Imperial Valley press., 1923-08-04

often merely planks supported on
wooden horses. Blankets were
scarce, sheets were missing. Opera
tions were performed with bare
hands, in unheated operating rooms,
without anasthetics, and only too
often without any hope of asepsis.
Wounds were dressed with news
papers or wrapped in rags from the
patients own all too scanty clothing.
Water supplies were polluted, plumb
ng was beyond use and almost be-
yond repair. Drug rooms were
empty of the simplest and most cs-
sential remedies. The food was un-
;peakably poor, utterly unfit for sick
persons and woefully inadequate i'll
mount. Men and women crawlel
20 the ho pitals to die, rather than
TO be naue whole, and not a few
succumbcd in front Of institutions
shat had no room for another patient.
America has wrought transfor-
nation here. 1t is useless to pile
up the figures, but a few may be
significant. The A. R. A. distributed
to these institutions million and 4
half pounds of soap. Neo-salvarsan,
when proved a perfect specific for
relapsing fever, was supplied to the
extent of 100000 ampu!es. The
quInine; alene, some thirty tons Of it,
was valued at more than half
million dollars, but no one can est+-.
mate what it was really worth to
country whose most prevalent dis
ease is malaria. And so the list
runs, through anasthetics, aspirin.
b,chloride. bismuth, chlorinators, Dig
italis, ether, forceps, clear down to
zinc ointment, including all Of the
best known items of the pharma-
ccppla and most Of those to be found
in catalogue of surgical instru-
ments and hospital supplies, more
than 1000 different commodities N
all, and in such quantities that tho
125,000 packages sent on siXty-nino
different ships, weighed fifteen mil
lion pounds. In distributing this
medical aid the American Rei:ct Adj
ministration acted as the agent If
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, 900 by its own contribution Of
supplies to the amount of $3685 00o,
while the entire cost of transporta-
ton and handling was covered by
an individual donation of S267 400
from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller
Memorial
Altogether Americas great adven-
ture in humanity has cost her about
S62,0OO,00O. Everyone in America
! has shared in the benefaction. The
United States Government appropri-
ated, in addition to the medical sup
plies, some S20,000,0 900 for corn and
seed grain. The Jews of Amer
ica, through the American joint
Distribution Committee, gave s5,-
900, 900; Catholics, Quakers. Menno-
mites, Baptists, Lutherans, Adven-
lists, and other Christian denomina-
tions, through their respective organ
izations, swelled the total. But the
distribution was made under the
unified supervision of the American
Relief Administration. 1t was made
lin a characteristically American
| fashion, without regard to race, sect,
party or creed. 1t was Americas
| gift to the Russian people.
An expensive present? Well, it
may have been. 1t cost more than
the mere millions. Two of the
Americans who went to Russia are
not coming home. One died from
typhus and the other dropped from
sight. Two lives and $62,000,000
dollars-almost as much as it costs
the United States to maintain its
navy for two months in time of peace
say ten million saved from death
by starvation and half that numbei
from death by disease-the friend
ship and gratitude of great people
won and held-perhaps a natior
/ saved.
1t almost seems as II the adven
cure had been worth while.