The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1919-11-11
MEN, WOMEN
AND THINGS

most stupendous programmes the world
has ever known.
AS a humanitarian endeavor it will
always perpetuate the spirit of de-
votion and service which it engendered
during the war in which the heart and
modified in such way as to forever
grip Poland and the Balkans and Baltic
states.
| America is now as never before the
land of promise" for these people who
for centuries have been the pawns of
destiny, not the high and hidden destiny
of heaven, but the selfish destiny that
| is decreed by potentates and powers
bent only on domination, possession
and exploitation.
1t is hard for those of US who live
| in land of liberty to understand ma
tions and races which for centuries
have been victimized by ambitious
rulers and treacherous diplomats. For
this reason they do not trust govern
ments, for through sad experience they
were taught that constituted authority
meant most often suppression or even
pillage, and they gave sullen obed-
fence.
This is why there has developed
among the peoples of eastern Europe
faith in American and the American
Red Cross which is at one and the
same time gratifying and terrifying
They trust only Americans in whom they
have found, for the first time in their
experience. disinterestedness, it is
pleasant to have people believe in you
but it demands also a certain respon-
sibility in living up to their demands.
Violated and duped for centuries
they naturally became indirect in their
own dealings, and because they had
been so often plundered by strangers,
! they came to regard all strangers with
suspicion, and would outwit them If
they could. This is why they suspected
/ the American Red Cross when it first
arrived, and puzzled their brains to
know what trick was hidden beneath
the show of friendliness.
|
| Do you wonder that it feazed them
when they first ran up on international
unselfishness They were amazed, in
credulous. then pathetically grateful.
1t was in this spirit that the represen-
tatives of the almost disinherited peo-
pies began to make pilgrimages to
headquarters at the Regina hotel, Paris,
to ask for material aid when it was
| available but above all, that a few
Americans be sent among them bear
ing the symbol of the Red Cross, the
one thing in which they truly believed.
|
| 1t was really something new, for
while the history of Europe records
courage. gallantry. patriotism, fidelity
to the king, loyalty to the country, but
not international disinterestedness, not
sympathy and sacrifice for others who
dwell beyond the frontiers. 1t re-
manned for the people of the United
States to discover this quality in them
selves and to reveal it in acts, not
words. to an astonished Europe. Am
erica instead of being looked upon as
a materialistic nation took on the ap-
pearance of idealists.
I -
Important as was the material re-
lief which the American Red Cross
took to the Balkans, it took some thing
more valuable, some thing quite be-
yond price, faith to the faithless and
an example of straightforward honest
: dealing. 1t has given them a new idea
of government for through bitter ex-
periences it had been burned into their
very souls that justice was not for the
/ people. The imperial rescript delivered
to them were always the same, Heads
| win, tails you lose
There were two supreme objects of
the American Red Cross abroad Care
flrst for our own fighting men, second
for our allies, the fighters and the
| noncombatants, harrassed by an i'm
placable foe who sought to break the
spirits of the civilians by terrorrization
at the same time it smashed the armies
| IN the field Only those who passed
through Belgium, Northern France,
Poland, Servia, Roumania and Armenia
| have any idea of the misery and woe
that was left in the trail of the ruth
less militarists of Potsdam.
The American Red Cross was pro-
to meet the needs put upon it in Eu-
rope. 1t was on June 2, 1917, that the
i first commission sailed for France, a
band of eighteen under the leadership
Of Major Murphy, with general instruc-
tions to prepare for service to the AM
erican troops when they should arrive
and to do everything possible for the
immediate and future relief of the
sorely pressed armies and civilian pop
ulation of our allies. This was but a
nucleus which expanded to a grand
total of 6,374 workers.
The Regina hotel, headquarters be-
came one of the busiest spots on the
! continent. The commission to France
| was the first to be established but
| others were furnished Russia, Italy,
Servia, Roumania, Great Britain, Pales-
| tine, Switzerland, Greece, Siberia, Arch
angel, Russian and allied prisoners in
Germany. western Russia and Baltic
provinces and later a commission to
Poland, besides special provisions for
other countries such as Armenia, to
which no commission was sent but to
which Red Cross made heavy contri-
buttons in money. A number of these
had been closed
| 1 spoke in another article of the rea-
son for the $15.000,000 fund asked for
over and above the amount to be
raised through the membership drive
and gave some of the needs for it, But
I saved the big pressing thing to put
in here. BY an amendment to the army
bill. Congress has prolonged the respon-
sibility of the Red Cross abroad by