American National Red Cross

“ The Ladies’ Volunteer Nursing Association of the Red Cross Society of Japan has become more active in many ways, the members have applied themselves with far greater earnestness and energy to the study of first aid and nursing under the direction of our medical men. Moreover, they are occupying themselves very busily every day making various kinds of bandages and caps for the patients, looking after them at the relief stations, which are prepared for those who are travelling, visiting them at the hospitals, helping them to write to their families at home and in various other serviceable ways. ”

“ There are mothers giving their very lives to keep their babies warm, themselves exposed to stinging blasts that must rapidly shorten life. There are even cultured old men and women, who in former days were in comparative comfort, but now are reduced to physical destitution that no words can describe. There are children bare-footed in the snow, whose scanty clothing and pinched faces tell the sad tale of only one meal a day and that of straw and daikon leaves in which is mixed a little cheap rice flour. ”

“ The Red Cross Society of Japan has been strenuously performing its duty of caring for the sick and wounded ever since the war broke out regardless, as a matter of course, to which colors the sufferers belong only remembering the principles of Humanity and Brotherhood. ”

“ As the Red Cross was collecting contributions for the Japanese Famine Fund, it most reluctantly had to decline to act in this second matter of relief work. If the Society had a membership, as it should have in this country, of a hundred thousand, it would receive into its Emergency Fund fifty thousand dollars annually which would enable it to render aid at such times of distant disaster without issuing special appeals and this without costing its members anything in addition to their annual membership dues of one dollar. ”

“ No heroes ever received a sadder welcome home, for they returned to find their mothers and sisters and wives wanting food. The absence of the men who had served their country so well meant the absence of so many able-bodied tillers of the soil. This and a cold and unusually rainy summer made the rice crop the scantiest for generations.
“These proud northern people have not the facility of city people in accepting charity. If you went into their houses you would find that they would deny that they were hungry and possibly offer you their last bowl of rice to show that they needed no help. ”

“ We shall be always grateful for these practical expressions of sympathy and generosity which are extended to both belligerents, for whose comfort and relief, when sick and wounded, we are most earnestly praying and devoting ourselves. ”

“ About the same time information was received by the State Department at Washington through our consuls in Japan of the very serious conditions in these northern provinces, and with his accustomed promptness President Roosevelt issued a public appeal, as follows:
“The famine situation in northern Japan is proving much more serious than at first supposed, and thousands of persons are on the verge of starvation. It is a calamity such as may occasionally befall any country. ”

“ Since the outbreak of the war, the number of the members is daily increasing. Princesses, the wives of the Nobility and of the diplomatic staffs and other distinguished ladies have all joined.
Her Majesty the Empress has always been greatly interested in our relief work. On the 20th of last June, for instance, she paid a visit to the Ladies’ Volunteer Nursing Association and particularly looked at the members making bandages. On the 3d of September, she summoned our president to the palace and spoke to him very encouragingly about the Red Cross Work. ”

“ The Japanese Government has expressed its great appreciation of President Roosevelt’s appeal for its famine-stricken provinces, and press despatches show that the Japanese people also are deeply appreciative of the sympathy expressed in their trouble by the contributions from the American people. ”

“ The wounded sailors, who were on board the Russian cruiser, Varyag, numbering twenty-four persons were taken first to the French cruiser, Pascal, and then to a temporary hospital that had been hastily established at Chemulpo by our Society. For twenty-two days, those sailors were entirely under the care of the hospital, in which, of course, all necessary treatment was given to them. Unfortunately, however, two of the patients died and the rest when convalescent were brought to a hospital at Matsuyama, Japan. ”

“ The number of annual members is increasing, as is also the number of life members. The subscriptions for the relief of the Japanese sufferers have been liberal and gifts are still coming into the fund for that purpose.”
From letters and newspaper reports received from South Carolina, it is evident that the officers are actively engaged in building up the Society. We have also been informed that a considerable sum has been collected for the Japanese Famine Fund. ”

“ All relief detachments to be sent to the front, it must be noted, consist of men only; those at home of women nurses; and those on board the hospital ships are of both sexes, namely, one detachment of women nurses and one or two detachments of men nurses, the number of which is fixed proportionately to the size of the capacity of the ships. ”

“ Through the California Branch, the American National Red Cross has received from American residents in Japan an appeal for the famine-stricken people in three northern provinces of that country. In one province the rice crop has yielded only 12 per cent. of the average, and the sentence of death hangs over a quarter of a million of people if forgotten and unaided. ”

“ Since then the members of our committee have been through the provinces, and now we must say that the above figures are too weak to represent the existing misery and that the wretchedness and suffering are simply appalling. As to the score of villages, the conditions of all we visited are pitiable in the 6extreme. There are able-bodied men clothed in thin, ragged garments, who have to face the piercing winds and snow to bring in from the mountains the coal and wood on the price of which labor their thinly-clad families are trying to eke out a living. ”

“ In the eastern portion of another province the yield is only 15 per cent. and 500,000 people are in great distress and on the verge of absolute starvation, and in the third province it is certain that over 100,000 persons cannot live without speedy and prolonged aid. ”

“ The American National Red Cross should have a large sustaining membership to enable it to create a thoroughly efficient organization and at the same time to accumulate an Emergency Fund to meet immediately the first relief work after any sudden disaster in any of the States or Territories. ”

“ At the close of this account, we take great pleasure in adding that donations, in various shapes from every part of the world and from rich and poor, annual subscriptions and the number of members have ever been increasing. The members of the Society numbering in all 1,035,000, include Japanese and foreigners in China, Korea, Hawaii, 20and in other foreign countries. Nevertheless, the expenditure we have had to defray for the Relief work increases to an amount those outside can hardly imagine. ”

“ The central committee shall have power to appoint from its own members an executive committee of seven persons, five of whom shall be a quorum, who, when the central committee is not in session, shall have and exercise all the powers of the central committee. ”

“ Persons residing in States or Territories where no Branch Societies have as yet been formed should send their applications to the Secretary of the American National Red Cross, Room 826, Colorado Building, Washington, D.C. These applications will be given prompt consideration as soon as such Branch Societies are organized. ”

“ This large membership must be obtained by the efforts of the present members, and if each member would do whatever he or she may be able to do towards increasing the membership, the American National Red Cross would soon have an organization worthy of the United States and always have in its treasury a fund that would enable it to reply promptly to any such appeal as that forwarded to it by the Department of State. ”

“ Rather we rejoice that there is another side. Amid all this widespread wretchedness there is a strong spirit of hope and helpfulness. There is a village called Devil’s Head, snowed under eight feet, leaving 156 people without a particle of food of any kind. ”

“ The total number of all the detachments as mentioned above and already sent out together with women nurses amounts to 3,266 persons and, moreover, we are prepared to dispatch as many more as are necessary at any moment. ”

“ The Oneida County Subdivision has the largest membership, 155, 12 of whom are life members. The total membership in New York State is 790.
The Cleveland Subdivision of the Ohio Branch reports the enrollment of a number of doctors and nurses.
On March 14th “The Pennsylvania Branch of the American National Red Cross” was organized, with headquarters in Philadelphia. The following officers were elected: President, Talcott Williams; treasurer, Mrs. A. J. Cassatt; vice-presidents, Captain John S. Muckle, Miss Anne Thompson, Hon. H. Kirke Porter, of Pittsburg; Hon. ”

“ Surgeon-General Walter Wyman, U.S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, Treasury Department, Washington, D.C.
2 PREFACE The second Quarterly Bulletin of the American National Red Cross contains an account of the work of raising funds for the benefit of the Japanese famine sufferers. The Central Committee desires to call attention to the great advantages such an organization as the Red Cross provides at such times. ”

“ In accordance with Article seven of the treaty, the delivery of the brassard allowed for individuals neutralized in time of war shall be left to military authority.
Sec. 3. That the purposes of this corporation are and shall be—
First. ”