Library"'
Chapel Hill
Ski
The news in this publica
tion is released for the press on
receipt.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA
NEWS LETTER
Published weekly by the
University of North Carolina
for its Bureau of Extension.
FEBRUARY 27,1918
CHAPEL HHJ^ N. C.
VOL. IV, NO. 14
editorial Board . B. C. Branson, J. G. deR. Hamilton, L. R. Wilson, B. H. Thornton, G. M. McKie.
Entered as second-class matter November 14,1914, it the Postoffloe at Chapel Hill, N, C., under the act of August 24,1912.
THE RED CROSS: INASMUCH AS-
WHAT IS THE RED CROSS
The conduct of war reiiuires three sorts
•of human activity: the figliting, the sup
plying of the fighters with the thousands
of materials they must have, and the re
lief ot the want and sufl'ering that follow-
in the wake of the fighting on the part
both of the fighters and of the non-com
batants. Tlie first of these is done by the
army and navy, the second by the various
industries, and the third by the Red
Cross.
The Red Cross is a corporation char
tered by Congress “to volunteer aid to
the sick and wounded of armies in time
of w'ar, to act in matters of voluntary re
lief and in accord with the military and
, naval authorities as a medium of com
munication between the jieople of the
United States of America and their army
and navy, and to continue and carry on
a system of national and international re
lief in time of peace and to apply the
same in mitigating the sufl'erings caused
by pestilence, famine, fire, floods, and
other great national calamities, and to
devise and carry on measures for pre
venting the same.’ ’ ^
The Red Cross is a society of mercy,
liealing, sympathy, tenderness, and love.
The Red Cross is an agency of recon
struction.
I
regions, each with headquarters, officers,
and bureaus corresponding to the officers
and bureaus at Washington.
In each of these five divisions are or
ganized the local chapters in every com
munity where the jieople are willing to
give their labor and to pay for the ma
terials which their labor turns into fin
ished articles.
Each chapter has its otficers—a chair
man, a vice-chairman, a treasurer, a sec
retary, an executive committee. Further,
it has its bureaus, known as sections, ac
cording to the sorts of work it is able to
perform—military relief, civilian relief,
publicity, communication, etc.
WHAT THE RED CROSS DOES
III No Man’s Land it has its stretcher
bearers going out under the hail of shot
and .shell to find and to bring in the
wounded while there is yet time to save
them,
In the trenches it has its first aid sta
tions, groat underground dugouts where
skilled and tireless doctors administer at
the li rst possible moment what is essen
tial for the saving of life.
Rnck of the lines it has its immense
haw tiospitais manned by expert sur-
geoiiH and nurses working day and night
to restore, to ease pain, to reconstruct
broil cu bodies and shattered nerves.
I’lying ba6k and forth between the
treuche.s and hospitals it maintains a vast
atnhulatice service more exposed to de
struction from the enemy’s batteries than
the men in the trenches themselves.
Along the lines of march to and from
the front it has its refreshment stations—
places of rest for tired men, places where
the sick and exhausted receive comfort
and cure.
Hack of the invaded territory it has its
headquarters for refugees fieeing before
advancing armie.s, where the w'omen and
chil'Jt'-en and old men find warm clothing
an I good food and dry shelter.
Ill each of the countries of our allies it
maiuUins u commission of efficient busi-
II _' (s iiien to study the needs at first hand
au 1 k> organize the stupendous service in
all its manifold branches. LTnder their
d.irecti.m are tliousaiids of workers—doc-
t'liii, mii-se.s, orderlies, ambulance dri-
vepi, Htretoher-bearers, supply agents,
diabrihuting agents, shipping agents,
clerks, stenograpliers, and typewriters—
.ea.cii witli exact and definite tasks to per-
ioiij)
I'.-ick home, in every state, in every
■ city, in every town, it has its chapters of
.patri itic men and women engaged in the
*11 Miuf.icture of tlie vast ipiantities of sup-
pHes the doctors and nurses have such
Vii-geiit need of—things that the factories
c iuno'lmake fasteaough, tilings that must
h,-m.(dj' by hand and that must be pro
tected from dangers of disease—tens^ of
thoartaiids of surgical dressings, hospital
giH'uicuts, sheets, pillow's, clothing.
MEQ CROSS ORGANIZATION
TUe ("resident of the Luited states is
tti? f'resident of the Red tfioss.
Tim Chairman of the Central Commit-
,tee is an ex-l’resident of the United
,States.
The tremeiuious busiiies.s is attended to
by a Vice-Chairman, a General Manager,
and .1 Central Committee, with various
ofiioers to assist them, and is divided
•Ilf; a number of departments and bu-
reaUii, each witli special lines of activ ity
the liureaii of developmei-it, the buieau of
]>u1ilicity, the w'omau's bureau, tlie nurs
ing luireau, the bureau of civilian relief,
■the liuraau of supplies, the bureau ot niil-
•it».'-y i-elief, the bureau of accounting,
Uie bureau of communication.
The Unifi>d States is divided into five
RED CROSS FINANCES
The Red Cross is paid for by gifts from
the people.
The ordinary sources of income are
membership fees and a few' scattered gifts
from philanthrophists.
When the United States entered the
war, these ordinary sources were entirely
inadequate to meet the sudden tremend
ous expansion of relief work. A great
campaign was set in motion under a
special committee appointed by the Pres
ident to raise what is know'n as tlte War
Fund. The people responded to the ap
peal with more than $100,000,000. This
sum is used to pay for the work of the
commissions in Europe, the hospitals, the
doctors, the nurses, the ambulances, the
w'orkers of a hundred kinds and the
equipment for their work.
Each member of the Red Cross pays
an annual fee of at least one dollar. One
half of each dollar goes to the mainte
nance of the central organization in
Washington and the divisional headquar
ters in the five regions of the country.
The other half goes to the chapter w'hich
collected the dollar and is used to pay
the costs of its own activities.
In addition to its half of the member
ship fees eacli chapter raises by whatever
w'ays it can devise—by gifts, by subscrip
tions, by benefits,—sutlicient money to
buy the materials it manufactures into
relief supplies and to pay for its running
expenses.
Practically all of the money raised nat
ionally or locally goes directly into the
work of relief. There are very few sal
aries, and the few that are absolutely
necessary are low. The society is an im
mense organization of volunteer workers.
There is no organization ,;n the world tliat
equals in extent the Red Cross Society,
and there is no large organization in the
world that is run at so low a cost. This
remarkable state of affairs is made pos
sible by the fact that neitlier the com
missions of business men in Europe, nor
the chief officers at central headquarters,
nor any of the officers or workers in the
various local chapters take one cent for
their services. They look upon their
time and labor so expended as a gift to
their country, as a service to humanity,
as a privilege above price.
THE PERSONAL TOUCH
Bishop William Lawrence
To tlie wounded soldier lifted from
the ambulance to the Ba.se Hospital
bed the immediate thought is of the
personal touch of nurse, surgeon, and
clean sheet. The great organization
of the Red Cross with its hundreds of
millions of dollars, its tens of thous
ands of bandage makers, are in the
background, out of his sight and
mind. It is all right. None the less
the great organization, the money,
and the workers, make the ambulance,
the hospital, the surgeon and nurse
efl'ective. The Red Cross is the body
through W'hich the spirit of patriotism
and sympathy flow, and its best and
finest work is in carrying tliat spirit
through to the soldier by personal
touch.
Amidst the whir of tlie machinery
of offices, of work rooms and bandage
making, let every worker keep this m
mind, “Everything that I do, every
fold that I make, is to be caught up
for the moment by the gr^at organiza
tion of the Red Cross in order that it
may be the means w'hereby the person
al touch of ,nurse or surgeon, the
strengthening word of Cliaplain or
comrade, may heal- and comfort the
body and soul of the soldier or sailor
who has poured out his life blood for
me and my Country.’ ’
there were only about a dozen chapters
in the Southern Division. Now almost
every county in eacli of the five States of
the division has its cliapter. The chap
ters and members on .Tanuary 25 by
States are:
Southern Division
Georgia
North Carolina
Tennessee
Florida
South Carolina
(diapters
163
119
81
63
58
Does a membership of 22,000,000 seem
large? Why should it not number 100,-
000,000? The Red Cross ofTers the one
way in which every single citizen, man,
woman, and child can serve.
Members
145,097
114,348
124,768
82,294
74,374
HOW TO BECOME A MEMBER
In order to become a member of the
Red Cross, one goes to the chapter head
quarters in one’s community, registers,
and pays the membership fee.
That is all. Membership implies no
obligation to give either labor or money
beyond the membership fee. Tlie Red
Cross is entirely and consistently a volun
teer society.
Tliere are several sorts of membership:
annual membership, fee $1.00; sub
scribing membership, fee $2; contribu
ting membership, fee $5; sustaining
membership, fee $10; life membership,
fee $25 ; and patron membership, fee $100.
All forms except the first include sub
scription to the Red Cross IMagazine.
If one does not liappen to live in a
community where a chapter is located,
one may secure membership by sending
the fee by letter to any nearby chapter
or to divisional headquarters (for the
Soutliern Division, to Mr. Guy E. Suave
ly, Healey Building, Atlanta, Ga.)
Or, better still, one may secure mem
bership/by organizing a chapter to re
ceive one’s membership.
Florence Nightingale. She made the re
form of hospitals and . the care of the
wounded in the Crimean War her life
work. In London she established a
school, wliich still liears her name, for
the specialized training of hospital nurs
es. She lifted nursing to the rank and
dignity of an independent profession and
succeeded in making it remunerative
enough to attract the finest type of young
womanhood.
A Swiss by tne name of Henri Dunaut,
following the path pointed out by Flor
ence Nightingale, proposed an internat
ional organization of mercy whose ideals
should be humanity and neutrality.
Through his efi’orts in 1864 a council of
representatives from fourteen nations met
in Geneva and adopted a treaty which
led to the establishment of the Red Cross
as a relief agency in time of w'ar.
The crying need for such service had
been recognized and met, as far as possi
ble, in our own country at the time of
the Civil War by the activities of such
women as Dorothea Dix and Clara Bar
ton, but it was not until a score of years
later that the Red Cross was established
on this side of tlie Atlantic. Clara Bar
ton was in Europe during the War of
1870 and saw tlie wonderful results of the
treaty of Geneva in operation—doctors
and nurses from the opposing armies
working side by side to succor and to
save. On tier return she devoted her en
ergies unceasingly to persuading Con
gress to become a party to tlie treaty of
Geneva. At last in 1882 success crowned
iier efforts, and somewhat later Congress
granted the charter under wliich the So
ciety is now operating.
Clara Barton was influential also in ex
tending the work of the Red Cross to the
relief of emergency sufl'ering in time of
peace as well as in time of war.
J list a short time before we entered the
present war a magnificent building was
opened in Washington as a home for tlie
American Red Cross Society. It bears
this inscription: “A Memorial built by
the Government of the United States and
Patriotic Citizens to the Women of the
North and the AVomen of the South held
in Loving Memory by a now I’nited
Country.”
STORY OF THE RED CROSS
Tlie Red Cross owes its first inspiration
to a wealthy English girl by the name of
GROWTH OF THE RED CROSS
In February of last year the total
membership of the Red Cross was 400,
000, and the slogan was “one million
members by the end of the year.” By
December it had increased to 6,000,000.
The Christmas campaign added 16,000,
000, making a grand total for the United
States of 22,000,000—a fifth of our entire
population.
The Southern division alone—emlirac-
ing North Carolina, Soutli Carolina,
Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida—added
through the Christmas campaign as many
members as the total enrollment for the
country was last February.
Before we entered tlie war last April,
ORGANIZING A CHAPTER
The first step is a mass meeting of citi
zens to arouse the interest of the commu
nity in the work of the Red Cross, to give
information as to the cliaracter of its ac
tivities, to adopt the preliminary measures
necessary to forming an organization. The
outcome of such a meeting should be the
pledging of as large a number as possible
to become memliers and to support the
proposed chapter with labor and money.
The formation of a chapter requires a
minimum membership of 200. There is
no requirement as to the amount of
money the community must supply. The
business of organizing should be entrusted
by this meeting to reliable citizens.
The second step is to write to the man
ager of the Division in which thecommu
nity is located—for the Southern Division,
Mr. W. L. I’eel, Healey Building, Atlan
ta, Ga.—applying for an application form
for the establisliment of a chapter.
Tlie third step is to till out this form
with tlie names of ten applicants and re
turn it to the Division headquarters to
gether with a check for $10, being the
total of the membership fees of the ten
applicants. The form should be signed
by an acting Cliairman and au acting
Secretary.
The fourth step, following tlie granting
of the charter from headquarters, is the
eft’ecting the permanent organization of
the chapter in accordance with the in
structions which come from headquarters.
This means the election at a second meet
ing of the annual officers of the chapter
—a chairman, a vice-chairman, a secre
tary, a treasurer, and an executive com
mittee consisting of these officers and tiie
chairmen of the several sections of the
chapter, such as membership, finance,
woman’s work, instruction in first aid
and in the making of surgical dressings,
etc.
The fifth step is the organization of the
workroom. Here the main war-time ac
tivities of tlie chapter will take place—the
making of surgical dressings, of hospital
supplies, of hospital and refugee gar
ments, etc. It is necessary that the work
room be put in charge of a woman who
has had training in the making of such
articles. If there is no woman in tlie
community who can meet this require
ment, the new cha]iter can secure from
neighboring chapters an instructor at
small cost to form a class and teach the
essentials. Classes should also be organ
ized in first aid, in dietetics, in home
nursing.
Tlie sixth step is to get to work and to
keep working.
ACTIVITIES OF A CHAPTER
1. The manufacture of hospital sup
plies and garments of various sorts. The
materials used for these articles are to be
purchased from the divisional headquar
ters.
2. Civilian relief—care of the families
of absent soldiers, when there is need.
3. Giving instruction to the people of
the community in matters of health, home
nursing, first aid etc.
4. Keeping in touch with the soldiers
who have gone from the community to
to serve their country.
tfie chapter, of which she is herself a
member. There is usually a chairman of
surgical dressings, a chairman of hospital
garments, a chairman of knitted goods, a
chairman of supplies,' a chairman of
packing and shipping.
Under these chairmen are the super
visors of tables, each responsible for the
correct making of tlie particular article
manufactured at her table. The duty of
a supervisor is to give out to the workers
the material she receives from her chair
man, to inspect it and to count it after it
has been made up into the finished
product, and to turn it in to the chair
man to lie delivered to the packing room.
She keeps a record of the workers at her
table each day and of the work done by
each.
This is the organization in force in the
larger workrooms. There is no absolute
requirement, however, enforcing this or
ganization, and' often in small chapters
such division of labor is neither necessary
nor beneficial. But in every case careful
supervision is essential to the maintaining
of standard products and to the protec
tion that must hedge about articles des
tined to surgical uses.
A RED CROSS BRANCH
A Branch is a subdivision of a chapter.
Often the territorial jurisdiction granted
a chapter covers a large city or includes
a number of separate towns. In rural
districts where the county is taken as the
basis of a chapter this is usually the case.
In such circumstances it is impossible for
all members of a chapter to have easy ac
cess to the chapter workrooms. There
fore, in order to afford opportunity for
work to people in communities apart from
the headquarters of a chapter, branches
are organized with their own officers and
their own workroom.
The organization of a branch is pat
terned after that of the parent chapter.
It is brought into being by the chapter
and not by the divisional headquarters.
It usually finances its own activities inde
pendently, but it may receive assistance
from the chapter. It differs from a chap
ter mainly in reporting its accounts to the
chapter, in purchasing its'materials from
the chapter, and in shipping its products
through the chapter, instead of dealing
directly with the divisional headquarters.
A branch may engage in any or all the
activities, of a chapter. Its affairs are
subject to the general supervision of t’.ie
parent chapter.
On the other hand, the parent chapter
undertakes to assist its branches finan
cially as far as possible, to do all the buy
ing of materials for the branches and to
handle all the shipping of the finished
product of the branch workrooms. Tlie
chapter receives and enters in its books
financial reports of all branches.
THE JUNIOR RED CROSS
The Junior Red Cross, now in process
of de'TOlopment, is a nation-wide organi
zation of the school children for work of
a sort similar to that of a chapter. There
are many things greatly needed by the
Red Cross which can be done admirably
by children—the making of certain sup
plies by the sewing classes and by the
classes in manual training, invaluable as
sistance in public campaigns of an infor
mational nature and in the collecting of
funds. One of the chief purposes of the
organization is to keep the children of the
nation, and througli them the grown-ups,
informed as to the ideals for which we are
striving and to lay a solid foundation of
intelligent patriotism.
The children of a school are organized
into a Junior auxiliary, and the auxiliary
is governed by the chapter through a
special committee appointed for the pur
pose. The fee for annual membership in
a Junior auxiliary is twenty-five cents.
THE WORKROOM
At the liead of a workroom is a woman
trained in making hospital supplies. It
is her business to organize an efficient
system for turning out work, to deter
mine what products the workers shall be
engaged in making, and to keep a gen
eral supervision over all activities of the
room.
The director of woman’s work is assist
ed by chairmen of the various branches
of work done in the workroom. The
cliairmeu are appointed either by the di
rector or by the executive committee of
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
You can become a member of the Red
Cross.
You can give a little of your labor in a
Red Cross workroom.
Yon can aid in defraying the expenses
of your chapter by gilts and contribu
tions.
You can bo one of a group of citizens
to stir up your community to a spirit of
helpfulness and of service.
A"ou can take the initial step in forming
a chapter or a branch.
Yon can spread information about the
purposes and tlie ideals and the work of
the Red Cross.
You can contradict the thousands of
false reports about the Red Cross which
the enemy within our gates is constantly
seeking to give currency.
You can help win the war.