not entitled to it, would seek to obtain it on
false pretenses, and that others, who perhaps were really in distress,
would try to get more food than they actually required in order that
they might make a little money by selling the surplus. In anticipation
of this danger, Miss Barton decided to put the distribution of food
largely under local control. In the first place, a central committee of
three was appointed to exercise general supervision over the whole work.
The members of this committee were Mr. Ramsden, son of the British
consul; Mr. Michelson, a wealthy and philanthropic merchant engaged in
business in Santiago; and a prominent Cuban gentleman whose name I
cannot now recall. This committee divided the city into thirty
districts, and notified the residents of each district that they would
be expected to elect or appoint a commissioner who should represent them
in all dealings with the Red Cross, who should make all applications for
relief in their behalf, and who should personally superintend the
distribution of all food allotted to them on requisitions approved by
the central committee. This scheme of organization and distribution was
intelligently and judiciously devised, and it worked to the satisfaction
of all. Every commissioner was instructed to make a requisition for food
in writing, according to a prescribed form, stating the number and the
names of heads of families needing relief in his district, the number of
persons in each family, and the amount of food required for the district
as a whole and for each family or individual in detail. The commissioner
then appended to the requisition a certificate to the effect that the
petitioners named therein were known to him and that he believed they
were really in need of the quantities of food for which they
respectively made application. The requisition then went to the central
committee, and when approved by it was filled at the Red Cross warehouse
and retained there as a voucher.

I heard it asserted in Santiago more than once that food issued by the
Red Cross to people who were supposed to be starving had afterward been
sold openly on the street by hucksters, and had even been carried on
pack-mules in comparatively large quantities to suburban villages and
sold there; but I doubt very much the truth of this assertion. Miss
Barton caused an investigation to be made of several such cases of
alleged fraud, and found in every instance that the food said to h