PRESIDENT COMMENDS RED CROSS FOR ITS 'HUMANITY AND CHARITY'
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On October 6, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge addressed the opening session of the American Red Cross* and thanked the organization for its "practical humanity and inspired charity."
The President plead for "a truly civilized world where the cost of armaments, of pensions, of fortifications, were not required."
Mr. Coolidge said that if the world had "the Red Cross spirit...poverty, ignorance, prejudice...might be completely relieved and remedied."
The President added that the Red Cross is the only organization which accomplishes good by "looking for trouble."
*American Red Cross was founded in 1881 by Clara Barton based on the organization in Switzerland. The International Red Cross seeks to prevent & alleviate human suffering wherever it may be.
JFK+50 NOTE
One of President Kennedy's funniest stories concerned his Secretary of Labor Arthur Goldberg who he said went mountain climbing in the Alps & did not return to camp. A search party went to find him and shouted out "Goldberg, Goldberg, it's the Red Cross." JFK said this voice came down the mountain....'I gave at the office.'
SOURCE
"Coolidge Visions Red Cross Ideals Activating World," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., October 6, 1924, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/
