Norwich bulletin., 1919-11-29

| started a4 small sanat toriun on bor- rowed ground in ana out ef the way4 place and were finding 1t impossible to | maintain The Dslawars Red < Cross desired Ato come to their relief, but | had no funds, writes, E. F., Dissea, I originator of the Red Cross Christmas seal There was little knowledge or | l interest in the State about tnbercu- ! tlesis and education wor1 was vita ily l necessary. ffses'.9s I was secretary of the Delaware Red Cross at that time. Il had read i Jacob Rils' article eh the ehildrens Christmas hospital seai in Denmark, 1
 printed in the Outlook of July s, 190s. I The seal was issued to maintain chiIdren's hospital and was sold: ] through Danish post offices. Itsraised 1
 sufficient M money to build the sanA- toriun.
 The idea came to me. that the Red Cross was partly < a goveEnment agency, and therefore the post offices might admit The sale Of a Red Cross seal. At the same time the great power of the Christn1as appeal seemed
 suitable in combination with the Red I Cross. More than all I realized the great educational value of the penny seal which would reach the poorest as a symbol of the fight against tuber- culosis.
 1 made the proposition of the Christ
 mas seals in our October, 1907, meet ing of, the Red Cross, but there was no. money to finance it as the Red Cross
 dues could not be diverted. So l found two friends willing to stand
 back of the project to the extent Of
 $40, and armed with this guarantee, at Il a special meeting of the executive committee at my home in Wilmington I on November 2s, BOT, it was moved
 and carried that 8 Christas seal be
 issued by the DVeaware Red Cross Chapter and placed on the market December T, 1907.
 ,i This naturally left me little time to get out the seal. sketched the de- sign, had it put in shape by an ar ] tist friend and the first order, a few , thousand only, was given to the
 printers. The Delaware Federation Of | vice committee I was chairman. and II Womens Clubs, of whose social ser : all Wilmington stores agreed to sell it r for the Red Cross. Tlle Delaware newspapers took up the idea with /; enthusiasm, knowing the needs of :. tuberculosis work in the state.
 s I then went to Philadelphia and ob- ' tained the invaluable cooperation of t Leigh Mitchell Hodges of the North l American. whose name should never | De lOTSObbSl III NOtAbCNtlO1l- " It'll e-1e : Christmas seal. He threw the whole
 weight of the North American in fav- Q or of tue project in Philadelphia as | well as Wilmington while I inter = viewed the advertising managers O }, the large stores, asking them, since y so many WilmingtonianS dealt witt t them, whether they would not put thu e seals on sale for Us. .e d This was the more necessary, .!
 
 7; home but bought almost eyerythin: e in the large Philadelphia stores. Th t, advertising managers were frankly ir is credulous of any sale. But the in a terests of their Delaware customer IS weighed with them, and althoug. It some stores would not go into tn Il sale, several of the large ones did so. ,e In spite of the opinion of the ad = vertising experts the Christmas sea y took hold like wiIdeire. Before the e were ready the rush for them began
 but with a scant three weeks befor e Christmas the printers could not kee h up with the demand. In Wilmingto ,e the advertising man of the du Pon ]. company designed envelopes to D m used in the sale, and mail sales wer d, added to those in the stores. E h Gen. Bird of the Delawar ts Red Cross, and my sel5, went t ct Washington in December and inter T., view the then postmaster genera ts MT. Hitchcock. He told us it was al Id solutely impossible for the postoffie re to sell the seals, as our laws differe 1T from those of Denmark. This was n- great blow to our hopes. But we per ut sisted in linking up with the posG oi D. fees, much against this judgment, UT e. til we got his consent to the use { " booths in post office corridors. The. post office booths became great fea or ture. The school heads in Delawai
 also allowed the sale of seals | m school children.
 te Our utmost hope had been to Sc Te. 50,000 seals, and this was all we hs r. ordered. In consequence 6f havir ng placed such a small order we we ng not able to get more successi, of printings quickly enough to fill u or demand; but altogether we print, n- and sold about 400, GOO. Ite With $1,600 of the money raised ch this first Red Cross seal sale the Del ne ware Red Cross paid the first insta TT ment on the site of the first tuberc .re losis sanatorium in Delawaye, Ho ss Farm.
 e- By this time the interest of the whc ne state was aroused. and in the ne T legislature the Red Cross backed nse ne bill for a State tuberculosis commi z. sion with an appropriation of $20,e ,o a year, and put it through both hous nu unanimously.
 iot In December 1907, in the middle ho the campaign, the representatives IA the Delaware Chapter reported t nd amazing success of the Christmas Sc Of at the annual meeting of the Natior tn, Red Cross in Washington, and ask SC. for an indorsement. In 1908 su rSt ceeded in a Red Cross Christmas st ho for the nation. They were also und he the same difficulty of not having a of funds. But had witnessed the pulh ch power of the seal. and I offered mt pledge enough collateral to them an secure them against loss. and also no undertake the newspaper campait to They finally decided to start the SC in got the newspaper gazetteer of t or United States and sent out 4.ooo lettt rid to the leading newspapers of eve nd state in the Union. These letters e rin piained the Christmas seal idea a ng asked for orders to be sent into { ley national headquarters in Washingtt ley Although had warned them of t
 a surprising capacities Of the seal {
 National Red Cross was not prepar est for the rush of orders that practica ere Eswamped their office force, and ( IT. mot wonder that they almost resent we the congestion that followed. Ho ets ever they were able to supply in f hts end the national ma rket. ne: went on. to New York to meet | ,av Red Cross workers there just .befS rsy the campaign and was amused to he nS from all sides that while the S,
 of might do in other places. it wo, vss nrobably be failure in New To an Having lived in New York myself