America's War for Humanity Part 74

Four years and four months ago the German leadership, fully confident of its strength, a.s.sured of its weapons, arrogant beyond anything in recorded history, challenged the organized and unorganized forces of the civilized world to mortal combat. They thrust the Imperial German sword through all the covenants and commands of civilization and of justice.

Bursting out upon an unprepared and unsuspecting world, they were, despite their incredible strength, checked by France on the battlefield of the Marne, encircled by the British fleets, and like Napoleon after Leipzig, condemned to ultimate defeat. At the hour when the white flag was brought to the French lines, British armies were approaching the field of Waterloo, American armies stood victorious in Sedan, and French armies were sweeping forward from the Oise to the Meuse. The crowning humiliation came with the admission of defeat. Germany sought armistice at the hands of a Marshal of France!

FOCH--"THE GRAY MAN OF CHRIST"

In the closing days of the great war a striking contrast was drawn by the Los Angeles Times between William Hohenzollern and Marshal Foch, from the religious standpoint. The former German monarch coupled Gott with himself as an equal, while Ferdinand Foch was called, with apparent reason, "the gray man of Christ."

"This has been Christ's war," said the Times. "Christ on one side, and all that stood opposed to Christ on the other side. And the generalissimo, in supreme command of all the armies that fought on the side of Christ, is Christ's man. * * * It seems to be beyond all shadow of doubt that when the hour came in which all that Christ stood for was to either stand or fall, Christ raised up a man to lead the hosts that battled for him." And the Times continues:

"If you will look for Foch in some quiet church, it is there that he will be found, humbly giving G.o.d the glory and absolutely declining to attribute it to himself. Can that kind of a man win a war? Can a man who is a practical soldier be also a practical Christian? And is Foch that kind of a man? Let us see.

"A California boy, serving as a soldier in the American Expeditionary Forces in France, wrote a letter to his parents in San Bernardino recently, in which he gives, as well as anyone else could give, the answer to the question we ask. This American boy, Evans by name, tells of meeting Marshal Foch at close range in France.

"Evans had gone into an old church to have a look at it, and as he stood there with bared head satisfying his respectful curiosity, a gray man with the eagles of a general on the collar of his shabby uniform entered the church. Only one orderly accompanied the quiet, gray man. No glittering staff of officers, no entourage of gold-laced aides were with him; n.o.body but just the orderly.

"Evans paid small attention at first to the gray man, but was curious to see him kneel in the church, praying. The minutes pa.s.sed until full three-quarters of an hour had gone by before the gray man arose from his knees.

"Then Evans followed him down the street and was surprised to see soldiers salute this man in great excitement, and women and children stopping in their tracks with awe-struck faces as he pa.s.sed.

"It was Foch! And now Evans, of San Bernardino, counts the experience as the greatest in his life. During that three-quarters of an hour that the generalissimo of all the Allied armies was on his knees in humble supplication in that quiet church, 10,000 guns were roaring at his word on a hundred hills that rocked with death.

"Moreover, it is not a new thing with him. He has done it his whole life long."

CHAPTER x.x.xII

HOME FOLLOWS THE FLAG

_Nearly 28,000,000 Red Cross Relief Workers Distributing Aid in Ten Countries--Two War Fund Drives in 1918 Raise $291,000,000--Other Organizations Active--3,000 Buildings Necessary--Caring for the Boys--Boy Scouts Play Their Part Well._

From the hour of enlistment to the hour of return, the United States soldiers and sailors have had with them, throughout the war, the advantage of intelligent, sympathetic help from various civilian organizations, co-ordinating with the military.

First of all is the Red Cross, but that organization really is a non-combatant arm of the national service; and its work, generously financed by public subscription, is the greatest of its kind ever done in field or hospital, in any war.

Red Cross history would fill a big volume, no matter how meagrely told.

There are 3,854 chapters of the organization. At the annual meeting of their war council, October 23, 1918, the chairman, Henry P. Davison, submitted a report that is literally astonishing, because the facts related had developed without, publicity and were quite unknown to the people of the country at large. Here are a few of them, taken from Mr.

Davison's official statement:

NEARLY 28,000,000 WORKERS

The Red Cross in America has a membership of 20,648,103, and in addition, 8,000,000 members in the Junior Red Cross--a total enrollment of more than one-fourth the population of the United States.

American Red Cross workers produced up to July 1st, 1918, a total of 221,282,838 articles of an estimated value of $44,000,000. About 8,000,000 women are engaged in canteen work and the production of relief supplies.

The American Red Cross is distributing aid in ten countries--the United States, England, France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Palestine, Greece, Russia and Siberia. Besides it has sent representatives to Serbia, Denmark and Madeira.

Two war fund "drives" in 1918 brought money contributions to the amount of $291,000,000. Membership dues of $24,500,000 brought the total up to $315,500,000 for the fiscal year. All this money was expended for purposes of pure mercy.

It has been because of the spirit which has pervaded all American Red Cross effort in this war that the aged governor of one of the stricken and battered provinces of France stated not long since that, though France had long known of American's greatness, strength and enterprise, it remained for the American Red Cross in this war to reveal America's heart.

The home service of the Red Cross, with its now more than 40, workers, is extending its ministrations of sympathy and counsel each month to upward of 100,000 families left behind by soldiers at the front.

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS ACTIVE

Next to the Red Cross in importance comes the Young Men's Christian a.s.sociation, affectionately known to the army as "the Y." Then the Young Women's Christian a.s.sociation; the National Catholic War Council; the Salvation Army; the Knights of Columbus; The Jewish Welfare Board: the War Camp Community Service; and The American Library a.s.sociation.

What might be called the field army of these seven great agencies comprises more than 15,000 uniformed workers on both sides of the Atlantic and in Siberia; and General Pershing, late in October of 1918, asked that additional workers be sent over at the rate of at least a thousand a month.

They represent every type of activity--secretaries, athletic directors, librarians, preachers, lecturers, entertainers, motion picture operators, truck drivers, hotel managers and caterers. Many of them pay their own expenses. Those who cannot do that are paid their actual living expenses if they are single; and if they have families, are allowed approximately the pay of a second lieutenant.

3,000 BUILDINGS NECESSARY

More than 3,000 separate buildings have been erected (or rented) to make possible this huge work. These are of various sorts, from the great resorts at Aix les Bains, where our soldiers can spend their furloughs, to the hostess houses at the cantonments on this side. In addition, there are scores of warehouses and garages, and hundreds of "huts"

which consist of nothing more than ruined cellars and dugouts in war-demolished towns or old-line trenches.

These figures do not include the buildings occupied by the organizations in times of peace, though all such buildings and quarters are at the disposal of soldiers and sailors. All are supported by their regular funds, supplemented by contributions entirely apart from those funds.

ALL PULL TOGETHER

The spirit of these seven organizations is uplifting in the broadest sense of the word. They depend upon people of ideals for support. Their purpose is to surround each boy, so far as possible, with the influences that were best in his life at home. Differences of creed or dogma are unknown. The W.M.C.A. and The Jewish Welfare Board work side by side with no thought of divergence in faith. They are as one, and their working creed is service, in the spirit of brotherhood to all men.

These are 842 libraries, with 1,547 branches, containing more than 3,600,000 books and 5,000,000 copies of periodicals. In the navy-branches are maintained 250 additional libraries aboard our war and mercantile ships.

Almost every family in the United States having a son in the service has received letters written on the stationery of one or other of the organizations, for together they supply abundant writing materials. They supply 125,000,000 sheets of writing paper a month, and keep on hand all the time about $500,000 worth of postage stamps.

A soldier boy finds himself located in a little French village that before the war sheltered 500 people and now must accommodate as many soldiers besides. His sleeping place is a barn, which he must share with forty other boys. There is no store in the town, no theatre, no library, no place to write a letter or be warm and dry--until the hut comes.

ALL MODERN IDEAS

With it come books and writing paper and baseb.a.l.l.s and bats and boxing gloves and chocolate and cigarettes and motion pictures and lectures and theatrical entertainments. Home comes with the hut, bringing all the love and care and cheer of the folks who have stayed behind.

The boy is called into the front line trenches. He is there through the long cold night, his feet wet, his whole body chilled to the bone. As the first rays of the sun announce the new day, a shout of welcome runs through the trench. He looks to see a secretary--Y, or K. of C., or Jewish Welfare Board or Salvation Army--it matters not. Down the trench comes this secretary with chocolates and cigarettes, doughnuts and hot coffee or cocoa--a reminder that even here, in front, the love and care of the folks back home still follow him.

CARING FOR THE BOYS

Is he wounded? Aiding the stretcher bearers, the secretaries work side by side, taking the wounded back to the dressing stations.

Is he taken prisoner? Even in the prison camp the long arm of these friendly organizations reaches out to aid him. In Switzerland both the Y and the K. of C. have established headquarters, and through such neutral agencies as the Danish Red Cross they carry on their program of help even in the enemy prison camps.

Does he wish to send money back to the folks at home? The Y.M.C.A. and the K. of C., the Jewish Welfare Board and the Salvation Army transmit hundreds of thousands of dollars a month from the front to mothers and sisters and wives over here.

If the Boy is allowed to visit the armies of our Allies he will find that they too have asked for the hut, and received it. More than a thousand Y huts under the name of "Foyers du Soldat" are helping to maintain morale in the French army--erected at the special request of the French Ministry of War. The King of Italy made a personal request for the extension of the "Y" work to his armies. The men who were charged with the task of winning this war believed that America could do nothing better to hasten victory than to extend the influence of these great creators and conservers of morale to the brave soldiers of our Allies.

The cheer, the comfort, the recuperative influence of these united services to our soldiers cannot be overestimated. They are incalculably valuable--and they are purely and originally American.

WOUNDED YANKS ARE CHEERFUL