Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1918-02-15
RED CROSS ACTIVITIES
Contributed by
MISS LOUISE AVER,
Secretary Olympia Chapter.

Major Murphy, our representative
in France, has resigned to enter the
army. He recently addressed the
Red Cross workers in Washington
and what he said is just as much for
you as for them.
These are few extracts from his
talk:
Il know that the work that has
been accomplished by the American
Red Cross since we started our pres
ent work, shortly after the outbreak
of the war. has been the greatest
work of it's kind that ever was done
in the history of the world.
I'VE have had support abroad
the like of which l did not dare to
dream when I went over. We have
been backed and helped and support
ed and cheered from this side Of the
water in way that would have made
1t impossible for any organization,
even a very meager one, to do other
than excellent work.
There is not a man, woman or
child in France, in Belgium, in Great
Britain or Italy that Is not affected
by this war. The suffering is some
thing that you can not conceive.
They believe over there that Amer
lea is capable of extraordinary deeds.
There has been only one great agency
that has been able to carry to the
people over there the knowledge that
America not only was making prom
Uses, not only was preparing, but was
actually accomplishing, and that was
/ the American Red Cross.
I'VE have goods which you have
sent us stored in our warehouses be-
hind the lines all the way from Lon
don through Belgium and all along
the western front into Italy. I
doubt whether I was ever more
touched in my life than l was when
went. after my first trip to Italy,
into our greatest Paris warehouse.
1T was rather late in the after
noon and getting dark as I came up,
on one of our floors in that tremen-
dous building. l saw there piles and
piles of boxes. l asked what was in
them. They told me they were chap
ter boxes. And l went up and exam
ined them, and saw the nam es on the
boxes-the chapters that had sent
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all over the country-New York, the
Middle West, the West and the
South. They told me that they had
1900 to 10000 boxes there, and
that there were over 100000 more
on the way from the chapters.
when l looked at those boxes and
thought of what filed them. the mo-
ment was very serious one for me.
To know that all over our country
the women who are sending their
boys and their husbands into that
hell-and great many OF them will
never come back - were working by
the fire at home, at night; in railroad
cars. in theaters. at their different
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. and mornings,
working, working. working, to do
what they could in this war to help
care for those they loved and for
those over there fighting for their
country: that they had consigned to
our care all of the product of their
labor and that they were depending
on us to see that those for whom they
worked were cared for-was one of
the most wonderful thoughts that II
have ever had in my life.
What We Did in Italy.
after the German victory in Italy
the people came streaming back from
the north. some half million refu-
gees. in dreadful condition. There
were children born on crowded
trains. There were people who died
on them. There were those who fell
! and died Of exhaustion coming down
from the roads to the railroad CEN
ters.
There were people who had never
left their little farms and little VII
lagos who were going out stripped of
everything they owned in the world
into strange country. II there was
ever time in the history of the
world when country needed moral
support and somebody to come up
and stand beside them, it was Italy
after the break.
I'VE had no organization in Italy
at the time. We took from our
French organization a number of
men and sent them down to break
ground We began to hit before we
broke the ground. The first thing
| wa did WAS To send falaDrams imn O.