The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1918-04-17

Asooctathn tc hcar Aud1eSS by DIR.
IL. w. Sixcs and Sacred Concert by
Shawmut Mule Quartettc.
Once each year the friends of the
Sumter Young Mems Christian As
ISOLATION gather in mass meeting to
pledge financial support to maintain
the organization during the current
year. and each meeting of this kind Is
heartening and encouraging dem
onstration that the community as q
whole endorses the work that the as
sociation is doing and is willing to ex-
tend to 1t the financial support that
1t requires to exist and to grow with
the field 1t occupies. Sundays meet
ing was in several rspects the most
successful and inspiring ever held in
the interest of the Y. M. C. A. Finan-
cially 1t was far ahead of any previous
meeting. in that the pledges obtained
totaled more than twice as much as
ever before voluntarily given for the
support of the association. In at
tendance the meeting was as large or
larger than any previous mass meet
ing. The programme was appro-
pirate and inspiring and every per-
son in the audience derived pleasure
from the music rendered by the quar-
tette and instruction and intellectual
stimulus from the able and eloquent
address of DIR. Skies.
DR.. Skies subject was "rhe Boy
Soldier of the Revolution" his theme
being the career and services of
Marquis de Lafayette as a disinter-
ested friend of America and Of de-
mocracy everywhere. Historically
the address was most instructive. the
story of the growth and spread of
democratic ideas in America and then
in Europe being interviewer with the
career of lafayette as a soldier of the
American Revolution and his subse-
1uent life and labors In France. The
application of this historical sketch
of man who lived more than a GEN.
tury ago to the Y. NJ. c. A. work of
today was most impressively and for
chilly handled and demonstrated DIR.
Skies art as a speaker and thinker in
an attractive and telling manner. The
lesson he brought home to his hearers
was that the struggle between real
democracy, as represented by La
Fayette. and autocracy. as typifled
by Frederick of Prussia, has contin-
ued through all the years from their
day to ours with unabated antagonism
and that this great battle for human
rights and individual freedom has
reached it's elimination i'm the at
tempt that the Prussian savages are
making to destroy democracy and
fasten upon the human race the rule
OF might over right. In the Y. M. c.
"A. he saw an instrument of democ-
racy. developed under the benign in
nuences OF American liberty, for the
great and necessary work that II Is
doing fer all the allied nations on the
battlefields Of Europe and Asia and I'm
the military camps Of this country.
The Y. M. G. A. has been developed,
has grown strong and efficient and
useful in its work for the young men
OF America and now that the great
emergency has come to the world,
when such work must be done for the
millions of soldiers of democracy on
the very fields of battle the Y. M. c..
a. was ready and equipped for the
task that no other organization, re-
iigioG5 or secular, could do. While
the war work OF the Y. M. C. A. is vi
tally important and Is in the limelight
OF world, II must not be lost sight of
that the regular work in the towns
and cities of America must go on, for
II Is the nursery of democracy, it is
the training school of right living, and
right thinking of our young men who
form the great reserve force Of the
country.