CREATION OF THE RED CROSS WAR COUNCIL WILSON, WOODROW. Typed Letter Signed, as President, to former Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission Edward N. Hurley, requesting that he serve on the newly-created Red Cross War Council. 1½ pages, 4to, White House stationery, written on a folded sheet; horizontal fold through signature (without loss). Washington, 10 May 1917 "After consultation with my active associates in the American Red Cross, it has been thought wise to create a Red Cross War Council of seven members . . . . I have today created the council. This letter is to ask you to accept membership on this council, a patriotic service which I trust it will be possible for you to perform.
"The close cooperation between the American National Red Cross and the military branch of the Government has already suggested new avenues of helpfulness in the immediate business of our organization for war . . . . Battlefield relief will be effected through Red Cross agencies . . . but civilian relief will present a field of increasing opportunity in which the Red Cross organization is especially adapted to serve . . . ."
The American Red Cross (ARC) was founded by Clara Barton in New York in 1881 as an extension of the International Red Cross (IRC), concentrating on aid for victims of disaster both national and international. On May 10, 1917, all ARC aid to nations belonging to the Central Powers ceased when Wilson formed the Red Cross War Council to manage the activities of the ARC. Although the ARC provided aid to all allied nations during the War, when it became part of the League of National Red Cross Societies at the War's end, its efforts were directed mainly to those nations that endured the greatest suffering, wherever they may be in the world.