THE AMERICAN RED CROSS IN ITALY 



397 



fund the Prime Minister appointed an 

 Italian committee of prominent men and 

 women. By the purchase of tools for 

 laborers, instruments for professional 

 men, small stocks for petty storekeepers, 

 sewing machines for women, many of 

 the unfortunate people can be again 

 placed on a self-supporting basis. 



At the request of The Christian Herald, 

 which raised the money, $50,000 was for- 

 warded through the Italian Ambassador 

 in Washington to the Queen for the im- 

 mediate care of widows and babies, and 

 $5,000 contributed by the same generous 

 paper was sent for the relief of Walden- 

 sian sufferers in Sicily. 



Upon further suggestion from Mr 

 Griscom, after consultation with the 

 Italian government, $250,000 was con- 

 tributed for the maintenance of an agri- 

 cultural colony for the care of children 

 left dependents. This institution is to be 

 called "The American Red Cross Or- 

 phanage." The American Ambassador 

 at Rome is to be an ex officio member 

 of its board. It is to be established in 

 Sicily or Calabria, the government pro- 

 viding the land and the national commit- 

 tee the buildings. The children will be 

 educated as practical agriculturalists by 

 government experts. 



BUILDING HOUSES 



Some $20,000 more sent to Mr Gris- 

 com, together with $17,000, a balance left 

 from the Relief Ship Fund, is being ex- 

 pended as part of our Red Cross work 

 in the rebuilding of one of the ruined vil- 

 lages of Calabria. Between two and three 

 hundred wooden houses are to be con- 

 structed from lumber purchased in Na- 

 ples, and a small hospital is also to be 

 built. 



The greatest need today is for shelter. 



The purchase of materials for over two 

 thousand houses and the chartering of 

 ships for their transportation was the 

 wise use to which $500,000 of the Con- 

 gressional appropriation was applied. 

 The Red Cross also expended $107,000 

 for some six hundred houses and the 

 chartering of a ship for their transporta- 

 tion. 



The funds for the building of both the 

 American Red Cross houses and those 

 given by our government are also being 

 provided by our Red Cross, $48,000 hav- 

 ing been forwarded for that purpose. 

 The National Director of the American 

 Red Cross having been sent to Italy, 

 $14,000 has been placed to his credit in 

 Rome for such relief measures as he may 

 advise after consultation with Mr Gris- 

 com. It is possible that this amount, 

 with a further appropriation, may be re- 

 quired for the construction of small brick 

 ovens for the houses, as the use of stoves 

 among the poorer classes is unknown in 

 southern Italy. 



The American houses are being built 

 mainly at Messina and Reggio. Each 

 house is 20 by 16 feet, and, unlike the 

 long structures built by some of the other 

 countries, stands by itself and is clap- 

 boarded. Some of those already built 

 have been placed in groups of twelve 

 around rectangles, five on the sides and 

 one at each end, the Italian government 

 donating the land. 



The total amount so far expended 

 through the American Red Cross for the 

 Italian relief work amounts to $976,000. 

 Our people have been glad to help their 

 unfortunate fellow-men in southern Italy, 

 and from no portion of our land has the 

 response been so generous as from Cali- 

 fornia, so lately itself the scene of a great 

 disaster. 



