STAND BY THE SOLDIER 



457 



that the Red Cross be made the vehicle 

 of our response. 



Organization for any task is the more 

 important as the task becomes larger and 

 more serious. It requires no organiza- 

 tion to allow one of us as an individual 

 to buy a dinner for a hungry man. But 

 it requires a very high degree of organi- 

 zation effectively and economically and 

 wisely to administer the charities of a 

 city. It requires a very much higher de- 

 gree of organization and coordination to 

 make effective the philanthropies of a 

 nation. 



By . that same token it requires the 

 highest degree of organization, of con- 

 centration and consecration of purpose, 

 the most careful cooperation, the most 

 willing harmony, the utmost centraliza- 

 tion of effort, to deal with the woes of a 

 world. 



And so, in the interest of making ef- 

 fective our generous impulses, in the in- 

 terest of saving just as many as we can — 

 facing an impossible task in size, and yet 

 seeking to save life and alleviate pain and 

 suffering just as far as we can — the con- 

 centration of our efforts through the Red 

 Cross, which has both a national and an 

 international status and is managed and 

 conducted by men of large affairs and 

 great experience with this sort of thing, 

 seems to be essentially demanded. 



I think if anybody would ask me how 

 much he ought to give to the Red Cross 

 at this time I would say, "All you have." 



That is a counsel of perfection, I know, 

 but then it would not be enough. 



I understand the War Council has set 

 itself the task of raising one hundred 

 million dollars. 



GIVE TILL YOU FEEL IT 



That may sound to some like a large 

 amount, and yet this war is costing in 

 actual money every day from sixty to 

 seventy millions of dollars, and in human 

 life from ten to fifteen thousand of those 

 who are killed in actual warfare, without 

 counting those who starve and die of 

 disease. 



The Red Cross of the United States of 

 America has set itself the great task of 

 raising for, one might say, cosmic phil- 

 anthropy a sum equal to the destruction 

 which the war entails in a day. 



I cannot further describe the size of 

 this task. I am very happy to repeat the 

 admonition of the President of the 

 United States to the people that they cen- 

 tralize their energies. Let us have as 

 little lost motion as possible about this 

 great enterprise, and center our activi- 

 ties in this national and international 

 agency. The response which we ought 

 to make ought to be limited only by the 

 extent to which our sympathy, enlight- 

 ened by knowledge and stirred by imagi- 

 nation, and then overstepping rather than 

 understepping the mark, will enable us to 

 make sacrifices for the greatest need the 

 world has ever known ! 



STAND BY THE SOLDIER 



By Major General John J. Pershing, U. S. Army 



1HAVE been requested by some of 

 the officers of the Red Cross to say 

 a word as to the part that organiza- 

 tion played in our little expedition into 

 Mexico. 



Just before Christmas, an official of the 

 Red Cross wrote me a note and asked me 

 what the Red Cross could do for the men 

 in Mexico. 



There was not anything that we really 

 needed, but her idea was to arouse a little 

 enthusiasm among the members of the 



Red Cross by encouraging them to work 

 for our own people ; so I telegraphed 

 her a list of things that I thought might 

 be acceptable as Christmas presents, in- 

 cluding cigarettes, cigarette papers, smok- 

 ing tobacco, pipes, old-fashioned candy, 

 comfort bags, bandanna handkerchiefs, 

 pocket-knives, and perhaps a dozen arti- 

 cles, thinking that she would select from 

 these some one thing to give to each man. 

 But she took the telegram literally, and 

 sent word around to the various chapters 



