SEC. 8. That the endowment fund of the American National Red Cross shall be kept and invested under the management and control of a board of nine trustees, who shall be elected from time to time by the incorporators and their successors, under such regulations regarding terms and tenure of office, accountability, and expense as said incorporators and successors shall prescribe.

The original body of the incorporators is a self-perpetuating body, and it seems wise to put this fund in the hands of trustees that it would select, because it would be probable that it would select reliable trustees. The regulation imposed on the trustees would be that the funds shall be invested by these trustees according to laws governing trust funds. At present the investment of funds lies with the executive committee, and it seemed wise, in considering the whole matter, to put this power in the hands of trustees. The fund is liable to be a large fund, eventually. It has at present reached about a half a million dollars; that is, there has been raised in New York State $314,000, and Mr. Morgan has promised $100,000 when $400,000 is raised. We already had $95,000, so that we have $500,000 now. The New York committee, however, wants to complete in New York State the raising of half a million dollars.

Mr. DENBY. This is a new endowment that you set out for a few months ago?

Miss BOARDMAN. Yes.

Mr. DENBY. Did you give it up?

Miss BOARDMAN. No; we have just started a committee in Chicago. Mr. DENBY. You said awhile ago that you might stop at $1,000,000. Miss BOARDMAN. We felt if we could raise $1,000,000 we would be able to carry on the work, but $2,000,000 would be a great advantage, because there are so many minor disasters which we would like to be able to help, when nurses and other aid is required. We do not want to ask people for money for those minor disasters. When a great disaster occurs, of course, we always receive a most generous response from the public, but need funds for first aid before these contributions are received. But for the minor disasters, where small communities often suffer, we want an ample endowment, so as to be able to take care of them from its income.

Then another question in regard to endowment. We do not expect war, but it is well to be prepared. All the foreign Red Cross associations have these large funds. Japan has over $7,000,000 in its endowment fund, the different German Red Cross societies have about $5,000,000, and the French over $3,000,000. They have these large funds which enable them to prepare when they see war approaching. We would not be able to make appeals to the public beforehand, but with this fund could begin preparations. We will have all the funds we want in case of war, but we would not feel at liberty, before we issued any appeal, to go on and charter a ship for a hospital ship. The fund is not only for use in case of war, but for the purpose of carrying on the large first-aid work that is now going on, and also to meet the minor emergencies. I received Mr. Denby's letter only this morning.

Mr. DENBY. I did not realize you were coming up here today. Miss BOARDMAN. And I did not have time to consult Mr. Bowers at all. As to this second section, I do not think there can be any objection.

Mr. DENBY. I do not, either.

Miss BOARDMAN. Because that can be changed at any time by act of Congress, and we have to make an annual report to Congress of all funds. You have a copy of the annual report here, and you will see from our annual report for this year just what all of the money is invested in.

Mr. DENBY. Of course, we have absolute control over this, and we can abolish the Red Cross, if we like, tomorrow.

Miss BOARDMAN. You can do anything you like with it. Here in the annual report is each fund, you see. The endowment fund is given, with all its investments, special emergency and general emergency funds, and endowment fund.

Mr. DENBY. I think that completely answers that, and I think the broad language there is quite proper, and I can see no objection to it whatever.

(At 12:30 o'clock p. m. the committee adjourned.)

AMERICAN CENTRAL COMMITTEE

THE RED CROSS INSIGNIA AND NAME AS A TRADEMARK, BY MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE W. DAVIS, U. S. A., RETIRED, CHAIRMAN, CENTRAL COMMITTEE.

Before July 8, 1870, there was in existence no national laws or regulations respecting labeling with proprietary marks the goods entering into the commerce of the country and foreign nations, but it is known that the custom or practice of using such commercial marks antedated by many years the first national legislation on the subject, the Act of July 8, 1870.

Except as noted below, under the terms of this act any trademark could be registered if lawfully in use on the date of the act, and thereafter if such mark had been previously in use. Registration was prohibited if

(a) The name of a person, firm or corporation was unaccompanied by a mark to distinguish it from the same name when used by another

person.

(b) A trademark identical with or similar to one already registered. All trademark registrations were to be valid for twenty years, and were renewable at the option of the original registrants or their assignors.

To the Geneva Convention of August 22, 1864, the United States was not a party, but it was adhered to by the United States on July 26, 1882, and, in August, 1884, this treaty was ordered by the President to be observed by the Army of the United States, and the Red Cross insignia was required to be displayed on ambulances, hospitals and arm-bands of the personnel of the Army Medical and Hospital Service.

The fact that the nations represented by delegates at Geneva in 1864 had adopted the Red Cross as a distinguishing mark for the medical and sanitary service of armies and of volunteer assistants of such services was soon publicly known throughout the world, and this insignia was soon made use of and adopted as a distinguishing proprietary mark by merchants and manufacturers engaged in commerce. In less than four months after the enactment of the first United States statute on this subject (July 8, 1870) a trademark was registered which embodied the use for a commercial purpose the Greek cross in red.

There was no change in this national trademark law affecting the discretion of merchants and manufacturers in choosing a distinguishing mark for their goods and wares until February 20, 1905, when a federal law was enacted that forbade the use and registration

(c) "of any mark that composed the flag or the coat of arms or other insignia of the United States or any simulation thereof, or the flag or coat of arms of any State of the American Union, of any municipality or of any foreign nation."

On March 2, 1907, this prohibition was amended, and by a law of that date was made to apply to

(d) "any design or picture that has been or may hereafter be adopted by any fraternal society as its emblem."

It has been held by the officers who administer the trademark laws that the use of the insignia of the American Red Cross Society as a commercial trademark would be in violation of this statute. However, the federal statute of December 5, 1905 (see below) was far more comprehensive in its restriction.

The first use made in the United States of the Geneva cross as a badge worn by volunteer helpers for the sick and wounded in war in any country, was in the years 1864-1865, by an auxiliary society of the United States Sanitary Commission serving with the Union Army campaigning in Virginia, but at the close of that civil conflict this society was disbanded and the use of the Greek (Geneva) cross was discontinued, but not until a failure had resulted from efforts made in 1866-1867 by some of those connected with the Sanitary Commission to organize an American Red Cross. This failure was primarily and probably solely due to the fact that at this time the United States Government had not adhered to the Geneva Treaty of 1864.

The National Red Cross of the United States was formally recognized by the federal statute on January 6, 1900, this recognition applying to a self-styled American Association of the Red Cross that dated from the year 1881.

The above cited organic act of June 6, 1900, contained a further restriction respecting the use of the Red Cross insignia. It forbade

(e) "Any person to wear or display the sign of the Red Cross or any insignia colored in imitation thereof for the fraudulent purpose of inducing the belief that he is a member of or an agent for the American National Red Cross."

It will be noted that this restriction did not apply to the commercial use of the emblem as a trademark.

The Act of Congress of December 5, 1905, which reincorporated the American National Red Cross, repealed the Act of June 6, 1900, but re-enacted the above cited prohibition and contained a further restriction as follows:

(f) "Nor shall it be lawful for any person or corporation, other than the Red Cross of America, not now lawfully entitled to use the sign of the Red Cross, hereafter to use such sign or any insignia colored in imitation thereof for the purpose of trade or as an advertisement to induce the sale of any article whatsoever."

This legislation prohibited the use of our emblem by all those who previous to the enactment of the law had not made a commercial use of the same as a distinguishing mark on merchandise and preparations dealt in by them, but such previous users, exercising a common law property right, could not be interfered with if that use antedated January 5, 1905; they might thereafter secure registration of such mark upon filing with their application therefor a declaration showing the date since which they had made commercial use of the emblem as a distinguishing mark on merchandise, etc.

In pursuance of the requirements of Sections 27 and 28 of the Geneva Convention of 1906, to which the United States Government is a party, the deficiencies of the federal law touching the protection of the

.

red cross insignia from misuse were brought to the attention of the Congress of the United States, and the Central Committee of the American Red Cross urged the enactment of such legislation as would be in strict harmony with the engagements entered into, embodied in the above cited sections 27 and 28 of the Geneva Convention.

It appears that at the date of the proclamation of this Treaty in the United States, August 3, 1907, the Greek Red Cross or the words "Red Cross" had been registered by the government for not less than 131 persons, partnerships or corporations, who thus secured recognition by registration of their previously existing property right to use for commercial purposes this insignia or the words "Red Cross."

In the efforts made by the Central Committee to secure the enactment of legislation that would make effective the undertakings foreshadowed by the above-cited sections of the Geneva Convention, the owners of the trademarks already registered opposed the legislation, insisting that unrestricted prohibition would deprive them of rights in common law; the proposed legislation was declared to be confiscatory and therefore in conflict with the provisions of the United States Constitution, wherein it is declared that no person shall be deprived of his property except by due process of law. Those users of the Red Cross as a trademark who had not in 1905 taken any steps to secure registration saw in the new proposition an intention to cut them off not only from the right to register but from the right to continue the use of the emblem on their merchandise.

These interested parties did not fail to oppose the proposed measure, and they were successful in preventing any legislation for several years, but on the 20th of June, 1910, there was enacted what may be considered as near an approach to a compliance with the terms of the Geneva Treaty respecting the protection of the Red Cross insignia and name as it is possible to secure in the United States of America. The restrictions placed upon the commercial use of the insignia by the act of 1905 were made more comprehensive by this new statute, which also forbade the use of the words "Red Cross" as a trademark, a use that had not previously been specifically forbidden.

The legislation is as follows:

(g) "That from and after the passage of this Act it shall be unlawful for any person within the jurisdiction of the United States to falsely or fraudulently hold himself out as or represent or pretend himself to be a member of or an agent for the American National Red Cross for the purpose of soliciting, collecting, or receiving money or material or for any person to wear or display the sign of the Red Cross or any insignia colored in imitation thereof for the fraudulent purpose of inducing the belief that he is a member of or an agent for the American National Red Cross. It shall be unlawful for any person, corporation, or association other than the American National Red Cross and its duly authorized employees and agents and the army and navy sanitary and hospital authorities of the United States for the purpose of trade or as an advertisement to induce the sale of any article whatsoever or for any business or charitable purpose to use within the territory of the United States of America and its exterior possessions the emblem of the Greek red cross on a white ground, or any sign or insignia made or colored in imitation thereof, or the words "Red