Mayor Campbell and other interests in regard to a wharf at Manchester, which was at that time outside the city limits. Campbell advocated spending $300,000 of Houston Harbor District revenue to construct a wharf for a local cement manufacturer. Jones opposed this expenditure, and resigned from the board with other directors when the city approved the project. American Red Cross From 1917 until the end of World War II, Jones dedicated his activities to the nation, spending more time in the federal capital than in his home town. He responded to World War I demands by leading a fundraising effort in Houston for the American Red Cross. Sixteen of his friends accepted his challenge to donate $5,000 each (), spurring the local effort to meet and exceed its fundraising quota. President Wilson asked Jones to become director general of military relief for the American Red Cross during World War I, a position he held until 1919. During his first post in Washington, D.C., his department was responsible for seven hundred Red Cross canteens and 55,000 volunteers, organization and transportation of mobile hospitals to England and France, and distribution of clothing to persons in war-torn Europe, and tendering financial assistance to families of American servicemen., Jones worked in an office building facing the White House, and eventually he had personal access to the President. During the coordination of Red Cross parades in various American cities, he asked that the President make a speech on the day of the parade in New York City to support fundraising efforts. Wilson was reticent and had not made an oral public address since his declaration of war against Germany. Jones, per Wilson's request, appointed Cleveland Dodge as the presiding officer of the event, though Jones also directed Dodge to choose a venue suitable for a presidential address. On the day of the parade, President Wilson made an impromptu speech to a full Metropolitan Opera House, which included his justification for war against Germany, lauded the work of the American Red Cross, admonished Wall Street bankers against wartime profiteering, and offered an entreaty to Americans to donate money to the Red Cross. 1928 Democratic National Convention On his own initiative, Jones tendered a $200,000 bid () to bring the 1928 Democratic National Convention to Houston. Other cities matched or exceeded this amount, but Jones vowed that Houston would beat the others in hospitality. When Jones returned