The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-09-03

| Ii the American ReQ Gross naQ never
lone anything else than organize, equip
and supply the base hospitals which
are now backing our armies, it would
have justified its existence. OF course
1t has done, and still is doing, count
less great things for America and for
the world; but its accomplishment in
the line of base hospitals is just now
Of prime Importance.
As briefly as 1t may be defined, q
base hospital is an institution which
cares for the sick or wounded soldier
from the time he is sent back from
the firing line, until he is able to be
removed to a hospital in his own coun-
try.
It Is almost unbelievable, but never
theless fact, that until the American
Red Cross took hold Of the task
year ago, no nation In the history of
the world had ever organized base
hospital until after war had been de-
clared and the fighting begun, and the
wounded men lay writing on the
ground.
Always, Of course, there have been
few army surgeons with each regi-
ment, who patched up the slightly
wounded and got them back into the
firing line as quickly as possible. Also,
Of course, there have always been in
all countries some sort of hospital sys-
TEN for the care of the sick and
wounded when they got home.
But always the intermediate insti-
tuition, for the care and transportation
of the sick and wounded between the
front and the home hospitals, was
missing. This has invariably led to
a terrible congestion Of wounded on
the battlefields, where thousands suf-
fered needlessly, lost arms and legs
that might have been saved, or died
when little care would have pre-
served them.
Col. Jefferson Randolph Kean, q. S.
A. Medical corps, director general of
military relief of the Red Cross has
likened the former organization to a
bridge of which the end spans were
complete, but the middle span-the
base hospitals-was entirely lacking.
When a man is wounded in battle,
the method Of caring for him is this
modified, of course, by varying condi-
tons:
He lies on the field in No Mans
Land between the lines, or in the
trench until he is able to drag himself
away, or the stretcher bearers can
reach him, and carry him to one Of
the little first-aid stations. These are
always very near to the fighting lines
sometimes in part of the trench
where the men are fighting.
There an army surgeon shameless the
flow Of blood, puts dressing on the
wound to keep out infection, binds on
splints in case Of broken bones, and
makes it possible for the patient to be
moved to the little field hospital a
short distance from the fighting line.
This field hospital is usually tent
a hut or barn or even
a space in the open air sheltered by
hill or q clump Of trees. 1t is really
little more than an enlarged first-aid
station, with a capacity for not more
than 1875 wounded, who lie on the
ground on tarpaulins. There are no
beds, and seldom any cots.
From the field hospital the wound
ed are taken, as rapidly as possible, to
the evacuation hospitals, still farther
from the danger zone. Each evacua-
ton hospital cares for the wounded
from three field hospitals. This, too,
is an emergency station, and has no
permanency. 1t Is collection station
for wounded, where the worst cases
may be given a little more attention
than has been possible before.
As rapidly as the motor ambulances
the hospital trains, the hospital ships
or other agencies, are able to work.
the wounded are taken from these col.
lecting stations to the base hospital,
located at the army base some distance
to the rear.
Here, for the first time, the wound
ed man finds himself In real hos
pital, in the hands of surgeons and
nurses who have the time to give his
hurts every possible care.
He is put into real bed in a real
hospital, supplied with X-ray, bac-
THEOLOGICAL and pathological labora-
tories, a diet kitchen presided over by
skilled cooks, and with surgeons and
nurses drawn from Americas most
highly trained to wait on him. II he
requires an operation, he Is in the
hands of the best surgeons of the land,
with the finest surgical tools to do
their work. And the hospital has an
ample supply Of wound dressings, pads,
splints, hospital gowns, surgical
the thousand and one things
a first-class hospital must have.
That is the service which the Ameri-
can Red Cross has provided for the
American soldier before our country
was at war-before single American
ship or unit of the American army
was headed for Europe. Thirty.six Of
these hospitals-enough to care for the
wounded of an army Of million men
have been made ready to the last