This Side the Trenches/Chapter 2
Every soldier and sailor would like to leave four things with his family when he enters the service of the country.
The first of these four things is morale, the very same grit and cheerfulness which the man himself needs when he is at the front or on shipboard, the pluck, the courage, the ability to do for oneself, the initiative, the self-reliance that people have in mind when they say that this or that person, this or that family, is made of the right stuff.
Morale is a spiritual quality. It is not a thing to be given in a moment and at will to the folks at home, either by the man himself or by anybody else. It comes down through the generations, is born with the souls of those who have it, and is then nourished and strengthened by a wholesome family life. It exists in nearly everybody, in some in such small degree as scarcely to be recognizable; in others in such abundance that no crisis seems to be great enough to daunt them.
The morale of an individual or a household can be strengthened and protected just as the morale of the army and navy is safeguarded by the Home Service of the Red Cross. Whatever association the Red Cross has with families is influenced by the desire to foster this spirit in them.
The three other things which the soldier or the sailor would like to leave with his family—and which many men are able to leave—are friends, credit, and money. Friends in such number and variety that no matter in what perplexity the family may find itself there will be someone who can supply just the right sort of advice, friends in every profession and business, friends with every kind of ability and skill, friends with unlimited resources. Credit not merely at the grocery store or with the coal dealer, but credit as it has been defined by a great financier, the credit of character, of a good name, of standing in the neighborhood and in the town. Money enough to meet emergencies and to assure the household that it will lack none of the necessities of life. The man, who, confident of the morale of those at home, can also leave with them such friends, such credit, and money, can indeed go to camp with the assurance that his family is prepared to meet whatever fortune may bring. It is such friends, such credit, and money that the Home Service of the Red Cross aims to provide.
Friends were what the woman about to become a mother wanted (See Chapter I), what the lonely widow wanted, what the wife who was mistreated by her relatives wanted. The aged parents whose remaining son died just at harvest time needed both credit and friends. It is difficult enough for a wealthy and able-bodied farmer to arrange for the harvesting of his crops without both; how much more so for an aged man and woman. The Red Cross supplied these as it supplied the friends which the mother, the widow, and the wife required. It supplied also a friend who could advise and help the wife of the sailor who in his absence was finding difficult the management of three unruly boys.
The woman who after her son's departure learned that she had cancer (See Chapter I), was too far advanced both in years and in her disease to hope for a cure. Her need was for that kind of care which during her remaining days would spare her as much pain and inconvenience as possible. The young woman with tuberculosis might expect to recover if she could go away toasanatorium. But what sanatorium, and how could she get there, and how should she prepare herself to go, and what about the household arrangements while she was gone? Surely these two women needed friends not only with medical training, but also with ability to suggest ways of adjusting things at home. These friends the Home Service of the Red Cross provided.
Money or credit was the immediate need of the household before whose door the moving van arrived to claim the furniture upon which several installments were overdue. The Red Cross supplied both. It also gave friendly advice which helped the family so to arrange its affairs that it could meet future demands for payment.
The chief financial responsibility for the families of the men in the service rests upon the government. It pays monthly allowances to them, insures the soldiers and sailors against death, and compensates them on their return to civil life if they are disabled by sickness, wounds, or other injury incurred in the service. In doing this, however, the government is necessarily guided by certain definite rules and regulations. It cannot meet sudden emergencies. It cannot distinguish between the needs of families except in an arbitrary way, as, for example, according to the number of children. Yet we know that sickness, habits of life, place of residence, and a great variety of other things cause families to differ from each other in their financial needs.
Here, then, is where the financial phase of Home Service begins. When the unforeseen happens, when there is delay in the payment of the monthly allowance, or when the allowance needs to be supplemented, the Red Cross is ready to help.
Credit, the credit that goes with a good name and the confidence of the public, this also the Red Cross has without limit. Shortly after the declaration of war with Germany, President Wilson in an official proclamation designated the Red Cross as the one agency with which the government would cooperate in helping the families of soldiers and sailors. It has also the credit that comes from a membership of more than twenty million persons. There is no hamlet so small or so remote that the Red Cross pin is not to be seen there. Nearly every county in every state in the Union has its Red Cross Chapter. Excepting perhaps the postal service, there is no agency in the United States that is so widely organized. The credit of the Red Cross is second only to the credit of the government.
The Red Cross offers the families of men in the service the assurance of friends. Wherever households are found to be in need of help, whether in city, town, or country, there a Home Service Section has been formed as part of the local Red Cross Chapter. The Home Service Section is a committee of men and women representing, when fully organized, every profession, interest, and calling in the county or town which it serves. The lawyer, the doctor, the nurse, the social worker, the teacher, the clergyman, the business man, the business woman, the housekeeper, the woman with an interest in civic affairs, Jew, Catholic, Protestant, rich, and poor, are welcomed to membership. It is made up, especially in the larger towns, of such a variety of people that no matter what happens to a family, no matter what the nature of the difficulty which confronts it, some member of the committee will have the knowledge, the experience, and the acquaintanceship needed for the solution of the problem.
The Red Cross offers to one or more women in each Home Service Section special training for the work of helping the families of soldiers and sailors out of the troubles that may perplex them. This instruction is provided through Home Service Institutes which the Red Cross has established in connection with universities and schools for social work in twenty-five different cities of the United States and through courses in Home Service conducted by many of the Red Cross Chapters. These Institutes and Chapter Courses are under the direction of experienced persons. Those who take this training become the Home Service workers who make available to the families of soldiers and sailors the money, credit, and friends of the Red Cross.
Friends, credit, and money might be called the tools of Home Service. The art of using these tools so as to help families out of trouble, giving them opportunity for self-improvement, and enabling them to advance their ideals and their moral and physical welfare, is the essence of Home Service. Home Service applies to the families of men in all branches of the service, the regular army as well as the national guard and the national army, sailors, marines, men of the aviation corps, engineers, and the families of men and women attached to hospital units as nurses, doctors, orderlies, ambulance drivers. It has to do also with the families of soldiers of any of the allied forces living in this country, and with the families of civilians who have been wounded or killed as the direct result of war activities as, for example, through the torpedoing of a merchant vessel by a submarine.
A majority of these families will be able to live through the anxiety and stress of war times without the assistance of the Home Service of the Red Cross. But, on the other hand, the power of self-helpfulness of a large minority will be strained to the breaking point because of lack of opportunity, ill-health, misfortune, or sudden changes in living conditions brought about by the war.
Home Service is constructive. Its assurance to the men at the front or on the high seas is the greater because its purpose is to enable their families to better themselves. While all the world is turning its energy to the work of destruction or to repairing wounds that more destruction may be accomplished, the Red Cross through its Home Service is trying to build better homes and better people.
This work, moreover, differs from all the other activities of the Red Cross in one respect. Thus, the great enterprise of the Red Cross in restoring the homes which have been devastated by the actual passage of war is necessarily conducted across the ocean in Belgium, Serbia, and France. Again, the making of sweaters and wearing apparel for the soldiers and sailors, the rolling of bandages, the manufacture of hospital material, the mobilizing of doctors, nurses, and supplies, is all intended for, and directed to, the actual battlefront. Home Service, however, whose intimate effect upon the result of the war is shown by its influence upon the morale of the troops, is the one activity of the Red Cross that is concentrated in the United States and that works primarily for the people on this side the trenches.
Review of Chapter II
1. What are the four things which every soldier and sailor would like to leave with his family?
2. Which is the first and most important of these? Which three does Home Service provide?
3. (a) In what sense is 'friends' here used? (b) In what sense is 'credit' used?
4. What is the basis of the credit of the Red Cross?
5. How does the Red Cross provide friends for the families of soldiers and sailors?
6. Whose is the chief financial responsibility, after that of the men in the service themselves, for the families of soldiers and sailors?
7. Where does the financial phase of Home Service begin?
8. (a) Define Home Service. (b) Describe the membership of a Home Service Section. (c) Is there a Home Service Section in your town? Where is its headquarters?
9. To what families does Home Service apply?
10. How does Home Service differ from the other activities of the Red Cross?