Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-06-14
ELTON SPEAKS
ABOUT Y. NJ A.
AT WAR FRONT
Discusses Qualifications Of
Men Needed For Active
Work.

States Attorney Thee. B. Elton who
returned earlier in the week from the
national war council conference. of the
~. M. C. A. in New York today dis
llcussed some of the details connected
with "Y"' work on the front: a wealth
of material had been gathered and
was presented to the New York con-
ference in the shape of concrete in
formation.
Mr.. Elton said that the American
infantry in France is billeted mainly
in peasant villages from 5 to S times
as many men In each village as the
normal population.
Enough villages to accommodate a
whole division of about twenty-six
thousand men will often take an area
twenty-five miles across. The men are
therefore separated into units from
three hundred in number up to two
or three thousand. This alone vastly
complexities all problems of public en-
~tertainment and recreation.
Our men are living right in the
houses with the French people. The
French men have all been removed,
that is, all the able-bodied men from
eighteen to fifty years of age In these
peasant villages there are no resource
es Of active recreation. Our men can
not speak with the French people;
there are no newspapers, no news
comes in from outside: life is endlessly
monotonous, except for what is fur
nished by the ~"
Work of Physical Director.
1.-THE food is good but about the
same from day to day. The daily train
ing becomes monotonous and irksome
in the course of a couple of weeks. The
physical director has in his hands h
only physical activity that is open to
the men. Under such conditions boxing
is a, life-saver. Large soccer games are
also valuable. We must remember that
our soldiers have absolutely no other
resources of an active kind. 1t is i'm
possible for men to do nothing. The
situation is quite different from what
it is here in America where we have
so many
another reason why physical direc-
tors are extraordinarily important ov-
err there will become evident as 500
as u men really get into the big
fight. Continued tragedy wears down
personality. A great many men are
permanently injured in ways which we
do not understand but which prevent
their ever getting back into any large
activity. Shell shock is a general term
descriptive of many different kinds of
mental and nervous pathological
states. When a man has for three days
been fighting almost without interrupt
ton, has had practically no sleep with
but little to eat; has been marching
or running, carrying weight, helping
to drag guns and the like. he has been
doing work which makes football seem
like child's play. Men alongside of him
have been left out in the field either
dead or alive. He has seen his own
44~ ~ ~ ~ -, ~F <L>~ IIo-@n -
pieces and some bayonetted. When "a
man under sucacconditions has oppor-
tunity for food and rest and sleep his
body can recover quickly. but often
the tragedy of the situation goes
round and round in his mind and it
is utterly beyond his will to control.
If this lasts long the man is ruined.
! These are the conditions when a man
IS practically without any will. and
temptations for excitement are pract-
ically irresistible. These are the con-
ditions under which humans have al
ways dissipated, for dissipation gives
the one great opportunity for some
interest that will come in and crowd
out the tragedy and the monotony.
Great Cause for Director.
THE physical director who can
substitute football for alcohol. vice or
gambling. is performing a service
greater than a physical director in
peace time ever has the opportunity
to give. 1t is for this service hat our
men will be needed in France shortly.
1t takes trained men of big PERSONAL
ty to give service of this kind.
TT is necessary to organize special
work to hunt for and enlist physical
directors, because there are so few
trained men of this kind in America.
If we had all the trained, men who
are yer thirty-one years of age, we
still would be short. We must take
some men of very little training and
experience because there are not
enough Of the others. We are further
behind with reference to physical di.
%rectors than we are with reference tc
any other class of workers."