THE NEEDS ABROAD 



429 



of wounded in hospital uniforms, either 

 walking or being driven out for an air- 

 ing — these are some of the outward and 

 visible signs of the ravages of war. 



Ambulances driving gently down all 

 the thoroughfares, the Red Cross flying 

 over one or more large houses in every 

 street of the residential quarter — these 

 are tokens of the same tragic truth. 



And abroad, in France and Flanders, 

 you come nearer still to the true agony of 

 the situation. How can I describe it? 

 Think of the worst earthquake, of the 

 worst floods, that have scourged and 

 shocked you here at home ; multiply the 

 horror of your impression a hundredfold, 

 and you will come near to the horrors of 

 the Marne and the Aisne. 



Multiply them a thousandfold, and you 

 will realize the ferocity of carnage at the 

 battles of the Ancre and the Somme. 



Multiply them two thousandfold, and 

 that is the picture of misery and pain and 

 death after the great battles on the plains 

 of Russia and in the mountains of Persia 

 and the Caucasus. 



Think of the ruin by floods in Flan- 

 ders, with the stench of thousands of car- 

 casses, human and animal, poisoning the 

 atmosphere for miles around for those 

 who must stay day and night in the 

 trenches ; think of the devastation by fire 

 in France, where villages and woods and 

 broad pasture lands are utterly wiped out 

 of existence — not a house nor a church 

 nor a tree left standing, where once there 

 were thousands of families living in a 

 condition as prosperous and happy as 

 anywhere in the world. 



A PURGATORY OF PAIN 



Then turn your minds to the picture of 

 some great engagement ; try to conceive 

 long trenches of men writhing in torture 

 from poisonous gas or from liquid flame, 

 soldiers smashed and disfigured by shell 

 wounds, their lacerations indescribable as 

 their heroism is undaunted. 



Leave the trenches and retire behind 

 the firing line with me. Here we are on 

 roads lined with men on stretchers some 

 dead, scores mortally wounded, hundreds 

 upon hundreds of casualties in one or an- 

 other degree of collapse. The middle of 

 the roadway is filled by dozens of ambu- 



lances after every action ; there is per- 

 haps a mile length of hospital trains wait- 

 ing in a siding to convey the wounded to 

 base hospitals. 



And all this purgatory of pain is de- 

 pendent for relief upon the skill of our 

 doctors, the tenderness of our nurses, the 

 efficiency of our equipment — all of which 

 means, and is dependent upon, the gen- 

 erosity of the public. 



May I not take it for granted that just 

 as the fighting manhood of the United 

 States is soon to be with us in the 

 trenches, so you of the Red Cross who 

 have done so much for us in the past are 

 now eager to be mobilized in the allied 

 Army of Mercy, and of charity that is 

 almost divine ? 



I assume that your organization is 

 coming with us in increased numbers and 

 with increased equipment, if necessary, to 

 the mountains above and around Saloniki, 

 to the plains of Egypt, to East Africa, to 

 the waterless wastes of Mesopotamia — 

 our tears and triumphs mingling beneath 

 the shadow of the Red Cross flag. 



where unassuaged wounds cry for 

 America's compassion 



Nay, further, I should like to assume 

 that, with your resources inexhaustible 

 as your hearts are warm, you will pour 

 out of the fullness of your treasure into 

 war zones where we have no men fight- 

 ing, but where ambulance columns are 

 desperately needed, such as Russia and 

 Roumania. 



You are wanted there, though the pride 

 of Russia will prevent their even telling 

 you so. I cannot think of a greater 

 movement at this moment, in the interests 

 of bleeding humanity or of Allied propa- 

 ganda, than the offer of a fully equipped 

 ambulance corps to work with the Rus- 

 sian army and for the Russian people. 



Have I said enough to indicate to you 

 the illimitable sphere of Christian in- 

 fluence that lies before you if you care to 

 occupy it ? Have I said enough to show 

 you the dire needs of those who are fight- 

 ing in the sacred cause that you have 

 made your own ? 



Even so, I have left untouched all the 

 work of caring for the homeless, starving 

 populations, now being daily released 



