Even if it helps you to sell a few articles by using this mark on them, is it worth while bringing the red cross into the domain of commercialism, when so many thousand Americans, men and women, in private and in public life—President Taft as well as the smallest worker in the smallest branch—are trying to make the red cross the emblem of the great Red Cross work all over this country, and of that work only?
We forget only too readily what is done in such cases as the San Francisco and the Messina earthquakes, and few recall now the Red Cross work in the Spanish War—fewer still the similar work of the Sanitary Commissions during the Civil War. We pour out money to the associations organized to help those in distress, and we give the Red Cross millions of dollars to distribute. Nobody questions its work; nobody doubts its efficiency; all trust it. Why not then help it as we ask you to do? City officials in New York, and hundreds of individuals have stopped the use of the red cross on ambulances, automobiles, wagons, boxes, packages and all kinds of other articles. They have chosen other emblems suggesting medicine and purity of the articles sold. We urge you to do the same.
Help us, therefore, to make its badge honored and respected, so that it shall stand for nothing but the presence of the ever-ready American Red Cross.
Resolution adopted by the National Association of Retail Druggists in convention at Louisville, September 6-10, 1909.
Whereas, By the terms of the Treaty of Geneva, 1864, and the revised Treaty of Geneva, 1906, the emblem of the Greek Red Cross on a white background and the words “Red Cross” or “Geneva Cross” were adopted to designate the personnel and materiel of the medical departments of the military and naval forces and the recognized volunteer aid societies in time of war, for the humane purpose of rendering them immune from attack or capture, and
Whereas, The United States, as well as all other civilized powers, is a signatory to said treaties,
Resolved, That the National Association of Retail Druggists request its members to refrain from using this insignia to designate their places of business.
THE STORY OF THE RED CROSS
V.
SOCIETIES SUGGESTED.
“Why did I write ‘Un Souvenir de Solferino’”? M. Dunant asks himself, and replies: