, one or more
boys will help fill the lines in France-and 1t Is
for them for your friends and mine, for your rela
tives and mine, that the Red Cross Is working. =
1t Is going to take men and women by the mil
lion, working all their spare time, and good deal
Of time which they do not now think they can
spare. And 1t is going to take hundreds Of mill
lions Of dollars-all we can spare, and maybe all
we have, whether not we think we can spare
It, Belgium is crushed, Serbia is obliterated, Rou-
mania Is little more than memory Russia Is i'm
potent, Italy is bearing heavy cross, France is
immortal in spirit but growing thin. There are
left chiefly the British lion and the American
eagle, and the English-speaking boys who bear
them aloft. If they fall civilization is dead.
There is no longer any question that civilization
is fighting for its very ife Germany has set out
to force the whole world to live under the German
imperialistic plan. President Wilson. In his now.
famous Buffalo Speech said:
1T Is amazing to me that any group of people
should suppose that any reforms planned in the in
terest- of the people can live in the presence of
Germany strong enough to undermine or over.
throw them by intrigue of force. Any man
Of the world can continue If the Pan-German plan
is achieved and German power fastened upon the
world, Is as fatuous as the dreamers Of Russia"
There never has been any question that the
American soldier will fight to death, If need be.
when once he begins the job. It is the task Of
the American Red Cross to so supply and f0rtify
those boys that just as few Of them as possible
may be sacrificed.
That is what the Red Cross has in mind when
1t comes to your house. your Office, or your
kitchen door, or wherever you may be found, and
asks you to be one of the 100000 Red Cross
menGers to stand back of those boys Ia khaki.
This Is not to be money campaign. Money is the
least important matter of this moment. What Is
wanted k members The Red Cross WAITS these
15,O00Q00 men, women and children bundled to-
gethar In chapters, organized into committees and
trained to the minute to do whatever is needed fol
the boys In France and for their families at home.
and for those suffering ones who have lost every
thing but bare life.
If the call is. for warm clothing it wants these
100000 trained to make and turn out the kind
of garments needed SO that they may go by train
load and shipload at once. If 1t Is for knitted
goods-there has already been call for 100000
knitted articles and it Is almost quite filed by
now-these 100000 must be organized to get
yarn and knit, or get others to knit, and deliver
the goods at once. And If 1t is for bandages and
gauze dressings and other things for the wounded,
as assuredly it will be many time, there must
be a trained Red Cross membership to get them
made and in the hospitals in time to save life.
God help the American army In that day If the
people have not been quick to unite with the Red
Cross and supply the things the wounded boys
must have. And God pity you and me in the days
when the boys come back from over there-such
of them as come home-and listen to the excuses
we will try to make If we fail to keep them SUP
piled with everything they need in their fight
for us.
There will be another call for money before
long. When the country gave $100,0O000O to the
Red Cross war council last summer, the great men
Mt the head of 1t estimated that, by careful spend
ing, they could make 1t last six months. The
next call probably will be fora larger sum, may
be as much as quarter of million dollars. If
so, the American people must give 1t. Every cent
goes for relief work. In what he termed his pub
lie accounting" Henry P. Dawson, chairman of the
Red Cross war council said in recent speech
that Of every dollar given the Red Cross for relief
work, about $1.O2 is spent for relief. What he
meant is that not one cent goes for overhead
expense which Is cared for In another way, but
that the whole fund, together with about per
cent interest which 1t accumulated while in bank
goes for relief.
All that will come later. when the Red Cross
needs more money to carry on its work of mercy.
What It needs now is members-1O,O 100000 ado
ed to the 100000 1t now has. Every member
should be at least of the class called "MagazlDa
Members" 1t costs So year, and entities the
members to the really wonderful Red Cross Mags>
zine every month, filed with news and colored
pictures Of what the great order is doing all over
the earth.
If you are member, renew If not, become one
when the Red Cross committee comes. 1t Is meS~r
ly trying to get you to help win your war; ara
cure for the unlucky--who may be some of your
own family.
HAD LITTLE DESIRE TO ROAM