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 baseballs 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.