Evening star., 1918-04-07

must conserve its man-power. That
gives your son q safety here IN tho
the village church in an alcoholic town
never gave him when at home.
So the women back at home need
not worry about that.
Now let us frankly talk Of sexual mo-
rality, and in this connection read IN
another part of this Same paper what
Gen. Pershing (your own boys COM
mander) tells mo Of the SEXUAL that is.
the moral cleanliness Of your son and
the other American boys in France.
In one group Of American soldiers
with which I have become pretty
familiar there are almost S0.000 men.
OF these less than half a do5en were
at all under the influence OF liquor last
week Among these men cases of
venereal are decreasing. not increasing.
in number. There are but four women
Of bad repute for miles around and they
are closely watched.
have an idea that some Of the tales
about moral conditions among our SOL
der boys in France were circulated In
America by people who should be taken
out, stood up against wall and treat
world began.
These tales very well may have been
and may be q subtle sort Of German
propaganda, designed to frighten Amer
lean womanhood and decrease soldierly
morale. and any man or woman who
repeats them automatically thereby
should place himself or herself under
suspicion Of being worker for the
enemy, having to prove afterward the
untruth of this suspicion or suffer Sc
we're consequences. The effort to worry
womanhood about the morals Of the
fighting mon was made by enemy prop
agandists In Britain. Don't Let 1t have
its dire effect in the United States.
worrying about the morals Of your boy
and to stop writing to him about them.
You keep them In his mind too much
by too many words about them. Send
him along good, clean. absorbing read
ing matter that will keep him tensely
interested and pretty thoroughly in
formed with regard to men. events and
trends at home. Especially try to avoid
letting the boys get out Of touch with
home thinga When the war is over
and they go back home the American
troops will be a great and probably the
great political power. II your boy and
his comrades are kept thoroughly in
formed they will be cleaner boys while
here and more Intelligent voting citi-
zens when they go back home.
And urge upon the politicians Of your
neighborhood you are going to help
toward this and that they must not
forget the fact. It will tend to keep
necessity for showing to your boy and
all the other boys the right kind of
consideration while the war is on. IL
they remember that when the war is
over those same boys will have the
po1iticiang fate in the hollow Of their
collective and gloriously war-calloused
hands
Now let us consider your boys pfysi-
cal health and that sort of sickness
carrying with it pain and sometimes
death, but nothing worse The splen-
did woman who has written to me tells
me that in your hearts there is the
fear that here in France your boys will
be exposed to illnesses OF many sorts
which would not threaten them at
home. and that you fear that, suffering
from them. they will have little care
and will be unduly like to die Of them.
AA
Wrong, dear American mothers! Your
boys here are and will be safer from
such illnesses-ths illnesses Of every
day-than they would be at home. You
may set your mind at rest regarding
these things. Among American troops
in this war there will be no repetition
Of such ignorance, neglect and sheer
mismanagement as swept our boys
away in Cuba, or Of such as swept the
British boys away in grim South Africa
and more recently in the Gallipoli cam
paign.
Yesterday and other yesterdays and
To-Day ! nave seen the many OF your
sons who live In the war zone as fight
ing men and are quite well. and espe-
cially today I have seen those-the few
who happen to be i'll. The many are
exceptionally comfortable. the few are
cared for quite as well as they could
be in the best hospitals of your home
cities. II you are dweller in village
or the country they are cared for bet
ter than they could be Il hope you will
forgive me for saying Of it, at home
In other words, they are magnifcently
cared for.
One big and splendid hospital which
has been taken over by our Army, and
, which / have seen. Is old, I will admit
, and lacks some Of the enamel and the
tiling which would show about an in.