Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1918-12-18
Always Travels in Troubled
Waters and Answers Every
Cry of Distress.
REST OF WORLD IS TOO BUSY
Christmas Roll Call Gives Every One
Chance to Take Part in
Rebuilding Our Broken
World.

AM hOthAhS 81 do a SluLNh ohu
loyal ship in a storm. 1t goes its way
with senses tuned to catch any cry for
help. And when that cry comes. 1t
drives instantly and without fear
straight to the place of distress in
fiOod and fire and disaster. just as the
ship braves the perils Of tumbling
seas and hazardous rescue work. And,
again, like the ship, it STANDS BY
till those endangered are helped to
safety.
Meanwhile the rest of the world,
busy with its own problems, hurries
home during these times of storm and
stress, and draws down the blinds.
At least that is the way it has been
in the past. But now comes the Christ
mas Roll Call. And 1t is privilege,
not pest. 1t has no preferences. It
plays no favorites. 1t makes no ex-
ceptions. 1t summons every man,
woman and child in the country. It
holds out to each one the blessed OPP
portunity to ride on every Red Cross
ship of mercy, to speed with every
Red Cross train of relief that encir-
cles the earth on their errands Of
mercy.
The only way for anyone to escape
the possibility Of some time having to
accept CHARITY from the Red Cross
is to become ONE with the Red Cross.
For terrible calamity may come to us
ALL The money wealth of the Belgians
was as nothing when they were stripped
of clothing and food. And that feel
ing of oneness with the organization
that our men on the other side have
had during the war was not merely a
great, but was the GREATEST, factor
In enabling the Red Cross to give the
efficient aid that it did.
Let us remember what Mrs. Mar
garet Laing, canteen worker in France.
told about our boys who came out Of
the hospitals without money:
Sometimes they would be able to
make up few cents between Them"
she said, "and sometimes they did not
have anything. They would hang be-
hind those who could pay. And they
would look at the food so wistfully
that it made one fight back the tears.
The only way we could get them to
take what they needed and craved was
by saying: You know, boys, this was
all paid for by your own people at
home Then Immediately their atti-
tude would change and they would
say: why, yes, my mother or my sis
ter gives to the Red Cross And then
how they would pitch in"
We are proud, we Americans. We
do not want, something for nothing.
And here is our glorious opportunity
to take the rest of our nation by the
hand, and with all pride and dignity in
sure ourselves of our own help in time
of adversely.
This Christmas Roll Call gives every
one chance to be dollar Man."
And most of us can be one right at
home. For by joining the Red Cross
now and paying the dollar we become
as actively engaged in the great work
as If we were giving all of our time
to 1t. We are merely making our dol
lar substitute for those of us who are
too busy to give all of our time to the
Red Cross.
Some of the great achievements of
the Red Cross have been told over and
over, until the facts may seem old to
you. But on this occasion they are
worth telling again. We should not
forget, for instance, how the women
of this nation, like our first Colonial
mothers. turned suddenly into great
manufacturers and made garments and
supplies worth S5O,0OO00O last year.
Nor LET us forget how Sill 100000 was
sent into the devastated countries dur
ing the time while men and women,
giving their time for nothing, went
with those dollars to see that they
were used in the way they were most
needed And the American Red Cross
sent medicines and anesthetics to the
hospitals of France when they were
almost unObtainable, so that our boys
and their allies might have some re-
lief from the torment of their wounds,
and chance at ultimate recovery.
There are so many things to tell
that 1t is impossible to spread the
whole story in this limited space. But
each worker will know. For the let
tiers that have come from the boys in
the camps "over here" and from the
fields "over there" have been full Of
the reasons. Ask the mother of any
boy who was imprisoned behind the
cruel lines where food was scarce even
for the enemy army, but who got his
20 pounds of biscuits. pork and beans,
cocoa and other good, wholesome
things, every week.
The roofs are at hand everywhere.
The reasons are manifest. Everyone
should become member of the widest.
best and hottest crusade the world
has ever known. Membership In the
Red Cross should be more universal
than taxes; as universal as the public
school. public opinion, or cur own pub
lie government.