Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-10-30
Nine MILLION
Red Cross to Expend
in Relief
Former Service Men Disabled Dur
ing World War to Be Cared For as
Primary Responsibility

Washington. Oct. aS.-ApproXi-
mately 100000 will be expended
by the American Red Cross during
the fiscal year ending next June, for
the relief of former service men dis
abled during the world war. Since
the care of former soldiers and their
dependents has the first call upon
Red Cross services, the national body
will spend s3,030692 for such relief,
and with every chapter practically
adding to the relief, the total will
reach the estimated figure. These
funds will be used for services the
Federal government is not authorized
to render and for which it has neither
funds nor facilities.
Care of the eX-service men and
their families is regarded as a pri-
mary Red Cross responsibility, and
that it should be neither indiscrlm-
mate nor niggardly requires patent
study of an intricate problem and
continual readjustments to situations
as they exist and develop.
THE function of the Red Cross"
said John Barton Payne national
chairman in this years annual report,
lis not to usurp the governments
responsibilities but to supplement
official activity; tremendously CO.
operate with official plans and meth
DDS; and seek out the individual in
the standardized mass and his pccul-
lar needs.
THE Red Cross acquires and dis
tributes information among the men
and their families; acquaints the
L. S. Veterans Bureau with the per-
sonal equation in individual cases;
prepares and furnishes comforts,
recreation, and the many necessary
services which the government, by
its very nature, can procure only
from voluntary assistance. These
obligations and privileges fall pri-
marily to the Red Cross CHAPTERS,
whose volunteer members are kept
acquainted with the official situation
through liaison Red Cross officers
attached to the District officers of
the Veterans Bureau"
On Armisticc Day. November II,
when the American Red Cross opens
its annual Roll Call for membership,
! there will be under treatment in gov
eminent hospitals more than $4,000
veterans. In the opinion of the sur
gcon general of the army the peak
of disabled mon under reconstruction
will not be reached until 1926.
During the fiscal year ended last
June. 2.679 Rcd Cross chapters in
al sections of the country were re-
! corded active in the soldier relief
work During that year they re-
ported 1,665,019 individual instances
of services to such men and i.,cir
dependents, at 4 cost estimated at
more than S5.340,000. More than
1000 persons paid and volunteer,
were engaged in Red Cross WORK in
government hospitals and the Vet
Grams Bureau district Offices. More
than $1,000 compensation and insur-
ance claims We're handled, 24560
allowance and allotment cases, and
300 miscellaneous claims. Since
February 1919, when this service was
established. it has disposed Of GAIA
allotment checks PAYABLE to veterans
which the post Office reported un-
deliverable.
The basis of this stupendous work.
is the individual need, and the Red
Cross is concentrated upon tito the
end that the disabled eN-scrvicc man
may obtain all his rights under the
law, and that his own and his
family's situation may he rendered
free from care and worry.