The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1923-08-16

O1ten merely pl0nkS supported ON
wooden horses. Blankets were
scarce. sheets were missing. Opera:
tions were performed with bare
hands, in unheated operating roomst
! without anasthetics, and only too
often without any hope of asepsis4
Wounds were dressed with news
papers or wrapped in rags from the
patients own all too scanty clothing.
Water supplies were polluted, plumb
| ing was beyond use and almost be-
yond repair. Drug rooms were
empty of the simplest and most es,
sential remedies. The food was un-
speakably poor, utterly unfit for sick
persons and woefully inadequate in
amount. Men and women crawled
to the hospitals to die, rather than
succumbed in front of institutions
that had no room for another. patien:
America has wrought transfer
nation here. It is useless to pile
up the figures, but few may b
significant. The A. R. A. distributed
to these. institutions a million and e
half pounds of soap. Neo-salvarsan,
which proved a perfect specific foa
relapsing fever, was supplied to tho
extent Of 100000 ampules. Tho
quinine alone, some thirty tons of it;
was valued at more than half ~
million dollars. but no one can esti-
mate what it was really worth to- q
country whose most prevalent dis
ease is malaria. And so the list
runs, through an@sthetics, aspirin:
|bichloride, bismuth, chlorinators, dig.
tails, ether, forceps, clear down to-
zinc ointment, including all of the
best known items of the pharmn-'
copnia and most of those to be found'
in a catalogue Of surgical instru-
ments and hospital supplies, more
than 1000 different commodities in
all, and in such quantities that the
125, 900 packages sent on sixty-nine
different ships, weighed fifteen mill
lion pounds. In distributing this;
medical aid the American Relief Ad-,
ministration acted as the agent o.
the United States Government and
the American Red Cross. The sur,
plus Army medical supplies were:
turned over to the A. r. A. by act
OF Congress and the Red Cross sup;
plemented the Army stocks valued at!
$4,000, 600 by its own contribution Of,
supplies to the amount Of $3,685, OOOi
while the entire cost Of Transports
ton and handling was covered, by
an individual donation Of $267,AO0,
from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller,
Memorial. rs.
Altogether Americas great advsf.;;
ture In humanity has cost her about,
$62,000,000. Everyone in America
has shared tn the benefhction. The,
United States Government appropfi.:
ated. in addition to the medical fiip:
plies. some SIC, 900 600 for corn and
seed grain. The Jews Of Amer.
lea, through the American Joih4
Distribution Committee, gave $6k-
100000; Catholics, Qu:kers. Menhe..
mites, Baptists, Lutherans, Advsie
lists, and other Christian denomlnn-
tons, through their respective orglt-
izations, swe;led the total. But tho
distribution was made under tHs
unified supervision of the Amer:eAh
Relief Administrator It was m4dS
IN Enthusiastically AmaricaA
fashion, without regard to race. seef,
party Of creed. It was Americ4E
gift to the Russian people. sA
An expensive present? Wen, II
may have been. Il cost more thar
the mere millions. Two Of tht
Americans who went TO Russia ~
not coming home. One died from
typhus and the other dropped FROM
sight Two lives and 962, OOO, O00
dollars almost as much as. It costt
the United States % maintain -
navy Tor two months In time u pea4s
Say ten million saved from de9Jlk
by starvation and halt that udinDxe
from desfh by disease the friend
ship and gratitude Of 1 great peoS1
won and held perhaps : iaat$o1
saved y ~
Il almost seems as Il the adysk
ture had been worth Nhiln