The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-03-28
WONDERS WORKED
TO AID SOLDIERS
HARRY c. EVANS DESCRIBES CON.
DlTIONS FOUND AT AMERi-
CAN ARMY BASE
BOYS ARE WELL CARED FOR OVER THERE
Tells Mothers Their Boys Are Getting
Better Treatment Than They
Had at Home
BY II. c.. EVANS
Copyright 1879


Somewhere in France. l have spent
ten days at a great United States army
base in France where there are thou
sands of our soldier boys and other
thousands of American labOrers. If
our people at home knew the tremen
dous magnitude of our war prepare
tons over here, every carpine, criri.
cal mouth would be closed.
When We have won the fight and
men are permitted to write and
newspapers to print the story of the
stupendous strides our government
has made in so short a time, the
world will be astonished. Stretch your
imagination a bit-nc, il is not nee
essary to imagine anything GUST use
a little horse sense and figure out
some things that can be lone with
500, 000, 000, 900. That was the amount
the last congress appropriated for
war purposes. 1t would build a 81, 900
home for every family in every state
in the Union.
What do you suppose we are doing
with the $24,000,O00 we are spending
every day, getting ready to fight. |
wish / were permitted to tell you some
things you don't know. Oh. | could
tell a story that would send the red
blood throbbing through the veins Of
every patriotic American in sheer
pride yer things already accomplish
ed. We have astounded the govern
ments II the financial and industrial
magnates Of England and France BY
our ability to do big things and do
them quickly.
But | would write you of our sol
der boys and their lives over here.
Before leaving home | heard much of
the possible lapses of our boys.
Some of our people seem to think
that we were sending over a lot OF
immature, reckless boys who would
yield to every besetting temptation.
They do not realize that a majority
of our soldiers between the ages CT
81 and 81 are matured, fullgrown
men, thousands of them in the pro-
fessions and in business for them
selves. Neither do they realize that
nothing ripens a man like RESPONSE
bility. Our boys have assumed re.
sponsibilities as great as ever rested
on the shoulders of a generation of
men.
When l first saw a considerable
number of our men in France [
would not have known them but for
their uniforms. 1t did not seem pos
sible that these outstanding, virile
men were the sloppy, droop-shoul-
dered boys l saw at home a few
months ago. Their responsibility, the
months of training in camp, the ocean
voyage, the acclaim with which they
were greeted here, the devoted esteem
in which they are held, the great adj
venture-these things have transform
ed the boy into the man, full statured.
want our mothers to know that
their boys are better behaved here
than they were at home. And there's
a reason-many reasons, in fact. In
the first place, they have certain WE'LL
defined duties, hourly. daily. There
are no hours and days and nights Of
loafing, during which no one knows
where they are. They must get out of
bed and 90 to bed at definite fixed
times. It's early to bed and early to
rise. The work every day is hard;
boys who dissipate cannot endure il,
and they lose standing with officers
and men. Their pride holds them in
the line Of duty.
Wal has been reduced to a science.
1t is not the haphazard thing it one
was. Wanamaker's is no better organ.
lied for the business that great insti-
tuition transacts than is an army for
the business it transacts. Wanamaker
is no more particular about his heads
of departments and employees, and 9th
err efficiency, than is Uncle Sam about
his officers and soldiers, and their
efficiency. And there is this differ
ence in favor of Uncle Sam: He pro-