RED CROSS MAGAZINE WHAT OF THE FUTURE? (This question is so often asked concerning the American Red Cross that we asked the War Council to answer it. Their statement is both a pledge and a prophecy.-THE EDITORS.) T HE Red Cross was founded to relieve suffering and to save lives in war. But its activities have grown and extended with enlarged vision in a progressing world. Its field is as big as the needs of humanity. It is the embodiment of world-wide neighborliness. All that has to do with relieving distress, imposed by disaster, and making individual and community life safer, happier, and more efficient is within the scope of the Red Cross. It is the hope of those now so deeply concerned in directing its work to give to the Red Cross a continuing spirit and organization to deal effectively with all its problems after the war. Such work is now under study that should give a clear view of the needs and changes that we shall have to face. It is also our desire to make THE RED CROSS MAGAZINE the truest literary and artistic interpretation of this new era. A magazine cannot have a nobler field or more definite and important policy. We are making plans now to have those writers and artists, who have sympathy and imagination and talent, put this wonderful material into human stories and articles and pictures of the strongest appeal for our millions of members. In every way, we expect to insure THE RED CROSS MAGAZINE a permanent and important place among the periodicals that serve and interest the great public. T HREE cheers for the Red Cross!" It was my privilege to inspect a Refreshment Unit on a late October afternoon. I arrived at the freight yard during a driving rain just as a troop train was slowly getting under way. It moved southward with its windows crowded and its platforms packed with cheering soldiers. They hung far out, waving enthusiastically to the group of women in the uniform of the Canteen Service. Those cheers could have been heard for blocks. Had a sandwich and a cup of coffee even before elicited such spontaneous gratitude? "Three cheers for the Red Cross!" I stood watching the little group of women beside the tracks. There they were, drenched after hours of exposure to the storm; but not one left her post. It was truly an inspiring sight. Their organization showed to happy advantage as they kept serving the ever arriving and departing troops. Beside me stood a section hand watching the scene, and with a naïve simplicity he confided: "I thought first these were a crowd of society women playing at a new fad, but I see they are the real thing." SERVING THE When the Long Troop Train on Its Journey into the Station of Your Town, the Hand Ready to Serve the Only to one who has been an eye witness of one of these scenes, enacted almost daily in all sections of the country, can the significance of the presence of these Red Cross women and purport of those cheers be fully understood. The Canteen is purely an emergency service. vice. It is rendered when schedules become interrupted and delays ensue, tending to disarrange the programme of feeding the troops. But the spirit of the workers has carried it far beyond this point. "Personally," writes one worker, "I deem it a great privilege to assist in serving the men of our Country, and though I give up all my time to it, it is a small thing to do compared with what they have been called upon to do." Secretary of War Baker, in his letter to Mr. Davison, said, in commenting on the Canteen Service, that it was one of the things the Red Cross could do better than any one else in the world, and also one of the things which will help to make us a strong and united people. "God bless the Red Cross. My mother is one of them." Surely it must be a comfort to the mother in California to feel that the Red Cross to which she subscribed is serving her son in Georgia. spread even to yard-masters and train crews. One train-master proudly told me, "Every man on the job here spends fifteen minutes a day with a saw working for the Red Cross. We take care that they buy no wood for their stoves.' One officer told me, "My men don't need food, but this cup of coffee does more for the boys than you can imagine. It has a sort of magic effect and puts them in great good humor." While another officer writes: "It is certainly most gratifying to the officers who know that the Red Cross Society all over this great country of ours is interested in the men who are in the Army and Navy, and it affords. me great pleasure, as the Commandant of my regiment, to thank you for what you did for my men." But it is the story of the boys themselves, those "who are to bear the brunt of it," that And the spirit is most contagious. It has interests us most. They know the value of |