Republican farmer., 1918-04-12

(From the first issue of the stars
 and Stripes, the official paper of the American expeditionary force.) To the fathers and mothers. sisters and brothers, wives, sweethearts and friends of the men in the American expeditionary force:
 We hear that you have been regal ed with some alarming stories about us of the A. E. F. and our conduct here in France. In fact, some of those stories have been relayed to us, and if they weren't so far from the truth we might be inclined to get really mad. But knowing the authors of some of them--for some of the ! hysterical stripe have really been over here-our first inclination is to laugh.
 But, after all, it's no laughing mat ter to be talked about behind our backs in such a reckless and irrespon- sible way by reckless and irresponsi- ble people, though no doubt some of them have the best intentions in the world, and think that they, and they alone, can save us. (They have prob ably told you that, and asked you to contribute money to their worthy cause, haven't they?) What hurts 1 though we know you are loyal to us and have the firmest of faith in us, 1 perhaps these dire tales may have caused you anxiety, may even have brought you to believe that perhaps after all, we had become a bit neg lectful of our trust; and that, so be- lieving. you might have been sorely and entirely unduly, distressed ir spirit.
 Be assured that these sensational stories are nothing but myths. Abso- lutely nothing else. And we have .he facts to prove that they are. Listen:
 The percentage of venereai disease in this army of yours is three-tenths of one per cent.--ihe smallest percent. age on record for any army, or any civil population. in the worlds history It is a sober army. and well-behaved one. The statistics in the possession of the judge advocate generals de- partment prove that there have been in proportion, fewer cases of drunken ness, fewer braches of military disci- pline among its members than has been the case with any army whose records have been preserved.
 One Story Circulated
 Now, to take a specific instance. certain self-constituted board of nor. als' is quoted in dispatch from the United States to the effect that 1,04f men from the 'northeastern states were locked up in the guardhouse following their fist pay day, for drunk enness.
 That is the story; here are the facts:
 Since the troops referred to as com ing from the "northeasterr states came to France, the total number o1 their men locked up in the guard. house for all offenses-not for drunk l enness alone, mind you-has been eX actly 134 to date. In other words, the alf-constituted champions of sobriet! generously multiplied by eight, the number of men imprisoned for all of fenses-including as 1t does those pun ished for infractions of rules, insubor dination and the like-and passed tht enlarged figures on to you are repre- senting the number of men locked III , for drunkenness alone! No wonder you were scared-as they probabl! intended you should be
 Just to refute them again, here il a quotation from the report of a Pro testant chaplain on active service witl these same maligned troops from tn, 'northeastern states" Bear in mind too, that this particular chaplain ha been in the army but : short time, anC
 threfore brings a fresh and impartia
 judgment to bear on the problems This is what he says:
 ''In performing my priestIy Iunc
 tions it has been my privilege to trave
 considerably among the troops, and i
 pleases me immensely to be able tt
 state that I find moral conditions mos : satisfactory. The military authoritie
 are vigilant in removing temptation
 We have a clean army; and I am hon / estly convinced that the men il , France are in less danger morally thai they would be in service in their owl country"
 ''The men in France are in less dan
 ger morally than they would be il
 service in their own country" Ina
 last clause is worth repetition. Pon
 der on that, dear people at home. Here's something more. The Cath
 olic chaplains attached to these sam slandered troops declare that out O = thousands of men admitted to the con
 fessional. only three have confessed t,
 sins of any magnitude 4 correspond