treatment of the unfortunate and helpless victims of war, and a series of resolutions looking to this object and providing methods by which they should be carried out were adopted. These resolutions were the basis of the Red Cross treaty of August 22, 1864, which was entered into at Geneva, Switzerland, by the plenipotentiaries representing Italy, Baden, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, France, Prussia, Saxony, Wurtemburg, and the Federal Council of Switzerland.

This treaty has been found of incalculable usefulness in every war which has occurred in Europe since its adoption. During the first ten years of its existence there were five great wars, and in all of them the National Red Cross of each signatory country was the capable agent which carried succor to the wounded and sick of the opposing armies.

Miss Clara Barton, whose public work for humanity began in our own civil war, was in Europe at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war and was asked to join the relief corps of the Red Cross in the field, which she did, and her heroic service on the battlefields of France during that war are matters of history. When she returned to her native country, by request of the International Committee of the Red Cross at Geneva, Switzerland, she presented the subject of the Geneva treaty to the President in 1877, and four years later President Garfield, in his first message to Congress, recommended the accession of the United States to the treaty. President Arthur, in his first message to Congress, made the same recommendation; the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate reported favorably, and it was ratified by the Senate and received the signature of the President March 1, 1882, making the United States the thirty-second country to come into the Red Cross treaty.

While originally formed to give its aid in times of war, through the efforts of Miss Clara Barton, there has been added an article enlarging the work of the Red Cross to all cases of national emergency and disaster, known in foreign countries as the "American amendment," and in accordance with this article this country has already, under the leadership of this same woman, given its aid to Russia at the time of the famine in 1892, to Armenia and Turkey in 1896. In our country the Red Cross has led in ameliorating and relieving the sufferings arising from the fires in Michigan in 1881; the Mississippi floods in 1882 and 1883; the Mississippi cyclone in 1883; the Ohio and Mississippi floods in 1884; the Charleston earthquake in 1886; the Mount Vernon, Ill., cyclone of 1888; the Florida yellow-fever epidemic of 1888; the Johnstown disaster in 1889; the Pomeroy, Iowa, cyclone of 1893, and the South Carolina Islands hurricane of 1893 and 1894.

At the request of the President of the United States, and with the permission of Spain, the American National Red Cross carried the bounty of the people of this country to the suffering reconcentrados of Cuba in 1897, 1898, and 1899.

The work done by the Red Cross in the late Spanish-American war in Cuba and in the hospitals and camps in the United States was far-reaching in its benefactions, including, as it did, officers and men, friend and foe alike, and many a man to-day owes his life to the Red Cross.

All meetings of the international conferences of the Red Cross have recommended to the governments concerned the importance of the protection of the Red Cross as the sacred insignia of this humane work and also urged the necessity of the incorporation of their National Red Cross committees. In pursuance of this recommendation every signatory country except ours has so protected its National Red Cross, most of them with measures much stronger than those embraced in the accompanying bill.

Our delay in this matter has resulted in the unauthorized use of the Red Cross to collect money from the people of the United States which has never reached the American National Red Cross or any auxiliary Red Cross body. There should be an incorporated national body to carry out the provision of the treaty, and the insignia of the treaty, the red cross on a white ground, is entitled to legislation which will give it legal protection for its humanitarian work.

The bill is therefore favorably reported, with the following amendments, with the recommendation that it pass:

On page 3, section 1, line 8, after the word "Indiana," insert: "George C. Boldt, William T. Wardwell, of New York; Daniel Hastings, J. Wilkes O'Neill, of Pennsylvania; Thomas F. Walsh, of Colorado; John G. Sumner, of California; Charles C. Glover, Walter S. Woodward, Elizabeth Kibbey, Mabel T. Boardman, Walter Wyman, Sumner I. Kimball, of the District of Columbia; Edward Lowe, of Michigan."

On page 4, section 2, line 8, after the word "treaty," insert: "In accordance with article 7 of the treaty, the delivery of the brassard allowed for individuals neutralized in time of war shall be left to military authority."

On page 4, section 3, line 22, insert after the word "rights" the words "and property."

On page 5, section 4, lines 20 and 21, strike out the words "colorable imitation of said insignia except in the service," and insert instead thereof the words "insignia colored in imitation thereof except by authority."

On page 6, section 4, line 8, after the word "Cross," insert the words "The appointment of the chief medical officer shall not be made without the approval in writing of the Secretary of War."

On page 6, strike out section 5, and insert in lieu thereof the following:

Sec. 5. That the said American National Red Cross shall, on the first day of January of each year, make and publish in at least two of the daily papers of the city of Washington, District of Columbia, a full, complete, and itemized report of all receipts and expenditures of whatever kind, and of its proceedings during the preceding year, and shall also give such information concerning its transactions and affairs as the Secretary of State may from time to time require, and, in respect of all business and proceedings in which it may be concerned in connection with the War and Navy Departments of the Government. shall make reports to the Secretary of War and to the Secretary of the Navy, respectively.

Mr. RUSSELL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and ordered to be printed

A BILL

To incorporate the American National Red Cross, and for other purposes.

Whereas on the twenty-second of August, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, at Geneva, Switzerland, plenipotentiaries respectively representing Italy, Baden, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, France, Prussia, Saxony, and Wurtemburg, and the Federal Council of Switzerland agreed upon ten articles of a treaty or convention for the purpose of mitigating the evils inseparable from war; of suppressing the needless severity and ameliorating the condition of solidiers wounded on the field of battle; and particularly providing, among other things, in effect, that persons employed in hospitals, and in affording relief to the sick and wounded, and supplies for this purpose, shall be deemed neutral and entitled to protection; and that a distinctive and uniform flag shall be adopted for hospitals and ambulances, and convoys of sick and wounded, and an arm badge for individuals neutralized; and

Whereas said treaty has been ratified by all of said nations, and by others subsequently, to the number of forty-three or more, including the United States of America; and

Whereas a permanent organization is an agency needed in every nation to carry out the purposes of said treaty, and especially to secure supplies and to execute the humane objects contemplated by said treaty, with the power to adopt and use the distinctive flag and arm badge specified by said treaty in article seven, on which shall be the sign of the Red Cross, for the purpose of cooperating with the "Comité International de Secours aux Militaires Blesses" (International Committee of Relief for the Wounded in War); and

Whereas, in accordance with the requirements and customs of said international body, such an association, adopting and using said insignia, was formed in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, in July, eighteen hundred and eighty-one, known as "The American National Association of the Red Cross," and reincorporated April seventeenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, under the laws of the District of Columbia; and

Whereas it is believed that the importance of the work demands a reincorporation by the Congress of the United States: Now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Clara Barton, George Kennan, Julius B. Hubbell, of the District of Columbia; Stephen A. Barton, of New York; Brainard H. Warner, Ellen Spencer Mussey, Alvey A. Adee, of the District of Columbia; Joseph Sheldon, of Connecticut; George C. Boldt, William T. Wardell, William B. Howland, of New York City; Joseph Gardner, Enola Lee Gardner, of Bedford, Indiana; John W. Noble, of Saint Louis, Missouri; Richard Olney, of Boston, Massachusetts; Alexander W. Terrell, of Austin, Texas; Leslie M. Shaw, of Iowa; A. C. Kaufman, of Charleston, South Carolina; J. B. Vinet, of New Orleans, Louisiana, and their associates and successors, are hereby created a body corporate and politic in perpetuity in the District of Columbia.

SEC. 2. That the name of this corporation shall be "The American National Red Cross," and by that name it shall have perpetual succession, with the power to sue and be sued in courts of law and equity within the jurisdiction of the United States; to have and to hold such real and personal estate as shall be convenient and necessary to carry out the purposes of this corporation hereinafter set forth; to adopt a seal and the same to alter and destroy at pleasure; and to have the right to have and to use, in carrying out its purposes hereinafter designated, as an emblem and badge, a Greek red cross on a white ground, as the same has been described in the treaty of Geneva, August twenty-second, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, and adopted by the several nations acceding thereto; to ordain and establish by-laws and regulations not inconsistent with the laws of the United States of America or any State thereof, and generally to do all such acts and things as may be necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this Act and promote the purposes of said organization; and the corporation hereby created is designated as the organization which is authorized to act in matters of relief under said treaty.

SEC. 3. That the purposes of this corporation are and shall be—

First. To furnish volunteer aid to the sick and wounded of armies in time of war, in accordance with the spirit and conditions of the conference of Geneva of October, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and also of the treaty of the Red Cross, or the treaty of Geneva of August twenty-second, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, to which the United States of America gave its adhesion on March first, eighteen hundred and eighty-two.

Second. And for said purposes to perform all the duties devolved upon a national society by each nation which has acceded to said treaty.

Third. To succeed to all the rights which have been hitherto held and to all the duties which have heretofore been performed by the American National Red Cross as a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of the United States relating to the District of Columbia, which organization is hereby dissolved.

Fourth. To act in matters of voluntary relief and in accordance with the military and naval authorities as a medium of communication between the people of the United States of America and their armies, and to act in such matters between similar national societies of other governments through the "Comité International de Secours" and the Government and the people and armies of the United States of America.

Fifth. And to continue and carry on a system of national and international relief in time of peace and apply the same in mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods, and other great national calamities.

Sixth. And to devise and carry on measures for preventing the same, and generally to promote measures of humanity and the welfare of mankind.

SEC. 4. That from and after the passage of this Act it shall be unlawful for any person or association of persons within the jurisdiction of the United States to wear or display the sign of the Red Cross or any colorable imitation of said insignia, except in the service of the Government of the United States or by permission of the American National Red Cross, for the purpose of collecting, soliciting, or receiving money or material for any person or organization to the said symbol or name of the American National Red Cross, do, or attempt to do, similar work to the American National Red Cross without permission as aforesaid, and the person or association so using the said Red Cross, or any colorable imitation thereof, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be liable to a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months, or both, for each and every offense. The fine so collected shall be paid to the American National Red Cross.

SEC. 5. That the said American National Red Cross shall report annually to the Secretary of State concerning its proceedings, and to the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy when working with either or both of these Executive Departments of the Government