The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1917-09-05

the navy without first securing list
of the articles desired and directions
for making them. The league will
distribute the, finished product. At
the present time there is not the
slightest reason to knit for our own
army; our government intends to take
care of them. By July 1 it had or
dered over eleven million pairs of
light woolen socks, and other articles
in proportion. 1t is Europe's re-
sources that are taxed to the break
ing-point; it is Europe's needs we
must supply first. At the three great
American Relief Clearing houses, in
Paris, Petrograd, and Rome, the mill
tary, naval, and Red Cross authori-
ties, as we'll as various agencies, reg
lister the wants they find. For in
stance, Siberia needs everything.
Italy, fighting in the always frozen
Alps, cries out for warm garments.
In winter and wet seasons the de-
mand increases on all the fronts.
Then why do stories come back that
the precious work of pity-driven fing-
ers is being used to swab down guns
and horses?
The Problem of Distribution.
Either or both of two good reasons
may be the answer. Most of the thou
sand and one organizations to which
goods have been sent lack comprehen-
sive Neutrality-suspicious.. Before now
this has resulted in things being
dumped abroad unfortunately.
Early in the war a doctor in charge
OF relief work in a Siberian camp,
where there were no hospital supplies
of any sort, paid bribe of twenty
five hundred rubles to get an appall-
ingly necessary shipment of dressings
and clothing through. When the un-
labeled cases arrived, they contained
nothing but soap and two American
corsetS! So it is conceivable that
Canadian nurse from hospitals at
Dover handling Englishmen and her
own countrymen, well supplied from
home, might have encountered mis-
sent articles. But because things arc
sometimes sent to the wrong lace
does not argue that they are no-"herc
needed. Even magnificent disrribu-
ton systems fail sometimes. I'm
tried and limited relief service is ,,..i-
ticularly likely to break 20 N. The
safest way to place foreign material
is through the most extensive ma
chinery, the Red Cross.
Designated a"ticles are The other
cause of occasional glut of things at
| one place an, want of them at an
other. The practise of Indicating
what use the c,onor wishes made of
things causes endless trouble. In it's
great need to encourage contribu-
tions, the Red Cross and others have
accepted addressed packages. Imagine
the result One woman wants her
sweater to go to an Italian marine.
Another directs her scarf to a French
soldier. Her neighbor says nobody
but fighting Belgian is to wear her
pair of bed-socks. A fourth is mark
ed, For an Englishman of gentle
birt in the trenches"
This is sentimental, foolish, waste
full. 1t demands endless sorting. With
tremendous demand for sweaters in
the Apennines, say, and enough on
hand If they were not otherwise ad-
dressed, the organization must delay
until unaddressed supplies arrive.
| Working for the Navy League, the
women of each state, instead of knit
ting for a general demand, insist on
supplying the battleship named for
their state, while some other battle
ship may need the things sooner.
Don't designate how your articles
shall be used. 1t is tying a string
to the gift, as ridiculous a perform
ance as though one operator in
factory making boots for Uncle Som
were to give an order to the War
Department to send the pair of shoes
| he helps make to a man from Idaho
while. the next prefers that Yer
monter wear his, and so on Every
man in the armies of the Allied ma
tions offers his life to the common
cause for which we fight and is
worthy recipient of whatever you can
do. Organizations know best where
the need is. There is no place for
sentimentality or whim in the plain
business before us. Leave off all di-
rectons and make whatever body you
work with a free agent to despatch
all goods at its own discretion. If