The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-10-10
What Has Red Cross Done
With War Chest Millions?
Writer Tells Where and How
Funds Were Expended, and
Plans for Future.

What has been done with the %
million dollars American donors dropped
into the lap of the Red Gross last
spring in drive for war relief funds?
Don Wharton in an article in the
American Legion Monthly condensed
by The Dealers Digest for October,
tells about the distribution of these
funds.
Nine millions have been spent; II
millions remain. There are also three
millions in chapter supplies. income
from an endowment fund of IA million,
and another IA million in the general
fund of which four million is reserved
for use in the United States in case
We go to war.
While that represents lot Of money,
there are now and are going to be
plenty of places to put it to carry on
the Red Cross work in bringing aid 70
the stricken, where in many cases the
Red Gross is the last helping hand be-
tween life and death
Mr.. Wharton points out that no
American Red Cross money has gone
into German-occupied territories, nor
into Germany itself; that expenditures
in unoccupied France tapered 10 viz
tually nothing after Frances collapse.
The question of what to do in oc-
cupied countries this winter if famine
develops will be difficult, he continues.
Will Germany give the Red Cross
complete freedom of action and the
right to distribute supplies?" Without
this, Chairman Norman H. Davis OF the
American Red Cross says the organi-
cation will not operate anywhere
To make sure supplies reached their
destination field representatives rode
freight cars through the Alps in freez-
ing weather, slept in Norwegian boys.
and underwent bombingS in France.
But mostly their work was the inceSsant
visiting of railroad stations, refugee
canteens, and first-aid posts to see
where supplies and money were needed,
and that the needs were filled.
In a Bordeau hospital Field Repre-
sentative Richard Allen found doctors
performing head operations on men
propped up on boards; so he purchased
every barber and dental chair in the
city for that emergency. Beans for
refugee soup were desperately needed at
Toulon and Nantes; so Wayne Chat
field Taylor telephoned all over France,
finally discovering five cars of Argen-
tine beans on a railroad siding near
Nice, headed for Italy. The Red Gross
cabled the owner, in Algiers, and in a
few hours the beans were moving to
French Soup kitchens.
There are stories of medical supplies
being rushed by car with special police
escort to make Atlantic clipper planes
bound from New Yo~k to Spain, of pro-
viding refugee children born on trains
with layettes, of dispensing iodine, foot
tubs, bandages, shoes for battered feet,
condensed milk for babies, 1000 stoves
for refugee mothers to cook over bon
fires, hunting lost and found persons,
and so on without end.
There are also stories Of aid to
Americans trapped in Europe, Ameri-
cans hungry, sick, and without funds.
Money was provided for temporary
lodging and fare. On one ship Red
Cross nurses found 60 cases Of dysen-
tery-and the ship became a floating
hospital. The New York chapter alone
has met IS slips and aided more than
1 500 citizens of this country Local
chapters have handled 41,O00 inquiries
about the fate of relatives in war areas.
To date $5,5O0,OOO has gone for war
relief in war areas; s1,5O0,OO for re-
patriating Americans and locating
relatives in war zones; S3,000,OO0 TO
local chapters to buy material for
making garments and surgical dress
ings Red Gross aid to Britain is IN
for possible disaster; in
France it was to help after disaster
struck. When war started Germany
was asked what aid was wanted; she
replied that she did not want anything,
and she has not been asked again.
England's needs if an invasion takes
place and is either successful or fails,
or if winter bombing continues at the
present pace is a problem that the
American Red Cross may be called upon
to solve.