LXXVIII

War, although more tragic, is not the only evil that assails humanity.Clara Barton.

Do you know that more than 1,500,000 persons were killed or injured in automobile accidents in 1921?Boston American, May 16, 1922.

Not nearly all the sick and crippled are on the battlefield, nor is all the danger there.Clara Barton.

Peace has her battlefields, no less than war.Clara Barton.

Day by day men and women are being maimed and killed in our great industrial struggle, and in the rush and hurry of our strenuous life. It is in the mitigation of the horrors of this strife, and of this struggle, that the First Aid Department of the Red Cross is to find its mission and its work.E. Howe,Superintendent of the First Aid Department, American National Red Cross (December 8, 1903).

The mission of the First Aid (National First Aid Association of America) is to preserve the name of Clara Barton all over the country. The work she accomplished during the Civil War placed her at the head of the women of the country at that time, and her name should stand forever before the American people. We all know how England is reverencing the name of Florence Nightingale, and it is for America to preserve the name of her Florence Nightingale in Clara Barton whose efforts have been so world-wide as to place her at the head of woman’s work for humanity throughout the world.Mrs. J. Sewall Reed, first Acting President, National First Aid Association of America (in address to 9th annual meeting of the association held May 7, 1914).

The work of the National First Aid Association of America, which was founded by the noble Clara Barton, continues to “Carry On” in the philanthropic spirit which it has inherited from her.The association is practically a college for National First Aid work, offering one course of lectures, one textbook, one examination in kind, for all to follow. The handsome diploma which is only granted to students attaining 80 per cent., or over, upon a thorough examination is the prized possession of thousands of graduates all over the United States, Alaska, Panama, Canada and England. Thus do we honor our president, Clara Barton, in death—world honored as she was in life for her achievements for suffering humanity; for upon each diploma the association has placed these words—“Clara Barton, Founder and President.”Roscoe Green Wells, present Acting President, National First Aid Association of America. October 15, 1921.

Clara Barton was a world worker for suffering humanity, and our first president. As a perpetual tribute to her memory the National First Aid Association of America has established her name as “President—In Memoriam.” Clara Barton has passed on, but the noble spirit which lived within her continues to live in her last great national endeavor.Mary Kensel Wells, Secretary of the National First Aid Association of America. October 16, 1921.

The First Aid will become time-honored in America, for it has come to stay. Its character is broad and firm, its title clear; and although young its organization is complete. It has its own characteristics, in keeping with its motives,—neither ambition, self-seeking, nor vain-glory, but good-will, helpfulness, kindliness, the spirit of Him who gave his life for others, whose example we seek to follow, and whose blessed birth was God’s great Christmas gift to the world.Clara Barton(Christmas, 1905), President, the National First Aid Association of America.

To the Friends of these, and other, days:

“Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Ay! Many New Years, each happier than the last.

“The unerring records affirm that on Christmas day of 1821, 84 years ago, I commenced this earthly life; still, by the blessing of God I am strong and well, knowing neither illness nor fatigue, disability nor despondency, and take the privilege of bringing to you an outline of My Later Work (First Aid). * * * Work has always been a part of the best religion I had.”

Clara Barton.(In 1905.)

Clara Barton.

(In 1905.)

(Clara Barton, President In Memoriam; and First Aid Department in the American National Red Cross)

On February 9, 1903, there was established in the American National Red Cross a department known as “First Aid to the Injured.” Mr. Edward Howe, a member of the St. John Ambulance Association of London, England, was made the Superintendent of the department.

On December 8, 1903, Section 7 of the By-Laws to the Constitution was adopted and provided for its permanent operation—the formation of classes of instruction in first aid, methods of treatment of the injured and other necessary provisions. On December 8, 1903, Superintendent Howe made his first annual report, including the approval of thirty-five States of the Union, through the Governors respectively; also his report of its successful inception in Massachusetts. “The American Amendment” to the Red Cross Treaty of Geneva,and relating to national disasters, was thus followed by the First Aid Department to the Red Cross.

There are pioneer souls that blaze their pathsWhere highways never ran;—But let me live by the side of the roadAnd be a friend to man.

There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths

Where highways never ran;—

But let me live by the side of the road

And be a friend to man.

After Clara Barton’s retirement from the Presidency of the Red Cross in 1904, the First Aid Department was discontinued, but was reëstablished January 2, 1910. Independent of the American National Red Cross Clara Barton organized the National First Aid Association of America. She was the President of the Association while she lived and, since her death, to perpetuate the Clara Barton spirit and to be a permanent Memorial to the Founder, Clara Barton is officially recognized as

“The President In Memoriam.”

The National First Aid Association of America was the development of a little New England organization named The New England First Aid Association, and Clara Barton was the Chairman of its Advisory Board. When the work grew and calls came for classes from western and southern states, it was Clara Barton who suggested the value of national incorporation. Therefore, on April 18, 1905, The National First Aid Association of America was incorporated, under the laws of the District of Columbia, and Clara Barton accepted the Presidency.

“To Clara Barton’s First Aid,” thus addressed, are many letters which arrive at the headquarters of The National First Aid Association of America in Arlington,Massachusetts. Although not the corporate name of the last great work of Clara Barton, it serves the purpose of demonstrating that First Aid and Clara Barton are inseparable.

The real tribute of Clara Barton to the organization, which is today paying tribute to her, lies in the following words of welcome which she delivered at the second annual meeting of The National First Aid Association of America in 1907, as its President. Opening her address by reading a letter from former field workers, she continued:—

“They are not with us, and I have given this soulful letter in their place.

“I have read it because it speaks the silent sentiment of a body of people, few of whom are here, and few of whom you know. From far off scattered homes they watch the flickering blaze of this new bonfire, with an anxious tender interest you little dream of. Below its sparkling flame they see the embers from which it springs. They live over again the terrible fields of woe where the sufferers suffered, and the dying died; where, in the moment of consternation paralyzing the whole land, they stood, the sudden vanguard of order and relief, till other help could reach—never asking for help—never shouting for aid nor money, but trusting to the great hearts of the people to render what they had to render, when they should understand the need. This, friends, was First Aid, and the people were the doctors. We held life in the injured till they could be reached.

“Did our method fail? Let the old friends answer. Was a more satisfactory relief record ever made? Let the swollen Ohio and Mississippi, Johnstown, the SeaIslands, Armenia, and Galveston make reply. It was the foundation of knowledge through experience gained there and then that makes this work and this day possible. These are the smouldering embers watched from afar.

“But this, friends, is the giving, and the teaching of mere material aid for human suffering; all to be done over and over again to the end of time, and no one the wiser, no one knowing any better what to do than before. This was charity. Blessed be it for ‘the greatest of these is charity.’ Leave it to do its work in its own way.

“But out of this has come to us another feature of human beneficence, having its foundation in knowledge; when one shall know, not only how to give, but how to do, and possibly prevent; when every man may understand his wounded brother’s need and how to meet it; when the mother shall know how to save her child in accident; when even the child shall be taught how to lessen the pain or to save the life of its playmate—then comes the real help.

“Think, friends, what it would be—yes, what it will be, when all the rough, sturdy men of danger, living every hour in the face of accident and death, shall know what to do in the moment for his writhing companion in toil; when the homes—the children in the streets and in the schools—shall all possess the knowledge which this method of human beneficence teaches—this is First Aid—this is what it stands for—the lessons which it inculcates and its faithful apostles teach.

“So young, so tiny, this beginning seems to you, scarcely meriting the attention or the aid of busy people.

“But, watch it, busy men and women, it will bear watching.

“We are here today to learn something of what it has accomplished in a year.... I am dumb with amazement. The very thought of the diligence—the tirelessness—the cheerful alacrity—the bravery with which obstacles have been attacked—the courage with which they have been overcome—the single handedness—the small means and the great results astonish, and gratify me. So much for so little. Let me step aside and give place to the report which will tell us all.”

The association is today what its name implies—The National Association of First Aid in America. It is to the American people what the St. John Ambulance Association is to England, and the St. Andrews Ambulance Association is to Scotland. It is a college of National First Aid instruction—offering one textbook, one course of lectures, one examination, one diploma in kind for all.

For the past nine years, since the death of the Founder, it has given service the Clara Barton way—promptly, efficiently, thoroughly—and its classes send forth each year hundreds of National First Aid graduates who are capable men and women, and who wear the little medallion of National First Aid service (which only a graduate may purchase and wear), out into a world of suffering humanity. Word of their activities comes back to national headquarters from many fields—even from far off India, South America, and the Hawaiian Islands. One graduate sent back word from the Soudan, Africa, “What would we have done without National First Aid when there is only one medical doctor to every 500,000 natives?”

Clara Barton said of The National First Aid Association of America: “Another work reaches out its hands to me and I have taken them. The humane and far sighted are pressing to its standard—the standard of organized First Aid to the Injured.”

The true history of Clara Barton should not leave out the work of The National First Aid Association of America, Clara Barton’s last work. If so, the history of the great philanthropist becomes an unfinished record. The association stands today as a working memorial to Clara Barton. It continues to serve the American people under her name. Without ostentation it continues its humane service, making friends, sending forth efficient graduates, and carrying systematic and organized First Aid instruction to every part of the country.

By a leading cosmopolitan newspaper: “It is said that every year more than 11,000,000 persons, about one-tenth of the total population of the United States, fall downstairs, get run over, drown, lean too far out of the window or peer into a gun they ‘didn’t think was loaded,’ meeting death or injury in these and kindred ways. Statisticians say that, when war claims a victim, accident takes four victims.”

It is estimated that 100,000 fatal accidents occur annually in the United States, and 500,000 accidents occur that render the victims incapable of earning their own living. Hundreds of thousands are being trained in first aid classes; and likewise many hundreds of thousands of victims of accidents on the railways, in the factories, and on the farms, are receiving the benefits of first aid assistance. The First Aid Division of the American Red Cross is affiliated with the Young Men’sChristian Association, the Young Women’s Christian Association, the Boy Scouts of America, the Girl Scouts of America, and also allied with many other humanitarian and patriotic associations.

“First Aid,” therefore, is becoming hardly less important in war and peace than Red Cross Aid in war. Clara Barton’s constructive humanitarian work in First Aid may yet be recognized by her country as even of greater humanitarian service than her Red Cross achievement, or that of the “American Amendment” to the International Red Cross. For seven years—from the inception of the “First Aid” in 1905 to 1912—Clara Barton was the unanimous choice of its members for President. To her co-workers in her latest national humanitarian association are the prophetic words of the “Mother of First Aid:”

“I believe the ‘First Aid’ to be the beginning of an organized movement that shall permeate more homes, carry useful knowledge to more men and women who would get it in no other way, assuage more suffering that nothing else could reach, awaken an interest in the welfare of his brother man in more rough toil-worn hearts unknown to it before, than lies in our power to estimate or our hopes to conceive.”

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