The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1917-11-08
BIG Y. NC. "A.
DRIVE STARTS
NEXT SUNDAY
Kennewick is Asked to Subscribe
$1,000 and Benton County
$1,000
LYNCH HEADS THE CAMPAIGN
Spokane Man Tells Graphic Story Of
Associations Work on the
Battlefelds

Next week the people Of Kennewick
and of the immediate surrounding
country are expected to subscribe ST.
900 of the $35,0O0,o0O to be raised in
the nation for Y. M. c. A. war work.
The soliciting campaign for not only
Benton, but Franklin county, has been
placed in charge Of S. ID. Lynch and
F. j. Arnold Of this city. Mr.. Lynch
to have general supervision of the
campaign and Mr.. Arnold to carry on
the work among the boys.
Already these two men have their
plan Of campaign well in hand. They
have chosen their workers here, have
been to Pasco and organized the drive
over there and tomorrow they will go
to Prossar to organize there.
Benton county's quota is $1,000 and
Kennewick's quota of $1,000 includes
only the territory tributary to this
postofficc, quotas having been assign
ed to Finley, Hover and all other post
offices in the. county.
AS a forerunner to the campaign,
G. II. White, of Spokane, addressed
the students of the high school this
afternoon and later spoke TO an aud
ience Of men and high school boys at
the Commercial club rooms. Mr.. White
recently visited Camp Lewis at Amer
ican Lake and made thoro study Of
the work which the Y. M. c. A. is do
ing there in its six buildings.
Particularly touching was Mr..
Whites word picture of conditions in
France, where the war-worn soldiers
return from hours of physical torture
in the blood-stained trenches, only to
be compelled to battle with vice which
turks behind the lines i'm its most in
sidious form. And it is the helping
hand Of the Y. M. c. A. that cheers
the soldier boy as he goes over the top,
and the same helping hand that
reaches out again to protect him from
the deadly temptations that assail him
in his hours of rest and relaxation.
On the troop trains, in cantonment
and camp, in city and village, on
ocean liners and the warships, at the
front and on the firing line, the Y. M.
c. A. workers are there cheering, sup
porting, refreshing, sustaining and
protecting the fighting men; in fact,
the Y. M. c. A. does those things
which the military and the Red Cross
do not and cannot do.
Graphic indeed was Mr.. Whites de-
scription Of the work Of the Y. M. c.
A. among the British forces at the
battle of the Somme. The men were
mobilized in their trenches for the at
tack soon after dark. There they stood
hour after hour, helmets drawn tightly
over their heads, gas masks in posi-
ton, bayonets fixed, while $4,000 guns
all above 9-inch calibre, barked and
thundered end roared and sent an in
cessant hail of whistling, screaming,
hurtling shells over the heads Of the
men who waited with every nerve
fibre atingle and every muscle tense
with suppressed excitement.
At last in the early hours Of the
morning came the command "over the
top" No sooner had the signal flash
ed along the fighting lines than,
swarming out of their dugouts came
the Y. M. C. A. workers with their
pots of stcaming tea and cocoa and
with his stimulating draught every
soldier received a CHEEKY word. And
every man, too, was given little cake
Iof chocolate which he was to put into
his pocket and not eat until he had
fallen out there in No Mans Land. It
was intended to nourish and stimulate
him until help came or he could crawl
back to his trench.
No sooner had the men gone over
the top until after them went the X.
I'M. c. A. workers setting rows OF
posts and stretching wire out across
No Mans Land as far as they dared
go. The lanes thus formed are known
as wounded lanes" to guide the poor
devils of wrecks came back home. And
such staggering, cropping, crawling
4 fCoxx;c,,ad on naca forrrl