, 1923-08-04

often merely planks supported on
wooden horses. Blankets were.
scarce. sheets n missing. Opera
tions were performed with bare
hands, in unheated operating rooms,
without a~nasthetics, and only too
often without any hope of asepsis.
Wounds were dressed with news
papers o. 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
speakably poor, utterly unfit for sick
persons and woefully inadequate in
amount Men and women crawled
to the hospitals to die, rather than
to be made whole, and not a few
succumbed in front of institutions
that had no o for another patient.
America has wrought a transfor-
nation here It is useless to pile
Significant The A R A. distributed
to these institutions a million and a
half pounds of soap. Neo-salvarsan,l
which proved a perfect specific for
relapsfng fever, was supplied to the
extent of 100000 ampules. The
quinine alone, some thirty tons of it,
was valued at more than half a
million dollars, but nc one can esti-
mate what it was really worth to a
country whose most prevalent dis
ease is MALARIA And so the list
runs, through anRsthetics, aspirin,
bichloride. bismuth, chlorinators, dig
tails, ether, forceps, clear down to-
zinc ointment, including all of the
best known items of the pharma-i
copeia and most of those to Be found
in a catalogue of surgical instru-
ments and hospital supplies, moro
than 1000 different commodities in
all, and in such quantities that the
$4,000 packages sent on sixty-ninei
different ships, weighed fifteen mil
lion pounds. In distributing this
medical aid the American Relief Ad-i
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
100000 by its own contribution Of
supplies to the amount of $685., 900,
while the entire cost of transporta-
ton and handling was covered by
an individual donation of $685. 400
from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller
Memorial.
Altogether Americas great adven-
ture in humanity has cost her about
S62, 000, 1000. Everyone in America
has shared In the benefaction- The
United States Government a%ppropri-
ated. in addition to the medical sup
plies, some $20,000,000 for corn and
seed grain. The Jews Of Amer.
i 6;:t- thTS;ogh c tine A%erie sa1o joint s5t
000,0c0; Catholics, Quakers. Memo
mites, Baptists, Lutherans, Adven-
lists, and other Christian denomina-
lions, through their respective organ
izations, swelled the total But the
distribution va made under the
unified supervision of the American
Relief Administration It was made
IN a Enthusiastically American
fashion, without regard to race, sect,
party or creed. It was Americas
gift to the Russian people.
An expensive present? Wen, It
may have been It 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, 900
dollars-almost as much as it costs
the United States to maintain it's
navy for two months in time of peace
say ten million saved from death
by starvation and half that number
from death by disease-the friend
ship and gratitude of a great people
won and held-perhaps . nation
saved.
It almost seems as II the adven-
turs had been worth while.