Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 235, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1917 — SERVICE OF BOYS AND GIRLS [ARTICLE]

SERVICE OF BOYS AND GIRLS

GEORGE ADE SOUNDS TRUMPET CALL FOR THEIR ENLISTMENT. — - - - - This is a letter to the fortunate ones who, ten years from now, will be enjoying the benefits of what all future histories will call the Great War. You (the girls of sweet sixteen and slightly upward and the boys who are getting ready to vote) will know more about this war when you are plump and middle-ag'ed than anyone can possibly know this year. When the dust has cleared away and the large events of the war can be seen from a distance then you Will understand that the issues involved had to be fought out, that the United States had to take part, that the task we are now undertaking had to- be accomplished. Let us hope that each of you can say, twenty years from now, “I was young at the time but I knew what the war meant, and I helped.” Not all of the heroes are in the trenches.

To prove that brave men remain at home, here am I, a case-hardened bachelor, venturing to give advice to young women, every one of whom knows all about the war or, at least one young man who has marched out to win the war. No need to tell them to knit. They aYe knitting. Why whisper to them to beware of “slackers.” The poor “slacker” already has felt the scorn of their glances. * Perhaps some hints may be tabulated in the methodical style so dear to professors. Efficientcy of soldiers at the front and in the training camps dependent upon: (a) Physical welfare, resulting from comfortable garments and sensible attentions, provided by the young women between 16 and 21. (b) Mental calm, induced by the knowledge that all the girls at home will postpone definite arrangements until tfye soldiers come back. (c) Spiritual exaltation, encouraged by the occasional receipt of letters from young ladies between the ages of 16 and 21. From the above analysis it becomes evident that the successful prosecution of the war is not dependent upon the president and cabinet, or even upon the National Council of Defense, but upon Flora and Elsie and Agnes and Jessie. Don’t let anyone tell you that war is strictly a business proposition. We can’t win the war unless the bands play and the girls wave their handkerchiefs. Every selected man who starts to France must see himself as the hero of the play who steps in between the villain and the persecuted heroine and strikes the brute to the earth, saying, “Take that! and that!” and (then bows to the applauding multitude. The French weep a little and J kiss one another on each cheek and sing the “Marseillaise,” and then they are ready to capture some more trenches. Repressed emotions sometimes turn sour. Don’t be ashamed to let our enthusiasm float publicly to the breeze.

You never saw a football t&am advance the ball unless it was getting encouragement from the girls on the side lines. Now for the boys. Perhaps you have heard of the Working Reserve. It has been carefully organized under government supervision. It has received the official endorsement of the president. The whole plan is working out successfully wherever it is understood. Here is the plan in a nut shell: Thousands of enlisted and selected men have .gone to the training camps. It may be that thousands more will go next year. These men are being called from factories and workshops and farms. Every factory and every farm must continue production if we are to render full service to our faithful allies during the war. How can we fill the places of the young men who have gone away to fight? We must rely upon the boys who are old enough and husky

enough to work, but who are still too young for military service. Ho here is a trumpet call for all city boys and town boys between the ages of 16 and 21. Prove your patriotism and help your country by jumping in and doing the work of a soldier who has gone to the front. You are not asked to work because you need the money. You are asked to work because our country needs your help and relies upon you to chuck aside false pride and join in the team work. If your big brother can dig trenches surely you can

plow corn. Go to the recruiting office and enlist for the Boys’ Working Reserve. Then, when you are called upon, go and make good in the job assigned to you and win your medal and wear it and be proud of it. When the government begaa to organize this voluntary service among boys, so as to meet the inevitable shortage of man-power, the skeptics and fault-finders got busy. They said that boys living in cities and towns never could be induced to work on farms, that farmers didn’t want to have the town boys around because they would prove to be green or' lazy or indifferent, and the whole thing

was a fool contraption. Doesn’t your common sense and your knowledge of addition and subtraction tell you that if we suddenly take 1,000,000 or more men right out of the productive industries of this country, we must either find a million men to take their places or else go short on production? Are we going to do as they have done in England——dress the women and girls in men’s garments and put them to cleaning streets and making explosives and wiping up locomotives in round houses and doing all the hard menial tasks? We musn’t come to that—not while we have on banc a whole army of young fellows between 16 and 21, nearly every'one oi. whom has gone in for some kind ol athletic sport and is physically able and would be as mad as a hornet if you told him he was a mama’s pet and not able to do a man’s work. The boys between 16 and 21 can and will supply the shortage of manpower. There will be a load call for then} in 1918 ahd they must answer the call.