The American Red Cross in the great war

Front matter

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Foreword

It is the effort of this book to set forth the scope, character and effect of the work of the American Red Cross during the Great War. When the war closed more than thirty milUon Americans were enrolled in the organization. Some of these were in foreign fields ; mo^ of them were at home. But, in one way or another, they were all helping. All of them working together made up the American Red Cross.

Stories of special sacrifice or devotion cannot be given here and yet few organizations have so closely touched the great currents of human fife. Detailed narratives will accordingly follow this book. I have sought here to summarize the work of the thirty millions as a whole. To characterize the Red Cross work of any man or woman, or to attempt to describe it with any regard to proper perspective, would be invidious if not impossible. I have therefore omitted the mention of names. The highest satisfaction any worker in the Red Cross can derive from his work is from the fact that the work itself was well done.

The files of the War Council have been freely drawn upon in the preparation of this book. And I want to make special acknowledgment to every member of the force at headquarters, and to the special correspondents and staffs of our foreign commissions, who seemingly have vied with one another in supplying me, either orally or in writing, with material without which the scope of this book could not be what it is. Indeed it may accurately be said that the book itself is a product of the American Red Cross.

H. P. Davison.

New York,

September 20, 1919.

vii

Part I Chafteb Faob

I. When the Storm Burst 1

II. Massing the Forces of Mercy 12

III. The Comradeship — Divisions and Chapters . . 23

IV. Work for the Soldier at Home . . . .37 V. The Navy 52

VI. Home Service .65

VII. Soldiers of the Cross 78

VIII. Mobilizing the Children 93

IX. Supplies and Transportation . . ... . 107

X. The Disabled Soldier 122

Part II

XI. On the Battlefront ....... 132

XII. "Backing Up the French" . ... . . . 151

XIII. The Children of France 163

XIV. Switzerland the Central Station .... 179 XV. Belgium 193

XVI. The Story of Italy 207

XVII. Great Britain 222

XVIII. Rumania 233.

XIX. The Tragedy of the East 252

XX. Russia 267

XXI. The League of Red Cross Societies .... 282

XXII. Appendix 291

ix

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

An American Red Cross Summons 14

Enrollment of the Men of Ward A at Dartf ord Hospital in the American Red Cross for the Christmas Drive 20

American Red Cross Chapter Scene, Buffalo, N. Y. . . .30 A Camp Study in Black and White as it Appeared to American Red

Cross Workers 42

New Sweaters for Old at Fort Oglethorpe . . , . .46 These English Pines are on the Grounds of the American Red Cross

^ Base Hospital at Dartford, near London 56

Bathing and Disinfecting Plant in England Loaned by the American Red Cross 60

The Home Service Office of the American Red Cross at the Union

Station, Washington, D. C 70

The American Red Cross Serving Our Colored Troops ... 74

The Greatest Red Cross Parade ever Held in America ... 86

Members of the Junior Red Cross at Work in a Schoolroom . . 100

The Gauze Cutter 112

American Red Cross Motor Ambulances, Hospital Tents, and Other

Supplies in the Courtyard of the Palais Royal in Paris . .116 American Red Cross Moving Pictures in Ward at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington 124

Rebuilding the Human Face 126

A Senegalese Soldier who has Lost Both Arms, Writing to Thank the

American Red Cross for His New Pair of Artificial Arms . . 128 A Scene in a Convalescent House of the American Red Cross in the

United States 130

An American Red Cross Rolling Canteen 138

The American Red Cross at the Front in France .... 144 A Room in the Office of the American Red Cross in Paris . .152

Happy to See Their Own Country at Last 160

Repatriated Hospital Children in France 168

Five Little Youngsters All Tucked in Bed 174

A Source of Malaria and Other Disease Removed by the Red Cross 194

xi xii ILLUSTRATIONS

FACINQ FAGS

The Ceremony in the Coliseum Held upon the Anniversary of the United States' Entry into the War in Honor of the Work of the

American Red Cross 208

Children at Perugia Receiving American Red Cross Clothing . . 210 Yarn Supplied by the American Red Cross being Weighed before

Distribution to the Refugees at Tivoli, Italy . . . . 212 In Front of the American Red Cross Recreatorio at Fiesole . . 214

American Red Cross Warehouses at Milan 216

American Red Cross Workroom at Rimini 218

An American Red Cross Canteen in England 222

American Soldiers Seeing London from an American Red Cross

Omnibus 224

Central Building of the American Red Cross Hospital at Salisbury,

England 226

At Work in the Laboratory of a British Base Hospital . . . 228 American Red Cross Convalescent Hospital for Officers at Lingfield,

England 230

The King and Queen of Rumania Returning from a Visit to a Red

Cross Hospital at the Front 242

Some of the 1500 Armenian Exiles as Seen by the Red Cross Commission 260

"Is Everybody Happy?" 272

An American Red Cross Dental Station in Serbia, Three Quarters

of a Mile from the Front Line Trenches 278

PART I CHAPTER I

Nationalization — President Wilson Becomes President of the Red Cross — Red Cross Mercy Ship — Increase in Membership — American Relief Clearing House in Paris — Departure of the German Ambassador from Washington — President Declares War — Appointment of the War Council — The First Drive for $100,000,000.

IN the year 1905 the American National Red Cross, profiting, perhaps, not a little by the lessons of the Spanish War, was finally and permanently incorporated and nationalized ; the President of the United States became its president; and the War Department its auditor. It had behind it the full sponsorship of the United States Government; its books were open; it was the property of the people and in their hands. In that sense, and in almost no other, it was ready for the frightful thing that Germany was preparing for the world.

It is, of course, not my intention to do more than refer to the activities of the Red Cross of that day. Save for prompt and effective relief to sufferers from fire and flood and every other form of calamity, no matter where occurring, it pursued a helpful but on the whole rather a pacific and uneventful course. The Red Cross of the first three years of the Great War may, likewise, be told briefly. All the effort of the organization at that time — and there was earnest effort, however stereotyped, in many directions — may be said to have centered around the conscription of funds, the enlistment of personnel, and the gathering of supplies to meet an infinitely greater demand for help than ever before. Factories were driven to top speed in the production of materials. Warehouses were filled to bursting with incoming gifts. Yet, in the face of so great a necessity, the leaders of the Red Cross were hampered by the laggard movement of monetary contributions. The psychology of this unwillingness to loosen the purse-strings is clear now. The truth was that America was still cased in its shell; it resented a war that it did not understand.

None the less, a month after the German troops crossed the Belgium border, a Red Cross ship sailed away, — a German keel, painted with the authorized red strake which, by agreement of the nations, marked the mercy ship, — and distributed her hospital units and medical supplies, her gauze and anaesthetics, her hospital garments, cigarettes, and camp comforts for the fighting men of countries whose prayers had not availed to save them from this stroke of manifest destiny. Into France and England, into Russia and Serbia, into every place where the blight of war had fallen, even into Germany, these well-chosen benefactions found their way. To be sure it was a very small incident, this sailing of that stout little ship, and in the shadow of a year or more of vast accomplishment no wonder that it seems indistinct and ineffably far away.

But it is all an old story now — even that pregnant time when surely, if slowly, the picture on our moral retina was changing; when one after another the studied German insults, the revelation of guile, the wanton destruction of

-4* peaceful vessels, the brutal violations of neutrality, in short, the whole train of deliberate offenses against decency, were preparing the inevitable result.

Nothing could be more dramatic than the change that came over the United States in the first three months of the year 1917. It was almost magical in its swiftness. The war was at the sunmiit of its intensity ; the tortured Allies, armies and populace alike, had come almost to the extremity of effort; conditions in France were as ominous as they were heartbreaking. This supreme moment found many people without the bare necessities of life. The roads were full of the homeless, the hungry, and the half clad. The cities were clogged with them ! Simultaneously, in the United States, the weary period of inaction was drawing to its end. The signs were no longer to be misread. Honor had been stretched to its last shred of endurance and continued peace, it was plain, could only be had at the price of shame. (During all this wretched time the conduct of the American Red Cross was, to say the least, most creditable. Crippled by public inertia, by the popular inclination to keep out of war at all hazards, those who guided the destinies of the orgaiiization nevertheless strained every nerve, utilized every resource, to prepare for the storm which they knew was bound to come. They were held back by the ancient habit of the people — of waiting to give to the Red Cross until some great catastrophe had shocked the world and newspaper pictures from the zone of disaster furnished ocular proof pi ruin, disease, and starvation. Day and night, however, they labored, formulating plans, creating a nucleus which proved of inexpressible value when the day of trial arrived, and saved months of slow and retarding toil. By dint of the most industrious and carefully organized effort they increased the membership in a few months from 22,000 to 280,000, and the number of Chapters by more than a hundred.

At this period President Wilson penned an appeal to the American people on behalf of this sorely tried organization, in which he said : ^'It is for you to decide whether the most prosperous nation in the world will allow its national relief organization to keep up with its work or withdraw from a field where there exists the greatest need ever recorded in history. '^

And even the President's summons failed to arouse the people from their lethargy.

Dissecting the military and civilian needs, incident to the creation of an army, the Red Cross organized and equipped base hospitals as rapidly as they could accumulate the money. The service to our forces on the Mexican border had given some opportunity for practical training, which they improved to the uttermost. They directed their relief work for the Allied armies — such as they were able to perform — through the American Relief Clearing House in Paris, which had been organized early in the war to centralize and promote all American activities. By so doing they fortified and insured the efficacy of that institution which, afterwards, was classed as one of the greatest relief organizations in Europe. What that alliance meant is shown by the fact that from that time on all members of the Clearing House wore the uniform of the American Red Cross.

From February, 1917, events moved with a rapidity that, in retrospect, leaves one almost breathless, though at the time it seemed painfully slow. On the second of February Count Von Bernstorff, the German Ambassador, was handed his papers and, on the following day, the Red Cross moved its scanty belongings into the New Memorial building, as yet without heat and equipment, and still littered with the d6bris of construction. The vice-chairman sent out to the 267 Chapters a telegram which deserves to be immortahzed in the history of the Red Cross, and in the history of humanity, as a master-work of preparedness : —

"If not already active appoint following committees : finance, hospital garments and surgical supplies, comfort bags (see Circular 126), packing and shipping, publicity and information, motor service ; appoint committee on cooperation with outside organizations. ... If not already done appoint committee on education (outlined in Circular 144). . . . Possibility of organizing sanitary training detachments should be taken up at once. (See Circular 136.) "

That was on a Saturday. On Sunday and for many long days afterward the answers by wire and mail came pouring into the great building. The marble halls were crowded with stenographers, who worked from dawn till dark and long after in a temperature far below freezing, answering the thousands of letters that came from all corners of the country asking for orders or instructions how to form Chapters.

Then March came with its swift making of history : the Zimmermann note stripped off Germany's mask ; and the House upheld the bill for the armirig of American merchantmen. Inauguration Day, usually a pompous ceremonial, passed like a mere incident in the Washington routine. Two days later the last Romanoff abandoned in terror the throne of all the Russias and the German annihilation of the Eastern front had begun. The German plot for a Hindu uprising in India startled England. Three American ships in a day went down before the German submarines. Berlin was ''bitterly surprised'' at America's resentment, and fifteen thousand people crowded in Madison Square Garden and cheered for war. The pacifists were pleading for delay with a thousand tongues, and the ''willful men" in the Senate still struggled to keep the muzzle on the dogs of war.

And then, decently and in order, the thing was done. On

April 6th Congress, called by the President, in special session, voted war. Twenty thousand militia were called out, and then four thousand more ; enlistment in the Navy was ordered for immediate service overseas; money was placed at the disposal of the President, and the selective draft system was adopted. Men in khaki, forerunners of millions that were to follow, began to appear in the city streets. English and French Commissions hurried to America. The United States was launched on the greatest and most perilous conflict in history.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross, like the Army, to the utmost limit of its means had mapped out the work of the '^crowded hour'' that was at hand. Base hospital units for the Army had been multiplied with all possible speed, and were steadily increasing throughout the country. Twenty-five were already organized and equipped ready for service, and four more were in progress. Three field columns had been formed, and three additional bases for navy hospitals organized. Through the Chapters and other organizations, surgical dressings, garments, and other supplies to the value of eight thousand dollars for each unit had been made and contributed, in addition to all the offerings that had already been sent abroad. The Red Cross had enrolled more than seven thousand graduate nurses, and plans for the training of another regiment of nurses were under way. < Even the little knowledge that we had at hand of Europe in the throes of war was sufficient to teach us that every doctor and every nurse should prepare ; that every city and town should be ready on the instant to get under its burden ; and that voluntary service and coordination of relief agencies, under the Red Cross, was a crying necessity.

Naturally, the country had no understanding of all this. It did not know that the Red Cross was not in shape to take care of an Army, although neither the army nor the Red Cross was blind to this fact. From studious investigations in Europe the Red Cross knew in detail the most effective methods of organizing base hospitals, medical supply bases, ambulance sections, civilian relief centers, and all other way-stations of mercy and restoration.

"I spent a year and a half/' wrote one of the organizers of that early Red Cross, "in the heart of the war in Europe — one year of it as the American Delegate of the Commission for Rehef in Belgium, in charge of the Belgium Province at Antwerp. I saw how refugees must be fed and clothed, sheltered and administered to, how those dependent on the soldiers at the front must be assisted, and how the civilian population must be organized and energized, if it is to survive where the waves of war have passed over it. To do such work adequately means the loyal support of every man, woman and child in the land. We have this in Belgium. To do the work which the Red Cross should do, and must do, in America, requires the support of far more members than the American Red Cross has to-day. The work should touch all humanity, alien or friendly, rich or poor, high or low."

But while the membership under active urging was increasing with great rapidity, the money lagged. It was clear enough now that the task facing the Red Cross was no longer a matter of sending a Red Cross ship to scatter its hastily collected supplies around the globe. Red Cross shipments, if its work was to be competent and nearly equal to the needs, would be measured in fleets; and such a Red Cross required a wider horizon, a longer arm, and a deeper pocket. It had been computed on the basis of the old condition that the organization must have at least five millions of dollars to meet the needs of the war.

On the 10th of May, 1917, President Wilson appointed a War Council for the American National Red Cross, and I was asked to take the chairmanship.

It was not long before it became very apparent that our mission, at least in the narrow aspect of it, would be to look after the men of our own Army and to assist the

8 THE AMERICAN BED CROSS IN THE GREAT WAR

War Department in doing the things it could not do alone or that did not fall wholly within its province. That was indeed our duty, but the bitter sacrifices of the other nations for three long years had brought into the equation the vital and imperative question, however illuminating the answer later, whether there was in the world — or in America — any such thing as national gratitude and appreciation ; whether plain, simple humanity had been utterly submerged in an ocean of commercialism.

In this whole development the War Council held firmly to two things : first, a vision of our bounden duty as a people ; and, second, an abiding faith that our national heart, when we found it, would prove to be in the right place. Nobody could fail to discern the need : Thousands of old men, women, and children were homeless and starving, fleeing before a relentless enemy; whole towns and cities were crumbling into dust under the increasing pounding of the guns ; food, clothing, and medicine were lacking ; and disease was raising its ugly head in the wake of death and desolation. If ever the brotherhood of man was to be demonstrated and proved, the hour had surely come.

But while emphasis gradually was laid upon the necessity of money, if we were to do our part, nevertheless we of the War Council did not lose sight of the fact that money would be the smallest part of it — merely the bridge by which we must cross to the land where our duty called us and where our opportunity lay. You might, we agreed, pack the building with dollars and still fail to do the thing we ought to do. Our concentration here was about the amount of money we should ask for. In working out this problem we discussed at length about a request for twenty-five millions of dollars. The essential thing, if the Red Cross was to accomplish its maximum of good, was to have everybody share in it ; to be able to go now, at the very climax of need, to the suffering people of Europe, carrying the message of good-will from all the people of America, — the poor, the rich, the young, and the old, all asking the privilege of helping them in their distress.

And so the appeal went out to the country for a hundred miUion dollars. It was a neat sum but, as time has shown, small for the magnitude of the work involved. In taking account of stock we found that the Red Cross statement showed one Habihty. True, it was a moral one, making it all the more binding, viz., the obligation to meet and relieve suffering caused by the world tragedy. But it also showed one asset — an asset that overbalanced all : the good-will of the American people. In sum total the statement seemed an excellent one to me. I believed that the American people would see far more in the Red Cross effort than simply taking care of our own men and that they would look upon it, as I did, as an opportunity to do the great big human thing ; nor did I have the smallest doubt but that the campaign to raise that money would start a spirit of giving and of sacrifice that would mean a great deal more than the money itself.

There were obstacles in the way: summer was coming on and the people were preparing to go away; moreover, the first Liberty Loan drive had the right of way and nothing must interfere with that. We were all bound to take off our coats and help it. It was finally and definitely decided that we should fix June 18-25 — three days after the closing of the loan drive — as Red Cross week. From that time on it was Hke a military campaign. The gentleman who had been chosen to head the Executive Committee for the campaign went at the task like a veritable Foch. Like Foch he certainly proved to be a great offensive commander, and his staff were of the same dynamic character.

We had one month, to be exact, in which to prepare for this task. A New York friend of the Red Cross set a keynote for the undertaking by an initial gift of a milHon dollars.

It is my belief that it was this inspirational act that gave to the whole undertaking an almost decisive influence. An interesting feature was the calling to Washington of some 450 leading men from all parts of the country for the purpose of laying before them the foundation of our plans. The conference, strictly speaking, developed into a great patriotic gathering and resulted in enlisting the services of a group of men with large experience in financial matters and in the raising of funds.

The next step was to extend the organization. The country was mapped out into four divisions, each with a director in charge, and under these were 114 field agents and an office force that grew to more than 300 members. Presently, and while the whole country was organizing, we were flooded with letters and telegrams, all of which must be answered. It seemed as if all the brains and energy in the world were concentrated on delivering the message to the people, awakening their interest, and getting results.

The whole country was humming with activity long before the drive started. Men left important positions to come and ask what they could do. They were given a desk and a job and went at it. And when the local workers wanted ^' ammunition,'^ it was provided in the form of advertising copy, placards, street-car signs, banners, slogans for electric-signs, pictures for lantern slides, material for speeches, sermons and lectures, newspaper features, and advice without end. And, curiously enough, the public never realized that all through that fevered time when city, town, and country were at white heat over the drive, the Red Cross organization was busier than it had ever been in its life, planning and putting into action the work of relief which the money was to do.

With the team leaders it was a game, and they played it with all the sporting joy in the world. Everywhere people vied with one another in giving. Rival cities strove with one another to be first in raising their allotment, and then started a new contest to see which should go farthest beyond the mark.

But why recount now the story of that week ! It is still fresh in everybody's memory. It was a typical American accomplishment, and when at the close of the campaign it was known that the country had given $115,000,000, there was rejoicing like that which follows a great political victory. Better far than that, for it was the rejoicing of a great people in that they had demonstrated a vast capacity for unselfishness. And there was still more good news to come, at least to the managers of the campaign : it was found that the collecting of this great fund, thanks to the willingness of everybody to help, had cost only a little over one half of one per cent.

Chapter II

Plans of the War Council — Appointment of Foreign Commission — Muster Roll of Volunteers — Word from General Pershing — Decentralization —^ The Working Machine at National Headquarters.

AGAINST the dark background of that eventful year few things, naturally, stand out more luminous to me than the arrival of the Red Cross at a commanding financial position. Obviously, such an increase in money power meant that we could do for our soldiers and sailors all that we should do ; it meant that our people indorsed our purpose to go to the peoples of Europe in the way that we should go ; and, finally, it meant nothing more nor less than a resolve on the part of the Nation that liberty should triumph at any cost. . . .

There was no time, however, to dream over the great mission of the future. In the numberless informal conferences which it held prior to its first formal meeting on the 21st of May, 1917, the Red Cross War Council had taken the measure of its task and proceeded with the work of massing the forces of mercy side by side with the raising of the great army which America, now awake and full of purpose, was creating in record time, and for the doing of which we had the faith, the credit, and the women — the problem of the moment being how to capitalize them all.

In general our plan divided itself into two problems : first, to get the necessary relief to Europe in the shortest possible time, and so avert what we now know would have developed before long into a colossal catastrophe ; second,

to organize ample means of caring for all the various needs

of our own army. For the solution of this problem we had

three possessions of value : the first was the machine which

our predecessors in control of the Red Cross had worked to

build up ; the second was a now rapidly growing membership

and Chapter organization ; the third, — and of inestimable

importance in the work of expanding the machine and of

putting it on a war footing, — was the volunteer service of

an army of some of the most competent, aggressive, and

experienced men in the country, and of women who had

brains, initiative, and the inborn quality of leadership.

Indeed, the day was an exceptional one which did not reveal

new Red Cross assets of superlative value. It began to

be borne in upon us that we had not more than half read the

Red Cross balance sheet.

It was not a matter of sentiment alone that brought the War Council, at its very first meeting, to a reahzation that our duty was to get help to France; on the contrary, it was a clear business proposition to ascertain without a minute's delay just what was needed there first and to start it on its way there as early as possible. We had a sufficiently clear picture of the situation; what we needed was to measure it up, even if only tentatively, in the terms of necessary dollars.

Then it was that the Red Cross asked General Pershing what it could do for him, and almost immediately came his answering cable: —

"If you want to do something for me for God's sake 'buck up the French.' They have been fighting for three years and are getting ready for their fourth winter. They have borne a tremendous burden, and whatever assistance we can lend them promptly will be of the greatest possible value."

It must not, however, for a moment be supposed that the spirit of the poilu was broken or that he was not fighting with the dash and unflinching courage of his race; but there were sectors where the conditions of war and the long continuation of service were beyond the endurance of body and soul and, added to which, there was the consuming anxiety which preyed upon the soldier from the devastated regions concerning the whereabouts and welfare of his family.