Bisbee daily review., 1919-03-02
In Justice to tine Y. Nj. c. A.

| l There is danger that very grave 1 injustice will be done the Y. NJ. c. 4. Our fighters seems to be in groucb with it. The most human quality of youth is gossip ''If they didn't kick. [ they wouldn't fight" said an officer in France last summer when he remind ed "Y'' secretary that his dough boys were kicking about their mail, their food. their quarters, and their pay.
 Before the armistice was signed we used to hear that the Y NJ. c. A. was open to criticism behind the lines, but that at the front the services rendered under fire were beyond praise. One commanding officer insisted that the ''Y" secretary attached to his bat talion march with the men through paris on the Fourth of July Secre- taries were mentioned in citations and were elected honorary members of outfits
 You cant very well criticise a man when he crawls out to your machine gun nest through a barrage to bring you your smokes and cookies and chocolates and letters from home. And the records show that secretaries did things like that. Many were wounded, some were killed.
 The secretary in his hut back in the training area had a harder time and less opportunity to win popular ity. He was a country stOrekeeper, a janitor, a theatrical booking agent, a promoter of athletics and a librarian rolled into one.
 Ef,rrnp pr1v tho orifIci-p, ono 0s the Y. M c. A. took these difficulties and differences into account, and was at least discriminating but now it is
 becoming fashionable to say unpleas- ant things about the organization and much of. it's really fine work is dis regarded.
 When you remember that each mili- tary unit formed its opinion of the whole '. M. c. A. organization from one E- M- C. A secretary you can realize how much energy, tact and re sourcefulness each of many hundreds of secretary should have had Unfor- tunately many of them didn't measure up. That was inevitable
 Perhaps the greatest fault of the Y M- C. A was that it assumed too many burdens. It was asked by the army to run the canteens. and it did It was asked to organize entertainments. athletics and educational work. and it did. It was asked to send money home for the soldiers, and it did. The army called for more new secretaries, and still more The Y. M. c. A. got them and sent them over, believing that, even though all of them weren't ideal, it was better to send them than to let the landing troops be without their huts- And the troops were land ing by the hundreds of thousands The army wanted one secretary for each unit of five hundred men. But with the number of men in the army and the number engaged in jobs which they couldn't leave at home, that goal was never reached. Ask the men who were without ''Y" service part of the time They will tell you what it meant. They are the ones who realize best what our army's life would have been without this organization. The T. NJ C. A. assumed the prOsaic, useful jobs There was little picturesqueness in it's work. There were weeks and months of gruelling labOF-in warehouses, for instance.
 To dismiss with th0ughtless, unin- formed word the efforts of an organ ization which has earnestly tried to do its best is not fair play. One hears the work of the Y. M- c. A. contrasted unfavOTably with that of the Red Cross. There is sentimental reason. perhaps, for that The basic appeal of the Red Cross is that it helps the helpless The Y M C A. dealt with whole men That was the understood