Red Cross Schools

Visitors to Washington last week who wandered into the quiet, grassy quadrangle enclosed by American Red Cross headquarters might have mistaken it for a college campus. The Red Cross was runing a "war college," complete with lecturers and students lolling on outdoor benches. Its college was the pinnacle of a vast educational system that extended into every U.S. hamlet.

At its Washington College, the Red Cross trains men & women for overseas service with task forces. Its students include lawyers, teachers, brokers, the father of a pilot who died diving his plane into a Japanese transport. They get instruction for all sorts of odd jobs which the Red Cross now performs for the armed forces: e.g., its staffmen must know accounting, to keep the books for field units; must know how to perform such good deeds as arranging an operation for a soldier's ailing mother, or getting a job for his jobless father.

The Red Cross also: > Has given first aid courses to 3,000,000 U.S. citizens in the past twelve months, a total equal to the number trained in all the preceding 31 years since First Aid Service started.

> Is teaching home nursing to 500,000 housewives, thereby cutting down on illnesses that slow up war production.(Teachers are 27,000 nurse volunteers.)

> Has taught swimming and lifesaving to 30,000, including many soldiers and sailors, and has trained many landing units to swim with a full pack and equipment.

> Has trained 28,000 nurses' aides for hospital work in the wards of 1,033 local hospitals.

> Has taught 50,000 women about wartime food budgets and nutrition, trained 30,000 to man Red Cross canteens. (In nearly two-thirds of the country's 3,735 Red Cross chapters, the Canteen Corps is ready to feed the community in time of disaster.)

> Is keeping 14,000,000 members of the Junior Red Cross busy this summer collecting rubber, making floor lamps, ping-pong tables, ash trays, writing boards, sweaters and bathrobes for Army and Navy hospitals.

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