The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1919-03-27

the front-line trenches, includes 2
wide and varied program of movies,
concerts and theatricals, also read
ing matter, writing materials and
athletic goods, all free of. charge. It
was stated as a fact that the night
the 42nd Division left for France,
more than one million letters. writ
ten on 7. paper, were mailed from
Long Island. Up to March 1913,
2138 men and 2O2 women had been
sent as Y. workers to France, 115
million cigarettes, 9 million cigars, 2
million packages of chewing gum and
80 million cans of preserved fruit
! had been distributed free to the sold
/ iers, and athletic goods aggregating
many tons and one million feet of
moving picture film had been sent
overseas. $3.50 Y centers had been
} established outside of Paris and II
buildings fully equipped within. At
the various rest camps established
for soldiers on furlough, all that is
finest and best in American home
| life has been placed by the Y, at the
| disposal of the war-weary soldiers
In his second criticism, the person
mel of the Y. Workers, Mr.. James
asserts that many of their managers
should have been left in America to
conduct pink teas and fill Chataqua
| platforms, for while there were doubt
| less many Y workers that were effic-
lent and Iovable, and every ready to
share dangers and hardships with
| the boys, there were enought unde-
sirables to iniure the reputation of
| the capable ones. Mr.. Perkins, in
reply to this, says that the urgent
need for many workers, made it i'm
| possible in every case, to choose eff
fcient one, but that a man was dis
missed as soon as his unftness was
| determined, and the incapables had
been largely weeded out.
Mr.. James third criticism is that
too great zeal for the moral welfare
of the doughboy, who considers him
self capable of looking after his own
morals, particularly when on fur
Tough, has unused up the whole pro-
gram" and made the Y unpopular as
a recreation center, suggesting that
the Army is no reformatory, and war
not q Sunday School Picnic. Mr..
Perkins answers this with the able
argument that if safeguarding the
morals of our soldiers and sailors is
ground for criticism and unpopular
| ity, the Y. NJ. G.. A. must plead guilty,
but that it is willing to await the
later impartial judgement of Amer
lean fathers and mothers as to this.
In conclusion, summing up the Y.
aside from the church as the most
potent moral force in the world today
who shall say its mistakes, often
magnifed by busybodies who seem
able to stir up a noise vastly out of
por portion to their Importance, have
not been the result of undertaking
more than it was able to perform,
working along vast lines and with in
sufficient preparation? AS personal
instance of its efficiency a Hays
boy wrote his parents at Christmas
thine that he had not heard from
home ssince June. As more than
fifty letters had been written him in
that time, a letter enclosing one to
him, was Immediately dispatched to
the Y NJ. G. A headquarters at Toul,
and as soon as word could be return
ed, the parents were assured that
the letter had been placed in the
boys hands by the Y. NJ. c. A. secre-
tary, and letter THE same morning
from the son confirmed this.
1 quote the following from the Lit
erary Digest of Nov. 9th, cit was at
a little hospital in France. A Y
worker was passing and thought of
a Scotch boy within, with whom he
had been talking that afternoon. He
entered, expecting to find the boy
marked for transfer home that night
but when he approached, he found
that something had INTERVIEWED be-
tween all hopes and plans. The
wounded lads eyes were bright with
fever, and he beckoned to the man
of mercy. "Come here, mummy" he
said; put your arm under my head
and think will sleep to night"
"And then" says the worker, 81
saw that he had become a child
again" Clear me say my prayers
now, mummy" he said, and begin
ming, "Our father which art in Heav-
en-" he felt his way through it like
a blind man in a narrow alley, till he
got tangled in forgetfulness, and
stumbled for moment into silence.
Then looking up at me he said, kiss
me, mummy" and 1 kissed him, and
tucked him up as his mother used to
do, when he was a boy at home, and
by a way of sleep that night, he
found a dawn beyond our daybreak. !"
AS we come to realize more fully,
the immense value of this great or
ganization to the welfare and moral
of the American soldier, let US dis
courage criticism and charges of mis-
management, in view of the magni-
tude of the good accomplished by
this big hearted brothers of Human