that a great deal more than this information is needed. In these and in a hundred other ways the Home Service Section learns about the difficulties besetting the folks at home.
Its workers begin their Home Service with the realization that no two families are alike, that each family has its own hopes, its own ambitions, its own problems, its own strengths. Because she appreciates the sacredness of each family's life, each worker helps each family only as she feels that she understands it. It is upon this appreciation and this understanding of the individual family that the things described in the preceding chapters have been accomplished. But here what was said in Chapter V must be remembered. One does not really accomplish anything for a family. Whatever is accomplished is accomplished by the family itself. One cannot give a family health, education, or spiritual life. One can only offer it opportunity and encouragement. The rest remains with the family. It must work out its own salvation. Every man must be his own success.
Home Service, moreover, is not infallible. Its workers are only human beings. They have been hurriedly brought together by the emergency of war. They have no such miraculous abilities that merely to wish is to succeed. Many of them, indeed, are still learning the art of helping people. With it all, as the stories in this book show, much is being achieved.
This is true largely because Home Service is not a sudden discovery of the Red Cross. Like the art of healing, it has been slowly developing over many years. It started with the friendly aid which since all time neighbor has always given to neighbor. It has been fostered
