International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement

“ People have often asked me how it was that I, an Australian, came to take a part in the defence of the Ottoman Empire, and to serve [2] as a military surgeon under the Red Crescent, which, as every one knows, is the Turkish equivalent of the Red Cross of the Geneva Convention. Red Cross and Red Crescent are alike the symbols of a humanitarian spirit, in which philosophers and students of ethics profess to see the small beginnings of a future age of universal peace ”

“ Such was the beginning of the Red Cross movement, which has now extended all over the world, and has afforded an opportunity for all races, creeds and nationalities to care for those who are made victims of war or pestilence, or who suffer from any other great disaster with which private charity is unable to cope. It marks a step in the evolution of mankind, and has now achieved such universal recognition that national governments and individual potentates are glad to join hands in the great work. ”

“ In carrying out its mission, to assist in the prevention and relief of suffering, the Red Cross has neither the desire nor the intention to be censorious, and is actuated neither by political opinion nor motives of interference. It is but the outward and practical expression of that universal sympathy that goes out from the millions of homes and firesides, from the great heart of the nation, to humanity in distress, to the soldier on the march, in the bivouac and on the field of battle. ”

“ The work is capable of infinite expansion on almost any scale. It bids fair to reach sufficient magnitude to make the problems of organizations, permanence, finance, equipment and membership of importance to the future of Red Cross work. We cannot forget the essential functions of the Red Cross are gravest in time of war and calamity in relation to great masses of humanity, but there is as much patriotism expressed in teaching the individual in time of peace to attain maximum efficiency and resistance to disease. ”

“ It is in this principle of Conservation of human life that the Red Cross has its being. Though first inspired by Florence Nightingale in the Crimea, it was born on the bloody battlefield of Solferino, more than fifty years ago, when Henri Dunan witnessed the terrible waste of human life because of the lack of medical and nursing care. The Red Cross has become one of the great conserving forces of all the world. It acts under the only universal Conservation treaty in existence. ”

“ The Red Cross of this country has a problem that no Red Cross has ever had before—that of doing its own work in our own armed forces and at the same time trying to give the greatest possible help to the nations who are in desperate need of that help and who are really fighting our battle. ”

“ Our contention of civilization lies in the tempering of the struggle for existence by the care of the helpless. The survival of the strong, the development of the individual, must be tempered, or else we return two thousand years in our civilization.
While the Red Cross devotes itself to the strengthening of the strong, to the support of the soldier, it is a duty of the Red Cross to illume that part of American character and American ideal which stands for the care of the helpless. ”

“ After having secured for the people by treaty the right, through their own national organizations of the Red Cross, to contribute to the relief of the sick and wounded in war, the delegates to the international conventions at Geneva continued their labors until there was added to the functions of the Red Cross, the power to administer relief, in times of peace, on fields of national disaster. ”

“ Among the populations of the countries that were fighting the common foe the work of the American Red Cross was of incalculable value in the saving of life, the prevention of suffering and the conserving of morale. Its civilian service was wide spread and included the people of Palestine, Roumania, Greece, Serbia, Poland, Russia and Siberia, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, and France. ”

“ For years she was too ill to push the work she had set for herself. When her strength at last returned, she had to learn to walk. At last, however, she succeeded. America signed the treaty. Then, through her efforts, the American National Red Cross was organized. She was made president of it. While no war, until lately, has called for its services, the Red Cross has found plenty to do in times of great national calamities. You have had terrible fires and floods, cyclones, and scourges of yellow fever. ”

“ The day is not far distant—if it has not already come—when the American people will recognize the Red Cross as one of the wisest and best systems of philanthropic work in modern times. Its mission is not accomplished when it has carried the generous offerings of the people to their brethren who have met with sudden calamity. It does not stop with the alleviation of bodily suffering and the clothing of the destitute—blessed as that work is, when wisely done, so as not to break down the manly spirit of self-help. ”

“ It is only right that at length, in the cycle of ages, something should touch man’s heart and set him humbly down to find out some way of mending as much of his mischief as he could. Perhaps he “builded better than he knew,” for in that one effort he touched the spring that sooner or later will mend it all. No grander or truer prophecy has ever been made than uttered in that first convention: “The Red Cross shall teach war to make war upon itself.” It is the most practical and effective peace-maker and civilizer in the known world. It reaches where nothing else can. ”

“ I would like to see for it a headquarters which, in point of activity, would be a national honor to us. The Red Cross of America should successfully undertake some difficult problems. Hospital and emergency work naturally fall to it. It has come to be the first thought of by any community suddenly overtaken by disaster.
With all our misdirected, criminal and incendiary immigration, which nothing seems to hinder, with our dangerous foreign leaders and teachers, our strikes, mobs and dynamite, who can foresee the moment when the United States flag shall be called to make peace and hold it? ”

“ It has come to quicken into fresh, new growth the best things in human life. Like the Banyan tree, wherever an auxiliary branch of the Red Cross exists, it will so drop roots into human character and life, that it will make it a parent trunk in turn to send out influences that shall bring other affiliating branches, so that it shall at last cover the earth with its grateful shade, beneath which the tramp of armed men shall cease, and the battle flags be furled. ”

“ His ambition was realised when in 1864 the Conference at Geneva chose the Swiss flag, reversed, as its emblem—a red cross on a field of white—and laid the foundations for those international understandings which have since formed for all combatants, except the Hun in this present warfare, the protective law for the sick and wounded. The original purpose of the Red Cross still fills the imagination of the masses to the exclusion of all else that it is doing. ”

“ The Franco-Prussian War and the war of the Commune were both enormous in the extent of their operations and in the suffering of individuals. This great modern international impulse of charity went out everywhere to meet and alleviate its miseries. The small, poor countries gave of their poverty and the rich nations poured out abundantly of their vast resources. The contributions of those under the Red Cross went quietly, promptly through international responsible channels, were thoughtfully and carefully distributed through well-known agents ”

“ Today, 145 national societies of the International Red Cross offer help without regard to race, creed, cause, or nationality. Like many of these societies, the American Red Cross provides assistance on several fronts, including health and safety, disaster relief, blood, and social services. ”

“ The American Red Cross ventures respectfully to suggest that this international assistance after great calamities needs no special convention, that the Red Cross Societies of the world, originally organized to render volunteer aid in time of war, have, almost without exception, so broadened their scope of work as to include the assistance necessary after great calamities. ”

“ The vision of the common people in America recognizes this and recognized it instantly at the end of the war. The hearts of the men and women of America to-day, are at once too bitter, too deep and too hopeful not to instantly lose interest in a Red Cross which asks them to help run it as a beautiful superficial ambulance to the evils people are doing to one another instead of as a machine to help them not to do them. ”

“ The final adhesion of the United States to the treaty of the Red Cross has created a lively sense of satisfaction in all its affiliated societies wherever, throughout the world, its beneficent work is carried on; particularly, by the International Committee of Geneva, has this wise and simple act of beneficence and common sense and common humanity been regarded with sentiments of gratitude and renewed hope. ”

“ And so, in the interest of making effective our generous impulses, in the interest of saving just as many as we can—facing an impossible task in size, and yet seeking to save life and alleviate pain and suffering just as far as we can—the concentration of our efforts through the Red Cross, which has both a national and an international status and is managed and conducted by men of large affairs and great experience with this sort of thing, seems to be essentially demanded. ”

“ Clara Barton
Washington, D.C.
WHAT THE RED CROSS IS
A confederation of relief societies in different countries, acting under the Geneva Convention, carries on its work under the sign of the Red Cross. The aim of these societies is to ameliorate the condition of wounded soldiers in the armies in campaign on land or sea. ”

“ They introduced themselves as the officers of a society known as the International Convention of Geneva,—more familiarly, the Red Cross,—having for its object the amelioration of the sufferings of war, the succor and nursing of the wounded and sick in battle, the relief of prisoners, the guarding against famine and pestilence, and whatever may befall a people, under the scourge of war. ”

“ Though America has no queen to inspire us to the needs of suffering humanity in this crisis, through the initiative of many noble women, a Red Cross ship was fitted up at great expense to bring money, nurses and hospital supplies to all the Powers at war. Hundreds of circles are busy at work in many of our cities sewing for the National Red Cross Society, or for some special Red Cross center. Thousands of women, made refugees by the war in Europe, many of whom are still unable to get home, are giving much of their time and as much money as they can afford to the Red Cross work. ”

“ The Red Cross has become a grand educator, embodying the best principles of social science, and that true spirit of charity which counts it a sacred privilege to serve one’s fellowmen in time of trouble. The supplying of material wants—of food, raiment and shelter is only a small part of its ministry. In its work among suffering humanity, when fire or flood or pestilence has caused widespread desolation, the Red Cross seeks to carry to people’s hearts that message which speaks of a universal brotherhood. ”

“ Our people give so liberally when disaster arouses their sympathy, but may we not hope that the time will soon come when, by gifts and legacies to its Endowment Fund, our American Red Cross may be possessed of such a certain income that it can “continue and carry on a system of national and international relief in time of peace, and apply the same in mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods and other great national calamities, and to devise and carry on measures for preventing the same.” ”

“ They wished to serve humanity, wanted their gifts to reach the needy in some direct and practical way, and chose their avenue. In this same spirit of self-forgetfulness, the Red Cross accepted and applied, faithfully we know, and acceptably we hope, with the only desire, under heaven, of safely and wisely transmitting those substantial tokens of sympathy and love from a pitying world to a homeless, bereaved, and terror-stricken people as a present help in time of trouble. ”

“ The Red Cross has therefore come to be so loved and trusted, its principles and insignia have been so deeply set into the substance of international law and the life of many great nations, that people everywhere are beginning to ask with enthusiasm about its origin and history ”

“ By this international treaty the Red Cross society is given peculiar privileges in times of war, and its agents and officers are permitted to carry on their work without hindrance from either of the belligerents, but they are prohibited from having anything, however remote, to do with military or naval operations. They deal exclusively with the means provided to aid the wounded, relieve the suffering, and care for the sick, in all of which the Red Cross agents know neither friend nor foe. ”

“ There have been stories that women are making an oversupply of materials; that articles knitted for the Red Cross are being sold to soldiers and civilians.
Incredible it seems that men could sink so low as to direct their poison against a cause that has for its purpose only the relief of suffering!
But there is one sure antidote for such creatures; living in the dark, they can not endure the light. Let us be torch bearers for the Red Cross. ”