Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 194, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 August 1918 — Y.M.C.A. WORK at FRONT NO “SNAP” [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Y.M.C.A. WORK at FRONT NO “SNAP”

Men of the Red Trianole Must Be Reach to Do Everothino But Go Over the Top

£ N American soldier, harden ly more than a boy, was / > reading a letter which / % had just been delivered [ to him at a concentratlon camp In France. Six weeks before he had written to his father and to sweetheart * The censor had mixed the letter from his best girl ( ) and as he sadly tucked It «» —cr - o away in his pocket he was heard to murmur: “I wonder what the old man will say.” i. >- That Is what the Y. M. C. A. wonders, as today the association addresses to “the old man” an appeal for him to pick up stakes and follow his boy overseas to wear the uniform of the Bed Triangle. Before September 1 the Y. M. C. A. must recruit 4,000 men and women, to share the burdens on the western front with the more than 2,500 workers who are already there. To those who do not know that the British Y. M. C. A. has 40,000 workers In the British armies, and that the American Y. M. C. A. has been charged with the responsibility of providing recreation for the fighting men of the United States and keeping up their morale, It Is perhaps Inconceivable, says a writer in the New York Tribune, that the men of this country above draft age should be asked to give up their business to go overseas with their sons and their younger brothers who are not too old to fight. Part of the War Machine. The facts are clear, The outstanding fact is that the Y. M. C. A., while retaining Its Individuality as a civilian organization, Is an Integral part of the military machine. And the association Is a part of the military machine not only of the American expeditionary forces but of the French and Italian armies as well.

The Y. M. C. A. was In the great War long before General Pershing landed on French soil. General Pershing went to the western front with several clear-cut notions of how best the American troops could do their part In the winning of the war. First, he deter; mined that his army should be a clean army; he believed that the best use that could be made of a man in uniform was to put him in the fighting forces; he sought to transfer as many of the noncombatant functions of his army as possible to some responsible agency. The Y. M. C. A. got the job because the Y. fl. C. A. had the organisation. Since then other volunteer organizations have gone to France to help. All are welcome. Salvation Army, Knights of Columbus and so on. The “Y” bears the brunt because of Its size. Hut Keeper Does Little of Everything. This man with the Bed Triangle on bls sleeve Is over draft age. The **Y” would not have him there If he Were not He has ho rank, but even the officers salute him, because, they say, he is there through the Impetus of service. The shells may fall, all around him, but It is extremely unlikely that the Croix de Guerre will ever be pinned upon his breast. He Is unarmed because capture by the Germans under such circumstances means death Immediately. What is his job? , Well, his hut Is the club of the trench or billet. The “Y” Is the general store. It Is where the men meet when they are not on military duty. The man In charge sells or gives away some of the

920,000 pounds of chocolate that the American troops are eating every month In France. Or through his hands go some of the cigarettes and tobacco that are shipped to the western front In hundred-ton lots. When he is not too close .to the front he runs motion picture shows and lectures in the evenings. If his billet Is a small one and thqre is no sports leader assigned there, he leads the men In athletic games In which all may take part. An‘d under the same circumstances it may be his job to arrange religious services for Jew and Gentile, for Catholic and Protestant. He sends money back home fdr the boys without charge to them. In the “Y" dugout they write their letters, and the hut leader starts them' on their way. He listens to tales of woe, answers questions by the hour, admires the picture of the baby that was born since father answered the call to the colors, and works about three hours a day longer than the working hours of the man in uniform. If he be assigned to the tretaches near the front line, It Is the "Y” man’s job to make hot coffee and hot chocolate, late at night, fill his pockets with chocolate, gum and smokes and go through the communication trench to the front line so that the boys on watch may have their comforts from home. And If there be a listening post near by In No Man’s Land, he .goes there, too. The “Y” goes everywhere with the men except over the top and Is not far behind then.

The Kind of Men Not Needed. What kind of man Is the Y. M. C. A seeking, then, In this drive to keep pace with the rapid expansion of the military establishment of the nation? Surely not the kind of which a sample appeared at the offices of the National War Work Council, 347 Madison avenue, the other day/. “The Lord has closed all doors to me,” he began, “all except one, and that one opens to. France. The Lord has made it clear to me that It is my duty to go over there and preach to those boys." It happened that the listener was James A. Whitmore, who has been a Y. M. C. A secretary for years and who recently returned' from the western front with broad views Inspired by watching pastors of big city pulpits sell plug tobacco to soldiers on Sunday afternoon and the like. Mr. Whitmore was explicit in his reply. “Your kind Is the last that’s needed overseas,” said Mr. Whitmore. “When you go to France for the Y. M. C. A you go on a blind assignment, to do whatever Is most Important at- the time and always to do what the boys to uniform want" Mr. Whitmore went into details regarding the Y. M. C. A program of service, and as he proceeded the visitor palpably weakened.. He thought that he would be willing to go to France with a revised point of view. In fact, he said that he would be wining to do anything that he thought the Lord wanted him to do. “Well,” replied Mr. Whitmore, “tn that case you’d still be a bit restricted. The Lord gives his message to only one Y. M. C. A man In France—he’s Ned Carter, our chief secretary—and you’d have to take Ned Carter’s word for it that you were getting the Lord’s message straight.” Type of Man That la Needed. And as the messenger whose message never will be delivered went on his way Mr. Whitmore shot after him his notion of the kfnd of man who is needed to' France today by the Red Triangle. He said: “First of all, the man who is sent to France by M. C. A must un-

derstand that he Is going to war. He must be ready to do the thing that comes to him to do. France is no place these days for the man who thinks he has a mission. There is just one Idea behind the whole work —and that is service, what our boys want and not what some missionary thinks they ought to have. The man who goes overseas must be a man of conscience, Integrity and high Ideals and ability. And he must realize that he Is tackling the biggest job that It was ever given “man to do. - “Second a man must go In there with the Idea firmly fixed in his mind that unless we win this war it were better that America should be annihilated than that she should retreat one step In the determination to prevent the barbarous Hun from Imposing his unmerciful sway over the world and sweep democracy from the earth. “Third, he must be a man who believes In the war work of the Y. M. C. A. and can grasp the meaning of its wonderfully human and spiritual program, and who, seeing all this, can be enthusiastic about his job and consider It a great privilege to perform It “And last, he must be a thoroughbred —a dead game sport in the best sense of the term—who can go through the whole war game and not flinch, in spite of the slaughter, the blood, the mud, the discouragements, desolation and horror of It all. He must go through it all by the sheer good nature that sees above It his high Ideals triumphant and democracy vindicated and scattering its blessings upon mankind.” Scope of Work Boundless. The scope of the Y. M. C. A. enterprise is practically boundless. The association has gone far afield from its traditional activities. Never In their wildest dreams of service have the leaders of the Y. M. C. A. conceived the possibility of their becoming manufacturers of chocolate and purveyors of tons and topis of cigars, cigarettes and smoking and chewing tobacco. Yet today the “Y” sign hangs over the doors of more than 600 post exchanges in France. Because of the difficulties of transportation only three to four thousand tons of supplies can be shipped from America each month. Hence the Y. M. C. A. has become a manufacturer by necessity. Raw materials are shipped from the United States and the completed products—chocolate, crackers, etc. —are made In France. The “Y" needs, therefore, not only business men who can sell goods, but men who are experienced on the manufacturing end. The scope of the work makes it possible for salesmen, warehousemen, accountants . and clerks of all kinds to go overseas and do their bit in this war. • Sports. If there 18 one thing that the healthy American young man, in khaki needs most In France It is good, healthy sport. Some of the most famous athletic directors and athletes of other years are in France today leading men-in mass athletic games. Herbert L. Pratt, vice president of the Standard Oil company, who recently returned from France to head the local overseas recruiting committee. Is authority for the statement that “there is no job In France too small for the biggest man in any American community." “No president of a railroad or a bank, or a college,” .he adds, “no lawyer or minister Is too big for the job of taking care of our boys overseas.” Mr. Pratt and others who have seen the work that Is being done In France sum it all up by saying that It means to our boys over there, first of all— America and home.