THE RED CROSS AND PRESIDENT TAFT’S INAUGURATION
At the time of presidential inaugurations between two and three hundred thousand strangers, including large civil and National Guard organizations, come to Washington. The great crowds at the railroad station, in public conveyances, on the streets, the excitement and exposure involved—all tend to produce an unusual number of accidents and sudden illnesses. Under the Inaugural Committee a sub-committee on Public Comfort has heretofore taken entire charge of such emergency cases as have arisen, but a need was felt for a number of well-equipped relief stations with a competent personnel to act in co-operation with the physicians of the city. The American Red Cross offered its services, which, having been accepted, it immediately began its work of preparation. A relief column with thirty-six members, many of whom were medical students, devoted two months to weekly instructions in First Aid and hospital drill. The first course was given by Dr. Charles S. White, lately resident physician of the Emergency Hospital, and the second by Captain Reynolds, of the U. S. Army Medical Service. Each of these surgeons kindly donated their time and services for these instructions. The District Red Cross Branch, at an expense of over three hundred dollars, provided uniforms and equipment for the members as prescribed in Major Lynch’s Red Cross First Aid Book. Through the New York Branch the Brooklyn Relief Column was invited to take part and promptly accepted the invitation, meeting themselves the expense of their uniforms, equipment and transportation.
The question of the nursing personnel was next considered. The committee on nurses of the District Branch secured thirty-six of its enrolled Red Cross nurses, each nurse promising to secure a substitute in case she was prevented from serving. Besides those from the District the Pennsylvania Branch sent eleven, the New York and the Maryland Branches each five. These branches paid for the transportation of the nurses and the National Executive Committee defrayed their expenses here. The salary of the six nurses who were on duty for the week at the Railroad Relief Station, two nurses being on duty for each eight hours in the twenty-four, and those of the nurses who were on duty parts of several days at the Pension Office station were paid by the National Executive Committee, but the nurses who were on duty for the day of the inauguration all gave their services.
Thanks to the Army Medical Service and to the Quartermaster General’s Department twenty-two hospital tents, with a complete equipment of cots, tables, chairs, oil stoves and field hospital chests for all of these stations, was procured. It is always a great help as well as a pleasure to have the Army as an assistant in any Red Cross work, and too much praise cannot be given to the efficient and prompt assistance its officers are always ready to render the Red Cross. Major Merritte W. Ireland, of the Surgeon General’s Office, knew what was required and how and where to obtain everything not only for the relief stations along the line of march, but for the larger station at the Union Station and for a complete small hospital equipment, with operating room, installed at the Pension Office. Major William E. Horton, of the Quartermaster’s Department, under direction of the Quartermaster-General, procured the tents, made plans for wooden beam foundations, where they had to be raised on asphalt, and the Chief of Staff gave an order for a detail of soldiers to put them up. General Johnston, who was the marshal in charge of the inaugural parade, gave the Red Cross every assistance in his power, as did Major Sylvester, Chief of Police.
Dr. D. Percy Hickling was Chairman of the Sub-committee on the Hospital and Ambulance Service, Dr. Wm. P. Reeves and Dr. Emory W. Reisinger had charge of the Emergency Hospitals at the Union Station and the Inaugural Ball, respectively, and Dr. Frank E. Gibson of the relief stations along the line of march. All of these busy physicians, with a large number of others, gave up many hours of their time to this work and the Red Cross Personnel served gladly under their competent direction.
Red Cross Relief Station. There Were 22 of These Stations on Line of March.
Washington’s oldest inhabitant had to tax his memory to recall a worse morning than presented itself the fourth of last March. A driving wet snowstorm that had raged all night still filled the air with large flakes and covered the ground with several inches of melting snow. The picture of one of the relief stations gives some idea of conditions later in the day when the storm had ceased, but unfortunately no picture was taken of the tents that collapsed under the wind and weight of snow, no picture is given of the brave efforts to again erect these tents, nor of the nurses driven out of the tents taking refuge in the ambulances so as to remain on duty, or securing in two or three cases a room in a nearby building for their station. At every station in spite of the weather our nurses reported promptly for duty and the Red Cross is proud of their record and reliability. Our Relief Column men likewise did excellent service, as will be noted in the doctors’ reports. With equal devotion to duty the Brooklyn Column, twenty-two in number, left for Washington the night of the third, but with many others were detained by the storm-demoralized railroad service, and did not reach the city until late on the afternoon of the fourth, so that it was not possible for them to take active part, much to their and our regret.
Were these Red Cross relief stations of use? The fact that over two hundred cases of accidents and sudden illnesses were taken care of at these stations, not counting those which were removed to the hospitals, is a sufficient answer as to their value to the public. Some parts of the reports of the physicians in charge are appended to this article.
Detachment First Legion (New York) Ready to Proceed to Washington for Duty in Connection With Inauguration of President Taft.
The morning of the fifth the nurses from New York, Maryland and Pennsylvania were presented to President Taft at the White House and the following week some of the physicians, the nurses and the Washington Relief Column men were entertained by Miss Boardman at a tea.
The names of the nurses and Relief Column men who participated in the Red Cross work of inauguration day are as follows:
Relief Column Men—(Washington), Messrs. Dickens, Fitzhugh, Simon, Collins, Luckett, Sloat, Espinosa, Huske, Leonard, Watts, Carroll, Drew, Read, Hall, Eckhart, Hankins, Kelley, Webb, Newton, Townsend, Bruder, Sutton, Heally, Brick, Jobson, Rhees, Butler, Dougherty, Kennedy, French, Bricker, Robinowitz, Rollings, Colver, Rudolph, Posey.
Nurses—(New York), the Misses Phelan, Collins, Miller, Patterson and Hallahan; (Maryland), Kinhart, Murphy, Boyer, Lucas, Spielman and Bartlett; (Pennsylvania), Beitel, Rice, Simon, Uomer, Suddoth, McKnight, Calhoun, Zellfelder, Seiwell, Akeley and Bierstein; (Washington), Bauer, Hayes, Hart, Donnelly, Davis, Fitz, Backofen, Mahan, Bauer, Burhman, Grunwell, Stith, Lohr, Strong, Carbauld, Hewitt, Brown, Braun and Roach.