Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-13
CAMP MEADE IS
BETTER FOR WORK
DONE BY Y.M.C.A.
Home Touch Added Through
Tireless Efforts in
Cantonment

Camp Meade, Nov. 1S.-Ten days
is sufficient acquaintance with the
Y. NJ. c. A. in an Army cantonment
to reveal the splendid work this or
ganization is doing to supplement the
training which the selected men are
receiving i'm the life military. To
say the Y. Nj. c. A. is supplying help
tul influences to the youths in khaki
is to speak the truth tritely and with
out the proper perspective.
The Y. NJ. G. A. takes men on the
basis that they are men and treats
them as such, with every considera-
ton for the qualities of real man
hood. Six weeks in n theater of the
activities of this organization makes
the writer declare that it is an es-
sential to the Army. Far from he-
ing polite reasoners of dilettantes,
the Y. M. c. A. worker is the apostle
of Virility and a force at work with
out which the Army would not nave
half of it's present splendid morale.
1t levels all class distinctions in the
-mindedness of it's outlook and
the general appeal that it makes to
innate manhood and to no especial
class.
In Camp Meade the Y. NJ. C. A..
has expended 100000 1t has spent
this sum without beating any tom
toms of publicity, or trying to her.
aid the expenditure as anything tre-
mendous 1t has put every dollar
where it would do the most good.
and it has $4,000 men who proclaim
it their home, their fireside, and the
association in which each of them
holds a personal interest.
It's activities are nnnifnId
teaches men the strength of con-
tinence and the value physically of
clean living. 1t has its meetings
where the boys are told of the dang
ers of the primrose paths of DALI
ance. The men sing the grand old
hymns and they read their Bibles.
But the objective of the YIN. Q. A.
is to force no Bible in an unwilling
hand.
Auditorium Seats Thousands
Its principal structure here is the
auditorium, which was recently dedi- |
Gated on Prayer Sunday. 1t has a
capacity for at least 5000 to 1000!
soldiers. 1t is the club of the can
tonment, with no dues, but a decent
regard for the ordinary amenities of
life. Here the homesick youngster
goes to write to mother, father, or
perhaps to sweetheart. He finds
plenty of other lads doing the same
and when they finish they naturally !
fall into conversation. Thus the road |
is easy toward cultivating one an
other and there grows between them |
bond of sentiment that is stronger
than ordinary friendship.
Stamps, envelopes, everything of /
that nature is furnished to the bows. |
The interior of the building is large
enough for basketball, and here the |
interregimental contests are staged, |
with seats enough for the spectators. !
Often there is ring placed inside |
the building and boxing bouts are
staged.
Nearly forty thousand soldiers are
here. They come from every sta
ton in life; they have every racial
and religious difference possible in |
this nation. Some of them are
struggling to talk the language of |
the country for whom they may have |
to give their lives. Others are get |
ting out from the upper strata of So
ciety and meeting the submerged |
tenth for the first time Some of |
them have been college men and |
others have had their diplomas from |
the university of hard knocks" But |
twice they meet on a common level. |
Once is when Uncle Sam sends them |
into his armies. The other is when
the Y. Nj. G. A. throws its protecting |
arms about them. Meade is one of
the melting pots of the United States. !
but the Y. M. C. A. is the puddler |
that is stirring the pot and getting
the dross to the bottom and the |
pure metal to the top.
An army might exist without the |
Y. NJ. C. A. But let one who knows
whereof he speaks say that it had
better not. The general will tell YOU. |
and every private knows it,