Speech 
 
 Stuff 
 
 Concerning the Y. M. C. A. 
 for use in the 
 
 UNITED 
 WAR WORK CAMPAIGN j 
 
 YMCA 
 
 V 
 
 PROOF COPY— ISSUED AUGUST 29th 
 
 FOR SPEAKERS ONLY 
 
 NOT FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 
 POSITIVELY NOT TO BE REPRINTED 
 
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 lonocss— to i i pn or— = ao 
 
SPEECH STUFF 
 
 CONCERNING THE Y. M. C. A. 
 FOR USE IN THE 
 
 UNITED WAR WORK 
 CAMPAIGN 
 
 Proof Copy 
 {Issued August 2Qth) 
 
 FOR SPEAKERS ONLY 
 
 NOT FOR GENERAL DISTRIBUTION 
 
 POSITIVELY NOT TO BE REPRINTED 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Title Page 1 
 
 Contents 2 
 
 What This Book Is 3 
 
 The Combined Drive 4 
 
 An Explanation of the United War Work Campaign.. 7 
 
 General Pershing Endorses Drive 9 
 
 Foreword 10 
 
 Following Him Through 14 
 
 Instructions to Speakers 21 
 
 The Big Story 23 
 
 The American Trooper's Blighty 39 
 
 Helping to Make Soldiers 43 
 
 With the Navy 52 
 
 In War Industries 55 
 
 Women's Part in War Work 57 
 
 What the Y. W. C. A. Does 60 
 
 Work Among the Allied Forces 62 
 
 In Russia 67 
 
 War Work Beginnings 70 
 
 Boys' "Earn and Give" Campaign 73 
 
 Human Interest Stories 77 
 
 "Comebacks" — Answers to Criticisms 85 
 
 A Few Samples ; 91 
 
 Here's a True Story 92 
 
 Two Cablegrams 100 
 
 2 
 
WHAT THIS BOOK IS! 
 
 It is a birdseye view of the War Work of the 
 Y. M. C. A. It makes no attempt to describe 
 the work of the other agencies. Separate 
 manuals are provided for that purpose. 
 
 It is a guide for speakers who have not had 
 direct contact with all phases of the Associa- 
 tion War Work. 
 
 It is a sample of many additional figures 
 and facts to be brought up to date for the 
 November drive. 
 
 WHAT THIS BOOK IS NOT! 
 
 It is not an attempt to offer suggestions to 
 any man who has been overseas. The simple 
 story of what you did and what you saw in 
 France will be far more graphic than what 
 can be written about it here. 
 
 It is not an effort to provide ready made 
 speeches. Even the sample speeches are mere- 
 ly skeletons. Your own speech is bound to 
 be better for you than any delivered second 
 hand. 
 
 3 
 
THE COMBINED DRIVE 
 
 CAMPAIGN FOR $170,500,000 AUTHORIZED BY 
 LETTER OF PRESIDENT WILSON DATED 
 SEPTEMBER 3 
 
 Seven Agencies will combine during the week of Novem- 
 ber 11 for a War Fund Campaign to raise $170,500,000. The 
 President's letter and the budget growing out of the com- 
 bined drive were inserted in this volume on September 5 
 The chapter which follows this one, entitled "An Explanation 
 of the National War Work Campaign," referring to four 
 organizations, has been reaffirmed and now applies to the 
 seven organizations named. 
 
 Organizations for which the fund is to be raised and 
 their budgets as approved by the War Department through 
 the Commission on Training Camp Activities, of which Ray- 
 mond B. Fosdick is Chairman, follow : 
 
 Young Men's Christian Association $100,000,000 
 
 Young Women's Christian Association... 15,000,000 
 National Catholic War Council (including 
 work of the Knights of Columbus and 
 
 special war activities for women) 30,000,000 
 
 Jewish Welfare Board 3,500,000 
 
 American Library Association 3,500,000 
 
 War Camp Community Service* 15,000,000 
 
 Salvation Army 3,500,000 
 
 Total $170,500,000 
 
 The letter from the President authorizing the combined 
 campaign for funds, follows : 
 
 "The White House, 
 "Washington, Sept. 3, 1918. 
 
 "My Dear Mr. Fosdick: 
 
 "May I not call your attention to a matter which 
 has been recently engaging my thought not a little? 
 
 4 
 
"The War Department has recognized the Young 
 Men's Christian Association, the Young Women's 
 Christian Association, the National Catholic War 
 Council, the Jewish Welfare Board, the War Camp 
 Community Service, the American Library Associa- 
 tion, and the Salvation Army as accepted instru- 
 mentalities through which the men in the ranks 
 are to be assisted in many essential matters of rec- 
 reation and morale. 
 
 "It was evident from the first, and has become 
 increasingly evident, that the services rendered by 
 these agencies to our army and to our allies are 
 especially one and all of a kind and must of necessity, 
 if well rendered, be rendered in the closest co-opera- 
 tion. It is my judgment, therefore, that we shall 
 secure the best results in the matter of the support 
 of these agencies, if these seven societies will unite 
 their forthcoming appeals for funds, in order that the 
 spirit of the country in this matter may be expressed 
 without distinction of race or religious opinion in 
 support of what is in reality a common service. 
 
 "This point of view is sustained by the necessity, 
 which the war has forced upon us, of limiting our 
 appeals for funds in such a way that two or three 
 comprehensive campaigns shall take the place of a 
 series of independent calls upon the generosity of 
 the country. 
 
 "Will you not, therefore, as Chairman of the Com- 
 mission on Training Camp Activities, be good enough 
 to request the societies in question to combine their 
 approaching appeals for funds in a single campaign, 
 preferably during the week of Nov. 11, so that in 
 their solicitation of funds as well as in their work 
 in the field, they may act in as complete co-opera- 
 tion and fellowship as possible? 
 
 "In inviting these organizations to give this new 
 evidence of their patriotic co-operation, I wish it dis- 
 tinctly understood that their compliance with this 
 request will not in any sense imply the surrender on 
 the part of any of them of its distinctive character 
 and autonomy, because I fully recognize the fact that 
 
 5 
 
each of them has its own traditions, principles, and 
 relationships which it properly prizes and which, if 
 preserved and strengthened, make possible the largest 
 
 service. 
 
 "At the same time, I would be obliged if you would 
 convey to them from me a very warm expression of 
 the Government's appreciation of the splendid service 
 they have rendered in ministering to the troops at 
 home and overseas in their leisure time. Through 
 their agencies the moral and spiritual resources of 
 the nation have been mobilized behind our forces and 
 used in the finest way, and they are contributing 
 directly and effectively to the winning of the war. 
 
 "It has been gratifying to find such a fine spirit of 
 co-operation among all the leaders of the organiza- 
 tions I have mentioned. This spirit and the pa- 
 triotism of all the members and friends of these 
 agencies, give me confidence to believe that the united 
 war work campaign will be crowned with abundant 
 success. 
 
 "Cordially and sincerely yours, 
 
 "Woodrow Wilson/' 
 
 6 
 
AN EXPLANATION OF THE 
 UNITED WAR WORK CAMPAIGN 
 
 Appended you will find a printed copy of the memorandum 
 of agreements adopted August 13 and 15, relating to the 
 merger campaign : 
 
 ''Memorandum of Agreement Regarding the United War Work Cam- 
 paign as Prepared and Approved by the Chairmen of the Campaign 
 Committee of the National War Work Council of the Young Men's 
 Christian Associations, of the Campaign Committee of the War Work 
 Council of the National Board of the Young Women's Christian As- 
 sociations, of the National Finance Committee of the War Camp 
 Community Service, and of the Library War Council of the American 
 Library Association. 
 
 I 
 
 (Adopted August is, 1918) 
 
 "Seven distinct organizations have been recognized by the Govern- 
 ment for service with the troops — the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
 ciation, the Young Women's Christian Association, the National 
 Catholic War Council (Knights of Columbus), the Jewish Welfare 
 Board, the War Camp Community Service, the American Library As- 
 sociation, and the Salvation Army. Each of these organizations is 
 supported by private subscriptions, and each has planned a campaign 
 for funds on a national basis for some period between September, 
 
 1918, and February, 1919. It has become increasingly apparent that 
 seven such campaigns cannot be conducted in the period named without 
 serious overlapping and conflict, to say nothing of the confusion into 
 which communities would be thrown by a series of drives following 
 one another in quick succession, each with its own machinery and 
 administrative personnel and each for objects involving the serving 
 of the American Army and Navy. This is particularly true in view of 
 the fact that a Liberty Loan Drive has been scheduled for October, 
 and the whole question has been presented whether a combination 
 campaign on the part of some or all of the societies above named 
 might not simplify the task which they are jointly bearing and give 
 the country an opportunity to contribute at one time to what is in 
 reality a common cause. 
 
 "Differences in fiscal periods between the societies named, as well 
 as divergencies in financial needs, make it difficult to effect such a 
 result for all seven societies. It has been agreed, however, between 
 representatives of the Young Men's Christian Association, the Young 
 Women's Christian Association, the War Camp Community Service, 
 and the American Library Association to conduct a joint campaign 
 during the week beginning November 11, and we are informed by Mr. 
 Raymond B. Fosdick, who represents the War Department in the 
 matter, that the three other organizations, the National Catholic War 
 Council, the Jewish Welfare Board, and the Salvation Army have 
 agreed to join in a common campaign to be carried on in January, 
 
 1919. This plan will therefore result in two national drives instead 
 of seven. 
 
 7 
 
"The Young Men's Christian Association, the Young Women's Chris- 
 tian Association, the War Camp Community Service, and the American 
 Library Association do not attempt to dictate to the communities how 
 the money collected during the week of November nth shall be raised. 
 It is strongly urged, however, that the local representatives of the four 
 societies unite their machinery in single committees so that the cam- 
 paign will take on the appearance not of four drives conducted the 
 same week, but of a common drive in which all take part. 
 
 II 
 
 (Adopted August 15, igi8) 
 "It is agreed by the Young Men's Christian Association, the Young 
 Women's Christian Association, the War Camp Community Service 
 and the American Library Association 
 
 1. That there shall be a joint campaign for funds during the week 
 beginning November 11, 1918. 
 
 2. That by joint campaign we mean, so far as it can be brought 
 about, a campaign undertaken through the agency of consolidated com- 
 mittees rather than four separate campaigns in the same week. 
 
 3. That each society will adopt a joint pledge card. 
 
 4. That the committee organization now installed throughout the 
 country for the collection of funds be disturbed as little as possible, 
 and that the policy of addition rather than elimination be advised. 
 
 5. That in so far as the campaign has a name it shall be called the 
 "United War Work Campaign" followed by the names of the four 
 organizations participating. 
 
 6. That Mr. Cleveland H. Dodge be the national treasurer and that 
 the moneys collected in the States be paid to him for proper distribution 
 among the societies. 
 
 7. That all funds collected be distributed on a pro rata basis among 
 the four societies participating in the campaign; that is, the funds 
 received shall be divided among the participating organizations in such 
 proportion as the total budget of each organization bears to the sum 
 total of the combined budgets. The budget estimates and percentages 
 are as follows: 
 
 Y. M. C. A $100,000,000. .. 75 percent 
 
 W. C. C. S 15,000,000. .. 1 1.22 " 
 
 Y. W. C. A 15,000,000. .. 1 1.22 " 
 
 A. L. A 3,500,000... 2.56 " 
 
 8. That specified or restricted subscriptions shall not be asked for. 
 but, if given, shall be credited to the particular association, such amount 
 to be a part of the total and not an addition to it. 
 
 9. That the advertising which each organization has planned for 
 itself proceed as planned, but that some advertising be advised in the 
 name of the United War Work Campaign. 
 
 10. That the expenses incurred in joint work in connection with the 
 drive be paid on a pro rata basis. 
 
 11. That Mr. George W. Perkins and Dr. John R. Mott for the 
 Young Men's Christian Association; Mrs. Henry P. Davison for the 
 Young Women's Christian Association; Honorable Myron T. Herrick 
 for the War Camp Community Service; Mr. Frank A. Vanderlip for 
 the American Library Association; and Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., 
 Chairman of the Great Union Drive for New York City, and Mr. Cleve- 
 land H. Dodge as Treasurer ex officio, act together under the chair- 
 manship of Mr. Raymond B. Fosdick of the Commission on Training 
 Camp Activities of the War Department, or their alternates, in settling 
 any questions between the four organizations participating in this agree- 
 ment or in handling any arrangements which have to be dealt with 
 jointly." 
 
 8 
 
GENERAL PERSHING INDORSES 
 
 DRIVE 
 
 "A sense of obligation for the varied and useful service 
 rendered to the Army in France by the Young Men's 
 Christian Association prompts me to join in the appeal for 
 its further financial support. I have had opportunity to 
 observe its operations, measure the quality of its personnel 
 and mark its beneficial influence upon our troops, and I wish 
 unreservedly to commend its work for the army." 
 
 (Signed) Pershing. 
 
 GENERAL PETAIN COMMENDS 
 "Y" WORK 
 
 "I have approved, some time ago, the propositions made by 
 the Work of the 'Foyers du Soldat' for the organization 
 of a hundred new Foyers. 
 
 "During the two years of its working, this enterprise has 
 rendered incontestable services, offering to the soldiers' some 
 welfare and comfort during their sojourn in the Cantonments 
 of rest. 
 
 "At this time, when with the aid of the Y. M. C. A. our 
 American Allies are preparing to participate, more largely 
 still than in the past, in the organization of Foyers du Soldat, 
 I seize the occasion to inform you that I am disposed to 
 facilitate, in every way possible, a new extension of this 
 work in the zone of our Armies. 
 
 "Asking you to be, with your Collaborators and Friends, 
 French and American, the interpreter of the grateful sen- 
 timents of our troops, I beg you, Sir, to accept the assurance 
 of my highest consideration." 
 
 (Signed) Petain. 
 
 GEN. DIAZ PRAISES "Y" 
 
 "May I express in the name of my troops, my most sin- 
 cere and heartfelt admiration of the continuous benefits ren- 
 dered to the Italian army by Case de Soldato of Y. M. C. A." 
 
 (Signed) Diaz. 
 
 9 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 A BIRDSEYE VIEW OF THE SCOPE OF Y. M. C. A. 
 
 WAR WORK 
 
 The war work of the Y. M. C. A is a stupendous enter- 
 prise. Moreover, it is unique. 
 
 In a superlative war it reflects the superlative. In no pre- 
 vious war was such a project undertaken on such a scale. 
 It soon became so useful, so indispensable, that it grew, and 
 still is growing, far beyond the limits planned. 
 
 This form of war work was an American idea. The best 
 proof of its value was the way the Allied nations seized upon 
 it, and France and Italy soon asked that similar work be 
 done among their armies. Meanwhile the British and Cana- 
 dian "Y" work has been developing in the English army. 
 
 Remember, always, that the "Y" work is not extraneous. 
 It is not superimposed upon the fighting forces. It is not 
 working at cross purposes, or even at other purposes than 
 the armies which it serves. Primarily it is being employed 
 as a righteous force to help win a righteous war. 
 
 A sober soldier, a clean soldier, a contented soldier, makes 
 the best fighting man. The "Y" aids the man in uniform to 
 become that kind of soldier. 
 
 General Foch has a favorite slogan, "Battles are won or 
 lost the day before the fighting." The "Y" is fighting these 
 battles of "the day before." It is smashing at the strong- 
 hold of booze, immorality, and despondency. 
 
 The grim, out and out military man, Napoleon counted 
 the factor of morale as 3 to 1. General Pershing has said, 
 "Give us nine men and the Y. M. C. A. and we will have a 
 more effective fighting force than as though we had ten 
 men without the Y. M. C. A." That is, 900 men plus the 
 "Y" equals 1,000. Every million men in France is reinforced 
 by the "Y" with the equivalent of more than 100,000. This 
 is not Association calculation, but General Pershing's. 
 
 The American soldier, sailor, or marine cannot miss the 
 "Y" at any stage, even if he wants to. And thousands upon 
 thousands of letters home show that he does not want to. 
 
 10 
 
Analyzed, most complaints about the "Y" sift down to pro- 
 tests against the lack at some points of the services the "Y" 
 offers at others. 
 
 To make this service uniform, complete, and universal 
 rests with the American people. Their readiness to meet the 
 demands of the American fighting man — not of the Y. M. C. A. 
 — will be gauged by their contributions to this campaign 
 fund. 
 
 Keep this point clear: It is the man in the uniform who 
 wants this $100,000,000. The "Y" simply is trying to help him 
 get it. 
 
 All that is said here about the soldier applies to the sailor 
 and marine. It is difficult to talk of all of them at once. 
 
 The Y. M. C. A. first touches the drafted man, not yet in 
 uniform, in those hours of depression and homesickness that 
 assail the most stout-hearted after he has said goodbye to 
 family and friends, and boarded a train for camp. 
 
 The "Y" awaits the rookie at camp and gives the one 
 human touch amid the machine like precision and discipline 
 which he is apt at first to consider as a cold, bloodless process. 
 
 Throughout his training it does not pamper him, but it 
 strengthens, stimulates, and fortifies him. To repeat, it 
 makes a better soldier of him. If it does not the com- 
 manding officer would rout it out of his cantonment or 
 camp, bag and baggage. If you don't believe the "Y" has 
 a place in camp or on the fighting line you don't believe the 
 American officers know their business. It goes there only 
 by their invitation and remains with their consent. 
 
 The young American goes next to a port of embarkation. 
 He has been active in civilian life, working hard and play- 
 ing hard. He has been even more strenuous in the crowded 
 days of intensive training. Now he faces a trip overseas, 
 on a crowded transport. Long, idle hours carry germs of 
 home sickness. The reaction is apt to be, "Is it worth 
 while?" Can't you see how the "Y" man may be of inesti- 
 mable service on the transport? 
 
 In France — a new environment, new language, new cus- 
 toms. He faces problems outside his military life. Here is 
 fought the great battle of "the day before," of many days 
 before. The triple enemy, booze, gambling, loneliness, keep 
 up their barrage fire while the man is waiting, waiting, wait- 
 
 11 
 
ing. The unrelieved monotony is deadly. Then come the 
 actual fighting and the need for ministry. After that the 
 heavy artillery of all the evil spirits that a Hun could con- 
 jure — that reaction from excitement and strain, when tired 
 body and fagged mind respond only to the most elemental 
 instincts, which also are the most animal. Testimony is over- 
 whelming that here the "Y" has done some of its most 
 effective work. In the most literal sense it has been a 
 >avior of men. And that means, in military phrase, a con- 
 server of man power to fight the battles of those who must 
 stay at home. 
 
 Trembling, nerve racked, either keyed to an abnormal pitch, 
 or in a daze from nerve exhaustion, the soldier comes back 
 from an engagement. The "Y" holds out a welcome hand. 
 It takes him under its wing, when he most needs it. It helps 
 him back to normal, mentally and physically. 
 
 While the fight is on it stays with him. "Y" men have 
 returned who have had miraculous escapes. Others have 
 been wounded, some killed. 
 
 The "Y" work in the German prison camps literally has 
 saved thousands of lives. The work among the convalescents 
 alone is an epic of kindness and mercy. 
 
 Important as is the "Y" work for the American soldier, 
 sailor, and marine, this is not its sole task. 
 
 Testimony of the highest French and Italian military 
 authorities proves the great value of the Association in help- 
 ing maintain the morale of these Allies. 
 
 In Russia the Association has been a major force in the 
 program of economic, industrial, and moral support under- 
 taken by President Wilson. The opportunities for further 
 service there grip the imagination and lay a burden of highest 
 responsibility upon the Y. M. C. A. and the American people 
 upon whom depends the degree of service the "Y" can 
 render. 
 
 In Macedonia, in Albania, in Turkey, in East Africa. 
 Mesopotamia, India and Egypt, in Palestine, Siberia and 
 Japan, and at every point where the flags of the Allies fly, 
 the Y. M. C. A. is doing war work. Its field of activitv 
 encircles the globe. 
 
 Speakers in this campaign should inform themselves fully 
 from this manual, and from other literature, about the tre- 
 
 12 
 
mendous sweep and scope of the War Work program. Let 
 it grip your own imagination and your enthusiasm. Then 
 only will you be able to impart the story to your audiences. 
 Then only can you make your audiences realize how truly 
 the responsibility for continuing and extending and intensi- 
 fying the service rests upon them. 
 
 13 
 
FOLLOWING HIM THROUGH 
 
 HOW THE LONG ARM OF THE T REACHES THE 
 MAN IN UNIFORM WHEREVER HE GOES 
 
 The "Y" follows the flag. But it does not stop at that. 
 It follows the man. 
 
 It follows him even if he falls into a German prison camp. 
 But in most cases it will go with him to the front and back 
 home again. 
 
 The trail of the "Y" is long. It encircles the globe. It 
 ranges over the seven seas. It is anchored firmly on every 
 continent. 
 
 The "Y" doesn't wait to meet the man half-way. It goes 
 with the drafted man on his train to camp. It meets the 
 marine at his training quarters; it greets the sailor at his 
 home port. 
 
 The troop train meeting is brief. Like most introductions, 
 it is important. Many men on these trains are homesick. 
 Others are anxious and fearful in the face of a new expe- 
 rience. A few seize upon their last hours out of uniform 
 for a final "fling." Others are curious about their new ad- 
 venture. 
 
 Tact has helped the "Y" man combat gambling and 
 drink. Cheer has dispelled the depressing aftermath of leave 
 takings. A readiness to answer questions has been helpful 
 to men who knew little of "what to do next" when they 
 reached camp. 
 
 Moreover the train trips give the "Y" men opportunity to 
 invite the recruits to the "Y" hut at the camp. 
 
 Camp life is an unopened book to most men who go there. 
 It has peculiar temptations. m 
 
 "The sins and temptations of soldiers as well as their vir- 
 tues are seldom subtle. Generally they are elementary and 
 passionate. Their hearts, flung open to the world, are readier 
 for influence than they have ever been before. Their minds 
 freed from all questions as to what they shall eat or what 
 they shall drink or wherewithal they shall be clothed — for 
 the army arranges all that for the soldier — puts him to bed 
 
 14 
 
at night, awakens him in the morning and maps out the hours 
 of his day by schedule — are like empty houses swept and 
 garnished, ready for the entrance of whatever spirits may 
 come, whether good or bad. 
 
 "Imagine this reconstructed human nature in a tent at 
 camp. Suddenly he is removed from all with which he is 
 familiar and set among entirely new surroundings. He has 
 long evenings with nothing to occupy his hours and no com- 
 fortable place in which to spend them. There comes the 
 first opportunity of the Young Men's Christian Association." 
 
 To this stranger, most literally in a strange land, the "Y" 
 holds forth a friendly hand. It meets the opportunity, not 
 by preaching, but by serving. 
 
 The service may range, on its physical side, from selling 
 a postage stamp to planning a wedding ceremony, which has 
 been done to the extent of obtaining a license, a clergyman, 
 and a room for the couple. 
 
 Each service makes a point of personal contact. That 
 affords the "Y" man the chance for the type of service most 
 needed — the spiritual sort. The word is not used in any nar- 
 row sense. It may mean a smile, a cheery greeting, a slap 
 on the back, a conference about personal problems, and the 
 way the men pour their confidences into the ears of one who 
 has time to listen, attests the need. 
 
 Three things are desired by practically all men in camp. 
 They want a chance to write letters, to meet friends, and 
 to hear music. Hence there is no time lost in "setting up" 
 the "Y" work. 
 
 jpYom these the group activities may broaden into enter- 
 tainments, lectures, athletics, motion picture programs, group 
 parties to visit homes, educational classes, and other special 
 work as the need is evident. 
 
 From camp the soldier in the making goes to a point of 
 embarkation. Here, two conditions, congestion and tempta- 
 tion, caused much concern in the early days of speeding troops 
 across the sea. At times men slept on floors, and some 
 walked the streets all night. Food and drink aside from that 
 furnished them by the army often were germ laden. Vicious 
 women swarmed about. 
 
 The "Y M soon "spotted" the danger point. It built "huts" 
 to accommodate the men, and divert them. It gave them a 
 
 15 
 
place to write that last letter. It held out inducements for 
 a happy leave-taking of their home shores. The government 
 took a hand in "cleaning up" these places. But preventative 
 work needs to be supplanted by combative "Y" work. 
 
 Because of military censorship little has been said about 
 one of the most important phases of the Association effort 
 this side of France. That is the work aboard the transports. 
 
 Crowded into every available square foot of space, with no 
 diversions, the men have little to do but think. Reaction 
 from the excitement of leaving the good old U. S. A., from 
 the strenuous work of the training period, nourish germs of 
 homesickness, with no physical activity to combat it. There is 
 the constant tension of concern about the U-boat. Throw in 
 seasickness, and you have a picture of an unhappy lot of 
 men. 
 
 "Y" men have devised games for the limited deck space 
 available. Letter writing, entertainments, motion pictures, 
 concerts, French lessons, phonographs, and boxing help fill 
 the long, idle hours. Not only to the soldier passengers but 
 to the officers and men of the transports have the "Y" pro- 
 grams been a boon. One secretary wrote : 
 
 "The tirelessness of officers and crew is remarkable. When 
 the badges for bravery are given, the officers and sailors who 
 make these hazardous trips, carrying safely the precious men 
 to fight at the front should not be forgotten. At the front 
 a man is rewarded for saving a life by risking his own; 
 almost hourly these men risk the watery grave to save thou- 
 sands and never think of reward." 
 
 Generals in charge of regiments that have crossed have 
 commented in official reports to the War Department on the 
 "Y" work in this fashion : 
 
 "The Y. M. C. A. representatives on board have contributed 
 much to the enjoyment and contentment of all on board." 
 
 The verdict of the men is reflected unconsciously by a 
 secretary who wrote, in a report not intended for publica- 
 tion, "We have had a strenuous week and thought we might 
 get some much needed rest Sunday afternoon in our room, 
 but the men have found a way to get to us, and they keep 
 the trail hot with many needs ; some simply want to be with 
 us, as they realize that we are their friends." 
 
 Then comes France! The land of the dreams of many a 
 
 16 
 
man in the A. E. F. may still be a mirage though he is on 
 her soil. One of "Pershing's Fifty" said this: 
 
 "What of France? I hope to see it some day. My chief 
 impression on the way to the front is travel in cattle cars 
 and billets in barns. It gives one a funny feeling — this 
 thing of being on the way but not knowing at all where he 
 is going. It isn't good form to ask many questions either. 
 Sometimes we would travel for hours and have not the least 
 idea of our destination. Nor would stops at stations mean 
 we could look around the town." 
 
 For the men waiting in camps to go to the front; for the 
 hundreds of thousands engaged on work back of the lines, 
 France is infinitely more monotonous than training camps 
 here. Paris is closed to the soldiers on leave. To the vast 
 majority other cities are inaccessible. The French small 
 town affords no amusements ; usually not even an audi- 
 torium of any kind in which to "start something." Only the 
 wine shops seem to offer welcome. The righting front is the 
 big adventure in France, and only one man in nine ever 
 gets there. 
 
 Hence the "Y" huts. Hence the "Over There" Theatre 
 League, with many stars generally reluctant to go far from 
 Broadway, playing one night stands, and often setting their 
 own scenery, or doing without. Hence Aix-les-Bains, erst- 
 while gambling resort, now a wonder spot and play place for 
 the American soldier. The French and British have chances 
 to visit home and friends. The American is 3,000 miles away 
 from home, to stay until the war is won. 
 
 Let an unbiased observer tell a story of the need for the 
 "Y" and give a word picture of what it is doing in France. 
 The following are extracts from an article on "The Red Tri- 
 angle Under Fire" in "Vogue" for June 15. 
 
 "In that monstrous alien world, there is one force, and 
 only one, that is permitted to follow our boys right up to the 
 front line trenches ; to keep their war-sick souls in touch with 
 faraway America and all its healing, normal activities ; to 
 be to them home, club, church, college, theatre, ball park, 
 moving picture house, and department store ; to give them the 
 first stamp for home and the last cake of chocolate before 
 they go under fire — the Y. M. C. A. 
 
 "A man by the name of Pershing expressed his apprecia- 
 
 17 
 
tion no less loudly, though in his own characteristic manner, 
 by giving the Y. M. C. A. an extra weight of responsibility 
 amounting to the transaction of 22,000,000 dollars' worth of 
 extra business annually. The ubiquitous "huts" were already 
 in ninety-five per cent, of the places where three hundred or 
 more men were located. . . . 
 
 "The 'Y' may have winked rapidly and swallowed a few 
 gasps of astonishment, but it turned to its official desk in 
 the new Equitable Trust Building on the corner of Forty- 
 fifth Street and Madison Avenue and began writing out its 
 orders for April, May and June. The first item was 2,850 
 tons of sugar, followed by such unexpectednesses as ten tons 
 of tooth-paste, four tons of shaving sticks, sixty tons of 
 chewing gum and 1,337 tons of cigarettes and tobacco. Fifty 
 tons each of chocolates, gumdrops and lemon drops came in 
 one consignment. The boys liked the last named candies so 
 much that the "Y" contracted for the whole output of the 
 lemon-drop factory, which quietly went out of business so far 
 as mere stay-at-home Americans were concerned. An examina- 
 tion of the Post Exchange price list shows that in most 
 instances articles made on this side of the water cost no 
 more to the soldier in France than to the civilian here. In 
 some cases they cost less. And this despite the fact that 
 Y. M. C. A. goods to the amount of twenty thousand dollars 
 were lost on one ship alone. 
 
 "But the sixty-ton-gum salesman is merely one of the 
 Y. M. C. A.'s disguises. It is also the biggest moving pic- 
 ture exhibitor in the world, with seven and a half million 
 feet of films weekly, for needs on this side of the water. 
 
 "When it comes to a consideration of the efforts of the 
 Y. M. C. A. in the world of sport, there is no way of ex- 
 pressing one's appreciation of what the organization is doing. 
 If the men in the big Y. M. C. A. camps, fresh from home, 
 need baseball and can be kept contented and out of mischief 
 by means of it, one can realize how much more necessary it 
 is when these same men come back from the front line to 
 temporary rest billets in France. Any man who has been 
 in hell for two weeks is a sick man and should be treated 
 as such, whether or not he has been certified physically unfit — 
 or so at least our friends the allies have come to believe. 
 The iron drill routine is relaxed; the tension is deliberately 
 
 18 
 
taken off, but without healthful ways of straightening his 
 nerves by working his muscles, the man is in quite as much 
 danger as that produced by any 5.9's or whizz bangs. The 
 Y. M. C. A. counts a thousand dollars spent for boxing 
 gloves, with which to equip a single company, a mighty good 
 investment. 
 
 'When that company is through with the gloves, they will 
 pass them on, and another set of unreasonable men will con- 
 tentedly bang each others' nerves right side up. Almost two 
 hundred thousand dollars has already been spent on athletic 
 equipment. 
 
 "It isn't until one reaches the work among the prisoners 
 in the Central Empires, however, that one grasps the scope 
 of the Y. M. C. A.'s educational efforts. Among the English 
 civilians interned at Rouen there were a common school, a 
 high school, and a University of seventy chairs, where one 
 could learn anything up to Arabic. A small chemical labora- 
 tory was established and more than one patentable invention 
 was made in the adjacent machine-shop. The story of the 
 work among the Russians in Germany will never be fully 
 known, but reading rooms were established, orchestras were 
 supplied with instruments or the material to make them, 
 athletic meets were organized among men entirely unaccus- 
 tomed to such events, and best of all, perhaps, the child- 
 prisoners in uniform, of whom there were a surprising and 
 pitiful number, were gathered together and given the rudi- 
 ments of an education. It is not in any sense exaggeration 
 to say that the American Y. M. C. A. has saved life and 
 reason for hundreds of thousands of men during these last 
 mad years. 
 
 "We have been talking in millions, haven't we, in our big 
 modern way? But this war, for all its terrible scientific 
 efficiency, deals, in the last analysis, directly with the indi- 
 vidual. We may say that the Y. M. C. A. ships eight million 
 sheets of paper to France every month. But the letter that 
 brings conviction to you personally is the letter with the 
 big Red Triagle on it that you may get when the postman 
 whistles. We may say too that the Y. M. C. A. gives away 
 — not sells — seventy-five thousand cups of coffee every day. 
 But you won't realize it until you get a letter something like 
 
 19 
 
this one that came to a little white-haired Canadian who had 
 given her only boy : 
 
 " 'I wish you and the people supplying free hot drinks 
 could see the men coming in after they've been relieved 
 after a big action. They would look to you like grotesque 
 scarecrows if you couldn't see the pathos of it. Many of 
 them have wrapped their legs in sand-bags to keep out the 
 cold. They are mud caked literally from their "tin-pots" to 
 their water-logged boots. Their shoulders and heads sag 
 forward, and they slouch slowly along with never a glance 
 to left or right. The strangest and most startling thing about 
 them is their faces. Mud-smeared, with two or three days' 
 stubble of beard, the skin shows through greyish white, set 
 and dead. They are the faces of corpses, all but the eyes. 
 The eyes are alive, sometimes horridly, vividly alive. If the 
 tension is not broken, the brain may snap. I certainly believe 
 that in thousands of cases it was that first hot drink that 
 dragged the men back to life and sanity. 
 
 " 'But even then you don't know what thirst is till you 
 see the walking wounded — men grey with weariness, shiver- 
 ing with cold, and at the same time burning up with thirst. 
 I'll never forget my first hot drink, after eight hours' wan- 
 dering — walking and crawling through the mud and the rain — 
 the night I was hit.' 
 
 "Do you wonder that the little Canadian, herself a poor 
 woman, went out and started a fund that raised twenty-five 
 thousand dollars for the Y. M. C. A. to turn into hot 
 coffee?" 
 
 Coming back from the battle-line the "Y" still is with 
 the men in uniform. If wounded, the "Y" may be called 
 upon to convey him to a dressing-station or hospital. In the 
 hospitals provision is made for entertaining the sufferers. 
 If a man comes out unscathed physically he is bound to lag 
 mentally and the "Y" helps rouse him to normal. If the 
 soldier's wounds are such that he must be brought back to 
 this country for recovery, the Y. M. C. A. still is by his 
 side on board ship. 
 
 The 'Y" follows him through, and follows him back. 
 
 20 
 
INSTRUCTIONS TO SPEAKERS 
 
 Plan your speech with care. Don't trust to inspiration. 
 Keep your speech moving forward. Let one point lead 
 to another. 
 
 Never forget the definite object of your speech, which is 
 to make your hearers want to give to the Y. M. C. A. War 
 Fund. Your success will be measured by their gifts. 
 
 Fit your speech to your audience. Draw illustrations from 
 things they know about and care about. Consider the best 
 appeal to farmers ; to tradesmen ; to professional men, etc. 
 
 Be earnest, be sincere, and you will be convincing. The 
 best speech material in the world will not produce any effect 
 unless it is blended with personal force and enthusiasm. 
 
 Keep rigidly within the time allotted you. 
 
 Be familiar with local quotas and previous subscriptions 
 if you talk about them. 
 
 Arouse emotions to create the will to give. To convince 
 a man that something ought to be done usually is not suffi- 
 cient to compel him to do it. Any psychologist will tell you 
 that. 
 
 Seek not merely to leave your audience in a well disposed 
 frame of mind for the Y. M. C. A. War Work. Drive your 
 appeal home so strongly that they must give. Good wishes 
 do not help care for the men who are fighting our battles. 
 
 Do not look upon your audience as a mass meeting, but 
 as a group of individual prospects to each of whom you are 
 trying to sell. 
 
 Subject all your stories and illustrations to a double 
 test: First — Do they have a clearly defined point? Second — 
 Do they tie up with the Y. M. C. A. War Work? 
 
 In your enthusiasm for the American fighting man, do not 
 make comparisons between our army and those of the allies. 
 We have done much, but we still have every reason to be 
 humble when we remember the success and sacrifices of the 
 allied nations for four years. 
 
 You are not called upon to go into the reasons why we 
 entered the war, nor to discuss questions of national policy. 
 
 21 
 
The Four Minute Men are authorized to do that. The 
 
 Y. M. C. A. is not. 
 
 Each speaker should know the general plan of the Boys* 
 "Earn and Give" division of the United War Work Cam- 
 paign. A» full statement is given in this book. 
 
 Each speaker should call the attention of his audiences to 
 the fact that "a million boys behind a million fighters" is 
 the slogan of the "Red Triangle Boys" who are seeking to 
 secure one million boys to pledge to "earn and give" at least 
 $5.00. 
 
 Speakers will take every occasion to refer to the par- 
 ticipating organizations. The speaker should give a clear 
 explanation of the scope of the War Fund Campaign. Then 
 he may deal with any phase of it with which he is especially 
 conversant. 
 
 To sum up : Aim for the bull's eye in the first sentence. 
 Arrest the attention of your audience. Be plain. To do so, 
 use short sentences, short words, and shun fine phrases. 
 
 Talk to the back row of your audience; you will hit every- 
 thing closer in. Talk to the simplest intelligence in your 
 audience. You will hit everything higher up. 
 
 Give your words time. A jumbled sentence is wasted. 
 
 Don't make a good speech and then kill it by rambling on. 
 Stop when you are through. Make your finish sharp and 
 strong. 
 
 Be vivid. Be specific. Be brief. 
 
 22 
 
THE BIG STORY 
 
 THE "Y" IN FRANCE 
 
 FIGHTING THE "BATTLE OF THE DAY BEFORE" 
 ON THE "FRONTIER OF FREEDOM" 
 
 The story of the Y. M. C. A. work with the American 
 Expeditionary Forces can be told in dollars. That story 
 will portray a notable chronicle of American big business. 
 It will reflect the striking generosity of the American people. 
 
 The story can be told in figures. The figures will disclose 
 tons of supplies, acres of buildings, thousands of volunteer 
 workers, hundreds of gross of writing paper and envelopes, 
 and millions of packets of chewing-gum and chocolate. 
 
 Best of all, it can be told in terms of human beings and 
 personal service. 
 
 There was the Red Triangle man at Chateau-Thierry who 
 prevailed upon the officers to let him stay among his men. 
 He gave a bar of chocolate here, lit a "fag" there, aided the 
 wounded, ministered to the dying, and escaped miraculously, 
 though men were falling all about him. 
 
 There was one who won the Croix de Guerre by being 
 on hand with his pack of chocolate and biscuit when the ad- 
 vance was so rapid that field kitchens were left far behind. 
 
 There was the preacher of a fashionable city congrega- 
 tion who drove an auto along the brink of a trench, throwing 
 out food packages and a "good luck to you," to soldiers 
 about to go into action. The soldiers tell the story of how 
 they cheered and waved to him as he passed. 
 
 There was the young business man who nightly drove along 
 a 20-mile route, exposed to German shells, his coming ad- 
 vertised by the rattling of his camion, as he bounded, without 
 lights, across shell holes and rocks, never knowing whether 
 the low-hanging mist he was driving into was just fog or 
 German gas. 
 
 There are scores of "Y" men, not under fire, but suffer- 
 ing every discomfort, working day and night until they are 
 sent home, nerve-racked and exhausted, serving the men who 
 
 23 
 
come and go in constantly swelling streams, in town after 
 town, all over France. 
 
 Story upon story like these make up the fabric of the big 
 story of the "Y" work in France. It is a tale of heroism, 
 never of heroics. There are countless little epics which will 
 come to light long after the war has become a horrible 
 nightmare in history. 
 
 All this effort is worth while only if it accomplishes some- 
 thing. Granted, what has the "Y" done for the A. E. F.? 
 
 THE "HOME HUTS" 
 
 It has been a home for the men. 
 
 In France today there are 1,200 huts, more than 4,0G0 sec- 
 retaries, of whom 500 are women. 
 
 The word "hut" has an extremely elastic definition. A 
 hut may be a hole in a hillside, a dark chamber in a cave, 
 or hidden quarry, a little tent in a forest camp, a sumptuous 
 hotel in a big city, a former public building, or a great cha- 
 teau. 
 
 When a newspaper correspondent asked a secretary whether 
 he might come out to see him, that secretary gave this de- 
 scription of his particular hut : 
 
 "Sure, glad to have you. Lots of room and entertain- 
 ment. My house is 3 feet deep, 3 feet wide, and 7 feet long. 
 I dug it. The roof will keep out shrapnel, I'll guarantee 
 that. There is room for two, if you don't squirm." 
 
 Many little dugouts are to be found near the front line 
 where buildings would soon be demolished. 
 
 "It's not the work, it's the gas alarms," said the secretary 
 of one of these, "Three or four times a night I have to get 
 up and put on my mask and keep it on half an hour. It 
 busts a feller's sleep all to pieces." 
 
 Sometimes, where lumber is not obtainable, the French 
 abri tent is used. With smaller units an ordinary camp tent 
 often houses the "Y." 
 
 Gun pit, building, tent, or what not, soldiers flock to these 
 huts. They read, write, talk, attend lectures, religious serv- 
 ices, see "movies," send money home, buy chocolate and 
 tobacco, play pianos and phonographs. 
 
 Actual requisitions have shown that more than a thousand 
 different articles, everything from tacks and hammers to 
 
 24 
 
phonographs and pianos are needed to equip the larger huts 
 with all that the soldiers need. Flags, chairs, brooms, basins, 
 Bibles, percolators, games, tobacco, knives, forks, spoons, 
 stoves, and so on the list goes. 
 
 An estimate places the number of pianos at 500, many of 
 them obtained from the kind citizens of France, and many 
 more phonographs than that are scattered throughout the 
 camps. 
 
 ENTERTAINING THE SOLDIER 
 
 In these tents the "Y" has entertained the soldiers. 
 
 More than 150 actors, actresses, monologists and musical 
 entertainers had gone to France by July 1. Another hundred 
 have been going over since then. 
 
 By winter there will be enough there to assure every hut 
 one performance by some artist or group of artists each 
 week. In addition are the nightly entertainments, by ama- 
 teurs, "movies," lecturers, or by the boys themselves. And 
 the latter constitute one of the most popular forms of diver- 
 sion. Recognizing this fact, special effort has been made 
 to round up the talent among the men — and in nearly every 
 regiment professionals or amateurs of the first rank are to 
 be found. 
 
 The Y. M. C. A. undertook the entertainment work follow- 
 ing Gen. Pershing's issuance last summer of general order 
 No. 26 : "The Y. M. C. A. will provide for the amusement 
 and the recreation of the troops." 
 
 E. H. Sothern, Julia Marlowe and Elsie Janis are types of 
 the American stage-folk who have helped fulfil this order. 
 
 "It is a sight worth while seeing," reported one clergyman 
 who never attended the theatre at home, "to watch the crowd 
 of boys, glum, sulky and tired, come into a hut and then see 
 them thaw out and warm up under Miss Janis's infectious 
 fun-making. Generally she has them singing, 'We Won't Go 
 Back Until It's Over Over Here' with a pep that bodes ill 
 for the Germans they will meet the next day. 
 
 "You have kept my men from thinking of to-morrow's 
 battle," one officer said as he left a hut, "they will fight better 
 because of to-night." 
 
 "Miss Janis, you have killed more Germans than you 
 know," was the comment of another officer. 
 
 25 
 
"Y" MOVIES IN FRANCE 
 
 The Y. M. C. A. is the biggest motion picture exhibitor 
 in the world. During the April crisis at Montdidier, when 
 the French and American divisions at that point were ordered 
 to hold the line at any cost, the "Y" secretary asked the 
 colonel of an American regiment — "What can the 'Y' best 
 do for these divisions ?" The Colonel replied, "We want 
 motion pictures, more motion pictures, and still more motion 
 pictures." 
 
 The motion picture has played a co-star role with the 
 steaming hot cup of chocolate and the friendly hand-grasp 
 the Y. M. C. A. holds out in the trench to men who are 
 fagged in mind and body as they wearily tramp back. With 
 the vitalizing drink and the firm "we are with you" grasp 
 of the hand, the motion picture arouses the numbed spirit 
 and brings it back from the abnormal world of appalling 
 extremes to the normal things. No longer is the soldier a 
 lost soul in a world gone mad, for Bobby Jones of Cedar- 
 ville is laughing at the pranks of "Doug." Fairbanks or 
 looking into the fearless eyes of Bill Hart. 
 
 Never before in the history of the world has an expedi- 
 tionary force been able to carry its own home environment, 
 visualized in action, into foreign lands. 
 
 More than 7,000,000 feet of film a week have been shown 
 at Y. M. C. A. huts during this summer; with winter the 
 demand for films will be even greater. 
 
 THE CANTEENS 
 
 The Association entered upon the conduct of canteens for 
 the same reason it took over recreational work. General Per- 
 shing requested it. The operation of them has become one 
 of the biggest single phases of the "Y" work. Gross sales, 
 at the present rate, will amount to $75,000,000 yearly. 
 
 There are 600 exchanges. Monthly there is shipped from 
 America to France between 3,000 to 4,000 tons of supplies 
 to stock them. In addition, supplies are purchased in enor- 
 mous quantities in France and England. In France the 
 Y. M. C. A. took over eight factories. Three are used in 
 making chocolate and the others turn out biscuits and cook- 
 ies. The sugar comes from the United States. The French 
 provide the raw chocolate. 
 
 26 
 
The American troops in August were eating 920,000 pounds 
 of chocolate a month. They consumed 528,000 tons of 
 crackers and biscuits. The demand for tobacco is even more 
 amazing. In a single order this summer, the Association 
 bought 1,337 tons of tobacco of all kinds. One single ship- 
 ment included 900,000 cigars. A half dozen carloads of 
 chewing tobacco were purchased at one time. Three million 
 boxes of matches are sold over the counters of the ex- 
 changes in thirty days. Soap, safety razors, blades, shoes 
 strings, chewing gum, candles, various kinds of brushes, shoe 
 blacking, canned jam, jelly, sardines and almost anything one 
 could buy in the old time small-town general store is to be 
 had in these exchanges. 
 
 The canteens always have been operated at cost. No 
 effort in any case has been made to get a profit from them. 
 Supplies are given free to men in the front line trenches both 
 before they go into action and when they are coming out. 
 
 On August 1 a new arrangement went into effect by which 
 the Y. M. C. A. exchanges are to charge no higher prices than 
 those of the army Commissaries. Because of transportation cost 
 and other overhead expenses that the Y. M. C. A. must pay, 
 which the army does not, this arrangement will cost from 
 $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. Nothing is sold at a Y. M. C. A. 
 hut except the supplies handled through the post exchanges. 
 Writing paper, envelopes, use of buildings, entertainments, 
 paraphernalia for games, education classes, and all other 
 facilities provided for the soldiers are free. 
 
 TRANSPORTATION 
 
 Another phase of the Y. M. C. A. work in France of great 
 magnitude is the transportation system. French railways 
 naturally are overtaxed. 
 
 Thus, it became necessary for the Y. M. C. A. to obtain 
 a fleet of 475 automobiles and trucks without which the 
 secretaries at the 1,200 or more huts would find themselves 
 minus supplies, entertainers, lecturers, and cut off from out- 
 side communication. The aggregate value of these auto- 
 mobiles is nearly $500,000. On August 1, 250 more were 
 needed. 
 
 Writing on this phase of the Y. M. C. A. work in France, 
 
 27 
 
Charles E. Hill, recently secretary of the Florida State Asso- 
 ciation, upon his return from France, said: 
 » "Few in America have any conception of the size of that 
 Y. M .C. A. organization overseas. I regarded the Associa- 
 tion as a purely religious organization until I was summoned 
 to join its forces. I then discovered that religious activities 
 were just one of thirty activities more or less. The 'Y' 
 has hundreds of athletic directors on the Western Front, 
 runs millions of feet of movie film a week, directs hotels and 
 restaurants, etc. The motor transport may be included 
 among the 'etc' We are a part of an enterprise that will do 
 $40,000,000 worth of business the first year of the war. 
 That is the chain store business of the post exchanges, where 
 the boys get their chocolate, tobacco, cigarettes, gum, stamps 
 and the like. 
 
 "A recent order from Paris, for supplies to last three 
 months, includes sixty tons of chewing gum, 300 tons of 
 chewing tobacco, 312 tons of smoking tobacco, 600 tons of 
 cigarettes, ten or twelve tons of tooth-paste, and so on. We 
 must have men in France to haul these supplies from the great 
 central warehouses to the divisional distributing points and 
 from there on to the Y. M. C. A. huts in the camps and back 
 of the lines, and even up to the dugouts where the secretary 
 nearest the front does business in the second line trenches." 
 
 EDUCATORS "OVER THERE" 
 
 Overseas, the Y. M. C. A. is laying foundations of a 
 Khaki College. Military experts agree that the better a 
 man is trained mentally, the better will be his performance 
 as a soldier. Educational work begun in the cantonments 
 and camps in the United States is continued while American 
 troops are on board transports for Europe and taken up 
 again when they arrive in France. 
 
 In France, the educational problem is one of the most dim- 
 cult the Association has to face. Not because there is no 
 demand for this type of work among the soldiers, but be- 
 cause they move so rapidly from place to place, it is difficult 
 to preserve the continuity of the courses. 
 
 But the study of French forms an almost universal start- 
 ing point for the schooling the American fighting man re- 
 ceives overseas, and another introduction to "Y" educational 
 
 28 
 
work is made through lecture courses, French history, French 
 Government, and geographical study relating to the terri- 
 tory where the men are located. 
 
 In hospitals the educational work comes into its own 
 again. Among the convalescents there is plenty of time and 
 the opportunity for mind improvement is most welcome. 
 
 Without doubt, the educational secretaries are looking 
 ahead to the period after the war when hundreds of thou- 
 sands of American soldiers will remain on European soil for 
 a considerable time, and then they will be even more free 
 than now to avail themselves of the educational work which 
 will enable them to return more readily to peace time occu- 
 pations that are worth while. 
 
 The educational work is formed into two divisions. One is 
 that for the under-educated and includes the teaching of 
 English to foreigners and to other illiterates, and also in- 
 struction in elementary subjects to the many whose school 
 periods have been cut short. The other division is the work 
 which is carried on for the benefit of those who are ambi- 
 tious to perfect themselves in some special line either be- 
 cause they desire promotion, or because they are looking 
 ahead to the time when they shall return to their peace time 
 pursuits. Beside classes in English, and the foreign lan- 
 guages, those in mathematics have been extremely popular. 
 
 Harris Dickson, Bishop Brent, Professor Mark Baldwin 
 and Charles Prince have told our soldiers much in their 
 breezy talks which help them to understand the French. 
 Franklin Edmonds, Dr. John G. Coulter, and men of that 
 type, have furnished them with an historical interpretation of 
 the war. British lecturers to the American soldiers have 
 included Hugh Mcintosh, of Edinburgh University; Sir 
 Arthur Priestley, publicist; Professor Fred Simpson, of Uni- 
 versity of London; and a long list of other noted university 
 men. American speakers sent to British and French included 
 Franklin Edmonds, Professor W. S. Naylor, Norman Hap- 
 good and Herbert Adams Gibbons. Other lecturers who have 
 contributed to the understanding and enjoyment of our own 
 troops have been Dr. William A. Shanklin, President of 
 Wesleyan ; Dr. William H. Crawford, President of Alle- 
 ghany College, Mrs. Rheta Childe Dorr, magazine writer, 
 George Randolph Chester, Reginald Wright Kauffman, Dr. 
 
 29 
 
Anson Phelps Stokes, Mrs. Eunice Tietjens, and Elizabeth 
 Shepley Sergeant, magazine writer. 
 
 The educational program of the Y. M. C. A. has been 
 pounded out under the white heat of war. Overseas it is not 
 standardized as yet, but when plans now under way are car- 
 ried out, it will become a great public school system with 
 high school and college courses accessible to every man in 
 the army. It will be possible for soldiers to continue their 
 studies to become doctors, lawyers, accountants, or business 
 or professional workers in their fields. 
 
 PHYSICAL EDUCATION 
 
 It is to be taken for granted that hard drills, hikes and the 
 daily routine of the soldier furnish all the exercise he needs. 
 But all of that is hard work. In addition he needs relaxation, 
 and physical relaxation at that. It is not on record that 
 soldiers turned to setting-up exercises or to military drill for 
 developing muscle in their hours of leisure. 
 
 The soldier is still human under his uniform and in his 
 off-hours is just as anxious to play football, baseball and 
 other games as he was in his peace time pursuits. In rest 
 camps and training camps in France the soldier needs health- 
 ful stimulation and diversion of mind as well as body, which 
 a wholesome participation in those games will give him. 
 
 In the fighting zone in France, the work rises to an even 
 greater value. When men come out from under fire after 
 days of intensive righting and screeching shells, they are in a 
 condition of high nervous tension which needs to be worked 
 off. 
 
 As Joseph H. Odell, writing in the Outlook for July 31, 
 puts it : "The 'Y' is needed to keep the boys and men from 
 going to the devil by default during nerve reactions follow- 
 ing the red fury of battle." 
 
 These men have been fighting, shooting, bayoneting, bomb- 
 ing, slashing through wire or through flesh and bone, all to 
 the fearful accompaniment of machine-gun clamor. No mat- 
 ter how cool they may seem, men are not nerveless, and when 
 they emerge from such an ordeal they need physical as well 
 as mental relaxation. 
 
 Where thousands of American boys are gathered, there 
 you are bound to find baseball, football, basketball, boxing 
 
 30 
 
and similar sports. Other games requiring less equipmen: 
 which can be more generally participated in, also have been 
 developed, but the Y. M. C. A. has bought tons of athletic 
 equipment for free use of the soldiers who want most of all 
 the standard American games and sports to which they have 
 been accustomed. Larger orders than ever before placed for 
 athletic goods have been made by the Y. M. C. A. For ex- 
 ample, some of the equipment orders for overseas use include 
 132,000 baseballs, 24,000 baseball bats; 1,500 baseball masks 
 (not gas); 21,000 indoor baseballs; 2,500 catcher's mits; 
 1,500 fielder's mits; 6,000 rugby footballs; 8,000 soccer balls, 
 and (don't laugh, for ping pong is the rage among the indoor 
 sports over there) 21,000 ping pong balls. 
 
 OVERSEAS RELIGIOUS WORK 
 
 Without prejudice or partiality for sect or creed, the 
 Y. M. C. A. stresses a religion of service and kindliness in 
 its work among the American troops. It seeks to provide 
 religious services of the kind to which each man has been 
 accustomed. The Y. M. C. A. huts frequently are the scenes 
 of Catholic masses and services conducted by Jewish rabbis. 
 
 One clergyman, a Y. M. C. A. secretary, struck the key-note 
 of the attitude of the Y. M. C. A. when he said to an over- 
 seas audience : 
 
 "I am not here to ask any of you men to change your 
 faith. The Y. M. C. A. seeks only to help you to live up 
 to your own faith." 
 
 This secretary then clinched his argument by having the 
 men join in singing that good old hymn, "Faith of Our 
 Fathers," and proceeded to preach a sermon based on funda- 
 mental truths which apply to Jew and Gentile, Catholic and 
 Protestant alike. 
 
 Gipsy Smith puts it this way: "God is no longer a police- 
 man to these boys. 'He is a chum who won't let a pal down.' 
 That's the idea the boys are getting. The Y. M. C. A. work 
 with the British Forces has revealed another view to the 
 boys of Christianity. It is Christ in earnest. It is Christ in 
 every day life." 
 
 Or, as another preacher put it when he had returned from 
 eight months in France : "I soon found out that you can 
 
 31 
 
get religion across over there much better by living it 
 than by preaching it." 
 
 If a man simply wants to talk over his troubles and 
 difficulties, the Secretary is the man ready to listen under- 
 standing^ and advise, comfort, or help. If a man seeks to 
 know more of God and the hereafter, the Secretary is 
 ready to help him. 
 
 "Over here it is not exactly good form to talk about 
 death, heaven and such matters," said one secretary, a busi- 
 ness man, "but over there we get down to elemental things 
 and these subjects are discussed freely." 
 
 If the soldier or the sailor or the marine is already a 
 church member, the Association man endeavors to see that 
 in the stress of his new life, he does not become separated 
 from his home connections. 
 
 In pursuance of its rule of absolute non-sectarianism, the 
 Association places its facilities at the disposal of chaplains, 
 camp pastors, and in each hut the Jewish Welfare Board 
 has a desk if it desires. It also works in closest cooperation 
 with the Knights of Columbus. 
 
 In arranging religious meetings, the religious work secre- 
 tary consults with the chaplains and camp pastors, and on 
 Sunday morning, many of the folk at home would be sur- 
 prised to see Catholic and Protestant services follow each 
 other in the "Y" auditoriums. 
 
 The spirit of the "Y" shines through the words of one 
 worker in France. 
 
 "What sectarian preacher could possibly reach an audience 
 of Catholics, Protestants of all denominations, and Jews? 
 My boys were such. But they can and must be reached, and 
 I believe in but one way — by love. Let these men once 
 realize you are offering them trust and affection, no matter 
 what the color of their souls, and you have from them a 
 loyalty unspeakable. I am writing from my own experience 
 and I have no fear for their religion. I have not, without 
 exception, found a man who is actually facing the horrors 
 of this war, and death and mutilation worse than death, 
 who does not turn naturally upon his spiritual side to the re- 
 ligion in which he has been raised, or to the belief he has 
 hewn out for himself." 
 
 A man continually face to face with death turns instinc- 
 
 32 
 
tively to the divine power toward which every heart yearns. 
 The question of the life to come is no longer a far-away, 
 unimportant conjecture. This very day his soul may go 
 out into eternity. 
 
 The "Y" speakers who come with a message of hope for 
 all men, draw audiences of eager thousands. In twelve 
 meetings which he addressed in cantonments in this country, 
 Dr. James Freeman was heard by more than 100,000 men. 
 
 Continuing its work of spiritual help, the "Y" has pre- 
 pared more than 50 helpful pamphlets for the fighting man, 
 in answer to his questions. These pamphlets include, "Some 
 Words of President Wilson on Religion," "Who is Jesus 
 Christ?" by Charles R. Brown, Dean of the Yale School of 
 Religion ; "The Beloved Captain," by Donald Hankey ; "Emer- 
 gency Rations," which contain portions from the Scriptures 
 for daily reading, and similar subjects. During the past six 
 months about 250,000 of these have been issued to enlisted 
 men and during the year, since January 1, orders have been 
 placed for 15,300,000. Up to May 1, 589,285 copies of the 
 Scriptures have been distributed, and during the past year 
 1,200,000 have been given to the men of our fighting forces. 
 
 The director of religious work in France, states his plat- 
 form as follows : 
 
 "The policy at headquarters is that there be nothing tricky 
 about our religious services; that they be conducted without 
 camouflage ; at regular times and with frank announcement." 
 
 REMITTING MONEY 
 
 Facilities for sending money home is a great service to 
 soldiers and sailors as well. The figures show for two months 
 (April and May) the amount for each month of $53.00 
 per man, and in May the total number of men remitting 
 money through the Association was larger than in the previous 
 month. 
 
 An average of 10,000 remittances a week now is being re- 
 ceived from the Paris office for transmission to the homes 
 of soldiers in the United States. The amounts forwarded in 
 this manner up to August 15, 1918, exceeded $2,000,000. This 
 service is growing by leaps and bounds because it is extremely 
 popular with the soldiers. Working steadily eight hours a 
 day, the secretary of the Soldiers' Bureau of Remittances, 
 
 33 
 
would have to sign more than 200 checks an hour by hand, to 
 dispose of 10.000 checks a week, so he has obtained an in- 
 genious machine which enables him to sign 4000 an hour. 
 
 THE "Y" IN LONDON 
 
 American Y. M. C. A. work in London is well organized. 
 The outstanding feature there is Eagle hut which now has a 
 world-wide reputation. There are two Y. M. C. A. Officers' 
 Clubs. One in Coventry Square consists of two fine old 
 London residences. The other club is Washington Inn, in 
 a delightful bungalow in the center of St. James square. 
 
 The field work in England may be divided into two parts; 
 that for the troops passing in and out of England and 
 France, whose stay in England never exceeds a week, and 
 that for the air service quartered in 90 aviation camps under 
 British Officers. More than 200,000 men pass through ports 
 in England each month where the Y. M. C. A. is ready to 
 greet them on their way to France. 
 
 AIX-LES-BAINS 
 
 Aix-les-Bains has become extremely popular with the sol- 
 diers. At one time in July there were about 1,500 men on leave 
 at Aix, 200 at Chambray, 6 miles from Aix, 100 more at 
 Charles-les-Eaux, 9 miles from Aix. Soldiers are quartered 
 at 70 hotels at Aix with which the Y. M. C. A. has con- 
 tracts. The hotels are graded A and B. Prices at A hotels 
 are 15 francs and at B hotels 13 and 11 francs per week, per 
 man. The Army pays the hotel bills which are rendered 
 directly to it. The Casino has become a bee-hive of uni- 
 formed men, morning, noon and night. Till midnight the boys 
 are coming and going. Among the amusements are steam- 
 boats on the lake, swimming, excursions on bicycles, and 
 coasting down Mt. Revard on bicycles. The villages 
 have the appearance of college towns with students in 
 Khaki. No arrests have been made, according to the present 
 Provost-Marshal since he went to Aix-les-Bains in March. 
 
 PERSONNEL 
 
 Statistics just released by the War Personnel Board show 
 that up to and including August 15, 5,739 men and 852 women 
 
 34 
 
have been approved for overseas service. Of this number 
 4,210 men have sailed in previous months, 396 during the 
 first two weeks in August. Approximately 400 "Y" women 
 have already gone over, and during the first half of August, 
 50 additional women workers embarked. 
 
 General qualifications for war service with the Y. M. C. A. 
 are set forth by Dr. Mott as follows : 
 
 "We should send only men of Christian character. As we 
 do not go to engage in propaganda, it is important that by 
 our lives and by our spirit we show forth that which is best in 
 American life. They should be men of fraternal spirit, able 
 to appreciate sympathetically religious and other points of 
 view quite different from their own, and able likewise to 
 work harmoniously in team with others. Above all they 
 should be men who go with a dominant desire and purpose to 
 render the maximum of service, and should believe with all 
 their souls in the winning of the war. I should not favor 
 sending any man who does not conscientiously believe he could 
 measure up to these requirements." 
 
 The specializations required of the personnel are well illus- 
 trated from the fact that there are twenty-one distinct types 
 of secretaries now serving in France or waiting to go over- 
 seas. Of these men by far the larger number — 1,771 are 
 "all-round" men. In addition to these there are 106 over- 
 seas religious directors, 484 physical directors, 14 railroad 
 secretaries, and 80 educational directors. It takes 272 busi- 
 ness secretaries to carry on the routine of the Y. M. C. A. 
 organization "over there." 
 
 The total of overseas forces is divided as follows : 
 
 4,327 serving with the American Expeditionary Forces in 
 France, 540 with the American forces in England, and 9 
 with the American forces in Italy. 
 
 There are 368 American "Y" workers manning the Foyers 
 du Soldat in the French Army, and 165 in the Case del Soldato 
 that are strengthening the morale of the Italian Army. In 
 Russia there are 61 American "Y" workers; 3 in Africa; 
 36 workers with Chinese coolie-soldiers, 5 in Egypt, 3 in 
 India, and 19 working with Portuguese Expeditionary forces 
 in France. 
 
 The ramifications of the American "Y" work are further 
 illustrated by the presence in the Bohemian Army of 1 
 
 35 
 
American Y. M. C. A. secretary, of 3 in the Polish army, of 
 1 at Copenhagen, 1 in the West Indies, 1 in Siam, 3 in 
 Switzerland, 7 in Mesopotamia, 1 in Palestine, and 1 in 
 
 Macedonia. 
 
 All men entering the service for a period of three months 
 or more in American camps, receive special training. More 
 than 350 men are taking this training every month. 
 
 A standard course of study is given at training schools 
 established by the War Work Council in each of the military 
 departments. 
 
 The course of study covers the following subjects: religi- 
 ous problems of the secretary ; war work methods ; promotion 
 of games and other recreative features ; historical back- 
 ground of the war; and history and principles of the Y. M. 
 C. A. 
 
 In 30 of the large camps, camp training schools have been 
 conducted. These in the past year enabled men, who, because 
 of emergency entered camp without the standard training 
 school course, to obtain training for their work. 
 
 The training section for overseas work, affords an intensive 
 course in many lines pertaining to overseas service. At a 
 weekly training conference at Columbia University, men who 
 have come to New York for appointment are given some 
 prevision of the work to be done overseas. Men who 
 finish the Columbia conference are required immediately to 
 enter a continuation conference. They do not have military 
 drill except on Saturday, and give two periods each day to 
 French, or some other language exercises. 
 
 Men who have completed the work of the Columbia con- 
 ference, and the continuation conference, may then be assigned 
 to specialized courses of instruction, such as motor trans- 
 port school; school for musical training; or the transport 
 school. 
 
 Under the auspices of the Woman's Division of the War 
 Personnel Board, a training school for workers has been 
 established at Barnard College, Columbia University. 
 
 In a recent group of about 125 men in training for over- 
 seas, the highest number recruited from any one occupation 
 was 15. Those were salesmen. From 59 other occupations 
 and professions, representatives included architects, bankers, 
 civil engineers, court officials, clergymen, letter-carriers, news- 
 
 36 
 
paper men, farmers, surveyors, a geologist, a numismatist 
 and a sign painter. 
 
 The women's roster shows as great a diversion in occu- 
 pations. During the same week at Barnard College con- 
 ference, there were business women of various types, house- 
 wives, clerks, dressmakers, librarians, nurses, social workers, 
 teachers and secretaries. 
 
 Among the men who have gone abroad for the Y. M. C. A., 
 the following few, picked here and there as the eye runs 
 down the list will serve as an example of the type of men : 
 
 The late Dr. Luther H. Gluick, who died after his return in 
 August, was one of the most enthusiastic Y. M. C. A. workers 
 in overseas service. Dr. Gulick is probably best known as 
 the author of "The Efficient Life. ,, He was formerly President 
 of the American Playground Association. He was recognized 
 as among the country's foremost authorities on physical cul- 
 ture and on general physical efficiency. 
 
 Harry Emerson Fosdick, is a professor in the Union Theo- 
 logical Seminary. He is writer, preacher, and speaker. 
 Two of his books, "Meaning of Prayer" and "Manhood of 
 the Master," have been immensely popular with the men 
 in khaki. He is a brother of Raymond B. Fosdick, chairman 
 of the Commission on Training Camp activities. 
 
 John Garland Pollard resigned as Attorney-General of 
 Virginia to serve with the overseas forces. He has been 
 characterized as "Virginia's first Christian citizen." He took 
 a prominent part in the fight which made Virginia dry. 
 
 Everett J. Lake was formerly Lieutenant-Governor of Con- 
 necticut; was head of the largest lumber firm in Connecticut, 
 and was director in Hartford banks. He enlisted for the 
 period of the war. 
 
 A. A. Boyden was a founder of the American Magazine 
 and took the position as managing editor which he has kept 
 ever since. Billy Sunday influenced him to become more 
 deeply interested in social and moral problems. 
 
 Bishop Charles H. Brent was Bishop of Western New 
 York when he entered the overseas service. For many years 
 he was missionary bishop of the Philippines Islands. While 
 there, he was a friend and associate of General Pershing. 
 
 Dr. William H. Crawford has been President of Alleghany 
 
 37 
 
College for twenty-five years. He is an organizer, promoter 
 
 and speaker. 
 
 William A. Shanklin was President of Wesleyan Univer- 
 sity. He went overseas for organization and administrative 
 work. He is noted especially as a forceful speaker and did 
 much speaking while in France. 
 
 A. M. Harris is a member of the firm of Harris, Forbes 
 & Co. He has been treasure of the World's Sunday School 
 Association and was chairman of the Finance Committee of 
 the New York Billy Sunday Campaign. 
 
 Walter S. Schutz was President of the Board of Aldermen 
 and for some months was acting mayor of Hartford. He 
 was a leader in the Federation of Churches and in the recent 
 War Work Campaign. He gave up a large law practice to 
 enter the overseas service. 
 
 James C. Cassell for many years has been superintendent 
 of the Norfolk and Western Railroad. When the Y. M. C. A. 
 took over the canteen business, it was found that three 
 freight cars and scores of automoblies were required to 
 distribute supplies to the Association huts. Mr. Cassell 
 organized the Transportation facilities of the Association. 
 
 38 
 
THE AMERICAN TROOPER'S 
 BLIGHTY 
 
 Furlough, to a British Tommy, or a French poilu, means 
 "Home !" 
 
 But the Yankee's home is three thousand miles across the 
 ocean. He can't come back until "the job is done." Still, in 
 the nerve-breaking strain of modern war, he must have a 
 rest from the din, the violence, and the dirt of it all. 
 
 General Pershing had not only to consider this but also to 
 reckon with the American trooper's lack of knowledge of the 
 French language and customs, "the limited train service and 
 shortage of food supplies in many regions, the impossibility 
 of establishing all over France police and medical services to 
 keep the furlough men in order and good health, and to 
 assure their return to post of duty on the day of the expira- 
 tion of their leave." It was evident that a definite leave area 
 had to be established, and that in the leave area the army 
 should see that the men were adequately housed and pro- 
 vided with means of recreation. 
 
 And so Aix-les-Bains, one of the beauty spots of the world, 
 in the province of Savoy, the region from which sprang the 
 famous "Blue Devils," the Alpine Chasseurs, was chosen. 
 
 Formerly one of the most brilliant of fashionable watering 
 places on the continent, the gathering place of princes and 
 the aristocracy of the world, Aix-les-Bains has been taken 
 over as a playground for the men of the United States Expe- 
 ditionary Force on their eight day furloughs, which are 
 granted every four months, circumstances permitting. 
 
 Having chosen the place, Uncle Sam, represented by Gen- 
 eral Pershing, turned over to the Y. M. C. A. the work of 
 making each eight day furlough just that bit of paradise 
 each soldier dreams it will be in the brooding night on the 
 fire step. 
 
 And the words of an American boy leaving Aix for the 
 front again indicate how the "Y" is fulfilling its trust ! 
 
 39 
 
"Has it been good? Too darn good! It's just like leaving 
 home again." 
 
 The news that they were not to be allowed to spend their 
 leave in Paris, has brought many a soldier "sore" and dis- 
 gruntled to Aix but they have come to scoff and remained to 
 pray that their eight days were eight months. 
 
 Acting in behalf of the Government, the "Y" has made 
 a contract with the proprietors for reduced rates, and in 
 consequence, the "Yanks" are entertained as the guests of 
 Uncle Sam at the best of the fashionable hotels, while Aix, 
 with its famous waters, baths and Casino are at the disposal 
 of the troops. In days before the war Aix attracted thou- 
 sands of Americans each season, including the late J. Pier- 
 pont Morgan, who annually spent his birthday, April 17, 
 there. The soldiers are assigned to the various hotel rooms 
 as they arrive and every man has a chance of drawing the 
 suite of Queen Victoria, J. Pierpont Morgan, or the King of 
 Greece. The menu served to the privates is the same as that 
 served to crowned heads and millionaires. 
 
 The heart of the great playground is the palatial million 
 dollar Casino, once a celebrated gambling house thronged by 
 fashionable idlers, now headquarters of the Y. M. C. A., a 
 veritable house of recreation, entertainment, refreshment, and 
 comfort for the American boys. 
 
 Beneath its great roof is a theatre, a motion picture hall, 
 reading, lecture and vesper rooms, a canteen, and a great 
 salon where the soldiers gather between times just to sit still 
 or talk, and to realize the happiness, cleanliness and joy of 
 it all. 
 
 With new men arriving every day, the "Y" is perpetually on 
 the jump in order to attain completely its objective — to keep 
 all of the men happy all of the time. Herbert Adams Gibbons, 
 in the Century of August, describes the life at Aix : 
 
 "There is a municipal theatre at Chambery, and a casino 
 at Challes-les-Eaux. (The two adjacent rest camps.) Three 
 orchestras play for afternoon tea and at the evening theatrical 
 performances. From eleven to twelve every evening there is 
 dancing (General Pershing says that the girls of the Y. M. G 
 A. in uniform or wearing the brassard are members of the 
 A. E. F.) At odd moments, and several times daily when it 
 
 40 
 
rains, the latest moving pictures from America are shown. 
 Billiards, pool, ping-pong, chess and checkers are available 
 all day long. In the reading rooms are home newspapers, 
 magazines, books, and open fireplaces. The canteen serves 
 chocolate, hot coffee, and sandwiches, and is stocked with 
 smokes and delicacies that can be found nowhere else outside 
 the United States." 
 
 Out-of-doors, fagged nerves are revived in spirited games 
 of baseball, track running, football, tennis and handball, and 
 there are meets and tournaments every week. For those who 
 want to get off by themselves, there are many beautiful walks, 
 golf, fishing, the seclusion and healing touch of Nature on 
 the soft green banks of Lac du Bouget, or sailing on its sur- 
 face for the amateur yachtsman. On moonlight evenings the 
 placid waters reflect a regatta of drifting boats, while the 
 echoes of "My Old Kentucky Home" and "Nita, Wa-a-a-nita" 
 roll back to the encircling vista of snow-capped mountains. 
 
 The days are filled with a round of activities. Excursions 
 go to Mont Revard, the mountain directly behind Aix, from 
 whose summit Mt. Blanc may be seen. At the peak, where 
 a hot luncheon is served, the troopers plunge into the snow 
 drifts, and for a time the snow flies, while a taste of "real 
 war" is served up as an appetizer. 
 
 Picnic parties row across the lake to Hautecombe Abbey, 
 which stands on the sole bit of ground in this province still 
 controlled by Italy. It contains 200 marble statues and the 
 mausoleums of the Dukes of Savoy. 
 
 In this wonder spot, the trooper whose interest is charmed 
 by tales of other days, sees where Hannibal, in 200 B. C. 
 started his passage through the Alps ; he walks where Charle- 
 magne, Henry of Navarre, the Khedives of Egypt, Elizabeth 
 of Austria, Marie Pau of Portugal, Kings of Great Britain, 
 Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Spain, and American kings of 
 high finance, have walked. 
 
 The "Y" has been materially assisted at Aix in entertaining 
 the American soldiers, by the Duchess of Vendome, sister 
 of King Albert of Belgium, who continually invites the 
 American soldiers to her home at Aix, and often helps in ar- 
 ranging special amusements for them. Of the "Y" she has 
 said : 
 
 41 
 
"I wish to express my admiration for all the good done by 
 the wonderful society of the Y. M. C. A. In England and 
 France I have seen them at work. I have seen their huts at 
 the front and their canteens and libraries. They are really 
 splendidly organized. It is the Army of Charity comforting 
 the fighting and suffering men." 
 
 42 
 
HELPING TO MAKE SOLDIERS 
 
 THE "Y" IN HOME CAMPS AND CANTONMENTS 
 
 Do you want the young American to be a "slicker," a slack- 
 er, or a soldier? This is no reflection on the man. 
 
 Have you ever thought that the average young man has 
 just two philosophies about this soldiering business? He 
 can go at it in the spirit of the time-server. He can look 
 upon it as an interval in the business of living. He can evade 
 much and still "keep within the law." Or he can make mili- 
 tary life an opportunity. He can regard it as a chance to 
 enrich his own life, broaden his outlook, gain experience and 
 attain higher ideals. 
 
 Slackers are few, conscientious objectors are scarce, but 
 the "slickers", as they have come to be called, are more 
 numerous. 
 
 More thrilling, more picturesque is the Y. M. C. A. work 
 overseas, with men on the fighting front, but equally essen- 
 tial is that with the troops training in this country to take 
 their places in the battle line. 
 
 In training camps and cantonments, the Y. M. C. A. helps 
 to achieve the transformation, to bridge the chasm, between 
 the civilian and the soldier. 
 
 The soldier in the making has a peculiar need for the 
 Y. M. C. A. The War Department and army officials have 
 recognized this. The same holds good with the sailor and 
 marine. 
 
 There were good soldiers long before the Y. M. C. A. was 
 heard of, it is true. But probably there was never such a 
 high ratio of fine spirited, self-sacrificing young men as there 
 are in the American army and navy to-day. This has come 
 about, in part, because the various agencies, including the 
 Y. M. C. A. have done their part toward educating the sol- 
 dier in the opportunities and duties that confront him. 
 
 Not only does the Y. M. C. A. seek to make a better soldier 
 of the young American ; it aims to make a better man of him. 
 Its physical education program supplements the effects of the 
 
 43 
 
various drills, clean living and hard exercises demanded in 
 the army. Its educational opportunities, that have their foun- 
 dations on these shores and their developments in the training 
 and rest camps abroad, look forward to the time when he 
 will return to the pursuits of peace. Its recreational and en- 
 tertainment programs aim to keep him in a healthful and nor- 
 mal mental state. Its religious work keeps before him the 
 spiritual significance of the sacrifice he is making. 
 
 The story of the Y. M. C. A. and its service for the four 
 million or more Americans who have entered the military 
 service in itself is an astounding story. 
 
 SOME HUT STATISTICS 
 
 There are 538 Y. M. C. A. huts in American camps and 
 cantonments in this country. There are others in cities, like 
 the big Liberty Hut in Washington, and the splendidly 
 equipped Eagle Hut in New York City. 
 
 These huts help to gauge the extent of the Y. M. C. A. War 
 Work. Hut and home mean more to the soldier than a pretty 
 alliteration. The words are synonyms. 
 
 In all, there are 730 huts either operating or in course of 
 construction in this country. They cost nearly $5,000,000. 
 One hundred and four more have been authorized, to cost 
 $633,000. 
 
 They serve not a sect nor fraction of the soldiers. They 
 are used by all who desire to avail themselves of the privi- 
 leges. Catholics, Jews and men who profess no religious 
 faith are welcomed in them without a question. Masses 
 have been held in many, and in a number of them, the sec- 
 retaries of the Jewish Welfare Board have desks and conduct 
 their work. 
 
 GOING TO SCHOOL 
 
 The young man in uniform can go to grade school, high 
 school, or college if he wants to. He has done so by the 
 thousands. 
 
 The demand came from him. Most folk got the wrong 
 angle on educational work for the soldiers at the outset. It 
 was thought that after a hard day of military routine, he 
 wouldn't care for serious things and would seek only enter- 
 
 44 
 
tainment and light reading. The young American soon 
 proved that was not the stuff he was made of. He began by 
 demanding more serious reading matter; then by seeking to 
 take up serious study. 
 
 Educational work has ranged from teaching English to 
 foreign-born Americans, and reading and writing to illiter- 
 ates, up to technical courses for men who already had been 
 in colleges and universities. 
 
 Classes in reading and writing have been conducted for 
 about 30,000 illiterates and for 40,000 foreign-born soldiers. 
 In anticipation of going to France, a marked interest in the 
 study of the French language has been shown and by August 
 50,000 had enrolled in French courses on this side and the 
 number was growing. 
 
 Educational lectures have been a marked and valuable fea- 
 ture of this educational program. William Howard Taft set 
 the example by giving his time for a lecture tour covering 
 practically all the big encampments in the country, and other 
 public men, educators, and the like have co-operated. 
 
 The objectives of the Y. M. C. A. educational work are 
 described as two-fold : 
 
 1. "To increase the efficiency of the soldiers and sailors for 
 the immediate task of defeating German autocracy. 
 
 2. "To prepare the men for better social relationships after 
 the war." 
 
 Beside English and French, elementary subjects most in 
 demand have been history, geography and mathematics and 
 other modern languages including Spanish and Italian; com- 
 mercial subjects such as bookkeeping, stenography, typewrit- 
 ing; technical and vocational such as automobile, gas engine, 
 radio, and aeroplane construction. At naval stations, subjects 
 of particular interest to that branch of the service, including 
 navigation and trigonometry were taken up. Lecture subjects 
 have largely centered about backgrounds of the war and 
 health, thrift, social and economic questions. In June 1,184 
 lectures were attended by approximately 516,000 men. A 
 million copies of the booklet, "France — Our Ally," which 
 gives a brief description of the customs, money, living condi- 
 tions, etc., of the country where these men are to fight have 
 been distributed to them as they go overseas. 
 
 45 
 
In co-operation with the War Service of the American Li- 
 brary Association, the Y. M. C. A. has put at the command 
 of the men books by the millions. Each Association building 
 has a collection of from 1,000 to 2,000 volumes for the free 
 use of the men. The proportion of serious reading among 
 the soldiers upset anticipation. If you like figures' here are 
 a few, showing the extent of the educational work. During 
 the first three months of 1918 there were 62,750 classes at- 
 tended by 1,277,320 men. There were 502 clubs of an edu- 
 cational nature attended by 31,574 men. There were 6,143 
 lectures attended by 1,998,046 men. Books circulated num- 
 bering 1,243,308. You have reached the conclusion by this 
 time that university work as well as elementary education is 
 in great demand among our soldiers. You are right. A 
 colonel in one camp recently remarked : 
 
 "I am conducting a University. Of my 2,500 men, 90 per 
 cent are college students." 
 
 The Government welcomes the educational work. Many of 
 the men needed the rudiments of education. In one unit of 
 6,000 men in the first draft, 25 per cent were illiterate. In 
 twelve months, 100,000 to 150,000 soldiers were taught to 
 speak or read and write English. In June, 194,000 attended 
 English classes. A special order was issued by the War De- 
 partment instructing all non-English speaking men to be 
 assigned to development battalions and the "Y" co-operated 
 by providing civilian teachers, supplies and text books. 
 
 ATTENDING CHURCH 
 
 The man in uniform has every opportunity to go to church. 
 Many of the best pulpit orators of the country have volun- 
 teered to preach for him and to serve him. Among the 
 men who have spoken regularly at the camps and cantonments 
 in this country are John H. Elliott of Minneapolis ; Dr. Nicho- 
 las Murray Butler of Columbia University; Dr. John Mc- 
 Dowell, of Baltimore ; Dr. James Freeman, of Minneapolis ; 
 Dr. John Timothy Stone, of Chicago, and such evangelists as 
 Milford H. Lynn, Charles R. Drum, W. G. Mason, better 
 known as "Big" Mason; and Melville Trotter and his quar- 
 tette. Frederick P. Keppel, Assistant Secretary of War, 
 has co-operated in this respect and has suggested men for 
 
 46 
 
camp speaking. There are helpful pamphlets, not at all of the 
 "tract" variety, but containing messages of virile and red 
 blood Christianity which have been distributed among the 
 men in this country. In the last year 1,200,000 copies of the 
 Scriptures have been given to the men in the fighting forces. 
 One significant phase of the Association work here and 
 abroad is the "War Roll". Cards bearing the following 
 pledge are given to men who desire to sign them : 
 
 "I hereby pledge my allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ 
 as my Savior and King, and by God's help will fight His 
 battles for the victory of His Kingdom." 
 
 One hundred and twenty thousand nine hundred and ninety- 
 two soldiers, sailors and marines have already signed this 
 pledge, and the little card they carry in their Testaments is 
 a daily reminder of their pledge. Their names are recorded 
 on the war roll at the New York headquarters, and if the 
 signer indicates on the reserved space the church of his 
 preference, the "Y" undertakes to effect a communication 
 between the man and the pastor of that church. 
 
 Dr. John McDowell, religious work director for the East- 
 ern Department, sizes up the home religious work as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 "We are in the camps to help the Government to stop this 
 war, winning it so decisively that militarism will never again 
 lift its hand against guarded humans. We stand for peace, 
 but it must be peace with honor ; which means peace based 
 on religion. We can best help the Government win this 
 war by putting soul stuff into the men. We can best put 
 soul stuff into the men by giving them vital religion. Vital 
 religion will do three things for every man : It will give 
 him command of his physical powers ; it will answer his 
 questions; it will satisfy his needs of the soul." 
 
 One observer gives a bird's-eye view of the camp religious 
 work in this fashion: 
 
 "Contact with the Young Men's Christian Association hut 
 with its staff of Secretaries in any of these great camps, pre- 
 sents a program of Christian work not witnessed hitherto in 
 the history of Christianity, but all of these opportunities 
 burst into flood tide at this camp which becomes a waiting 
 room for the transport. The mail with the home letters pours 
 
 47 
 
in by cartload, a Secretary stands up on a box and with a 
 megaphone reads out the names, while a mass of anxious 
 faces lean hard forward if perchance to catch the first sound 
 of their own names. 
 
 "At the other side of the building the Information Bureau 
 and another Secretary with a megaphone, from morning till 
 night, is directing the visiting relatives and friends to the 
 various barracks where they may find the soldiers they come 
 to see. Writing paper, envelopes and stamps flow out over 
 another counter, a steady stream, just as rapidly as the Sec- 
 retary's hand can respond. The soldiers are banked twenty 
 deep waiting their chance to be served. Other Secretaries 
 are working under constant pressure getting money sent 
 home, or from home delivered. Others are helping some of 
 the men getting parcels out of the mass of express packages, 
 another is giving a soldier inside advice about the care of 
 his wife and child who are left behind. In fact, the building 
 is packed with eager men, every one of whom is asking for 
 some friendly service before he gets away. 
 
 "At three o'clock the Gospel meeting begins with the hymn, 
 'The Son of God Goes Forth to War'; it needs no explana- 
 tion; and for an hour following the scene is transformed 
 into a home church service that many of these men will 
 remember as long as memory has power. At five the place 
 must be cleared and swept out for the evening meeting. I 
 saw the religious work Secretary, an Episcopalian rector, 
 who would do honor to any pulpit in the United States, with 
 a pail of water and a broom, sprinkling and sweeping, and 
 when I asked if that was a part of his duties his prompt 
 answer was^ "We have to do anything here to get this job 
 done." At seven o'clock 3,000 more soldiers are packed in 
 the hut for the meeting. A call of states of which they 
 were native was made. They represented every state in the 
 union save three. More than a hundred were born in Eu- 
 rope. Following this service every available man of the 
 staff is busy till late dealing with men who have solemnly 
 declared their purpose to accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour! 
 Their names are taken, Testaments are given to each and 
 promises made to write to home churches and pastors." 
 
 48 
 
SEEING A SHOW 
 
 The men in uniform can attend a good theatrical show 
 frequently and a good movie show almost any night. In the 
 space of half a year, the Red Triangle has built up a booking 
 agency that sends 1,200 "acts" a month to training camps, 
 aviation fields, naval instruction schools, to the fleets of the 
 navy, that is, battleships in port, drydocks, to industrial plants 
 engaged in war work and to embarkation points. The enter- 
 tainment and educational department corps dovetail their 
 routing of lecturers and entertainers. However one may 
 choose to classify them the entertainment bureau merely terms 
 them "acts." Any booking agency able to route over its 
 chain of theatres such "acts" as Miss Margaret Wilson, Wil- 
 liam Howard Taft, Mme. Louise Homer, Augustus Thomas, 
 Jack Rose, Maude Powell, Rabbi Wise, and scores of others 
 equally well known, would be on the road to fortune. 
 
 The "acts" range from operatic selections to monologues, 
 religious addresses, illustrated lectures. The monthly "turn- 
 over" of the "Y" booking agency in August was 800 motion 
 pictures, 200 religious speakers, 125 entertainers, and 75 lec- 
 turers on educational subjects. 
 
 Recreation in the form of entertainment is universally con- 
 sidered essential to maintaining the morale of the fighting 
 men. The Y. M. C. A. has fulfilled this need with clean, 
 high-grade entertainment. Many entertainers booked on a 
 camp circuit have done more than just give their "acts". 
 They have lived the lives of the boys with the colors ; they 
 have taught many a soldier and sailor how to put on an 
 "act" of his own after the professionals have gone. These 
 "acts" are not booked in haphazard fashion any more than 
 are productions sent out by any theatrical agency. They are 
 requisitioned on forms from the camp secretaries and the 
 camp is supplied with the kind of entertainment or with the 
 personnel of entertainers which it has been found goes best 
 among the men. 
 
 Entertainers are sent out from the booking office at No. 
 347 Madison Avenue, New York, headquarters of the Na- 
 tional War Work Council, to warships as they arrive in port. 
 The fleet secretary gets information from the Navy Depart- 
 ment on arrivals of vessels and often before these ships 
 
 49 
 
anchor, entertainers are ready to board them along with the 
 "Y" Secretary. 
 
 GAMES AND SPORTS 
 
 The man in uniform has all the sports and athletics he de- 
 sires. The Y. M. C. A. gives him gymnasiums and athletic 
 fields. 
 
 The physical educational program of the Y. M. C. A. is 
 one of every man in the game. Mass athletics and group 
 games are taught in which all can participate. 
 
 Use of play as an entertainment feature, by accompanying 
 the activities in the evening with stunts, music, singing, box- 
 ing and wrestling competitions contribute good cheer. Ath- 
 letics are employed as a moral factor. They develop the 
 spirit of team work which is essential to military organiza- 
 tion. They arouse enthusiasm, incite the play spirit and 
 bring contentment. 
 
 Few things make the active young American so disgruntled 
 as to desire to get into a baseball game or a boxing match 
 or a volley ball game and not to have the facilities to do so. 
 
 The athletic program, like the educational, looks forward 
 to the post-war period. Never was such an opportunity pre- 
 sented for arousing the interest of men in physical develop- 
 ment, clean sport, and healthful athletics. Having once ex- 
 perienced the value of these things, they are not likely to 
 return to the sedentary life which has given rise recently to 
 a number of diseases which have increased the death rate 
 among middle aged men to an alarming extent. 
 
 CITY ASSOCIATIONS HELP 
 
 In addition to the special war work of the Association, it 
 is the invariable rule that men in uniform are granted all 
 privileges of the Associations in various cities without pay- 
 ment of the usual membership fees. 
 
 All war service rendered by City Associations is paid for 
 by the Associations themselves. No part .of the war fund is 
 diverted to City Association work even when that work 
 may be greatly increased by the demands of war time. 
 
 These privileges include sleeping accommodations in dor- 
 mitories, with a small charge to cover cost of laundry, re- 
 
 50 
 
newals of linen, extra help, etc.; food and refreshment, at 
 special breakfasts, suppers, cafeterias, canteens, etc.; social 
 conveniences, such as the unlimited hospitality of the Asso- 
 ciation buildings throughout the country, including the use 
 of lobbies, social and recreational rooms, games, bowling, bil- 
 liards, pianos, victrolas, rooms in which to rest, read and 
 write, clean up, check baggage, or parcels, opportunity for 
 having laundry done, and all the other comforts of a "home 
 away from home;" the free use of showers and swimming 
 tanks, with nominal charge for towel and soap; reading and 
 writing material ; amusements, including motion pictures, 
 concerts and entertainments in which the best of local and 
 professional talent available is seen ; automobile and sight 
 seeing trips, etc. ; and the hospitality of private homes ar- 
 ranged through secretaries and local committees. 
 
 At one Association building, that at Waco, Texas, there is 
 an average attendance at the weekly social of 5,645 ; 91,000 
 letters have been mailed from the building by soldiers, and 
 70,000 men in uniform have been given baths in the past year. 
 An average of 400 soldiers use the building every day. 
 
 At the Washington, D. C, building, bathing privileges have 
 been extended to 19,708 soldiers during the months of May, 
 June, July, and August. The average daily soldier attendance 
 for August was 188, while on August 6, 640 soldiers enjoyed 
 the Association privileges. 
 
 51 
 
WITH THE NAVY 
 
 The Young Men's Christian Association began its work in 
 the American Navy during the Spanish-American War. In 
 subsequent days of peace large buildings were secured in 
 port cities to serve as homes ashore, providing lodging, re- 
 freshment, entertainment, reading and writing rooms, educa- 
 tional classes, Bible classes, and religious meetings. 
 
 Excellent Association buildings for men in the Navy and 
 Marine Corps already were to be found in Boston, Newport, 
 Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Norfolk, San Francisco and Honolulu, 
 not to mention such distant points as Shanghai and Olongapo. 
 When the United States entered the world war the increase 
 in the Navy and Marine Corps brought large opportunities, 
 and the Navy Associations rose splendidly to the challenge. 
 In addition to the regular service there sprang up at newly 
 opened naval-training stations and naval bases an effective 
 war work similar to that at the army camps of the country. 
 
 At these points provision was made for the off duty hours 
 of men in training, and there are balanced programs of en- 
 tertainment, recreation, education, and inspiration. 
 
 This war work for the navy now is operative at fifty-eight 
 points in seventy-six specially constructed buildings, either 
 rented or granted by the Government, exclusive of nine large 
 permanent buildings and annexes. In the navy work 436 sec- 
 retaries are engaged, and more than $545,000 has been ex- 
 pended for construction of buildings for navy war work. Per- 
 manent buildings at Newport, Brooklyn, and Norfolk cost 
 $300,000, $800,000 and $300,000 respectively, and were the gifts 
 of Mrs. Thomas J. Emory, Mrs. Finley J. Shepard, and John 
 D. Rockefeller, Jr. 
 
 In the Third Navy District alone 1,524,754 men used the 
 Association buildings during the first six months of the pres- 
 ent year. Lodgings were furnished to 145,219 and 93,600 were 
 turned away for lack of accommodations. Meals were served 
 to 332,800; money deposited for safe keeping amounted to 
 $516,729. Physical Department privileges were used by 194,791 
 and 46,681 used the swimming pool. Attendance at entertain- 
 
 52 
 
ments was 293,436; religious meetings, 77,580; lectures, 21,488. 
 Letters written totaled 670,317, and about 10,000 letters a 
 week are cared for and distributed to the men. 
 
 At Base No. 2, for the use of the men of the Atlantic Fleet, 
 a forty-acre athletic field has been leased. The first building 
 erected was entirely inadequate to meet the demands and 
 it is now being enlarged, with a force of secretaries in charge. 
 At San Pedro, on the Pacific Coast, two large athletic fields 
 are in operation by the War Work Council. 
 
 This provision ashore is exclusive of an organized service 
 to the ships at the fleet bases and at anchor in the vicinity, as 
 well as on navy transports. Motion pictures, entertainers, 
 speakers and lecturers are provided; and in conjunction with 
 the chaplains and the ships' officers an all-round program is 
 furnished in so far as conditions will permit. Four million 
 feet of film are supplied weekly to the transports. Every 
 three weeks reels amounting to 135,000 feet are exchanged 
 with the Atlantic fleet ; and approximately 150,000 feet monthly 
 are supplied to the convoys. 
 
 A striking feature of the navy work is at Great Lakes Naval 
 Training Station. During the past year nine Association 
 buildings have been erected at a cost of $61,038. Ten addi- 
 tional buildings are in course of construction, including gar- 
 age and store-room, which will cost $70,405, making a total 
 expenditure of $131,443 for the buildings. The necessary 
 equipment will approximate a total additional cost of $20,000. 
 A staff of seventy-five secretaries is now employed, and 
 when the buildings in course of construction are completed 
 it will be necessary to maintain a staff of 110 men. 
 
 At this station alone, attendance for the year at 311 motion 
 picture shows totaled 203,130; and the attendance at 596 
 socials and other entertainments totaled 209,434. Voluntary 
 attendance at religious meetings totaled 524,169, or more than 
 double the attendance at either socials or motion pictures. 
 Attendance upon 2,822 different Bible class sessions was 
 88,232 men. In educational work 280 lectures were attended 
 by 37,856. A total of 4,082 were enrolled in 323 regularly 
 conducted educational classes. Competitive physical sports 
 have had 29,314 participants with 32,173 spectators. The 
 Jackies have been encouraged to exercise thrift to the extent 
 
 53 
 
of $148,989, invested in money orders; and 2,464,918 letters 
 have been mailed from the Young Men's Christian Association 
 buildings at Great Lakes Naval Training Station alone. 
 
 Among prominent speakers who have addressed the navy 
 personnel at the invitation of the National War Work Coun- 
 cil are former President Taft, Secretary McAdoo, Secretary 
 Daniels, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Dean Shailer Mathews, 
 Rev. John Timothy Stone, and other men of prominence and 
 ability. 
 
 There is no group of sailors or marines on duty anywhere 
 on the Pacific coast, except Alaska and Guam, where the 
 Association is not ministering to them in some way; and 
 soon there will be work in Guam, for appropriation has been 
 made and building will proceed immediately. In the Western 
 Department of the National War Work Council, work is 
 included at an isolated point thirty miles out to sea and even 
 at the coaling station. 
 
 Large opportunity has been found in the development of 
 an educational program in the Navy. Lectures are given on 
 such subjects as applied science; the navy; navigation; back- 
 ground of the war; character analysis; personal efficiency; 
 and semi-technical vocational questions. Class work and tutor- 
 ing are conducted in branches such as mathematics; elec- 
 tricity; courses for advanced ratings, e.g., paymaster, ensign, 
 etc. ; English ; marine engineering, etc. Vocational counsel 
 is an important factor of the Navy educational program, and 
 reports from the Brooklyn Navy Yard for the month of 
 April indicate actual promotions as a result of the Associa- 
 tion work. At Great Lakes thousands of boys are being taught 
 an appreciation of art through sketching and drawing. Use 
 of the aesthetic approach has done much for the boys at Ports- 
 mouth (N. H.) through the introduction of interpretive 
 musical recitals. 
 
 54 
 
IN WAR INDUSTRIES 
 
 The work the Young Men's Christian Association is doing 
 in war industries perhaps is best summed up by Secretary of 
 Labor William B. Wilson as follows : 
 
 "Permit me to express my appreciation of the energetic and 
 intelligent action of the Young Men's Christian Association 
 in its efforts to provide opportunity for recreation and study 
 for the workers engaged in war industries. Many years of 
 experience with modern industry has demonstrated that men 
 who are properly housed, with agreeable surroundings and 
 ample opportunity for recreation and mental development, 
 make much more efficient workers than where these condi- 
 tions are absent. The magnificent work that the Young Men's 
 Christian Association has done in these lines before and since 
 the war is a sufficient assurance to the public that it will be 
 done well in connection with war workers." 
 
 More than sixty-two per cent of the nation's industrial work- 
 ers are located east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio 
 rivers. Therefore, more than seventy-seven per cent of the 
 Y. M. C. A. building investment for industrial workers' also 
 is within this zone. 
 
 In great ship building operations, munitions plants, and 
 other special war industries, are massed thousands, some- 
 times tens of thousands of men. Hog Island Ship Yard, near 
 Philadelphia, covers 900 acres, contains seventy-five miles of 
 railroad track, and will employ approximately 30,000 men. 
 Such opportunities must be grasped for the same reasons 
 that the assemblage of that many men in a cantonment sets 
 forth the Y. M. C. A. opportunity. Portland, Oregon, has 
 four secretaries working in ship building plants. 
 
 Six definite lines of organized service have been found 
 practicable in industries and industrial communities as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 1. In a branch of a city Association, with a building located 
 to serve industrial workers and supported by community 
 resources. 
 
 55 
 
2. In a building provided by a single industry or group of 
 industries, supported jointly by employer and employe. 
 
 3. General Industrial Extension Work. Shop meetings and 
 other activities among industrial workers outside of the As- 
 sociation building, usually without regard to membership. 
 Such work may be done at any point where the workers can 
 be assembled and may relate to their working, living, or 
 leisure conditions. The cost generally has been borne by the 
 Association, but there is an increasing willingness on the 
 part of both employers and employes to pay the cost of work 
 done in connection with their industries. 
 
 4. Special Organized Industrial Extension Work. This is 
 led by an Industrial Committee, with an Industrial Secretary, 
 whose budget is generally provided by the industries. Both 
 the Committee and the Industrial Secretary should always 
 be responsible to the Board of Directors of the city Y. M. 
 C. A. 
 
 5. Plant Extension Work. A secretary attached to the staff 
 of the local Association and giving all or part time to work 
 in a single industry. Such a secretary has an intimate but not 
 an official relation to the industry. His work represents the 
 interest of both employer and employe, and he works under 
 a plant committee composed of representatives of both. A 
 plant employing 1,000 or more men in justified in using the full 
 time of a secretary and in providing a budget paid through 
 the treasury of the city Association. Proper premises and 
 equipment should be provided in the plant to secure the best 
 results. 
 
 6. The System Plan — in which an industry having several 
 plants takes the full time of a Secretary to establish and 
 supervise Association work in the several plants. 
 
 56 
 
WOMEN'S PART IN WAR WORK 
 
 It is an old fallacy that men alone are concerned in the 
 carrying on of war. From time immemorial women have had 
 to bear a heavy share of all war burdens. The difference be- 
 tween what women are doing, and must do, in this war and 
 other wars is measured by the difference of the interests in- 
 volved, and the gigantic scale on which this war is being 
 fought. 
 
 The world struggle for all that humanity holds most dear, 
 demands for its successful conclusion the effective use of 
 every atom of strength, and power, and purpose that the 
 Allied Powers can muster. This means that while the fighting 
 men are called to the trenches the women must lend their 
 aid in the fields and in the factories, on the railroads and in 
 the ship yards. It is not surprising that the Y. M. C. A. has 
 recognized the necessity for utilizing the work that women 
 can do, both because the number of men that can be used 
 for this work is limited, and because there are certain fields 
 for which women are preeminently fitted. 
 
 The war work of the Y. M. C. A. is on such a large scale, 
 and touches so many sides of the soldiers' lives, that it is 
 difficult to sum up its essential qualities. The Y. M. C. A. 
 has been entrusted with the task of following our troops 
 wherever they go, and of setting up in the camps centers 
 which stands to our boys in the place of library, and school, 
 club and theater, church and home, — above all home. Word 
 is constantly coming from the other side that boys have 
 christened the "Y" hut "the home hut." When such word 
 comes we know that the "Y" in that place is fulfilling its 
 highest function. 
 
 It is not surprising that in making home spots in the 
 camps women are needed, and that when this is successfully 
 done the greatest possible force is released for combating the 
 dread disease of homesickness which lies in wait for boys 
 many thousands of miles away from home. Homesickness 
 has come to be recognized as one of the great evils that must 
 be overcome if men are to be kept at the highest point of effi- 
 
 57 
 
ciency. Morale means morality, it means sanity, it means cour- 
 age. The troops whose morale is high are the troops who are 
 physically, mentally, morally fit. Homesickness is the in- 
 sidious foe of all these qualities, for if the homesick lad 
 has nowhere to turn in his loneliness he is the prey of all 
 evil forces. 
 
 The list of tributes to what the "Y" women have been able 
 to do in creating a sense of home, in holding before the boys 
 their home ideals, and keeping vivid the picture of what their 
 own mothers, and wives, and sisters, and daughters, and 
 sweethearts would expect of them, is constantly growing, 
 and it forms one of the fairest pages in the annals of the 
 Y. M. C. A. 
 
 The boys in the mud soaked French camp who asked our 
 27-year-old "Y" worker if they might call her mother, be- 
 cause if they could say to her "Good-night Mother, I am all 
 straight," said it would keep them from wanting to go down 
 to town where conditions were not such as their own mothers 
 liked. They are typical of many others. 
 
 We are sometimes asked why this work is not all done 
 under the Y. W. C. A. Just as the Y. M. C. A. is a work 
 for men, so the Y. W. C. A. is a work for women. In the 
 Hostess Houses in the camps the Y. W . C. A. is the "Bit of 
 Home within the Camps" where women may meet their men 
 and with the assistance of the resident hostesses, be a home 
 to relatives and friends 
 
 To some of the "Y" workers there come chances for sudden 
 adventure, but whether their work lies in the cold, and mud, 
 and rain, far from the front, or close behind the lines, where 
 danger and glory are evident, the spirit in which the service 
 is rendered will always be the measure of its success. No 
 matter what their task may be, however simple, however 
 humdrum the daily routine, it cannot fail to be glorious if 
 they remember that they too are contributing to the great 
 result. 
 
 We are justly proud of those two girls who stood in the 
 rain for 48 hours serving tea and waving good-by to our boys 
 on the way to the front. We are justly proud of the men and 
 women who stayed at their posts that the boys might have 
 hot soup and cheering words until the hut in which they were 
 
 58 
 
working was in flames from German shells. We are equally 
 proud of those far behind the lines whose steady cheerfulness 
 and boundless sympathy have kept the home fires burning 
 in the hearts of lonely boys. 
 
 Of all the words that come back, perhaps the most inspirit- 
 ing are those that come through the fathers and mothers on 
 this side, words of gratitude that their boys have found 
 friends who will stand by them whatever they do and where- 
 ever they go. 
 
 For these loyal Y. M. C. A. workers no service flag flies, 
 no golden stars mark their death, and yet they all know that 
 they too may be called upon to give not only the service of 
 their lives, but perhaps life itself. With solemn pride we 
 remember that the first of the "Y" workers to be killed in 
 France was a woman. 
 
 Greater love hath no man than this. 
 
 59 
 
WHAT THE Y. W. C. A. DOES 
 
 To avoid any confusion about the distinctive work, in 
 their respective fields, of the women working in the Young 
 Men's Christian Association, and the war workers of the 
 Young Women's Christian Association, the following out- 
 line of the scope of the Y. W. C. A. is provided- 
 
 While the Y. M. C. A. is working for the men in the army, 
 the Y. W. C. A. is caring for the women who are employed in 
 war industries, in army service, and in the communities ad- 
 jacent to army camps. The hostess houses within the camps 
 are meeting places afforded the women relatives and friends 
 of soldiers and sailors, and provide a bit of home within the 
 camp for the men when off duty. 
 
 The War Work Council, a committee of the National Board 
 of the Young Women's Christian Associations responsible 
 for using the resources of that organization in helping meet 
 the special needs of girls and women affected by the war, 
 carries on in the United States the Following lines of work: 
 
 Establishing Club and Recreation Work for Girls, including 
 a Patriotic League, now numbering 400,000, white and col- 
 ored. 
 
 Providing Emergency Housing for employed girls and 
 women. Five centers have been provided to date. 
 
 Establishing Hostess Houses in or near army and navy 
 camps for women relatives and friends of the army and 
 navy. Sixty-one are in use. Twenty-five others are author- 
 ized. Thirteen of these are for colored people. 
 
 Establishing Work in Colored Communities affected by 
 the war, led by colored college women and trained social 
 workers. 
 
 Conducting a Bureau for Foreign-born Women, providing 
 translations in eighteen languages of needed bulletins, inter- 
 preters in army camps, training for Polish women for recon- 
 struction work in Poland, and a home service for non-English 
 speaking women. 
 
 Providing and Financing Social Leaders for women under 
 
 60 
 
the direction of the War Department Commission on Train- 
 ing Camp Activities. 
 
 Establishing War Service Centers and Room Registries in 
 cities employing girls in war industries. The Government 
 has asked the Y. W. C. A. for leaders in twenty-two of its 
 industrial cantonments. 
 
 Maintaining a Bureau of Social Morality which cooperates 
 with the War Department in furnishing a Corps of Lecturers 
 on social standards in war time; issues literature. 
 
 Publishing a War Work Bulletin and other educational 
 literature for women in war time. 
 
 Maintaining a Bureau of Volunteer Workers. 
 
 The work in France falls under three divisions — recreation 
 clubs for nurses of base hospitals, recreation work with 
 French women in munition factories, and housing and recre- 
 ation for women employed in connection with the American 
 Expeditionary Forces. 
 
 In France it is charged with providing social workers, recre- 
 ation leaders, physical directors and cafeteria managers; 
 foyers, and hostess houses, and working with American 
 women in France (nineteen centers), Nurses, Signal corps 
 (women), other English-speaking women (at the request of 
 the French Government) (nine centers), working in munition 
 factories, in stores and in French war offices and in Russia 
 it does club, cafeteria and educational work in three centers 
 for Russian women. 
 
 61 
 
WORK AMONG ALLIED FORCES 
 
 WITH FRENCH ARMY 
 
 Upon invitation of the French Government the American 
 Y. M. C. A. has carried on work for the French soldiers 
 through huts known as the "Foyers du Soldat" or "Soldiers' 
 Hearth. ,, 
 
 Although 102 foyers were lost in the May drive, 47 new 
 ones had been started by August 1, making in all in operation 
 more than 700. These foyers are in charge of French Direc- 
 tors. More than 150 American secretaries work with them. 
 It is hard to realize how much these French foyers have 
 meant to the French poilu. 
 
 Picture for yourself the French soldier after his trench 
 stint going back of the line for "repose" in just the same sort 
 of stables, in just the same slimy mud, assailed by just the 
 same "cooties," or "totos" as the French call them, hunting 
 a scrap of paper to write home, using his knee for a writing 
 pad if the mud were not more than knee deep. Get that 
 picture, and you can appreciate more the splendid morale 
 of the French when they went back to the firing line again 
 and again after such "rests" for four years, and you like- 
 wise can grasp what the clean huts, or foyers, with music, 
 games, paper and books, meant to the poilu. 
 
 A Y. M. C. A. man makes this comment: 
 
 "It was interesting to make comparisons between the Amer- 
 ican and French soldiers in their respective huts. The Amer- 
 ican generally goes to the hut with a definite object in view. 
 When the object is attained, he leaves. The poilu on the 
 other hand, when off duty drifts into the foyer, has his hot 
 cup of chocolate, takes his smoke, and just sits meditating, 
 dreaming. The French are glad of occasional entertainment, 
 but do not seek excitement as the American soldier does." 
 
 The work has received the endorsement of the highest 
 authorities. General Petain himself in a letter commending 
 the work writes as follows : 
 
 "During the two years of its workings this enterprise has 
 rendered incontestible service. ... I seize the occasion to 
 
 62 
 
inform you that I am disposed to facilitate in every way pos- 
 sible the new extension of this work in the zone of our 
 armies." 
 
 The French Ministry of War has asked the American As- 
 sociation to extend the work to 2,000 points, thus covering 
 the whole French Army. The enterprise is being extended to 
 the French navy and also to the great munition works. 
 
 There are at present 750 French directors engaged in this 
 work, together with 25 American secretaries. 
 
 WITH ITALIAN ARMY 
 
 Nearly a year ago as the result of a visit of an American- 
 English Association deputation to Italy, there came a re- 
 quest from the military authorities of Italy asking the Asso- 
 ciation movements of Great Britain and America to send 
 workers to Italy. 
 
 Three army headquarters have been established, from each 
 of which it is planned to radiate the work to ten huts. From 
 each of these huts a camion service will be operated to ten 
 additional points, on the extreme front. 
 
 Under the leadership of a "Y" physical director, a remark- 
 able opportunity has been developed for carrying out within 
 the Italian army a program of physical training which will 
 ultimately place physical and recreational activities on a large 
 scale within the reach of three million soldiers of the Italian 
 Army. At present 97 American secretaries are in service with 
 the Italian Army. 
 
 WITH OTHER ALLIED ARMIES 
 
 Special developments of "Y" work have been initiated within 
 the Belgian, Portuguese, Polish, Czech and Indian armies 
 in France. The main development of the work is to be 
 found in the labor battalions of Chinese, Indian, and African 
 troops and laborers connected with the A. E. F., French 
 Army, and Italian Army. This constitutes a cosmopolitan 
 opportunity, practically every race in the world being rep- 
 resented in the constituency of the "Y" work in Europe. 
 Such work is being carried on among 22 nationalities in 
 France. 
 
 At Camp Lass Cassa, the cantonment at San Juan, P. R., 
 
 63 
 
where 12,800 of Porto Rico's drafted men are in training, 
 three "Y" huts have been erected at a cost of $17,000. 
 
 From the early days of the war the American Y. M. C. A. 
 has been giving financial help to the Belgian army. This 
 work started about the same time that the work for the pris- 
 oners of war was begun and has gradually expanded until 
 now we are serving the whole of the Belgian army. That 
 work is similar to the work for the French, British and 
 Italians. 
 
 When Portugal came into the war last Spring, a secretary 
 who had gone to Portugal from Brazil, to organize a Y. M. 
 C. A. in the educational center of the Portuguese world, the 
 University of Coimbra, was asked by the Portuguese Govern- 
 ment to organize a Red Triangle work for the Portuguese 
 contingent in France. Many of the leading citizens of Por- 
 tugal volunteered for this work. A number of American sec- 
 retaries have been sent to reinforce him. 
 
 On the Saloniki front, the troops of Great Britain, France 
 and Italy have been served, and recently a request has come 
 from the civil and religious leaders of Greece for the ex- 
 tension of this service to the army of Greece. 
 
 Almost every night hundreds of thousands of Australian 
 and New Zealand troops were landed in Egypt during the 
 early days of the war and were encamped on the desert sands 
 outside of Cairo under the Pyramids. Cairo is the vilest of 
 Oriental cities. The American Secretary presented the need 
 of work for these troops to the board of directors of the 
 Cairo Association, who authorized him to do what he could 
 and to expend $100 provided he raised it. From this meager 
 beginning has grown the work which has spread all over 
 Egypt, out into the Sahara Desert front, about which little 
 has been heard. The string of upwards of fifty posts lining 
 the Suez Canal, and the work which has pushed steadily east- 
 ward across the Desert of Sinai and up into Palestine, estab- 
 lished itself in auditoriums and now is following General 
 Allenby's army, keeping up with the vanguard. 
 
 Mesopotamia affords another chapter of romance in the 
 world story of "Y" war work. 
 
 In many respects the German East African battle areas 
 have been the most terrible. The Association went with the 
 
 64 
 
British and Australian expedition from India into German 
 East Africa. Because of the effectiveness of their work the 
 whole commissariat was turned over to them, and during 
 all these months they have kept the army supplied. When 
 it was found that white troops could not live in the climate, 
 colored soldiers from the West Indies and British colonies 
 in Africa, and Indian Sepoys took up the campaign. The As- 
 sociation has served not only the troops but the hundreds of 
 thousands of savages who have been gathered literally from 
 every section of the African continent. It is interesting to 
 know that these ignorant black men out of the jungle enjoy 
 Charlie Chaplin and other movie heroes quite as much as the 
 British officers. 
 
 The Association has also enlisted the aid of Tommy Atkins 
 in teaching these savages to write and in giving to the chiefs 
 the rudiments of government, sanitation, hygiene, and other 
 things that will be useful when they return to their scattered 
 homes. Think what it will mean as these "boys" make their 
 way back through the dark trails to their native kraals, and 
 there, sitting by the village fire, tell to their relatives and 
 neighbors the story of steamships, railroad trains, big guns, 
 aeroplanes, the motion pictures, the phonograph, and all the 
 things to which we have grown accustomed gradually, but 
 which have been sprung on them all at once. 
 
 In India, the regular work of the Association in 200 cities 
 and towns has been changed to an army type of work, serving 
 the Indian troops, the British territorials who have been gar- 
 risoned in India, the men sent back to recuperate from the 
 campaigns in Mesopotamia and East Africa in the hospitals 
 and on the northwest frontier. 
 
 In Brazil, the Association has responded to the request of 
 the government for the introduction of the Red Triangle 
 work into the Brazilian navy and the army, which has been 
 mobilized for months. 
 
 Cuba also has called for this service. 
 
 The boys of the American navy have been splendidly served 
 by the Associations at Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and Rio 
 de Janeiro, with cooperation of the Government and public 
 committees, the government in each case financing the work 
 and lending every assistance. 
 
 65 
 
The Associations of China and Japan have given gener- 
 ously of their best trained and most experienced men for 
 special Red Cross and Y. M. C. A. missions in Siberia among 
 the prisoners of war, while the Associations of Japan have 
 rendered continuous service to the men of the Railroad and 
 other Commissions sent by the American Government to Si- 
 beria and in caring for the thousands of Russians and others 
 passing through these port cities. 
 
 66 
 
IN RUSSIA 
 
 The Y. M. C. A. has stuck to its post, and with the Red 
 Cross is the only remaining representative of western civiliza- 
 tion in Russia. 
 
 In most cases a regular program has had to be abandoned, 
 since the needs and conditions are continually changing, and 
 the work done is that which comes to hand. 
 
 In the days before the Brest-Litovsk treaty, "Y" huts were 
 strung along the whole front, just as they are in France, and 
 in the threatening weeks following the disorganization of the 
 army, the Association secretaries kept open their huts in the 
 field as long as there were soldiers to serve. 
 
 One secretary in a report of his work at that time writes : 
 "As long as there were men in uniform going here and there 
 like packs of wolves, there never seemed sufficient reason for 
 quitting. One of our men made a trip over some twenty 
 miles of front line trenches just two days before the Ger- 
 mans advanced. He saw but fourteen soldiers. On this trip 
 he concluded the plans for turning over the huts and ma- 
 terials to the peasant committees of the villages for educa- 
 tional purposes. This final expression of goodwill showed 
 how thoroughly the peasants of nearby villages understood 
 and appreciated the helpful attitude attempted in all our 
 work. We four remaining secretaries secured places on the 
 staff train which evacuated Minsk two hours ahead of the 
 Germans in their advance into Russia." 
 
 During the eight days of the factorymen's bloody revolu- 
 tion in Moscow, Y. M. C. A. men worked ceaselessly among 
 the wounded and suffering, while their work was repeatedly 
 mentioned in dispatches. A special correspondent cabled to 
 his papers : 
 
 "A unit of twenty-five Y. M. C. A. secretaries sent to Rus- 
 sia from America for the purpose of establishing rest huts 
 and comfort stations and serving the Russian soldiers, was 
 in the city during the fighting. America should be proud of 
 them, for during the severest part of the struggle and in a 
 
 67 
 
perfect rain of bullets these men risked their lives scores of 
 times in moving about the streets and gathering up the dead 
 and wounded. All Moscow appreciates their heroism/' 
 
 Never before, in the dread years of famine and oppression, 
 have the Russians been in greater need of help. Torn by 
 national intrigue, duped by demagogues, poisoned by German 
 propaganda, starving, and utterly wretched in body and soul, 
 their faith in human kind destroyed, they seem to await 
 whatever final blow the fates may hold for them. In the 
 midst of this disaster, the "Y" men have appeared with food, 
 and comfort, a warm fire, hot coffee, the one normal, de- 
 pendable source, in a world gone mad. Under such circum- 
 stances, it is the act and not the promise that wins con- 
 fidence. The "Y" does not talk of friendship, but lives the 
 part, and so it has been an inestimable factor in exemplifying 
 America's pledge of friendship and has established in the 
 Russian heart a trust in the United States. Its work has 
 been of particular value in paving the way for the landing 
 of Allied troops in Vladivostok, where they have been re- 
 ceived as friends, rather than as enemies as the Bolsheviki 
 had decreed. 
 
 The arrival of these troops has sounded another call for 
 the assistance of the "Y", and its operations have been rapidly 
 extended to these expeditionary forces, who, so far away 
 from home, are much in need of its services. Work along the 
 same line was conducted last winter when a hut was opened 
 at Nagasaki for 300 American army officers sent there to 
 take over the Chinese Eastern Railway. During the long 
 winter months, the "Y" was the only place in the frozen north 
 where the Americans could in any measure satisfy their 
 craving for home or find normal social fellowship. 
 
 The "Y" has also been active among the Russian battalions 
 in France, and in June a "Y" secretary was cited for bravery 
 and recommended for the Russian order of St. Stanislaus. 
 The citation was made by General Lokhwitsky, commanding in 
 France, for splendid work among the Russian wounded un- 
 der fire, and keeping up the morale back of the line. 
 
 The "Y" has a great opportunity in working out the recon- 
 struction and restoration of that great country, in whatever 
 degree its assistance will be accepted. The first work lies 
 
 68 
 
among returning soldiers from the German prison camps, 
 who are coming back by the car load, worse than corpses, the 
 sorriest wrecks of beings, starved, ragged, tubercular, and 
 dying enroute. 
 
 69 
 
WAR WORK BEGINNINGS 
 
 In the autumn of 1914, soon after hostilities began, Dr. 
 John R. Mott, visited the principal belligerent countries of 
 Europe. While there he was impressed with the possibilities 
 of two lines of Y. M. C. A. work. One was that for soldiers 
 in active service, the other that for the prisoners of war. 
 
 Dr. Mott immediately encouraged national leaders of the 
 Association in France, to grasp the opportunity to initiate 
 new lines of activity and to extend the lines of work already 
 undertaken on behalf of the soldiers. He made recommenda- 
 tions for the development of work for prisoners of war. 
 
 Upon his return to the United States, Dr. Mott consulted 
 with members of the International Committee and designated 
 A. C. Harte and C. V. Hibbard as special representatives to 
 promote these lines of work in Europe. 
 
 War time service was no new thing for the Y. M. C. A. 
 It had its beginning in the efforts of the Christian Commis- 
 sion headed by Dwight L. Moody, during the Civil War. It 
 expanded notably during the Spanish-American War, when 
 both army and navy work were undertaken. 
 
 Work for prisoners of war was initiated under the neutral 
 leadership of American associations on a reciprocal basis. 
 Any concession authorizing helpful work for prisoners of 
 war in any country was to be made the means of securing a 
 corresponding concession from the enemy country. The 
 work developed first in Great Britain and in Germany and 
 was quickly extended to France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and 
 Russia. The vast numbers of German and Austrian pris- 
 oners of war in Russia and Russian prisoners of war in Ger- 
 many and Austria-Hungary caused the work in these coun- 
 tries to assume far larger proportions than in any other field. 
 Several of the Governments concerned entrusted considerable 
 funds to Association representatives for relief work among 
 their citizens held in enemy countries and an extensive educa- 
 tional, social and religious work was built up in the various 
 countries. Prisoners of war were encouraged to form co- 
 operative societies, establish prisoner of war canteens and 
 
 70 
 
invalid kitchens. A system of food supply parcels from neigh- 
 boring neutral countries was initiated and saved many thou- 
 sands of lives. Men among the prisoners who knew a trade 
 as for example, tailors, shoemakers, etc., were supplied with 
 tools and assisted to maintain the clothing equipment of the 
 men who otherwise might be in serious need. Musical or- 
 ganizations were established and provided with music and 
 instruments. Veritable universities were established in many 
 of the camps. Libraries, reading rooms, theatres, lectures 
 and religious exercises were encouraged in the Association 
 buildings which were established in the various camps. 
 
 When the United States entered the war, American repre- 
 sentatives had to be withdrawn from Germany and ultimately 
 from the Central Powers. As far as possible these American 
 secretaries have been replaced by European neutrals and the 
 work goes on. 
 
 Meantime, the work for French soldiers in France has 
 rapidly expanded from small beginnings to the point where it 
 has the full endorsement of the War Department and the lead- 
 ing generals. The French Government was ready to provide 
 1,300 buildings with the necessary furnishings and turn these 
 over to the Association for the extension of the work among 
 the French soldiers. General Petain and Premier Clemenceau 
 have expressed the most cordial appreciation of the Associa- 
 tion work and it is significant as an element making for vic- 
 tory. 
 
 All this experience in other fields seemed fortunate, almost 
 providential, for it furnished a preparatory course for the 
 service on a far larger scale which the Association was called 
 upon to perform for Americans when the United States en- 
 tered the war. 
 
 In Italy a work similar to that in France has been started 
 and is now undergoing rapid development. As in France this 
 work has the full confidence of the War Department and the 
 secretaries are afforded every convenience for their work. 
 
 In Russia, the Association was carrying forward with the 
 greatest progress work for Russian soldiers. Huts had been 
 erected along the German frontier and 100 secretaries were 
 on the ground when the treaty of Brest-Litovsk terminated 
 hostilities and the Russian army disbanded. The secretaries 
 
 71 
 
then turned their hands to any kind of work which would be 
 helpful to the returning soldiers and people of Russia. This 
 unfailing devotion of the Association representatives in Rus- 
 sia has brought a rich fruitage in the continued confidence 
 and friendly support of all the parties succeeding each other 
 in power in Russia from the time of the revolution up to 
 the present writing. 
 
 American associations have sought to cooperate with the 
 British Association in work for the army in Europe, but more 
 especially in work with the troops of the British Empire in 
 more distant parts of the earth. American secretaries are at 
 work in South Africa, Mesopotamia, and in India. Indeed 
 several of the American secretaries have laid down their lives 
 in these fields. 
 
 72 
 
BOYS' "EARN AND GIVE" DRIVE 
 
 WHAT IT IS 
 
 The boys' "earn and give" division of the United War Cam- 
 paign is an integral part of the whole effort to secure $133,- 
 000,000. 
 
 [It should be noted that this chapter, like others in this 
 Manual, were prepared before the seven-fold merger was 
 consummated.] 
 
 With the slogan "a million boys behind a million fighters", 
 boys between 12 and 20 years of age everywhere will be en- 
 rolled to "earn and give" to help bring comfort and cheer to 
 the American soldiers. This division of the campaign will 
 be known as the Red Triangle Boys. 
 
 Each boy who enrolls pledges to pay from his own earn- 
 ings toward the work of the four agencies united in the 
 drive. A special enrolment button and a window banner 
 will be given to each boy who pledges. An engraved certifi- 
 cate-receipt will be given on completion of his payments, 
 which may be in installments as with adults. 
 
 Boys will be encouraged to give a sum that will provide 
 for one soldier or sailor the privileges of the four agencies 
 for at least three months. This costs approximately $5.00 
 for each American fighter. Some boys will wish to provide 
 these privileges for six months or even a year and hence will 
 enroll to "earn and give" $10, or even $50. No boy will be 
 allowed to secure gifts for any part of his pledge. 
 
 THE CHIEF AIM 
 
 a The chief aim of the "earn and give" effort is the de- 
 velopment in boys of intelligent, sacrificial investment of 
 their lives in behalf of the "great cause." The appeal is to 
 "earn and give." 
 
 b The boys' "earn and give" division of the campaign must 
 again prove an inspiration and stimulus to increased effort by 
 
 73 
 
men in the general campaign. Last year, men, learning that 
 boys were paying a sacrificial price on the "earn and give" 
 basis, gave larger amounts and worked harder for the cause. 
 
 WHO FOR SPEAKERS 
 
 Speakers from out of town who are to address adults fre- 
 quently can be made available for boys' meetings, at schools 
 or stores, or shops. 
 
 Special speakers to boys should be secured and routed by 
 the department and state speakers' bureaus. 
 
 Local men with particular talent in speaking to boys should 
 be enlisted to talk to boys at home and in neighboring cen- 
 ters. These can frequently be secured from the ranks of 
 business or professional life. 
 
 Returned soldiers or war workers will have a special appeal 
 to boys. If they are inexperienced in talking to boys, they 
 can be secured to share the allotted time with men accus- 
 tomed to this work but who are minus the actual story from 
 the front. 
 
 A few carefully selected and trained older boys can be 
 secured from the colleges, school, or from the ranks of 
 employed boys. 
 
 SPEAKERS' SUGGESTIONS 
 
 1 For general audiences : — All speakers should share in 
 responsibility to promote the boys' division of the campaign. 
 
 2 For meetings of boys : — a The best "appeal" to boys is 
 to make real to them the hard price our own soldiers and 
 sailors are paying "over there" and then present a challenge 
 for boys here to share by assuming difficult tasks with a simi- 
 lar sacrificial spirit. The record of some particularly hard 
 and disagreeable job cheerfully assumed and thoroughly done 
 by a soldier or sailor will bring more results with boys than 
 will the mere recital of some deed of daring. The little book 
 by H. Hagedorn, "You are the Hope of the World", gives 
 good illustration of this principle and stimulates one's imagi- 
 nation. 
 
 b A few human interest stories of the work of the "Y" 
 and the other campaign agencies will hold the attention and 
 
 74 
 
secure the cooperation of boys where a detailed story of the 
 work of their organizations would fail. Pick from "The 
 House the 'Y' Built," the most suggestive facts and tell them 
 in a simple but virile way, remembering that the boys to whom 
 the message goes in most cases, will be mature enough to 
 stand straight-f rom-the-shoulder blows. 
 
 c Briefly tell the plan of the "Red Triangle Boy's" effort 
 as outlined above. 
 
 d Give one or two human interest stories from last year's 
 campaign. 
 
 e Present a digest of the form of enrolment that the boys 
 sign. This will read as follows : 
 
 "I hereby agree to be one of 'a million boys behind 
 a million fighters' who will earn and give 
 dollars toward the United War Work Campaign Fund 
 to help make our fighters happy." 
 
 / In presenting the opportunity to boys, speakers will 
 wisely tell the story of the need and when feasible, leave the 
 solicitation of pledges to personal visits or calls by workers. 
 This will tend to emphasize the necessity for hard work and 
 payment in full. Whenever it becomes necessary to take 
 subscriptions in connection with meetings, speakers and work- 
 ers should give special emphasis to the need for early and 
 complete payment of pledges. 
 
 g Urge boys to form a solicitation committee under the 
 direction of the general campaign to secure the enrolment 
 of other boys in the school, store or shop to earn and give. 
 
 h If possible, meet with a small group of the most inter- 
 ested boys after the meeting and show the details of the plans 
 as outlined in American Youth and the special booklets listed 
 below. 
 
 i Present to the leaders the following suggestions: — 
 (1) Secure appointment by the General Campaign Director 
 of a boys' division committee to inaugurate and push to suc- 
 cessful conclusion enrolment of boys to earn and give and to 
 pay their pledges in full. In larger places a man should be 
 designated as executive secretary, preferably an employed 
 officer of the Y. M. C. A. and another as an employment 
 secretary. 
 
 (2) Organize the men and older boy leaders into an ef- 
 
 75 
 
fective working force, with necessary sub-committees to plan 
 fully the effort among all boys between 12 and 20. 
 
 (3) Enlist boys to pledge to earn and give by means of 
 
 (a) Special presentation of the need, 
 
 (b) Personal solicitation. 
 
 (4) Plan for and help provide employment for those who 
 pledge to earn and give. 
 
 (5) Make effective a plan for collecting and reporting 
 the pledges, issuing certificate-receipts, etc. 
 
 (6) Carry through any additional program of activity of 
 the "Red Triangle Boys" which may later be found desirable. 
 
 SPECIAL "EARN AND GIVE" LITERATURE 
 
 The following printed matter regarding the various phases 
 of the "earn and give" division of the campaign are intended 
 for speakers and workers. A request from the nearest cam- 
 paign headquarters will make the pamphlets available at 
 once. 
 
 1 American Youth for September, 1918 (reprint) : — Con- 
 tains organization plans, endorsements of campaign leaders, 
 and publicity plans. 
 
 2 "What $5 Will Do" :— An eight-page illustrated booklet, 
 suggesting in boy language the results that may come from a 
 five dollar investment. 
 
 3 "On Uncle Sam's Team" : — A pamphlet showing how 
 boys can team up to help win the war. 
 
 4 "How Boys Can Earn" : — An eight-page illustrated 
 booklet giving many suggestions as to how boys can "earn in 
 order to give." 
 
 5 American Youth for October, 1918: — The entire edi- 
 tion of this paper will be given over to important information 
 and illustration regarding the "Red Triangle Boys". 
 
 76 
 
HUMAN INTEREST STORIES 
 
 Use them if you are hard up for illustrations. Probably 
 you have much better ones of your own. If so, by all 
 means pass these up, for a story told at second-hand loses 
 much of its force. 
 
 Here are two rather rough and ready tributes of the sort 
 that the "Y" secretary prizes the most because of their evi- 
 dent sincerity: 
 
 "If a feller can have his tobaccy and have sump'n to think 
 about cept'n mud and drhTn and gettin* the devil, he can 
 keep sober a tol'ble long time." 
 
 And the second : 
 
 "Say, you hain't a Y. M. C. A. man, be you?" 
 
 "You be? My Gawd, I'm glad to see you here. You know 
 the Y. M. C. A. is the greatest thing in the world. It sure 
 helps keep a man ofFn likker." 
 
 He was pastor of a fashionable church in a big Eastern 
 city. 
 
 He donned the Y. M. C. A. uniform and was appointed 
 religious work secretary at Camp Lee where much of his 
 time was spent visiting the men in the hospital. 
 
 One day when he had finished writing a letter home for a 
 boy, he asked the young man whether there was anything 
 more he could do for him. 
 
 "Nothing I would like better than to have a shave," came 
 the reply. 
 
 The clergyman turned barber and performed this service. 
 But that was not all. There were others who suddenly con- 
 ceived an ardent desire to be shaved. 
 
 "I'm next, barber," came from a couple of dozen throats. 
 
 The preacher assumed the role that was thrust upon him 
 and went down the line, shaving every man who requested 
 him to do so. 
 
 "He's a regular guy," was the comment of one who later 
 
 77 
 
learned that the tonsorial artist was not a regular barber, but 
 a clergyman. 
 
 Three soldiers suffering from shell shock unconsciously- 
 provided a laboratory demonstration on board a returning 
 transport; of how deeply the Red Triangle burns itself into 
 the consciousness of the American soldier in France. 
 
 Physically well, but mentally dazed, benumbed and inco- 
 herent, these three strapping big fellows resisted every effort 
 to strike a responsive chord in their memories. One day, 
 walking on deck, they paused before a Y. M. C. A. man. 
 One of them reached out and falteringly touched the Red Tri- 
 angle on the "Y" man's coat sleeve, that insignia of service 
 every war work secretary wears. A smile overspread the 
 soldier's face. He called the attention of the other two to 
 the bit of red, and one of them slowly murmured, "Ah, the 
 Y. M. C. A." It was the first recognizable phrase he had 
 spoken since his nerves were shattered in the trenches. 
 
 Numerous secretaries have reported that phonographs have 
 had an interesting influence on the musical taste of the sol- 
 diers. The high grade orchestral and operatic records they 
 hear on the phonograph are believed to have awakened their 
 appreciation of the soloists and opera singers who have gone 
 abroad to sing for the men in the trenches. 
 
 Meeting the incoming soldiers and sailors at points of 
 debarkation and concentration in France and in this country 
 is another of the ubiquitous services of the "Y" men. 
 
 One night, at a lonely village in France, the "Y" secretary 
 heard that a small detachment of 27 Americans was due on 
 the 11 o'clock train. In the midst of a terrific storm, he met 
 them at the station, took them to the "Y" canteen for "a good 
 meal" and placed at their disposal shower baths and com- 
 fortable cots at the "Y." 
 
 "You're the boy," exclaimed the greatly relieved officer in 
 command when he saw the "Y" man at the station. "All the 
 way up we were wondering where we would sleep tonight." 
 
 The next morning, when, washed, shaved, shined up and 
 rested, the detachment was about to leave, a "Yank" ap- 
 proached the "Y" man. 
 
 78 
 
"Say, there's only one thing wrong with this place," he 
 said, speaking confidentially into the ear of the secretary. 
 "What's that?" wondered the "Y" man. 
 "You didn't tuck us in bed and kiss us good night." 
 
 One new thing has been added to baseball in France. That 
 is an innovation in the box score. 
 
 Over here, you frequently see the line — "Game called on 
 account of rain." Over there, it is more likely to be — "Game 
 called on account of shells." 
 
 A soldier just back from battle encountered a Y. M. C. A. 
 man who who had gone through it all with the fighters, giv- 
 ing them chocolate, hot drinks and cigarettes. 
 
 "Say, what I like about you fellers," he said, "is the way 
 you go over the top with us when you don't have to. It's part 
 of our job but not yours. It strikes me you are the real vol- 
 unteers in this war." 
 
 Gypsy Smith, the evangelist, in speaking of his experi- 
 ences in the camps in France, tells the following incident : 
 
 "To begin with, the men have confidence in the Red Tri- 
 angle. They don't stop to ask what you are. They don't 
 know what I am, whether Church of England, Roman Catho- 
 lic, Baptist, or Methodist. If a man has a message they are 
 ready to listen to him. 
 
 "For a week I had been speaking to a regiment made up 
 mostly of Roman Catholic men. I did not attack their de- 
 nomination. At the end, one of them came up to me and 
 said : 
 
 " 'Sure, yir riv'rence, ye're a gintleman.' 
 "How do you know?" said I. 
 
 " 'I feel it here,' said he, with his hand at his heart. 
 "Well, I said, you can have it all at the same price I 
 paid for it. 
 
 " 'But, begorra/ said he, 'you'll be askin' me to give up; my 
 religion/ 
 
 "Do you think I should be such a fool?" said I. "Whatever 
 you have that is good, keep." 
 
 " 'Well,' he said, 'What have I to give up ?' 
 
 79 
 
"Nothing at all," said I, "but your sin." 
 " 'Sure/ he said, 'y° u ' re a gintleman.' " 
 
 A professional gambler who had been trying to go straight 
 but did not find the path very smooth in civil life "handed" 
 this much to the Y. M. C. A. war worker in a big canton- 
 ment : 
 
 "I have been in this camp for two weeks and this is the 
 first time in ten years that I have been where everybody 
 wanted to try and help a feller be what he wants to be." 
 
 It was after the engagement at Chateau-Thierry, a Y. M. 
 C. A. secretary, who had gone forward with the battalion he 
 served, as stretcher bearer, was bringing back a young fellow 
 so badly wounded that it was obvious he could live only a 
 few hours. The secretary recognized him as a manly "non- 
 com" who had gotten into a number of scrapes and had fre- 
 quently come to him for help and advice. The Y. M. C. A. 
 man had written home for this boy and had received some 
 touching letters from both his parents, urging him to watch 
 out for their son and to give him a warning concerning some 
 of his weaknesses. Consequently the Y. M. C. A. secretary 
 had been pretty much of a father to him. 
 
 The wounded boy was still able to talk. 
 
 "Well, son, I guess you want me to write to the folks for 
 you. What shall I say?" asked the "Y" man. 
 
 "Be sure to tell them one thing," the soldier replied, — "Tell 
 them I kept straight and the Y. M. C. A. helped me to do it." 
 
 Two hours later the soldier died. 
 
 An ingenious camp secretary near Washington showed how 
 one may "swat the devil" by indirection. 
 
 A motion picture house opened up near his camp, frankly 
 advertising that it was going to put on pictures that would 
 "go the limit." This house was to be open once a week. 
 
 The Y. M. C. A. secretary concluded that it wouldn't do 
 much good to preach to the men in that camp about immoral 
 movie shows. 
 
 Instead, he rounded up two ex-professional welterweights, 
 
 80 
 
enlisted men in the camp, found a vaudeville headliner and 
 put on a combination theatrical show and boxing exhibition 
 on the same night that the nearby movie house was opened. 
 The attendance at the movie house was slim and the Y. M. 
 C. A. hut was crowded. The movie show lasted just two 
 more evenings against further competition of the same sort, 
 and quit. 
 
 A Hun shell had felled a great tree in No Man's Land and 
 ten Americans had been sent over the top to hold this out- 
 post in the crater. A Red Triangle man, arriving at the 
 front line for his regular Sunday services, heard of them 
 and with his bag well filled with supplies cautiously followed 
 their trail through the tangle of ugly barbed wire. He found 
 ten men sitting low in the crater under the shadow of the 
 tree roots. Snipers would have picked off anyone who stood. 
 They represented eight different denominations, but they did 
 not care about that. They wanted Sunday services. 
 
 So with trench mortars bellowing and high explosives 
 whining overhead, the older man with the Red Triangle on 
 his uniform spoke about "peace in the individual heart" in 
 the centre of war's whirlpool. 
 
 "We're going to write home that we've been to church in 
 No Man's Land," one soldier told the Y. M. C. A. man be- 
 fore he started back over his perilous trail. "We'll never 
 forget this Sunday — if we ever get out of this crater. It's 
 made better men of us." 
 
 An ex-prize fighter, who had been a figure in the sporting 
 world, breezed up to a secretary after he had been helped 
 by a Y. M. C. A. man and remarked, "I'm damn glad that the 
 Association has taken an interest in me," and then asked 
 the secretary to come out and hold a Bible class in his 
 squad. 
 
 "Perhaps they might object," the secretary urged. 
 "If they do, I'll break their bloody necks." 
 
 A young western woman is stationed with about a dozen 
 other workers at the navy hut at Brest. All day sailors from 
 the destroyers filter through the hut. 
 
 81 
 
 • 
 
"Sometimes, I think work for the Navy is more difficult 
 than any other kind," this woman secretary said, "because we 
 only see the men when they are at leisure." 
 
 One afternoon a young sailor began "kidding" this secre- 
 tary. 
 
 "Why, you are only here for the fun of the thing," he said. 
 "Why, if I gave you my address and asked you to write to 
 me, you would probably forget all about it." 
 
 "Let's have the address." 
 
 Four months later the sailor came back to the hut again. 
 
 "You wrote me a letter as you promised," he said, to the 
 same secretary. "Oh, but I bet you have forgotten all about 
 that and forgotten me as well." 
 
 "Oh, no, I haven't. You are Walter Whitford," (only this 
 is not his correct name) "and I am glad to see you again." 
 
 Later on that day, the "Y" worker overheard the sailor 
 and another boy talking of an engagement they had at four 
 o'clock. At the tone of their conversation she became sus- 
 picious, and when they left the hut, she determined to fol- 
 low them, although then uncertain of just what course to 
 pursue. Meeting them down the street, she invited them to 
 look over an old chateau and other places of interest in the 
 vicinity and when tea time came asked them to go back to 
 the hut with her for hot chocolate. Several hours later when 
 they were leaving the hut, one of them remarked, with a 
 twinkle in his eye, "Well, Mrs. B. has kept us in the straight 
 and narrow path today." 
 
 The first secretary of the Y. M. C. A. to be killed in France 
 and also the first American victim of a Paris air raid was 
 Miss Winona Martin, of Rockville Center, L. I. 
 
 Miss Martin was lying ill in a hospital when a Boche avia- 
 tor dropped a bomb through the roof, killing the American 
 girl and four other women. 
 
 This is the description of the funeral service for her, writ- 
 ten to the Home Office by a Y. M. C. A. secretary: 
 
 "It was a strangely solemn meeting in the church so far 
 away from America. The group of Y. M. C. A. secretaries 
 in their army uniform; in the high pulpit the clergyman, also, 
 in military uniform; the coffin draped with the flag of America 
 
 82 
 
and heaped with the flowers of France. There was no sermon 
 as her sacrifices spoke more eloquently than words. 
 
 "I have read her record card at the Y. M. C. A. headquar- 
 ters in Paris. On it in her own handwriting are the words 
 'For the duration of the war and longer if required'." 
 
 Many of the religious services over there are far from 
 formal. 
 
 The "Y" men have found shell craters in No Man's Land 
 most convenient places at times for church services. Pews 
 and pulpits are dispensed with. Frequently a camouflaged 
 gun emplacement is the sanctuary and the gun butt is the 
 pew. In a village under fire gatherings were prohibited, so 
 a thin line of men backed against the walls along* the street, * 
 while the speaker flattened himself out against the opposite 
 wall. 
 
 Men seated on the firing step of trenches have listened 
 eagerly to words of comfort. While in an outpost two sat 
 looking out into No Man's Land with their automatics handy, 
 but as much at the religious service as were those Pilgrim 
 Fathers who carried their match-locks to church. 
 
 In a little summer house of an old chateau, men gathered 
 Sunday mornings about a round table, while others heard 
 "Y" men speak from the pitcher's box of a baseball diamond. 
 
 In a French port town is a Y. M. C. A. hut entirely devoted 
 to serving sailors. Behind the counter is a small gray-haired 
 woman who used to have a boy in the Navy. 
 
 His ship was torpedoed. It sank quickly. There was time 
 only to get away two or three rafts. Officers and crew went 
 into the water together. It was every man for himself. There 
 were not enough rafts for everybody. This woman's son was 
 a Lieutenant. He swam from one raft to another to make 
 sure every possible one was saved. Then because his raft 
 was sagging with the weight, he dropped quietly off the side 
 and let himself go down. 
 
 The Navy knows this story. The sailors know this mother 
 is trying to take her son's place where he left off — taking care 
 of the bluejackets. The way they speak to her, and look at 
 her, attests their reverence for her. 
 
 83 
 
SOME BOYS' "EARN AND GIVE" STORIES 
 
 A high school boy with only one arm, beat rugs for days 
 and came in with blistered hand to make his first payment 
 toward the $20 which he later paid. He voluntarily set out 
 to do this, in order that he might give one certificate to a 
 school boy friend who could not work because of physical 
 deformities and a frail body. The friend used crutches, both 
 legs being in iron braces. 
 
 A Texas boy from a good home and without experience in 
 roughing it, learned to milk cows and earned his money, 
 getting up at 5 :30 in the morning during the season to ac- 
 complish this. 
 
 A boy of German parentage, with some of his people 
 strongly pro-German, not only earned $10 for the War Work 
 Fund but afterward, as a result of the enthusiasm gained, 
 purchased a $50 Liberty Bond, joined the Red Cross and 
 sold $300 worth of War Savings Stamps. 
 
 It is stated that the boys in Iowa gave a larger per capita 
 amount in the last campaign than did the men of that state, 
 if the corporation subscripions are deducted from the total 
 results. 
 
 84 
 
"COMEBACKS" 
 
 ANSWERS TO CRITICISMS 
 
 Criticisms against the Y. M. C. A. must be met fairly 
 and squarely in this campaign. Mistakes have been made 
 and it would be surprising if among the thousands of in- 
 dividual workers some did not measure up to the Associa- 
 tion ideals and did not commit errors in judgment. 
 
 Remember that the best answer to criticisms is to set 
 forth the enormous work the Association is carrying on. 
 The Y. M- C. A. war work needs no apologies. Unless 
 specific questions are raised it would be better to ignore 
 criticisms. 
 
 If some one does voice specific criticisms, or if in your 
 community there is a widely prevalent fault-finding upon 
 some particular point, meet the situation squarely. It is. 
 more than likely that objections raised are covered in the 
 statement below. Facts concerning conditions about which 
 center the principal criticisms against the Association War 
 Work follow: 
 
 1 Has the Y. M. C. A. overcharged for goods sold in 
 France, through its canteens and post exchanges, to men in 
 niform? 
 
 Answer: It formerly charged more at times than army 
 commissary sales stores, but it never made a profit nor sought 
 to do so. The army sells goods here and in France at first 
 cost which is not affected by insurance, the tremendous ex- 
 penses of transportation overseas, storage after arrival, nor 
 the long hauls for distributing them. The Y. M. C. A., up 
 until August 1, sought only to come out even upon goods it 
 sold, — hence it added these overhead charges. It should be 
 
 mphasized that large quantities of food, sweets and tobacco 
 have been given away to men as they went into and came out 
 of the front line trenches. 
 
 Within a short time it was seen that the double price 
 standard, though perfectly understandable after it had been 
 explained, caused endless confusion and criticism. Hence, 
 
 eginning August 1, all Y. M. C. A. commodities were ordered 
 
 85 
 
to be sold at exactly the same price as that charged at the 
 army post exchanges. Because of no allowance by the Army 
 for transportation and other overhead charges, nor fof loss 
 by sinking of cargoes, the new arrangement will represent 
 a gift to the men of from two to three million dollars a 
 year. 
 
 In one particular instance, some gift tobacco became mixed 
 in the Quartermaster's stores. It was sold to the Associa- 
 tion which, in turn, sold it to the men at the post exchanges. 
 The error, when discovered was frankly admitted by the 
 Quartermaster's Department and explanations made to the 
 men. Raymond B. Fosdick, Chairman of the Commission on 
 Training Camp Activities, upon returning from an investiga- 
 tion of auxiliary agencies in Europe was quoted by the New 
 York Times as saying: 
 
 "I should like to take this opportunity to remove a mis- 
 apprehension about the Y. M. C. A. which has gained 
 considerable ground, not only with our fellows abroad, 
 but with the people back home, and that is that the 
 Y. M. C. A. is making money out of the canteens which 
 it is operating for the forces. At General Pershing's 
 request I went into this matter thoroughly, and the re- 
 port is absolutely without foundation. I mention this 
 matter only because the widespread rumor is most un- 
 fair to an organization which is doing heroic service." 
 2 Is it true that the Y. M. C. A. accepts for overseas duty 
 as secretaries men who are not affiliated with the Evangelical 
 Christian Churches? 
 
 Answer : Yes, this is a national crisis and not a denomina- 
 tional war. The Y. M. C. A. is asked to work among the 
 troops, from a military standpoint, to sustain morale, and not 
 primarily for missionary effort. The Y. M. C. A. is called 
 upon to minister to men of all religious denominations and 
 to men who do not acknowledge any religious connections. It 
 works in close harmony with the Knights of Columbus, and 
 the Jewish Welfare Board, Army Chaplains and with every 
 other group seeking the same end — that is, the improvement 
 of the morale of our fighting men. It was in a spirit of the 
 broadest Christianity that a number of men who might not 
 be classed as strictly orthodox, but whose motives and ideals 
 
 86 
 
are high, were sent over by the Association to engage in the 
 common service. 
 
 3 Is it true that in remitting money of soldiers to the 
 United States, through the Y. M. C. A., there have been ir- 
 regularities or delays? 
 
 Answer: Delays, yes. Irregularities, none. The reason 
 for delays is that the secretary who receives the money at a 
 hut in France may not have an opportunity to report to 
 Paris headquarters more than once or twice a week. Missing 
 a boat from Paris will delay the remittance still longer and 
 there is bookkeeping to be done both in the Paris and New 
 York offices relative to these remittances. Meanwhile, the 
 soldier's letter stating he has sent money may go directly 
 home. In this way delays of two or three weeks have come 
 about. 
 
 4 Is it true excessively high salaries are being paid to 
 Association secretaries? 
 
 Answer: So far as can be ascertained the overseas salary 
 scale of the Y. M. C. A. is lower than that of other organi- 
 zations in Europe which are serving the men. The regular 
 scale of salaries is approximately $2,100 a year for a married 
 man and $1,200 a year for an unmarried man. This scale is 
 based on large experience. Careful experiments were 
 made as to how much men should receive to meet their ex- 
 penses in Europe and discharge their necessary obligations 
 financially to their families here. Association men always are 
 told that they are expected to work on a military or mission- 
 ary basis. Of course, the soldier's salary is much lower but 
 the situation is equalized by the fact that he has his food and 
 lodging provided by the Government, which is not the case 
 with the Association workers. Hundreds of Y. M. C. A. 
 workers have given up far larger salaries to go abroad. 
 Many others receive no salaries. 
 
 5 Why does the Y. M. C. A. distribute tobacco to men 
 overseas when it opposes its use here? 
 
 Answer: There are two good reasons for this. First: 
 The Government officially requested the Association to take 
 over the commissaries which necessarily sold tobacco. Sec- 
 ond : Conditions of stress and strain and exposure in the 
 front line trenches are such that men instinctively turn to 
 
 87 
 
tobacco. Our strongest Christian men who have been over 
 there have felt that for the period of the war an essential part 
 of the service for the enlisted men is in keeping them sup- 
 plied with tobacco. Ministers who are strong opponents of 
 the tobacco habit in normal times, upon returning from 
 France, have strongly endorsed the Y. M. C. A. policy over- 
 seas in that regard. 
 
 Arthur Gleason, author, magazine contributor, writing in 
 The Survey for July 6, 1918, states : 
 
 "There is a group of persons at home who are unaware 
 of the bitter temptations of lonely men and who seek to 
 legislate repressively for them. It would be impossible 
 for the Red Triangle to edit its canteen against tobacco, 
 for instance (though it has been criticised for selling 
 tobacco). It is the judgment of military men that to- 
 bacco is interwoven with the morale of fighting men. 
 Deprive them of tobacco and the results are discontent 
 and homesickness. How could an institution dependent 
 for its success on the goodwill of officers and men alike 
 make a ruling hostile to the military conception of 
 morale? In the face of the temptations inevitable to a 
 'stag-camp' 3,000 miles away from normal conditions, it 
 would be perilous to deprive the men of a minor allevia- 
 tion for loneliness, idleness and wet weather." 
 
 6 Why does the Y. M. C. A. permit card-playing and 
 dancing in its huts? 
 
 Answer : Neither is encouraged. In an extremely limited 
 number of cases has there been dancing in the Association 
 huts. When there have been dances they have been under 
 proper chaperonage and conducted with every propriety. Re- 
 member that the hut is the soldiers' home. It should be 
 noted also that upon most occasions when there has been 
 dancing in the huts it has been when the buildings were 
 loaned to military organizations. As for card-playing — army 
 regulations permit it. Men are under military control when 
 in the huts as elsewhere and to make undue restrictions tends 
 to reduce the serviceability of the huts to the men. The fact 
 we are facing is that the men are going to play cards, and 
 they had better be doing it in a Y. M. C. A. hut than in a 
 great many other places. 
 
 88 
 
7 Is it true that overseas secretaries drink light wines and 
 beer? 
 
 Answer: They do not if they conform to the specific rules 
 prescribed by the War Personnel Board of the War Work 
 Council, which adopted this resolution : "The War Person- 
 nel Board would emphasize the importance that any one en- 
 tering the service of the War Council be unreservedly will- 
 ing to maintain not alone the standards set by the Army with 
 reference to the use of intoxicants, but also to maintain the 
 standards expected by the Army and the American home of 
 the representatives of the Y. M. C. A." 
 
 ******** 
 
 Writing in a recent issue of The Survey, Arthur Gleason 
 comments on some of the "kicks" against the Association's 
 War Work as follows : 
 
 "I could write a slashing criticism of the work of the 
 Y. M. C. A., and I could load and color it with many 
 details which the critics have missed, but for all that, it 
 would not be a true picture. It is impossible to create 
 an institution at one stroke in the war zone of a stricken 
 country which will run with the well-oiled efficiency of 
 the Pennsylvania Railroad. Faults? The Red Triangle 
 in France has many of them. The movie machine break* 
 down at the second reel. The speaker doesn't arrive. 
 The singer croaks from the bad weather. The war zone 
 on a wet night is not as neatly operating an affair as the 
 Keith House at Seventh Avenue in our home city. But, 
 for all 1 that, the Red Triangle is running even with the 
 Red Cross and the Army. And like them, it is growing 
 better every month." 
 
 "But if I were writing a criticism, at least I should 
 have the grace to refrain from scoring points on an over- 
 worked and useful organization because of its 'unitarian- 
 ism' and 'smoking'. The Red Triangle is trying to cheer 
 up nearly half a million lonely boys who are a long way 
 from home. It isn't doing it in a unitarian and trinitar- 
 ian — but in a humanitarian way. It wants the soldiers to 
 come and stay and feel at home. It doesn't legislate for 
 the personal habits in minor matters like smoking for 
 men old enough to fight for their country. It regards 
 
 89 
 
soldiers as self-respecting human beings who are free 
 agents. It doesn't ask as a test for admission to the huts 
 that the men shall sign a pledge or recite a creed. It asks 
 no questions. 
 
 "Oddly enough, there is also criticism aimed in exactly 
 the opposite direction. The New York Times of Febru- 
 ary 17, accuses the Y. M. C. A. secretaries of discouraging 
 
 the soldiers from smoking. 'You can smoke, but / 
 
 Having been pounded for several months for its policy 
 of selling cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco by the ton to 
 the American Army and for running a social club with 
 Sunday baseball, the Red Triangle now suddenly faces the 
 charge that it is Puritanic, 'intolerant, smug, sectarian/ 
 
 "Let me say that the soldiers smoke freely in all the 
 huts, and that a number of 'Y* secretaries smoke. 
 
 "Another charge of the Times is that official workers 
 must be members of a Protestant Evangelical Church. 
 
 "In the Red Triangle in France, there are Unitarians, 
 Jews and those who subscribe to the creed of no church. 
 I am not a church member, and associated with me in a 
 department have been a Jew and two men of the same 
 undenominational character as myself." 
 
 90 
 
A FEW SAMPLES 
 
 Here are the outlines of some speeches. 
 It might be well to read them. Then forget 
 them and go ahead and make your own speech. 
 
 Above all things don't try to repeat them 
 verbatim. In them are the germs of ideas 
 around which you may build speeches pro- 
 viding color from your own experiences, 
 adding to them your own personality without 
 which any speech you make will be valueless. 
 
 More of these, setting forth appeals adapted 
 to special groups, will be written for the next 
 edition of the manual by men who have been 
 successful in appealing to these special groups. 
 
 91 
 
HERE'S A TRUE STORY 
 
 YES, IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED, NOT ONCE r 
 BUT THOUSANDS OF TIMES IN SCORES OF 
 CAMPS AND CANTONMENTS. 
 
 Here is a story of a man with a number, and a whole 
 string of aliases. 
 
 Only the number was a numeral of high honor. And the 
 aliases were symbols of home, club, workshop, friends, and 
 church. 
 
 John B. Crawford, until one day in June, 1918, had been 
 "Jack" to his friends, and "Dad" to his family, and "J. B." 
 to men at his office and "Deacon" at his church. 
 
 Well, along about June, 1918, Crawford arrived in a big 
 cantonment, checked in by his draft board as Registrant No. 
 14,894. 
 
 Of course he was not called by a number. He was known 
 as Private Crawford. But in the iteration and reiteration 
 of that unvarying appellation he sensed the monotony of 
 cantonment life. 
 
 Drill and lectures were interest compelling. But after that ; 
 a vacuum. 
 
 Here he was in a big city — 60,000 or more other men. 
 There the likeness ceased. 
 
 A city has many facets, many attractions, many places of 
 contact for the young business American who wishes to 
 touch life at every worth-while point. 
 
 Crawford, in his barracks, comfortable and clean, but noth- 
 ing more, grew cynical. 
 
 "I'm a man with a country, all right," he mused aloud. 
 "But Edward Everett Hale ought to have written about the 
 man without a home, or a club, or a library, or "a theatre, or a 
 friend." 
 
 An older "rookie" smiled, and beckoned. 
 "Come along, I'll show you something you've overlooked." 
 He went — that was Private Crawford's introduction to the 
 Y. M. C. A. 
 
 92 
 
The secretary at the hut he visited had made a rule for 
 himself and his staff. It is now pretty general in all "Y" 
 huts. It was : 
 
 "Never let a man greet you first. Welcome him." 
 
 Crawford got a hearty handshake. Perhaps that was why 
 he wrote home later, "These *Y' huts have the small town 
 general stores backed off the boards. You can get anything 
 from postage stamps to Sweet Caps but the first and the best 
 services the huts are rendering is that of giving companion- 
 ship and friends. A fellow can do without a lot if only he has 
 these intangible things." 
 
 This secretary called him "Crawford". Then he met a man 
 from his home town who termed him "Jack". And Crawford 
 felt his personality, which somehow had been cramped and 
 shrivelled, expanding. 
 
 That evening Crawford attended a theatre. The next eve- 
 ning he jovially remarked, "I'm strolling up to my club." On 
 Sunday he went to church. He found all of them in the "Y" 
 hut. For Crawford had an imagination. That was what 
 had made Private Crawford "sore on this army thing." And 
 that same imagination had come to the rescue now that it 
 had an outlet again. 
 
 The theatre was in the "Hut" of course. There were wood- 
 en benches and rafters. But on the stage were a grand opera 
 star, and an actor of national note, and a vaudeville top liner. 
 The combination could not have been seen at any price in 
 private life. 
 
 As for friends and companionship — all that was needed was 
 the "Y" sheltering roof. All the essentials were there — only 
 a common meeting place was needed. For nothing knits 
 men so closely as the common purpose and interests of 
 military life. Add to this the elements of common suffering, 
 sacrifice and dangers, as Crawford realized later when in 
 France, and there is no club in city or town where such a 
 fellow feeling is created. 
 
 The "Y" could not give Crawford his home. But it could 
 come "about as near it as anything this side of my own 
 front door," as one soldier wrote home. And it gave him 
 materials and a place to write to family and friends — and 
 
 93 
 
he seemed to grow more normal again as he signed himself 
 "Dad". 
 
 Crawford found that the "Y" did not stop with providing 
 a church, a club, a theatre, and a home. It was a school, a 
 playhouse, a library, a canteen, and a center for baseball, 
 football and other athletics. 
 
 Crawford's emotions and reactions are not vague and elus- 
 ive things. Any army officer will tell you that they have a 
 lot to do with his fighting quality. 
 
 All the institutions of modern life have been built up and 
 preserved to meet human needs. To take them away is to 
 throw men backward by centuries. These normal institutions 
 the "Y" seeks to retain amid the abnormal and extraordinary 
 conditions of training and fighting. 
 
 Going from home to camp means infinitely more in the life 
 of a young man than a change of abode. He may have no 
 wife nor children, but he has assumed other responsibilities, 
 he has ties, parents and relatives and friends. As John Kel- 
 man puts it : 
 
 "He is a distinct personality among his mates and to him- 
 self he is an object of an almost oppressive sense of person- 
 ality. 
 
 "Suddenly he wakes up to the consciousness that the army 
 has claimed him and he has become neither more nor less 
 than No. 49,354. With that discovery the whole burden of 
 his personal responsibility falls from his shoulders and with 
 a new freedom and irresponsibility his heart becomes the 
 heart of a little child." 
 
 The "Y" does much for the personal convenience of the 
 man in uniform. It executes many missions; it runs many 
 errands. 
 
 But nothing the "Y" can do is likely to be of such inesti- 
 mable service, of such deep and lasting value, as this task of 
 maintaining the individual's personality. 
 
 "Personality" no longer is a vague word. It counts in 
 business as well as in religion. It is a factor in life uni- 
 versally recognized. The aim of all our institutions, of our 
 pulpits and our schools, is to enrich it. 
 
 The "Y" seeks not only to be a conserver of men. It aims 
 to preserve and enrich the best in every man. 
 
 94 
 
THIS MIGHT APPEAL TO BUSINESS MEN 
 
 Have you ever heard of a big city without a school, a 
 church, a store, a club, a motion picture theatre? 
 
 No matter how mushroom the town ; these things exist. 
 No matter how run down, these things persist, so long as 
 human beings remain. 
 
 Ask yourself, Why? 
 
 If they were not needful they would not exist universally. 
 They meet a deep-seated human need. A city, so called, with- 
 out them would be a monstrosity. 
 
 No need, then, to ask why these things must be provided, 
 in a cantonment or camp, be there a few hundred men there, 
 or 50,000. 
 
 War is abnormal. But human aspirations and needs remain 
 pretty much the same. 
 
 Your boy, your neighbor's boy, retains the same human 
 cravings when he puts on a uniform. He has the same whole- 
 some desires for recreation, for companionship, for amuse- 
 ment, for worship, that he had at home. 
 
 If he does not get these things in a normal way he is going 
 to seek abnormal and harmful substitutes. 
 
 For good reason the Y. M. C, A. was entrusted with pro- 
 vision of these normal accompaniments of daily living. You 
 may think some other agency might have done better. Per- 
 haps. It is a little late to discuss that now. The military au- 
 thorities have assigned the task to the "Y." 
 
 Turn to another picture. 
 
 Some old town in France. Many armies have passed 
 through these ancient streets, but never an army like this 
 from the New World. Alert, active, vigorous young men, 
 aglow with the joy of living, tingling with the excitement of 
 getting to the front. 
 
 But they must wait. Perhaps they must train, or wait some 
 more in France. They mingle with a new people, they en- 
 counter a strange language. They confront new modes of 
 living. 
 
 The temptations are strong. Home ties make for loneli- 
 ness. To combat them often means rushing into distractions 
 which work grave harm. To be blunt, gambling, women and 
 drink seem the most accessible diversions. 
 
 95 
 
That is, unless you help put a Y. M. C. A. in that French 
 town. Unless you are willing to give the men who are 
 lighting your fight, perhaps laying down their lives for you, 
 the bare necessities of civilized living. 
 
 Do you realize that one of the strongest demands of the 
 man over there is for religion? He is down to bed rock. 
 He wants to talk of the basic things of life, death and the 
 hereafter. 
 
 A third picture. Words can't paint it. Try to imagine it 
 
 yourself. 
 
 Your boy has done his turn in the trenches. He has stood 
 waist-deep in mud, he has withstood the stench and the 
 cooties — yes, we can talk about them if our sons and our 
 brothers are infested with them — and then comes the supreme 
 test. He is about to go "over the top". 
 
 Here he wants the "Y" man most of all. Chocolates, to- 
 bacco, hot and cold drinks mean infinitely more to him than 
 you can realize. 
 
 He escaped the shrapnel and bullets, he fought until he all 
 but dropped from sheer exhaustion. 
 
 Now he comes staggering back, every nerve on edge, every 
 muscle taut. He is more literally "all in" than you ever can 
 realize on this side of the water. 
 
 Bodily rest he needs, and will get. Mental reaction, too, 
 he must have, and will get. 
 
 Only will he get that of the brothel and the booze joint? 
 Or will he get the clean, wholesome welcome of the "Y" hut? 
 
 It's up to you. He came through. Will you? 
 
 Can the "Y" meet his need? 
 
 That is largely up to you. You are asked to contribute 
 today to enable the "Y" to carry on the work. 
 
 A POINT OF VIEW 
 ABOUT WHICH YOU MIGHT BUILD A SPEECH 
 
 "Nothing is too good for our fighting men." 
 You admit that. You preach it. 
 
 The fighting man needs a home. Any man does. The "Y" 
 can't give him precisely that; it can provide the best substi- 
 tute to be had. 
 
 96 
 
He needs a place to keep in touch with his real home — to 
 write letters. The Y. M. C. A. can furnish that. Millions of 
 letters have been written on Y. M. C. A. stationery in a 
 single month. 
 
 He needs a church. The "Y" can provide that. Many of 
 the foremost clergymen, and some of the leading laymen are 
 meeting that need. Fired with the message of Christ, giving 
 their services loyally, willingly, unto death if need be, they 
 are ministering to our men on foreign soil and on high seas. 
 
 The man in uniform needs fellowship. He finds that in a 
 Y. M. C. A. hut. He has a friend in the man with the 
 Red Triangle on his sleeve, who has not sought a job, but 
 who answered a call to service, who will go through thick 
 and thin for him. 
 
 Sorely does he need relaxation, diversion and entertain- 
 ment. No doubt but that the "Y" has supplied these needs. 
 The foremost men and women of the stage have faced hard- 
 ships to entertain our soldiers, sailors and marines. Motion 
 picture films have been shipped in vast quantities. Entertain- 
 ers of all sorts have answered the call. 
 
 The fighting man needs mental food. He may wish to 
 learn French, to know something of the country where he is 
 fighting, to specialize in that field which will earn promotion 
 for him. The educational courses of the "Y" have followed 
 the young man of the country to France. 
 
 Frequently the fighting man needs a lawyer, a banker, a 
 counsellor, an adviser, an agent to perform all sorts of mis- 
 sions for which he has not the time nor facilities. The Y. 
 M. C. A. secretary is meeting these needs. Through a special 
 arrangement, millions of dollars of soldiers money have been 
 transmitted to families or deposited in home banks. Wills 
 have been drawn, powers of attorney arranged. Dying mes- 
 sages have been taken, photographs transmitted, immeasurable 
 services rendered. 
 
 Today the soldier needs you. He needs your money which 
 will enable the Y. M. C. A. to continue this work in the ever 
 increasing scale made necessary by the fast growing military 
 establishment. 
 
 The Y. M. C. A. men have failed at times. But the Y. M. 
 
 97 
 
C. A. has not failed. Testimony is ample that it is meeting in 
 increasing measure the needs of the man in uniform. 
 
 AN APPEAL TO WOMEN 
 
 Pies that Mother used to make are the least of the things 
 that your boys will get homesick for in France. 
 
 There is danger over there, there is hardship, but did you 
 ever examine into your boy's mind and habits of thought 
 enough to realize that neither of these bother him one bit? 
 The chances are he hasn't given them a thought. They won't 
 trouble him much when he gets there. 
 
 But something, unexpected by him, will happen when he ar- 
 rives. Ask any private who has come back, and you can take 
 the repeated word of General Pershing and other high officers 
 for the same thing, — that the most discouraging phase of 
 life in France is the monotony, the dreariness and the sense 
 of loneliness that come from waiting and training, asso- 
 ciating only with men, and the lack, not so much of the com- 
 forts, as of the less tangible relationships of home. 
 
 In other words, the soldier is apt to find an absence of the 
 actual dangers and hardships which he was all keyed up to 
 encounter as part of the adventure. 
 
 Imagine, if you can, the effect upon a man when he is de- 
 prived of his women folk — mother, sister, wife, sweetheart 
 and the home crowd. As Arthur Gleason puts it in The 
 Survey : — 
 
 "The presence of decent women in the canteens of the Red 
 Triangle is the best substitute. The three hundred Red Tri- 
 angle women are probably of more social value to the army 
 community than the fourteen hundred men. A most im- 
 portant work in personal relationship at the front is carried 
 on by these women. The soldiers want to talk with a decent 
 woman, who 'savvies United States' and looks like the folks 
 he left behind." 
 
 The women's side of the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion work should appeal to every woman. Women always 
 have had a part in wars. We are just beginning to organize 
 their efforts to make them more effective. 
 
 But the men secretaries help fill the home gap. Your boy 
 
 98 
 
was a gregarious sort of a chap. He had many types of 
 friends. He had an older man whom he looked up to. ^aybe 
 it was the clergyman, maybe it was just a friend of the fam- 
 ily; and he had many pals of his own age whose interests 
 were far different from his and that helped to make them 
 all the more interesting. 
 
 Over there he is a soldier. His daily companions are sol- 
 diers. With them he forms the closest ties and most lasting 
 friendships, but a civilian friend helps mightily to break the 
 monotony. 
 
 There are things these Y. M. C. A. secretaries can do for 
 your boy which the soldier has not the time to attend to for 
 himself. It would be hard to enumerate them because they 
 are as diverse and unexpected as the service of a mother 
 called upon constantly to render to her son. 
 
 You have heard of the entertainments the Association pro- 
 vides for him; of the motion pictures, of the educational 
 classes, of the religious services. Many of the reports of 
 Y. M. C. A. secretaries no longer deal with these routine mat- 
 ters, but are chock full of examples of the unusual things 
 they are called upon to do. 
 
 One boy's father died at home leaving his estate in such 
 shape that this young man's power-of-attorney was necessary 
 before the money could be made available for his younger 
 brother and sister. The Y. M. C. A. secretary, through other 
 secretaries back home, arranged this. 
 
 There are all sorts of commissions which the "Y" men are 
 asked to execute — writing letters, attending to business de- 
 tails, helping soldiers care for or forward personal property, 
 seeing that they get newspapers, and answering the numerous 
 questions which arise in the leisure hours of a young man in 
 a strange country. 
 
 There is no need to harrow your feelings by going into the 
 service the Y. M. C. A. may be called upon to perform for 
 your boy under stress of fighting, or if he is wounded or cap- 
 tured. Many times that cup of chocolate or that biscuit which 
 the soldier received out in the fighting zone has actually 
 saved his life. Association workers aid the Red Cross in 
 acting as stretcher bearers for the wounded. Frequently the 
 Red Triangle men have borne the burden of getting the 
 
 99 
 
wounded back to dressing stations themselves. They minister 
 to the walking wounded, those body weary, mind fagged, soul 
 sick,* slightly wounded, who must follow the trail back to a 
 point where they can hope to get some attention. 
 
 The "Y" fathers, mothers and big brothers your boy on 
 hospital ship, on transport, and during every stage of his 
 progress toward the fighting front and back if need be, 
 and it w r ill minister to him in a German prison camp. 
 
 Women have contributed generously in money in previous 
 campaigns. Their part has been more than that, and must be 
 more than that if the present drive is to go over the top. 
 Women not only give money, they influence tremendously the 
 giving of money. Not only your gifts but your influence on 
 others who will give, are of major importance if your boy is 
 to have the administrations he needs while he is in uniform. 
 
 While your boy is fighting to preserve your home you owe 
 him at least the best substitute that you can give for his 
 home until the job is done. 
 
 TWO CABLEGRAMS 
 
 Names have not been mentioned in this book. There 
 are too many "Y" men and women doing valiant and 
 heroic service to cite specific cases. 
 
 But here are two cablegrams picked at random from the 
 many reports received every day the American troops 
 have been in action, which tell of the courage of workers 
 under fire. The men and women mentioned herein have 
 met the supreme test in offering their lives when the 
 occasion arose in just the same way that scores of other 
 Association workers have done. 
 
 The cablegrams follow: 
 
 OVERSEAS 
 
 PERSONNEL. 
 FIRST CABLE : 
 
 A GREAT SERVICE HAS BEEN RENDERED BY 
 THIRTY AMERICAN YMCA WORKERS STATIONED 
 FRENCH TROOPS UNDER TERRIFIC SHELL FIRE 
 FACING GERMAN DRIVE ALONG AISNE. HELD 
 
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PLACE UNTIL LAST RETIRING WITH TROOPS AID- 
 ING WHENEVER IT IS POSSIBLE STOP. ALL 
 STORES FOOD DISTRIBUTED WEARY POILUS 
 WHOSE SUPPLIES FAILED REACH THEM COFFEE 
 SOUP MADE SERVED UNTIL BUILDING SHAT- 
 TERED BY GERMAN SHELLS STOP. WORKERS 
 MADE WAY BACK ACROSS FIELDS SWEPT BY 
 SHRAPNEL HIGH EXPLOSIVE MACHINE GUN FIRE 
 FROM GERMAN PLANES CARRYING EQUIPMENT 
 POSSIBLE TOOK UP NEW POSITIONS WITH 
 TROOPS MOLDVAREN (93?) FOYERS DU SOLDAT 
 HAVE BEEN DESTROYED SHELL FIRE OR CAP- 
 TURED. THREE WAREHOUSES YMCA OFFICIALS 
 BURNED IN ORDER TO PREVENT REMAINING 
 STORES FALLING IN HANDS OF ENEMY. MISS 
 MARIE C. HERRON CINCINNATI SISTER IN LAW 
 WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT AND MISS JANE BOWLER 
 ALSO CINCINNATI YMCA CANTEEN WORKERS 
 PARTICULARLY DISTINGUISHED THEMSELVES 
 LABORING ON WITH TROOPS REFUGEES WOUND- 
 ED WITH VILLAGES BURNING ABOUT THEM. MISS 
 BOWLER WHO STAYED AT POST SOISSONS ALL 
 THROUGH LAST OFFENSIVE HELD IT AGAIN DE- 
 SPITE TERRIFIC BOMBARDMENT. FINALLY LEFT 
 WHEN EVERYTHING FLAMES LESS THAN HOUR 
 BEFORE GERMANS ENTRANCE. CARL LITTLE AGE 
 THIRTY THREE NORTH BROOKFIELD, MASS. RE- 
 TURNED BURNING VILLAGE WHICH TROOPS 
 WERE ABANDONING IN ORDER TO HELP CHILD 
 REFUGEES. WILLIAM EDWARD WRIGHT TOLEDO 
 OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY FOUGHT BACK WITH 
 HIS REGIMENT AT EACH PAUSE WOULD GATHER 
 SUPPLIES DISTRIBUTE FOOD FROM STANDS BE- 
 SIDES ROAD SWEPT BY SHELL FIRE BOMBS WITH 
 ASSISTANCE ERIC MAYELL NYAC NY. 
 WILLIAM IRVING HASTIE CENTERDALE RHODE 
 ISLAND HELPED BACK HUNDREDS REFUGEES AND 
 WOUNDED. SECURED FLOUR FROM RED CROSS SO 
 AS TO SUPPLEMENT OWN SUPPLIES. FOUND BAK- 
 ERY BAKED HUNDREDS LOAVES OF BREAD. 
 
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SECOND CABLE: 
 
 SECRETARIES AT FRONT RESPONDING SPLENDID- 
 LY. INTENSIFIED LABOR PLACED UPON THEM BY 
 ATTACK. MAXIMUM PRESSURE ALL ALONG LINES 
 BESIDES UNDER ASSAULT. SECRETARIES ARE GO- 
 ING ALMOST CONSTANTLY AS CLOSE FRONT AS 
 PERMITTED GIVING MEN SMOKES FRUIT CHOCO- 
 LATE OFTEN TAKING THEM INTO FRONT TRENCH- 
 ES. MANY SECRETARIES SUFFERING FROM SHELL 
 SHOCK OR GAS BUT KEEP GOING IN INTENSE AT- 
 TACK ALL YMCA STORES WILLINGLY GIVEN MEN 
 IN NEED. WHERE COMMUNICATION INTERRUPT- 
 ED HELP FEED MEN AID WOUNDED ASSIST CHAP- 
 LAINS. SOUPS FROM SUPPLIES AVAILABLE FEED 
 MEN RAVENOUS UNDER STRAIN. ATTACK TO 
 AMERICAN WORKERS KILLED IN TWO DAYS HAL- 
 LIDAY SMITH NYACK NY AND REVEREND HAD- 
 LEY H COOPER PIERMONT NY DIED GASSED IN 
 HOSPITAL AMERICAN FRONT. COOPER AGE 
 THIRTY TWO CHICAGO NORTHWESTERN THEO- 
 LOGICAL SEMINARY SMITH AGE THIRTY ONE 
 PHYSICALLY DISQUALIFIED BECAUSE DISLO- 
 CATED SHOULDER OLD CHUMS JUST PLACED TO- 
 GETHER. SMITH PROBABLY SACRIFICED LIFE BY 
 CONTINUING WORK AFTER GASSED GOING OUT 
 OF LINE OF DUTY TO LEAD AMMUNITION TRAIN 
 WHICH LOST ITS WAY. 
 
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