Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1919-05-31
THE RED CROSS HOME SERVICE DEPARTMENT HAS PROBLEMS AHEAD

Since there are many months of war work ahead for Home Service Sec |tions, a discussion of the future work must be based on the present. Month by month, as Home Service has be- come better known and the workers have acquired more experience, the demand for the service has increased until now not far from 100000 diff ferent families or discharged men have been served by the 50,0O0 work CTS throughout the country.
 In the past twelve months $5,OOO,- GOO or more has been expended on them, while the value of the free medical, legal and business advice given would be three or four times that sum, if it had to be paid for the individuals.
 In February nearly 3OO,OOO' families were served. In this Division the number of cases handled, after stand ing at a level of 12,00O or more of three months, jumped to 1S,O0O dur ing March as result of the increas- ing number of, returned soldiers who needed help. At the same time the , amount of money expended decreased considerably, which shows that ser < vice is on the whole more important <, than money relief.
 Before we undertake to extend Home Service to civilian families we should put our houses in order. Chap ter Chairman, beg of you thought full inquiry in to the conditions of , Home Service in your Chapters. Will you not follow closely, see that your Section has suitable headquarters, !, business-like methods, enough trained workers and sufficient funds?
 If you have branches in your juris- diction, see that they are organized for Home Service. In one Chapter fortunately not in this Division-the wife of soldier is reported to have starved to death because she lived far from Chapter headquarters, and the men of the Chapter would not let the Home Service women take the risk of the long journey to help her.
 Dealing with returned soldiers is the most difficult task now before the Home Service workers. It requires sympathy, patience, close study of a mans character, of his past move fnents and of his tastes and ambitions.
 Now, what about extending Home Service beyond it's present scope to families other than those of soldiers and sailors It would take too much space to catalogue the forms of Home Service .sat have been rendered by Various Chapters. Here we can only consider the significant points.
 All over the country Chapters in communities that have never known the value of organized social work tll Home Service came to them have been asking-even before the armistice was sipned-for authority to meet the civilian needs and to carry on Home Service when the war work had beer finished.
 The Central Committee in Wash ington, after consideration of this demand, has decided to permit sucf an extension of Home Service under certain conditions. Among these ar' the requirements that the war worl of Home Service must not be ne glected, that the extension does no apply to those communities havin, organizations, already covering tn field, and that, where the new work undertaken, the Red Cross will with draw as soon as other agencies hay been organized and are able to do tn work. Applications for authority t extend Home Service are to be mad to the Division manager.
 Before Chapters make such a re quest they should survey the fiel carefully, understand clearly what needed, determine whether they ca finance the work, and be ready conduct the work successfully. Fai ure in the enterprise will hurt tn community and diminish the prestie of the Red Cross.
 Please take into consideration tn fact, which some Chapter official and even some Home Service worl CTS, were slow in learning, that tf new work is not to be matter of dc ing out money. The charity organ zation society seeks as its ideal, m spending money on the poor, not fee ing the hungry nor clothing the make as so many uniformed persons b lieve-but forms of service that w
 restore men and women and childr' to normal living, without the expenc
 ture of money.
 Great things may be expected
 the new Home Service if the prese spirit of sympathy and democra
 now pervading it is carried over
 peace times.