The American Red Cross was transformed to a war basis within a month after the United States entered the conflict. It had then less than half a million members. Five months later they numbered five millions. The membership rose to fifteen millions in the following spring and a campaign for new members in December, 1918, for which arrangements had been made before the end of the war, raised the number to nearly 18,000,000, an average of membership in the Red Cross for almost every family in the Union. In addition, the Junior Red Cross, composed of school children organized under their teachers into auxiliaries for Red Cross work suitable to their ages, numbered approximately 10,000,000.
Whatever the Red Cross has asked of the American people for the financing of its vast works of mercy they have given with overflowing hands. In June, 1917, it went to them for a war fund of $100,000,000. They gave it $115,000,000. In May of the following year the Red Cross told them it needed another hundred million dollars and they gave it $176,000,000. Altogether, more than 47,000,000 American people gave to the Red Cross during our war period $325,000,000 in money and manufactured products of a value of $60,000,000.
Of the 8,500 persons who carried on the administrative and executive work of the organization in its national, divisional and foreign headquarters 2,000 were volunteers. Many of these unpaid executives gave up large salaries and important positions in private life to devote their skilled and capable service to this world mother. Of the paid employees more than 5,000 received no more, and some of them less, than $1,500 a year.
Almost 4,000 chapters, with 16,000 branches, covered the entire country with a network of busy groups whose willing hands contributed aid and comfort that the Red Cross carried widely over land and sea. A division in which were organized Americans outside of the continental limits, called the Insular and Foreign Division, girdled the earth and included a membership of 100,000 adults and 125,000 juniors. Its members contributed almost $2,000,000 in money and finished products representing a value of $1,500,000. They were scattered throughout Central and South America, the West Indies, Hawaii, the Philippines, little Guam, China, Japan, Siberia, Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland.
In nearly 4,000 Red Cross chapters more than 8,000,000 women gave volunteer service so faithfully that, however untrained they were at the beginning of the war, at its end the big majority of them were skilled workers in all the Red Cross needs. They made a total of 291,000,000 articles, in which were used raw materials costing $40,000,000. All of these articles were standardized, army surgeons establishing the standard for surgical dressings and a committee of women, sent to Europe for that purpose, designing models and illustrations of garments needed in the hospitals and in civilian relief work. Knitted garments and comfort kits were also made by uniform models. Practically every American fighting man who went overseas during the last year of the war and every man in the training camps who needed them were supplied with Red Cross knitted articles, while many of the Allied soldiers and thousands of refugees wore them with gratitude. These volunteer Red Cross workers, who at the same time were busy upon their home duties, made over 250,000,000 surgical dressings, 14,000,000 knitted articles, 1,400,000 garments for refugees and 22,255,000 garments and supplies for hospitals. They also renovated hundreds of thousands of soldiers’ garments and aided in the collection of thousands of tons of clothing for the destitute in Europe.
Through the Home Service section of the Red Cross organization communities all over the country, alike in cities and remote country districts, found the opportunity of giving individual service which would help in the winning of the war by sustaining the morale of soldiers’ families and promoting the public welfare. Through this branch of Red Cross activity, in which 10,000 local committees and 50,000 men and women participated, 300,000 families of soldiers were aided with advice, counsel and practical helpfulness of whatever sort was needed for the solving of business or legal tangles, household perplexities, family problems, difficulties due to illness, worry and loneliness. These Home Service workers carried on a nation-wide campaign to encourage the writing of cheerful letters to the men overseas, they spread a doctrine of neighborliness toward soldiers’ families, they enlisted the aid of physicians, lawyers, business men, teachers and others who could give the special kinds of assistance that were needed and they devoted to this work of conserving morale and promoting welfare some $6,000,000, aside from their personal service, which was far beyond money value. Training courses were instituted to fit for more intelligent and efficient work those wishing to enter this branch and were taken by several thousand persons.
The Red Cross carried on a camp service at all the camps and cantonments in the United States which rendered emergency aid, looked after the welfare of sick soldiers and maintained connection with the Home Service section. It established soon after we entered the war at more than five hundred railway stations a canteen service which furnished refreshments to traveling soldiers and sailors, while its sanitary service coöperated with the public health authorities to maintain healthful conditions in military zones. It coöperated with the Government by organizing base hospitals, naval hospital units, and ambulance companies and by enrolling nurses, of whom over 30,000 answered its call, and forming them into units for service.
Overseas, the army service of the American Red Cross was to be found wherever it could aid in caring for the wounded of the front line forces or in safeguarding the health and improving the comfort of soldiers in the rear of the battle zones. It built huge storehouses for the temporary housing of its supplies at every American port in France, at distributing points, at army concentration camps and behind the lines. It erected two nitrous oxide plants that together produced 25,000 gallons per day. Its canteens and rest rooms were strung along the lines of communication between front and rear, its rolling canteens and hot drink kitchens carried comforts and refreshments even into the front line trenches, it helped to maintain sanitary conditions wherever there were American troops, it cared for the sick and the wounded in base hospitals and convalescent homes, it looked out for American soldiers in enemy prisons, learned their addresses and furnished them with food, clothing and supplies, it searched for the missing, gave counsel to the troubled, and was ready with instant help for any and every need of the soldier or sailor.
While its first interest and care were for the men of the American Expeditionary Forces, its similar services were always ready for the needs of the soldiers of the Allied nations. To the French soldiers the American Red Cross gave especial attention because, on account of the long and desperate struggle which France had carried on with the enemy on her own soil, their need was greatest. The advance guard of the American Red Cross on its war footing which went to France in June, 1917, numbered nineteen men. Within six months it had there 3,000 workers, whose numbers were constantly being augmented, it was providing food, baths and beds to 20,000 French soldiers per day at its canteens and rest rooms on the lines of communication, serving hot and cold drinks from canteens at the front, while at its metropolitan canteens an average of 750,000 French and Allied soldiers were being fed each month and it was giving invaluable aid and service to French hospitals.
