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I2
HE

  Why
One Hundred Million Dollars

  for
American Red Cross VVar Fund

 

Written for
CHAPTER CHAIRMEN OF MISSOURI
by

GEORGE W. SIMMONS
State Director

Americanifled Cross

St. Louis, June 9, 1917

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WAR COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAN
RED CROSS.
Henry P. Davison, Chairman.

Charles D. Norton Edward M. Hurley
Grayson M. P. Murphy Cornelius N. Bliss, Jr.

\

and
Eliot \/Vadsworth \/Vm. H. Taft,

ex-officio.

WAR COUNCIL, FINANCE COMMITTEE.
Cleveland H. Dodge, Chairman.

Seward Prosser, Chairman, Executive Committee.

Charles S. \/Vard _ Vance C. McCormick
Harvey J. Hill John B. Miller

\/Vm. G. McAdoo Henry Morgenthau
Henry L. Corbett Frank S. Peabody

V\/m. H. Crocker George VVhorton Pepper
.R. F. Grant Lawrence C. Phipps, Sr.
Frank B. Hayne Julius Rosenwald
Francis L. Higginson Joseph B. Tumulty

Louis VV. Hill Festus J. VVade

‘Why One Hundred Million Dollars ,

During the last couple of months the history of the
‘world has been weaving such a vast new horizon about
-our “land of the free and home of the brave,” that
-every day our people throughout the country are
‘realizing, more and. more fully, the part which the
‘United States of America must play in this World’s
‘Conflict for the supremacy of Liberty over Despotism.

WE MUST WIN THE WAR.

VVe are engaged in a life and death struggle upon
which depends our very existence, though many of our
people do not as yet realize it. Since August, 1914,
‘we have prospered, and as an observer, thousands of
miles from the seat of war, we have become hardened
to the accounts of death and desolation which daily
have appeared in our newspapers. We have been
spared the fate of Belgium and Poland, of Roumania
and Servia, because of the protection of the armies and
navies of our allies who have suffered while we have
enjoyed peace and prosperity.

' Today those allies are weary and worn, and we
must now take our share of the suffering and make
our sacrifices, as it is clearly evident that there is just
-one factor that can accomplish the defeat of Germany,
and that is the United States of America.

Remember that if we do not win the war, Germany
'will—God help us if that should come to pass.

Today, thousands of American doctors, nurses, en-
gineers and volunteer soldiers are serving us in the
armies of our allies. General Pershing’s forces of a

T division of our regular army is about to sail for France

to be presently followed by a million of the best flesh
and blood of our United States. That is really war,
men and women; and it is as much your sacred duty
and mine to fit ourselves for whatever part we are able
to play in this great tragedy, as it is for our soldiers

__3_

to undergo the intensive training which fits them for
active service in the trenches.

We all can serve effectively, though not all of ‘us in
the battle field. Those of us who stay behind can
help to win the war, just as those of us do who go
to the front. There is just one way——we must follow

our leaders as completely and as faithfully as do our

brothers who respond to the military commands of
their officers. We may have our own ideas as to what
the U. S. A. should do first, how anti—submarine warfare
should be conducted, and the logical solution of other
such problems, but we must remember that all of our
people have selected leaders upon whom fall the
responsibility of plan and method. It is we who will
respond with heart and soul to any call which these
leaders make upon us.

I am not among those who believed, last November,
that Woodrow VVilson was the best man to lead us,
for the next four years. The majority of our people,

however, thought otherwise, and today Woodrow‘

Wilson is my President, and I am as loyal to him as
I could be to my own Father. ’, I have implicit confi-
dence in him and in his leadership, and am quite ready
to assume that if you and I had access to all the facts
as he has, that our judgment would lead us to the same
conclusions he has reached. Therefore, I say again,
that every person who calls himself a patriot must
uphold the President in thought, Word and action. To
do less would brand us the tools of our enemy’s bound-
less intrigue.

REAL PATRIOTISM.

Every real man and woman in the whole land
has said, “What can I do for my country?” V\7e all
want to do something, but many of us have not yet
found out how to do it. We all believe ourselves
patriotic, and would resent any question of our loyalty,

__4_

but many of us have not stopped to think what that
really means. There can be no real patriotism without
sacrifice. VVe Wear our colors and stand. when
the National anthem is played (at least We have done
so for the last month or two), but that is no more the
real measure of patriotism than is the vain boasting
of the school boy that “We can lick the Whole World.”

Real patriotism requires that We shall willingly
sacrifice, not only our luxuries, and our comforts, but
our blood as Well; not alone such surplus and profits
as We can conveniently spare, nor yet our income only,
but our fortunes, and if need be our lives.

These are not mere phrases, mere idle Words, but
the response We must make to the call of our beloved
leader, the President of the United States,to all our
people to rally to the Nation in its time of need, and
that time is NOVV.

THE WAR COUNCIL.

The President has called to his council table, the
ablest men in the country who have achieved vast suc-
cess by their brain and ability, their courage and their
foresight. He has asked them to direct that part of
our activity in Which every man, Woman and child in
the country can participate to Win the war.

This War council is composed of the men Whose
names are shown opposite the first page, Who have
given up their entire time to serve their country,
dropped their own business and moved to Washington
to live. i T

The advisory board of the War council, also listed
opposite the first page, hold themselves in readiness
at all times to co—operate with the War council and
devote as much of their time as may be necessary,
without regard to any other duties of a personal or
public nature. -

These men have built a most efficient organization
for the execution of the necessary Work, but must rely

__5_

upon the people of the country to provide the
requisite funds.

WHY ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS?

This War council, with its advisory board, has met
continuously for Weeks, and has had the guidance and
advice of those able men from France and England,
who recently came here to tell us of their own dearly
bought experiences, that We might avoid the same
blunders that they made. They tell us of the facts
as they exist today, so that We may plainly see in What
directions lie the greatest needs for the Work of the
American Red Cross. , The War council has found that
at the present time the minimum amount required to
accomplish those things which are of pressing neces-
sity is ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS.
That seems, at first thought, a staggering sum, but
when We stop to measure it with the immense re-
sources of this country, and With the immense in-
creases in values here caused entirely by the War, We
then realize that it is an almost insignificant sum.

The normal Wheat crop of the state of Kansas alone,
is one hundred million bushels. The price of wheat
is now more than one dollar per bushel higher, on ac-
count of the War, than it ever was before, or would
have been but for the War. Therefore, it seems very
reasonable that the War council should ask that all
our states combined, should turn over to the council,
for proper expenditure, an amount only equal to the
INCREASED PROFITS ON (_)§§ YEARS
NORMAL CROP OF E? COMMODITY IN ONE

STATE.

Already our American forces are in the battle lines
of France, and presently we shall send an army of a
million and a navy of one hundred and fifty thousand
of our best flesh and blood, to help overthrow Prussian
Despotism. It is absolutely necessary that We prepare

_6_

now——immediately, and without loss of a day——the
supplies and equipment for the care of those boys
in our army and navy.

Our men must have a home in France where they
can spend their recreation time under healthy and
wholesome conditions, if they are to be protected from
the great white plague which has decimated the
armies of France. a A

TUBERCULOSIS.

Do you realize that there have been sent back from
the trenches, six hundred thousand French soldiers
afflicted with tuberculosis, which is so prevalent be-

cause of the conditions necessitated by modern trench

warfare, and the periods during which the armies live
in ill—ventilated, damp, underground dugouts and
trenches? These consumptives must shift for them-

selves as best they may. Not that France appreciates

their sacrifice any less than that of their comrade whose
leg was shot away, but because France is straining
every nerve and every resource to hold her battle lines
intact, and is therefore not able to give proper care
and attention to the sick.

Northern France, once the world’s most beautiful
wooded farms and orchards, is today a desolate waste;
no living thing exists, not a tree, not a shrub, not a
building, not a roadway. Instead are the yawning
craters of monster shells, of rocks and sand in hope-
less waste. And throughout that entire region is the
stifling stench of the corpses of men and beasts, putre—
fying where they fell, or uprooted from their shallow
burying places by the shells of subsequent bombard-
ments.

Into that scene of disease, desolation and death, we
are sending our sons and our brothers that the world
may be fit to live in for us, for our children, and for our
children’s children. Surely we, who stay at home in

.__7__

comfort and peace, can give of our abundance, or even
of our want, in order that our own flesh and blood may

survive the disease and hardships after Almighty God A

has spared them from death in the battle lines.
RECREATION CAMPS NEEDED.

That is why one of the first things to be done is the
construction of a vast ca1np,' or camps, where our men

may find suitable recreation and healthful exercise in ,

baseball, tennis, and other outdoor sports, so that they
may keep in good physical condition during the four
days every fortnight they are out of the trenches, and
thus be strong enough to throw off the effects of ex-
posure to the tubercular and other germs of the follow-
ing ten days in the trenches.

Now do you see YOUR share in this V\/or1d’s Con-
flict? Do you see NOVV why we should all kneel down
each night and thank God that we and _our homes have
been spared while our allies have suffered, and that He
may make us strong enough now, to do our full duty.

At the conference in Washington called toward the
end of May by the War Council, and attended by
representatives of the Red Cross in every state, won-
derful addresses were made by former President Wm.
H. Taft, the Chairman of the Central Committee of
the American Red Cross, by Mr. Ian Malcolm, head of
the British Red Cross in Europe, by Mr. Hoover and
his lieutenant, Mr. Gade, who have just returned from
France and Belgium, and whose descriptions as eye-
witnesses of the examples of Prussian terrorism are
almost incomprehensible to our mind.

A FEW REASONS WHY—BY THOSE WHO
HAVE SEEN.

The description of the deportations from Mons on
the 18th of last November, were beyond our concep-
tion. How the best men in the city, 6,200 of them,
were carried away packed on flat cars. And how a

_8_

scant threeweeks later another chapter of this black
page of modern history was enacted when there were
returned to Mons all that was left of those humans
who had been dragged awaygless than a month before,

a Corpses of husbands and fathers whose human endur-

ance was not equal tothe treatment inflicted because
of their courage and patriotism; Broken wrecks .of
those other human frames in whose wasted bodies the
breath of life still flickered, sent back as object lessons
to the utter futility of opposition to Prussian ‘will.
They told how these 6,200 men, from Mons had been

. put in trenches to dig and even to fight against their

own flesh and blood. And how, when they all invited
death before dishonor,twelve of the most respected men
of Mons, heads of large businesses, elderly men, were
hung by the hands for thirtyétwo hours before the
eyes of their helpless fellows, because they all to a man
refused to eat and to sign a statement that they had
voluntarily accepted work in Germany. '

Dozens of such instances might be included in this
narrative, as for example the personal experience of
Mr. Frederic \/Volcott of New York City, a banker
who went through Poland under the guidance of the
German General Staff about a year ago, as the special
representative of the American Red Cross, and who
saw, along the roadside, hundreds upon hundreds of
bundles of clothing, weatherbeaten and covered with
dust, all that was left of what had been women and
children, starving refugees who had dropped along the
roadside and were left where they had fallen. Every
vestige of flesh had been picked from their bones by
the buzzards and crows, and the German offlcer boasted
that while the Germans had made good use of the
larger bones of the body—the arms and legseby con-
verting them into fertilizer, that their German effi-
ciency proved that it did not pay them to gather up
the smaller bones of the fingers and toes.

_9_

Such stories as that, coupled With the unquestioned
reports now current in our press, and practically ad-
mitted—certainly not denied—by the German author-
ities, of the manufacture, from the bodies of those who
fall in battle, of lubricating -oil, fats and other sub-
stances, in which Germany is running short, should
bring us face to face With stern facts. Those are
some of the reasons that We are in the War, and
why every one of us Wants to feel that our own
individual efforts“ in Whatever‘ channel We may
find open to us, are really Worth While.

VVe Americans are the best people in the World,
and our impulses are always in the right direction, if
We are once aroused to a realization of What the facts
are. Will you make a strong personal effort to see
that your neighbors and your friends are aroused?

GIVE! GIVE! GIVE!

We have been giving freely to all of the many meri-
torious enterprises for relief, but now We must GIVE
VVITH BOTH HANDS. We must assume the bur-
dens of suffering humanity, particularly because those
people have suffered in fighting our battles for us, as
Well as their own battles‘ for themselves.

Under the War Council of the American Red Cross
the expenditures in all of these various relief organiza-
tions will be coordinated and combined to prevent the
overlapping and the duplication of administrative ex-
pense. No less able a man than Judge Lovett, head of
the Southern Pacific Railroad, has given up his busi-
ness to take charge of this particular branch of the
Work. Mr. Hoover himself Will direct that portion of
the disbursements which cover food products.

These men Will need, immediately, at least ONE
HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS, in money. One-
quarter by ].uly 1st, one-quarter August 1st, one-
quarter September 1st, and one-quarter October 1st.
That money must come from you and from me, and

through_us from every good American—the rich giv-
ing in immense sums, and those of lesser means giv-
ing as freely as possible, a thank offering—expressing
our sincere gratitude, which is down in the bottom of
therheart of every one of us, that our lives and our
homes have thus far been spared. ' >

Make it clear to all with whom you come in contact
that this is not an ordinary benevolence, or a charity in
any form, but it is an absolute sacred duty, and an ab-
solute National necessity. If some of us have motor
cars, we must give them up and do without them and
pay into this fund the money expended on that sort of
a luxury, if we are unable to make our proper con-
tribution and run the motor car besides. Real, genu-
ine sacrifices must be made by every one of us-not
alone because it is our duty, but also because if we do
not do’ it, a hundred times more will be taken from
us by force, later on. '

OUR SURGEONS AND DOCTORS
SACRIFICE ALL.

One of the greatest and most pressing needs of our .

allies today, is for surgeons and physicians to replace
those surgeons who-have been killed and those who
have been worn out by the superhuman tax of caring
night and day for wounded men, performing dozens of
major operations every twenty-four hours, with no
relaxation, no mental relief from indescribable scenes
of endless human suffering. Thousands of American
doctors have answered that call, and more thousands
will go to Europe during the next few months. Many
of our leading doctors have left a lucrative p-ractice,
built up after years of study, and more years of
struggle to make a reputation. V\/hen they finally
do come back, their practice is gone, their patients
have secured others to look after them, and a new
start must be made. Meanwhile, their wives and
their families must get along as best they can on
the all too small amounts set aside for a rainy day.

Surely there is not a business man in the country
who could not well afford to give his entire income,
each year of the war, as long as he is permitted to stay
at home and continue his business so that after the
war is over it will pay him as usual.

_11._

GIVE———GIVE———Tel1 the story to others so that
they, too, may give. . ,_ I i

As Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, said
in his speech on Registration Day:  

“We are in the War because We could not
keep out; We talked as honest men should
talk, in the language of good faith and sincer-
ity, until We Were told that we could not walk
the highways of the World, WITHOUT
-PERMISSION OF A PRUSSIAN SOL-
DIER. In the name of Freedom, We challenge
with our money, our ships, our men and an
undaunted spirit, that Word, ‘Verboten’ (For-
bidden) Which Germany has Written upon sea
and land.

“The World of Christ has again come face
to face with the World of Mohammed, Ger-
many, linked with the Turks, has adopted the
methods of Mohammed, ‘The King can do no
Wrong.’ We are fighting Germany because
Germany violated our confidence—because
Germany stands for the gospel that ‘GoVern—
ment has no conscience.’ THIS DOCTRINE
CAN NOT LIVE, OR ELSE DEMOCRACY
MUST DIE.

“With poison gas that makes a living hell,
With submarines that murder non-combatants
on the high seas, with dirigibles that kill
Women and children While they sleep, with a
perfected system of terrorization incompre-
hensible to any but the Prussian mind, Ger-
many is making War upon mankind.”

Now, therefore, is the opportunity for every man,
Woman and child to do what is Worthy of the best
traditions of America and humanity. ' If you had ex-
pected to give to this War Council fund during RED
CROSS VVEEK—_———]une 18th to 25th, as much as a
hundred dollars, think it over carefully, and thank God
you areable to find a Way to pledge a THOUSAND.

Remember, if you don’t pay one Way you will pay
another. A
p Today you have your choice. ,

If you don’t choose right, it may be too late!

Have you really stopped to figure it out carefully,

WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE?

RARE

D
522.25
.S558
1917

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