World War, 1914-1918 -- Atrocities; World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
I have shown the contribution of scientific skill and mechanical
ingenuity which Americans have made in hospital and ambulance work.
There remains a work in which our other American characteristic of
executive ability is shown. Organization is the merit of the American
Relief Clearing House. When the war broke out, American gifts tumbled
into Paris, addressed and unaddressed. There was a tangle and muddle
of generosity. The American Relief Clearing House was formed to meet
this need. It centralizes and controls the receipt of relief from
America intended for France and her Allies. It collects fresh accurate
information on ravaged districts and suffering people. It prevents
waste and overlapping and duplication. It obtains free transportation
across the ocean for all gifts, free entry through the French customs,
and free transportation on all the French railways. It forwards the
gifts to the particular point, when it is specified. It distributes
unmarked supplies to places of need. It receives money and purchases
supplies. It has 114 persons giving all their time to its work. It has
issued 45,000 personally signed letters telling of the work. It employs
ten auto trucks in handling goods. It has concentrated time, effort
and gifts. It has obtained and spread information of the needs of the
Allies. It has been efficient in creating relationship between the
donor in America and the recipient in France, and in increasing good
will between the nations. I do not write of the Clearing House from the
outside, but from a long experience. For many months my wife has given
all her time to making known the work of Miss Fyfe who manages the work
of relief for civilians, their transportation, and conducts a refugee
house, and a Maternity Hospital in the little strip of Belgium which
is still unenslaved. Little local committees, such as Miss Rider's in
Norwalk, in Cedar Rapids, in Montclair, and in Douglaston, L. I., have
been formed, and 36 boxes of material, and over $1,500 in money, have
been given. Those supplies the Clearing House has brought from New York
to La Panne, Belgium, free of charge, promptly, with no damage and no
losses. What the Clearing House has done for this humble effort, it
has done for 60,000 other consignments, and for more than a million
dollars of money. It has distributed supplies to 2,500 hospitals and
200 relief organizations in France. It has sent goods to Belgium,
Salonica, to the sick French prisoners in Switzerland. It dispatched
the ship _Menhir_ for the relief of Serbian refugees. It has installed
a complete hospital, with 200 beds and a radiograph outfit. The cases
which it transports contain gauze, cotton, bandages, hospital clothing,
surgical instruments, garments, underwear, boots, socks. The names of
the men who have administered this excellent organization in Paris are
H. O. Beatty, Charles R. Scott, Randolph Mordecai, James R. Barbour,
and Walter Abbott.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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