If it has found favor with the people it has gone to aid?
If it has gained or lost in public estimation?
If in any way it has disappointed the expectations of the country or the people?
If it has given cause to the government to regret its admission?
If it has sustained its national standing in good repute with the affiliating nations of the world?
If it has been a costly adjunct to the government?
Like a gleaner it brings in its sheaves at the end of its seven years of faithful trial, and asks that its work be judged. If for any cause, the organization be looked upon as not meriting or justifying encouragement and co-operation of the government, which its peculiar relations to it demand, and it is thought wisest or best to withhold them, it will be a simple and perhaps welcome thing to let go and rest. Unless one is actually going down hill with a load, it is always easier to stop than to go on. In this case vastly so.
It is now thirteen years ago, during the administration of President Hayes, that I first brought this matter to the attention of our government, believing it to be, perhaps, the work of a month. From that day to this, I have found time for nothing else. I learned that its broad humanities were the belt that spanned the world. Dependent, as it is, upon the co-operation of the government, being substantially a link between it and the people at large, I should not have been justified in proceeding to organize great bodies of persons under its regulations, until I was assured what position the government would take in regard to it. I could not ask this decision of the government until actual results had proven to it, and to myself as well, that the position required was one worthy to be taken. Thus the trial has been made single handed. Not a penny of tax nor dues has ever been asked for the expenses of the National Red Cross.
The general impression prevails that it is actively a branch of the government, and of course, provided for by it. This impression has, pecuniarily, been heavily against us, as it enters no philanthropic mind to extend a generosity to the Red Cross, any more than to the War, or State, or Navy Departments, or any other branch of protected government service. No freight bill on shipments has ever been remitted, nor agent ever passed free over a road up to this time; and no bequest has ever been made to it. Postage is not even paid.
The government is supposed to do all these things, and it is generally believed that its officers have large salaries. In one way this impression has been helpful. It has doubtless given prestige; but it is a costly luxury, and not to be forever afforded.