Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1918 — Letter From Col. George H. Healey [ARTICLE]

Letter From Col. George H. Healey

Brigade and F. 0. School, Ft Sam Houston, Texas, . Feb. 21, 1918. Dear Friend Louis: Your letter of January 4th has remained unanswered owing to the fact .that we are kept so busy that we hardly have a chance to make formal acknowledgement of communication and your letter demanded a longer answer. I was reminded again today of the debt of gratitude I owe you when I received a copy of The Evening Republican of January 19th in which you gave prominence to my promotion and paid me such high tribute. The latter, I fear, was much overdrawn, but it shall serve as one of the incentives to urge me to great endeavor in the conflict in which we are engaged. I thank you sincerely for what you said in the article and I only wish that I could see for myself some op? portunity in Rensselaer following the war. lam convinced, Louis, that the greater opportunities are in the larger places and my associations at this time are with men of no more ability, I think,than I possess but who have accumulated a competency in the cities. I presume that I shall want to engage in the newspaper business but Rensselaer merchants are so non-progres-sive that the outlook there is discouraging. I believe that I will try a city as large at 10,000 pr more, where the office can be systematized and where I can, if possible,, devote my time more to editorial management. This is, to be sure, a dream of the future, and it is mixed with other phantoms and it is hard to tell what the result will be. There is a chance that I may turn southern farmer. I think there are great possibilities here and it don’t seem to take much to get started. But this is another matter and since I must, curtail my letter, owing to having about four hours study to do, I will talk such matters at future day. I do want to say, however, and the matter is not a new ambition, that there is one job I should like to hold and that is United States public printer. Should there be republican national success and should my Rensselaer friends get back of me I might land the job if Chairman Will H. Hays is credited with the. organization that brings .success about. Hays is a wonderful man. Clean, honest, sincere, a wonderful worker, and I attribute to him the Goodrich and Hughes victories and the feeling of harmony in Indiana that followed the bitterness of the Roosevelt-Taft campaign. Louis, I will make an effort when I get over to France to have Fred transferred to, my regiment. I have no idea what I can accomplish. Pershing, I understand, declines to intervene in details and says the big job is enough to keep every one busy without doing non-essential things. Pershing is the army over there. Fred must look me up if he possibly can and then we will do what we can to accomplish the transfer. We do not know when we will go. Rumor says soon after April 1. Our school ends about then. The present German offensive may have something to do in, hastening matters. I shall not be surprised in this is directed against the American held sector as the papers indicate. The Germans may want to discourage the sending of more troops there. Ido hope that our boys are equal to the emergency. I have a growing confidence in them, We are studying trench warfare and I believe that I see weaknesses in the British and French methods that will not prevail with Ameijgan forces. The sacrifice will be terrible, but we must face it with brave hearts and realize that it is the only way of winning the war and thus preventing world , control by Germany. Our position is now a hazardous one and it must have all the energy behind the lines that is possible. Let me encourage you to preach production in every issue of the paper. Let every man, woman and child in Jasper county use every minute possible in planting everything that can be eaten or fed to food making animals. Let the back yards, the flower beds, the parking spaces, the fence corners, be used in production. I am glad to see Mr. Learning’s magnificient work and the response it is receiving. It must be realized that two million producers have been taken from the fields, the mines, the factories, the shops and railroads and that there is an increased and abnormal demand for

produce of all "kinds. Every seed planted means assistance in feeding the armies on which we must depend for our future independence. It is a worthy topic of appeal. Close the doors of all institutions that retard production. The saloons have no place in the world’s economy. The idler is an enemy second only to the traitor. The producer who is outside the draft age or within the age and physically unfit for service is a patriot if he works with the motive of increasing the world’s production because he knows the need of it. Now I have rambled way off from what I had started out to say and have written a much loflger letter than I should. I have to write one or two other letters. One to Jack Montgomery. I have a letter from Rev. McDaniels and simply can not take time to write to him. Please tell him that there is a great field in Y. M. C. A. work. That is what he wanted to know. He spoke of the spiritual end. I think the preachers are generally in that work. The other work, athletics, etc., is generally looked after by the younger men. I can not advise him what to do. The Y. M. C. A. is a great thing for the soldier. The Y. M. worker must be broad minded, energetic, cheerful and able to cheer soldiers over the rough places without expecting much spiritual response from them. The soldier is distinctly a physical being. He is developed muscularly for the purpose of fighting and he forgets God a great deal and he don’t want to use his spare time for spiritual training. It is important that he be given encouragement akin to spiritualism and there are some Y. M. C. A. men able to diagnose the soldier’s case and to give him what he most needs . If Brother McDaniels thinks he can qualify then I believe it is his duty to do so. Regsurd to Mrs. Hamilton, Marie, the office force and friends generally. Sincerely, HEALEY.

I forgot two things. I saw Stanilas Brushnahan on the streets of San Antonio last Saturday. Mrs. Healey was with me and we had a nice visit with him. He is in the ordnance department and is getting along nicely. Stan resigned as rural route carrier to enter the army. He looks well and says he is getting along fine. I have not seen Hanley yet but may see him tomorrow. I saw Joe Myers once.