Trench and camp., 1919-01-30

that while the government quarter
master purchases his goods at the
lowest price at home, and sells them
at the same price in France, the gov
ernment paying whatever expense or
loss there may be, our organization,
which could not buy in this market,
and had to pay high rates of shipping,
insurance charges and transportation
costs, as well as provide storehouses,
could not possibly sell at the same
price without suffering severe loss.
The writer tells the story of boys
coming in cold and hungry after the
canteen was closed and being refused
service by our Y. M. c. A. secretaries.
Speaking from my own personal ex-
perience. 1 will guarantee that for
every such case that can be found l
can find 100 cases where the secretaries
have remained up all night to serve
the boys coming in under similar con-
ditions, and have not only done that,
but have carried these supplies for
miles through darkness and rain and
mud to give a service that has not
even been asked of them. The SOL
dier is told that the Y. M. G.. A. is ar
organization to furnish him with
these canteen supplies, and when he
is informed that they are out of sup
plies and haven't got what he wants
he bitterly blames the organization,
when in reality the government has
not allowed the organization sufficient
tonnage to bring the supplies to him.
Complaints of Desertion.
Many Of the soldier boys have COM
planned that the Y. M. c. A. deserted
them when they were wounded and
taken to the hospital They say:
"While we were well and had money
tn
they have forgotten about us when
we are sick" Evidently these men do
not know that an arrangement was
entered into whereby the Y. M. Z. a.
was to look after the well and the
American Red Cross was to concern
itself with the care Of the wounded
and sick. This arrangement was
made to prevent any duplication of
effort. I had a personal experience
along this line in coming home on
United States transport. There were
179 wounded on the upper decks, and
Y. M. c. A. secretaries could render
a service to the wounded by enter
tanning them, by writing letters for
or reading to them.
We gladly accepted this PROPOSE
tion, but the first time we appeared
the ship called me to his Office and
said that the wounded were in care
of the surgeon and the medical de-
partment, and that QUE men had no
right to go among them. The chap
lain explained that it was through no
who had responded to his invitation.
On the second day. after the captain
had informed me that we should not
go among the wounded in the future,
the assistant surgeon came to me and
asked il I would not go up and visit
LOT
and told him it was impossible until
the request came from the chief sur
geon. His reply was that the chief
surgeon had asked him to invite me.
On asking for an explanation of the
Snangs Of attitude had he 5sa1 san tns aynE 5ee
where are the Y. M. c. A. secre-
taries? Why have they deserted US?
They stayed with us all through our
camps and even up to the fighting
lines. Why don't they come up now
had been SO strong that the chief sur
geon had yielded and sent this re-
quest.
Call for 10000 Workers.
Now as to the personnel. At the out
break Of the war we had in his coun-
try something like from 1000 to 2.00O
trained general secretaries. What we
call q trained secretary has spent four
years in Y. M. c. A. college prepar-
ing for his life work in the associa-
ton. AS large q number of these men
as possible were sent abroad, having
been we'll trained to do the work Of
the organization in tho camps. But
when the demand came for 10000
workers to be sent Immediately, We
had to call OH volunteers, give them
one months or two weeks intensive
TRAINING and sand than 0Uor Few
people realize that at the beginning
Of this month we had sos workers in
England. 6.S12 in France, 273 On Italy,
SIS in Russia, l in Greece, 8 in Dem
mark with the prisoners of war, 8 in
Switzerland in Germany with pris-
oners. 6 at Gibraltar. 72 in Siberia,
in Palestine, 10 in India, 80 in Mes
opotamla, i'll Egypt. in East Africa
"a total overseas of 1853 workers
and at the same time 4,763 in the
home section, making grand total
of 1856. Every one of those workers
was subject to as thorough an inves-
tigation as we could give as to his
character and ability to serve. Still
some mistakes were made, as was
inevitable in selecting so large a
number. We could not expect from
any of them the efficient service of q
man who had had four years train
ing. But we were prompt to return to
this country every man who showed
he was unfit for chat work, and the
personnel was held to as high a
standard as was possible.
1t took a large force of mechanics
and chauffeurs to repair and operate
our automobiles. We were required d
by the Army to put these men in the
uniform of the Y. NJ C. A. Many of
them did not feel bound to the stand
ard which is expected in the Y. M.
c. A. service; consequently many peo-
pie were shocked by hearing profan-
ity and language unbecoming a per-
son wearing the red triangle uniform.
These secretaries. to my knowledge.
have worked till many of them broke