Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-09-18
GEN. O'RYAN TELLS HIS MEN
HOWTHEYCAN HELP WIN WAR
~ REAT Interest has been taken
r by Pennsylvania officers in the

X REAT Interest has been taken
Vr by Pennsylvania officers in the
pamphlet issued by Major Cen
eral John f. Organ, commanding
the Sixth New York; Division, to
each of the 10000 men constituting
his division, each of whom received
o copy of this rather remarkable
personal and fatherly talk. General
Organ is very frank in his talk
TO his boys, and so is Lieutenant Col
onel William II. Steers, Medical
Corps, New York, who devotes sew
eral pages of the pamphlet to a dis
sertation on alcohol and Its Effects
on the Human Mind and Body"
You are about to engage active
ly in war-the greatest in the world $
history" began General ORyan.
you do not know what your fate
is to be. You cannot foretell whether
you are to be killed, to die of dis
ease, to be wounded or broken in
health, or whether you are to win
honors and to return in good health
to enjoy the satisfaction of having
served your country well.
"The majority of the soldiers of
the division (New York; are young
men. Their future careers are to be
affected nightly by what they do
and how they act during the period
of the war. Right among your COM
rades in the ranks to-day there are
future leaders in public life-gov-
ernors, mayors, ministers, financiers,
manufacturers, educators and great
soldiers"
After paying high tribute to the
high standards of intelligence of the
men in the division, each one Of
whom, just like our own division of
Pennsylvania troops, is q volunteer.
Major General Organ goes on:
Must Whip the Enemy
Our job is to whip the enemy
hard and with the least loss to our
selves. In training our military ma
chine to do this we must eliminate
back-lash, waste. rattles and useless
loads. We must have every part
healthy, strong and dependable, no
part defective, diseased or obsolete
This cannot be if we are to permit
booze" in airy form to get into our
military machine. Alcohol, whether
you call it beer wine, whisky, OF
by any other name, is a breeder OF
inefficiency. While it affects men
differently, the results are the same
in that all affected by 1t cease for
the time to be normal. Some be-
come forgetful, others quarrelsome
some become noisy SICK, sleepy
Others have their passions greatly
stimulated.
when you stop to consider that
there are nearly 10000 men in a
division, do you not see how vital
to efficiency, is the elimination OF
liquor? If one officer or man is per-
mitted to use liquor, then others will
claim the right to do so. How can
division of troops be ever ready
ever UP on the bit. to drive ahead
or to thrust back the enemy's drive
II through the presence OF this in
sidious evil, some soldiers forget
their orders or become noisy wher
silence is essential, fall asleep wher
every faculty should be alert, or are
absent from their posts?
Probably you admit the desira.
bility of eliminating liquor from oul
division-if 1t can be done. What.
ever doubts formerly existed in rela.
ton to the practical side of thii
problem, have been dispelled as 8
result of the record made by the
New York Division on the Mexican
border during the summer and au.
tumn of 1916. During that periot
the use of liquor in any form was
prohibited in the New York Di-