Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 106, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 May 1919 — IRISH CATHOLIC LAUDS WAR "Y" [ARTICLE]

IRISH CATHOLIC LAUDS WAR "Y"

MARINE SAYS HE’S ONE WHO _ FOUND BALM IN WORK r .WT THE FRONT. The following communications from a writer who describes himself as an Irish Catholic appeared in the Stars and Stripes, the official A. E. F. newspaper, published in Paris: “To the Editor of the Stars and Stripes: “I am not the guy who really won the war, nor did I see all the fronts, but there are a lot of other birds in this outfit who did’nt get as far toward Berlin as yours truly. Having introduced myself to my enthusiastic readers, stand back and allow me to begin. “My subject tonight will be a few words about the Y. M. C. A. Some of the lads don’t seem to like it, and have started to make the crowd back home thing it’s a false alarm. Now, Ed, you know that it’s an easy thing to scatter the vitriol here and there, and there is a certain class of young volunteers who would rather do it than eat. I’m ’ one of those people, who like to crab a little myself. It’s a habit I learned around the scuttle (ask the gob what I mean), but these vitriol boys are on the wrong track this time. They are citing isolated cases that have happened during this year and a half, and making a mountain out of a mole-hil. This puts the entire Y.M.C.A. on the witness stand in self-defense, and that is a thing that should not be. Let’s drop off a few points, jibe, and look around. What do we see, mate? “We see hundreds of men who could have kept the home fires burning in the U.S.A, and earned a good wage along with the slackers and the genuine nondrafted men at any number of good paying positions. What did they do? They came to France and kept on the job morning, noon and night every day of the week. They kidded the brawny fighters in the SOS with movies, candies, cigarettes and decent words. After you have done that about 6,000 hours, more or less, you begin to get sick of it. Back in the SOS the transportation was available and the supplies came into the canteens. But up at the front when you were lucky to get clothes and chow, it was a pretty tough proposition and whatever did come up to the Y.M.O.A. was nabbed by the guys on the special details and various trains back with division. Some of it did get up to the front, but not enough to create a panic. But that wasn’t the fault of the Y.M.C.A., it was the inevitable result of a constant .forward movement in open warfare. I suppose some of our heroes wanted to get hot chocolate dropped on advanced outposts by airplanes. It’s too bad about those kids. (“Since I’ve been up with machine guns I’ve never seen anything of this chocolate ration that the Q.M. corps serves out troops, and I don’t expect to do so either. Nor do I feel any anguish because the Y.M.C.A. didn’t feed me in a fox-hole, especially when I know who had the monopoly on available transportation. “There was a lad named Wilbur who was the secretary assigned to our battalion. He had been turned down for the army because he had one eye. So he sought the lucrative and luxurious life of the Y.M.C.A., thus hoping to be es some service to his country. Whe,n he found that it was impossible to drag chocolate bars and cigars over the tep with machine guns, he gave first aid to the the time of his young life, and no wounded under shell fire. He had one had anything on Wilbur when it came to courage. The boche winged him up at Blanc Mont in Champagne, and he got a blightly. There were lots of Wilburs in the Y.M.C.A. if you start investigating. I hate to see a lot of crabs ignoring them, too. “When we started on our marathon via France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, we were lucky to have our emergency rations keep up with us. Then we settled in various castles on the Rhine, and the crabs began to scream for the Y.M. C.A. ‘Where was it? Ask the army about that—ask why the trainloads of stores were sidetracked so that more important things could come up. But now our soldier boys are getting enough candy to make each and every one sick and enough cigarettes to totallywlestroy thte lungs. “I have purposely failed to touch upon the work ] of. the women in the Y.M.C.A., because I couldn’t ade-

quately express the appreciation that we must all feel for their sacrifices and their infinite patience with us. They come from the best American womanhood, they are the finest type possible to obtain, and their refining influence among us has been evident in every camp that they have graced by their presence. They have been an inspiration to many of us, conscious or unconscious of that inspiration though we may be. “Just consider what they have given up at home to conie over with us and to slave for us, yes, slave for us. Do you think it easy to put up with our general indifference and constant demands and continual kicks and to smile and be pleasant and truly sympathetic? Well, it isn’t easy, and if wg try for a moment to put ourselves in their place and cater to the A.E.F., we shall get the point. “Ain’t it awful, Mabel, did you hear that the army is going to try three secretaries who stole money? We don’t call that salvaging, do we? No. we don’t. Three out of how many—l have not the figures at present—but I’ll bet my steel Stetson that the percentage is negligible. On the other hand, how many of our crusaders hove gotten the yellow ticket for the same thing, commissioned and otherwise? Oh, but now you are attacking our set, and that isn’t fair. “Well, here’s one old time-timer who got a square deal from the Y. M.C.A., and it’s an Irish Catholic who says so. Take a straw vote and see what the conservatives think about, it.” ’ ' “SILENT SUFFERER, U.S.M.C.