The daily Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1916-1917, 1917-08-28
WILL HEARTEN MEN
ON FIGHTING FRONTS
Red Cross to Establish Can
teens and Rest Stations in
France at Once.
WOMEN WILL HELP
Hot and Cold Drinks Will
Be Served Even in the
First-Line Trenches.

FlrSt-Llne renCheS.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 2S.-Canteens
and rest stations for the French and
American troops will be established at
once in France by the American Red
Cross.
The War Council has been trying
to find out just what the Red Cross
could do most effectively to hearten
the French army and to give French
soldiers a token of the fact that Amer
lea is with her ally with all her power.
The French army officers have told
the Red Cross that canteens and rest
stations would do more for the imme-
diate welfare and contentment of the
soldiers than anything else that could
be done. Therefore, the problem is
going to be met thoroughly and at
once
The poilus come out of the trench
es, to go home on leave, mud-stained
vermin-covered, reeking with infec-
ton. They are marched to the near
est railhead in that condition, where.
| perhaps, they find little station with
scanty accommodations for a dozen
passengers.
To Provide Shower Baths.
The Red Cross is going to put show
er baths there, and laundries and
mending and disinfecting rooms,
which will remove the menace of dirt
and disease which these men carry
to their homes Then there will be
rest rooms where they can read and
write and play games, to make the
transition to civilian life easier, and
small stores where they can buy timed
delicacies, tobacco, and odds and ends.
Similar canteens will be opened at
the railroad functions where the men
must wait en-rOute At some of them
now these men, still trench-stained,
have to lie on station platforms all
night. There will be dormitories at
such places, and lunch rooms at all
of them where hot meals can be bought
at price just above cost
Nearly fifty thousand soldiers are
passing through eleven of these sta
tions every day. They will have
convincing proof of American friend
illness when they find American wom-
en-the Women's Bureau is now re-
cruiting 80 of them for such service
ready to help them.
Just behind the firing line the Red
Cross will put field canteens. Extend
ing the work already begun by the
French Red Cross, we shall see that
every corps of the French army, and
ultimately our own, has one of these
stations, which will supply hot and
cold drinks to the men who are fight
ing. Many of them now have nothing
to relieve their thirst except their
days ration which they carry in con-
tainers which may be smashed at
any minute
Hot and Cold Drinks.
The canteen is placed in or near the
second line, and refreshing drinks
are carried right into the front trench
es. Each station can keep about 125
gallons of hot drinks at the boiling
point, and has several thermos con-
tainers holding six to twelve gallons
apiece. Four thousand portions-cof- |
fee, tea. cocoa. bouillon, lemonade,
mint-are sometimes served from one
canteen in single day.
Here, too, Amarican workers will
be found. The "cOnvoyer" in charge
of the canteen will be a Red Cross
man. with French soldiers to help him
Many of the poilus will get their first
glimpse of the American uniform in
this way. Just the cup of coffee. or
the cold drink. may make all the diff
terence between sagging morale and
spirited fighting.
TO carry out these plans the War
Council has appropriated about $780,
600. which will serve to establish the
canteens and maintain them for about
three months. Much of the original