Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1911-07-07
The Young Mems Christian Asso.
citation And The Country Boy.

The Young Mems Christian Association
is addressing itself to the helping of young
men and boys in communities too small
for the city type of organization in a very
aggressive and systematical way. The
Interstate Committee of Maryland Della
ware and the District of Columbia is pro-
noting this kind of activity, which Is
known as the County Young Mems Chris
tan Association. The communities of a
county, exclusive of the cities of sufficient
size and financial strength to maintain a
city association with expensive building.
equipment and employed officers, consti-
tutes the unit of the county association,
employing high grade experienced county
secretary to direct supervise and promote
association work along lines commensurate
with community's available equipment
and leadership among its young men, The
modern good roads, telephones and methods
of travel make it possible for the county
secretary to efficiently handle the work of
the entire country, as has been demon
strated in the fifty or more counties now
organized with a total membership of up
wards of twenty thousand men and boys,
all of which has developed within the last
ten years. The methods are intensely prac-
teal instead of trying to force the country
conducts a program of mental, physical
social and spiritual activities which are
appropriate to country conditions
But the county association does other
activities than those within the confines
of the county; it follows the individual
leaving his home in the country to the city
and elsewhere, whether for school, business
or whatsoever, through its corresponding
membership system which secures in each
country community, as far as practicable,
| a Christian business or professional man
as corresponding member of the Inter-
state Committee who advises that Office of
the departure of the young men of their
respective communities the places where
they are going, and what would probably
interest the young man or boy. The Office
of the Interstate Committee, in turn, places
this information with the association in
the city to which he goes; and If there is
no association, in the hands of some Chris
tan man who will find pleasure in being
whatever help possible to the young man.
1t requires no active imagination to realize
in part, at least, what it means to such a
man to have some cheerful fellow call on
him, eager and willing to make friendships,
and lend helping hand, assisting him in
locating in respectable boarding house
4
with other "full-of-life" fellows of the right
kind, and bringing him to a well-lighted
association building, with cheerful reading
and social rooms, gymnasium, study-clubs
and dozen other things, and introducing
him to the employed secretary who will
help him in his needs, -perchance it may
be the securing of the job for which he has
lOnged. This is the kind of work which
instead of helping boys to break home
ties" helps them to preserve them.
| The Interstate Committee is composed
of the following well-known business and
professional men: Clarence l.. Harding,
Francis A. White, Charles W. Bush, Henry
B. F. mcfarland. William H. Morris, H. s.
Dulaney, Joshua lowering, j. Harry Tyler
Tasker G. Lowndes, Wllet M. Hays, j. II.
Apple, C. f. Cline, Richard S. Dodson. VIM.
Knowles Cooper. Stanton J, Peele and John
B. Sleman, Jr.
The personnel of the committee is a
guarantee that only high grade and eff
cient work will be done in carrying out
their program, which will eventually cover
practically all the counties of Maryland
and Delaware. as rapidly as consistent
with effective organization and the money
available will permit. Not only the men
composing the committee are giving time
and money to project the work. but hun
dreds of interested men and women all
over the interstate territory are contribut-
ing. The committee employ an interstate
secretary F. S. Morrison, who is related to
all the association activities of the terri
tory, and F. F. Shapleigh. who devotes his
entire time to county associations. Talbot
county is now nearly ready for secretary
and it will not be long before the commit
tee will undertake the development of the
second county. Much attention is being
given these days to the conservation of
our national resources; it is wise and
timely to give serious consideration to the
conservation of our nations greatest re-
source young men.
F. S. MORRISON,
Interstate Secretary.
Washington, d. C. July 3, 1911.