The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1917-11-16
Y.M.C.A. STANDS BY
CLEAR TO FRONT
TEACHES FOREIGNERS TO BE
GOOD SONS OF UNCLE SAM
CURES HoMEsIckNEss.
FOLLOWS SOLDIER ACROSS
Dug-Outs Cheer Soldier Last ,Thina
Before 6attIe-"Last Evidence
That Somebody Cares"

Michigan through the Y M. C. A. 1,
In the midst of the big drive to raise
million and quarter dollars for the
American soldier. The man and the
woman who have been to Camp Custer
do not ask what .for?" Those who
have asked Michigan soldiers in camp
what they think of the Y. M. C. A. do
not ask what for?"
The great lighted buildings In the
rain and cold of late autumn after.
noon, place for homesick boys to
hear music and play games and read,
they are what the Y. M. C. A. is pay.
Ing for.
A bunch OF foreign boys, sitting
eager, interested, before Y. M. C. A
teacher, learning to speak the Ian.
guage of Uncle Sam-that is what the
Y. M. G. A. is paying for, A thousand
OF these foreign-speaking' sons of Am
erica are being taught to speak and
write and read, to get in touch with
what the country is doing through the
newspapers and the men around them
Men at play on the drill grounds at
ternoons, men at play in the big clean
buildings at night-that is what the
Y. M. C. A. is paying for.
This is in Michigan, here at home.
1t Is only the beginning of the story
OF what the Y. M. c. A. is doing.
Standing BY Overseas.
When the soldier goes out from
Camp Custer down to the sea to go
across the Y. M. c. A. will go along.
In great tents or buildings at the en-
barkation points along the coast, when
the first great sweep of distance from
home has brought its Inconsistencies
the Y. M. c. A. with its piano, it's
lighted rooms, its games will be there.
1t will be there to the boys of Michi-
gan just as it has been at Camp Mills
on Long Island when the National
Guard armies of the East have come
down to the coast to take ship.
When Michigan boys land in Franco
the Y. M. G. A. will be there, it is
there today meeting other boys who
nave gone over and it will be there
then when 1t is needed a thousand
times more than it Is needed on Mich
igan SOIL great as the need is here.
The soldiers of Michigan will be in a
strange land, land so busy that 1t
mas no time to entertain the men of
other lands; there will be no one to
talk the language, and there will be
the hard temptation of women whose
invitation needs no language. The Y. !
M. c. A. will be there with the bright.
clean buildings, the songs of home
and the friendly men.
Finally when Michigan boys go down
to the trenches, when they go out to
go over the last great top, in a dug
out within the range of close fire. the
Y. M. c. A. will be present. With
"God-speed" and cup of hot choco-
late the Y. M. c. A. will give the last
evidence that anyone cares" For
three weary years the British Y. M. C.
A. has been down there behind the
thin, red line behind its army. Now
the American army is coming and the
American Y. NC. A. is coming too.
Filling the holes, filling the vacant
spaces in the lives of the men behind
the battle fronts, spaces that have
been filled with companionship with
wives and mothers in American homes.
this is the business of the Y. M. C.
A. overseas
Not preaching, not telling the men
not to sin but acting and giving the
men healthy activity and clean amuse-
ment to take the place of reckless de.
bauchery in foreign towns full of bad
liquor and worse women-this is the
Job of the Y. M. c. A. |,