Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1919-05-13
PERKINS TELLS OF
"YWORK IN EUROPE
Reasons for the UnfavorabIe
Criticism Are Explained.
DIFFICULT TO GET GOOD MEN
Complaints of Prices Charged in Can
teens Generally Not Justified
Immense Extent of the organi-
zation's Numerous Activities
Abroad During War.

New York, May George w. Per-
kins of New York, chairman of the
finance committee of the war work
council of the Y. NJ. @. A., has Just
returned from Europe, where he spent
over four months in making a thor
ough investigation of the work done
oy the \. M. c. A. His report was
made public today, and in large part
is an answer TO the unfavorable criti-
cisms. of the organization so often
heard of late.
First explaining the difficulty of Sc
curing efficient workers and the care
exercised in the selection of the II ,229
persons who were sent abroad, Mr..
Perkins says:
Much has been said about the in
efficiency of some of these workers,
and, without doubt, number of them
were inefficient. In any form of or
ganizatiOn in civilian life, whether it
be public schools, chain stores or cor
poratiOns, if 80 per cent of those
originally employed make good, the
result is regarded as highly satisfac-
tory. If 10 per cent of the IL .229
people operating in France for the
Y. M. G. A. were inefficient it would
mean that there were 1,122 men and
women who were more or less of a
failure. 1 do not believe that any
thing like this. number of people were
unsuccessful; but if under the close
scrutiny which the soldiers give these
welfare workers even per cent of
them were failures, it would have put
a large amount of criticism in circula-
ton, and the work of the 90 per cent
who were successful would be forgot
ten in the publicity given to the 3
per cent who were unsuccessful.
''That the workers as whole were
brave and unselfish is shown by the
fact that IA Y. NJ. G. A. secretaries
were killed and 126 others were
wounded"
Why canteen Prices Varied.
The report relates the troubles and
expenses met by the Y. NJ. G. A. after
it undertook the management of the
army canteens at the request of Cen
eral Pershing and the confused condi-
tons that made it impossible to arrive
at an average cost price of the goods
sold to the soldiers. 1t continues:
"The Y. M. c. A. never solicited
money for the purpose of giving away
its canteen supplies. If the Y. NJ. @. A.
had given away canteen supplies In
France on the scale of its sales, 1t
would have spent in this activity alone
at least as much money as its entire
expenditures in France for all its ac-
tivities. The constant policy of the
Y. NJ. G. A. was to sell canteen sup
plies at as nearly cost as possible, and
to bend every effort, when fighting was
in progress, to furnish the men at the
front with supplies free of charge
where it was at all possible to get the
goods to them.
Some have criticized the Y. NJ. G.
A. for not giving away more articles,
such as cigarettes, chocolate, etc. Its
policy has been not to give away gen.
orally, but only in special and needy
cases. From June; 1918, to April 1919,
the Y. NJ. G. A. handled in France
alone upward of 2,000,000000 pack
ages of cigarettes, 100000 bars of
chocolate, 100000 cans of smoking
tobacco, 100000 cigars, 60,000,000
cans of jam, 29O0O,OOO packages of
chewing gum, and 100000 packages
of candy. These are only few of the
items handled, but the size of thISe
figures should convince anyone that it
would be financially impossible for the
Y. NJ G. A. to give it's supplies away
generally. Furthermore, the army
does not favor any such policy. 1t
thinks that it is far better for the men
to spend their money on such articles
as these than to spend it in other
ways. For the most part the men hold
the same view"
Its Varied Activities.
In considerable detail Mr.. Perkins
relates the varied and extraordinarily
extensive activities of the Y. NJ. G. A.
abroad, including the manufacture of
much of its supplies, the establishment
of many hundreds of huts, with ath-
letics, moving pictures, and various
other forms of entertainment; the
management of sightseeing tours for
soldiers on leave; the immense work
of the educational and religious de-
partments and the distribution of read
ing matter. In conclusion Mr. Perkins
says:
"The Y. NJ. G. A. undoubtedly made
mistakes, but what it tried to do was
to respond to every call that the army
made, on it. 1t never hesitated to
tackle any job it was asked to under
take: it did not sidestep any task it
was asked to perform. It took the po-
sitiOn that it was in Europe to do all
1t could, as best 1t could that when it
was called on TO render service of
any kind, its duty was to respond in
the same kind of spirit that the SOL
diers did and not hold back because
adverse circumstances might make it
impossible to meet with maximum sue
cess. Surely every contributor of
money will approve the Y NJ. c. AS
course in this respect"