The Coconino sun., 1918-06-14
THOUSANDS OF NURSES
 ARE WANTED AT ONCE

Twenty-Five thousand women are called to the colors. They are wanted at once.
 Twenty-Five thousand nurses are needed by the United States govern ment for immediate war service. The Red Cross has been asked to recruit them.
 Before midsummer has ripened the meagre harvest over there, men will be suffering for want of woman's nursing. There will be "dirth of woman's care" unless the registered nurses of America respond at once to the call of the surgeon general of the army, who has made the summons through the Red Cross. Twenty-Five thousand women are needed to help men get well, and to help them die with as little agony as necessary. Soldiers, then, are needed, for one who does either of these things is soldier. It is not a cheer ful task to which these women are called. It is not bearable for many to do the things which they will have to do. It is not pleasant to see man, the most marvellous work of God, crushed and mutilated, smeared with blood in which he has weltered for hours or days. It is horrible to hear when moan in anguish inconceiv- able or lie white and still till the angel of the deeper brink whispers Come"
 But it must be done. Somebody must be there when the broken things that once were men are brought in from the smashed parapets and per i fidious ambuscades.
 That the registered nurses of the country may respond to the exigency, the public is asked to dispense with nurses as much as possible. This ap- peal is made to persons who have in the past employed nurses more as companions or luxuries than as vital necessities. Unless your life or the life of some member of your family hangs in the balance, do not employ nurse, urges the surgeon general. Physicians and surgeons, too, are asked to assist in the drive for nurses. They have been impressed to discour- age the habit of having graduate nurses for any but the gravest cases. This will release thousands of nurses who otherwise would feel that they were neded at home. The nurses con- science is delicately hinged. She would not want to seem to be deserting her immediate duty for the distant one. To prevent her from entertaining qualms of this kind, the public and the physician are to be accomplices in | a l;tfla intrio,a cunuactad h, fha pad Cross.
 Every nurse who offers her services is rewarded in terms of life's deepest satisfaction. She goes to help relieve the greatest agony the world has ever known.
 She will realize her opportunity and achieve her purpose in fullest meas ure.
 All registered nurses, except those exempted, are expected to report to their local Red Cross chapters, where they will be registered. When called upon for active duty they will be re- quired to take the oath of allegiance specified in army regulations. Only graduate nurses may be ap- pointed to the army and navy nurses CoIpSs huOut o,Vuu heu SiVSS huToSS are on military duty, at home and abroad, as members of the army and navy nurse corps. But this number is woefully inadequate to meet the de- mand made by the suffering of the wounded in the terrific offensive now being prosecuted by the enemy. The need is pressing, it is as urgent as the S. O. S. which comes out of the ether to ships at sea. It is poignantly piercing, cry of distress.
 Will the womanhood of America respond?
 Well, will it? It is the call for which nurses have been cupping their hands to their ears for many months.