Arizona republican., 1917-04-16

The first organization formed to give
 actual aid both to the armed forces of
 the United States and of the entente
 allies has been started by women. And
 it is planned that wherever an Ameri-
 can soldier may be sent to do actual
 fighting he will carry with him evil
 dence of the thoughtfulness. sympathy
 and support of the women of the coun-
 try. Similarly every soldier of the en-
 tente armies fighting on the western
 front, French, Belgian, British and Ital
 ian is to be remembered in a practical
 way that shall bring home to the men
 in the trenches the cooperation of
 America.
 French Comfort Packets for United States and the Allies is the name of
 the orranization. the president of which
 is Mrs. Mary Hatch Willard, who also
 organized and is the head of the Ma
 tional Surgical Dressings committee that has already sent more than l : 000- 300 surgical dressings to the war fronts in Europe. The new committee, with out any appeal for financial assistance has already made up and sent to Flu rope some 10000 Trench Comfort pack cts which have been distributed among the men returning to the firing lines Now it is proposed that the undertalz- ing, started in small way in New York, shall be made national in scope and shall insure that every soldier Of our army and of the allies sent into the trenches shall be provided with one { of the packets.
 And what is a Trench Comfort Pack ct? Ask any of the 10000 men of the British, French, Belgian and Italian ar mics who have received one. Hundreds of these men have written to the friends in America who have supplied the packets to saJy that they are the most prized, the most useful and the | most practical form of aid to the man at the front.
 Simple things go into these comfort packets, ineXDensive articles that are pricelss in value when needed A bit of string, candle, needle and thread. a pencil. a few sheets of writing paper. pair of socks, a handana handker- chief, safety razor. a jack knife. navhap a sweater. These trifles. of which every home in America has a store. reach the men in the trenches and oft times come as a veritable God send. They are laughed over. cried over, and prayers of joy and thankfulness are said over them.
 Imagine one of your own sons in a tug out. in rain soaked trench. hun | dreds, thoNsands of miles from home. 1 He has. perhaps. been for hours on duty. It is ni0ht. Darkness. impene- 1 trable, screens even the next man in the trench from his view. It is cold, too. | What treasure in such a case is a | bit of candle. It performs a double of l flee for with it he can see 10 read the | letter from home he has carefully safe l guarded. He can also warm his fingers, i chilled to the bone.
 1 And so even the bit of string that I a.S~ r,l1-r l usefulness. It will serve to tie shoe, ! the lace of which has broken, to mend 1 pair of worn out suspenders. Possibly | it may even save a life by binding a l severed artery And what a comfort | it is to have pencil and paper in tte l long and dreary vigil. Mayhap the pen eil and paper in the comfort packet | will be used to form the last message the soldier may ever send to his loved | ones. Without it there might be nc letter and no word of the men buried | beneath tons of steel hurled by German l cannon.
 And the socks, the gloves the sweat l CT, the dry underclothing that are put l into these packets what comforts these are. How great thing is a safety pin | where there is need for one and it is | not to be had. And a button, a bit oi 1 soap. towel. Can We, who have all
 these things at hand, imagine what
 they are to men who have been fol weeks, maybe months, living in fou
 trenches, sometimes knee-deep in mud
 Letters from the trenches are elo- l duent of what such small gifts mean
 Here are extracts from some of them;
 "I was so surprised to receive 2 packet from America 1 felt great joy
 and words fail me in expressing all m! l vratitt1a I know that America haC
 great sympathy for France but I had no idea that this sympathy could go SC
 far as to send such nice packets to the