Weekly Caledonian. (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1919-1920, 1919-05-07
RED CROSS CONFERENCE
The Caledonia County Home Service
Section Attend the Boston
Meeting

/ II ONE service SecClOH OclCHutlOIl
spent Thursday and Friday, April "a
and Is in Boston attending the con-
ference of the chapters of the New
England Division of the American
Red Cross. 1t was composed of the
chairman for the county, and many
representatives from its several
branches. They report that for
Home Service workers, the most sig
nifcant event of the conference was
the new conception of Home Service
brought out in the address of ].
Byron Deacon, acting director gener-
al of civilian relief at National Head
| quarters and in the open discussion
by the delegates which followed his
address.
The announcement recently made
by the Red Cross that Home Service
would continue its work with civilians
where such work was needed after
the war emergency obligations had
been met, was thoroughly discussed.
The general function Of Home Ser
vice, Mr. Deacon said, is to help fam
lilies who face misfortunes.
"The grave difficulties l mean," he
continued, "are not merely those of
the vicious, the shiftless, the ne'er-
do-well charity's- chronic objects
but of the people who are ordinar-
lily Independent and self-respccting
who have come upon evil days. Of
course, many of these families have
friends to whom they can turn in
their extremity. But there are many
who are not so fortunate. The latter
suffer needlessly.
1t was to prevent and minimize
such loss in soldiers and sailors fam
lilies that Home Service was estab-
lished; and it is designed to extend
that service to civilian families as
we'll. A child falls sick and nurse
or doctor is needed. A mother
dies leaving children to find foster
homes. A mill closes; the father Is
thrown out of work; his savings are
exhausted; his credit likewise, and a
loan must be made or credit guaran-
teed. A young man develops tubercu-
losis and would gladly go to sana-
torium if he knew of it's existence or
the terms upon which he would be
accepted. A lad becomes unruly and
his distracted parents would gladly
accept the assistance of a man who
understands and son influence chill
dren if he knew where to turn for
such assistance"
Mr.. Deacon pointed out that in
less than two years 5000 Home Ser
vice Sections had been organized in
chapter headquarters communities,
which, with their branches, extend to
$4,000 cities, towns and villages in
this country. Less than dozen
counties in the United States have
failed to organize Home Service Sec
tions. There are only 773 cities and
towns which have a population of
over 5000 and less than 300 of these
had any communicable agency in
terested to help people who are un-
fortunate. Home Service has cared |
for over half million soldiers and
sailors families, or one out of every
eight families that had man in ser-
vice. Thirty thousand men and wom-
Ell constitute the Home Service work.
ing force and all but 1400 are serving
as volunteers.
MI. Deacon emphasized that the
work of Home Service had not been
duplicated by any other agency dur
ing the war and that it would not be
duplicated during peace since Home
Service, after dcmobilization, would
continue only where welfare organi-
cations do not already exist. This
means, however, that it is possible for
Home Service to continue in all but /
about 800 of the 5000 places where it !
now exists. In the New England Di-
vision there arc over 100 cities and
towns with a population of over 5000
but less than one third Of these have
4 family welfare organization.
1t was made quite clear that the ,
decision as to whether or not Home ,
Service should be extended in any
given community rests with the local
chapter and not with Division and
National Headquarters of the Red
Cross. In order to maintain the
highest efficiency of this work, those
officers will establish standards and
4 tt