OTHER MEASURES OF AMERICAN RED CROSS RELIEF
Besides the contributions to the Italian Red Cross, the sending of a Special Representative—Mr. Bayard Cutting—the providing of the Relief Ship, the maintenance of the Agricultural Orphanage Colony, the purchase of materials for some six hundred houses and the construction of these houses and those furnished by the United States Government, the American Red Cross has sent to Mr. Griscom, our Ambassador at Rome, $20,000 for Calabrian relief and $50,000 to be used at his discretion in conjunction with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Griscom says:
“After consultation, I asked him to appoint an Italian Committee to do rehabilitation work on the lines we adopted at Chelsea. He appointed his wife Chairman, and with her Countess Taverna, wife of the President of the Italian Red Cross; the Duke of Teuanova, one of the largest land owners in Sicily; the Marquis of San Fernando, one of the largest land owners in Calabria, and Mr. Teneraani, the head of the principal charities of Rome. This is a very strong Committee, and they are doing splendid work—acting rapidly and efficiently. The Committee calls itself ‘Comitato Offerto Americano,’ a ‘Committee of American Offerings.’ This Committee operates wherever they find or hear of deserving refugees, particularly professional men, and a considerable portion of this money is spent at the scene of the disaster as well as in Rome, Naples, etc.”
From the Calabrian mountain villages came urgent appeals for help, so Mr. Griscom—
“Sent Mr. Nelson Gay, who has lived in Italy for some years, to make a tour of Calabria, and he was accompanied by an officer of the General Staff. He had a wonderful trip and his report is the basis of our present operations. As he went along he telegraphed me his needs and his requisitions were filled in Rome or from France. The majority of his requests were complied with and the goods delivered to him and to the Generals indicated by him in Calabria within forty-eight hours after the receipt of his telegram. This includes the twenty-four hour railway haul, so you see we have our system of operations fairly perfected. The Director-General of Italian Railways gives our shipments the right of way over everything. After Mr. Gay had been there a few days with General Parditi at Palmi, Calabria, the General telegraphed his appreciation of what had been done there to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of War. Mr. Gay visited about forty towns in Calabria, including the highest and most inaccessible villages. To some he brought the first succor since the earthquake.
“I am now sending Mr. Winthrop Chanler, who is accompanied by four or five young Italian noblemen, to Calabria to carry out the most elaborate piece of work yet projected. We are to rebuild one whole town—Gallina. Calabria—about three hundred wooden houses, and to deliver and build three hundred other houses of lighter construction in the highest towns of the Calabrian Mountains. We work through the military authorities and at their request, but we conduct the work ourselves. In the meantime our young Italians will use our money to rehabilitate the inhabitants in their trades and professions, under Mr. Chanter’s direction. We are buying a shipload of lumber very cheaply in Naples and sending it ourselves to the spot. This is the use I am making of the last $20,000 the Red Cross has entrusted to me. From Gay’s report three hundred houses are needed, at about $100 a house, which will make $30,000. I have the recent grant of $20,000 and the unexpended balance from the Relief Ship appropriation is $17,000, making a total of $37,000. This leaves $7,000 for expenses of hospitals, etc. These operations will all be done in the name of the American Red Cross. Mr. Chanler will lay out the town, establish police and sanitary regulations and hurry the building in accordance with a plan I have outlined. I am sending down a young Italian doctor to establish a little hospital and keep the place sanitary. We work through the military authorities, who supply the carpenters and laborers except when we employ people for the sake of giving them work. The rehabilitation is to go on while the houses go up and the young Italians, with Mr. Chanler, are especially to do this work. They are to search out the most deserving merchants and give them a start. I sincerely hope this project of mine will appeal to the Red Cross as it does to the Italian people. If a small part of my expectations are realized the money will be well spent. I may say here that the people in the earthquake zone have now plenty to eat and are clothed so that the greatest remaining need is shelter. They are dying from cold and its consequences—pneumonia, bronchitis, consumption, etc. The wood we are sending from America is a drop in a bucket. Mr. Gay reports that the military estimates of 600,000 homeless people are not exaggerated. It would take $12,000,000 to provide them with cheapest temporary houses, and the Italians have not this amount to dispose of. In the meantime people are living in half-ruined homes in imminent peril of being killed by any little earthquake, and the earth continues to quake frequently. Our new work begins in two days and will take a month or two.”
This letter was written February 21st. In referring to the Orphanage Colony, Mr. Griscom says:
“Yesterday the Queen sent for me a second time to reiterate her thanks.”
She expressed her deep interest in the American Red Cross and desired to learn more about the Society.