Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-02-08
WITH THE AMERICAN RED CROSS

--latest returns from the Red Cross
Christmas Drive places the member
ship at 3 ,475, 900, according to an Of
fetal Bulletin recently received by the
Local Red Cross, and as the question Is
often asked as to where all this money
goes, the follo lowing extracts from same
Bulletin will prove interesting.
Major Grayson Murphy, one of the
Red Cross War Council, says: When
we arrived 10 France, the great feeling
all along the Front was u of happi-
ness that this great country of ours had
come to take our part in the fight; they
believe over there that America is cap
able of extraordinary deeds, they think
we are n people who can carry out
miracles of organization and effective
work, and If, after all the monthslsioce
our Declaration of War, we are still
busy preparing, there has been n
great Agency to fill the gap and carry
to the people over there the knowledge
that America, as we'll as preparing, is
actually accomplishing, and that is
1.-THE AMERICAN RED CROSS"
I doubt whether l vas ever more
tou shed in my life than / was when l
went. after my frat trip to Italy into
our great Paris Warehouse and saw
there piles and piles of boxes; | asked
what was in them, and was told they
were the Red Cross Chapter boxes and
on examining, / saw the names Of the
Chapters that had sen them, little
towns from all over America; they told
me there were nearly 20, 900 boxes and
100, 900 we're on the way from the
Chapters, and when [ thought of how
they were filled, the moment was a
very serious n for me; to know that
all over our country the women who
are sending their boys and husbands
into that hell and a great many of
them will never come back were work
ing by the fire at home at night, in the
Railroad cars, in theatres, at their diff
ferent meetings, afternoons and morn
ings, working to do what they can in
this war to help care for those they love
and for those over there fighting for
their country, and that they had con-
signed to our care all the products of
their labors and were depending on us
to see that those for whom they work.
ed were cared for, was one of the most
wonderful thoughts / have had In my
life.
Possibly the story of what we did in
Italy will be a good example ofour act
usl progress in the war; at the time
when the smash came between Italy
and the Germans, the situation among
the Italian people was very distressing,
some half million refugees came stream
ing from, the North of Italy In dread
full condition, children were born on the
crowdedtrains and people died o n them.
others fell from exhaustion coming
down the road, people who had never.
1left their little farms and villages, who
went out stripped of everything they
owned in the world, and it was in these
conditions that America spoke through
the Red Cross; we sent kilograms to
every American Consul in Italy and
asked how much money they could
use to relieve the distress and what for;
we started As freight carloads OF sup
plies from our French warehouse, we
started Ambulances from France in
charge of experienced drivers, we OPEN
ed soup kitchens, where we gave the
italian refugees the first food and hot
drinks that were served to them in TIA
ly and we arranged for transportation
of refugees from the North.
I could go On and tell you about our
work in France, the French soldier
when on leave used to come to thejunc-
ton point where he changed to take
his train for home, and sometimes he
would stay at these functions "a hours,
they were equipped to handle about 100
people and sometime there were four
or five thousand there. These men
direct from the trenches were infested
with trench vermin and were cold and
wet, after sleeping in the open they got
1ittle food and that at exorbitant prices