The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-23
ONLY CHANGE FOR FIGHT

spects It was the practice when meh were gathered for induction into the service for representatives or the 1Neu Cross to be present and to hand ous to each man little card or slip con ! taining instructions as to just whas he should do in order that ms uepeno- ents should not be overlooked. By this means he was asked to call upon the representative of the Red Cross as soon as he arrived at camp ana the Red Cross organization saw 10 It that there were men at each camp In sufficient numbers to give sympa- thetic hearing to the requests Of every applicant. The representative at camp immediately notified the home service, as also the family were notified by the enlisted man, to call at the office or 1 the home service, at the home station. | for advice. for counsel, for the nec- essaries of life and for any other aid 1 needed. Many men left their business ], affairs in unsatisfactory condition ana 1 the Red Cross was able to rearrange l these affairs, secure the services or at | torneys where necessary. without | charge, secure the services of physi- clans and specialists, without charge And many of those receiving these benefits would never have been able in civil life to have secured this service, or to have paid for it in case 1t had been rendered.
 The Birmingram chapter alone has administered to more than 1700 cases. has written thousands of letters. spent several thousand dollars on telegrams. | telephone calls and other means of ] communication, and has loaned in ex- ! cess of $10,000 without interest or security of any kind, to dependents or soldiers and sailors, and there is little doubt, to my mind, that the Red cross 1! has performed it's function. There are,of course, isolated cases of persons who failed to come in touch with the relief agencies of the Red , Cross or of the government, and l feel sure that the incident related would not have occurred if the Red Cross had been applied to and it would not have been necessary to draw on a savings account at all. am free to admit that there has been considerable laxity in handling the allotments and allowances, but if we could know the facts l am quite sure there is a reason for it. It was necessary to employ approximately TO- 900 green clerks at Washington to handle the tremendous amount of cler- ical work and the postoffice depart ment was called upon to handle sev- eral times the quantity of mail as in normal times
 To the average business man. iss it any wonder that there should be errors in the accounting, in the proper record ing of names in the spelling of names and addresses. and errors without pum- ber? As an illustrations; ! The Bir- mingham home service section, by the use of it's files. by vis . tion, the use of city directories and other moans. has recently been able to deliver 2S checks to dependents which could not be delivered by the postal authorities for the reason that in almost. every case. there was an error in the spell ing of the name or address, and iH some cases no address whatever except the Birmingham postoffice. Some of these checks were three months old. and in cases of need the home service of the American Red Cross has been
 supplying the family, in some cases, more than the actual amount of money coming to them from the government.
 I hardly think it fair to judge the activities of the Red Cross by an iso- lated case. but that it should be judged as a whole. taking into account its tremendous task and the machinery and human force necessary to it's &C., complishment.
 Space forbids giving illustrations of many of the cases in which just the op- posite results occurred to those men, toned in the article by Holland I am great adnirer of Holland. read his articles daily. but the one in question seems to have an inspiration some where.
 I shall thank you for giving pub- licity to this statement and must offer apology for it's length.
 Yours truly,
 J. K. BRoCKMAN. Chairman.
 Per I. F. s.
 Birmingham. January 21, 1919