Page:This side the trenches, with the American Red cross (IA thissidetrenches00desc).pdf/15

 The three other things which the soldier or the sailor would like to leave with his family—and which many men are able to leave—are friends, credit, and money. Friends in such number and variety that no matter in what perplexity the family may find itself there will be someone who can supply just the right sort of advice, friends in every profession and business, friends with every kind of ability and skill, friends with unlimited resources. Credit not merely at the grocery store or with the coal dealer, but credit as it has been defined by a great financier, the credit of character, of a good name, of standing in the neighborhood and in the town. Money enough to meet emergencies and to assure the household that it will lack none of the necessities of life. The man, who, confident of the morale of those at home, can also leave with them such friends, such credit, and money, can indeed go to camp with the assurance that his family is prepared to meet whatever fortune may bring. It is such friends, such credit, and money that the Home Service of the Red Cross aims to provide.

Friends were what the woman about to become a mother wanted (See Chapter I), what the lonely widow wanted, what the wife who was mistreated by her relatives wanted. The aged parents whose remaining son died just at harvest time needed both credit and friends. It is difficult enough for a wealthy and able-bodied farmer to arrange for the harvesting of his crops without both; how much more so for an aged man and woman. The Red Cross supplied these as it supplied the friends which the mother, the widow, and the wife required. It supplied also a friend who could advise and