The evening world. Newspaper, May 14, 1918, Page 11

___ CHARITY. CHARITY. c THE EVENING worn CHARITY. ES AARITY TUGSOQS YY, MAY 18, T9726, CHARITY CHARITY CHARITY Cross in Emergency The Red Cross has many aspects. In one view, it is the American people’s organized and. world-wide preparation against calamity. It acts in emergency, is supported by the people, is manned by those trained to fight disaster. It is supported by voluntary contributions; its oper- ations cover the whole field of human misfortune. Disaster comes unheralded; cyclones, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, explosions, conflagrations, tor- pedoes. even battles and invasions, give little warn- ing, or none. To meet emergency, these things are necessary: organization, resources, equipment, expert knowl- edge, zeal, mobility, and speed. The American Red Cross is the main reliance of our own Government and co-operates with foreign governments and foreign societies in the work of relief everywhere. The Italian Disaster Never in its history has the American Red Cross more graphically proven its mobility and efficiency than when it went to meet and care for the half million or more refugees who were driven down from the mountains of northern Italy by the Austrian invaders in October of last year. The “Italian situation” was flashed on the world overnight. For two years the Italian ‘Army had been slowly making its way against the Austrian. In two days all it had accomplished was undone. During those two days not only was Italy’s military progress reversed, but six hundred thousand of her women and children and old men were forced to flee before Mackensen’s force. If ever there was an emergency to be met it was when the refugees began to stream down the mountains in northern Italy. From Wash- ington there was flashed to Rome assurances of ald, backed by authority to Ambassador Page to draw on the Red Cross for immediate funds. Every consular agent was furnished with Red Cross funds to meet the emergency quickly; every Red Cross agent was set to work, Food and clothing for hundreds of thou- sends had to be bought. The Italian hospital service had been wrecked by the enemy and had to be restored. Transportation service had to be provided and homes created for the refugees. Babies were being born and were dying by the roadside. Refugees by the hundreds of thousands were hungry, athirst and ill. Here was « situation that called for speed above al! else. Delay meant death and suffering to thousands. The first news of the Italian military disas- ter and {ts aftermath of misery, reached Paris headquarters of the American Red Cross in May, Y008. Announcement Number 2 Announcement No, Three Regarding the activities of the American Red Crosg will appear to-morrow in The World, Evening Journal, Brooklyn ndard Jewish Daily Foruaid, Lion and the middle of an October afternoon. In the face of almost insurmountable obstacles, a Red Cross train loaded with food, clothing, ether, and other supplies was made ready imme- diately. It was placed in charge of a Red Cross agent with instructions to get to Rome— no matter how, but get there. It was started, cut in two by accident, coupled together, started again, and reached Rome in just one quarter of the war-time schedule. A comprehensive Red Cross organisation was quickly woven together. Red Cross sup- plies began to accumulate in needed eenters. The stream of refugees flowed unabating to the South. One afternoon, on two hours’ notice, preparations were made to feed twelve thousand refugees at the Partonaccio Station. Hundreds of thousands had been dislodged from their homes. To have cared for this un- housed population would have taxed the re- sources of any country. But, in addition, Italy had to salvage its army and turn back an invasion with its remaining organized force. It was to this emergency that the Red Cross brought its mobile machinery and financial aid In this work the American note was struck by the Red Cross — it gave assurance to Italy that in resisting invasion and getting under her heavy load of civil distress, the American people were with her. In his address at the opening of Parliament early in December, the Italian Premier, Baron Sonnino, said, “Our soul is stirred again with appreciation and admiration for the magnificent dash with which the American Red Cross has brought us powerful aid in our recent misfortune. We attribute great value to the co-operation which will be given us against the common enemy by the prodigious activity and by the exuberant and consistent force which are peculiar to the American le.” The Antilles When the Germans torpedoed the Antilles last October, killing sixty-seven men, one hun- dred and seventy Americans with but a few minutes to leave the sinking transport, floated, half clad, in life boats and rafts, in icy water for hours. They finally reached a port in France. Co-operating with the governmental authorities, the Red Cross rushed to the port, fed the survivors, clothed them, hurried the worst sufferers to the hospitals, and supplied them with money to be repaid when possible. Had the members of their own families met them ashore, these ‘American boys could not have had more solicitous care; and the Ameri- ean Red Cross, thinking always of the family as well as of the direct sufferer, cabled their condition to their families in this country. The Tuscania Fresh in the memory of all is the sinking of the Tuscania by the Germans in February. The ‘American soldiers and sailors who sur- vived the disaster were aided in every possible way by the American Red Cross and the British Red Cross from the time they landed in Ireland. The food, the clothing, the new uniforms, the loans of money, and especially the word to the folks at home sent by the Red Cross— the story has been told many times, The Explosion at Halifax On December 6, 1917, the city was wrecked by the detonation of unnumbered tons of high explosives in the harbor. Ten million dollars’ worth of property was destroyed. A city of wounded and blinded cried for help. A member of the American Red Cross, trained in emergency relief, was on the scene whon it happened. He wired Washington, and on the afternoon of the day the explosion occurred, the American Red Cross perfected its emergency organization and its relief work was started. A special Red Cross train of relief supplies left New York the next day. Another Red Cross train filled with hospital supplies, to- gether with sixty doctors and sixty nurses, left Providence. A base hospital, complete in equipment and personnel, left Boston, In all, two hundred Red Cross workers and vast quan- tities of supplies soon arrived in Halifax. Ten The combined efforts of the local authorities, the Canadian Government and the American Red thousand were homeless in zero weather. Cross workers in unison soon brought adequate relief to the city. America through its Red Cross had again given evidence to Canada that her trials are our trials and earned the gratitude of that great people beside whom we are now fighting the ficht for freedom The Guatemala Earthquake In less than three weeks after the Halifax disaster an earthquake wrecked Guatemala City — virtually erasing it from the map The Secretary of State, himself a member of the Central Committee of the Red Cross cabled the American Minister at Guatemala offering the services of the American Red Cross, at the same time authorizing him to draw on that organization for funds for imme- diate needs. Relief moves followed with rapidity, A steamship with Red Cross supplies sailed from New Orleans at once; $121,000 worth ef sup- plies were shipped by the Red Cross from the Canal Zone. A commission of American Red Cross perts in relief was dispatched and the of restoration has been going on as only skilled workers can carry it on, The Floods of Tien-Tsin, China In the fall of 1917, 12,000 square miles of territory in China were inundated, one million people were made homeless and property to the value of $100,000,000 destroyed. The action taken by the Red Cross to assist in the relief of a situation with which the Chinese Government alone was unable to cope gave notable example of the manner in which the Red Cross can meet an emergency even at the other end of the world. The American Red Cross was prepared with experience and men even in that far field to help cope with the disaster, The German Attack in March, 1918 When the Germans after a full winter’s preparation launched the greatest of all attacks against the British in March of this year, the British retired over a considerable area, forcing the civil population again to evacuate this stricken soil. The papers of March 27th told the story of the Red Cross motor service in France waking the inhabitants in the early hours of Monday morning, March 25th, transporting and feed- ing them and providing food and shelter for them in Paris. Again the capacity to meet the emergencys wk +k a ‘As one looks back over the recent years there {s a chain of record of how the American Red Cross rose to the occasion. The San Francisco earthquake, the famine in Russia in 1906, the Messina earthquake, the Cherry Mine disaster, the inundation of Paris in 1910, the famine in China in the same year, the Titanic disaster, the Mississippi and Ohio floods in 1918, the Eastland disaster in 1915 and nqw the daily record of emergency met by the Red Cross in Roumania, Russia, Greece, Serbia, Italy, Bel gium, France and the United States in this greatest catastrophe of all time. The Red Cross does move quickly and effect- It is America’s helping hand to the nations of the earth in their troubles. ively. * * * This is the second of a series of five an nouncements covering the work of the Red Cross Red Cross Chapters have statements show ing in detail how the War Fund is being Ask your Chapter for one of these expended statements *# The American Red Cross ‘The cost of this space has been ributed by a friend on Red Cross y cont of the Ame ‘Ae tee t — ~- eS ET AE RAS NS ES i