Editorial July 28, 1917 Issue

Red Cross Society

William D. McCrackan

Every human contrivance for betterment is susceptible of abuse unless divinely guided. Even the humanitarian institutions wherein brotherly love seeks an outlet need careful watching lest wolves in sheep's clothing creep into the fold and slaughter the lambs of innocent desire. The ideal for which each righteous institution stands must be protected against deliberate perversion, against exploitation at the hands of the unscrupulous, and against those gusts of sympathetic mesmerism which mental manipulators try to create for their own advantage.

The work of the Red Cross Society is exposed to crosscurrents of this kind. It is the outcome of a noble idea, it is instinct with divine compassion. The mention of it at once opens hearts and purses. Material religion and material medicine might in some instances like to divide among themselves the spoils of this popularity. But their efforts in this direction, if successful, might eventually slay the right idea of true benevolence underlying the Red Cross.

Miss Clara Barton was the founder of the Red Cross Society in the United States, and she linked this society to the International Committee in Geneva, Switzerland. The symbol of the Red Cross is the reverse of the Swiss flag, which consists of a white cross on a red ground. That Miss Barton's sense of religion and medicine was even then materialized seems improbable, judging from a glowing tribute which she gave to Mrs. Eddy and the teachings of Christian Science.

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