Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1918-10-04
ATTENTION, WOMEN!

Ihls is an appeal to the women of
laZewell to come to the hclp of thu
ked Cross organization of the town
ihe Red Cross here, in trying to meet
the requirements of the organization
III Washington, is overwhelmed with
work and we cannot meet our obi
cations unless the women of the town
VINO have never rendered any assist
ance come to our help and Discharge
the duty that devolves upon them ms
patriotic citizens of the community
The membership of ths Red Cross
~ large, but the faithful women mr..
few indeed. The great majority of
our people seem to be of the opinion
that when they pay their annual dues
OF one dollar each, they have discnnrg-
ed their full duty to the Red Cross.
The average number of workers IN
the surgical dressing department is
about ten. The average daily num-
Der in the work room is about tvelvei
The Red Cross here has been organ
lzcd since July, 1917; the amount of
work done by the organization and
shipped to Washington and thence to
our soldiers is wonderful! But this
work has sheen done by the few faith
ful women of the town who seem to
nave some appreciation of the higher
things of life. Women who have been
willing to sacrifice their personal
pleasure and home duties in order to
serve our soldiers at the front, and
they deserve great praise and cred
IT for the work they have done and
The sacrifices they have made. There
arc large majority of the women of
the town, however, who have no lot
or parcel in the matter! AS more SOL
dlers enter the service, the demand
upon the Red Cross grows heavier
and these faithful women who have
them burden heavier than they can
bear. The Red Cross has been rath-
er severely criticised recently because
some soldiers were permitted to. 20 to
camp last week without being fur
nshed with sweaters by the Red
Cross This is not the first contlu-
gent of soldiers that had to leave
without sweaters, but il was the larg-
est number that has so far gone at
any one time.
Tho reason they were not furnish
ed sweaters is that we did not have
them, and it was impossible to fur
nish them. The ladies who do the
knitting have worked nobly but the
demand upon them was greater than
they could meet. That's the reason.
If the critics had been doing their
duty for the last year in faithfully
assisting in Red Cross work, this CON
dition may not have arisen. 1t is not
much help to say you will knit sweat
ers and send them to these boys The
question for you to answer is "Why
havn't you done it before this 2" If
you are working in Red Cross work
then you have the right to criticise,
but if you are unwilling to help with
this work you have no right to crit
icise the good women who are work
ing.
Please bear this in mind.
There must be as many as fifty
women in this town who have never
done any work at the Red Cross work
rooms; who never even enter these
rooms, and never offer their service
Your services are needed and need
ed badly and the ladies who have
borne the burden of this work would
welcome your assistance. You have
no idea of The satisfaction you will
have from the consciousness of hav-
ing rendered some service and having
done something useful for others.
Try it, if only as an experiment.
j. w. CHAPMAN,
Chairman Red Cross.