The Washington times., 1919-10-26
HELP RED CROSS =
SAYS PRESIDENT
General Response to Third. Roll
Call Essential, Executive
Declares.

Woodrow Wilson, as President of
the United States and as president OF
the American Red Cross, has called
generous response to the third Red
Cross roll call, which opens Novem-
ber 2.
In a proclamation prepared before
his present illness and made public
tonight at the national headquarters
of the Red Cross, President Wilson
says:
"As President of the United States
and as president of the American Red
Cross, / recommend and urge gener-
Gus response to the third Red Cross
roll call, which opens November the
second with the observance of Red
Cross Sunday and appropriately
closes on November the eleventh, the
first anniversary of the signing of
the armistice.
Twenty million adults Joined the
Red Cross during the war, prompted
by patriotic desire to render service
to their country and to the cause for
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 1t Is an intelligently pa
triotic program which the Red Cross
proposes, a continuance of service to
our soldiers and sailors who look to
II for many things, and a transference
to the problems of peace at home of
the experience and methods which 1t
acquired during the war.
Members Needed.
'Tt Is on membership more than
money contributions that the stress
of the present campaign is laid, for
- DAA 90 osaf -
people In welfare work throughout
the land. especially in those communi-
ties where neither official nor unoffi-
cial provision has been made for ade-
quate public health and social service.
'Tt is in the spirit of democracy
that the people should undertake their
own welfare activities, and the Ma
tional Red Cross wisely intends to ex-
ert upon community action a stimu-
lating and co-ordinating influence and
to place the energies of the organiza-
ton behind all sound public health
and welfare agencies.
'~The American Red Cross does not
purpose indefinite prolongation Of its
relief work abroad. . policy which
would lay an unjust burden upon our
own people and tend to undermine the
self-reliance Of the peoples relieved.
out CneIe ls u ncCcSSoIy WOfA Oh Cotn-
pletion to be performed before the
American Red Cross can honorably
withdraw from Europe. Tho Congress
of the Unfted\States has imposed upon
the Red Cross continuing response
bility abroad by authorizing the Sec
retary of War to transfer to the
American Red Cross such surplus
army medical supplies and supple
mentary 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.
Deserves support
TO finance these operations, to
conclude work which was begun dur
ing the war, and to carry out some
comparatively inexpensive construc-
tive 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 comparison with the gifts
poured into it's treasury by our gem
erous people during the war.
Both the greater enduring domes-
tic program and the lesser temporary
foreign program of the Red Cross
deserve enthusiastic support, and I
venture to hope that its peace-time
membership will exceed rather than
fall below its impressive war mem
bership.
Signed WOODROW WILSON,