ties concerned of
the sudden changes of weather predicted by men of science.

Let us repeat that these hundreds of committees and local groups are
not organized hierarchically, and are composed exclusively of
volunteers, lifeboatmen, and people interested in the work. The Central
Committee, which is more of a centre for correspondence, in no wise
interferes.

It is true that when a voting on some question of education or local
taxation takes place in a district, these committees of the National
Lifeboat Association do not, as such, take part in the deliberations--a
modesty, which unfortunately the members of elected bodies do not
imitate. But, on the other hand, these brave men do not allow those who
have never faced a storm to legislate for them about saving life. At the
first signal of distress they rush to their boats, and go ahead. There
are no embroidered uniforms, but much goodwill.

Let us take another society of the same kind, that of the Red Cross. The
name matters little; let us examine it.

Imagine somebody saying fifty years ago: "The State, capable as it is of
massacring twenty thousand men in a day, and of wounding fifty thousand
more, is incapable of helping its own victims; consequently, as long as
war exists private initiative must intervene, and men of goodwill must
organize internationally for this humane work!" What mockery would not
have met the man who would have dared to speak thus! To begin with, he
would have been called a Utopian, and if that did not silence him he
would have been told: "What nonsense! Your volunteers will be found
wanting precisely where they are most needed, your volunteer hospitals
will be centralized in a safe place, while everything will be wanting in
the ambulances. Utopians like you forget the national rivalries which
will cause the poor soldiers to die without any help." Such
disheartening remarks would have only been equalled by the number of
speakers. Who of us has not heard men hold forth in this strain?

Now we know what happened. Red Cross societies organized themselves
freely, everywhere, in all countries, in thousands of localities; and
when the war of 1870-1 broke out, the volunteers set to work. Men and
women offered their services. Thousands of hospitals and ambulances
were organized; trains were started carrying ambulances, provisions,
linen, and medicaments for the wounded. The English committees sent
entire convoys of food, clothing, tools, grain to so