The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-10-04
RED CROSS MUST
CO ON FOR WAR
IS NEVER OVER
Theme of Meeting at High
School Hall This Morning
GREAT NEED CONTINUES
Four Vivid Word Pictures by Speakers
Who Have Been in Close Touch
with Conditions

1t was extremely unfortunate that
the Red Cross meeting at high school
hall today could not have been held
at some other than the inconvenient
hour of 10 o'clock in the forenoon.
The message brought by the four Of
ficials was not only intensely interest
ing but it was fairly loaded with in
formation of value to every man and
woman in the community The theme
OF the meeting was the future of the
Red Cross which must continue to
carry on for the reason that the
war is never over" The great con
conflict across the seas has ceased
but the reconstruction period has on
ly just begun and strife and misery
and want will be with us after the
world has recovered from the loss
and devastation.
William II. Wills opened the meet.
ing and n. E. Director jackson intro
duced the speakers other than him
self; Miss Elizabeth Van Patten, state
supervisor of Red Cross nursing; Miss
Lavina H. Newell, national director of
production; Cheney Jones. New Eng
land director of home service.
Miss Van Patten laid special EN-
phasis upon the educational value of
the work Of district and local visit
ing nurses. The actual relief afford
ed in individual cases was only the
beginning. What the patients and
the patients families learned of
methods to be used in time of sick
ness would be of benefit to coming
generations.
Miss Newell has but recently re-
turned from abroad She visited not
only northern France but iourned in
to central Serbia where She came in
contact with misery that is almost
indiscrihable. She told Of the graft
tude of the women of France for The
layettes that are at present being
made by the members Of the local
Red Cross and how much the children
appreciated the pinafores The wo-
men We're all the morse grateful be
cause the layettes had been made af.
ter their own patterns and the chil-
dren for their garments because they
conformed to their own customs
Mr.. Jackson endeayored to impress
his audience with the vital necessity
of continuing the work of the Red
Cross. The work must be done,
he said, and the Red Cross is
the only organization that is in a posi-
tion to carry it out He spoke of the
national fund of $15,0O0,000 that is to
be raised but an even greater need
than that for funds was for member
ship Membership was what gave the
its power and its inffu-
ence. He called attention to the fact
that between so and 80 per cent of
the young men drafted from New Eng
land were found unfit for military
service. There was cause for such
a condition of things and it could in a
be remedied. The united
power OF the Red Cross, through the
of community health
centers, through assistance to the
health authorities and through educa-
lion could accomplish more than any
other influence.
The humor cf the meeting was pro-
yided by Mr. Jones. His experience
in the home Service department. had
brought him in contact with numer.
)us cases which had furnished him
with a fund of stories that he used
with convincing effect. He told his
that while the war was over
The war against its effects upon the
people of this country must continue
'or years. The home service had been
of assistance to thousands of families
md the work was being continued
1t is impossible in a short newsap-
Der description to convey even an idea
1f the intensely interesting features
contained in the four addresses. Each
speaker confined herself or himself
loosely to facts and the remarks were
Ill remarkable for the amount of in
ormation that they contained.