The Life of Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross (Vol. 2 of 2) — John Shaqi
The Life of Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross (Vol. 2 of 2)Barton, William E. (William Eleazar)
History
The Life of Clara Barton, Founder of the American Red Cross (Vol. 2 of 2)
Barton, William E. (William Eleazar)
American National Red Cross -- Biography; Barton, Clara, 1821-1912; Nurses -- United States -- Biography
5th, Money to pay the workers,--sufficient for the number employed.
STRASSBURG, Dec. 9th, 1870
Miss Barton also sent an appeal to America for assistance in the
purchase of material. Her letter to the New York “Tribune” brought
her prompt response, and she was not without means for the support of
her work. She used the money which was sent to her in such fashion as
to make it do double duty. She bought material and had it made into
garments largely by the women who needed those garments for themselves
or their families. She paid them for their work in vouchers--two francs
a day, which was good pay; and she sold them the products of their work
at low prices. They received good wages for their labor and good value
for their wages, but, wherever they were able, they had to work for the
vouchers they got, and pay for the clothing they obtained.
I have some of the odd little two-franc vouchers which she required
the women to give. She was not held to any system of accounting, and
when there was need she spent money without vouchers; but wherever it
was feasible, she did her business in a business-like way, and she
taught the women to be business-like. In her final accounting, only
a surprisingly small fraction of her money had been expended without
vouchers.
On Christmas Day of 1870, her forty-ninth birthday, she wrote to Mrs.
Frances Childs Vassall a letter in which she gave an account of her own
work and also passed a distinctly unfavorable judgment upon the French
as they appeared to her at that time:
“WOMEN’S WORKROOM”
STRASSBURG, ALSACE, Dec. 25, 1870
MY DEAR FANNIE:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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