Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-08-17
FRESH CALL IS
MADE FOR RED
CROSS NURSES
War Society Wants 1000
Nurses Every Week For the
Next Two Months

Nurses. nurses more nurses and
still more nurses!"
! This is the substance of a fresh ap-
peal from the American Red Cross fol-
nurses for Home Defense and wal
I service. A thousand nurses each
week for the next two months is
what Surgeon General Gorgas of the
United States Army has appealed for
A statement made public to-day rela-
tive to the campaign, follows:
: Surgeon General Gorgas of the
United States Army has called upon
the American Red Cross to enroll, for
military service at home and abroad
thousand nurses a week for the en-
suing eight weeks. The Red Cross
announced to-day that 1t had set its
organization machinery in motion for
the purpose of complying with the
Surgeon Generals request.
THE nurses for military service
have been enrolling through the Red
Cross since the United States entered
the war, at the rate of about one
thousand a month. During the re-
cent special effort put forth to OBJ
tain nurses. the enrolment increased
about threefold. In order to meet the
most recent request of the surgeon
general, that rate will not only have
to be maintained, but increased ma
terially.
The Surgeon Generals Call
In view of the great need for a
| large increase in the number of
nurses required for service with the
army at home and abroad, call upon
| your organization, as the chief nurse
recruiting agency of the army, to
employ every possible means to in
crease the enrolment of nurses for
immediate assignment to duty.
With the contemplated increase in
the army, both at home and over
seas, there must be a proportionate
| increase in the number of nurses in
the service. The army to-day is
growing faster than the nurse corps
is increasing; and, as the armies over
seas enter the frontline trenches in
greater numbers, the greater will be
the need for nurses in the army nurse
corps.
I, therefore, urge upon the Ameri-
can Red Cross. through its agencies,
to bring to the attention of the train
ed nurses of this country the necessity
of immediate offer of service, and
their enrolment in the army nurse
corps.
I hesitate to deal in concrete num-
bers, but I desire to emphasize the
fact that I need to-day a very ma
terial increase in the army nurse
corps and desire this increase in the
ratio of at least a thousand a week
for the next two months"
Miss DeInno's Statement
with reference to this emergency
call for nurses. Miss Jane A. Delano,
director of the Department of Nurs-
ing of the American Red Cross, made
the following statement:
The eight thousand graduate nurses
called for by the army, in groups OF
one thousand per week, are in addi-
ton to more than twelve thousand
nurses already supplied by the Amer
lean Red Cross to the United States
government for active war service.
With complete confidence in the an
swer which the fifty thousand grad
uate nurses, not yet enrolled in the
United States, will make to this sum-
mons to care for our sick and wound
ed, have called upon the Red Cross
agencies and all training school SUI
perintendents to carry the message
quickly to every graduate nurse re-
naming in their communities. We
plan to bring this call personally to
each OF the nurses not yet in war
service and I feel that all who are
ply sically able to render this mill
tary service will enroll at once.
know the sterling character of the
American trained nurse. over many
years, have seen her self-sacriflcing
conservation to duty. She is intelli-
gently patriotic She is proud to be
chosen from millions of women, anx-
ious to care for the sick, as the
representative of American woman
hood permitted to wear the army and
navy uniform in our military estab-
lishments.
There will be no need to draft
nurses; American nurses would not
thus belle the traditions of their pro-
fession. In all wars. they have been
the prompt volunteers of mercy and
the spirit of Florence Nightingale is
still alive. I would, however, urge
upon each graduate nurse eligible
for active service the great neces-
sity for immediate decision and en-
rollment. The army must have these
one thousand nurses a week and
am hopeful that, within a month
the, Red Cross will have the entire
eight thousand listed for awaiting
orders"