The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1919-11-01
AID IS URGED FOR
RED CROSS ABROAD
President Wilson Prepared Mes
sage Before illness.
WORK YET 70 BE COMPLETED
IT, Finance Operations and to Carry
Out Constructive Plans in Eastern
Europe, Organization Requires
Increasing Membership.

Washington, d. C.-BefOre his pres
emf illness President Wilson prepared
the following message, in which he
urges the people Of the United States
to generously respond to the third roll
call of the Red Cross:
AS president of the United States
and as president of the American leo
Cross recommend and urge a gen
erous response to the Third Red Cross
Roll Call. which opens on November
the second with the observance OF Red
Cross Sunday and appropriately closes
on November the eleventh, the hrst
anniversary of the signing OF the ar
miShce.
Twenty million adults Joined the
Red Cross during the war, prompted
by a patriotic desire to render service
to their country and to the cause Tor
which the United States was engaged
in war. Our patriotism should stand
the test of peace as we'll as the test OF
war, and it is an intelligently patriotic
program which the Red Cross pro-
poses. a continuance Of service to our
soldiers and sailors, who look to 1t Tor
many things, and a transference to the
problems of peace at home of the eX-
perience and methods which it &C.
Quired during the war.
Stress on Membership.
It is on membership more than
money contributions that the stress OF
the present campaign is laid, for the
Red Cross seeks to associate the
people in welfare work throughout the
land, especially in those communities
where neither official nor unofficial
provision has been mad for adequate
public health and social service.
It Is In the spirit of democracy that
the people should undertake their own
welfare activities, and the National
Red Cross wisely intends to exert upon
community action a stimulating and
co-ordinating influence and TO place
the energies of the organization be-
hind all sound public health and well
fare agencies.
The American Red Cross does not
purpose indefinite prolongation of its
relief work abroad, a policy which
would lay an unjust burden upon our
own people and tend to undermine the
self-reliance Of the peoples relieved,
but there is a necessary work Of COM
pletion to be performed before the
American Red Cross can hOnOrably
withdraw from Europe. The congress
of the United States has imposed upon
the Red Cross a continuing RESPONSE
bility abroad by authorizing the secre-
tary Of war to transfer to the Ameri-
can Red Cross such surplus army med
ical supplies and supplementary and
dietary foodstuffs now in Europe as
shall not be required by the army, to
be used by the Red Cross to relieve
the distress which continues in certain
countries of Europe as a result Of the
war.
Program Deserves Support.
To finance these operations, to con-
clude work which was begun during
the war, and to carry out some COM
paratively inexpensive constructive
plans for assisting peoples in eastern
Europe to develop their own welfare
organizations, the American Red Cross
requires, in addition to membership
fees, a sum of money small in compar-
ison with the gifts poured into its
treasury by our generous people dur
ing the war.
Both the greater enduring domestic
program and the lesser temporary for
eign program of the Red Cross de-
serve enthusiastic support, and I ven
ture to hope that it's peace-time mem
bership will exceed rather than fall
below its impressive war membership.
WOODROW WILSON.