Address to the Annual Convention of the American National Red Cross.

I AM PARTICULARLY glad to welcome this annual convention of the American Red Cross. During this past year this great mutual institution of the whole people has been put again to severe tests, not only as to its practical ability to meet national disaster but a test involving its whole moral and spiritual purpose. You have, under most difficult handicaps, again demonstrated that it can meet and relieve human suffering in any national disaster.

The drought presented a new type of problem for the Red Cross-the problem of famine in over 2 millions of people. Your leaders, alive to the possibility of suffering which would be the inescapable result during the winter, began as early as last August to mobilize the Red Cross to meet the inevitable burden. It was that far-sighted action and that early action which enabled the saving of this multitude of people from infinite suffering. Unfortunately, men less familiar with the resources and the ability and the courage of the American people in mutual action under their own Red Cross, men no doubt genuinely concerned over the growing seriousness of the situation, were skeptical of your abilities and the forces which give it strength, and were insistent that the Red Cross should abandon its voluntary character, should abandon its independence and its foundations in service which are part of the spiritual life of our country, and become in effect a Government bureau through Federal appropriations as the source of its funds. They did not realize that the Red Cross represents a vital and precious force in our people-their ability and strength in voluntary action and their sense of service and of moral responsibility. For the Red Cross springs from the people; it is of the people--it is a part of their spiritual expression. It was a momentous decision which confronted you, to refuse the easy course that was proposed, and it has been due to you, officers and members of the Red Cross in every city and hamlet of the United States, to your courage, your resolution, and devotion, that it has been possible even in a time of extreme economic difficulty to prove your strength and ability to meet national emergencies, by finding from your members the financial resources on the one hand and the ability and the sense of service for distribution on the other. If your officers had yielded on this occasion the Red Cross would have been rendered impotent in the face of every future national emergency, for it would have been inevitable to turn to the Government and the taxpayer; it would have meant the destruction of the spirit of the Red Cross and it would have been the destruction of something even greater than voluntary service--it would have injured the spiritual responses of the American people. It would have been a step on the pathway of Government doles.

In problems of this kind we are dealing with the intangibles of life and ideals. We are dealing also with the highest thing in our civilization, that is, the sense of personal responsibility of neighbor for neighbor, the spirit of charity and benevolence in the individual, the holding alight the lamp of voluntary action in American life. A voluntary deed by a man impressed with the sense of responsibility and brotherhood of man is infinitely more precious to our national ideals and national spirit than a thousandfold poured from the Treasury of the Government under the compulsion of law. Your organization is indeed the highest form of self-government, that is, for our people to organize themselves without the force of law.

The spiritual question is not solely a problem of giving and raising funds; it is equally a question of their distribution--for here again is mobilized the sense of voluntary service. There is within it the solicitude and care given to the individual in distress based upon his need and not upon his claim of right or influence. The very spirit that makes the Red Cross possible assures it a probity and devotion in service which no government can ever attain.

In all this there is the imponderable of spiritual ideal and spiritual growth. It is indeed the spiritual in the individual and in the Nation which looks out with keen interest on the wall-being of others, forgetful of ourselves, beyond our own preoccupation with our own selfish interests and gives us a sense of belonging to the great company of mankind, sharing in the great plan of the universe and the definite order which pervades it. To impose this burden upon someone else by the arm of the law does not awaken the spirit of our people. A great spiritual value comes to those who give from the thankful heart who give because of their sensibility to suffering. It is this spiritual value, which is exemplified in the Red Cross, that is of transcendent value to our Nation. It is because of the courage and maintenance of this spirit and this value that I wish on this occasion to pay tribute to each and every man of you and to your board of governors, and more especially to your Chairman. You have not alone served our country in distress but you have contributed to preserve a great ideal in our people. You have proved yourselves not only a practical instrument of mercy and relief but you have renewed and invigorated the spiritual life of the Nation.

You are inscribing another bright chapter in the history of the American Red Cross; and you are inserting a chapter of spiritual growth of our country.