The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-12-16
SUGAR COATED SOLDIER
TO FIGHT DEMON RUN
y. NJ. c. a. Goes Into Competition
With the Wine shop.

| <AihCliS~ Il NC AZ eAO
ideal now being striven for. In the
mark -tinIe period of the armistice and
rehabilitation, with fighting gone and
tho American fighting men suddenly
/ turned into a uniformed tourist seeing
| France. Peace, as has been quoted
often, has victories. and one of them
lis to be the victory over the evil in
| fuences which besiege an idle army.
| In this campaign the Y. NJ c. A has
planned the campaign and the SOL
/ diers are executing it. incidentally.
the Y. Nj. c. A. has gone into compe-
tition with the wine shop, as this will
relate
During the period OF rehabilitation
| the Y, NJ. c. A. will have an even
while the war was on. Then the SOL
diers had the inspiration of being in
! the fight--or backing up the fighters
/ to spur them on. They also were
extremely busy and their time for rec
reation and for spending money was
/ limited. But there Is bound to be a
/ let-down when the treaty of peace is
/ signed and the men in olive dIlb are
waiting for transportation home.
! OF course the army will not be al
! lowed to remain entirely idle between
the end of fhe war and the honorable
I discharge of the last private.
1dleness always means trouble and
the government has no idea of dump
! ing hundRds of thousands of men
( back into the United States after they
have had nothing TO do but loaf for
months, To do this would be to Gre
ate a very unhealthy social and indus
! trial condition in our own country
There are drills and discipline and. for
many, the work of helping to put
| France on her feet again, At the
same time the men have nl,re leisure
and more chances to buy Things than
| they have had before.
| This is where the Y, NJ c. A post
| exchange department comes in. 1t
wants TO make sure that the army will
have IN opportunity to spend its pay
for something that it wants and that
viii he beneficial instead of for some
thing useless or injurious. Men in
uniform are VIGOROUSLY prodieal with
their money. They haven't a great
| deal. but what they have often burns
! a hole in their pockets Which brings
10 mind the story of the sailor who
returned to his ship from shore leave
with broom AS the ship was lib
orally provided with brooms, the off,
Ger of the deck asked the bluejacket
what he was bringing that one aboard
/ for
We'll" replied the tar. you see.
! sir. it was like this. There was only
one store open and when | got there
! everything had been bought but
/ brooms. had TO buy something, SO
l took this
| One of the most important things
/ the Y NJ. c. A. expects to do during
/ the demobiiization period is to enter
I into active competition with the
French wine shops. No. the Red Tri-
angle is not going into the saloon bust
ness. II is planning TO fight alcohol
with sugar According to medical ex-
perts this is the best kind of ammuni-
/ ton to use in a battle against the
more or less well-known demon.
/ Heavy drinkers don't care for sugar,
and heavy consumers OF sweets usual
/ " pass up the booze" So by plying
the soldiers with candy, chocolate and
cookies the Y. NJ. G. A. expects to re-
| duce the consumption very materially.
! 1t is not the theory OF an inspired
temperance advocate but a sound
/ scientific fact that sugar destroys the
craving for alcohol. IN the digestive
process sweets are resolved into ele-
ments that have some of the proper
| ties of alcohol and if a man used
! enough sugar he will never feel any
need for hard stuff. Lest those who
mourn the passing Of ]. BaFleycorn
] from so many parts of the cart b Jump
/ 10 the. conclusion that it sugar has
some of the same properties as aleo-
| hol. one can get pleasantly ''teed-up"
I by eating enough candy we hasten to
add that it can't be done. You can
get very sick stuffing candy but never
intoxicated. unless you confine your
| self to brandy drops. Naturally the
| Y. NJ. c. A. will not specialize in the
! latter line of confectionery.
In order to supply the army with as
much sweet stuff as possible. the Red
Triangle canteens probably will cut
down the variety of their stock and
concentrate on this particular line. All
existing contracts for candy. choco-
| late, cookies and jam. will be increased
! if possible. in the effort to fill that
sweet tooth and to find other teeth
with the same propensities. Aside
from sweets, the canteens will con-
tlnue to carry such articles as cannot
well be had in French stores and for
which there is a steady Cemand
among the American soldiers =
Naturally, transportation conditions
win be much better as soon as hoStilf-
ties cease, The enormous number OF
up guns, ammunition and men to the
| front lines will be released. the serv-
| ice on the railroads will improve as
men return to. work on them and
better distribution of traffic over main
arteries becomes possible. Thus 1T
will be much easier for the Red Tsri-
angle To Keep its canteens well
stocked up. Another Important con-
sideraton is that the canteens will be
fewer in number as the army becomes
concentrated in large camps. These
points undoubtedly will be selected
with view to their transportation Ia
tcilities. So instead of being obliged to
supply n vast number of small points
in the front lines. some Of them al
most inaccessible for motor transpor-
tation of any sort, the post exchange
department will have its problem
considerably Simplified by better To-
cations.
Through the tremendous energy
and efficiency of the meh who are now
running the post exchange depart
ment, it has been possible to solve
practically all of the problems except
that of transportation. The Y. NJ. c..
| A. has in France at the present writ
/ ing a supply of canteen goods sufri-
cient for forty days and in one sys-
TEN of warehouses has enough to sup