The Cordova daily times., 1919-07-05


 oe handled by the government itself through single, non-sectarian agency, in the opinion of Raymond D. Fosdick, chairman of the Commission on Training Camp Activities, express ed in report made public recently by the war department. Secretary Baker wes said to be Substantially in &C., cord' with MT. Fosdick's view.
 Rivalries engendered by the sec tarian nature of the Young Mems Christian Association, Knights of Co., lumbus, Jewish Welfare Board or other societies sharing in the United War Work Campaign fund of $172,- 100000 MT. Fosdick found to have provided "the worst possible basis for social work with the army" a result for which he held the Training Camp , Commission responsible for having turned to these private agencies.
 Tt seems to me-" said Mr. Fosdick, Sthat the lesson of the war in social work involves perhaps three points: The elimination of sectarian auspices; reduction in the number of agencies ernment itself of much of the activity hitherto left to private initiative"
 Misunderstanding Caused Criticism
 Discussing the work of the six or ganizations that served abroad with tlfe army, the report said the Young Mems Christian Association, handling 58 per cent of the war work budget and with 5000 representatives in France, was far the largest and Ire .ceived a good deal of criticism from the soldiers in France"
 Some of this criticism is merited," MT. Fosdick said; much of it is due, I believe, to misunderstanding
 The bulk of the complaint arose from Young Mems Christian Associa- tiOn operation of army canteens, which Chairman Fosdick said was mistake, although it was undertaken as a service to the army and released large combatant personnel. From early days the canteen had been an army perquisite and the soldiers could not understand why it should be handed over to a ''private society millions at home for support the re- port said and continued
 Moreover, the personnel of the Y. M. C. A. was untrained for this kind of work and it soon found itself in maze of business and technical diff culties with which it was unable at first to cope. In the minds of the soldiers, it immediately became commercial organization and from this stigma it has never succeeded in freeing itself"
 So far as the effect of the transfer of the canteens went on the army command, the report continued, "it was a genuine relief to the general staff that during the fighting days of the army it did not have to handle the ever troublesome canteen problem.
 Profiteering Denied
 ''The charge that the Y. M. c. A. made money out of the canteen is of course erroneous" said MT. Fosdick. "However high it's prices may have been in individual localities, consid- cred as business venture the total results show large losses.'
 Another ground for criticism of the Y. M. c. A. which MT. Fosdick said was somewhat justified was in the character of it's personnel. While many of it's men were we'll qualified for their work, he said, many others were utterly unadapted to this pur- pose and had no common ground in mixing with our virile, red-blooded young soldiers" He found also, how ever, the field of choice was limited, men of proper qualifications being in most cases in the army
 High Praise for Women
 The work of 25OO young women serving under the Y. M. c. A. with the troops in France lis beyond praise," MT. Fosdick stated, the girls being far better adapted to the task than the average man. He said also the charge of badly adapted personnel could not be confined to the Y M. c. A. alone.
 Viewed broadly, MT. Fosdick de clared, "the Y. M. c. A. deserves the appreciation of the army and the con- tinued support of the public"
 Similarly MT. Fosdick found that the Knights of Columbus. carried on a helpful work on the same general