The Executive Committee of the German Patriotic Aid Society decided in its last meeting to bring its existence to a close by giving a short report on its past activities to the German citizens of Chicago.

The German mass meeting on July 17, 1870, in the Turn Hall on the North Side, elected a Finance Committee to collect funds in the City of Chicago for the victims of the Franco-Prussian war. The list of members of this committee has undergone frequent changes. The committee has found it very difficult to secure members who-quite aside from collecting money - would attend its meetings with some punctuality and regularity. The committee consists now, at the moment of its dissolution, of the following gentlemen: H. Greenbaum, G. Schneider, C. Butz, E. Dietzsch, W. A. Hettich, Y. Rosenthal, P. Hand, G. Snydacker, C. Degenhardt, A. Erbe, F. Annecke, E. Prusing, A. Seuberth, A. Blum, T. Rutishauser, H. Lieb, and Y. Beiersdorf.

By and large, the oft-repeated calls to the societies and lodges (especially to the latter) have met with but small success. Some of the Turn and singing societies have collected not quite inconsiderable sums (Chicago Turn Community $250, Schleswig-Holstein Association $132, Salem Community $130, 2Employees of Western Banknote and Lithographing Company $118, Veterans' Club of the 24th Illinois Regiment $100, etc), by far the most, however, was contributed through the Fair which the German women arranged ($17,335) and, next, through the picnic conducted by the Musicians Union ($2,304).

After the first two weeks of its existence the Finance Committee constituted itself as Executive Committee and undertook new functions: Correspondence at home as well as with Germany; agitation in the villages and small towns; information to the press in the German interest; protest against the actions of our ambassador, Washburn, in Paris; organization of meetings, and the distributing and dispatching of collected funds, etc.

The Executive Committee of the German Patriotic Aid Association of New York called a convention of all German Patriotic Aid Associations of the United States, to Chicago on August 18, 1870. The convention took place, but its resolutions were not accepted by the Chicago G. P. Aid Association, which retained its independence, and sent the money it collected directly to Germany. Altogether $29,554 were collected in Chicago; $10,645 in places outside Chicago; slightly more than $40,000 were expedited to Germany.