The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 1)




                      VOL. IV. JANUARY, 1909. No. 1.

                                 BULLETIN

                          PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY

                               The American
                                Red Cross

                            WASHINGTON, D. C.

                              [Illustration]

                          National Headquarters
                  Room 341, State, War and Navy Building
                            Washington, D. C.

  Entered at the Post Office, Washington, D. C., as second-class matter




[Illustration: NOTE.—RED CROSSES INDICATE STATES AND POSSESSIONS IN WHICH
BRANCH SOCIETIES HAVE BEEN ORGANIZED.]




CONTENTS


                                                                      PAGE

    Preface                                                              3

    William Howard Taft (with Portrait)                                  4

    Robert W. de Forest (with Portrait)                                  6

    The Forest Fire Disasters (illustrated)                              7
        By Ernest P. Bicknell.

    Report of Michigan Branch                                           15
        By Ralph M. Dyar.

    South Carolina Flood Relief (illustrated)                           15
        By A. C. Kaufman.

    Report of Investigation in the Flooded Districts of South
      Carolina (illustrated)                                            20
        By Janet E. Kemp.

    A Short Sketch of the Russian Red Cross (illustrated)               27
        By J. de Thal.

    The Christmas Stamp                                                 32

    The Story of the Red Cross (with Portrait)                          34

    Report of Chairman of the Central Committee                         36
        Major General George B. Davis, U. S. A.

    Report of the Treasurer                                             40
        Beekman Winthrop.

    Fourth Annual Red Cross Meeting                                     43

    Red Cross Endowment Fund                                            44

    Red Cross First-Aid Text-Book                                       45
        By William E. Curtis.

    First-Aid Instructions to Merchant Marine                           46
        By 1st Lieutenant G. H. Richardson, M. R. C., U. S. A.

    The Red Cross and Esperanto                                         48
        By Major P.S. Straub, U.S.A., Medical Corps.

    Notes                                                               49




THE AMERICAN RED CROSS


Officers

    _President_,
    HON. WILLIAM H. TAFT.

    _Treasurer_,
    HON. BEEKMAN WINTHROP.

    _Counselor_,
    HON. HENRY M. HOYT.

    _Secretary_,
    CHARLES L. MAGEE.

    _Chairman of Central Committee_,
    MAJOR-GENERAL GEO. W. DAVIS, U. S. A. (Ret.)

    _National Director_,
    ERNEST P. BICKNELL.

Board of Consultation

    BRIGADIER-GENERAL ROBERT M. O’REILLY,
    Surgeon-General, U. S. Army.

    REAR ADMIRAL PRESLEY M. RIXEY,
    Surgeon-General, U. S. Navy.

    SURGEON-GENERAL WALTER WYMAN,
    U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service.

Central Committee 1908-1909

    Major-General GEORGE W. DAVIS, U. S. A. (ret.), _Chairman_.

    Brigadier-General ROBERT M. O’REILLY, Surgeon-General, U. S.
    Army, War Department, Washington, D. C.

    Hon. ROBERT BACON, Assistant Secretary of State, Department of
    State, Washington, D. C.

    Hon. BEEKMAN WINTHROP, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, U.
    S. Treasury Dept., Washington, D. C.

    Medical Director JOHN C. WISE, U. S. N., Navy Department,
    Washington, D. C.

    Hon. HENRY M. HOYT, Solicitor-General, Department of Justice,
    Washington, D. C.

    President BENJAMIN IDE WHEELER, University of California.

    Mr. JOHN M. GLENN, 105 East 22d street, New York, N. Y.

    Miss MABEL T. BOARDMAN, Washington, D. C.

    Hon. JAMES R. GARFIELD, Secretary of the Interior, Washington,
    D. C.

    Hon. A. C. KAUFMAN, Charleston, S. C.

    Hon. H. KIRKE PORTER, 1600 I street, Washington, D. C.

    Mr. JOHN C. PEGRAM, Providence, R. I.

    General CHARLES BIRD, U. S. A., Wilmington, Del.

    Col. WILLIAM CARY SANGER, Sangerfield, N. Y.

    Judge LAMBERT TREE, 70 La Salle street, Chicago, Ill.

    Hon. JAMES TANNER, Washington, D. C.

    Mr. W. W. FARNAM, New Haven, Conn.




PREFACE


With its January issue the RED CROSS BULLETIN begins its fourth year. The
fact that it is becoming of more general interest has led those in charge
of the publication to increase its size that it may conform more to the
appearance of other magazines. A new cover, symbolical of Red Cross work,
will be provided for the April issue. As the expense of publishing the
BULLETIN has been a heavy drain upon the limited income of the Society,
it has also been decided to accept advertisements, so that the BULLETIN
may in part pay for itself.

That, though elected President of the United States, Mr. Taft consented
to be re-elected President of the American Red Cross is a fact upon
which the Society is to be not only heartily congratulated, but for
which it is most deeply grateful; that, while assuming the great duties
and responsibilities of the highest office in the government, Mr. Taft
still desires to associate himself in an active way with the American
Red Cross is but another proof of his constant desire to be of service
to his country and also testifies to his belief in the usefulness of the
Society. The Red Cross has also been most fortunate in obtaining the
consent of Mr. Robert W. de Forest to act as the Vice-President.

This issue contains reports and illustrations of the last two fields of
Red Cross relief. A short sketch of the Russian Red Cross has kindly been
prepared by a member of the Russian Embassy in Washington.

The complete story of the Red Cross Christmas stamp can be told only in
the April BULLETIN. Its remarkable success is a great satisfaction.

We trust our members will read the officer’s reports, the articles on
the Endowment Fund and the First-Aid Text-Books. The next problem that
our National Society has to meet, and must meet successfully, for it is
still young enough to have no such word as “Fail” in its lexicon, is the
raising of such an Endowment Fund as will put our Society on a permanent
basis and make it the equal of the great societies of the other countries
of the world.

The First-Aid Text-Book cannot be too highly commended. We know too
little what to do in case of accidents. When statistics show that one
person out of every seven of the inhabitants of the United States is
injured annually, and that in New York alone during the last three
years the annual average of accidents on the surface, elevated and
subway traction system has been 34,000, the necessity of the valuable
information and instruction this book contains should be realized by
everyone. Mr. William E. Curtis has kindly written for the BULLETIN
a review of the Text-Book, and a further notice in regard to it is
contained in the advertising department.

Just as the BULLETIN goes to press the Executive Committee learned,
through press reports and official channels, of the occurrence of an
earthquake in Southern Italy of unprecedented severity, and started its
relief machinery into motion by telegraphing the Red Cross Branches and
the Governors of several States, requesting that an appeal be issued and
contributions received for the relief of the sufferers. Reports of the
work of relief and a financial statement will be printed in the April
BULLETIN.




[Illustration: HON. WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT, PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN RED
CROSS, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, MARCH 4, 1909.]




WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT


On February 8th, 1905, on call of the Secretary of War, the Incorporators
of the re-incorporated American National Red Cross held their first
meeting for re-organization in the diplomatic reception room of the State
Department. At this meeting William Howard Taft was elected the first
president of the re-organized Society. At each of the four subsequent
annual meetings Mr. Taft has presided, save in 1907, when absence in the
Philippines prevented his attendance, and at each of those meetings has
been re-elected president.

The active duties of the Society are delegated by its Charter to a
Central Committee, the Chairman being appointed by the President of the
United States; therefore, the duties devolving upon the President of
the Society are supposedly of an honorary nature, but with a man of Mr.
Taft’s character, duty becomes honorable rather than honorary.

Shortly after its re-organization and while in its very infancy, there
came upon the Society the storm and stress of the San Francisco disaster.
A great pressure of work fell also upon the War Department, but in spite
of this, and, though no by-law required his presence, Mr. Taft came
to the meetings of the Executive Committee, listened to the reports,
counseled and advised, and by his wisdom and clear judgment brought order
and result out of confusion and indecision. Whenever and however he could
be of help, he has given his assistance gladly, and only those who have
struggled through the problems of its re-organization can know the pillar
of strength he has been to the American Red Cross.

Since Mr. Taft’s nomination and election to the Presidency of the United
States, so much has been written of his life and his achievements, it has
not seemed necessary to repeat it here. The people of this country have
set the seal of their approval upon the labors of his past. The wonderful
fidelity of his work for the far-away Philippines has led his country-men
to paraphrase scripture—“Thou hast been faithful over a few people; I
will make thee ruler over many people.”

In spite of the great and many new duties that the Presidency of the
United States will bring upon Mr. Taft, he consented again to be elected
president of the American Red Cross. Moreover, he declined an election
to honorary membership, saying that he desired to consider himself an
active member of the Society. In thus continuing as president of the Red
Cross, the official organization for volunteer aid, Mr. Taft, who as
President, becomes Chief of the Army and Navy, will be able to bring into
close association these departments and the Red Cross, so that in case of
the misfortune of war or of great calamities, harmonious and systematic
relief work will result.

With such a man for President as William Howard Taft, the American Red
Cross must live up to the thought he has, himself, expressed:

“I say to you that there are rewards that are unknown to him who seeks
only what he regards as the substantial ones. The best of all is the pure
joy of service—to do things that are worth doing, to be in the thick of
it; ah! That is to live!”




[Illustration: ROBERT W. DE FOREST, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN RED
CROSS.]




ROBERT W. de FOREST


The Red Cross has been most fortunate in the acceptance of its
Vice-Presidency by Mr. Robert W. de Forest, of New York City. There are
few residents of that city so widely known for their philanthropic and
public spirit and work as Mr. de Forest.

Mr. de Forest is a graduate of Yale, a lawyer by profession, having
received his LL. B. from Columbia, and having also studied at Bonn
University. In 1904 the degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by
Yale University. Since 1874 he has been counsel, and since 1902
Vice-President, of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. For twenty years
he has been President of the Charity Organization of New York City;
he was a founder and first president of the Provident Loan Society,
the first philanthropic pawn-broker, the Chairman of the Tenement
House Commission of New York State in 1900, trustee and secretary of
the Metropolitan Art Museum, manager of the Presbyterian Hospital, a
trustee and director in various business institutions, was the first
Tenement House Commissioner of New York City, the President of the
National Conference of Charities and Correction in 1903, President of the
Municipal Art Commission of New York in 1905, and is Vice-President and
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Sage Foundation.

This brief statement of the important positions Mr. de Forest has
occupied, or does occupy, is strongly indicative of the character and
ability of the man, and the Red Cross is heartily to be congratulated not
only upon its President, but upon its second officer, the Vice-President
of the Society.




THE FOREST FIRE DISASTERS

BY ERNEST P. BICKNELL


_All the country knows of the forest fires which caused loss of life and
property in Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York and other States,
in September and October, 1908. It has been estimated that the losses to
property amounted to $50,000,000, most of which lay in the destruction of
forests, of which thousands of square miles were swept by fire._

_In their progress the fires destroyed several towns and villages
and many farm houses. Chisholm, Minnesota, a town of probably 5,000
population, seventy-five miles north of Duluth, was destroyed in an
hour. At 5:30 o’clock in the afternoon of September 6, a sudden shift of
wind deluged the place in a moment with an overwhelming rain of burning
leaves and embers. Almost every building in the town took fire at once.
The surprised and panic-stricken people could do nothing but seize a few
valuables and run for their lives. When the fire died out it was found
that only sixty-five structures of any kind remained standing, but that
not a life had been lost. Prompt relief measures were taken, with a state
commission in charge. A relief fund of about $130,000 was contributed.
Mr. Ernest P. Bicknell, National Director of the Red Cross, visited
Chisholm and inspected the progress and methods of relief October 13 to
16, and reported that the methods were good and that normal conditions
were being restored rapidly. Hundreds of men were employed in rebuilding
the town and houses were going up like magic. Eighty-seven cottages
have been built by the relief committee. Employment in the iron mines
surrounding the town was not interrupted by the fire. This fact greatly
simplified the work of relief, as the usual income of that part of the
population least able to endure loss, was preserved._

[Illustration: MICHIGAN FOREST FIRES—SOME OF THE HOMELESS.]

_While in Duluth on October 16, the National Director of the Red
Cross learned of a disastrous forest fire, which had occurred in the
northern part of the southern peninsula of Michigan on the preceding
day. He hurried to the scene, reaching there on the 17th, and for two
weeks devoted his time to the work of relief in that State. Following
are extracts from the report of the National Director covering this
work:_—EDITOR.

“The summer and fall had been excessively dry here, as elsewhere, and
there had been little wind. Farmers had been clearing up their lands,
burning logs and stumps and accumulated rubbish, as is their custom at
the end of the summer. In thousands of places fire was smouldering in log
heaps, and in the roots of stumps and in the peaty soil which, when dry,
will burn without flame and with little smoke until extinguished by rain.

“Early in the afternoon of October 15, a strong wind from the southwest
sprang up and almost in a moment these smouldering fires burst into
flames. The effect was as though the entire country had taken fire at
once. The wind, whose velocity is estimated to have been fifty miles an
hour, carried a vast wave of flame which destroyed everything combustible
in its path. Several men whose homes were destroyed assured me, with
entire seriousness, that the air was on fire. The area damaged extends
approximately seventy-five miles along the northeastern shore of the
lower peninsula and reaches back inland from fifteen to twenty-five
miles. The center and worst of the fire covered an area perhaps
twenty-five miles long and ten miles wide. Within this smaller area were
the villages of Metz, Posen and Bolton, surrounded by an agricultural
country occupied by Polish and German families in moderate circumstances.
The Detroit and Mackinac Railroad passes through this district and each
of the villages named is upon the line of the road.

“The village of Metz was completely destroyed, not a structure of any
character remaining. The village of Bolton was also completely destroyed
with the exception of a small church. Posen was saved by a desperate
fight. The open farming country offered little hindrance to the progress
of the fire, which in many instances leaped across treeless spaces of a
quarter of a mile or more, destroying all buildings and fences between.
The number of homes destroyed in an area ten miles square was 177. The
number of persons made homeless and temporarily destitute by the fire in
an area twenty-five miles long and ten miles wide was about 2,000.

[Illustration: RUINS OF CHISHOLM.]

[Illustration: ONE OF THE SHACKS CONSTRUCTED BY RELIEF COMMITTEE.]

“When the people of Metz, early in the afternoon of October 15, realized
that the village was in danger, they telegraphed to the railroad company
for a relief train to carry the women and children to safety. At 2:30
P. M. an engine arrived with a steel gondola car—a steel box with solid
walls about four feet high and without roof. The danger did not appear
immediate when the train arrived and the people delayed to gather up
their more valuable portable property and load it into the car. The
trainmen urged haste, but the people were determined, and hours passed.
At 5:30 P. M. the train started with about forty-five women and children
huddled in the open car. Four trainmen were on board and a farmer and
his wife, who were trying to reach home where their children had been
left earlier in the day. Two miles from Metz a line of box cars stood
on a siding close to the main track. On the opposite side of the track
was a huge pile of cross ties awaiting shipment. Both box cars and cross
ties were burning. The heat had warped the rails of the main track, but
the dense blanket of smoke prevented the engineer from seeing what had
happened. The train dashed into the furnace between the burning cars and
the burning cross ties and was wrecked. Seventeen of those on board were
burned to death. The fireman and brakeman and the farmer were among the
killed. The rest were women and children. Those who escaped clambered
over the sides of the car and crawled along the ground to an open place
where they lay on their faces several hours until the fire had subsided.
The wreck occurred within fifty feet of the home of the farmer. The
farmer’s wife escaped from the train and reached the burning house. She
rushed in, in search of her children, and her bones were found later
among the ashes. The three children, the oldest nine, had fled to a
neighbor’s house near by and were saved. Many who escaped from the train
were terribly burned.

[Illustration: REFUGEES AT POSEN.]

“The men of Metz, who remained to fight the fire, escaped without loss
of life. One of these men told me of his escape. He threw some small
valuables into a large wooden candy pail and started to run along the
road through the woods. Presently his hair began to burn and his face to
blister. He felt himself failing. He emptied the contents from the pail
and put it over his head. With this protection he managed to crawl along
the road to a field and escaped, with clothing on fire and many injuries.

“After driving about the region a few hours, in order to gain an adequate
idea of the extent of the loss, I took a train for Detroit for the
purpose of conferring with officers of the State Branch of the Red Cross,
concerning relief measures. Some relief supplies were already arriving,
contributed by the people of the City of Alpena, twenty-five miles to the
east, and hurried in by the railroad company. I found Detroit awakened
to the situation. Mr. Emory W. Clark, treasurer of the State Branch,
and Mr. Ralph M. Dyar, secretary, had been in conference the morning of
my arrival. Mr. Clark took me to call upon the Mayor, who requested me
to attend a meeting of business men, which he had called to assemble in
his office at noon. The result of the meeting was the appointment of a
relief committee. Mr. Clark was made the Red Cross representative upon
this committee. The committee appointed Mr. J. D. Hawks, president of
the Detroit and Mackinac Railroad, its representative in the field and
requested me to return to the fire district with him to help organize and
direct the work of relief. It was arranged that we should start to Metz
that same evening.

[Illustration: ONLY BUILDING LEFT IN BOLTON.]

“In the afternoon, this being October 19, the Red Cross opened a large
downtown room for the reception of clothing intended for the fire
sufferers. Mrs. R. McD. Campau, an active and enthusiastic member of
the Red Cross, took charge of the supply depot and plenty of volunteers
joined her staff. The afternoon papers announced the arrangement
conspicuously and before night supplies began coming in. In a week so
much clothing had been received that the supply room was closed and the
public requested to send no more.

“In the fire district three relief stations were opened at Metz,
Posen and Alpena. The Alpena relief committee, which was extremely
active and efficient, had charge of the relief station in that city. A
committee of women managed the clothing distribution, while the men’s
committee handled other supplies, including hay for live stock. At
Posen the railroad company gave the use of its freight house for relief
headquarters. At Metz the railroad company placed freight cars upon a
siding for relief supplies. The company also gave the services of a
number of its capable officers for the work of relief. For example:
President Hawks, of the railroad company, not only gave substantially all
of his own time, but detailed the General Superintendent of the road,
the Chief Engineer, the District Passenger and Freight Agent, and other
men of proved ability. The railroad company also facilitated in every
possible way the shipment of supplies of all kinds and put into service a
daily relief train which transferred supplies as required from one relief
station to another, carried the relief workers back and forth, etc.

“As the climate of northern Michigan is severe, and winter was close at
hand, the providing of shelter was of immediate urgency. Mr. Waterman,
the chief engineer of the railroad, designed a ‘shack’ which could be
built quickly and cheaply and the work of housing the homeless, who
in the meantime were crowded with almost incredible congestion into
the homes of their more fortunate neighbors, began promptly and went
forward with the utmost speed. The ‘shack’ consisted of unplaned lumber,
long, upright boards forming the walls, rough boards forming the roof
and floor, and the entire exterior of the structure covered with tar
building paper. Each ‘shack’ was 14 by 16 feet and contained three small
rooms. About twenty carpenters were gathered up along the line of the
railroad and brought into the relief work. The plan of procedure was for
the farmer to receive the lumber, paper, windows, hardware, etc., for a
‘shack’ and haul it to his farm. Then one carpenter would be sent to the
place to direct operations and with the farmer and his neighbors helping,
the ‘shack’ would be quickly completed. If two or three ‘shacks’ were to
be in a group, one carpenter could supervise all at once.

“On October 29, exactly two weeks after the fire, thirty-eight ‘shacks’
were completed and occupied on the sites of burned homes and twenty-four
‘shacks’ going up. It was estimated that about 150 ‘shacks’ would have to
be provided by the relief committee and almost as many more for horses
and other domestic animals. These ‘shacks’ cost, complete, only $50 each.

“On October 24, Governor Warner announced the appointment of a State
Relief Commission. It was composed of seven men, including Mr. Emory W.
Clark as a representative of the Red Cross. It also included Mr. J. D.
Hawks, president of the Detroit and Mackinac railroad. The Commission met
on October 26, and elected Mr. Frank Buel, a prominent lumberman of Bay
City, chairman, and Mr. B. M. Wynkoop, manager of the Bay City Times,
secretary. The State Commission requested me to meet with it on October
30, and visit the fire district. This I did, and after a day with the
members, became satisfied that they were men of affairs and that they
had accepted appointment on the Commission for no purpose other than a
sincere desire to serve the State. At this meeting it was decided to take
over the relief work and put it upon a permanent basis with men in charge
who would be paid for their services, but continuing substantially
the same methods of administration then in use. As superintendent, the
Commission employed Mr. F. E. Merrill, who had had a responsible position
in the relief work from the beginning, and who was given leave of absence
by the railroad company for the purpose.

“From two sources should come help which will materially lighten the
burden of relief.

“First, from insurance. The total insurance upon the property burned was
$149,000. Of this amount $95,000 was upon village property and $54,000 on
farm property.

“Second, from the sale of lumber and from wages in lumbering operations.
The trees which were killed by the fire will produce good lumber if sawed
this winter, but if they remain longer they become almost valueless,
except for fuel. Thus in order to save their lumber, the farmers must
get their burned trees to the mill this winter. That will mean unusual
activity in the woods. Those who own timber will realize some income from
its sale and those who do not own timber will find employment with those
who do.

[Illustration: HUT CONSTRUCTED OF BLANKETS—ONLY SHELTER OF TWO WOMEN.]

“The total amount of relief funds collected in the various cities
could not be accurately ascertained up to the time of my departure
from Michigan, November 1, but was approximately $50,000, including
$5,000 given through the State Branch of the Red Cross. This, with the
contributions of provisions, clothing, lumber, etc., it is hoped will
be enough to carry the work through to completion. In the event that it
does not suffice to purchase seed grain for the farmers next spring, it
is believed a small additional fund may be obtained by an appeal to the
public, or perhaps through an appropriation by the State Legislature.”




REPORT OF FOREST FIRE RELIEF WORK

BY R. M. DYAR

Secretary, Michigan Red Cross Branch


                                                        November 11, 1908.

Referring to the work done by the Michigan Branch of the American
National Red Cross towards raising funds and the handling of
contributions for the fire sufferers in northern Michigan, I beg to
report results accomplished as follows:

Total amount of cash contributions received to date has been $4,432.
Regarding the handling of clothes, supplies, etc., I beg to give you
herewith a copy of the report presented by Mrs. R. McD. Campau, who had
charge of the receiving and forwarding of all supplies.

“From October 19th to and including October 26th, a ‘Relief Station’
was opened in the Owen Building, in a room donated for that purpose.
During that time many contributions of clothing, furniture and some money
were received. Many merchants contributed largely and also assisted
in collecting individual contributions, there being five hundred and
seventy requests by telephone to call for donations. It was impossible to
keep account of all these donations, as they came in in such quantities
and many had no names attached. Fifteen people worked every day during
the week from eight in the morning till five in the afternoon, opening
packages, sorting, packing, marking and shipping boxes. Each box was
marked with the contents. There being one hundred and sixteen in all,
a great deal of furniture and $210.75 sent from the Red Cross Relief
Station to the fire sufferers in northern Michigan.”

I can report that a sufficient amount of clothing and other household
articles has been forwarded to the district to provide for the needs
of all the fire sufferers, and with the money raised by the Citizens’
Committee of Detroit and other cities of the State, together with the
amount raised by the Michigan Branch of the Red Cross, sufficient food
and fodder for the cattle and horses can be provided to take care of all
requirements up to the middle of the winter. When the State Legislature
meets they will, no doubt, provide the extra funds that may be needed.




SOUTH CAROLINA FLOOD RELIEF

BY A. C. KAUFMAN

President of State Branch


About the end of last August, a flood more violent in its character than
any known to have visited these localities at any previous period, swept
down from the mountains of North Carolina, across the Piedmont section
of South Carolina, continuing with maddening rush along the Congaree,
Wateree and Pee Dee Rivers, overflowing vast tracts of fertile lands in
high cultivation. It laid waste completely these fruitful fields—garden
spots—smiling with luxuriant crops of cotton and corn, wrecking
comfortable homes of all their possessions—yes, their all indeed—the
property of a contented, happy and prosperous people.

[Illustration: COLUMBIA BRIDGE AT TIME OF FLOOD.]

[Illustration: CONGAREE RIVER—ISLAND SUBMERGED.]

As soon as the extent of the disaster reached me, I immediately notified
the authorities at Washington and at once came a reply order, by
wire, to issue an appeal for help. This appeal was promptly issued as
directed, and contributions began to come in. With that noble spirit so
characteristic of the present management of the Red Cross, recognizing
the fact that instant assistance was needed, a message flashed by wire
from Washington, to draw upon the National body for three hundred
dollars, reached us, at the right time, and was used with marked effect.
Following this quickly came a check from Honorable William H. Taft for
one hundred dollars, forwarded to him from a prominent lady in New York,
to be devoted to this purpose. On September 11th another Red Cross check
for three hundred dollars was sent, and on October 17th still another
for one hundred dollars. These added to a check for fifty dollars from
Honorable Robert C. Ogden, of New York, made eight hundred and fifty
dollars contributed from sources outside the State. Within the State
$675.41 are credited, and of this $260.00 were the gift of our colored
fellow-citizens. The total amount, therefore, which our Treasurer, John
B. Reeves, has had in bank for this fund, as shown by his books, is
$1,525.41, reduced by payments to different committees to $1,067.41.
Credit must also be given to those who have sent in large donations of
wearing apparel, bed clothing, etc. These have been carefully packed
by active lady friends and shipped by Mr. W. E. Renneker, agent of the
Atlantic Coast Line, free of cost for distribution among the most needy
sufferers.

Another act of your body which has won our encomium was to furnish,
at our request, an expert to visit the devastated sections and report
thereon. The lot most fortunately fell on Miss Janet E. Kemp, a lady of
culture, refinement and business experience. Her report will best tell
you of the pathetic scenes and incidents that she encountered on her
journey of investigation. Her visit partook of the nature of an angel of
mercy, and I was blessed in having such an assistant in the time of peril.

The following graphic sketch taken from _The News and Courier_,
of Charleston, and _The State_, of Columbia, two leading and most
influential newspapers, giving an account of the conditions in the
Congaree and Wateree districts, may prove interesting to your readers:


THE CONGAREE AND WATEREE SECTION.

“After spending Sunday and Monday,” says _The News and Courier_, in its
issue of September 23rd, “in Columbia, whither he had gone to institute,
as closely as possible, an investigation into the condition of the
flood sufferers, together with making provision to supply their present
necessities, as well as to plan for their relief during the winter
months, Mr. A. C. Kaufman, President of the South Carolina Branch, Red
Cross, returned to Charleston yesterday. ‘I had an opportunity,’ he
said to a reporter last night, ‘during my visit to consult with white
and colored men from the afflicted section of the Congaree and Wateree
Valley, both as to the extent of their losses and the extremity of their
condition. Theirs was, indeed, a harrowing story, enough to make the
heart bleed. Some of the sufferers are unable from childhood, age or
infirmity to labor in any shape or manner. The only kind of work most of
those, able to do anything, can do is to pick cotton in the fields. In
remuneration for this labor they receive 50 cents a hundred pounds for
the cotton which they gather. This will enable them to eke out existence
until the middle of November, and then will gaunt poverty haunt them,
labor of all kinds, to which they are adapted, being then at an end. Then
will come to them starvation and death unless the humane people of South
Carolina place in the hands of the Red Cross, working in co-operation
with the local committee of Richland County, the means to save their
lives.

“‘A committee composed of three citizens of Columbia of the highest
character in connection with sub-committees, to be selected by them, have
agreed to handle the matter.

“‘The following article from _The State_, of Columbia, will give a fuller
idea of the business-like manner in which the Red Cross and the committee
propose to handle the situation:’”

_The State_, of Tuesday, says:

Col. A. C. Kaufman, of Charleston, the representative of the Red Cross
Society in this section, came to Columbia Saturday night and spent Sunday
and yesterday in the city, going over the ground in connection with the
Richland flood sufferers.

As a direct result of this visit, a central committee has been formed
in Columbia, its members taking part upon the special request and
designation of Colonel Kaufman. This committee contains but three
members—Captain William E. Gonzales, Editor of _The State_, Chairman;
Mr. W. A. Clark, President of the Carolina National Bank, Treasurer, and
Mayor William S. Reamer, of Columbia.

The duties of this committee will be to designate sub-committees
throughout the entire flooded district in Richland to secure an accurate
census of those persons who need assistance, to estimate the cost of
relieving distress until another crop can be procured and to receive and
disburse funds.

Mr. Gonzales requests that all moneys be sent to Treasurer W. A. Clark,
and it is necessary for the business-like and just distribution of relief
that those who have undertaken to extend relief in this section shall
work with the central committee, and there shall be an accounting of all
funds to the central committee.

As matters now stand it is not likely that much relief will be needed
from this committee for the next two months. During that time the people
affected, or most of them, will be able to earn a living by picking
cotton on the highlands, but from about the middle of November until
the next oat crop (in May, 1909) can be harvested, scores and scores
of families will be absolutely dependent upon assistance, and it is
to prepare for that time of need that the central committee and the
sub-committees to be appointed will now work. Of course, every effort
will be made to get these people to help themselves. There will be
absolutely no encouragement to idleness or pauperism, but there is no use
attempting to conceal the fact that later on in the winter there will be
a real problem to solve in caring for the destitute.

Columbia and South Carolina, it is hoped, will be able to care for
these needy people. What they fail to do the Red Cross will be asked to
supplement. The central committee represents Columbia and will also act
as agent for the Red Cross.

This visit was made on September 20, 21 and 22.


THE PEE DEE SECTION.

The account of the conditions in the Pee Dee sections is equally
important:

On October 20th last I visited the City of Marion from which radiates the
principal business of the Pee Dee section. On my arrival I was met at
the depot by Mayor Miles, Associate Justice Woods, of the Supreme Court
of South Carolina; Congressman Ellerbee, and many other citizens of
prominence and distinction in South Carolina, and beyond her borders—an
evidence of their keen anxiety to put themselves in position to provide
relief for their unfortunate and crushed neighbors. Two meetings were
held that day—one in the morning, the other in the afternoon. The matter
was carefully discussed and weighed in every particular. Mayor Miles
presided at each meeting.

Hon. W. J. Montgomery, President of the Bank of Marion and Senator from
Marion County, spoke as follows:

“We are not so much concerned about the present, although there are some
serious cases we are forced to handle now. The problem most difficult
to solve, and which creates intense anxiety, is how these hundreds of
dependents, unable to find employment to which they can adapt themselves,
are to be fed during the coming winter. This can only be done with the
kind permission of the Red Cross, to draw upon our share of the fund,
which that worthy organization is endeavoring to swell through its urgent
appeals to the people of the whole State for money donations, added to
that furnished by local contributors.

“Another point,” said Mr. Montgomery, “which I wish to make plain: The
idea has gone abroad that the beneficiaries to this fund are only colored
people. This is a grave error. Many deserving white people, some of whom
were in comparatively easy circumstances previous to the flood, have
now become miserably reduced through this visitation of God. Help is
solicited for them because help is sorely needed. They ask bread; can we
give them a stone? We propose to care for the sufferers of both races.”

Mayor Miles also took a dismal view of the future unless help came. To
the Red Cross they look for it.

Mr. Davis, a large planter, spoke in a manly, yet pathetic vein. He
stated that his losses had been immense, but that to the best of
his ability he had been feeding from his scanty store his helpless,
distressed, starving neighbors, white and colored, in their fearful
poverty and want. He was willing, and intended to go as far as his
circumstances permitted, aye, to make sacrifices in this humanitarian
work. That is the spirit which pervades the neighborhood.

The Citizens’ Relief Committee, composed of their first citizens, has
the Honorable S. C. Miles, Mayor of Marion, as Chairman, and Mr. Albert
G. Woods, as Treasurer. In conclusion, the emergency may be thus summed
up: Our prospects are very discouraging. Money is superlatively required.
It must be had if human lives are to be saved. The final analysis of the
case reads thus: Food or starvation, life or death. Only with money can
the evil be averted. It would be unreasonable to expect more from the Red
Cross fund. Their provision has been bountiful. Our treasury, however,
needs replenishment. After help already rendered, there remains in our
treasury about $1,000. By January this amount will be materially reduced,
as the committees require aid without delay, and must have it. This small
sum is all we can count on to keep the wolf of hunger from the doors of
one thousand human beings for six months, during the winter, the most
trying season of the year. It does not take a skilled mathematician to
tell how far this will go. How long will this last? Echo answers “how
long?” Disasters of wider extent and affecting more people are on record.
Yet without an attempt at exaggeration, I affirm that never has any been
more severe.




REPORT OF INVESTIGATION IN FLOODED DISTRICTS OF SOUTH CAROLINA

BY JANET E. KEMP

Special Red Cross Representative


The itinerary, as outlined by Mr. Kaufman, was to include Columbia,
Florence and Marion; each of these cities being the center of districts
which were reported to have suffered severely during the recent disaster.


COLUMBIA.

Arriving in Columbia late Monday night, I was met by Mr. Baker, a
representative of _The State_, which is Columbia’s leading daily paper.
The city is situated in the Congaree Valley, at the junction of Saluda
and Broad rivers.

[Illustration: BROAD RIVER BRIDGE—TWO MILES ABOVE COLUMBIA.]

Columbia itself escaped with comparatively little injury; the city
extending at an elevation considerably above the flood level.

The power house of the street railway company and the city water works
situated near the river sustained considerable damage. The cotton
factories also located on low ground were obliged to suspend work for a
few days; the loss in wages said to be about $4,000.00.

Early next morning I had an interview with Captain William E. Gonzales,
editor of _The State_. Captain Gonzales estimated that there were about
two hundred destitute families in the flooded section between Columbia
and Kingsville. From information received later, I should think this is
probably an under-estimate.

The fertile “swamp” lands on each side of the river belong to a chain of
“plantations” extending from Columbia to Kingsville. On some of these the
owner lives, surrounded by his tenantry; others belong to non-resident
owners. Corn and cotton are the staple crops.

The destitution of which Captain Gonzales spoke exists mainly on those
plantations owned by non-residents who have no personal interest in
their tenantry; and among the negroes who are working their own land.
The flood sufferers living on land occupied by resident owners will not,
as a rule, need any outside aid, as their landlords, though themselves
very heavy losers, will provide for their pressing needs. The gravity of
the situation, even for those who are actually destitute, is mitigated
at present by the fact that for the next two months work will be
comparatively plentiful, in harvesting crops in sections untouched by the
calamity, and in repairing the damages occasioned by the flood.

Mr. C. B. Simmons, agent for a large plantation of 3,000 acres, drove
me out to see the conditions on his place, which are typical of those
on other places owned by non-residents. Mr. Simmons estimated that the
damage done to the crops would be about $12,000. There are 40 tenants on
the place, six of whom are white families. The crops are in many cases
practically a total loss; the whole year’s work has been swept away.
The only thing that will be realized will be a hay crop, which, under
favorable conditions, may be harvested before frost. Some of the men had
tried to get work in the phosphate mills near by, but without success.
The entire body of tenants gathered together by appointment to meet
Mr. Simmons, and each in turn gave detailed account of the loss he had
sustained.

Mr. Simmons said that the most direct and practical way to help these
people would be to provide them with seed-oats, which could be planted in
October, and would yield a crop early next June. About 700 bushels would
be needed for the 40 tenants on the place.

On Wednesday morning, September 9th, I went to Lykesland by train, a
distance of about nine miles from Columbia. Here I was met by Mr. William
Lykes, who drove me out to see the conditions in a little colony of negro
swamp farmers.

There was not much room for possible exaggeration in the stories we heard
here; the white line of mud in the branches of the trees, often 12 or 15
feet from the ground, indicated the height of the flood. Fallen chimneys
and wrecked buildings showed the violence of the current. The cotton was
ruined, fit only to be plowed under to fertilize next year’s crop. The
corn was rotting on its stalks. The poor little, unpainted, windowless
frame houses were unspeakably desolate; the walls marked to the very
eaves with white mud left by the receding waters, and everything within
the homes—bedding, clothes, furniture—wrecked and ruined, and saturated
with mud. Nearly all the live stock had perished. They showed us the
stockade on a small knoll, a little higher than the surrounding country,
into which they had driven all their animals. Here they had managed to
save most of their mules, but even at this elevation nearly all the
cattle had been drowned.

The largest land-holder in the colony, a very intelligent negro, with a
reputation for honesty and industry, had lost 16 acres of corn and 16 of
cotton, 6 head of cattle and 10 hogs.

A week before, when Mr. Lykes first visited the colony after the flood,
he found the people literally starving. At one house the hungry children
were trying to eat the rotten corn. He at once secured $50.00, through
Captain Gonzales, from the South Carolina branch of the Red Cross, with
which he purchased provisions and supplies to meet the immediate need.

The flood sufferers, who had at first seemed dazed by the calamity, were
now making efforts to rehabilitate themselves. Some were rebuilding their
chimneys and outbuildings; others had secured work; one man had gone to
work on a plantation five miles away, walking that distance twice daily;
the women and children had also begun to pick cotton on neighboring
plantations. The conditions on this little colony illustrated the
situation of the small land holder, who has no resources except the crop,
which he had hoped to harvest as the result of his year’s labor.

The flood also had seriously crippled the larger landowners, who could
ordinarily be looked to for the relief of their poorer neighbors. From
Mr. B. S. Rawls, who has a “general store” on the bluff road that
parallels the river between Columbia and Kingsville, we learned, that he
had lost 235 acres of his own crops, and would get practically no rent
from the 2,000 acres he had rented out. Worse than this he expected to be
“out” from $1,200 to $1,500 for supplies advanced to his tenants.


FLORENCE, S. C.

The next point visited was Florence, Florence County, 81 miles from
Columbia. Reports of heavy flood losses had come in from the Lynches
River section. A Relief Committee had been formed by the Honorable
Hartwell Ayer, editor of the Florence _Daily Times_ and a small sum of
money raised.

After conferring with the committee, I concluded that it would be
desirable for me to make some investigation of conditions for myself, and
went down to Cowards, which is located in the flooded district, 16 miles
from Florence. Here, at the recommendation of the committee, I called
upon Mr. Z. C. Lynch, who keeps a large general store and supplies the
needs of over 200 farmers in that vicinity.

Immediately after the flood Mr. Lynch had spent three days in riding
around through the section that had been flooded, noting carefully the
conditions of the crops, and talking with the farmers. He gave me a
positive assurance that he had not met a single case of destitution, and
that, as a rule, the loss in that section would not average more than
10% to 25% of the crop. After this frank statement from a man who is in
a far better position to get the exact truth than I could possibly be, I
decided to make no further investigation, but to await the report of Dr.
Hicks.

After spending two days in the flooded district, under circumstances
which enabled him to come into touch with representatives from every
point, Dr. Hicks returned with exactly the same report as that given by
Mr. Lynch. He said that while the losses had been heavy, and many people
were considerably crippled, there was no destitution and there was not
likely to be any that could not easily be met by local resources.


MARION, S. C.

Proceeding to Marion on Friday night, with the expectation of being able
to complete the investigation in another 24 hours, I found a situation
which made it imperative that I should spend two or three days in that
section.

A very active and interested Relief Committee, with Mayor S. T. Miles
as chairman, was fully alive to the needs of the situation, and had
succeeded in raising a fund of over $500.00, in addition to what had
been sent by the Red Cross. I learned from this committee that the
four townships of Marion County had been practically submerged. These
townships form a tongue of land lying between Big Peedee and Little
Peedee Rivers. During the flood the water of Big Peedee had risen and
flowed clear over the intervening strip of land until they met the water
of Little Peedee. A sandy ridge extending North and South through the
interior ordinarily forms the water shed between the two rivers, and, at
many points, the water had covered even this comparatively high land.

Arrangements were at once made for me to proceed to Eulonia, the home
of Mr. S. U. Davis, who was said to be more thoroughly familiar with
conditions in the flooded section than any one else.

After dinner Mr. Davis drove me through several miles of flooded country.
It was a matter of regret with him that I had not come a week earlier
when—nearly two weeks after the flood—the whole country was still under
water, and boats were the only available means of transit from point to
point. At that time most of the homes were vacant, and the occupants,
with their cattle and household effects, were camping out wherever they
were lucky enough to find a spot that was “high and dry.”

[Illustration: PEE DEE RIVER FLOOD.]

In a little two-room shanty, near Mr. Davis’ place, thirty-four people
found shelter at one time during the high water. One resourceful farmer,
when forced to move out of his home, which, though partially submerged,
was still the dryest spot on the farm, provided for his live stock by
tethering the cow to the cook-stove in the kitchen, and quartering his
five hogs on the bed. In another instance a couple, who were determined
to stay in their homes at all risks, themselves “camped out” on the bed,
and at meal times paddled over to the cook-stove on a hastily-constructed
raft.

That people who had suffered as these people had could still be
brave-hearted enough to dwell upon the humorous side of their tragedy,
shows that it is hard to drown out American “grit,” and the American
sense of humor. But the tragic side was ever present and needed no
emphasis. One woman, of whom Mr. Davis spoke, a widow with three small
children, had lost her entire crop. At the time of the flood she was
desperately ill, and, when rescued in a boat with the children, it was
feared that she would die as a result of the exposure. She was now,
however, recovering, but some provision would have to be made for her
until another crop could be raised. Throughout all this section there had
been comparatively little loss of household goods and effects, because
most of the people were warned in time to enable them to remove their
belongings to a place of safety.

We drove through acre after acre of rotten corn, and of cotton fit
only to be plowed under to fertilize the ground for next year’s crop.
Fences had been ruined and bridges swept away, and several times it was
necessary to make a wide detour, in order to find a safe crossing place.

One man with whom we talked, who, with his family, had just moved back
into their still damp house, said that he had nothing left, but a little
corn, a few chufas and a patch of cane. Every farm we visited in that
section was practically in the same condition.

The next day, Sunday, we started again at 10 A. M. over a road that
led down the sandy ridge that, for the most part, had not been covered
by the waters, though even here the lower points had been submerged.
Then turning eastward through the section marked on the map as the Low
Flat Lands, we left the beaten track and, for a long time, traveled
through alternating areas of partially submerged woodland, and sodden
savannahs—the South Carolinian term for meadow land. It was not easy to
follow the trail across the savannahs, and the drive through the woods
was even more difficult. As we lurched along through the water we never
knew at what moment the buggy might strike some submerged log or stump.

We took dinner at the home of Mr. Fontaine Davis, a planter and merchant
at the lower end of Britton’s Neck Township, who kindly volunteered to
take me on down into Woodberry Township, as far as we could go, while Mr.
S. U. Davis rested his horse ready for the return journey.

The country we drove through at the upper end of Woodberry Township had
suffered severely from the floods, and the crops were an almost total
loss. We went as far as the road was open until we struck a point, beyond
which all the bridges had been washed away. Woodberry Township forms a
peninsula between the two rivers already spoken of. Fortunately it is
very thinly settled, and most of the farmers have their homes on the
comparatively high land in the center of the township. Mr. Fontaine Davis
said that he had only heard of five families in the section below that
which we visited who had suffered to any serious extent.

We talked with an old man, who for 43 years had lived on his farm in
the upper part of Woodberry Township. “I ain’t never saw anything like
it before,” he said, “and I don’t know how to figure it out. The waters
was five feet higher than they was in the Sherman ‘fresh’ of ’65.” He
said that within a radius of three or four miles there were eight or ten
white families, and ten or twelve colored families: all of whom had lost
practically their entire crop. He, himself, had lost all of his corn,
most of cotton, and nearly all of his live stock.

Mr. Richardson, whom we next interviewed, a man who owned 80 acres of
land, 27 in corn, 35 in cotton, the rest in pasture, garden, etc., had
lost everything. The cotton had been an exceptionally good crop, and
would have made a bale to the acre at the market price of about $40.00
a bale; this alone meant a money loss of $1,400.00. The corn upon which
he depended for food for his family and stock was also gone, and, as he
put it, “I don’t know what we are going to do for something to eat this
winter.”

The next house we passed was a deserted little negro cabin whose wrecked
chimney bore witness of the violence of the flood. This had been the home
of an honest, hard-working colored man, who, with his family of five
children, lived on the little rented patch of about 20 acres. His nine
acres of corn would have fed his family and his animals. His seven acres
of cotton would have yielded about three bales, which would have given
him $120.00 as the cash proceeds of his year’s labor. With this he would
have paid off his store bill of $50.00; $20.00 would have gone for rent,
and after making a payment upon the horse he had just purchased, the
husbandman would have had a small cash balance to see him through to next
crop time. Now corn and cotton are both swept away; there is no money to
settle the store bill, nor pay for the horse, and there is no food for
the family to subsist on through the long winter months.

As nearly as could be estimated by those familiar with the local
conditions, there were fully 200 families in the lower end of Marion
County, renters and “lienors,” whose situation is about as hopeless as
that of the family just referred to. Many, who like Mr. Richardson,
owned more or less land, are in a position to obtain advances on their
holdings, and though seriously crippled, can probably weather the storm.
But for these other families, who are without such resources, some
adequate relief measures will have to be undertaken.

The attitude towards customers and tenants assumed by the merchants and
plantation owners bears high testimony to their generosity and public
spirit. It is taken for granted that no claim for rent will be made and,
as far as possible, credit will still be extended to the flood sufferers.
But it is too much to expect that these men can assume the whole of the
burden, for they have themselves suffered severely. Mr. Davis estimated
that in an area of several miles there was only one of the flood victims
who was not indebted to him for a larger or smaller amount. Some of these
debts would eventually be paid; many of them would never be recovered.
He said he had begun to figure out his losses, but they mounted up so
appallingly that he had stopped short before he was half way through. I
was told that he had advanced over $18,000.00 worth of fertilizer to the
farmers trading at one of his four stores. If this was true, it gives
some idea of the magnitude of his losses, and shows the impossibility of
expecting men, under such circumstances, to do all they would normally be
able to do for their poorer neighbors.


RELIEF MEASURES, COLUMBIA, S. C.

At the time of my visit to Columbia _The State_, in a paragraph
announcing that the agent of the Red Cross was in the city, stated that
Columbia would consider herself disgraced if she could not do all that
was needed for local flood sufferers, without further aid from the Red
Cross Association.

At the last census Columbia had over 21,000 inhabitants; its population
now numbers some 25,000 people. It is the State capital, and has
some thriving cotton mills. Taking Captain Gonzales’ estimate of 100
destitute families as being approximately correct, it would seem that
with employment easily obtainable in the fall and spring, it ought to be
possible for the people of Columbia and Richland County to undertake such
local relief measures as would make further outside aid unnecessary. The
dangers of creating a large relief fund, and extensively advertising its
existence, are very obvious, especially as most of the people affected
are negroes who would very readily accept a position of dependence.

Captain Gonzales told me that the securing of regular monthly
subscriptions towards the relief of cases of genuine need had been
suggested. This plan seems to be an admirable one, and would be less apt
to result in weakening any attempt at self help that might be made by the
flood sufferers. If properly and systematically managed, it would also
probably be adequate to meet the requirements of the case.


FLORENCE.

From the foregoing report of conditions in this section it will be
readily seen that no outside help is necessary at this point.


MARION AND MARION COUNTY.

The activity and interest displayed by the local Relief Committee
at Marion have already been noted. Probably one reason why they had
accomplished so much more than had been done at the other points was that
the situation in Marion County was apparently much more serious than in
either of the other places.

Immediately following the disaster wagon loads of supplies had been
promptly dispatched to the districts affected. The men to whom the
distribution of these supplies was entrusted told me that they hoped
nothing more would be sent at present. Indeed, Mr. S. U. Davis had asked
that a contribution of $200 that had been offered be placed in bank and
held for later distribution. He and Mr. F. Davis know personally every
family in that section and both urged that no more relief be sent at
present. Mr. F. Davis said that as long as the supplies lasted that
were sent to his store, the negroes collected around and refused to do
any work. When work was offered they said, “We all don’t have to pick
no cotton, do white folks am gwine to feed us.” He also told of a white
man who had $700 in bank but who, nevertheless, had sent his brother to
see if Mr. Davis did not have “something for him.” In this connection it
may be noticed that however poverty-stricken a colored family might be
nothing would induce any of the girls of the family to accept positions
as house-workers. Both Mr. S. U. Davis and Mr. F. Davis urged that
hereafter relief be sent direct to individual cases of distress, upon
their recommendation, after thorough investigation had proved that help
was necessary.

It might be thought that possibly these statements were colored by the
anti-negro bias with which the Southerner is usually credited, but though
fully alive to the weaknesses of the negro, everyone with whom I talked
manifested genuine sympathy with all cases of real distress, whether the
sufferers were white or colored. Everyone with whom I spoke agreed that
during October and November, while work was plentiful, all relief should
be withheld, except in the special cases alluded to above. After this
will come the winter months when work is scarce and there are few sources
of income except a little fur trapping, or odd jobs. Mr. Davis had
already written to a lumber company which has extensive timber holdings
throughout the lower part of the county suggesting that if they could
see their way clear to commence operations in that section at once the
opportunities for employment that this would offer would be a veritable
Godsend to the community. But, however favorable conditions may shape
themselves and however generous may be the local responses to the need
for help, it still would seem to be a certainty that outside assistance
will be needed for this section. The destruction has been so great—the
committee estimated that from 1,500 to 2,000 bales of cotton had been
destroyed within the flooded area—and the loss has fallen so heavily on
rich and poor alike, that it does not seem possible that the community
can grapple with the problem unaided.

All relief work has been done, so far, through local committees who are
thoroughly familiar with every detail of the circumstances of those
who need help and if this policy be maintained there is very little
possibility that any funds will be unwisely applied.

In conclusion, I should like to say a deeply appreciative word concerning
the kindness and courtesy of the Relief Committees in the three cities.
Though, during the investigation, I traveled over many miles of country,
in no case was it necessary to use Red Cross money in hiring livery
rigs, as all this was arranged for by the committees and individuals
interested. I would make special mention of the kindness of the committee
at Marion, who entertained me while I was in their city, and of the
courtesy of Mr. S. U. Davis, at whose home I was entertained and who
spent a day and a half in showing me the situation in Marion County,
placing at my disposal his invaluable and intimate knowledge of local
conditions. I also take great pleasure in expressing appreciation of
the active and energetic co-operation of the State President, Mr. A. C.
Kaufman, who arranged my itinerary and who, by letters of introduction,
paved the way for me in every city visited.

[Illustration: PEE DEE RIVER FLOOD.]




A SHORT SKETCH OF THE RUSSIAN RED CROSS

BY MR. J. DE THAL.


The first initiative to give private aid to the wounded on the
battlefield was taken in Russia in 1854, during the Crimean War, when
Grand Duchess Helen Pavlovina (a sister of Emperor Nicholas I) formed
a party of trained nurses, who, under the leadership of the afterwards
celebrated surgeon, Pirogoff, went to the war and cared for the wounded.

In 1867 was formed a Society for the care of the wounded and sick
warriors, which changed its name in 1876 and was then called the Russian
Red Cross Society. From its very start the Society was taken under the
august protectorate of the Empress Maria Alexandrovina, wife of Emperor
Alexander II, and many persons of the imperial family and prominent
statesmen became its members.

At the very first, lack of funds prevented the Society from the activity
along the broad lines which it desired. Not being able at the start to
found its own communities of nurses, with its own hospitals and surgical
clinics, the Society for a number of years had to place its nurses, for
the purpose of training, in the military, civil and municipal hospitals.
Only after the Turkish War in 1876-77, in which the immense utility of
the Society’s activity was proved, was its popularity assured. Thus the
number of communities of Red Cross nurses from 5 in 1878 rose to 99 in
1906. The total number of hospitals and clinics of the Red Cross at
present amount to 148. In 1906 the number of persons cared for in these
institutions was 1,294,547.

[Illustration: RUSSIAN RED CROSS DEPOT OF SUPPLIES.]

[Illustration: RED CROSS STATION.]

In 1868 the Russian Red Cross had 35 institutions of all kinds and in
1906, 920.

On the first of January, 1907, the Red Cross Society of Russia consisted
of the following institutions: 1 Chief Board of Administration; 8 Boards
of District Administration; 95 local Boards of Administration; 509 local
Red Cross Committees; 40 Committees of communities of Red Cross nurses;
60 communities of Red Cross nurses; 90 ambulatory clinics; 6 emergency
hospitals; 5 asylums for former Red Cross nurses; 1 asylum for invalids;
9 asylums for crippled soldiers; 1 asylum for soldiers’ widows; 3 asylums
and 3 sanitariums for children of disabled soldiers; 7 convalescent
houses; 1 maternity hospital.

[Illustration: RED CROSS HOSPITAL SHIP.]

Any person entering into a community as nurse is not obliged to take
any kind of oath, but gives only the promise to submit to a vigorous
discipline, to acquit him or herself conscientiously of all duties and
to nurse the sick carefully. The feminine personnel is divided into two
categories—sisters of charity and nurses for surgery.

The surgical nurses have to pass a three years’ course, the sister
of charity a one-and-a-half year’s course of studies, according to a
program established by the Chief Board of Administration. The courses
to be followed are theoretical and practical, which consist chiefly of
lectures at the sick bed, held mainly in the hospitals of the Red Cross,
and partially in military, municipal and private hospitals, according
to arrangements between these hospitals and the Red Cross. Having
finished the courses, the surgical nurses enter either the institutions
of the Red Cross or hospital institutions maintained by the government
or municipalities. The sisters of charity are delegated to the military
hospitals, which the Red Cross has undertaken to supply with nurses, to
other hospitals and to private nursery. In 1906 there were 3,819 of these
Red Cross sisters, and since 1875 there have been graduated 2,000 of the
higher class of trained surgical nurses.

The care for disabled soldiers after the war includes the furnishing of
means for cures at health resorts, as well as furnishing them with warm
clothes, artificial limbs, crutches, etc., or provides for their care in
asylums of the Society.

The asylums for invalids in 1906 received 737. Among other sums granted,
the Society paid in 1906, 10,940 roubles to the former defenders of
Sabastopol, during the Crimean War in 1854.

[Illustration: RED CROSS HOSPITAL TRAIN.]

In St. Petersburg the Society possesses six stations for help in
emergency cases, with twelve ambulances and sixteen attendants.

The Russian Red Cross Society has taken part in all wars and military
expeditions which have occurred since 1868.

During the Franco-Prussian war, the Russian Red Cross sent to Basel a
party of 30 surgeons and large quantities of supplies which were equally
distributed to the belligerents.

It sent a generous contribution to both parties during the Civil War in
Spain in 1873. In 1876 surgeons and nurses were sent for assistance in
the Turkish-Martemgian War, expending $42,000. During the Turkish-Servian
War it expended over $263,000 and sent 115 doctors, 4 pharmacists, 118
nurses, 41 medical students, 78 assistant surgeons, besides hospital
equipment for 200 beds.

At the time of the Russo-Turkish War in 1876, the Russian Red Cross
rendered wonderful service. Contributions flowed into its treasury, over
$8,000,000 was received and expended, and the gifts of supplies were
equally great.

During the war the Society transported on its ships and trains over
100,000 sick and wounded; 230,000 were cared for at the ports of
evacuation, and 18,000 severely wounded at the port. The Red Cross
institutions in Russia cared for 116,268 sick and wounded. In the
troubles of 1879-81 in Asia, the Red Cross expended $300,000. In 1885 in
helping the sick and wounded of both Servia and Bulgaria, expended about
$87,000. It assisted Japan in the Chinese-Japanese War of 1894.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF HOSPITAL TRAIN.]

In 1896, as the Italian Red Cross declined assistance, it expended
$75,000 for Abyssinia relief, and in 1899, as the United States
Government declined its offer of assistance, it gave aid to the Spanish
Red Gross for the veterans of the war. As England declined assistance,
it expended some $56,000 for the Boers in 1899. During the Boxer trouble
in China the Red Cross provided most valuable assistance at a cost of
over $600,000. Its greatest work was rendered during the late terrible
war with Japan, during which it expended over $15,000,000 in relief work,
providing hospital trains, ships, field and reserve hospitals, a large
medical nursery and administration personnel.




THE CHRISTMAS STAMP


[Illustration]

Late as the January BULLETIN is in going to press, it is not possible
to tell of the result of the Christmas Stamp sale. This must wait for
the April issue, but that the result promises to be remarkable is shown
by the fact that the wholesale orders received up to December 15th at
Red Cross Headquarters from the State Branches and Anti-Tuberculosis
Associations authorized by the Red Cross to sell these stamps aggregated
twenty-five millions and it has proved most difficult to have the stamps
printed rapidly enough to fill these orders. It was not possible when the
orders were pouring in at over a million a day to reply as rapidly as was
desired. Neither Red Cross Headquarters nor State Branches anticipated
any such remarkable demand. For the season of 1909 a new stamp will be
issued, for the design of which a prize will be offered. Regulations
governing the competition for this prize will be formulated and issued
later.

The Red Cross has received through the courtesy of Mr. Einar Holboll,
Postmaster of Centofte, Denmark, a copy of this year’s Danish Christmas
stamp. The coloring is dark blue with a yellow light shining through the
corridors of the Sanitarium for Tuberculosis Children, built by means of
the Danish Christmas stamps.

[Illustration: DANISH CHRISTMAS STAMP FOR 1908]


What Agnes Repplier Has to Say of the Red Cross Christmas Stamps

What does the Red Cross Christmas Stamp mean?

It means that you are asked to spend one cent more on every Christmas
present that you send.

It means that this tiny fraction of money, multiplied by thousands, will
yield a noble sum for the maintenance of a great work—open-air Day Camps
for the cure of Tuberculosis.

It means that by using the stamp, you express confidence in the work of
the Red Cross.

It means that you extend the circle of your friendship until it embraces
the friendless, and that your good-will reaches beyond the few whom you
love to the many whom you are bidden to love.

It means that the spirit of Christmas stirs in the heart of Christendom,
and that you respond to this spirit by linking your Christmas gifts with
the cause of the poor and the ill, with the work of wisdom and of mercy.


THE RED CROSS CHRISTMAS STAMP

BY E. S. MARTIN.

    Buy me every chance you get!
      Do you good? Just try me!
    Lick me light and stick me tight!
      Buy me! Buy me! Buy me!
    All good luck and Christmas cheer,
      All good will I carry,
    I’m your friend and—never fear—
      Truly sanitary.

    I’m the Red Cross Christmas Stamp,
      This that I propose is
    To summon wealth to fight for health
      And beat tuberculosis.
    Beat the greatest plague of all,
      Oust a pall of sadness,
    Treat despair with food and air,
      And lift it into gladness.

    Buy me! Buy me! I’m your friend.
      Help me win my battle!
    Help me bring a scourge to end,
      Men are more than cattle!
    Help me help the suffering!
      I’m their supplication
    Skill that’s brotherly shall bring
      Healing to the nation.


THE RED CROSS STAMP

BY IRVING SAYFORD.

    Who’ll pay a cent with a square intent?
      Red for their blood—and life is sweet;
    White for the gleam of their winding sheet;
      Green for their graves—and death, be fleet!
    Who’ll pay a cent for a chance to cheat
      The great white plague of its winding sheet?

    One stamp for a penny—you’ll take how many?
      Red’s for the glow of the Christmas cheer;
    White’s for the peace of the brand-new year;
      Green’s for the brow, not for the bier;
    Who’ll drop a penny instead of a tear
      To lessen the list in the brand-new year?


THE LITTLE CHRISTMAS STAMP

BY ARTHUR G. BURGOYNE.

(_Air: “Wearing of the Green.”_)

    Nowadays for letter-writing
      Here’s the popular receipt:
    First with chit-chat that’s inviting
      Coyer deftly ev’ry sheet.
    Seal it neatly and address it;
      Blot the superscription damp.
    Then don’t mail the note unless it
      Has a little Christmas Stamp.

    _Refrain_:

      Oh, the little Christmas Stamp!
      Oh, the cheery Christmas Stamp,
    With its message to the fireside and the workshop and the camp!
    Trav’ling over vale and mountain, over lake and plain and swamp,
    As a messenger of mercy goes the little Christmas Stamp.

    Postal bureaus are not able
      In their wisdom to invent
    Any brighter, fairer label
      On our letters to be sent.
    They may try a new creation,
      Or the old designs revamp,
    But the meanwhile the population
      Craves the little Christmas Stamp.

    Stamps of England show the florid
      Bearded visage of King Ed.
    Stamps from Egypt’s deserts torrid,
      Show the Sphynx’s grinning head.
    Other stamps show deer and fishes,
      Or a pictured urn or lamp,
    But the one that bears good wishes
      Is the little Christmas Stamp.

    Russia sports her eagles mighty
      On her postal guarantees;
    Spain depicts her monarch flighty,
      Germany her own main squeeze.
    Other pow’rs use landscapes charming,
      Which in narrow space they cramp,
    But the one design heart-warming
      Marks the little Christmas Stamp.

    Now this stamp won’t pay for transit
      On our own or other soil,
    But ’tis plain to him that scans it
      That it pays for Red Cross toil.
    And to keep the white plague under
      And upon that pest to tramp,
    Buy the latest postal wonder,
      Buy the little Christmas Stamp.




THE STORY OF THE RED CROSS

THE HARVEST OF DEATH


Throughout the entire action the Emperor Francis Joseph remained calm and
composed. Towards the evening the Austrian centre having yielded the left
wing, not daring to face the position of the Allies, a general retreat
was decided upon and the head of the House of Hapsburg, who throughout
the day had watched the bullets raining around him, withdrew with a part
of his staff in the direction of Volta. The Austrian officers had fought
like lions, many in their despair gave themselves up to death by the
enemy’s hands, but not without selling dearly their lives. Most of those
who returned to their regiments were covered with the blood of their own
wounds or those of their enemies.

The roads were filled with army wagons, carts and reserve artillery.
The first convoys of Austrian wounded, consisting of the less serious
cases, commenced to come into Villa-Franca, the more seriously wounded
followed. The Austrian medical staff dressed the wounds hastily and in a
perfunctory manner gave a little nourishment to the sufferers, and then
sent them on by rail to Verona, where the crowding was most fearful.
Although in the retreat the Austrian Army sought to carry away all the
wounded possible, and this at the price of much extra suffering to the
poor men, thousands were left behind lying on the ground, still drenched
with their blood.

[Illustration: VICTOR EMANUEL, KING OF SARDINIA, LATER KING OF ITALY.]

Towards the close of the day, when the twilight shadows were creeping
over this vast field of carnage, more than one French officer, more than
one French soldier wandered here and there, seeking some missing friend
or compatriot, beside whom, when found, he knelt endeavoring to restore
him to consciousness, to staunch the flow of blood, to dress the terrible
wounds, to bind his handkerchief around a fractured limb or to vainly
seek for water to quench the agonizing thirst. What silent tears must
have been shed on that unhappy night!

During the battle flying ambulances were stationed on farms, in
churches, convents, in the open air, or under the shade of the trees,
which received firstly wounded officers and non-commissioned officers,
attending to them in great haste, and afterwards came the rank and file
if the medical staff had time to spare for them. Such as could walk
betook themselves to the ambulances; others were carried on stretchers
and hand-barrows.

During the fight a pennant planted on a slight elevation marked the
position of the dressing stations for wounded and the field hospitals of
the regiments in action. But, unfortunately, the troops seldom knew their
own hospital pennants nor those of the enemy, with the result that shells
rained down, sparing neither doctors, attendants, wounded nor the wagons
conveying supplies of food and lint.

The heights extending from Castiglione to Volta were dotted with the
twinkling lights of thousands of fires fed with the debris of the
Austrian gun carriages, supplemented with the branches of trees broken
off by the cannon balls or during the storm. Round these fires the
soldiers made an effort to dry their soaking garments, then tired out
they stretched themselves on the stony ground to sleep.

There were whole battalions without a particle of food. Water, too, was
lacking and their thirst was so intense that soldiers and even officers
were content to drink from the muddy rain-pools, oft-times stained with
blood. Everywhere wounded men were crying piteously for “Water!” In
the silence of the night could be heard the groans, the stifled cries
of anguish, the despairing appeals for help. What pen can describe the
agonies of that horrible night!

The sun of June 25th, 1859, rose on one of the most frightful spectacles
that the most vivid imagination can conceive. The battlefield was strewn
with the bodies of men and horses, and with the battered forms of men
in whom the spark of life still remained, they filled up the roads,
they choked the trenches and the ravines, they lay piled in heaps in
the bushes and the fields, everywhere for miles around the village of
Solferino.

The crops were utterly destroyed, the corn was trodden under foot, hedges
were piled up, orchards ravaged. Here and there were pools of blood,
formerly prosperous villages, now deserted, bore the marks of shot and
shell; apparently deserted houses, whose walls were riddled with bullets,
stood shattered, gashed and ruined. Their inhabitants, who for the most
part had passed the twenty-four hours during which the conflict raged in
their cellars without food or light, now began to issue forth from their
hiding places, the vacant expression and blank countenances of these poor
peasants witnessing eloquently to the reality of the fright they had
endured.

The ground was covered with wreckage of all kinds, broken weapons,
accoutrements, camp furniture, and blood-stained articles of clothing.
The unfortunate wounded who lay around were pale, livid, and utterly
exhausted with their sufferings. Some, very badly wounded, had an
imbecile expression, seemed not to understand when spoken to, staring
with haggard eyes at those who brought them succor, and others in a
state of nervous excitement shivered with a convulsive ague. Yet others,
with deep, gaping wounds, in which inflammation had already set in, were
delirious from their pain, and implored that they might be put out of
their misery, and with drawn faces twisted themselves into indescribable
positions in their supreme agony. Besides these there were unfortunate
men, who had been struck by cannon balls and grape shot, or whose arms
and legs had been shattered by pieces of artillery.

In many cases the bodies of the dead and wounded were robbed by
marauders, and thousands of poor fellows, who still lived, were thus
despoiled of all their savings, to say nothing of the little trinkets,
the gifts of mothers, wives and sweethearts.

Besides these tragic scenes were many dramatic incidents witnessed by
Monsieur Dunant himself of which he tells; there an old officer on the
retired list, General Breton, wandering over the battlefield in search
of his wounded son-in-law; here Colonel Maleville, wounded at Casa-Nova
quietly breathing his last, Colonel Genlis with a terrible wound that
has produced a high fever, Lieutenant de Selve, just out of St. Cyr,
whose arm has been shot away; a poor sergeant-major, whose two arms have
been shattered, and of whom he writes: “I saw him again at a hospital at
Brescia, but he died in passing Mont Cenis.” Officer after officer gave
up his life because of wounds in which gangrene set in through lack of
attention.

The scarcity of water was acutely felt, for the burning summer sun had
dried up almost all the moisture. Wherever the smallest spring was found
sentries were placed, who, with fixed bayonets, guarded it for the need
of the most urgent cases.

Wounded horses, that had lost their riders, wandered pitiably about
through the night. Whenever opportunity afforded they were mercifully
shot.

Among the dead were some whose features bore a calm and serene
expression, these were those who had been killed outright. But those who
had not immediately succumbed had their faces drawn and distorted by the
agony they had endured, their hands clutched the ground, their haggard
eyes were wide open and their teeth clenched.

Three days and three nights were occupied in burying the dead on the
field of slaughter. Some few bodies, hidden in the thickets, were left
unburied, not having been discovered until a fearful stench polluted the
air. Terrible as it may seem it is highly probable that in this haste
some of the living were interred in the same common grave with the dead.

Monsieur Dunant takes us over this dreadful scene. Here is a youth, the
idol of his parents, carefully brought up and well educated, whose mother
all his life had watched his slightest illness; there lies a gallant
officer, beloved of his family, who has left a wife and little children
at home; over yonder is a young soldier, who so short a time ago said
farewell to all his dear ones. Behold them, stretched out stark and stiff
in the mud and dirt, and drenched with blood. Knocked on the head, the
face of one is absolutely unrecognizable; he has expired after cruel
sufferings and his body, black, swollen, hideous, is cast into a hastily
dug trench, and barely covered with a little earth. Hands and feet
protrude and on these the birds of prey presently descend. The bodies of
the Austrians in their capots besmeared with mud and their white tunics
dyed with crimson stains, were strewn by thousands on the hills and
valleys, and hovering above them were clouds of crows ready to feast upon
these victims of man’s insensate enmity. Poor mothers in Austria, Hungary
and Bohemia, how terrible your grief when first you learned of the death
of your dear sons in the enemy’s country without care or aid, without a
caressing hand or any words of consolation.




REPORT OF CHAIRMAN OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE


Fortunately, most of the emergencies arising during the year were not of
a magnitude very much greater than were easily met and suffering relieved
locally. In several cases, however, national relief was asked, and was
freely and very promptly rendered.

A brief summary of the principal events respecting catastrophies
occurring during the year resulting in losses of life, personal injuries,
destitution and destruction of property may be thus stated:


DECEMBER 2ND.

A mine explosion at Monongah, West Virginia, killed 359 men, who left
about 700 dependents. For many weeks the Red Cross had an agent there
assisting the local committee and studying and planning for the future of
the widows and children, this help being gratefully acknowledged by the
local committee.


APRIL 12TH.

The Chelsea fire occurred, when the homes of 18,000 of its population
were destroyed. Miss Loring, the Secretary of the Massachusetts Branch,
took charge of the department of supplies and distributed about 120,000
articles. The local relief committee asked, and secured, the services of
Mr. Bicknell, our National Director, to advise on the completion of the
relief operation.


APRIL 25TH.

A cyclone of great violence wrought extensive havoc in certain localities
in Mississippi and other Southern States. Major C. A. Devol, and later
Major Wendell L. Simpson, of the Army, both of whom had much experience
with the relief operations in San Francisco, were sent to the scene of
the disaster by the War Department and kindly offered to act for the
Red Cross. Needing $2,000.00 for immediate use, this sum was at once
telegraphed and his requisition for twelve trained nurses instantly
filled; this number soon after raised to eighteen and supplied by the
New York, Pennsylvania and District of Columbia Branches. Hospitals
were established, and the injured and helpless, both white and colored,
properly cared for. The local authorities expressed their grateful
acknowledgments for the assistance rendered, which being more promptly
available than was the government relief, was especially appreciated.


MAY 25TH.

A flood in the Trinity River, Texas, swept away many homes. Our Texas
Branch installed two emergency hospitals and secured locally the
necessary doctors and nurses to care for those requiring aid. This Branch
annually installs a hospital and tents at the State Fair Grounds. This
year 1,000 persons injured or taken suddenly ill were treated in this
emergency hospital.


JUNE 23RD.

Upon a telegraphic call from the U. S. Consul at Canton, $2,000 was
cabled to the local committee for use in relieving the distress caused
by flood in South China. Later a surplus balance of $34,000 in the hands
of the United States and British Consuls at Shanghai, pertaining to
the North China Famine Fund, which was partly derived from Red Cross
contributions made last year, was forwarded to South China for relief of
the sufferers from the June inundations.


AUGUST 5TH.

Fires in the Canadian forests wrought great distress to the inhabitants
whose homes were burned. The Red Cross made a contribution of $1,000 to
their aid and received the thanks of the authorities.

Floods in the Carolinas and Georgia swept away the homes and crops of
many. The Red Cross promptly responded to calls for help.

The San Francisco Home for the Aged, Infirm, Poor and Helpless Refugees,
built and equipped by the Relief Corporation of that City at an expense
of $377,000 was on August 5th, 1908, formally transferred to the City of
San Francisco. This institution is dedicated “TO THE NATIONAL RED CROSS
AND THE PEOPLE OF ALL NATIONALITIES WHO, BY THEIR GENEROSITY, RELIEVED
SUFFERING AFTER THE GREAT FIRE OF 1906.” It has a capacity for the
accommodation of 1,200 persons.


OCTOBER 1ST.

The Committee secured the services of an expert in relief work, who, in
the character of National Director, is able to proceed at once to the
scene of any disaster and concert with the local relief agencies those
measures which may be deemed requisite to meet the emergency conditions.
The lack of an agent to act for the Red Cross on such occasions has often
been felt. The Committee considered itself especially fortunate in having
been able to secure the services, as National Director, of Mr. Ernest P.
Bicknell, who for several years has been at the head of the charity work
in the city of Chicago.

Mr. Bicknell’s engagement dated from October 1st, and his initial work
was a visit to Minnesota and Michigan to carefully study the situation
in the territory devasted by forest fires. It is Mr. Bicknell’s belief
that the States and local agencies may be depended upon to render such
assistance as the conditions require.

The Central Committee has given much attention to a development of an
organization so as to better adapt it to the purposes for which the
Association was created.

The preparations required for the relief of suffering caused by war will
be generally confined to the elaboration by the War Relief Board of
plans for providing the requisite personnel, apparatus and supplies and
their application under the direction of military and naval authorities.
For emergency relief the instrumentalities of the Red Cross will
unfortunately be frequently called into activity, and we should be ready
instantly the catastrophe has occurred to have our agents on the spot
with the requisite personnel, supplies and resources to undertake the
emergency work which Congress has assigned to the Red Cross of America.

It is always the case that local, state and municipal authorities are
ready to either assume entire management of relief measures within
their jurisdiction, or to co-operate with those who bring help from
abroad. Sometimes the outside aid required is many times greater in
magnitude than the localities are able to provide. For two independent
relief agencies to operate for a common purpose at any scene of want
and suffering means duplication and waste and possible friction. It
is to avoid such situations that the Central Committee plans to elect
the stronger and more efficient charity organization societies as
institutional members for the purpose of securing their trained personnel
to take charge under the National Director of the necessary relief
measure combined.

In furtherance of this general idea of better efficiency, and to provide
an authorized official channel through which the aid of the philanthropic
and charitable may flow, and be so applied as to yield the maximum
benefit, the Committee has organized an emergency relief board of fifteen
persons to be appointed by the President of the Red Cross and empowered
to study, prepare for and supervise emergency relief throughout the
States of the Union and exterior possessions.

Carrying out this general idea of specializing in work of the Red Cross,
it is expedient to commit to a separate board the study, preparation for
and supervision of relief applied in foreign countries. The organization
of such a Board at an early date is contemplated.

It was found by experience that the By-Laws adopted on February 8, 1905,
require amendment in several important particulars. Accordingly the
necessary amendments were adopted at the annual meeting December 8th.

The general membership has been somewhat increased during the year. This
is largely due to the generous co-operation of several of our members
who contributed considerable amounts to a fund from which the expenses
of a propaganda were guaranteed. Large accessions, it was hoped, would
be secured by means of printed circulars and historical data generally
distributed. While the propaganda resulted in the accession of several
thousand new members, the net result of the efforts did not justify the
hopes that had been entertained of a very large increase in membership.
The cost of this work was paid from the fund created by the donors and
without any inroads upon the resources of the Association.

At the International Conference, held in London last year, it was agreed
that the Red Cross throughout the world should assist in the campaign
against what has been aptly called “The Great White Plague,” i. e.,
Tuberculosis. Several Day Camps have been established by our Branches and
are efficiently applying with most gratifying results the curative and
preventative means for combatting this disease that have been advised by
expert practitioners.

A Red Cross Christmas Stamp has been designed and will be sold during the
holidays at one cent each, the profits thereby secured to be applied in
aiding the tuberculosis campaign in localities where the stamps were sold.

A prominent military surgeon, who is a member of the Red Cross, has
prepared a handbook for the Association on First Aid to the Injured and
this book has been placed on sale. It is hoped that the Y. M. C. A. will
adopt this work as a text book, a wish there is reason to believe may
be realized and that every family in the country will be glad to have
one. At the request of a prominent railroad official, we are preparing,
for travelers and railroad employees, to be hung up in stations, a card
containing suggestions for preventatives and remedial measures in respect
to accidents.

Special instructions of relief columns have also been commenced. A plan
is being developed through which the Federation of Trained Nurses may
become affiliated with the Red Cross so as to provide qualified nurses as
may be needed in cases of calamity, epidemics, etc.

The evidence is overwhelmingly convincing that where a great disaster has
occurred contributions of the people are willingly and generously given
to relieve suffering, but unlike the people of some foreign countries,
our own do not seem to be as ready to join the Association in great
numbers and by their annual dues supply the means for maintaining our
organization in a constant state of readiness to respond instantly on
call for help. Fortunately, the ordinary general expenses of conducting
the business of the Association in Washington are small, since we have no
rent to pay and no salaries to pay, save to the National Director, the
Secretary and Treasurer, and for one or two clerks, but the stationery,
Quarterly Bulletin, printing, telegraphing and postal charges are
considerable. The annual revenues available for administration, derived
from the half of the yearly dues, are not sufficient to properly conduct
the work entrusted to the Association. The income from the Endowment
Fund is also small because the fund is small and to the increase of this
fund it seems to the Committee special effort should be directed.

Considering to what proportion the endowments of certain public
institutions and beneficent organizations have grown through donations
and legacies, it does not seem to be an unjustified expectation that the
Red Cross Endowment should certainly reach a million dollars, yielding at
least $40,000 a year, which sum, with other income, would be sufficient
and ample to meet all administrative expenses and leave a considerable
balance for application to emergency relief, before measures could be
matured for securing gifts from the general public directly appliable to
such relief.

With respect to this matter the Committee does not ask for enlarged
powers, since the Central Committee a year since took action looking
to the appointment of a Committee on Endowment, but for reasons all
appreciate the time was not deemed propitious for undertaking the
propaganda to this end, but members of the Board of Incorporators can,
in their individual capacities, do much to forward the interests of the
Association by their suggestion and personal influence.

The statement presented by the Treasurer will show the financial history
of the Corporation for the year 1908.




REPORT OF THE TREASURER

For the Fiscal Year Ended November 30, 1908.

BEEKMAN WINTHROP, _Treasurer_.


ENDOWMENT FUND.

    RECEIPTS.

    Balance December 1, 1907                                   $  2,516.25
    Contributions from:
        Mrs. Russell Sage                         $ 25,000.00
        Mr. F. A. Keep                               1,000.00
        Admiral Robley D. Evans                        400.00
        Miscellaneous                                  121.00
                                                  -----------    26,521.00

    Life membership dues:
        Through propaganda                        $    875.00
        Through Branches                             3,875.00
                                                  -----------     4,750.00

    Interest on investments:
        West Shore R. R. 4% 1st. Mortgage Bonds   $    720.00
        Lehigh Valley R. R. 4% 1st. Mortgage Bonds      40.00
        Provident Loan Society Certificates             54.17
        Bank Balances                                   82.83
                                                  -----------       847.00
                                                               -----------
            Total                                              $ 34,634.25

    DISBURSEMENTS.

    Invested in Provident Loan Society Certificates            $ 25,000.00
    Interest on investments and bank balances transferred
      to Administration Fund                                        847.00
                                                               -----------
            Total                                              $ 25,847.00
    Balance December 1, 1908                                      8,787.25
                                                               -----------
                                                               $ 34,634.25

NOTE—The Endowment Fund on December 1, 1908, is thus stated:

    Invested in $18,000, par value, 4% West Shore R. R. Bonds,
      cost                                                     $ 18,771.50
    Invested in $1,000, par value, 4% Lehigh Valley R. R.
      Bonds, cost                                                 1,000.00
    Invested in $25,000, par value, Provident Loan Society
      Certificates, cost                                         25,000.00
    Cash                                                          8,787.25
                                                               -----------
                                                               $ 53,558.75


GENERAL EMERGENCY FUND.

    RECEIPTS.

    Balance December 1, 1907                                       $ 52.04
    Contributions:
        *Mississippi Cyclone Relief                                 695.25
        *Georgia and South Carolina Flood Relief                  1,146.96
         Miscellaneous                                              241.17
    Repayments                                                    1,850.93
    Balance of Chinese Famine Fund (closed)                       5,047.53
    Balance of Russian Famine Fund (closed)                         862.43
    Balance of Monongah Relief Fund (closed)                          7.58
                                                               -----------
                                                               $  9,903.89

    DISBURSEMENTS.

    Mississippi Cyclone Relief                                 $  2,767.38
    South Carolina and Georgia Flood Relief                         942.05
    Chinese Flood Relief (Canton)                                 2,000.00
    Canadian Forest Fire Relief                                   1,000.00
    Michigan and Minnesota Forest Fire Relief                       300.00
                                                               -----------
            Total                                              $  7,009.43
    Balance December 1, 1908                                      2,894.46
                                                               -----------
                                                               $  9,903.89

* These contributions to special objects of relief are credited here
instead of to Special Emergency, because disbursements from General
Emergency Funds began before contributions were received. These
_emergencies_ were, therefore, treated as _general_ instead of _special_.


SPECIAL EMERGENCY FUND.

    RECEIPTS.

    Balance San Francisco Relief contributions                 $432,037.33
    Balance Chinese Famine Fund                                   5,046.78
    Balance Russian Famine Fund                                     862.43
    Balance interest accumulations                               46,841.90
    Contributions:
          Chinese Famine Fund                                          .75
          Calabrian Earthquake Fund                                 233.60
          Monongah Mines Fund                                     3,789.69
    Interest on bank balances, all special funds                 12,876.70
                                                                ----------
              Total                                            $521,689.18

    DISBURSEMENTS.

    San Francisco Relief                                       $199,835.00
    Calabrian Earthquake Relief                                     233.60
    Monongah Mines Relief                                         3,782.11
    By transfer to General Emergency Fund:
          Chinese Famine Relief Fund (closed)                     5,047.53
          Russian Famine Relief Fund (closed)                       862.43
          Monongah Mines Relief Fund (closed)                         7.58
                                                               -----------
              Total                                            $209,768.25
    Balance December 1, 1908                                    311,920.93
                                                               -----------
                                                               $521,689.18


ADMINISTRATION FUND.

    RECEIPTS.

    Balance December 1, 1907                                   $  4,651.53
    Membership dues:
          Proceeds special propaganda—Life       $  875.00
          Proceeds special propaganda—Annual      3,530.87
                                                 ---------
                                                                  4,405.87
          Remitted by Branches                                    3,590.55
    Interest on investments of Endowment Fund                       847.00
    Repayments                                                        1.43
    Donations                                                     1,350.00
    Proceeds, sale of Christmas Stamps                            1,627.95
    Proceeds, sale of badges, text-books, etc.                       57.95
                                                               -----------
              Total                                            $ 16,532.28

    DISBURSEMENTS.

    Salaries                                                   $  2,979.08
    Clerical services                                               382.75
    Traveling expenses                                               72.57
    Publication of BULLETIN (part)                                1,936.36
    Printing and stationery                                         554.05
    Postage and minor office expenses                               450.00
    Telephone service                                                65.36
    Telegraph service                                                85.84
    Badges, text-books, etc.                                        105.00
    Refundments                                                     116.73
    Transfer to “Guarantee Fund,” for special propaganda          2,500.00
    Life dues received through special propaganda,
      transferred to Endowment Fund                                 875.00
                                                               -----------
              Total                                            $ 10,122.74
    Balance December 1, 1908                                      6,409.54
                                                               -----------
                                                               $ 16,532.28




FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE RED CROSS


Preceding the annual meeting a meeting of the Central Committee was held
and the proposed revision of the by-laws discussed. The Committee voted
unanimously in favor of the revision.

The morning session of the Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Red
Cross was held on Tuesday, December 8th, at the Hubbard Memorial Hall. It
was presided over by the Chairman of the Central Committee, Major General
George W. Davis. At this meeting reports were read from the Branches, the
subject of the Christmas stamp was taken up and an interesting address on
the Assistance of the Press was made by Mr. Leigh Mitchell Hodges, of the
Philadelphia _North American_. The revision of the by-laws was informally
discussed. The officers, incorporators and branch delegates were kindly
entertained at luncheon by the First Assistant Secretary of State and
Mrs. Bacon.

Hon. William H. Taft, President of the American Red Cross, presided at
the regular session in the afternoon. Besides the reports that are given
elsewhere the most important work of the session was the adoption with
a few minor changes of the revised by-laws as presented by the Central
Committee. The report of the officers and those on Red Cross work are
somewhat long so that the publication of the new by-laws will be given
in the April BULLETIN, but any one desiring a copy will receive one on
application to Red Cross Headquarters.

Mr. Taft, greatly to the satisfaction of the Society, consented to be
re-elected President, and Mr. Robert W. De Forest, of New York, was
elected to the newly-created office of Vice-President. Mr. Ernest P.
Bicknell was appointed October 1st, National Director, and the other
officers were all re-elected. To fill four vacancies among the Charter
Members, John M. Glenn, Henry Stockbridge, Robert W. De Forest and
Mrs. Douglas Robinson were elected. The two new members of the Central
Committee elected were: Hon. H. Kirke Porter and Mr. John M. Glenn.
Mr. John C. Pegram and Miss Mabel T. Boardman were re-elected on this
Committee.

As the new by-laws provided that those who have rendered specially
meritorious or distinguished service to the association and have been
approved for such distinction by two-thirds vote of the members present
at any annual meeting shall become honorary members, three names for
this honorary membership were proposed, President Roosevelt being at
that time the only honorary member of the Society. Those proposed were
the Honorable William H. Taft, who since the re-organization of the
American Red Cross has been its President and who has always, in spite
of being a very busy man, has given his time and assistance to the Red
Cross to its great advantage, was the first name proposed. Because of
the work she did during the Civil War in the Sanitary Commission, that
precursor of the Red Cross, and because of her generous aid in the way
of a large contribution to the Endowment Fund of the American Red Cross
Mrs. Russell Sage’s was the second name proposed. Dr. Louis Klopsch,
Editor of the _Christian Herald_, during the great famines in Japan and
China, raised very large funds for the purposes of relief, amounting to
considerably over half a million of dollars, besides collecting moneys
for the purchase of food supplies which were forwarded to China, and who
sent these generous contributions through the American Red Cross, was
the third person proposed for honorary membership in the American Red
Cross. Mr. Taft on the proposal of his name made the request that it be
withdrawn, as he had consented to stand for re-election as President of
the Red Cross, and preferred to consider himself still an active, rather
than an honorary member. At this request his name was withdrawn and Mrs.
Sage and Dr. Klopsch were unanimously elected honorary members of the
American Red Cross.

It was also unanimously voted to present special medals for the rendering
of important and unremunerated volunteer services to the Red Cross to
Dr. Edward T. Devine, Mr. Ernest P. Bicknell and Mr. F. W. Dohrmann for
their services at San Francisco, in 1906, and to Major C. A. Devol, U.
S. A., and to Major Wendell L. Simpson, U. S. A., for their services at
Hattiesburg, in 1908.

In the evening a reception was given by Miss Boardman, at which the
members met the President of the Red Cross and Mrs. Taft.




RED CROSS ENDOWMENT FUND


    Balance on hand, December 1st, 1907         $21,516.00
    Life memberships, 1908                        4,750.00
    Contributions to December 1st, 1908.
        Mrs. Russell Sage, contribution          25,000.00
        Mr. F. A. Keep, contribution              1,000.00
        Admiral Robley D. Evans                     400.00
        Miscellaneous                               120.00
                                                 ---------
            Total December 1st, 1908            $52,786.00
    Contributions since December 1st, 1908.
        Mr. Joseph Rathborne                    $ 1,000.00

In connection with Admiral Evans’ generous contribution the following
letter from the Victor Talking Machine Company is of interest:

“Admiral Evans has lately made for this Company a record of his farewell
address to the men of the United States Navy upon the occasion of his
leaving the fleet in San Francisco. We are sending to you in Admiral
Evans’ name, our check for $400, which he wished you to use for the
benefit of the Red Cross Society, in any way you may deem best.”




RED CROSS FIRST-AID TEXT-BOOK

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS


The Red Cross Society is becoming more and more practical, and is getting
closer and closer to the everyday life of the people. In the past it has
been distinguished by affording relief in times of great calamities,
famines, epidemics, floods, fires and plagues, but, as the organization
spreads throughout the country and becomes localized its merciful
missions reach the thresholds of the schoolhouse and the home. It is now
circulating a little pocket edition of “The American National Red Cross
Text Book; a Manual of Instruction; How to Prevent Accidents, and What to
Do for Injuries and Emergencies.” It was prepared by Major Charles Lynch
of the medical corps of the United States Army, who distinguished himself
as medical attache with the Japanese Army during the late war with Russia
and has recently been detailed to make a special study of possibilities
of Red Cross aid to armies in time of war.

The book is published for the Red Cross Society, and is being circulated
from the headquarters in the War Department with the hearty indorsement
of Judge Taft, who was president of the Red Cross Society long before
he was elected President of the United States. Brigadier General R.
M. O’Reilly, surgeon general of the United States Army, writes the
preface, in which he explains the necessity and the usefulness of the
booklet, which, he says, “will serve to fill a place of its own in the
ever-increasing movement for the relief of human suffering.”

“Notwithstanding the many excellent works already in existence on
first aid instruction,” continues Surgeon General O’Reilly, “none of
the writers so far as I know, have given much thought to teaching the
prevention of accidents. While this subject is necessarily treated rather
briefly here, at least enough is said to call attention to the importance
of prevention as contrasted with cure, and, for this reason, it seems to
me peculiarly appropriate that this book should have the indorsement of
the Red Cross, as the beneficent mission of that association, like that
of the good physician in treating disease, should be to go deeply into
causes which are responsible for the physical sufferings of humanity,
rather than resort solely to palliative measures.

“Another novelty in the present manual is that it treats not only of
first aid as given by the individual but also of relief columns, bodies
designed to administer first aid as organizations. Army conditions
emphasize the necessity for the creation of organizations in order that
first aid may be given with maximum efficiency. And there are many
situations in civil life, such as vast concourses of people, great
fires, railroad disasters, which equally demand first aid organizations
instead of individuals, who, however well taught they may be, must, under
such circumstances, work at cross purposes, unless they are united into
a disciplined body in which the special duties of each are carefully
defined.”

Gen. O’Reilly might have added something about the importance of the
little book for the household, for it seems to contain directions
for every possible accident that may occur to human creatures from
concussion of the brain to chilblains. There ought to be a copy on every
farm and ranch, in every factory and workshop, on every football field
and in every gymnasium. There ought to be a copy in every automobile.
Every railway conductor and brakeman should be required to carry it
in his pocket, for it tells him what to do in every kind of accident.
Organizations seek such books for the instruction and guidance of their
members, but they must be brought to the attention of households, where,
I think, this will be most useful in preventing as well as relieving
the little accidents that occur daily and the little afflictions that
children and grown people suffer. These are often thought to be so
insignificant that no attention is paid to them, like mosquito bites,
stings of insects, injuries to the eyes, poisons from ivy, burns and
scalds, wounds from fish hooks or shotguns, and Dr. Lynch has explained
what to do under every circumstance and condition.

The Red Cross book should be used as a text-book in schools, for it is
full of practical physiology, and children can be trained to render
effective first aid to each other. The ordinary text-books on physiology
are doubtless full of important information, but as a rule they are too
theoretical to be applied to ordinary everyday accidents.

A copy of Dr. Lynch’s book has been placed by the District Red Cross
Society in every police station and engine-house in Washington. The
Cleveland society has done the same, and it would seem that every city in
the country might follow these examples with profit. The Red Cross relief
column at the time of the inauguration will be supplied with copies.
The book is compact and small, with flexible covers, so that it can be
carried in the pocket.




FIRST AID INSTRUCTIONS TO MERCHANT MARINE

BY FIRST LIEUTENANT C. H. RICHARDSON, M. R. C. & U. S. A.


Section 118 of the latest edition of the U. S. Navigation Laws, enacted
June 7th, 1872, amended by Revised statute 4569 of June 26th, 1884, and
June 19th, 1896, reads as follows:

“Every vessel belonging to a citizen of the United States bound from a
port in the United States to any foreign port, or being of the burden of
seventy-five tons or upwards, and bound from a port of the Atlantic to
a port on the Pacific, or vice versa, shall be provided with a chest of
medicines.” ... The rest of the section relates to the use of lime or
lemon juice.

No mention, it will be seen, is made of what this “medicine chest” shall
contain nor whether there shall be any one on board capable of using its
contents.

Naturally there could be no uniformity in the equipment of these chests
for the law, not being explicit, left the matter entirely to the ship
owners who could use their judgment as to the requirements of their own
vessels.

Besides, in questioning several sea-going officers, I find that there is
no book on First Aid which is generally accepted as being a necessary
part of the chest’s contents. Many of them have only a book published in
1877, called “Ritter’s Manual,” the first edition of which was issued
some forty years before. The U. S. Public Health and Marine Hospital
Service published an excellent book in 1900, called the “Hand Book for
the Ship’s Medicine Chest,” but there is no law requiring its adoption by
ship’s owners and it is, judging from the opinions expressed by several
men with whom I spoke on the subject, considered too technical for the
average ship officers.

Many of the vessels sailing out of San Francisco provide themselves with
chests arranged by a prominent druggist of this city, and they contain a
small book, which he has published; it is to be expected that the special
preparations which he supplies are particularly dwelt upon.

While considering the subject, especially in regards to the needs of a
proper book on First Aid, I was impressed with the fact that whatever
book was adopted would be of service only to the degree that its contents
were understood and appreciated by those using it.

I therefore called upon the Secretaries of the “Masters, Mates and Pilots
Association” and the “Sailors Union,” of this city, and presented to them
for the consideration of their respective organizations, a plan whereby
a regular course of lectures bearing on First Aid and kindred subjects
should be given weekly to their members.

These gentlemen received me very cordially and I can best express their
opinions by submitting the letters they sent me which are quoted in full:

                     California Harbor, No. 15, San Francisco, Cal.,
                                                   Nov. 17th, 1908.

    Lt. G. H. Richardson, M. R. C., U. S. Army, Post Hospital,
    Presidio.

    Dear Doctor:

    After your talk last evening to the members of California
    Harbor, No. 15, it was decided to at once begin the course of
    lectures on First Aid as suggested by you. It seems a good idea
    that the National Red Cross should take up this matter for it
    will insure uniformity of instruction to those interested all
    over this country.

    The need of such a course of instruction has been apparent for
    some time, but no one seemed to be able to devise a plan which
    was practical.

    If convenient to you, would like to have the first lecture on
    Thursday evening, December 3rd, 1908, at 7:30 p. m., at our
    lodge rooms.

    I shall communicate with Golden Gate Harbor, No. 40, of this
    city, and invite them to be present.

    Thanking you for your kind interest in us and wishing you
    success in your work, I am.

                             Respectfully,

                                         (Signed) J. WALTER JOHNSON,
                                                  Secretary.

                               Sailors Union of the Pacific,
                               San Francisco, Cal., Nov. 17th, 1908.

    Dr. G. H. Richardson, Lieutenant U. S. A., Presidio Hospital,
    City.

    Dear Sir:

    The kind offer of the California State Branch, of the American
    National Red Cross Society, made through you, to arrange for
    a course of lectures to members of this organization on First
    Aid to Injured, etc., has been submitted to the Union, which
    accepts same, with thanks; has placed its hall at your disposal
    any night of the week, excepting Mondays, and has pledged
    itself to co-operate with you in any way it can, particularly
    in the matter of securing large and regular attendance at the
    lectures.

    If knowledge on the subjects to be discussed is desirable in
    people on shore, I should say it is a necessity to the men
    who go to sea. Seamen have had to endure untold suffering,
    and many of them have lost their lives, or worse still, have
    become disabled for life, owing to ignorance of the very first
    principles of First Aid. By law the vessels are required to
    carry a medicine chest, but in the majority of cases not a
    single man in the ship’s company knows anything about the
    properties of the medicine.

    The proposed lectures will be a blessing to the sea-faring men.

    If you will kindly let me know in advance when you propose to
    open the course, I shall do what I can to advertise it.

                             Respectfully,

                                                (Signed) E. ELLISON,
                                                         Secretary.

It seems to me that the national character of the American National Red
Cross makes it pre-eminently the best organization for doing this work
and to establish it in all cities where a Merchant Marine exists.

These lectures have been arranged for and the first of the series will be
given on December 3rd, 1908.




THE RED CROSS AND ESPERANTO

BY MAJOR P. F. STRAUB, U. S. A.

Medical Corps


_Major Straub was the official delegate of the War Department at the
Esperanto Congress held at Dresden, Germany, in August last. The
following extract is taken from his report to the Adjutant-General, U. S.
A.:_—EDITOR.

From a military point of view, the most important application of
Esperanto at this time would appear to be in the sanitary service, and
I am of the opinion that the Government would be justified in giving
it official countenance. It is suggested that a beginning be made by
introducing it into the National Red Cross Association, where at first it
might be added as an elective study in the course of instruction for the
Red Cross columns that are now being organized, and it would appear that
a two-fold purpose would be served thereby, in that, the language might
become of great practical use in time of war and that it would help to
hold the columns together by an additional bond of mutual interest. The
officers of the European Red Cross organizations, especially those of
France and Germany, have taken an active interest in the propaganda, and
many high officials of their organizations were present at the congress.
An exhibition was also given by a Dresden Red Cross column, in which all
of the exercises were conducted in Esperanto.

Many efforts have been made in former years to introduce a series of
manuals for the sanitary personnel of the military establishments to
facilitate communication with sick and wounded prisoners of war, but
such efforts were unsuccessful, largely on account of the difficulty of
learning the proper pronunciation of foreign tongues. This objection
cannot apply to Esperanto, as there is no difficulty whatever in this
respect, and it is quite easy to understand it whether spoken by Russian,
German, Turk, Japanese, or American. Lieutenant Bayol, an officer of
the French army, has prepared a set of small pamphlets which give
the questions that would be asked by the nurse and patient and their
appropriate answers, in French, German, Italian or English, and in a
parallel column the corresponding Esperanto.

Recommendation: In view of the extensive use already made of Esperanto in
foreign Red Cross organization, it is recommended that it be brought to
the attention of our National Red Cross organization, so that it may be
included as an elective study in the course of instruction for Red Cross
columns.

Second Indorsement. War Department, Office of the Surgeon General, Oct.
24, 1908. Respectfully returned to The Adjutant General of the Army. The
study of Esperanto in the military service should be encouraged as it is
believed that the proposed international language is destined to play an
important role in international intercourse. It is recommended that the
attention of the American National Red Cross Association be called to the
subject, and that authority be given to furnish it a copy of this report.

                                 R. M. O’REILLY, Surgeon General, U. S. A.

Fourth Indorsement. War Department, The Adjutant-General’s Office,
Washington, November 17, 1908. Respectfully returned to the
Surgeon-General, approved by the Secretary of War as recommended in the
second indorsement. The return of this paper is desired. By order of the
Secretary of War.

                                        HENRY P. McCAIN, Adjutant-General.




NOTES


EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

On Saturday, December 12th, there was a telegraphic report that a hundred
men had been killed by a dynamite explosion at Panama. Mr. Taft, being
at that time in Washington, on his suggestion an inquiry as to the need
of assistance was sent to Colonel Goethals. Fortunately the report was
exaggerated and as will be seen by the following dispatches, aid was not
required.

    Col. Goethals, Chairman Panama Canal Commission, Panama.

    Deeply concerned to hear of accident. The Red Cross Society
    expresses much sympathy, and is prepared to furnish financial
    assistance for relief if you deem it necessary. Answer.

                                                               TAFT.

To which Col. Goethals replied:

    We greatly appreciate your kind message and offer of the
    Red Cross Society. No financial assistance necessary, and
    Commission hospitals fully equipped to care for wounded.

                                                           GOETHALS.

Bailey, Banks & Biddle, of Philadelphia, who have provided the insignia
badge for Red Cross officers, have been asked to prepare a design for
special medals to be awarded to those persons who have rendered special
volunteer and unremunerated services to the Red Cross at times of war or
disaster.

The Executive Committee are much indebted to the help that the American
Hospital Association has rendered to the American Red Cross in its
efforts to suppress the misuse of the Red Cross insignia by the passing
of resolutions against the use of this emblem by civil hospitals at the
annual convention held at Toronto, during last September. Dr. Babcock,
the Secretary, writes that the proceedings leading up to the adoption
of the resolutions will be published in the _Transactions_ and also in
_The National Hospital Record_. So many hospitals have been using the Red
Cross on tags for sale on “Tag Day” that it is a satisfaction to report
that in San Francisco the officers of The Children’s Hospital, at the
request of the California Red Cross, consented not to use the Red Cross,
but to substitute in its place the Hospital or Green Cross on the tags
and thereby earned a rich and well-deserved harvest. The resolutions
passed by the American Hospital Association reads as follows:

WHEREAS, by the terms of the Treaty of Geneva, 1864, and the revised
Treaty of Geneva, 1906, the emblem of the Greek Red Cross on a white
ground, and the words Red Cross or Geneva Cross, were adopted to
designate the personnel and material of the medical departments of the
military and naval forces and of the recognized volunteer aid societies
in time of war, for the humane purpose of rendering them immune from
attack or capture; and,

WHEREAS, the United States, as well as all other civilized powers, is a
signatory to said treaties; and,

WHEREAS, the use of the Red Cross insignia by hospitals, ambulances,
municipal health departments and commercial houses, as trade marks and
otherwise, has become so general in this country as to materially and
seriously impair the usefulness of the emblem for the purposes for which
it was created and adopted;

_Be it therefore Resolved_, That it is the sense of the American Hospital
Association that the use of the Geneva Red Cross in connection with
the hospitals and ambulances of the country, other than those of the
Army, Navy and Red Cross Society, should be discontinued and some other
insignia, to be known as the “Hospital Cross” adopted and substituted;
and,

_Be it further Resolved_, That the adoption of this resolution be given
as wide publicity as practicable in the medical journals of the country.


CALIFORNIA.

At the annual meeting of the California Red Cross, resolutions of
congratulations on his election as President of the United States were
passed and telegraphed to the Hon. William H. Taft, President of the
American Red Cross. Dr. G. H. Richardson, of the Army Medical Service,
spoke of the purpose of organizing in the Branch Relief Columns or a
California Legion of these columns. He said in part:

“Let us at all times be prepared for the work that the Red Cross must do,
either in time of war, or during the periods of peace. The purpose of
the Red Cross is more far reaching than the general public have any idea
of, and we must have a trained body of men in readiness at all times. We
have had wars, and they have found us only partly prepared. The disasters
throughout the country and the delays that have ensued would not have
occurred if we had had a trained force of men to take the field at once.
We should have our nurses where they can be reached at any moment, no
matter what the call for their services may be.

“Let us have an instructed body which will be able to cope with anything
that may arise.”

Report of formation of detachments of the Grand Legion of the Red Cross
in California. (Revised to Dec. 1st.)

The State Field Agent of the California Branch, working in connection
with Dr. W. S. Thorne, the Medical Director of the Legion, and assisted
by the Secretary of the Legion, has begun his official work of Legion
formation. Although the work has been begun without a Board of
Administrative Affairs that body will be formed immediately and what has
been accomplished submitted to its authority and approval. It is believed
this work will strengthen reflexly the California Branch, which has
languished somewhat for want of something to do.

The work has been undertaken in the universal, international, and
creedless spirit of the Red Cross. The organizations already in line
and to whom lectures will be given the first week in December are the
Sailors Union, the Masters, Mates and Pilots, the Columbia Park Boy’s
Club, and the two (!) Chinese detachments of the Chinese Native Sons. The
detachments in process of formation are the California Grays, the Young
Men’s Hebrew Institute, the Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Association, the
First Unitarian Church young men and the Emporium, a large department
store. The League of the Cross, an efficient Roman Catholic semi-military
society, is also forming a detachment in place of its hospital corps.

The First Aid and Relief Column is popular with Jew and Gentile, Buddhist
and Confucian, Catholic and Protestant. Truly we have an International
Red Cross in miniature in San Francisco. It broadens and enlarges one’s
humanity to talk to them.

At one time it is the bluff, dominating toiler of the sea, jealous of
his authority even over his medicine chest, which in inexperienced hands
ignorant of First Aid, is a dangerous expedient at best. Often not a
single man in the ship’s company knows the properties of the medicines.
In England every master, mate and second mate must pass in First Aid
before he gets his license.

At another it is the Chinese Native Son’s silent, dignified, slow to
smile, yet courteous, listening to the interpreter with unfathomable
receptivity.

Again the Japanese, restless, inquiring, keen, proud of Nippon, eager,
even greedy to learn.

Then the Jewish young man, reliable, loyal to liberty, patriotic as the
Spanish-American war proved. The Labor Unions are interested, and we
believe the idea will prove rational in the Police and Fire Department
and public schools.

Much educational propaganda is needed. There is much potential sympathy
which needs only to be cultivated. The Legion will naturally in time
become interested in great health movements through its lectures and by
its co-ordinated strength really become a force for national health.

                         Respectfully submitted,

                                     WM. LATHROP McCLURE,
                   Secretary Grand Legion of Red Cross, California Branch.


DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

At the annual meeting of the District Branch, Mr. Ernest P. Bicknell,
the National Director, spoke on the Michigan Forest Fire Relief, and Dr.
P. G. Smith on the Washington Red Cross Day Camp. An appropriation was
voted to provide a copy of the Red Cross Text Book on First Aid to each
fire and police station in the city of Washington. Plans were discussed
in regard to the organizing and training of Red Cross Relief Column of
young men, who at the time of public functions will go on active duty.
This column would at the time of the Inauguration be supplemented by
relief stations with Red Cross doctors and nurses in attendance. During
the year the District Branch had raised funds and supplies for several
disaster reliefs. It also provided courses in First Aid for men and in
Home Nursing for women. It built and maintained a Red Cross Day Camp for
Consumptives.

A box of magazines was sent to Fort Shafter, Honolulu and the following
letter was received in acknowledgment of the same:

    “I take pleasure in acknowledging the receipt of a box of
    magazines, weighing 186 pounds, and beg to assure you that the
    reading matter is very much appreciated and will be used for
    the benefit of the sick. Thanking you, I am very respectfully,

                                        “RICHARD A. WOOD,
                             “Sergeant First-Class, Hospital Corps.”

The same officers were re-elected except the Treasurer, Mr. H. S.
Reeside, being elected for this position. Mr. Arnold Hague, Mrs. J. Ellen
Foster and General Henry G. Sharpe were elected delegates to the national
meeting.

The District Branch continues to send monthly to various army posts and
stations large quantities of magazines and other periodicals.


KANSAS.

During the year the Kansas Branch reached a membership of 104, this
membership being largely in Topeka.

At the time of the State fair and Regular Army encampment, immediately
following, the Branch maintained a hospital relief tent at the fair
grounds in charge of Mr. Kilmaurs W. King; second Vice-President;
Christ’s Hospital generously provided the tent; also the physicians,
Doctors Kiene and Bowen, who made daily visits and the nurses who
interchanged regularly and furnished much of the equipment. About fifty
cases were taken care of in this Red Cross Emergency Hospital.

The Branch has also undertaken to assist in the crusade against
tuberculosis. The following State officers were elected November 21st.:
President, Governor E. W. Hoch; Vice-Presidents, P. H. Coney, K. W. King,
Rev. Dr. C. M. Sheldon; Secretary, Mrs. B. B. Smyth; Treasurer, John R.
Mulvane; Delegates to the National Meeting, Hon. D. R. Anthony and Hon.
Charles F. Scott


MASSACHUSETTS.

At the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Branch, the following officers
were elected: President, Dr. Herbert L. Burrell; Vice-Presidents, Hon.
W. Murray Crane, Dr. Henry P. Walcott, Hon. Charles C. Washburn, Justice
W. C. Loring, Dr. Arthur T. Cabot and Dr. J. F. A. Adams; Executive
Committee, Lieutenant Governor Eben S. Draper, Most Rev. W. H. O’Connell,
Dr. Alfreda B. Withington, Gardiner M. Lane, Katherine P. Loring;
Treasurer, Gardiner M. Lane; Secretary, Katherine P. Loring; Directors,
Mrs. Zenas Crane, General Francis H. Appleton, Dr. Homer Gage, George
D. Pratt, Dr. Cheever, Richard Saltonstall; Delegates to the National
Convention in Washington, Miss Amy Alexander, Mrs. W. Murray Crane.

The Stamp Committee, under the chairmanship of Mr. Walter E. Kreusi, has
done very active work. The Berkshire and Hampton County Divisions have
both interested themselves in the sale of the stamp for their local
tuberculosis work. The latter Division at its annual meeting elected the
following officers: President, George Dwight Pratt; Vice-Presidents,
Richard Hooker, Miss Harriet Bacon, of Longmeadow, and Mrs. Charles
Blaisdell, of Chicopee; Treasurer, Ralph P. Alden; Secretary, Miss Amy B.
Alexander.

At the same meeting the Division voted to make an appropriation from
its local treasury of $50 towards the salary of a visiting nurse for
tuberculosis cases.


OHIO.

The Cleveland Division, by far the most active in the State, at its
annual meeting appointed a most active and capable stamp committee
of which Mr. R. L. Ireland was chairman, and a First Aid Instruction
Committee of which Dr. Crile is chairman for the providing of First Aid
Courses to the police of the city. The Division ordered a number of the
First Aid Text Books for the use of these classes.


RHODE ISLAND.

At the annual meeting of the Rhode Island Branch the following officers
were elected: President, John C. Pegram; Vice-President, Bishop William
N. McVickar; Secretary, Prof. George Grafton Wilson; Treasurer,
Edward Aborn Greene; Executive Committee, President John C. Pegram
and Governor-elect Aram J. Pothier as ex-officio members, and Dr. J.
M. Peters, Dr. G. Alder Blumer and William P. Sheffield; Delegates to
National Red Cross, Senator George Peabody Wetmore and President John C.
Pegram; Alternates, Congressmen Adin B. Capron and D. L. D. Granger.

In a portion of his address the President, Mr. Pegram, said:

“The obduracy of this generous American people to the appeals of this
national and international charity for substantial, for adequate
support, is incomprehensible. The merits of the plan under the immediate
supervision of the War Department are so plain, the means of acquiring
membership and thus helping the cause are so easy (any man, woman or
child in America may become an annual member by the payment of one dollar
yearly) that it seems incredible that a people who in one small city in
one day—‘Tag Day’—should contribute between $16,000 and $17,000 to a
local charity, should not long ago have enrolled themselves universally
throughout the country as members of this noble institution. I cannot but
believe that the day must soon come when it will seem as natural to pay
the small annual due of the Red Cross as to pay a poll or a registry tax
to qualify a voter—God speed that day.”


SOUTH CAROLINA.

The South Carolina Branch held its annual meeting on November 25th at
which its president, Mr. A. C. Kaufman, read an interesting report on
the work for the relief of the flood sufferers, which report is given
elsewhere in this BULLETIN.

Mr. A. C. Kaufman was again chosen president of the South Carolina Red
Cross, Mr. John B. Reeves was elected treasurer, and Mr. A. W. Litschgi
was elected secretary to succeed Mr. George Hoyt Smith, resigned. The
following is the executive committee, which was yesterday elected: Henry
P. Archer, Charleston; John F. Bennett, Charleston; the Rev. A. J. S.
Thomas, D. D., Greenville; Julius D. Koster, A. W. Litschgi, Charleston;
B. M. Lebby, M. D. Sumter.

The delegates elected to the annual meeting of the National Red Cross
are: Governor M. F. Ansel, Capt. Henry Buist, Jr., and Col. G. G.
Greenough, U. S. A.


TEXAS.

Miss Nellie Chapman and Miss Annie Swinskey, enrolled Red Cross nurses,
have taken an active part in the Texas Branch Red Cross work ever since
this Branch was organized. They are both most popular and efficient
nurses, receiving calls from the doctors all over the State to take
charge of difficult cases, but busy as both of these nurses are, they are
both so loyal to the Texas Branch that unselfishly, for it means a large
pecuniary loss, they have always been ready and willing to work actively
for the good of humanity and the upbuilding of the Red Cross whenever
needed. They again had charge of the Red Cross Emergency Hospital during
the State fair in October. This hospital was thoroughly equipped with the
latest surgical appliances, wards for men and women and reception and
rest room. The Red Cross during these fairs has been a popular feature,
and all of the leading doctors take great pride in it and willingly give
their services when required.

[Illustration: MISS ANNIE SWINSKEY, MISS NELLIE CHAPMAN, IN CHARGE OF RED
CROSS HOSPITAL AT TEXAS STATE FAIR.]


ARGENTINE.

The Argentine Red Cross, though only lately organized, shows in its
report of funds and value of property some $36,000. The Society receives
from Congress an appropriation of $40 a month, and this will probably be
increased. One of the members of its Central Committee belongs to the
Senate and another is President of the House of Representatives, and both
have shown much interest in the Society. A committee of women has been
created whose duty it is to instruct the public in simple hygenic laws.


CANADA.

The Secretary of the American Red Cross received lately the following
letter:

                                       Toronto, October, 26th, 1908.

    Dear Sir:

    As the Council of the Canadian Red Cross Society is considering
    the matter of reorganizing, I would thank you very much if
    you would kindly furnish us with about twenty copies of the
    Constitution of your Society in order that I may send one to
    each of the members of the Council, as personally I feel that
    the Canadian Society should be run upon lines somewhat similar
    to our sister Society in the United States. I would also thank
    you if you would kindly send me a set of the BULLETINS that I
    may have them bound and kept on file in this office. Thanking
    you in anticipation of an early and favorable reply, believe me,

                         Yours very sincerely,

                                    CHAS. A. HODGETH, M. D.,
                                    Major A. M. C.
               Honorary President of the Canadian Red Cross Society.

The desired literature was promptly and gladly sent. The American Red
Cross feels naturally a strong bond of sympathy with that of the Society
of so close a neighbor as Canada.


FRANCE.

In recognition of the services of M. De Valence, representative of
the French Red Cross in Morocco, the President of the French Republic
has conferred upon him the cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor.
The Society has granted diplomas to 3,294 women, who have received
instructions in nursing at its dispensary schools. At the Chateau of
Amboise, now the Hospital of Enghien and Orleans, fifteen beds for
convalescent soldiers and sailors have been placed at the disposition of
the Society by the Duke de Chartres.


GERMANY.

The first International Life Saving Congress was held at Frankfort,
Germany, in June, 1908. The Red Cross department was devoted to reports,
practical demonstrations of life saving by its Relief Columns. These
columns in Germany have a trained membership of 53,300 men, who during
1907 rendered first aid in 91,701 cases.


GREAT BRITAIN.

The British Red Cross has devoted much time to the forming of committees
whose duty it is to arrange for the creation of temporary hospitals in
time of war.


ITALY.

The funds and value of the Italian Red Cross Society amount to over
a million and a half dollars. The active personnel of the Society is
permitted to take part in the regular army manoeuvres.


JAPAN.

In a letter lately received from Baron Ozawa, Vice-President of the
Japanese Red Cross, he says:

“Ever since my return to Japan, our institute has been trying to enlarge
its scope by establishing the Red Cross Hospitals in the Empire, which
today number ten altogether. In fact, my idea is to encourage our
members, numbering to this date over 1,400,000, to render their service
in time of peace for all kinds of charity work.”

During the late war the Russian Red Cross dispensed nearly seventeen
million dollars and at the end was left with a war reserve fund of some
six million dollars. The Society provided hospital ships and trains,
reserve and field hospital besides a large personnel and great quantities
of supplies.