LXXXI
Clara Barton—America’s foremost philanthropist.
Pasadena (Calif.)News.
Pasadena (Calif.)News.
Pasadena (Calif.)News.
Pasadena (Calif.)News.
Clara Barton—the usefulness of this extraordinary woman.
San Jose (Calif.)Herald.
San Jose (Calif.)Herald.
San Jose (Calif.)Herald.
San Jose (Calif.)Herald.
Clara Barton—the most useful woman of her day.
Bangor (Me.)News.
Bangor (Me.)News.
Bangor (Me.)News.
Bangor (Me.)News.
Clara Barton’s slogan: “People’s Help for National Needs.”
The American Red Cross (1896) never appeals for, nor solicits, aid for any purpose.Clara Barton.
The Red Cross has received nothing from the Government. No fund has been created for it.Clara Barton.
Not a penny of tax, nor dues, has ever been asked for the expenses of the National Red Cross.Clara Barton.
Every dollar and every pound that has been received by the Red Cross has been the free-will offering of the people, given for humanity without solicitation and disbursed without reward.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
The greatest work performed by the Red Cross has consisted in the education of the peoples along the lines of humanity.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
The Red Cross was “her child,” and Clara Barton naturally and willingly provided for it.Heroines of Modern Progress.
When the Government accepted the Red Cross, perhaps a bit arrogantly, I felt that my end was accomplished and I was ready to give it up.Clara Barton.
The Red Cross “opposes the arms of humanity to the arms of violence.”Clara Barton.
Antagonistic to nothing the Red Cross can know neither jealousies nor rivalry.Clara Barton.
The future of the Red Cross will be worthy of the labors and sacrifices in which it originated.Clara Barton.
But for the never-ending kindly words that bade me strive on, I fear I should have been inclined to give up the fight.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
For me I had few words of prayerful gratitude and many memories of the long years of patient watching that had brought the American Red Cross even up to the point it had attained.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
Clara Barton.
In 1902 a party of friends visited Clara Barton in her Glen Echo Red Cross home. In our party were two gentlemen from Mexico. One of the latter, an Englishman, had lived in the “Land of the Montezumas” for many years. He described to Miss Barton the people, their peculiar customs, their love of music and the other arts, their beautiful Moorish architecture, their lofty mountains and fertile valleys. Then he portrayed the characteristics of Porfirio Diaz, the then popular ruler of the Mexican Republic.
Miss Barton was much interested. She said that for some time she had been doing what she could to get the Mexican Government to organize, under the Geneva Convention, a Red Cross Society. With the tact of a diplomat and the strategy of a general she laid out her plan of campaign. She asserted that in no othercountry could so much good be done by the Red Cross as in Mexico.
She wanted the influence of President Diaz. How could she get it? Through whom? And of what assistance could her Mexican guests be to her? That her guests might become interested in the Red Cross she described in detail her work, how she got the necessary funds, the supplies, and how they were distributed. She explained that whenever there was suffering from flood, fire, famine—suffering anywhere in the world from any cause—she would issue a call, setting forth the fact and needs. Immediately thereafter, the good people would respond with money, food, clothing. In some cases money and material were sent to her personally, and sometimes to her as President of the Red Cross.
Also she would send out an appeal for assistants who would serve without pay on any certain field of disaster. At that time the Government did nothing whatever for the Red Cross; had not contributed towards it so much even as the value of a postage stamp. Then the people were being educated along the lines of humanity, and which Clara Barton said was the most important work of the Red Cross Society. As the result of such education and of its then growing importance, she predicted that sometime it would be the largest organization in the United States. In fulfillment of this prediction, in the World War, the people on one occasion, in a few days, responded to a Red Cross call for $100,000,000.
CLARA BARTONThe President (now In Memoriam) of the National First Aid Association of America.
CLARA BARTONThe President (now In Memoriam) of the National First Aid Association of America.
CLARA BARTONThe President (now In Memoriam) of the National First Aid Association of America.
HARRIETTE L. REEDWith statesmanlike ability Clara Barton directed the affairs of panic-stricken citizens paralyzed by the fearful calamities which had overtaken them and rendered them powerless.—Harriette L. Reed(Sister Harriette). Also known as Mrs. J. Sewall Reed, First Acting President of the National First Aid Association of America, June 6, 1912–April 2, 1920.
HARRIETTE L. REEDWith statesmanlike ability Clara Barton directed the affairs of panic-stricken citizens paralyzed by the fearful calamities which had overtaken them and rendered them powerless.—Harriette L. Reed(Sister Harriette). Also known as Mrs. J. Sewall Reed, First Acting President of the National First Aid Association of America, June 6, 1912–April 2, 1920.
HARRIETTE L. REEDWith statesmanlike ability Clara Barton directed the affairs of panic-stricken citizens paralyzed by the fearful calamities which had overtaken them and rendered them powerless.—Harriette L. Reed(Sister Harriette). Also known as Mrs. J. Sewall Reed, First Acting President of the National First Aid Association of America, June 6, 1912–April 2, 1920.
The historic pictures on this page were taken each on the occasion of the organization of the National First Aid Association of America, in Boston, in 1905.
See page257.