The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-11-01

crowds yelled: ''viye Joffre. Qon,
1--we Joffre), who saved us from de
Feat. Long live Pershing who bring
US victory"
Government cannot control sur
roundings of our soldiers as It car
IN this country. Soldiers are scat
tered through the villages Of France
500 to 1000 to village. located IL
garrets. cellars. barns. etc-eat IL
the streets-no tents or barracks fol
fear Of being located by German
aeroplanes. No stores, theatres. OF
any sort Of legitimate amusements.
Greater the pay, greater the temp
tation. In the British army alone al
one time. three hundred Thousand
men were In the venereal hospitals
our government authorities are de
termfned that this shall not be the
experience Of our American boys
Therefore. they are urging that the
Y. M. G. A. make good on it's promise
HON sickness is the greatest factor
in the encouragement of immortality
Our boys" must not be allowed to
become homesick.
A great club house awaited the
boys at the port of debarkation In
France with the welcome sign of the
red triangle. Huts, buildings, shacks,
tents, ETC., will be constructed wher-
ever our soldier boys go even up to
the front line trenches. Also great
has been rented, to which our boys
will be sent for their longer fur
loughs.
! We must spend nearly twelve mil.
lion dollars in France by July in.
stead of the three hundred thousand
dollars, which we expected last
spring would be needed.
From Russia comes the urgent in
vttation to Immediately put the "Y''
all along the Russian front for the
encoura gem ent of seven million way
ering soldiers.
From France-Observati Of splen-
did results of "Y'' work in the Brit
ish army and re-emphasized now by
work with U. S. soldiers, has created
a demand by the French general staff
that the U. S. put quickly the asso-
citation into their armies. The bud
get contemplates $2,649,000.00 for
this work.
General Pershing has said: "The
greatest service America can imme-
diately render to France is to extend
the association work to the entire
French army"
From Italy-Most unheard of call
of all. Their leaders want our help
and want 1t now.
There are over 100000 men in
the prison camps. An American Sec
rotary Is directing the life-saving
work for our allied prisoners in Ger
many. If our own soldiers are taken
prisoners. the "Y' will be the agency
through which mail and food will be
able to be transmitted.
The Thirty-hve Million Dollar Budget.
This budget was arrived at by very
carefully itemized calculations, based
on our experiences in this country
and abroad. This committee felt that
there was not single item in the
fund which was not of vital import
ance.
Two hundred and fifty thousand
solicitors are going to see every
American who could and ought to
subscribe; s12,50O. 100000 is the part
allotted to the middle west; $780,
100000 is the share asked of Iowa
And the Iowa leaders feel that there
Is no reason in the world why rich
Iowa should not produce at least
$1,000,00o.00. The amount for our
county is $4,000.
Conclusion.
This is more than 'Y" PROPOSE
ton. 1t is a great patriotic fund, to
be used for every soldier-Catholic,
protestant. Jew, everybody. It has
been sanctioned by the great leaders
Of the nation. Ex-President Taft
col 1ie se
the Liberty loan"
Such a tremendous fund as this
cannot be raised without sacrifice.
large sums. If we cannot fight, we
pared with the sacrifice of our sol
der boys.
Many prominent men are saying
that we have no right in these war
times to use for ourselves anything
but our living expenses. This is no
time to lay up money. This is our
great period in the war to sacrifice
to tremendous advantage
The first subscription to come into
the Iowa headquarters on this big
fund was by Alex Brondum, farm
hand, who left his employer a Mr..
Peterson near Grimes, Iowa; enlisted
and was sent to Fort Logan, Utah.
He wrote back to Peterson: ''The
'Y' has been life-saver to me-take
to Camp Dodge that $500 you owe me
and give 1t to the army W" Peter
son did this; the camp secretaries
brought it to Des Moines headquar-
tiers as the first actual money to ar
rive. If $500 was that boys share,
who was willing to give his life also. |