The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1918-12-16
Friends For Fighters Families

Friends For Fighters Families
The hardest thing for a man TO
do, when he goes away TO war, is 10
leave his loved ones behind him. He
knows he will miss them-he is GER
tain they Will miss him.
They will miss all the things he
meant to them in the homo circle
They will miss him coming home at
the end OF the days york with some
bit Of news about the Office OF the
shop or something he heard down
town. They Will miss the sound and
experienced advice he had TO give
when things didn't 90 quite right, or
when it was Il matter OF business
that had to be taken care Of. The
children miss him, and the mother
will miss him more than once with
the children. He Will be missed
when there is sickness. He Will be
missed in u thousand and one ways,
missed as a good and devoted friend.
The American Red Cross realized
this keenly when it became more and
more eXpedient that we could no lon
ger stay out of the war. When a
state of war was actually declared
to exist with Germany, the Red Gross
mobilized as one OF its first activities
service which would provide Il
friend for every fighters family. The
Red Cross calls it Home Service. 1t
has been about their biggest job this
side the trenches, and it viii be big
ger still during the period of de-
mobilization and for a good many
months thereafter.
"A little help at the right time"
is about the shortest definition OF
Home Service. 1t consists CT dong
anything and everything for a sol
dier's, sailors or marines family
that will help it over some emergen-
cy, difficulty, or trial which it cannot
quite handle alone. Financial aid is
only the smallest part of it. Advice;
information; personal help: sympa-
thy; old-fashioned neighborliness; Il
friend that never fails; these are the
things that Home Service means. 1t
is the Nations guarantee that nc en-
listed mans family shall lack for
anything in the power Of this coun-
try to provide.
this country, the majority of soldi-
ers' and sailors families We're able
to carry on" without recourse to
outside help. The war was too ter
rible strain on many household,
however, and Home Service has been
good neighbor and stanch friend to
over $4,000 families since the sum
. mer of 1917. Home Service Sec
: tions." as they are called, with their
; trained Red Cross workers, and their
Advisory Committees made up of
I life In toNn-business, law, medi-
cine, schnreh, and labor-have helped
considerably more than a million peo-
pie to "see it through" since the war
began.
Now that the war is won, Home
Service is entering on even greater
days and responsibilities. 1t prob
ably will be many a month before
the last of our fighters is home.
Meanwhile Home Service viii stand
by, just as it has until now, and it
will stand by as long as there are
people it can help. 1t is also going
to help the Government agencies in
caring for the men who are disabled.
and in seeing that they get just
and fair opportunity to earn good
living, and that their family gets
along comfortably while the new vo-
cation is being learned and tried out
and life is returning to the normal
ways of peace.
All these things are Home Service.
They are part of the life OF almost
every community by this time. In
fact they belong 10 the community
because they lave grown up from
the inside The more the community
knows about them, the better, for
then it viii support them TO the linn
it as a simple matter Of square deal