New-York tribune., 1918-12-15
Write Letters to
Lonesome Troops,
Is Appeal To-day
10000 Clergymen Will
Urge Their Congregations
to Tell Boys in France of
Happy Things at Home
Will

Keeping up the morale of the expe-
ditionary forces without any fighting
as an incentive is considered by Sec
retary of War Baker and Raymond B.
Fosdick, chairman of the Commission
on Training Camp Activities, to be
about the biggest job they have
tackled so far. Mr. Fosdick has gone
to France to take charge, personally.
Mr. Baker would like to. Both of them
are calling on the mothers and the
hearts of the soldiers in France to
help them.
That's why 10000 clergymen will
urge the members of their congrega-
tions to-day to write to the boys they
sent to France of the pride they have
in them, of the love that sustained
them in the days of anxiety and of the
welcome that is preparing for them
when they come back. The War De-
partment got 100000 men across the
Atlantic; now it's got to get 100000
home across the Atlantic. It's got to
bring to the men, whose duty it is to
wait, the influence that would surround
Write Them Letters
"Since our soldiers cannot come
home at once" said Secretary Baker,
in discussing the problem recently, at
is for us more than ever to carry the
thought of home to them. Even though
the soldier is three or four thousand
miles away from US, we must, by our
letters, carrying the messages of in
terest and sympathy, bring him back
into the family circle and hold him
there unwaveringly.
"1f such letters were important while
he was op the firing line they are
hundred times more important to him
now. Then it was only at intervals
that the thought of home occupied him.
Now it is likely to be constant, and it
is this very hunger for the things
which home alone can hold-hunger
coupled with new sense of freedom
and very human longing for advent
Christmas Letters Due
Letters sent this week probably will
be delivered by Christmas, it was said
yesterday. Even if they are not in
some instances, they will reach their
destination in time to remind the re-
cipients that they were not forgotten
Mr.. Fosdick gave his view of the situ-
alton just before he started for France.
"The problem presented by the grad
ual demobilizaton of more than two
million men three thousand miles from
home is one which will tax all our
social resources" said Mr.. Fosdick. at
is above all moral problem, and 1t
must be faced as such, with the full
cooperation of families and friends
here in this country, if it is to be
solved successfully. Every one who
has a son, a brother or a sweetheart
over there must help.
They Will Get Lonesome
"While the war was on our boys
were fully occupied; they were still
filled with the spirit of adventure, look
ing forward rather than back. Now,
however, the fighting is at an end.
They are going to remain, most of
them, many months doing work which
will be neither exciting nor par
ticularly interesting They will get
lonesome, bored and terribly home
sick.
"The $4,000 900 raised in the recent
United War Work drive is to be used
precisely to bridge over this period by
providing recreation and amusement.
But no amount of mere money ex-
pended in such a way will be enough.
What these boys really want is not d.
version, but human interest and SYM
pathy. These things expressed in let
ters from home will warm their hearts
and create home atmosphere around
them, even while they are absent from
the family circle"