American Consul in
the districts affected. They mobilised the American colony in Rome and
arranged by wire for similar organisations to be formed throughout
the length and breadth of Italy, wherever they could lay hands on an
American. On all principal junction points through which the refugees
would pass, soup-kitchens were installed and clothes were purchased
and ready to be distributed as the trains pulled into the stations.
They were badly needed, for the passengers had endured all the rigours
of the retreat with the soldiers. They had been under shell and
machine-gun fire. They had been bombed by aeroplanes. No horror of
warfare had been spared them. Their clothes were verminous with weeks
of wearing. They were packed like cattle. Babies born on the journey
were wrapped in newspapers. There were instances of officers taking
off their shirts that the little bodies should not go naked. A
telegram was at once despatched to Paris for food and clothes and
hospital supplies. Twenty-four cars came through within a week,
despite the unusual military traffic. This ends the list of what was
accomplished by two men in one day.

The great thing was to make the demoralised Italians feel that America
was on the spot and helping them. The sending of troops could not have
reused their fighting spirit. They were sick of fighting. What they
needed was the assurance that the world was not wholly brutal--that
there was some one who was merciful, who did not condemn and who
was moved by their sorrow. This assurance the prompt action of the
American Red Cross gave. It restored in the affirmative with mercy,
precisely the quality which Hun fury and propaganda had destroyed with
lies. It restored to them their belief in the nobility of mankind, out
of which belief grows all true courage.

As the work progressed, it branched out on a much larger scale,
embracing civilian, military and child-welfare activities. In the
month of November upward of half a million lire were placed in the
hands of American consuls for distribution. One million lire were
contributed for the benefit of soldiers' families. A permanent
headquarters was established with trained business men and men who had
had experience under Hoover in Belgium in charge of its departments.
Over 100 hospitals and two principal magazines of hospital stores
had been lost in the retreat. The American Red Cross made up this
deficiency by supplying the bedding for no less than 3,000 be