New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1918-05-15
HANDS OUT, Mr. BOX,
and NOT HANDS OFF
Mrs. Bass Replies to Editorial Of
Critical Nature

New York, May 15.--Mrs, James
Madison Bass. executive of the social
department of the New York War
Camp Community Service, who has
personally shaken hands with 5000
of our fighting men, has sent the fol-
lowing open letter to Edward Box,
editor of the Ladies' Home Journal,
in reply to his editorial stating that
the time has come to keep hands
off our men in the service" and that
the home entertainments provided for
soldiers and sailors in cities and towns
near army and navy camps are i'm
pairing the efficiency Of the men:
Mr.. Edward Box,
Editor of Ladies' Home Journal,
Dear Sir:
"'Hands Off our soldiers and
sailors,
'Of course, you did not mean that,
Mr.. Box, but how are the thousands
of women who read the Ladies Home
Journal to know that YOU did not
mean just what your words implied?
When the Red Cross is starting drive
for socks, you say the boys have
enough comforts, don't send any more
hands off, The new draft has be-
gun-tens of thousands of our boys
every month now will enter the camps
kits and knitted articles, every one OF
them-'hands off. These new boys
most of them did not enlist. they were
drafted--are bound to feel strange in
this new environment in this Olive
Drab world they are enterlng-this
world of men. Are they to be set
apart even before they go over there
Are they to be told that women must
not spoil them and that is why they
must not be asked to family dinners
and to real homes? That is why they
are not to see girls-real girls-at
chaperoned dances?
Have you ever been away from
home, Mr.. Box; have you ever been
| Just "A little bit home-sick? Even
| though you were on q, camping trip
| for a wonderful time and knew you
were going home in just few weeks.
! didn't YOU want letters just the same,
Mr.. Box Didn't you haunt the post
Office and weren't you disappointed
when YOU didn't get even a postal =?
| Wouldn't YOU be even more home-sick,
I Mr.. Box, if you were being drilled and
| drilled and saw nothing but the brown
uniform of service day after day; and
| YOU were away from home and didn't
| know whether you would ever return
/ again? Wouldn't YOU want to know,
| Mr.. BOX, if this we're really worth
| whileo Wouldn't YOU like to know
that the women, girls and the people
| at home that YOU were being sent
! over to defend appreciated just a little
! bit how you felt? Do you know any
| thing about the work the W.T.
| Camp Community Service has done
| this first year of the war? The dances
| for the soldiers and sailors that are
| being held two Or three times week
| in New York City, where the men can
! meet nice girls under careful chap
| eronage? These parties last from :
| until II o'clock. and not all night as
| YOU state, and the girls do not allow
| the boys to see them home. The War
! Camp Community Service has worked
! ceaselessly all winter to make life a
! little more normal for the bows In
| training, It is not normal for them
| to be without feminine society: it is
| not normal not to be invited to real
| homes; to have a home dinner: to be
talked to; to be told that when the
| boy puts on uniform he becomes a
| representative of his country and es
| such Is entitled to respect These boys