Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-10-19
Soldiers Are Buying
u. S. Liberty Bonds

vesting their pay in Liberty Bonds,
they would empty their purses in pstri-
otto emulation This was the declara-
ton of John w. Cook, director of the
War Work Campaign Fund in the
military departmental the East, for the
Young Mems Christian association.
1.-THE boys are not only giving them
selves to pe%rpetuste democracy, but
they are giving the dollars which
Uncle Sam pays them for service
thus serving two ways"
The investment of army payrolls in
Liberty bonds is due, In large measure,
MI. Cook says, to the Y. M. G. A.
thrift campaign, started TO counterfeit
the crap-playing, spendthrift tendency
of the men. Turned loose without the
restraints of home, In unusual and un-
natural surroundings, homesick, many
of them, and with too much free time
at their disposal, anything which offers
excitement is eagerly taken up, and
crap shooting and re~prehensible occu-
pations furnish the thrill.
Nov 1t is not to be imagined he
continued, i'thst every soldier plays
craps or INDUCES in worse forbidden
pleasures. The Y. M. G. A. huts hear
witness that the great majority spend
their time In the better way, writing
home, reading, studying French or
army text books, attending social, edu-
cational or religious gatherings, and
otherwise keeping up the normal home
life when off the drill ground or patrol
squads. Most of such men buy money
orders at the Y. M. q. A. hut and send
it home to help support those left be-
hind.u
But a crap game is magnetic and
there is always q circle of spectators,
and twice seen too off," as the poet
puts it, tive first endure, then pity,
then embrace" So it is only natural
that the spectators soon feel the desire
to "roll the bonesp themselves and 10
speedy time become addicts to the
form of gambling once thought peculiar
to the negro.
The twenty-four hours following the
appearance of Uncle Sans paymaster
IN a camp usually have been highly
favored. Many a man first buys up
enough postage stamps and tobacco
for a month, and then for two days
celebrates the anticipated entrance OF
the American forces into Berlin. 1t is
not SO much his leisure time as his
leisure money.
las long as this o%verplus money re-
mains In a camp, 1t is a menace" said
DR.. Walter L. Hervey, member OF the
Board of Examiners under the Board
Of Education~1s esta. who during
The summer directed the Y. M. G. A.
work In a southern camp. ''This ur-
plus,n he said, sis like so much pus In
the system, which must be let out or
there y Ill be trouble. 1t is the work of
association to make it as easy as
ossible to relieve this pressure, to get
lat money quickly out of camp into
legitimate channels"
This was the situation which ap-
pealed to the military officials who
cooperated with the Y. M. G. A. in its
thrift campaign, which set before the
men in series of graphic posters what
saving means, what it's reward is.
More men f1ocked to the post office the
next pay day than ever before to pur-
chase q money order for the home folks,
or to send a little TO the home bank for
q nest egg against the time of home
coming when democracy shall be safe.
Long lines of tired men stretched from
the money order window aud often
closing time came before all could be
served. To this emergency again came
the Y. M. @. A, whose secretaries pro-
cured express order blanks and issued
them to make it easier for the men to
dispose of their pay. These offices
new closed SO long as a soldier desired
a money order.
"What 1t meant for the w to remove
the penalty they must pay II they tried
to send money in the ordinary way was
brought home to me, " said DR.. Hervey,
''by the first man who stepped up to
counter where / worked. He was Pri-
vate John Hogan, who desired to send
$25 of his $50 pay home to his widow
ed mother in Hoboken. Some of the
men split tifty-ffty with the folks at
home. Without a doubt, in many a
camp more than half of the payroll will
be SEM to banks or dependents if we
make it as convenient for men to do
this as to spend it. In our nj camp
alone during the five days we served
as financial messenger we handled
1875, 900 for them, and only one-fourth
of the men had reached camp.n