Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-07-17
DOING OUR BIT"

| TT is necessary 20 get down to brass
i tacks on this question OF providing for
soldiers families There has been q great
| deal of theorlzing and sentimentali2ing
and passing OF the buck" but when all
| has been said and done chat is. left un-
| done) the fact remains that n great num-
| Der Of the families dependent upon our
| guardsmen at the border are unprovided
for and helpless.
There are a number of splendid ideas
which II is now too late to advance except
for the enrichment Of conversation. 1t is
interesting and only too true to say that
| Congress should have had ready couple
| Of hundred thousand trained soldiers, who
would naturally have been young. unmar-
red men sufficiently detached from family
| life to bring no hardships to any one by
| enlisting. Equally apt would be the re-
mark that having left this duty undone
Congress should have provided for the
families of the men whom it eventually
had to rely upon to do the work Of the
might.have-been army. But these two
prodigious Ifs" do not pay for bread and
butter.
Other points. not in the realm of If,
can be made with even more futilitv and
with actual harm. 1t is being said that
after all there is to be no bloodshed in
Mexico; that the order of tho Secretary of
War directing the discharge Of soldiers
having dependents and the generous sup
port given by many employers who have
agreed to pay their soldler.employes while
in the field" have relieved anxiety to a
great extent. Now whether there is blood.
shed in Mexico or not does not affect the
situation one whit. The salary of pri-
vate remains SIS a month whether he is
doing patrol duty or rushing into battle,
and border patrol duty will perhaps last
longer than actual war would. If all who
technically could have been mustered out
because of having dependent families had
stayed at home there would have been no
National Guard left to speak of. The pub
lic-spirited citizen who goes into the
Guard is precisely the kind of n man who
would want to have a wife and children
dependent upon him and who has. If not
married, this kind of citizen has the man.
hood to support mother, sisters or less
closely related kin. 1t Is not far off the
mark 10 say llldL lIleIe Is illLllllS a AlAll
in the Philadelphia brigade who is indie
pendent" The type of men most desired
for guardsmen is the type most needed at
home.
1t is true that employers who do busl-
ness on large scale have been most gen.
erous; that the Pennsylvania Railroad has
appropriated 100000 for dependents upon
it's soldier-employes But all employers
could not afford to be so generous and all
guardsmen do not work for the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad. The fact remains and will
not be argued or theorized away that the
majority OF the guardsmen's families are
in trouble. Applications for assistance
have come from 317 families to the Citizen
Soldiers Aid Committee since tho troops
left for Mount Gretna, and virtually all
are deserving cases. The total received by |
the committee has been less than $4,000 |
subscribed by only AZ persons out OF a
population of 100000. It is estimated |
that $4,000 will be needed to keep these
families from being forced TO appeal to
charitable organizations.
In a wealthy city like this there must
surely be 10000 persons who can afford |
to give dollar apiece. Thousands of |
young men OF military age have no more |
dreamed of the possibility of going to the |
front in khaki than IL they had been |
women. They have blthely passed the |
matter by with such remark as they |
wouldn't take me because wear glasses" |
and there Is even a certain amount OF
sneerlng at the soldiers by men who pro-
fess to envy them the lark" they are
having at the border This Is intolerable.
II ever the armed forces of the nation
have had necessary work TO do it is now
that that necessity has arisen. and the
work is being done. The enormous amount
OF discussion devoted to preparedness and
the adherence 10 that doctrine by virtu-
ally the entire population win all have TO
be rated as hot air" and lip service II 1t
Is found that nine men out of ten are
slackers in such obvious duties as this.
The load should be lifted from the backs
of these women this week and the city
spared one disgrace that 1t could never
live down. One guardsman's wife is at
washtub today. She refused to take
money from the aid committee. All she
asks is that some one will give her 16-
son Job so that he can help
support his mother, sisters and younger
brothers. The boy does not want his
family to take charity.
A disgusting development Of the aid
plight and the publicity
growing out Of 1t would be that slackers
who are letting others do their military
work for them should let a handful of
rich men donate the fund that is needed.
This has been the tendency so far. Fit-
teen persons have given $3.50 and 27 per
sons have given Si61!