IN THE upbuilding of the morale of nations, as well as in ministering to their physical as well as in ministering to their physical well-being, it has been an inspiration to view the work of the Red Cross in Europe."

Eliot Wadsworth, of the Red Cross War Council, just returned from his trip of three months through the warring countries of Europe, leaned back in his chair in his corner room in the Red Cross Building in Washington. Before his eyes there had unrolled all the far-flung work of the Red Cross from Scotland to Sicily. He had seen at first hand the bitterness of the struggle for life which little Switzerland was making; he had witnessed the pathetic tragedy that inhabits the remaining strip of Belgium; he had seen war-worn France still unbeaten; and meanwhile had inspected with critical eye the work of the Red Cross Commissions which sailed abroad exactly a year ago this June. What had impressed him most?

He re-echoed the question in the June heat. "The one thing about the Red Cross abroad which impressed me most," he said, "is the emergency nature of its work. Of course it was one emergency after another with us at the beginning; but the thing remains emergency work now, in spite of all our plans and organization. The greatest emergency, naturally was the one which confronted us at the beginning of the war. We needed money, and we needed the greatest amount of money which the world had ever raised for the purposes of relief-simply because the emergency was the greatest. Once America had raised the money there arose the problem of spending it correctly. Reviewing the Red Cross work in Europe these past few months has made our accomplishment there seem almost a wonder to me. When we sent Grayson Murphy and Robert Perkins and the rest of the commission

ers abroad, we simply said: 'Go the limit. Tell them America is coming as soon as she can.'

"Mr. Perkins was running a great manufacturing organization and Mr. Murphy was VicePresident of the Guarantee Trust Company of New York. They were all American business men thrown together to carry the message of America in every possible way they could. We made up our minds that we would help our allies by doing what was best for each one of them. That, of course, is why the work has taken such different forms in different places. There were 300,000 Belgians, for instance, with no funds, practically no country, no homes. Contrasted to that were 45,000,000 Italians composing a loosely knit nation with many diverse cross turns of opinion. We all know what France was and is. Sympathy and openmindedness have led our work into the many diverse channels which it follows to-day.

"But above all, the forethought and vision of those men who first went, have been responsible for the magnificent condition of Red Cross affairs to-day.

"And it is magnificent."

Mr. Wadsworth grinned at the pictures his memory suddenly conjured up.

"They had us dizzy at first after they'd gone abroad last year-ordering fifty motor trucks, 200 Fords, 100,000 blankets, a million mufflers, gloves and so on-all at the same time. And following them up with more demands the next day. We were overwhelmed." His eyes flashed a little.

"But when winter came they had the stuff -the actual stuff. All our hundred million dollars would have been useless when this last drive came, for instance, if their vision hadn't transmuted into the material the dollars we in this country gave. When the refugees came

pouring down we had the stuff; not only money but tons of flour, shoes, food-things that were priceless. It did my heart good to see our warehouses in France, not only the half dozen in Paris but those scattered over the rest of the country at tactical points. They are simply crammed with everything from shoes to surgical dressings."

Mr. Wadsworth rose and looked out across. the lawn of the Mall, crowded with home-going clerks and all the color of Washington in war time. In the Circle a ball game was in progress.

"I wish, as a matter of fact, that I could give everyone in America some idea of what our work abroad really means. We said to those men last year: 'Go over and paint a picture on Europe that says: We are with you!' And they have done it. Each Commission has painted it a little differently, according to the materials which they have had to use; but everyone in Europe has had one glimpse or another of the things done. "It has been like a mosaic in a way, like all accomplishment perhaps. The personality of those men has accomplished this work here, that work there, until the whole thing, fitted together, has resulted in the accomplishment we have

now.

"The truth of this came home to me most poignantly when I visited the little remaining strip of Bel

CROCE ROSSA AMERICANA IN ITALIA

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on leave take their rest (still fed by their army commissariat).

"But the personality of Dr. Van Schaick has put a smile on that country which seems almost visible. Van Schaick has adopted all those Belgians, and is spending his days and nights traveling up and down in his little Ford car searching for opportunity to lighten the load these people bear. The things he does are little things, but they are making his name and the name of the Red Cross beloved among the thousands of people in that strip of country along the channel. At one time, or another, I believe he has met every Belgian alive, giving them everything from clothes to cows.

"He stopped one night at the Benedictine monastery for instance and found the old people sitting in the darkness. The thing affected him so strongly that he did not rest until he had bought up an electric light plant

gium. You probably know the outstanding features of the Belgian situation-a little strip of country, ten by forty miles, all of it under shell fire by the Germans; the Government at Le Havre, King Albert in a farm house and the country a desolate land of broken houses and impoverished people.

"The tragedies of that small piece of country seem almost endless. Near Montreux a group of seven hundred old people live in an ancient Benedictine monastery; scattered all along the coast in colonies of from two to three hundred are twelve thousand Belgian refugee children; and in the broken houses and smashed villages the Belgian soldiers who are

and put it in for those old refugees.

saw fell on Van Schaick's neck. As Brand Whitlock said, 'Van Schaick, despite his Schenectady French-he comes from Schenectadywith his little Ford car and his cheerful self, braving wind, snow, and rain all winter, merely to give others something, is a fit subject for a poem.'

"And of course Dr. Van Schaick is only one of many. The same thing is true of Endicott in England, of Ryan in Servia, Perkins in Italy, and of a host of men like Major Perkins and Dr. Lucas in France.

'In Italy, Colonel Perkins has done a splendid piece of work. You know, of course, all the details of how for months he has been assisting Italy in every way; helping the refugees,

establishing warehouses, canteens and dry food shops where food is sold at cost. One small thing impressed me most, however, showing as it did the American genius for meeting new conditions.

"With the small organization at his command last autumn, he had begun to despair of ever making that impression on the Italian nation which was so vital for both Italy and her new ally, the United States. So, in the

winter, he divided Italy into 14 sections, took every available man and covered the country by motor in two weeks-under stress of a single idea.

"He prepared a message in Italian giving the story of America's resolve to stand with Italy to the finish. To every town and village Premier Orlando telegraphed, telling them that officers of the American Red Cross were coming with aid for the soldiers' families. In every

town he had the Italian authorities make up a list of those who needed assistance. And promptly on time the Red Cross motors set out bearing to the Italian villages not merely a promise of assistance but actual cash.

"The story is one of romance and excitement. Through certain parts of Italy the best men of the Italian Secret Service accompanied the Red Cross cars bearing currency. In Northern Italy one man covered one hundred and twelve towns in nine days. At every place a meeting was held; America's resolve read; and the money given to the families designated. To each family was given a post-card with the request that when they wrote to the husband or father at the front they would use it. "The result was tremendous. Thousands of Italian soldiers in the cold of northern Italy, worn out by three years of war, received these postal cards from their wives and families. From them the soldiers learned that America had been to their homes and had given their families the assistance they so sadly neededparticularly as spring was coming on and food was hard to get."

Mr. Wadsworth stood up suddenly and turned to the map which hung on the wall. "The sun shone brighter for those men for that act of the Red Cross. It told them a tale which it is hard for us in this country to understand. It meant that there was ahead a turn in the long, arduous lane which they had been treading these weary months. It was typical of the emergency nature of the work which the men of the Red Cross have had to do in Europe.

"Here is Switzerland, for instance.

"In Switzerland we have not done as much as we will in the future. Our Red Cross Commission has now arrived. The keynote of the Swiss situation has been and is, of course, so far as we are concerned, prisoners' relief. For all these months, nevertheless, the Swiss Red Cross has carried the burden of the rapatrie. Officials of the Swiss Red Cross have accompanied every train from Germany to Evian. Tuberculosis is widespread among the wounded and interned. Month after month the worn out invalided Italian and Servian and French soldiers have been returned through Switzerland. Stranded there are many of the sick.

"Without these added worries, the position of Switzerland would be desperate enough. From the Allies she has gotten the food, wool,

cotton, cocoa which is necessary for her industries. From the Germans she has gotten her supplies of coal and iron. She has experienced the greatest difficulty with both sides in securing even what was vital for her existence. Added to this industrial situation has been the complete cessation of the tourist trade.

"And yet, in spite of all this, they have met every call of these uninvited guests of war. They have pushed every form of relief energetically. The cripples, the sick, the rapatries, the tubercular, all have received the greatest possible measure of assistance. Switerland's experience during the last three years has been one of struggle after struggle, of meeting call after call from rapidly dwindling

resources.

"These are the reasons that have prompted the sending of the new Red Cross Commission from America to take Ellis Riesel's place. Week by week the calls on us will become greater and greater, as our troops engage in active fighting and more and more prisoners are taken into Germany, where we must look after them with food and clothing and all those necessaries which experience has proven should supplement the fare of the German prison camps. Beyond this at present we are not prepared to go.

"But wherever we do go, you can assure every member of the Red Cross our work will be well done. I have seen and I know. I only wish every Red Cross member could have been with me, so that they could share my faith in the future."

"And what is the immediate future in your judgment?"

"The future!" he echoed. "For the Red Cross, the future is one of sacrifice, of giving. That is the future in this country. Abroad, the future means the bearing every day of a greater portion of that burden which is rightfully ours. The refugee situation grows more acute daily. Coupled with it, the ability of the relief societies of our Allies to raise voluntary funds grows less. The burden, day by day, more and more, will devolve on us. We of America are young, strong, rich, untouched. It is up to America

now.

"Our gifts to the French Red Cross, to the Scottish Women's Hospital, to the British Red Cross, point the way. Our call is plain. Our duty is to keep giving. And we must give-not only money and food, but the helping hand of sympathy which makes all things easier."