Trench and camp., 1919-01-30
BY SERGT. w. HOWARD RAMSEY,
Second III. M. o. r.. 9.


When I enlisted in the Amy a
little over a year ago, was the most
consistent knocker that the Y. M. c.
A. had in my home town. It's religion
row, prejudiced, inefficient. It's Sec
retaries were, as far as I could under
stand them, incompetent nincompoops
who. lacking the education necessary
to fit them for the ministry. had
taken a course at Springfield Training
School and then were repeating.
parrot-like, certain catch phrases
they had learned and trying to con-
ceal the fact that, under their man
agement, the association was not
prospering and that it's Indebtedness
was constantly increasing in spite
Of the optimistic reports that they
submitted that 1t was meeting a real
need In the community.
Whatever my opinion of the ante
bellum Y may have been. have
little but praise for the new organ
ization as I have learned to know 1t
United States and about as many In
France. / am still a little in doubt,
however. as to whether the Y. M. C.
A. has done more for the Army or
whether the Army has done more for
the Y. M. C. A.
Certainly the association has
changed some of its most cherished
views and outgrown some Of its
strongest prejudices. For instance,
1T was only few years ago that
back in Home town there was a great
controversy raised over the restric-
tion placed upon the smoking of
cigarettes in the Y. NJ c. A. bouildine.
1t nearly disrupted the city bowling
league. which had matches listed Oh
the Y alleys. But how many of those
same deadly coffin nails have / Seeh
Y. M. C. A. secretaries selling since
the war began! Smoke In the "Y''
huts? Why, bless your heart. yes!
Smoke so thick that 1t sometimes logged
the moving pictures.
And they sold chewing tobacco and
playing cards at prices that made it
seem really a shame not to take ad-
vantage of such bargains. 1t wasn't
the "Y" that 1 had known at home
at all, but a adminded, free
hearted sort of an organization, in
which ones innocent pleasures were
not held up for reprobation as the
most horrible vices and where tolora-
tion seemed to be one of the cardinal
virtues.
And it appeared to have lost some
of it's sectarianism as well. re-
found that the christian" associa-
ton was. distributing not only Protest
ant literature but Catholic tracts as
well and not only Catholic but jew
ish! I imagine that If we had had
any large contingent of Mohamme-
a. A ENASw lfrrfA 1rn
needs would have been equally well
looked after.
It was my pleasure at St. Nazaire
to meet in one of the Y huts Metho-
dist district superintendent from
Hometown 1--WE used to call them
presiding elders, but the less distinc-
tive designation is now, / believe,
the official .one), and right over his
head was a notice calling attention to
the fact that Confession would be
held in that hut every Friday even
ing for men of the Roman Catholic
faith. Can you imagine such a situa-
tion in the pre-war days? / can't. /
fession" to a Methodist minister was
like a red rag to a bull. No, the Y
didn't force its religion on the SOL
dier; it was there and he could take
it or leave it as he chose, and it was
a religion broad enough to take in
all humanity, with the possible ex-
ception of the Hun, and as non-sec-
tartan as a. postage stamp.
Knocking a Popular Sport.
Knocking the "Y" has become a
popular sport of late, more popular
than it used to be before the war
believe, and there is persistence in
the knocking and similarity in
methods of attack that suggest that
such criticism is not entirely unor-
ganized or unencouraged.
My own company wasn't free from
1t. Some of the men growled every
time they bought box Of cigarettes
that they were being robbed. They
had an idea that the 'SY" should give
them their smokes free, or at least
not charge any more than the commits
sary who sold them at cost without