Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-06-11
Y. M. c. A. RECRUITS
NEEDED FOR FRANCE

CONTINUED from First Pagc.]
population of that village. Enough
villages to accommodate a whole di-
vision of about twenty-siX thousand
men will often take an area twenty
five miles across. The men are,
therefore, separated into units from
three hundred in number up to two
or three thousand. This alone vast
ly complicates all problems of public
entertainment and recreation.
Our men are living right in the
houses with the French people. The
French men have all been removed.
that is, all the able bodied men from
eighteen to fifty years of age. In
these peasant villages there are no re-
sources at active recreation. Our
men cannot speak with the French
people; there are no newspapers,
no news comes in from outside; life
is endlessly monotonous, except for
what is furnished by the "Y."
Monotony Deadly
The food is good but about the
same from day to day. The daily
training becomes monotonous and
irksome in the course of a couple of
weeks. The physical director has in
his hands the only physical activity
that is open to the men. Under such
conditions boxing is a life-saver.
Large soccer games are also valu-
able. Our soldiers have absolutely
no other resources of an active kind
1t is impossible for men to do moth
ing. The situation is quite different
from what it is here in America
where we have so many resources.
Another reason why physical di-
rectors are extraordinarily important
over there will become evident as
soon as our men really get into the
big fight. Continued tragedy wears
down personality. A great many men
are permanently injured in ways
which we do not understand, but
which prevent their ever getting
back into any large activity. Shell
shock is a general term descriptive
of many different kinds Of mental
and nervous pathological states.
When a man has for three days been
fighting almost without interruption.
has had practically no sleep with
but little to eat: has been marching
or running, carrying weight, helping
to drag guns and the like. he has
been doing work which makes foot
ball seem like childs play. Men
alongside of him have been left out
in the field either dead or alive. He
has seen his own comrades, some of
them blown to pieces and some
bayoneted. When man under such
conditions has opportunity for food
and rest and sleep his body can re-
cover quickly, but often the tragedy
of the situation goes round and
round in his mind and it is utterly
beyond his will to control. If rlis
Ia cfc hn fe
are the conditions when a man is.
practically without any will. and
tenn ptations for excitement are prac-
tically irresistible. These are the
conditions under which humans have
always dissipated, for dissipation
gives the one great opportunity for
some interest that will come in and
crowd out the tragedy and the mon
otony.
The physical director who can sub
stitute football for alcohol vice or
gambling. is performing a service
greater than physical director in
peace time ever has the opportun-
ity to give. 1t is for this service that
our men will be needed in France
shortly. 1t takes trained men of big
personality to give service of this
kind.
NhOiC Nidi WV T6DTeSen-
tative business and professional men
of the country heard the appeal of
DR.. John r. Mott. general secretary
of the National War Council of the
Y. NJ. c. A. in New York last Tues
day for recruits to the service of the
Red Triangle with the Allied Armies.
DIR. Mott. who recently returned
from his fifth tour of the war zone
brought the appeal of the official
military authorities of all the coun-
tries fighting Germany on the west
ern front, for immediate and ade
quate relief. DR.. Mott stated that un-
less the Y, M. c. A. is to fail in the
work which has been entrusted to
the association, the forces of the Y.
M. G. A. in France, England and
Italy, must be increased by at least
four thousand workers before Sep
tember 1. The budget for immediate
needs calls for the recruiting of O.
210 of these workers before July /
leaving 1000 a month to be obtained
during July and August.
AS the basis for local, county and
state recruiting campaigns, DIR. Mott
presented the following reasons for
immediate action based upon his