Hickory Daily Record

JOHN R. MOTT ON Y.M.C.A. WORK

"There are more American soldiers in France today than you think. They have cut into their principal to go. You will have to cut into your principal to support them."

Thus speaks John R. Mott, general secretary of the international committee of the Young Men's Christian Association, in a statement issued at the outset of the great campaign which the Y. M. C. A. will wage during the week of November 11 to 19 for $35,000,000 in support of war work.

"Soon there will always be 10,000 American fighting men on leave in Paris. We have been asked to build an officers hotel for them and meeting places for the men, Dr. Mott continues.

"Already there are 1,500,000 Americans in the army here and overseas. By July there will be 2,500,000.

"Follow one of these soldiers- maybe he is your own son, your neighbor's son or your former business associate. Follow him to the port of embarkation, which he leaves when his family does not know. and where we are trying to do some of our best work. Follow him across on a transport with a Y. M. C. A. secretary all the way to the debarkation point. Here the harpies are ready-not kept away by a camp zone as in this country. In English of French villages his only point of contact with America is the Y. M. C., but here he sees American newspapers.

Follow him as he will drill this winter in snow and sleet, quartered in pig sties, cowsheds or in the open. Follow him out to 'No Man's Land' where the only thing he finds to eat is a cake of chocolate the Y M. C. A. worker has slipped into his pocket last thing.

"And you may follow him to those long dark trenches, where, allowing a foot to a man, they bury them head to foot, head to foot, head to foot,-as far as you can see--and then cover them over. And you may follow them as they come out of that other trench, nerve shattered the weak to be met by the Y. M. C. A. cup of coffee or chocolate. Under fire in one place we gave 25,000 cups of hot coffee to these men. Nine per cent of our secretaries are killed in this work. And perhaps you may follow him home, permanently disabled on one of these transport ships for wounded, and here the Y. M. C. A. worker is also found.

"I never believed in Russia as I do now. There are four reasons why Russia is apparently so weak; Participation in the war; Political revolution; Social revolution; Religious
is finding her hands more than full with only the first of these. Then we should not criticise Russia who is struggling with all four. I admit their army and navy are demoralized, and this is why,-they have buried 3,000,000 of their men and boys; they have had 2,000,000 mutilated; 2,500,000 are in prison camps; they have been betrayed by their rulers, and then there is the insidious German intrigue. What the Russian army needs is something like the Y M. C. A.,-call it anything you wish. The Russian soldiers must be kept in spirit at the front. It must be done at once. If we can hold the Russian army together this winter, even if it shouldn't fight a single battle, it means one million French, English, Italian and American lives will be saved.

"France has cabled for 500 Y. M. C. A. workers. Italy has asked the Y. M. C. A. to take care of its army of 3,000,000 men. And then there are the fragment armies of Belgium, Mesopotam. and Egypt-made fragments for our sake. And the prisoners of war.

Sometimes I wonder if I am awake when I realize what they have turned to my country for -what my country can give."