The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-10-12
HERE IS ANSWER! RIGHT Up IN LINES
why Does 1t Cost u s. More Dick RICHTER of Topeka Tells
Ihan others in Ware of Y. NJ. C. A. Work.
because costs Americans Interesting Story Former
More To Do Anything! State Journal Man.
YANk HIGHEST PAID SOLDIER GO over TOP WITH YANkS
And His Food Would No Place Too Warm for Work.
ury to Other Fighters. ers With Chocolate.
This Is One Sometimes They Give Their
Loan Necessity Now. Lives to Good Cause.
RIGHT up IN LINES
Dick Fighter of Topeka Tells
of Y. NJ. C. A. Work.
Interesting Story From Former
State journal Man.
GO OVER TOP WITH YANkS
No Place Too Warm for Work.
ers With Chocolate.
Sometimes They Give Thei,
Lives to Good Cause.

Lives 10 GOO0 cause.
/ A most interesting account of the
work of the brave men with the Y. NJ.
c. A. war work service in France has
been received Nby the State Journal
from Richard Fighter. son of DIR. and
Mrs. William H. Fighter Of Topeka.
"Dick" RICHTER. as he Is fainiliarly
known in Topeka, has been in France
with the Y. NJ. c.. A. for some time.
He has been assigned to important
warehouse work and has been up near
the line recently.
His letter. in part, follows:
September Ii, 1918.
I would not be greatly surprised IL
you Americans at home have read
something of the great counter often
! sive about Chateau Thierry, in which
the American doughboys did some of
| the finest fighting of the war, and in
which they entered for the first time
as a really vital military factor Ev-
erybody knows about that. But I
doubt if very many people know what
the Y. M. c. A. was doing in that ex-
citing period. The numerous persons
who go '.5oy-riding." as we say over
here, Ito see the 'front.' have little
conception of how much labor was in
volved before that little temporary
canteen they noticed along the road
was established. They do not know
that the little jug OF chocolate which
the boys were SO eagerly buying was
made especially for the Y. NJ. C. A.
with materials furnished by the Y. M.
c. A. that it was unloaded from a tiny
french box car at a regional Y. NJ
c. y warehouse by American business
E1en who were handling trucks for
the first time in their lives, that it was
reloaded by these sa1.o men on big
Y. NJ. c. A. trucks driven by other
American business men. who had
travelled night and day, thru all kinds
ri weather. eating once in q while
just to keep the engine turning. to get
1t. and that it was delivered by these
trucks to small divisional warehouses,
whence it was carried in other trucks
and Ford camionettes up to the front
lines. where 1t was distributed by sec
retaries who constantly, wherever
they go, live, eat, sleep and work with
the men who do the fighting. go cover
the top" with a pack OF chocolate and
cigarets On their back. play the game
to the limit. and sometimes pay the
dealer.
RICHTER Near the Front.
Talk about romance in war. I have
seen the Y. NJ. c. A. secretary hop |
aboard q passing army truck with a |
dozen boxes of supplies, travel up be-
hind the front where the fighting was |
particularly hot, hop off again with |
his boxes, and start an impromptu |
canteen along the road for the boys |
coming out of the lines. have seen |
a Y. NJ. c. A. camionette racing for |
dear life to beat a six-inch shell to the |
next cross road. I have seen grey |
haired Y. M. c. A. men who had lived |
for weeks under constant shell fire |
and bombing night and day with the |
men, with faces drawn by the con-
slant strain, but as game and eager |
as the best of them.
During the greater part of the criti- |
cal fighting I had the good fortune to |
house a. bare twenty miles from Cha
teau Thierry, warehouse which sup
Piled all the front line American divi- |
sions in that sector with all the sup
plies they received for distribution to
the fighting forces. In two months
over a million dollars worth of ma
terial OF every conceivable description
passed thru our hands. Whose hands? |
Wen, there were five of us, and we
did all the manual labor ourselves.
One was formerly the commercial
agent for the northwest of one of our
big railroads, and over so; another
was the president of a motor sales
corporation in New York state, and
also over so; a third was a whole
sale cigar manufacturer haiIing from
NeW England, ana over 40; the fourth,
the owner of button factory in
Pennsylvana. He. too, was over 40.
Every army division. you know, has
a Y. NJ. c. A. division attached to it,
which travels with it and ministers
to It's needs. In the great training
camps in central France these Y. M.
C. A. divisions have big huts and time
and opportunity to organize elaborate
work. But in the line they are con-
stantly on the move: a division is here
one day and gone the next, and the
life is very strenuous and exacting.
The z. M. C. A. division has division
al secretary, a business secretary, a
secretary. an accountant, an
athletic man, cannon and camionette
drivers, warehouseman, o Transport
tation man and many canteen workers.
When a division comes into the line
In this sector its drivers search out
our warehouses and present orders on
US for goods. Our entire stock is in
voiced and divided into as many parts
as we have divisions to supply, and
they continue to draw upon US as long
as they remain on our front for every
thing they require, from razor blades
to bicycles and from cookies to chew
Ing tobacco.
Canton Drivers, knights.
The canton drivers are indeed the