THE ABUSE OF THE RED CROSS INSIGNIA
The rapidly increasing prominence and importance of the Red Cross will still further tend to the abuse of its insignia. Unfortunately in the United States the use of this insignia, created for the special purpose of identifying and protecting in time of war those caring for the sick and wounded, ambulances, hospitals and hospital equipments, has never been properly safeguarded as has been done in most other countries which are signatory powers of the treaty of Geneva, and which recognize the necessity for the protection of this insignia.
A number of manufactured articles bear as a trademark this insignia, their manufacturers having obtained from the Patent Office, previous to the reincorporation of the Red Cross, a legal right to such use. Others using that mark claim a right to use it because they had used it previous to the granting of the charter. In a number of cases their attention being called to the clause of the charter intending to prevent as far as possible this use of the Red Cross for purposes of trade, manufacturers and others have kindly and promptly abandoned their use of it. In other cases the request to desist from its use—it might be called its abuse—was refused.
In two cases that have been brought to the notice of the Executive Committee so-called training schools for nurses that provide, in one case a course of a few weeks with no hospital experience, and in another a training by correspondence only, called their nurses Red Cross nurses. As it is the object of the National Red Cross to enroll among its nurses only such as have had a regular two or three years’ course with hospital training, and whose efficiency and character have been thoroughly vouched for so that our American National Red Cross nurses will rank as highly as do the Red Cross nurses in many of the other countries, this use of the Red Cross by such institutions as those mentioned above must act as a strong detriment to the National Red Cross and prove especially injurious to its efforts to secure the enrollment of the highest class of trained nurses.
Red Cross nurses are enrolled for service in time of war or of great calamity as provided in the charter and a false impression is conveyed when nurses not enrolled by the National Red Cross make use of this name of Red Cross nurse. There can be in each country but one Red Cross Society as recognized by the International Red Cross Committee of Geneva upon proof that the Society has received official recognition from the Government of its own country and only its nurses are really Red Cross nurses, so that all others using this name convey to the public a false impression that they are nurses of the Red Cross.
Public opinion should most strongly oppose the abuse of the Red Cross insignia, and its use, save for the purposes for which it was created, earnestly discountenanced. The members of the Red Cross are requested to report to the Executive Committee all such use of the Red Cross, not connected with the National Society, that may come within their cognizance. The Society has a list of those manufacturers who obtained the Red Cross as a trademark previous to its reincorporation under the present charter in January, 1905. It should be the duty of every American to see to it that in our country this Red Cross insignia, created for so beneficient a purpose, is protected as far as possible from the degradation of becoming a mere advertisement for money making designs.