The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1917-12-21


once.
American soldiers must not be for
single day without all of these thing
tney need. The French have been. Ii
the early days OF the war-and II I'm,
oeen said in some later days-wor(
went out that the French surgeons
were operating without anesthetlcs be
cause they had none. 1t is bad enough
10 lose an arm or n leg, but no one
hkes TO think of being tied fast to Il
'aDle and the leg or arm cut Off with
no chloroform or ether to give the suf.
Ierer Inconsistencies while the knife
is welded.
Aiso' within the last year, word has
come from the battlefields of France
that the little Poius had to use old
newspapers to stanch the blood from
their wounds. That was because their
supply of gauze had run out and no
more was to be had. 1t meant infect
ed wounds, gangrene, lockjaw, and
the loss of legs and arms and lives that
might have been saved.
All America VIII agree that none of
these things must happen to Pershing's
boys. But it will happen unless the
American people get right behind the
lied Cross, and make and ship those
hospital supplies in a never-ending
stream. The surgeons at the French
hospitals say that sometimes it takes
a whole box of surgical dressings
1000 of them-for single wounded
man. They have been so short at the
French hospitals that instead of throw
ing the dressings away after using
they have been driven to try to clean
them and use them over and over.
That is what Maj. Grayson NJ. p.
Murphy had in mind few weeks ago
when he cabled TO the Red Cross that
nothing on earth is now of equal i'm
portance to getting a big supply Of
surgical supplies into France. Unless
we do, he said, disaster and disgrace
are ahead for America-and the Red
Cross and the American people cannot
afford to incur that. No American SOL
dler must lose a leg or an arm or an
eye, or give his life, when ii can he
saved by anything the American peo-
pie can do. Major Murphy is the Red
cross commissioner for France, and |
knows perhaps better than any other
nan in the world exactly what needs
o be done for the army in a medical
md surgical way. When he speaks
will do well to listfy:.
Money is not all the Red Cross must
lave for this work-muney is not even
he most importan: thing, though it
Will take millions of dollars. What II
leeds most of all is an immense num-
er of members, and their personal
ervice. 1t needs, and has to have, the
hole American people, fathers and
lothers, sisters and daughters, and
ne children, to back up the govern
lent and the Red Cross in this work.
AXE, for example, the recent call of
Iajor Murphy for 100000 warm knit
I'd articles for the soldiers and for
lie destitute Of France If the money
nd been at hand to buy the lot, there
ere not that many knitted things in
le whole world of the kind wanted !
ut the Red Cross appealed to its i
and asked each chapter for
5 quota, and the socks and sweaters v
I'd mufllers and Wristlets rolled in bv
rloads, and are still coming. The S
others and sisters and daughters and o
ives went to Knitting and that an G
'ered the call in an amazingly short Il
ne. 81
Ihe situation will be the same when p
boys begin to need bandages and u
uze dressings and hospital garments d
great numbers. Not all the stores III
all the land will have enough such
ngs to fill the demand. But the III
nerican people are being enrolled as th
d Cross members, and they are
rnlng by tens of thousands how to br
Ike and pack and ship these things. On
whatever the demand, they will to
ct it in full. III