Minneapolis spokesman., 1942-07-24

The distinguished scientists who
made up this committee include:
DR.. William K. Gregory of the
American Museum of Natural His
tory and President of the Ameri-
can Association of Physical An
thropologists; DR.. Harry l. Sha-
piro, also of the American Museum
Of Natural History; DR.. Franz
Weidenreich, formerly of Peking
Union Medical College and now
working at the American Museum
of Natural History; DR.. W. w.
Greuhch, of Western Reserve Uni
versity School of Medicine and Di-
rector of the Brush Foundation.
Readers of the Negro press will
remember that the Red Cross at
first refused to accept blood for the
blood bank from Negro donors.
Later, under pressure from the
N.A.A.C.P. they agreed to accept
Negro blood but to keep it sepa-
rate from the blood of white
donors. This policy was character
lied by the N.A.A.CP. as "a
greater insult to the race than re-
fusal of blood from Negroes"
Speaking officially for the Amer
lean Red Cross, Norman H. Davis,
its president, attempted to justify
this Jim Crow policy by declaring
that Gin the interests of de-
mocracy," the prejudices of men
who may need blood transfusions
should be respected.
The Committee of Physical An
thropologists quoted in the first
paragraph stated fatty, There is
no evidence that the blood of Ne
groes differs in any significant re-
spect from that of white persons"
Evidence was given that success
full transfusions of blood from
white persons to Negroes or vice
versa has been accomplished hun
dreds of times.
Reference was also made by the
committee to the widespread use
in modern medical practice of vac
cines, serums and other prepara-
tons from the blood and glands of
horses, rabbits, sheep, etc. The Red
Cross has never encouraged any
foolish prejudices which patients
might have against treatment with
substances of an animal origin, it
was pointed out.
Knowing that the Red Cross
officials were acting under pres
sure of the Southern Bourbons, the
committee also recalled the custom
of "better-circumstanced families"
in the South of using Negro women
as wet nurses for their babies.
Many of the same substances that
were circulating in the blood of the
Negro wet nurses were imbibed by
the white babies, along with the
nutritious elements of the milk, it
was observed.
"In view of these facts" the
committee stated in its summary,
at seems highly improbable that
any soldier or civilian so seriously
wounded as to require a blood or
plasma TRANSMISSION will insist that
it come from a person whose skin
is no darker than his own"
But the reactionary officials of
the American Red Cross will prob
ably not be moved to abandon their
Jim Crow policy by even such emf
nently reasonable and logical argu-
ments as those advanced by this
committee of distinguished scien-
lists. Certainly, they do not appear
to be disturbed by the fact that
their failure to secure the whole
hearted cooperation of the 13,000,-
900 Negroes in the United States
has seriously endangered the sue
cess of the blood bank.
The July issue of the American
Journal of Public Health publishes
some very revealing statistics on
the present inadequacy of the
blood bank in an article by Drs.
Albert McCowin and Amos Christie,
Director and Associate Director,
respectively, of the Medical and
Health Service of the American
Red Cross. Here, the confession is
made that of a total Of 1880, 900
units of dried blood plasma which
had been requested by the medical
departments Of the Army and
Navy, as of April 4, 1912, only
217,731 units had been collected by
that date. Donations are being OBJ
tained at the rate of 1900 per
week, they report. On the basis of
these figures, the Red Cross blood
bank will have on July 25, only
1870 of the blood plasma necessary
to supply military needs.
The fact that blood plasma was
available for the immediate treat
ment of those injured at Pearl Har-
Dor resulted in the lowest percent