288 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
MISS MABEL BOARDMAN 
Mr. Toastmastcr, ladies and gentle- 
men: An affinity exists between the Geo- 
graphic Society and the Red Cross of 
which you may not have been aware. 
Were you asked to bound the territory 
of the former Society would you not 
bound it on the north by the North Pole, 
on the south by the South Pole, and on 
the east and west by itself? So, too, 
you may bound the territory of the Red 
Cross. 
I have noted in the National Geo- 
graphic Magazine, that delightful pic- 
ture book for us "children of a larger 
growth," that the Society has a fond- 
ness for rambling far afield, and so fol- 
lowing its "wanderlust" spirit I am 
tempted to ask you tonight to take a 
httle journey with the Red Cross into 
foreign lands. The Red Cross cars, do- 
ing their splendid work of teaching first 
aid to the great industrial army of our 
country, cannot carry us to these distant 
fields ; good old Hans Christian Ander- 
sen's moon would be too slow a fellow- 
traveler, and I fear Dr. Bell might think 
us too weighty a body for the tail of one 
of his famous kites. Let us, therefore, 
all turn aviators for the nonce, and with- 
out fear of any Darius Green mishaps 
borrow that safest and most ancient of 
aeroplanes, the Flying Carpet of Sulei- 
man, and the wind will waft us whither 
we will. 
Rising from this banquet hall, our 
green and jeweled monoplane soars away 
to the southwestward to give us a pass- 
ing view of the Mexican border. A 
perplexing problem met the Red Cross 
there. Insurrections bring parties into 
■existence which are not signatory 
powers of the Treaty of Geneva, yet par- 
lies without an organized medical per- 
sonnel. Under such conditions the Red 
Cross must exercise extreme care not to 
grant the use of the insignia to many 
who may express the desire to carry on 
a humane work on foreign soil. Let the 
emblem once be discovered in such an 
abuse as protecting the transportation 
of ammunition and its value is seriously 
impaired if not completely nullified. But 
caution did not mean inactivity. 
In southern California we watch the 
women and children driven across our 
border by a state of anarchy, comfort- 
ably cared for in a camp settlement ; 
funds are sent General Bliss to provide 
for the wounded ; in Douglas we find a 
temporary hospital established, and at 
Juarez, where some hundreds of sick and 
wounded are in dire need of aid. Gen- 
eral, now President, Madero welcomes 
the American Red Cross, with its doc- 
tors and nurses, until the Mexican Red 
Cross can itself take charge 
A wish, and the pilot-wheel of our 
aeroplane turns us to the southward, to 
hover for a moment over those mighty 
locks, those immense dams, the vast 
Culebra Cut — over that most wonderful 
feat of engineering ever undertaken by 
man — until gazing down we thrill with 
justifiable pride. Had we reached there 
two weeks ago we could have heard the 
fine, inspiring spirit of that Titanic work. 
Colonel Goethals, give a report on our 
Canal Zone Chapter, so ably organized 
and carried on under Colonel Devol's 
chairmanship — a report given before not 
only the President of the Panama Re- 
public, but before a host of those men 
who are building the canal, and who, as 
Colonel Goethals said, without rich men 
or millionaires among them, are capi- 
talizing the charitable instincts of the 
American colony and enabling it to act 
as a unit in any emergency at any mo- 
ment. 
Look down below us, at Colon, where 
last March a fire left some 3,000 home- 
less and destitute, and listen to Colonel 
Goethals tell of the relief the chapter 
gave these poor people with the funds 
raised not only by itself from its gener- 
ous members, but with the $5,000 the 
Panama government appropriated and 
entrusted without restrictions to this 
chapter to administer. 
When some tall, young constructionist 
in the Culebra Cut tells you he belongs 
to the Red Cross, or some strong, manly 
foreman stops his car in the Gatun locks 
to half shyly inform you he is a Red 
Cross member, you will feel the glow of 
honest pride that these men are working 
not only with American brains and 
American hands, but giving with the 
