Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-06-08

Just What the Red Cross Is
Extracts from an Address by
H. J. Hill.


Since 1905. when Congress special
iy chartered the American Red Cross.
every resident - man, woman and
child-in America is entitled to hold
membership in it. The American
Red Cross, while purely volunteer
organization, is officially designated
by the government to supply the
work of the army and navy medical
corps, and to officially receive and
distribute on behalf of the govern
ment all moneys and supplies re-
quired to relieve communities over
whelmed by disaster, and to CO.
operate through its base hospitals
and other military units, with the
army and navy.
The machinery of the Society in
terlocks closely with that of the gov
eminent. The President of the So
ciety Is the President of the United
States; it's Treasurer is the Federal
Comptroller Of the Currency; the
War Department audits it's accounts;
the Surgeon-General Of the United
States Medical Corps and an Admiral
military and naval relief.
In time OF war the government
takes over the equipment and person
mel organized by the Society, and
every physician, nurse and officer on
It's roll is automatically given proper
military rank.
So, you see, 1t is not mere in
cidental piece of relief machinery
inh fHa nnt.fn a1 Il,
building.
Twenty-Five movable base hospi-
tails, each OF them capable of provid-
ing for the needs of an army division
Of twenty thousand men, have been
organized during the past twelve
months. Five have been provided
for the Navy. The equipment for
these hospitals, costing something
like thirty-one thousand dollars
each, has been provided and stored
in orderly fashion, where it is in
stantly available. The trained per-
sonnet. consisting of 261 surgeons,
pharmacists, dentists, nurses, assist
ant nurses, stretcher bearers, order
lies, clerks, hospital cooks, carpent-
ers, ETC.. has been drawn from the
strongest hospitals and Red Cross
American cities, and, for period of
two years, is pledged to respond to
the call Of the government for &C
tive field service.
The American Red Cross is desig-
mated to take charge. under super
vision OF the Medical Corps, Of all
patients turned over to it in what we
know as the second zone-the zone
Of the, military base. Here. in the
great base hospitals organized and
equipped by the people in times Of
peace. the wounded soldier and sail
or meet for the first time what is
comparable to regular hospital es-
Enlistment Here he receives ex-
pert surgical attention and the best
care and nursing that grateful peo-
pie can provide. Letters from his
dear ones at home are received and
read to him here. and his letters
home are written for him by clerks
provided in the hospital.
Here he stays until we'll enough
to be transported to one of the great
general hospitals Communicated by
the government, back many miles
from the war front, or until he is
discharged to his home.
Let us build our machinery now
commensurate with our other re-
sources. No organization holding a
membership Of two or three hundred
thousand can truly reflect the gen
erous impulses Of our people
Japan has more than two million
members enrolled in her Red Cross.
May there not be vital connection
between this fact and the fighting fit
ness OF her armies and navies in her
recent war? Germany had, at the
outbreak of the war, nearly a million
and half members in her Red Cross.
Does this not partially explain the
TACT that her military and civilian
population have been cared for as no
other nation in Europe has been
cared for in this terrible war? Aus
tria's Red Cross, with a membership
of $4,000, broke down in the early
stages of the war: her machinery was
not adequate. While men died OH
the battlefield and in her hospitals,
she had to stop, as God grant we
may not be compelled to stop, to
patch her machinery. to expand it,
and to bring into being what every
nation should have before the call to
the flag goes out.