New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-02
By Ralph Block

wants. Perhaps he believes secretly that
one taste of the doughnuts whose unique
recipe is held only by one woman in the
land of his birth will make him we'll man
for war making
Do General March and the War Depart
ment deeply believe that the kind of soldier
America sends to France-the fighting man
rather than the talking mans also the
kind of man who analyses his deepest spir-
itual need and then satisfies it by gentle
request to the regimental commander?
Bill Jones Won't
Possibly General March can picture Bill
Jones, of Waco, Tex, approaching the colo
mel OF his regiment, saluting properly, and
then with trusting eyes and unturned SIM
pie face and gentle voice asking the colo
rel's permission to have his father send
him the mouth organ which lies in the
left end of the middle drawer of the dresser
at the back Of the house.
Bill Jones will dare cannon first
1t may be said in favor of the War De-
partment that it is not robbing Bill Jones
of all hope of comfort in his camp. The
Y. NJ. A. has published list in "The
Official Bulletin" of things Bill Jones can
buy in camp much more economically than
they can be sent to him. 1t is a long list.
1t makes the Y. NJ. c. A. in France look like
a combination between drug store and a
corner grocery. Yet there are ingredients
in every life which no store can give, and,
unhapply, they tend to count the most.
The things Bill Jones will not ask for are
the things he will want the most and that
no Y. NJ c. A. can supply. They from
home Or nowhere, and without them Bill
Jones may be a poorer soldier, less con-
tented, less assured of the reality of the
home and hearth for which at bottom he is
fighting.
It is true that the reasons of the War
Department appear to be valid One trans
port in France recently unloaded one car
load Of letters and nineteen carloads of
newspapers. Are not cars precious in
France, where rail congestion is worse than
ours was at its height? Must not news
papers and parcels to soldiers give way be-
fore the need of ammunition, of raw food.
stuffs?
Nostalgia That Kills
Yet there is nostalgia. 1t killed Private
George Arnett, though Their, was food
aplenty.
There is still the letter post itself.
The Postofice Department apparently has
set up an effective machinery for the col
lection of mail from the homes of America
surrendered to the military organization
for delivery to the soldier. The operation
of the postal machine is smooth, speedy
and without friction, except at those points
where it's wheels must run the heavy
machinery of the War Department..
The Postoffice Department has two main
station centres in the United States for
the handling of soldier mail 1t has in
spectors in France to teach army mail or
derlies how to handle mail Yet in the pe-
riod since the entrance of the United States
into the war and March / the Postoffice De-
partment received 1880 complaints of lost
army mail. The figures are meaningless
unless they carry with them the explana-
ton of postal official that these COM
plants may represent somewhere near 50.-
600 pieces of mail The navy had As COM
plants in the same period of time
The War Department is at the present
time deeply preoccupied with keeping in
formation from the enemy, 7 This is doubt
(, less as it should be. Yet the Postoffice
Department knows at all times the where
abouts of every ship in the American navy.
When the ship is moved the department
knows where its mail is to be sent
division of Eastern troops in France
was recently moved from one part of the
front to another. Five carloads of mail
were waiting for it. The Ave carloads were