Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-10-27
Going too ar.

We desire, as much as anyone, to
see the work Of the War Camp Com
munity cleansing committees go on,
but we also wish to see the feelings Of
the wives, sweethearts and mothers OF
the soldiers respected in a reasonable
degree. Fathers also have the right
TO believe that sons who have lived
clean and wholesome lives to the SOL
der age have not suddenly thrown all
the advice and teachings Of all the
years 70 the winds and entered upon
an unbroken campaign of lust and
ribaldry to please the rum trust. the
grafters and the vice parasites.
Some boys will go wrong in the
giamor Of new environments and new
temptations, but camp conditions I'M
Ger Y. NJ. c. A. leadership, regim rental
unions sober officers and frequent
visits from distinguished men who
point the necessity for clean living,
are vastly different from conditions
surrounding any other army encamp-
mcnts in history.
II this campaign Of meritorious pur-
poe, as in every other. are those Of
t7natical tendencies who so beyond
TIE ne Of sanity and reason in their
presentation of the needs of the home.
Indeed an uninformed listener or read
er OF these outbursts of warming
might easily imagine that every can
comment was a seethine den of vice
and drunken carousal. with booze ped
dlers on every hand and lewd women
the only thought of those in uniform.
Such pictures are not only untrue,
unwholesome. and unnecessary for the
success of the movement, but we be-
lieve they are unwise and dangerous.
Wives and sweethearts Of the boys
who have responded to the call of the
nation should not swallow this ire
sponsible chatter put out by those who
are more anxious about the success of
raising big fund than they are about
the morals Of the army. Mothers may
ity, and safe return OF their boys, and
never neglect as they never have
neglected. to express the love and
yearning of the home for the absent
one who may be homesick and longing
for something to relieve his mind. 1t
will have the same effect that has
saved untold millions Of men from
perdition. all down through the ages
Wives SHOULD retain their faith in
absent husbands and remember that
honorable. manhood has not died be-
cause the world is at war. Sweet
hearts should not, in a moment of
Jealous suspicion based on extravagant
proclamauons Of campaign shouters,
throw over the boy at the front or on
the way. and take up with physically
deficient or Stacker
The camps are not as black and
dangerous as they are suddenly being
painted for the purpose of soaring"
up big fund. Army officials, in CO.
operation with community officers, are
making things hot for bootleggers
around the army camps. OF course
the law is violated as it always has
been and always will be. but war
camp conditions are as different from
the old. even no farther back than the
Spanish war, as a Sunday school pic
mic is different from a Tammany blow
out
Let us raise the fund for helping to
clean up war camp surroundings and
for providing better amusements in
nearby communities, but let us not
make bad matters worse by adding un-
necessary tortures to the burdens of
those who stay at home.
II any Of the boys themselves should
happen to read this we have but one
suggestion to them: When you come
homo don't be ashamed to meet your
sweetheart. your wife or your mother.