New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-19
Putting Efficiency :
Into Patriotism Is
Newport's Job
Society Works Long Hours
to Care for Its Sailor oe'
90
and Soldier Boys d.

NEWPOhl, X. L., Aug, lS.-N men the =
boys in khaki march out of a city
where they have been stationed il is
usually the citizens who do the cheer
ing ~
But it was the boys in khaki whoo
echoed the cheers, as the long ranks
fled through the Newport streets this
week, OFF for Somewhere in America or.
France. While tears ran down the
cheeks Of the townspeople. who had
adopted them, the boys cheered for the
men who had stood by them. the women
who had mothered them the city that
had opened it's arms 20 them. 800.
They cheered for "the most hospita-
bic people in the world. especially the
women" and for "the city OF shining
patriotism"
One of the women whom they.
cheered. Mrs. r. Livingston Beeekman,
wife Of the Governor OF Rhode Island,
set down the whole attitude OF the city
in Just a word this week. She was
talking Of the Red Cross. Of the New-u
port branch, of which she is chairman.
"The Red Cross? It's the greatest
business in the world just now, next
10 actual fighting" she said.
And Newport Is doing just that
making patriotism its one great. EN-
Gent business. The men and women of
the city are making wartime duties
their chief occupation in n way that
the greatest factory or monopoly might
envy as an example of business eff
cheney. They have neither opening nor
closing hours in their work. The
sharply defined smart set of other years
is merged into the mass of wartime
workers, and the smartest set is the
ore that gets the most done for the
country. ~,
Among those they cheered were Gov
ernor and Mrs. Beeckman. Mrs. French
Vanderbilt, Mrs. Harold Brown, Mrs.
Arthur Curtiss James. Mr.. and Mrss'
william Greenough, Mrs. John Nicho.
las Brown. Mrs. Whitney Warren, Mrs,
Daniel B. Fearing, Mrs. Eugene Dixon,
Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw. I'd. Miss
Louise B. Scott, General Secretary B.a
o. Andrews Of the Army and Navy Y.
NJ. C. A.; Colonel Henry ID. Todd. jr..
C. A. c., commandment Of the Narragan-
sett defence district; Mr.. and Mrs.
Hamilton Fish Webster and Mrs. c.
Lorllard Spencer. They are only
few of the hundreds here who believe
that patriotism is the supreme business
Of the moment.
Mrs. French Vanderbilt was up at
o'clock the other morning helping i.
C. Titus, chairman of the Red Cross
commissary, pass around hot coffee to
the men in Khaki as they marched
away. off TO Somewhere in America or
France, though as chairman of the
garments committee she had worked
until after midnight the night before,
when a hurry cali had come at $50
for 100 kits TO be finished that night
and delivered the next morning. All
day and every day Mrs. Beeckman,
chairman of the Newport Chapter Of
the Red Cross, does everything from
making surgical dressings to knitting
stockings on the knitting machine and
cheer the men on the march with iced
lemonade. It's hard enough to find
one boarding house, but Mrs. Daniel b.
Fearing, chairman Of the housing
committee. personally looked up LAB
for reservists, pending the time when
arrangements could be made for them
at the forts.
So noted a man as Hamilton Fish
Webster cheerfully gives sll his time
to being chairman Of the ways and
means committee, which really indi-
Gates being a sort of general captain
Of the Red Cross ship. Mrs. Webster,
head of the entertainment committee,
is responsible for series Of brilliant
and phehomenally profitable events
that have helped swell the Red Cross
funds until they stretch over even
such emergencies as providing the en-
tire equipment for $4,000 naval re-
servists, awaiting the arrival Of the.
government supplies.
This Is a small part OF what II means.
to make a business Of the Red Cross.
Mrs. Harold Brown is another of the
women Of Newport who make a bust
ness of half dozen different branches
of patriotism She was the first chair,
man of the Newport surgical dressings
committee. Of which Miss Katherine
r. Cortazzo is now the head, an organ-
ization whose unceasing donations o.
bandages. feather pillows and other,
comforts for the wounded have been
commended repeatedly by the officials
in France. Almost every day she con-
ducts French classes for the re-
servists and enlisted men at the various
forts. When she isn't doing that She
may perhaps be found at the Civic
League house. where she serves with
Miss Edith Wetmore on a COMMITTEES
of the Housewives League, which is
arranging lectures in Newport and
demonstrations for canning and drying
during the coming month, under a
representative from the State College
az Kingston.