The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-05-24
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

They will soon be in camp.
 
 What are you going to do to help them get ready for the trenches?
 1T you are permitted to stay at home, is 1t not right that you should help those who are going on the firing line?
 The greatest victories are not won on the battlefield. In these days the testing comes in getting ready This is the les son of the war.
 The Young Mems Christian association has been the greatest factor in prepared ness for the strain of camp, trench and field This is not the mere idle or per- functory statement of a preacher.
 Now, while a campaign is being waged here in Birmingham to raise $25,0 for the national war work council of the Young Mems Christian associations of the Uni- ted States, headed by w. M. Cosby, one of the city's leading laymen, assisted by men prominent in every walk of life, let's SSo II IL LII WipiO,
 Hundreds of our best young men are now in the officers army camps of the south, training for service in the army of million men to represent our nation in the war with Germany. Thousands of others will volunteer or be conscripted within the next 90 days, and hundreds of these will give their lives for our coun- try.
 The call has come to us who remain at home to serve these young men in the army camps in a way that will add to their comfort increase their capacity as officers or privates, keep their manhood unstained from the severe temptations of army life, through an agency which has been selected by the United States gov of the army camps of this and other lands.
 Here are some European comment: Mrs. Lloyd George, in writing about Our Most Deadly Enemy. said of the Young Mems Chris tan associations: We all know by the Young Mems Christian association with it's huts and canteens for the benefit and use of the soldiers at the front, and in the home camp with regard to leading men to leave alcohol alone and choose something more sound and beneficial"
 Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, who is now leading in the big drive against the German line, was one of the first to give the Young Mems Christian as sociation the opportunity of extending it's work from the base camps to the army area Of the Young Mems Christian as- sociation he says: "No one can be long in this coutnry without realizing the inn mense value of the Young Mems Christian association, and the constant extension of it's activities itself testifies to the high regard in which it is held by our soldiers" Right Hon. David Lloyd George, while attending Tadworth sports of the Young Mems Christian association, said: T congratulate the Young Mems Christian association on the way it has organized these sports It has organized every thing else in this war with most per feet success and they have run most smoothly Tn fact everywhere I go l hear nothing but the good they have done throughout the country, and we owe them a very deep debt of gratitude"
 'The Young Mems Christian association draws the men away from the tempta- ton to go on the booze. says Lieut. Gen. Sir Robert Baden Powell. When the men are in the Young Mems Christian association buildings, they are not only provided with healthy recreation, but their environments draw out the good points in them. It is an important thing not only to administer to the material wants Of the men, but to give them moral tone, the fibre, the feeling of honor and loyalty, which are everything to the man when he goes into the fighting line" There are 800 of these Young Mems Chris tian association buildings in France now and the working plans of the association in Europe cost $5oo.oOO per month, and England Is spending millions. HIS HldJeSty, All5 oeoi5o V, WiieihS of the Young Mems Christian association, says: "A powerful agency for the de- velopment of the religious, social and physical well being of the nations youth. Right Hon. H. H. Asquith, prime minis ter, speaking of the association said: 'It is the finest thing in Europe" Right Hon. Winston Churchill said: Our troops roam far and wide but they do not out strip the Young Mems Christian associa- ton, and the universal testimony is that service of the highest value is being per formed by the association" I'm just back from New Orleans, where the Southern Baptist convention heartily indorsed the Y. M. c. A. work among the soldiers. Stirring addresses on pa triotism, eloquent appeals for a higher education. and the denunciation of the liquor traffic and social evil marked ses- sions of the Southern Baptist convention Friday.
 It is known to every student of hu- man nature that those who have been 1 irdulgng in drink are much more apt to be led on to the twin vice of impur- ity, with exposure to those vice diseases which are admitted to reduce the effi- ciency of the troops to an alarming ef- feet. It was stated in one instance i'll the present war that one troop was more l incapacitated for service from this cause than were the soldiers on the firing line from the bullets of the enemy.
 Mrs. l. J. Van Ness, wife of the editor ! lOF ho icf ipo nnc