The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1918-07-04
HOME SERVICE
WORKERS ORGANIZE

The Home service committee Of the
Red Cross Chapter has organized with
the following members Truman But
Ter. chairman, K. +. Scott, secretary,
j. K. Norton, NJ. L. Hutton. Mrs. j.
E. Ferguson. Mrs. {. H. Jenkins. Mrs.
A. q. Lewis, Mrs. C. o. Huelat, Or.
j. F. Watt and Ernest {. Smith.
The committee is prepared to conduct
civilian relief work or 10 care for any
Hood River soldier who may be inval-
ided home.
In the Red Cross section of the La
dies Home Journal, edited by ex-presi-
dent Taft, the Home Service is eX-
planned as follows
The man entering war service goes
with two strong convictions: FIRST,
that he IS going to make life in later
years more certain and more liable for
those dearest TO him; and second. that
his countrymen at home Will, during
his absence, protect his family from
misery and want. The second imposes
upon US an obligation in the discharge
Of which we shall prove whether or rot
We are worthy Of the sacrifices men in
service have made and are making for
US.
The government is doing well what
it properly can do. Through that most
enlightened and humane legislation, the
war-rlsk insurance law, il is sending
hundreds of thousands Of dollars month
ly as partial compensation to families
for the absence of breadwinner, sup
a.. .tnal.
solve all the problems of any family,
What is required further is friend,
loyal, strong and sympathetic, to sup
plement the governmental machine dis
pensing funds. To serve as such
friend is the aim of the Red Cross
through its Home Service Division.
Have you ever considered the infinite
variety and human compleXity OF the
things that happened to families If
not, then You can have only faint
conception of what is required of and
what is being done by the Red Cross
Home Service. 1t is in most intimate
contact at every point with the human
side of our war the problems it has to
deal with are those Of life itself. Its
every intimacy with the life of the
family, its Intervention in the most
vital events that can occur in any
home, make sacred its duties and priv
ileges and confer the highest distinction
upon successful effort.
For example, soon after the impetu
GUS enlistment of boy barely Of mill
tary age, and the Oldest Of five chill
dren, his father was killed in railroad
accident, leaving his mother complete
ly helpless
Another mother, quite well when her
only son left for camp, was later taken
seriously i'll, operated upon. only to
face still another operation immediate
ly after.
So sheltering had been the care be-
slowed upon his wife by one husband
who entered the service that She found
herself quite helpless and distracted in
the face OF crisis resulting from the
sale Of the house she was occupying
and complication in the business affairs
he had left in her charge Worry re-
duced her to a state of nervous eX
haustion, which in turn so upset her
soldier husband that he found it next
to impossible to perform his military
duties.
The wife Of drafted soldier in his
absence fell into loose ways Of living
and began neglecting their unfortun-
ate child, born deaf and dumb, whom
its father had learned to love all the
more for its helplessness.
The wife Of sailor found it so diff
cult to manage alone their three young
sons that in desperation she was on
the point of sending them to a correc-
tive institution.
The relatives in whose charge a sol
dier had confidently left his wife
proved unworthy of the trust by en-
Shaving her as a household drudge and
taking all the money sent her
Financial reverses, illness, even
death itself, may strike at any family
in war or peace, but it is war which
so often takes away the man Of the
family. 1t is not the untoward event
itself which is so much feared but the
thought that shohld it come it must be
faced without him whom the family
have learned to depend on. To till his
place in time of stress, so far as a
friend can fill it, is the endeavor Of
Red Cross Home Service.