Odessa Montour Central High School - Odessanean Yearbook (Odessa, NY)

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The Red Gross It was on a hot sultry afternoon in June 1859 lust after the battle of -.1 ferine that Henri Dunant, a young Swiss n..opc:.eu to oe travelling across the battlef.u;id- tis neart was by “he agonizing crie s of the wounded end he ciiuld no o bear to go away and leave toe.' on their sui.ej-ng without at least trying to do something ior -hem. He went to a neighboring Ita i enviiiage and persuade, a number of women to go baoK to the battlefield d help him care for the men there, they cared foi friend and foe alike, bathinf and dressing their wounds, Xrrying water for those 0 «« thirsty and cheerrng the downhearted. .. All of this left a great impression on his mind. So he wrote a pharaplef which desorobed one horrors of this battlefield and at the tame time made a plea for an organization to protect and care .or wounded souSrsrS the time of for. fie and an international conference -.fas held m 1 do4 at Geneva. At this conference treaty called “'The Red Cross rctiuy • 9 -® organization of the first Red Gross Society. To Clara Barton belongs the story of the birth of the Red Cress in America and re must remember t xa she succeeded where two able atatesmsn had failed. The United States minister to pwitzerland had the United States to join the Geneva Trea-y during Civil War as early as 1634. Then after I860, Dr. Hen.y W. Bellows', who was at the time 9n?.P£2Sial . . -the Sanitary Commission of the Civil War oried f-years to secure the recognition ana auopti n c a treaty in the United dates. But even he could not overcome the national indifference of the t.e-tnen of this subject . ,a, .a 4 +n t v-, In the fall of 1869, Clara Barton decided to ta e trio abroad for her healtr., and it was during hor stay in Switzerland that she came in tcuchwith some of the International Committee 0, the Gross. From them she learned about the organization and « of the Rs(d Cross in that country, which impressed her very much. Inspired and. enccurag-c. by -- • . that committee and their wora, she , ''V “ '» + return home end organize an American Red Gjoss. At first her efforts were very unsuccessful but she kept up her courage and perseverence and finally 0 March 1, 1388 President Arthur signed the treaty - and the United States became a member of the Int„ national Red Cross.

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In recognition of her long efforts to introduce the Geneva Red Cross Treaty into this country, Clara Barton was appointed the first President cf the Society. She was determined to make the Rod Cross a living organization of personal nercy and to accomplish this work she worked during the rest of her life. The first national calamity t which Clara Barton directed her new born Red Crocs was the forest fire in Michigan in 1881. i’his calamity really benefitted the society because it offered a field for experiment and demonstrated the practical value cf its work. At this time half the state ci Michigan was devastated, forests and houses were burned and thousands cf people were left homeless. Nothing but charred stumps remained of the vaste forests which had extended over half the state. At Miss Barton13 home in Dansville, the white banner and red cross were flung to the breeze and the call for aid wa3 sent out. Soon people began to send in supplies; these were packed in bcxex in Mias Barton's home and distributed to the people who needed them. Rochester and New York were the first cities to form local branches of the Red Cress but Syracuse rapidly followed. As days went on, material and money was raised and distributed, amounting to $80,000. This first tryout of the Red Cross was very successful and proved to the people what it could do at such a time. The second disaster in which the Red Cross took part wa3 the Mississippi Flood in the early spring cf 1882. Here millions cf acres of cotton and sugar plantations and thousands of hemesw were covered with water. Money and supplies were immediately sent from the northern branches of the organization, as none had yet been formed in the south. Soon after that a local branch was formed at New Orleans. The Mississippi Flood afforded a still further and more extended trial for the Red Cress and the results were very successful. Already the Red Cross Societies cf Rochester had contributed over $14,000 in money and supplies to the sufferers, and it had not been in existence for a year. In 190 5 the Congress of the United States incorporated the Red Cress and by this act of government assumedvthe right to coatroll its operation. Now the President of the United States,is President of the z Red Cross.Society. But its detailed operations are in the hands of officers of a committee whose chairman is appointed by the President.. Every dollar given to it must be accounted for to officials of the government .In 1913 Congress voted $400,000 for the building cf a national Red Cross building in Washington cn condition that $300,000 mere be raised by the society. This task was easmlt accomplished.