Connecticut western news., 1910-11-03
NOT JUST TO THEM

V0FSlGy 1S QuOGeu III JIFS udlIy newspapers as saying in an address before the Women's 8 clubs at Danielson that, "the Y. M, o. A. societies were not accom- plishing what they should. Their money was spent for nice buildings ill the best parts of cities where they are handy for bank clerks but that poor boys who live on the outskirts of the cities could not afford to get to the buildings"
 Such an attack seems most unjust, for if there is any organization to-day that is reaching out after the young men and drawing them within it's folds and doing practical work among them 1t is the Y. M. 0. A. And if there is any organ ization that is worthy of, and should be blessed with a good equipment for the carrying on of it's work, it is that organ ization.
 Old methods are obsolete, and for years the Y :. M. 0. A. s of the country have for the most part put up with old buildings, where they have been handi- capped in carrying on their work. and as consequence have not been able to give it the scope and breadth that they may have desired to give it, but with the advance of the modern era, these things are being gradually changed and splen- did buildings are being erected for these organizations, and it is good thing that this is being done. ..
 The Y. M. o. A. is today the poor boys college in many respects. It is there many young man gets his moral and physical training, as much to him as the work done at Yale or Harvard. It is in it's educational classes that he lays the foundations of an education, denied him in earlier days, along cer- tain lines of work that make his after life successful.
 To do the great work required of it there is necessity that the Y. M. O. A. should have the best buildings attaina- ble for the carrying on of it's work. These results of good equipment are not reached in an instant. It means hard, earnest, consecrated work in raising funds needful for such buildings. Wit ness for instance the grand building that. the association at Pittsfield, Mass, has put up. It did it by hard work. Its members had the burden of responsibility upon their hearts and they went into it with determination to win, and win they did, and the result stands as 8 mon- ument to the generous hearted men of Pittsfield, and to the hard and earnest toll of that splendid and conscientious worker, Secretary Huntress and his able crop of associates and assistants.
 Does one for moment suppose that this grand organization could accom- plish in the coming years the work it hopes to do in the old building it for merly occupied? If so, that one does not understand christian work or realize the advantages of modern equipment Note the growth of that individual association during the past few months, which so recently eliminated in the increase of it's membership above the 1000 mark. It proves that to do such work needs the plant as well as the energy and the sticktoitiveness to bring success.
 What is true of Pittsfeld is equally true of Hartford and New Haven and Bridgeport and Holyoke and hundreds of other associations that are doing such a mighty work for good in our towns and cities; a work for which they are specially adapted, and for which they need just such equipment as Prof. Bailey is quoted as condemning.
 They need this equipment just as much as Yale university needs the splendid palatial buildings which adorn it's campus. Would Prof. Bailey maintain that Yale could do as good work with its ancient equipment as it does to-day with it's modern improve ments and surroundings? doubt it.
 The claim that the buildings of the Y M. 0. A. are "handy for bank clerks but that poor boys who live on the city out skirts could not afford to get to the build ings" is absurb on it's face and not born out bv existing facts. If Prof. Bailey would spend some of his time in visiting the various Y. M. 0. A. s of the country and studying the methods of work there and see the class of boys and young men who are numbered among it's member ship, he would understand his subject better and not do so rank an injustice to an association that stands as does the Y. M. o. A. for the social. physical, religious and moral uplift of its mem bers and the community.
 cannot believe Prof. Bailey to have been rightly quoted in the published re- port of his address at Danielson. If he was rightly reported he displays most ] lamentable ignorance of the work being done throughout the country by the Young Mems Christian Associations. w. II. SPEAR.