Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1951-07-20
100 YEARS OF BROTHERHOOD
YMCA Charts FNe-Port Program
To Cover Rural Areas of Nation

The YMCA began aiding service
men during the Civil War when Y
workers, called Christians by
the soldiers, followed both armies
to serve decently cooked hot meals,
help tend the wounded and insist
on the humane treatment of pris-
oners of war. In the Spanish Amer
lean War, they introduced dough-
nuts and coffee to soldiers. At one
battle they arrived with their ra-
tons some three hours ahead Of
the troops! During World War I,
the Y, according to General Per-
shing, performed 80 per cent of
the welfare work for soldiers over
seas and during the recent con-
flict, as now, the YMCA comprised
one-third of the soldier-service
organization known as the U.S.O.
The best of the Us hundred years
of experience will 60 into the new
five-part program designed to COW
er non-urban areas. The organiza-
ton will work this way:
l. The Small City Association, to
operate as independent units in
cities under $4,000 population.
2. The Town and Country Asso-
citation, covering both farms and
small towns in a single county or
group of counties.
3. The County Branch, covering
rural area conferred about large
city.
4. The Outreach Program. ex-
tending from a thriving city YMCA
to cover small neighboring COM
munities.
S. The District Program, all ru-
raj, directed by the state YMCA
organization but sponsored socially
and financially by the area served.
FINANCIAL P r OBJ L E s, of
course, will play a large part in the
US scheduled rural drive. YMCA
officials emphasize that the Y can
not and will not begin at the out
set to construct large, streamlined
buildings, with hotel space, gymna-
Stun, meeting rooms and SWIM
ming pools in order to lure men,
bers. A YMCA, they explain, must
first establish a firm spiritual
foundation and a record for con-
crete service to the community be-
fore it can begin to think in terms
Of permanent headquarters.
Instead, the organization burden
will fall largely on the rural sec
rotary, YMCA career man who
has been given special training for
his job and, more likely than not,
been educated at one Of the US
twenty-five degree-g antin COL
leges. He will begin, like the found
ers of the first YMCA in Boston in
December Of 1851, by interesting
social-minded members of the COM
munity in the Y movement. He
may work through churches Of all
denominations or through the pub
lie schools. Depending upon how
long he has been in the area he
will spend three months to a year
observing local conditions and then
report lengthily to his superiors on
how, in his opinion, the YMCA can
best improve its foothold in your
community and extend its services
to the people who live there.
The stated purpose Of the Y,
which is to develop Christian lead
ership among the nations youth,
has already helped to mould the
character Of such YMCA alumni as
President Truman, U. S. Supreme
Court Justice Douglas. Gene Tun-
ney, Senator Robert Taft Of Ohio
and thousands of other figures of
national importance. Its fondest
hope for the future is that it can
help to build similar qualities in
the young men and women who
must see the nation safely through
it's next hundred years.