The Republican journal., 1920-12-02
YOUR RED CROSS COLLAR
Halt OF 1t Works in Your Community,
Half of 1t in the Nation
and Overseas

II citizen of your city or town
JOINS the American Red Cross as a
Sl.0O annual member in the Fourth
Roll Call, November II to 25 what
disposition will be made of his dollar9
In the first place one-half of il
goes to the local Red Cross Chapter
to meet local needs, It may help pay
the salary of Public Health Nurse.
the preparation of emergency aid, the
cost of lessons in home hygiene and
care OF the sick, IN. nitfgation of
distress of the unfortunate Yr anv one
OF number of expertly ounducted &C
tivities designed for the relief of the
Individual or the welfare of the com
munity. Whatever it may be, the
work that the half-dollar does will he
OF benefit to the place from which it
came.
No citizen can afford to preserve an
attitude of aloofness toward condi-
lions in his home town. However in
different he may be to personal risks
or however uninterested from a bust
ness point of view there must be
someone-wife, children or friends
towards whom he feels a sense Of re-
sponsibility. Especially must he feel
a protective impulse toward all little
children. It is not enough that we
should put our own house in order. So
long as conditions prejudicial to
health exist in any home there is al
ways the possibility of disease germs
being carried from that home to the
school the playground and the street
and to other homes.
The city or town officials will aid
the destitute where such cases are
brought to their attention, but thew
cannot hunt them out. The Red Cross,
through it's Hime Service, can and
does
The city or town officials will do
their best to see that insanitary condi-
tons are improved wherever they be-
come aware of such conditions. The
Red Cross through its educational
methods, aims to prevent such condi-
tons from arising. One half of the
citizens s1.00 will help, therefore. to
bring it to pass that the people shall
actually put into practice the doctrine
hat an ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure.
The other half of the citizens 800
goes to the National headquarters o.
the Red Cross at Washington to be
used partly for national relief work
and partly for relief work abroad.
The Red Cross foreign activities
are being rapidly narrowed down to
relief work among the suffering chill
dren. No one can say that those
children are to blame for the situa-
ton in which they find themselves, or
that they could have foreseen it and
made provision for it. They are
wholly guiltless; as guiltless as the
children in our own New England.
Eleven million OF them are war or
phans. The parents of millions of
others are quite or nearly destitute.
Their own governments are too beset
with vital economic and political
problems to look after them. In other
words a whole generation of children
in Central Europe is growing up in a
state of physical and mental neglect.
Thousands Of course will die. It is
too late now to help them What sort
Of future citizens will the others
make? Putting aside the question of
their undeserved, sufferings, what sort
Of men and women will be formed out
of these millions of under nourisi7eF
bodies and stunted minds?