The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-09-01
Army Discipline and
Increasing Number
of Other Safeguards
Make His Life Bet
terEven ThanWhen
at Home .a.-
BY AGNES c. LAUT.

safer place for boy than the army or
navy. Ninety-fve per cent. of the men
will come out of the war bigger, better
and cleaner, mentally, morally, physically
than they went in, and of the per cent.
that doesn't, venture to say that per
cent. take the deterioration with them
from civilian life into the war;
The speaker was not a preacher. He
was medical man, and he was also an
athletic director for the army division of
the Y. NJ. c. A., who has since the war
began lived, eaten, slept, dreamed and
worked with "the boys" from the time
they were drafted in civilian clothes till
they went into the dugouts on the firing
line He has been with train loads of
fresh green frontier "kids' from Arizona
and California. He has been with them
at the camps, where they first put on
uniform and came under army or navy
discipline, and perhaps got thirty days
in the guardhouse for making their send
off continued story.
Some Beg to Go Back and Weep.
This man has been with them when they
were fired for bad conduct and begged
back with tears. For instance, he had the
ease Of pampered youngster from the
Pacific Coast who came into the navy as
a volunteer, was discharged for irregu-
laritis, got back in the army as
"draftee" and to-day holds the proud rec
ord Of four bulls eyes out of four shots at
long range. He has been with them where
the boys from the little camps came In
troop trains to the large camps and were
dumped eight or ten thousand en- masse
into cities like ST. Louis or Pittsburg at
midnight, without q soul to care for them
but the kind that shouldn't care for them.
And he has accompanied the troop trains
to the port of embarkation, where the men
are allowed to rest and freshen up for
four or five days before sailing, and he
has crossed the ocean l forget how many
times on troopships and broken up the
story tellers with rousing campfire songs.
And he has been at the port Of 3debar-
kaiiOn somewhere in France" where the
riff-raf of the water front, male and fe-
male, were lined up to help tighten soldier
boys of their money and their morals.
Especially has he worked with the tagged
and tired submarine chasers, who IN
stormiest, coolest, widest seas, in small
craft that rocked like an egg beaten, pur-
tue and destroy the subterranean shark Of
the war-worked with them, when they
came into harbor numb, seasiek, shaken
With exposure; ready for cheer Of any kind
good or evil. Also for months he has
lived in the dugouts with the boys in the
trenches; and he is medical director and
an athlete Yet he says:
"No mother need harbor secret fear for
her boy morally il the war to-day. There
is no safer place for boy than army or
navy. Ninety-fve per cent. will come out
bigger, better and cleaner than they went
in."
Spiritually q Balanced Man.
And this man being doctor may be
presumed to know what he Is talking
about. The Red Triangle on his sleeve
stands for the all round mentally, NOR
ally, spiritually balanced man. Yet that
is lis verdict on the effect of the war on
young manhood, though he doesn't mini
mIze in the least the effect of continental
life on the older men-please emphasize
that word Older-who have taken handi-
cap Of civilian habits with them into the
war.
In the first place, you may call it any
rame you ike-Christ versus anti-Christ,
Spirit versus Flesh, Democracy versus
Autccracy. This war is being fought on
a higher plane than any war that ever
preceded it, and from higher motives< 1t
Is a war for an ideal, though the way each
nan expresses his ideal would probably
be different. 1t is war for which each
mar is jumping keen to offer his supreme
gift-Life. And there never was a war
in which the rank and file were younger