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Relief (WAR winners to be assisted but)

WAR winners to be assisted, but disabled soldiers had to be taken care of, and when the United States entered the war, much of the kind of relief that went to Europe had to be dispensed also in this country.

The Commission for Relief in Belgium was organized in October, 1914, and carried out its distribution of supplies through the Comité Nationale de Secours et d'Alimentation. The personnel was American until the declaration of war by the United States, but thereafter the work in Belgium was intrusted to Spanish and Dutch citizens appointed by their governments. Through the work of this commission something like 7,000,000 people were regularly provided with food. Warehouses were established in Holland and Belgium, and these received American and Argentine supplies from the port of entry at Rotterdam. Up to June 1, 1917, a total of nearly $300,000,000 was spent by the commission.

As the war went on the number of relief organizations greatly increased, wever, and some of them came to wear a doubtful character. There were, however, 80 such organizations working in New York City that were vouched for by the Charity Organization Society, and the chief among them made it their object to distribute necessities, such as food and clothing. Every known device was employed in the campaigns to raise foods, bazaars, concerts, street collecting, and the like. These became so numerous that division of responsibility and proper accounting became manifestly impossible, but the public continued to give, and though millions of dollars went into the wrong hands, the stream of supplies going to Europe continued to grow.

Among the other organizations that devoted their energies to the work of relief were the Allied War Charities, which through nearly 80 subsidiary organizations, covered the whole nation; the American Fund for French Wounded, the Secours National Fund for the relief of French women and children, the Serbian Relief Committee, the American ambulance, which organized ambulance sections for work behind the battle line; Jewish Relief, the British War Relief Association, the American Committee for Training in Suitable Trades the Maimed Soldiers of France, the Vacation War Relief Committee, the Polish Victims' Relief Fund, the Lafayette Fund, the American Girls' Aid for the Collection of Clothing for the Victims of the World War in France, the Duryea War Relief, the French Comfort Packets' Committee for the United States and Allies, the Stage Women's War Relief, the Committee of Mercy, Le Bien Etre RELIGION du Blessé, the New York Committee for the Fatherless Children of France, the Dollar Christmas Fund for Destitute Belgian Children, the French Tuberculosis War Victims' Fund, the American Committee of the Scottish Women's Hospital for Home and Foreign Service, the National Allied Relief Committee, the Balkan Refugees and Sufferers, Polish Refugees, War Babies' Cradle, the Polish Children's Relief Fund, the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, the New York Surgical Dressings Committee, and many others. New organizations continued to be formed while the war lasted, and none of them appeared to find difficulty in raising funds. See RED CROSS, KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS, JEWISH WELFARE BOARD, ETC.