The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-02-12
LADIES HAVE PROOF SOLDIER BOYS WANT KNITTED GARMENTS Mrs. Orr Shows Remarkable Work for Jefferson
 County Boys IGRATEFUL LETTERS
 COME IN STACKS Local Unit Is Compiling Record Showing Name and Address of
 Every Jefferson County Boy in Service

Mrs. c. P. Orr, who is county chair man of the defense council committee on relief for soldiers at home and abroad. says that if the people of Bir- mingham could read some of the let ters the council gets from Jefferson county soldier boys, they would take no stock in reports that knitted gar Icents were of no use to them.
 Mrs. Orr has just completed a report to the ladies of the Jefferson county unit which shows in a graphic way how much these ladies are doing for the boys. At present 50 knitted gar ments a day are being forwarded. X complete roster of every Jefferson county man in the army and navy is being compiled and the names arc go- ing into & big record at the courthouse where they will be handed down to pesterity as the county's roll of honor A summary of Mrs. orr's report on :ke local units work is as follows:
 Mine. chairman and ladies, Alabama
 Division, Jefferson County Unit. Ma
 tional Council of Defense:
 When I found that I had been ap- pointed chairman of your committee on relief of soldiers at home and abroad was grateful to our general chair man, Mrs. Mccoy. for giving me this opportunity. l knew that however poorly I might use that opportunity, this community would not allow any thing but success, and that this conn mittee and the hospital committee would answer a popular demand for some method of reaching our men di- rectly.
 EXCUSE FOR DELAY
 Our excuse for leaving this work so long undone Is that southern people do not know anything of suffering from severe cold. When our cold spells" come, business Is more or less neglect ed, and we stay indoors until 1t is warm again. If our men had needed food, we could have understood that and would have all turned out to get food to them. We are bewildered by the excessive cold of this exceptional winter, and spent our time hoping for the best, instead of making an organ ized effort to relieve suffering from bitter cold. Then there are always a number of us who can Hay 1t on" other people and other organizations when tthey have an uneasy conscience. The government and the Red Cross can always be blamed for civilian neglect. 1 No other state as far as my llnowl- edge goes, has expected the Red Cross to furnish their soldier boys with all the knitted garments they need. Be- fore the Red Cross began to knit at all. women were knitting for their men who were going into camps.
 SHIPMENTS TO CAMP WHEEL FER "Realizing the great necessity for
 warm garments, your committee began shipping at once to Camp Wheeler l where we were fortunate in having some Birmingham officers. who dis
 tributed the few garments we had on hand when the committee began
 work. Being anxious to do only nee essary work in any camp, I asked the | governor to wire Colonel Peel the chairman of the east division of the
 Red Cross. and ask what his division ! had already supplied to the Alabama soldiers al Camp Wheeler; also asked | the governor to wire Brigadier General l Steiner at Camp Wheeler and ask him
 exactly what Jefferson county men ir l his command needed. Governor Hen derson sent me copies of the answers to both of these questions. The coasl division of the Red Cross had giver over 24.000 sweaters to Camp Wheeler men between November IS and Janu. ! ary S. A truly enormous number, ant still Alabama men were only 50 pel cent provided with sweaters, and need ed all other knitted garments Tht hospitals were crowded with patients and it was fortunate that doctors now treat pneumonia in the out-of-doors for many men with that disease were out on the porches of the hospitals.
 .'Our first knitting was done for thes, I lnreumonia patients. We sent them { lyery heavy bed sock, knitted six inche longer than the Red Cross requires, al 1 the weather was about six inches colde than we had ever before known 1t to b.
 before. We intended sending p pairs lbut the enthusiasm of the knitters. hal
 carried us past that number very con
 siderabiy. The three first pairs wer knitted by women who sat up nearly al night knitting them.
 Governor Henderson recommended u 10 ask Mrs Carl Seals who is now il
 Macon, to distribute our work in Caml Wheeler She had already consented t do this for us. and has kept us in clos touch with the camp since the beginninl of the work.
 THREE TIMES A WEEK
 .As the weather was bitterly cold a the beginning of our service we shipped
 garments three times each week, tryini always to reach first the men who hat been i'll, or were threatened with illness The first shipment consisted of II pair iof sock: that were knitted by Mrs. John stons knitting club, and were sent i'm mediately after I received my appoint Iment. The first sweater was sent b, Mrs J. R. McWane. Answers began to come in to tn .ouest:onnaires' which had been sent ou by the roster committee, with Mrs H. H ( Smell as chairman. One bunch of 10. , which had been signed in the offices c . the ompanies, showed only one man wh } WIS fully outfitted with knitted gar ments. 19 had none of them, A had sock and we had sent shipment of socks t lContfnued on Page Sevenl
 Cough May Lead