Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 238, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1918 — HUMAN SIDE OF OUR GREAT ARMY [ARTICLE]

HUMAN SIDE OF OUR GREAT ARMY

Chaplain Is the Man Who Gets Nearest to the Boys. OVER THE TOP WITH TROOPS Besides Ministering to the Spirituaf Needs of Soldiers, the Chap* lain’s Place Is Wherever His Men Are. (From the Committee on Public Information, Washington, D. C.) By A UNITED STATES ARMY CHAPLAIN. I consider my job the most Interesting In the army.. No officer has more rich and varied opportunities for service than a chaplain. No officer’s calendar presents greater contrasts. It Is a chaplain’s duty to oversee the dispositions of Jils mobile flock, as well as their souls, minds, amusements, morals, correspondence, and reading matter. He must go from the boxing ring to the hospital, and from the theateb to the guard house. He is in jail oftener than any other man in the service. But, if his work is well done, he is there none too often to suit the men.

Last* January General Pershing sent a cablegram to the secretary of war asking that the number of chaplains in the arjjpy be increased for the war to an average of three per regiment. His cablegram reads, in part, as follows: . . . I believe the personnel of the army has never been equaled, and the conduct has been excellent, but to overcome entirely the conditions found here requires fortitude born of great courage and lofty spiritual ideas. Coun.-ng myself responsible for the wetfare of our men In every respect, it Is my desire to surround them with"- the best Influence possible. In the fulfillment of this solemn trust, It seems wise to request the aid of the churches from home. ..." The chaplain is a commissioned officer, starting with the rank of first lieutenant. He Is always an ordained clergyman who has had practical experience as a pastor before entering the army. The different religious bodies are represented in the chaplaincies in numbers proportionate to the number of adherents of the different denominations in the country at large. Each is privileged to conduct religious services in the manner prescribed by his own church. But, when that has been said, I have expressed all the denominationalism that there is in the army. In this as in many other respects the army has set an example to civil life, for it has learned the needlessness and waste of many sectarian lines in the face of human need. Chaplain an Information Bureau. Some people have the idea that all a chaplain has to do is conduct religious services. At other times they think of him as enjoying a life of complete relaxation. The utter mlstaken- , ness of this notion becomes evident after the briefest survey of the tasks assigne<| to a chaplain. For one thing, he is the information bureau for his regiment. If a soldier wants 'to know a street address, a telephone number; or a train schedule, he goes to the chaplain’s office. If he wants 4 right information on' current topics he calls on the chaplain and asks him If Jie has any late magazines or newspapers dealing with the question. On some of the battleships the naval chaplains put out periodicals for the men. Some of these magazines are really excellent productions. Then, there is the whole problem of education. If there are men in the regiment lacking in necessary education the chaplain is expected to organize classes in the common branches, so that they’may improve themselves along those lines, make themselves more useful to their country, and brighten their own futures. The chaplain frequently gives lectures to recruits on discipline and the relation of moral cleanliness to health and efficiency. He keeps a record of air the men as they come Into the service, including their name, home address, next of kin, education, and other items. The chaplain’s day indudes plenty of humorous incidents. A fellow chaplain, now on duty at one of the base hospitals, tells an amusing story of talking to an Italian who had been recently injured. The man listened attentively, his great brown eyes fixed on the chaplain’s face. The padre did not know that the injured man was an ‘ltalian and spoke little English, though a soldier In the United States army. After suggesting a little prayer the chaplain added carelessly: “It makes no great difference between us, but . . . what is youP creedl" Religion In His Foot. ■The injured man still looked earnestly upward, and the chaplain repeated hfi question. The soldier eaught only the questioning intonation and flashed a brilliant smile. “Oh, eet ees in my foot!” he said, in an explanatory'tone, and immediately pulled back die covers of the bed, displaying a much bandaged limb. The chaplain must be a good mixer. This is especially necessary because he is much concerned with the recreational life of the men. He must be capable of participating actively In manly sports and of organizing such games as will appeal to the tastes of all the

men. The social life of the regiment is one Of- his responsibilities. 7 The movies, the boxing matches, the volleyball games, and the wrestling bouts are all within his province. He writes letters, too, for men who are sick or wounded. In case of difficulty or death it is the chaplain who must impart the message to the loved ones who gave the man into service. Because he has access to every one, the chaplain becomes involved in many delicate problems of conduct. I once received a rather pathetic note from the mother of one of the men, asking whether her boy was still at the post. I happened to know that he was in the guardhouse. I went to see the boy and asked him why he had not written home. The whole story came out immediately. During his Christmas furlough the soldier had married a girl, whom his mother did not approve of, and, in a fit of temper, his mother had said she wished never to see or hear from him Before the conversation was over the chaplain had persuaded the boy to write. Thus the difficulty was smoothed over, and a difficulty smoothed over is a chaplain’s duty done. Go Over the Top.

So far I have said nothing about the work of the chaplains in the field, which, for the present war, means chiefly "over there.” My own experience has not yet extended thither, but I can answer briefly some of the questions that people ask. The query is often put to me: “Do chaplains go into the front-line trenches?” x The answer is, yes, of course. Frequently they go over the top with the men. A chaplain’s place is wherever his men are, and when they are in danger he is, too. A chaplain who is not willing, if .necessary, to lose his life in the performance of his duties is false to his trust and does not deserve his commission. As a matter of fact, many have been killed. The mortality among chaplains on the western front has been as high as one a day, which is a high percentage when the small total number of chaplains Is considered. The chaplain has this additional test of nerve —that he is obliged to go unarmed. By the terms of the Geneva convention, chaplains are not permit-, ted to carry arms. Of course, in return for this, the person of the chaplain is supposed to be sacrosanct. But everyone knows that to the Hun the safeguards of the Geneva convention are as obsolete as the Sermon on the Mount is to them. A Brother to the Wounded. The hospital is one of the principal fields for the chaplain’s endeavors. As one chaplain puts it: “In the hospital, they can’t get away from me.” But there is a more powerful element in the chaplain’s success among the sick boys. As soon as they feel helpless, they reach out involuntarily for a friendly hand, and it is rare for a man in a hospital not to be glad to see the chaplain. The most impressive story I have heard was given to me by a friend of mine who is a chaplain. He had become greatly interested in one of the men , who was seriously ill and not expected to live. Every time the chaplain came to see him, the fellow would ask him to “say just one little prayer, won’t you?” Toward the end they thought that he would be delirious. But he was not. The chaplain came, and the soldier whispered his customary request for a prayer. The, chaplain prayed. When he had finished he asked: “Did you understand me then, Gray?” “Yes,” the dying man whispered. “I understood. I can understand anything about God. It’s wonderful.” Those were his last words. The army has learned- that men may worship God in different ways, but they all need the same kind of brotherlng. So the army chaplain looks after all his boys alike, whether they have a faith or whether they have none. He knows, better than any other officer, that Uncle Sam’s boys are not mechanisms, but men. Because he comes so close in touch with the human side of the army he is in a position to stimulate that morale without which fighting men are powerless to win battles.