The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-11-06
BY WILLIAM ALMoN WOLFF.

When America declared war on Germany, in April, 1917, all sorts of Aorganizations were seized with the desire to do their part. Your club was one of them, wasn't it? And your church-and about every organ ization that helped to keep you in touch with your fel1ow-men and women. There has probably never heen such manifestation of eager ness to serve and be of use as Amer sica made in the first weeks of the war. The sum of the effort that grew out of that impulse of service was tremendous-incalcu Much of 1t was finely and usefully directed; i; %much of it was not. This is the brief and unadorned tale of one collective effort that got results.
 '3 If you happen to be an Elk. a member of the Benevolent and Pro- .tective Order of Elks, you will know a good deal of what is to be told. II you are not. you may be as surprised an I was when I learned what the Elks had done.
 To begin with, to be an Elk you muot be an American. The Elks eliminated the hyphen long before the war made that symbol unpopu- lar in these United States. The Ellls aren't exclusive. They don't care whether n man is Jew or Gentle. Catholic or Protestant. They're not particular about his tailor and they're not interested in his ideas about politics. But if he isn't one hundred per cent. American he doesn't belong. So, when we got into the war, the. Elks, with their mem bership of half million, didn't have to worry about divided loyalty. They knew their members; they could count on them. Elks began enlisting immediately; before Germany gave up more than fifty thousand of them were in the service-a remarkable record, when you consider that good many Elks, naturally, are well beyond military age.
 IT.I.
 The first step the Elks took toward organizing their war work wss the appointment of the E1ks' War Relief Commission, on June 2, 1917 John : K. Tener, who is about equally proud z of having been Governor of Pennsyl- vania and president of the National I league, headed the commission, and has been giving up nearly all of his . time to it's work ever since his ap- pointment. His fellow workers-and their names ought to be known!- were Joseph T. Tanning, Jerome B. Fisher James R. Nicholson, Edward Rightor and Fred Harper.
 Tener's commission began by con- sulting with the Red Cross and the War Department. In July it report ed to the Grand Lodge that the first thing to be done was the establish ment of base hospital units, to be equipped by the Elks and operated by the War Department. Immedi- ateJy the Grand Lodge voted a mill lion dollars and authorized Tener and his associates to go ahead. No strings were tied to the commission; it was needed, and give it once. And it was well understood, that if a million dollars didn't prove to be enough another million could be had for the asking. As a matter of fact, the first million has not all beer spent yet, but if the work of recon struction requires it any part of an other million can be had at once.
 The ITnfypr<ffv of Virpfnfa and the University of Oregon had both or : Eanazed base hospital units. Fred : Harper. who was, in 1917. Grand Exalted Ruler of the E1ks. was ; Virginia man, and knew about his 11mfrersitys work. So the Elks and 1he old university got together The sfcdks provided the equipment, at a Sscost of $60,000, for a base hospital { unit of thousand beds, and little later. at the suggestion of Senator fCfsanaoer1ain of Oregon, who is an fctsS did the same thing for the Ore ,Eon unit. Both hospitals have done splendid work in France.
 At the same time Tener and the others were looking ahead. The Elks have always worried about men whom life has more or less knocked out Elks have given many a poor .deyil a helping hand, as individuals and as an organization. And a good ization were preoccupied with the ]; problem of the men who were com- ing back from France blind and crippled. They were among the first people who determined that, so far as it lay in their power to prevent it, no man blinded or crippled in this war should ever need charity.
 On Parker Hill, in Boston, there construction hospital planned after American went to war. It has $50 beds, and no more perfect institution of it's type can be found anywhere in built and equipped the hospital. They worked themselves, and they worked with the medical department of the army, in finding out just what was needed. And they furnished every cent of the cost-nearly $3oo,oO0.
 These were the big, centralized contributions of the Elks to the win ming of the war. There were others: of somewhat similar character. At Camp sherman, near Chillicothe, O., for example, a bad situation de- Veloped because the little town and friends who came to visit men and officers in the camp. The local lodge of the Elks did its best, and finally asked the Grand Lodge-the for help. The answer was the erection of a building where com Portable rooms and good food were at the disposal of visitors at cost price.
 Cinderella. the Salvation Army.
 But this sort of activity didn't sat- isfy the EIkS-the half million or more individual Elks, scattered all over the country in their local lodges They knew the part their order was playing They were proud of that. But the two base hospitals, the big reconstruction hospital in Boston, all the other things the Grand Lodge had done and was doing, didn't give the individual Elk much chance tS feel that he himself was helping After all, what did paying an assess ment of a dollar or so amount to? It amounted to a lot in the aggregate, of course, and the Elks knew that. and were glad But-they wanted to do more
 They did, No one knows just how the association between the E1<s and the Salvation Army began But il igrew into one of the big things of Ithe war.
 The Salvation Army went to work .uutetly and without any talk, soon ms we began mobilizing our new ar Snies. The Salvation Army isn't rich 1t hasn't any machinery for collect . ing money. And still it succeeded in