Page:A short history of nursing - Lavinia L Dock (1920).djvu/155

139 Florence Nightingale 139 unceasingly to secure the adhesion of the United States to the Red Cross, and founded a group called the "American National Committee or So- ciety of the Red Cross for the Relief of Suffering by War, Pestilence, Famine, Fire, Flood, and other Calamities." The United States Senate finally ratified the treaty in 1882, and it was signed by President Arthur, but he declined the presidency of the Red Cross, and Miss Barton held this office until her retirement. It was not until 1904 that the American Red Cross was, by Act of Congress, soundly organized. Its charter then made the President of the United States its head, and placed a number of officers of the government on its board. This gave it a status conforming to that of other countries. The early Red Cross constitu- tions had only provided for relief in war. At the Geneva conference of 1882 Miss Barton had pre- sented the articles relating to pestilence, famine, and natural calamity. The conference had ac- cepted her ideas, and this extension of Red Cross activities was known as the "American Amend- ment. " Clara Barton's unselfish idealism in the cause of the Red Cross has hardly been sufficiently appre- ciated. She was strongly individualistic and could perform almost miraculous work herself, but