The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1919-10-24

future of this great organization? The
war is over, and we can see the end
of our war responsibilities. What is
the Red Cross to do in the years to
come as an American organization
which unites under its banner, ire
spective of politics or creed, so many
millions of the best that our country
has to offer? Is this great energy,
built under stress of war, to be allow
ed to settle down to an inactive or
ganization waiting until some future
war or great catastophre may call it
to another effort? Or shall this un-
paralleled force-this expression of an
American people imbued with a new
ideal, the ideal of service-be utiliz-
ed to help in the solution of the prob
lens which were with US before the
war and which are facing US in the
years to come? To this question there
would be but one nswer Of course
this tremendous force will not be per-
mitted to die down. 1t must live-live
and go forward to meet the needs of
the future as triumphantly as it met
the needs of the past and is now meet
ing those Of the present.
How shall this be done? That ques-
ton brings us straight back to this
fact-that the val has accentuated
and sharpened our realization of GER
tain conditions, the existence of which
has for centuries caused the distress
of the world. For the greatest con-
tributing factor in disturbing the hap
piness of mankind reduces in the last
instance to questions Of physical we'll
being, to problems of health and dis
ease. A large portion of the disease
of the world is preventable disease.
And the question the people are every
where asking is "How shall we meet
this problem Of disease?" They are
looking for help; they are looking for
guidance; and they naturally are look
ing to the organizations that are built
upon such a basis and have been guild
ed in such a way as to beget conf
dence. The organization in this coun-
try that is best fitted to take the lead
ership in this great movement-this
thrilling, inspiring movements the
Red Cross. And u own question is
"What can we do to accomplish this
task of leadership"
For twenty years there have been
growing up in this country many pri-
vate movements for the prevention of
this or that preventable disease. And
at the same time, there has been
growing up the fundamental belief
that the responsibility in the last in
stance for the prevention of disease
is in itself an official and public re-
sponsibility.
And so we hear people say constant
ly, "Why does not our government
take the leadership-legislate and pro-
vide for the accomplishment Of these
things that we know ought to be
done?" But congress cannot legislate
because in the United States the states
are sovereign. We must look to our
states; we must look to our munich
palities and local authorities. The
fight against disease is a local fight.
I am emphasizing this because you
will see very clearly that for this rea-
son again the Red Cross becomes pc
culiarly fitted to act in the circum-
stances. For it is the local group of
Red Cross people that is the operating
unit, and therefore it is the local group
that can attack such problems as that
of disease. Red Cross headquarters at
Washington can give advice but i. al
ways counts upon the local group to
conduct the actual fight.
l said that in the last twenty years
movements for the prevention of GER
tain diseases had been growing up.
But in the building up Of all these
movements, we found that they became
inextricably entangled. For the last
ten years leaders in this field have
been dreaming of the possibility Of CO.
ordinating them; of getting all this
energy so united that there would be
a massed movement that would pro-
duce results. We have never been
able to find the necessary co-ordinat-
ing agency. There was no public agen-
cy that could do it. But then the war
came and we began to realize lore dis
tinctly than we ever had before the
essential value to the country Of hav-
ing it's vitality at the highest level.
And now that the war is ended there
appears, by reason of the war, an or
%ganization that has the power to do
this thing which for years has needed
to be done but could not be done. That
organization is the Red Cross. Are
we not going to take advantage of this
possibility? OF n we are going
to take advantage of it. For we have
here an organization that represents
every one of the national interests;
that knows no party and no creed, that
has attached to it every type of man.
woman and child in the United States,
and we propose to put this energy be-