Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 254, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1918 — What Y. M. C. A. Is Doing in Field to “Keep the Soldier Human” [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

What Y. M. C. A. Is Doing in Field to “Keep the Soldier Human”

By LORD NORTHCLIFFE.

, Editor of London Time

Save you £ver tried to picture for yourself the life of the soldier, in the field? Let me draw you an outline. What I describe I have seen during my many visits to the allied fronts. While he is “in the line,” as he calls it, which means holding the front positions, he is fixed to one particular spot. He has duties which occupy a large part of his time. His recreation is limited to smoking, chatting and reading. How the men in the line hunger for “something to read,” how they go through the magazines, daily and weekly papers, even through

scraps of old paper, how they enjoy anything fresh which will “take them out of themselves” for a little while, I couldylescnbe from personal experience and illustrate by many a pathetic anecdote, but there is no need. You can imagine it. And then you can go on to imagine also the gratitude which the soldier feels.to the Y. M. C, A s for the loan of books which he can put in his pack and take with him mto the line to help while away the weary hours of which there are so many in war. I have Aeen men come into a Y. M. C. A. library and tell the librarian that his books have saved them from going melancholy mad. Next the soldier is for a time “in support,” that is to say m trenches and dugouts A short distance, behind the front line. Here he may begin to be indebted to the Y. M. C. A. for other advantages. I have known Y. M. C. A. canteens to be established actually under the enemy’s fire for the benefit of the men in support. Here they can buy cigarettes, chewing gum, biscuits. They can drink a cup of tea or coffee. They can feel, that there is a link between them and the world behind the lines. How much that means only those who have been in the trenches can appreciate. , Then comes a spell of being “in reserve.” This is passed in some ruined town or village or in a camp of tin huts. The soldier now has plenty of leisure —what can he do with it? You know that one of the pleasures of life is shopping. This is supposed by many people to be a woman’s pleasure, but my experience is that men enjoy shopping too. In ruined villages, in Yin-hut camps, there would be no shops just as there would be no cases, no libraries, no writing rooihs, if it were not for the Y. M. C. Ask any soldier how the army would get on without the Y. M. C. A. He will tell you that it would* get on very badly indeed. Go into any Y. M. C. A. canteen at any hour of the day and you will undejy stand why. ’ : ■ They are at the same time clubs and stores. They offer refreshment both for the body and the mind. They are well stocked with useful things, such as soap, toothbrushes and other simple toilet necessaries. They offer also a wide choice of more attractive purchases from canned fruits to picture postcards. And when the soldier has bought what he needs or fancies, or merely looked around and kept money in his pocket, he can sit down, order something to drink, meet his friends, read the papers, write letters. A soldier said to me once, “It’s the Y. M. C. A. that keeps us human. ’ It does what no other organization is doing or could do. Amid the dreariness of the. war zone, in the monotonous life of the troops in the field, the Bed Triangle shines with steady, comforting glow. There could in my opinion be no better way of spending a hundred million dollars than giving the Y. M. C. A. the fullest opportunity to make the soldier more comfortable and more contented with his lot