Los Banos Rotary Club History
Explains Work Of Red Cross

A word picture of the American Red Cross, its scope and activities, was explained to members of the Rotary Club Tuesday noon by James Dahl, of Riverside, Pacific Coast area representative. Dahl's remarks mostly concerned the work of the Red Cross during the last year, and the tremendous increase in its peacetime responsibilities over the pre-war years. The budget for 1948, he said, has been considerably reduced from the previous year, and is far below the wartime years, despite the continuing heavy demands made upon the organization.

Within the armed forces alone, Dahl said, 2,000 Red Cross field directors are required to care for the needs of some two million United States troops that are scattered throughout the world. This compares with the 800 Red Cross employees required to care for the needs of the 400,000 men in the armed forces before the war. Services to veterans and their dependants is also expanded since the war, with 18 million veterans today compared with 150,000 before the war.

Disaster service, Dahl explained, was the most extensive in 1947 of any year since the big floods of 1937. All but two states called upon the Red Cross for disaster relief projects were handled last year.

The budget for this year, which is met by the single subscription drive, calls for maintenance of present services, plus numerous educational projects such as home nursing and life saving work, and also the new blood bank project which is expected to get well underway this year.

The speaker was introduced by W. H. Sloan, chairman of the Los Banos Red Cross chapter.

March 2, 1948

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