President Woodrow Wilson Asks the Acting Chairman of the American Red Cross to Serve on the National War Finance Committee, Which Raised the Most Money For a Philanthropic Cause Up to That Time

“The experience of eight months, of the demands made upon the generous patriotism of the American people, merely emphasizes the necessity of concentrating the work of relief in one main organization which can respond effectively and universally to the needs of humanity under the stress of war. I have designated you to serve as a member of the National War Finance Committee and I hope you can and will accept.”

On March 19, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson was named the first honorary president of the American Red Cross, establishing a precedent for all chief executives who have followed. His quotation “I summon you to comradeship in the Red Cross” became a rallying cry, and decorated one of the most famous Red Cross posters – a young woman clutching an American flag with the Red Cross symbol and U.S. Capitol in the background.

When the United States officially entered World War I on April 6, 1917, it had been raging in Europe since the summer of 1914. Bound by its government charter to support the U.S. military, the American Red Cross was championed by Wilson as he called upon the American people to back the organization in its support of millions of young men heading to the battlefields of Europe. On May 10, 1917, Wilson appointed a 13-man War Council to guide operations of the Red Cross during the conflict. The Red Cross held its first War Fund drive that year. As part of the war effort, the Red Cross began service to blinded war veterans, started its Canteen Service to provide refreshments to the military, introduced medical social work in servicemen’s hospitals, and began the Nurses’ Aide program to make up for nurse shortages during wartime.

Since 1914 the Red Cross had been providing relief to worn-torn European countries, first with doctors, nurses, and medical supplies on the SS Red Cross or Mercy Ship, and later with hospital garments, surgical bandages, and refugee clothing, sent to sister Red Cross societies, and produced by Americans recruited through the Women’s Bureau of the Red Cross. After the U.S. declaration of war, the Army and Navy regularly requested thousands of surgical dressings and what were referred to as “comfort” items for their men. Comfort items included hand-knitted socks, sweaters, soap, razors and the like. Between 1917 and 1919, over 8 million American women, along with many Junior Red Cross members, produced over 370 million relief articles for the Allied armed forces and civilians in Europe.

Cornelius N. Bliss, Jr., whose father was a member of President McKinley’s Cabinet, was a philanthropist who was also active politically. He participated in the successful presidential campaign of Theodore Roosevelt in 1904. In July 1916, he was named treasurer of the Republican National Committee, and also served as president of the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, President Wilson named Bliss as one of the 13 members of his Red Cross War Council. The next year he became its acting chairman. When it came time to raise funds for the Red Cross in 1918, Wilson formed the National War Finance Committee. With his experience in finance and as treasurer, it was natural that Wilson would want Bliss to serve on it.

Typed letter signed, on American Red Cross letterhead, Washington, March 6, 1918, to Bliss, asking him to accept appointment to the National War Finance Committee. “The Chairman of the War Council informs me that the American Red Cross will shortly appeal to the American people for additional funds to carry on its work. The close co-operation of the American National Red Cross with the military branch of the Government has suggested many new avenues of helpfulness in the immediate business of our organization for war, but in the present situation there are unlimited opportunities of broad humanitarian service, and the effective performance of the service is necessary in itself and in its relation to our master purpose of winning the war.

“When I appointed the War Council, I wrote: “The Best way in which to impart the greatest efficiency and energy to the relief work which this war will entail will be to concentrate it in the hands of a single experienced organization which has been recognized by law and by international convention as the public instrumentality for such purposes. Indeed, such a concentration of administrative action in this matter seems to me absolutely necessary.

“The experience of eight months, of the demands made upon the generous patriotism of the American people, merely emphasizes the necessity of concentrating the work of relief in one main organization which can respond effectively and universally to the needs of humanity under the stress of war. I have designated you to serve as a member of the National War Finance Committee and I hope you can and will accept.”

National War Finance Committee asked the American people for $100 million, which was then by far the greatest philanthropic effort in U.S. history. That sum was exceeded. To achieve this they issued some of the iconic World War I posters that are collectors items today.

After the war, Bliss returned to business and philanthropy on a large scale, operating as a trustee, board member, or president of several organizations, including the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the Depression, he was one of six men named by New York City Mayor Walker to operate a relief fund, two others being J.P. Morgan and former governor Al Smith. During World War II, he was a chairman of the American Red Cross committee on war activities, and was for a time chairman of the Red Cross.