IT is the effort of this book' to set forth the scope, char acter and effect of the work of the American Red Cross during the Great War. When the war closed more than thirty million Americans were enrolled in the organization. Some of these were in foreign fields; most of them were at home. But, in one way or another, they were all helping. All of them working together made up the American Red Cross. Stories of special sacrifice or devotion cannot be given here and yet few organizations have so closely touched the great currents of human life. Detailed narratives will accordingly follow this book. I have sought here to summarize the work of the thirty millions as a whole. To characterize the Red Cross work of any man or woman, or to attempt to describe it with any regard to proper perspective, would be invidious if not impossible. I have therefore omitted the mention of names. The highest satisfaction any worker in the Red Cross can derive from his work is from the fact that the work itself was well done. The files of the War Council have been freely drawn upon in the preparation of this book. And I want to make special acknowledgment to every member of the force at headquarters, and to the special correspondents and staffs of our foreign commissions, who seemingly have vied with one another in supplying me, either orally or in writing, with material without which the scope of this book could not be what it is. Indeed it may accurately be said that the book itself is a product of the American Red Cross.