Clara Barton: A Centenary Tribute to the World's Greatest Humanitarian / Founder of the American Red Cross Society, Author of the American Amendment to the International Red Cross Convention of Geneva, Founder of the National First Aid Association of America

by Charles Sumner Young

NO RED CROSS CONTROVERSY

“There has been no Red Cross controversy,” says Clara Barton, “as the sensational press has termed it, inasmuch as the Red Cross has taken no controversial part. It has only spoken when it must, and as little as possible, and its President not at all, nor ever will.

“When it is necessary for me to defend myself before the American people, let me fall. I should not value the defense thus gained, and I trust I shall never feel it needful.”

In her later years the following was oft quoted by Clara Barton:

The stars come nightly to the sky,

The tidal wave unto the sea

I’ll rail no more ’gainst time or tide,

For lo! my own shall come to me.