Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-06-21

Within the first two weeks OF the
last German offensive more than
one-fourth of the $50 foyers du sol
dat-known to the American sol
diers as "Y. NJ" huts. were captur-
! ed or destroyed. The Y. NJ G. A
| has, il is announced, appropriated
| $500 900 to replace the SO huts and
! dugouts lost by the British Y. NJ. G.
A. in Flanders and Picardy during
| the recent drive of the enemy. This
is why the Y. M. G. A. must raise
more than 100000 900 during its
| nationwide campaign in the fall TO
maintain war activities here and
overseas, as outlined In statement
received by o. J. Stirratt, general
| secretary of the local Y. NJ. G. A.
| The statement, which is made by
DR.. John r. Mott, general secretary
| of the national Y. NJ. c. A., who
has just returned from his fifth
| trip into the war zone, is the most
recent and comprehensive presen-
| tati4n of the aims of the Y. M. c. a.
in it's war work over there.
Tremendous responsibilities
have been shouldered upon the Y.
NJ. c. A." says DR.. Motifs state
ment. 1T is a marvelously com
preLensive thing we have been ask
ed to do over there. We have not
only been sent over there simply 70
represent the ministry of the Y. NJ.
c. A, as we understand it in this
country. That Is the smallest part
of our task.
at would be a great thing to ex-
mi OF IF
ton to the men of our own country
and of those of other lands who arc
now in France but we have been
asked to do more than that-we are
to represent to all of those Amer
lean sons and brothers not only
the Y. NJ. C.. A. of America, but we
are to represent to them and be
to them for the time being the
American home, and this is tre-
mendous responsibility. We are to
represent to them the American
school and college. We are to rep
resent to them the best phases of
American club life and all that IS
best of the American stage. We
are to represent to them the Amer
lean churches, and what a great re-
sponsibility that Isl 1t Is a COM
prehensive ministry.
Let me give you additional res-
sons why we need so much money to
continue our war work The first
reason Is that we are the only
agency able to do this work on any
adequate scale. We have to do
over there to a large extent, what
II or Ii agencies are trying to do
on this side of the Atlantic.
THE second reason is that over
there the forces are scattered. Over
here we are familiar with the great
environments where 10000 or 5000
or 10000 men are massed in each.
You will find in France division
of less than 10000 scattered in 30 to
so villages. l heard of two divisions
ions that had arrived in France and
the association had only one sec
rotary to place at their disposal. |
These soldiers are billeted in small |
groups all over the villages. One
bitter cold day forty of our boys
were assigned to a hay loft. The
floor of the stable that the cattle
had occupied was cleaned up and
100 more were put there. The
chicken house held seven more and |
the carpenter shop a dozen more |
Eight hundred boys were parceled |
out in that particular village. TIE |
father or mother is not in this land !
who, if he or she had been with me |
and seen their boy, as l have seen
him, would not be. willing to mort /
gage house or land. if necessary, tn
order that the Y. NJ. c. A. might be
established in that particular sec
ton. He or she would be saying,
You have got to get down to the
unit of 800, and not stop with sery-
ing large units of 1000 or over
Another reason why we need
large sums of money is the con-
slant shifting that is being done
over there. In six months one d.
vision of our army had to shift four
times-ws put in five different posi-
tons. That means greatly increas.
ed expense. In this case it meant
opening up huts in 30 different vii
lagos successfully for five times or
a total Of $50 villages.