85.2:W 45x
REPJXR.T
TO
THE SECRET ARY OF WAR
ON THE
ACTIVITIES OF
WELFARE
ORGANIZATIONS
SERVING WITH THE A. E. F.
GOVERNMENT PUBLICATION
UNIV. OF WASH. LIBRARIE^
SEP 112017
U.S. DEPOSITORY COPY
BY
RAYMOND B. FOSDICK
Chairman of the Commission on Training Camp
Activities, War Department.
Ml li li
1919 .
The War Department authorized publication
of the following statement by Raymond B. Fos-
dick, Chairman of the Commission on Training
Camp Activities, who recently retumed from
Europe, ivhere for five months he was attached
to General Pershing’s Staff in the capacity of
civilian adviser in matters of morale. He spent
three months with the A.' E. F. in 1918 in a
similar capacity. The Secret ary of War is sub¬
stantially in accord with Mr. Fosdick’s state¬
ment :
I.
Of the seven organization that joined in the
United War Work Campaign for the one hun¬
dred and seventy million dollar fund last fall,
six are working with our troops in Prance, to-
wit: The Y. M. C. A.; the Y. W. C. A.; the
National Catholic War Council (Knights of
Columbus) ; the Jewish Welfare Board; the Sal¬
vation Army and the American Library Asso¬
ciation. The other organization, the War Camp
Community Service, is not represented with the
American Expeditionary Forces by reason of
the fact that it would be impossible to develop
its specialized line of work under existing con-
ditions in France. The Red Cross is, of course,
operating in a distinctly different field and is
therefore not considered in this discussion.
These six organization above mentioned have
been working directly under the Administrative
Section of General Pershing ?s Staff and every
effort has been made to coordinate and adjust
their lines of work so as to eliminate overlapping
and duplication. Added to the tremendous
project of education, athletics and entertain¬
ment which the Army itself is conducting, the
work of these six soeieties helps to form what is
probably the largest and most comprehensive
leisure-time program ever undertaken. The
effect of all of .this work upon the future citizen¬
ship of the United States is incalculable, and the
American people can take pride in their own
generous participation in its successful prosecu¬
tion.
YOUNG MEN's CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
Of the six organizations in France, the Y. M.
0. A. is the largest and its budget constitutes
58%' of the money collected last fall. The Y.
M. C. A. has received a good deal of criticism
from the soldiers in France. Some of this
criticism is merited; much of it is due, I be-
lieve, to misunderstanding. Probably the bulk
of the criticism arises from the operation by the
Y. M. C. A. of the Army canteens. Personally,
I believe it was a mistake for the Y. M. C. A.
to go into this business at all. In doing so it
entered upon a delicate field fraught with diffi-
culties. The canteen as an institution has been
from early days an Army perquisite by which
company funds were increased, and the soldiers
of the A. E. F., without adequate information
as to the arrangement, could not understand why
it should be handed over to a private society
which was at the same time raising millions at
home for support. Moreover, the personnel of
the Y. M. C. A. was untrained for this kind of
work, and it soon found itself in a maze of
business and technical difficulties with which it
was unable at first to cope. In the minds of the
soldiers, it immediately became a commercial
organization and from this stigma it has never
succeeded in freeing itself.
It must be remembered, however, that the Y.
M. C. A, undertook this work as a distinct service
to the Army Command, and at a time of crisis
its handling of this canteen proposition saved a
large combatant personnel for our fighting forces.
4
It was a genuine relief to the General Staff that
during the fighting days of the Army, it did not
have to handle the ever-troublesome canteen
problem. .The charge that the Y. M. C. A. made
money out of the canteen is of course erroneous.
However high its prices may have been in in¬
dividual localities, considered as a business ven¬
ture, the total results show large losses.
Another ground for criticism of the Y. M. C.
A. may be found in the character of its per¬
sonnel. While many of the men chosen to work
among the troops were excellently qualified,
many others were utterly unadapted to this pur¬
pose, and had no common ground in mixing with
our virile, red-blooded young soldiers. The ex¬
cuse for this situation may perhaps be found, in
part at least, in the fact that the best men for
this kind of work wrere themselves in the Army,
and other sources for workers had to be tapped.
This view is supported by the fact that the Y.
M. C. A. women in France were of an excep¬
tionally high order, far better adapted on the
average than the men. The Y. M. C. A. has 2,500
young women serving with the troops in France.
Their work is beyond praise, and the 4 4 Stars and
Stripes”, the military newspaper, which is the
best barometer of soldier feeling in the A. E. F.,
in a glowing editorial recently referred to them
as “100% efficient”. In choosing these women,
the Y. M. C. A. had the entire womanhood of
America to draw from, where, as I have already
pointed out, the best material among the men
was in the Army. Moreover, it must be remem-
bered that this charge of badly adapted per¬
sonnel is one which cannot be confined to the
Y. M. C. A. Other organizations in France,
too, suffered from the same disability. In fact,
the impression is inescapable that the Army it¬
self could supply out of its own ranks a more
uniformly qualified personnel for welfare work
than is possible to private organizations.
5
In discussing these criticisms lodged against
the Y. M. C. A., one must not forget the enormous
volume of creditable work which it has carried
on and is carrying on .at the present time. Its
huts are to be found with nearly every unit
of troops in the A. E. F. Its athletic depart¬
ment, its wide-spread entertainment facilities,
its admirable organization of the leave areas, the
work which it did in forming the educational
machinery of the Army, are all on the credit
side of the balance, and at General Headquarters
I found the liveliest gratitude not only for the
willingness with which the Y. M. C. A. has met
the wishes of the Army, but for its general spirit
of service. Looked at in the large, the Y. M. C.
A. deserves the appreciation of the Army and
the continued support of the public.
YOUNG WOMEN CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
The work of the Young Women ’s Christian
Association covers two general fields: first, .pro¬
viding proper accommodations for the women
employed both by the Army and by the other
welfare societies; and second, providing rest and
recreation rooms for French women in war in-
dustries. This latter field has recently been
broadened to cover some of the work for women
in the devastated area. The work of this so-
ciety is of an exceptionally high character, and
its willingness to accept responsibility, together
with its imagination in discovering and its in-
genuity in meeting the real needs among women
workers, have had gratifying results.
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS
The Knights of Columbus, as one of the
branches of the National Catholic War Council,
is carrying on work largely similar in plan to
that of the Y. M. C. A. It has a substantial
number of huts and recreation -halls, and it has
6
done good work among some of the scattered
nnits so located that they received little atten¬
tion from the other societies. It has done a
great deal too, to stimulate the interest of the
Army in boxing, and it is taking generally a
prominent part in the forthcoming Interallied
games to be held at Pershing Stadium near
Paris. A legitimate criticism of the activities
of the Knights of Columbus would lie in the
fact that the amount of its work in Prance is
not as large as the size of its allotment in last
fall’s campaign would seem to suggest. The
Knights were late in starting with the A. E. P.,
and they have never sueceeded in overcoming
that handicap. Moreover, I believe that they
are losing a real opportunity for service through
their failure to employ women personnel. After
eight months with the troops in France, I am
convinced that the average woman worker at¬
tached to a hut is worth four or five men workers.
Certainly her effect on the morale and spirit of
the troops is extraordinary. An “honest-to-God
American girl”, as the soldiers call her, can do
more to keep the men cheerful and create an
atmosphere of home than any other factor; and
the work of our women in France—Y. M. C. A.
girls, Salvation Army girls, Red Cross girls and
the representatives of the other agencies—has
been in no small degree responsible for the un¬
flagging devotion and the inexhaustible patience
with which our troops carried forward their
high enterprise.
SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC
WAR COUNCIL
The work of the Special Committee of the
National Catholic War Council, which corres-
ponds somewhat roughly to the Y. W. C. A., is
being conducted in Paris with marked success.
Indeed, I think the institution which this Com-
7
mittee is conducting in Avenue Wagram in
Paris is perhaps one of the most interesting and
significant pieces of work in the city, and it is
gratifying to learn that it is being extended, and
that the Special Committee is assuming large re¬
sponsible ties in connection with the living con-
ditions of our women war workers* in Paris and
â–  elsewhere. The crowded eonditions of French
cities make work of this kind absolutely essential.
JEWISH WELFARE BOARD
The Jewish Welfare Board is admirable m
every respect and is working under able leader¬
ship. Like the huts of the Y. M. C. A. and of
the Knights of Columbus, its buildings serve all
troops regardless of faith, and I was greatly in¬
terested to note in a recent trip to the Le Mans
area, how widely its faeilities were employed by
Jew and Gentile alike.
SALVATION ARMY
The Salvation Army is easily the most popu¬
lar of the six organization in France. The work
of this organization is not large; indeed, it is
a great deal smaller than most people think.
Where the Y. M. C. A has six thousand repre-
sentatives in France and the Knights of Colum¬
bus eight hundred, the Salvation Army has less
than two hundred. Its work is limited to a few
divisions, so that a comparatively small number
of the troops have actually been in contact with
the organization, Its fame, however, has spread
'far beyond its work and it is difficult to find a
doughboy who does not speak its praise. Its
success is not due to any material equipment or
any external policy. Contrary to general belief,
it does not give supplies away free except in
cases of need. Its policy is to sell its canteen
supplies—even its far-famed doughnuts-—and its
prices, due to the fact that it has no extensive
buying maehinery, are generally higher than
those of the Y. M. C. A. It is the inner spirit
of service that has endeared this organization to
the heart of the doughboy. Its personnel has
been carefully selected from trained workers in
the Salvation Army—men and women who knew
how to meet, their fellow men on a common
plane—and no task has been too humble and no
service too small for them to perform for the
troops. The Salvation Army wisely limited its
activities to a size that could be carried on by its
small but highly trained personnel, and its re¬
ward is the genuine affection of the A. E. P.
AMERICAN LIBRARY. ASSOCIATION
The American Library Association with its
ample supply of books has worked largely
through the other organizations, although
through its mail service, it has sent thousands of
special books to individual soldiers upon request.
No matter how isolated a soldier might be from
his fellows, he could have books for the asking,
and the Army is deeply indebted for the trained
services which this splendid organization put at
its disposal.
II.
I have roughly reviewed the bare outlines of
the activities of these organizations in France,
and although I have perhaps been associated
with the work at too close a range to give the
best impartial opinion, I am confident that the
verdict of time and perspective will be one of
generous approval. Certainly, the activities of
these societies have marked a new conception in
the mobilization and maintenance of an Army.
SECTARIAN AUSPICES
v As one who believes sincerely in the work of
these societies, I may perhaps be permitted a
comment on the’future development of the kind
9
of work which they have been conducting. I
have come increasingly to the belief, in two years
of intimate association with this work, that the
sectarian basis underlying much of it is funda¬
mentally wrong. None of the societies, of course,
works exclusively for its own eonstitueney. Their
faeilities and priviliges are open to all regardless
of faith, but the auspices through which these
privileges are extended are in some cases sec¬
tarian. The tendency of this arrangement is to
stimulat e rivalries and a jockeying for position
that are disheartening to witness and discourag¬
ing to cope with. To see the representatives
of these different agencies vying with each
other in an attempt to make a last good im¬
pression upon the returning troops, bringing
prominently into the foreground their respective
emblems and insignia, is to despair of the whole
system of social work in the war. It was nec¬
essary for the American military authorities in
France to set aside a special division of the
General Staff whose energies are largely de¬
voted to straightening out the differences be¬
tween these societies and correlating their
work. Much of my own time in the last two
years, both here and abroad, has been given to
nothing else. Under the system of sectarian
cleavage in vogue, this has been unavoidable.
Even when the heads of the societies are in full
accord—as has happily been true in the case of
the.agencies in question—their spirit may not
permeate their constituencies. Cooperation at the
top does not necessarily prevent competition at
the bottom.
But even were competition utterly eliminated,
sectarian divisions in work of this kind are un¬
fortunate. To have Protestant huts, Catholic
huts and Jewish huts in the same camp or op¬
erating in the same area not only is wrong in
principle but represents a waste of overhead and
a duplication of personnel, even when the total
volume of the work thus carried on is necessary.
10
No one resent^ this thing more than the troops
themselves. A baseball is a baseball to the sol-
diers no matter whether it is presented by the
Y. M. C. A., the Knights of Columbus or the
Jewish Welfare Board. The same is true of
huts, chocolate, entertainment, stationery or
good advice. Our men have been glad to receive
what the societies had for them in the shape of
service or supplies, and they have not eared two
straws whether it came from Protestant, Catho¬
lic or Jewish hands.
Sectarian stratification is the worst possible
basis for social work with the Army, and the in¬
sistence upon auspices on the part of the societies
in question has not represented any correspond¬
ing feeling among the troops. In fact, it runs
counter to the spirit of cohesion and unity which
it is the glory of an army to develop. In this
war. all sorts of barriers and prejudiees have
given way in the flame of a common purpose,
and a new brotherhood has been forged to achieve
a common end. Our boys fought at Chateau
Thierry and in the Argonne as Americans. They
did not fight as Protestants, Catholics or Jews,
and the emphasis upon these differences in faith
strikes a discordant note in the whole spirit of
their work. As a matter of fact, there is no
reason for this sectarianism. The religious
interests of the Army are wisely committed to
the Chaplains, and with an ample number of
Chaplains, no need appears for further emphasis
along this line.
I am not saying this in criticism of the so¬
cieties. Indeed, if there were any blame to
assess for the sectarian basis above noted, it
would probabaly lie against the War Depart¬
ment Commission on Training Camp Activities,
with whose consent and under whose jurisdiction
these organizations carried on their work with
the troops. When the war broke out the roa¬
ch inery of these societies was ready at hand,
and the Commission of which I was Chairman
ll
met the emergency by attempting to work into
a comprehensive plan of recreation such ageneies
as were available. In this we followed the pre¬
cedent already established by the English army.
As I say, I. think if we had it to do over again
it would be wiser to eliminate the sectarian so-
cieties. But this conclusion is the result of two
years of experimentation and is not a just basis
of criticism against the agencies themselves.
They deserve all credit for the manner in which
they mobilized their resources to meet the crisis.
TOO MANY SOCIETIES IN THE FIELD
If we ever have another war to fight or another
emergency of this kind to meet, I believe that
far better results will be obtained not only by
eliminating religious stratification of the sort
just mentioned, but by reducing to the lowest
possible minimum the number of organizations
working directly with the troops in camp or in
the field. There ds no reason why a single non-
sectarian organization in this war should not
have handled the whole problem of recreation
for the Army. It would have involved a huge
expenditure and immense machinery, but the
total amount expended would not have exceeded
the added budgets of the organizations mentioned
above, and the work, I believe, would have been
more efficient.
MUCH OF THE SOCIAL WORK SHOULD BE DONE BY
ARMY ITSELF
As a matter of fact, I am inclined to go a
good deal further. I believe that we have reached
a point in the development of much of this
social work in the Army where it can safely
be intrusted to the Government to operate.
This might not apply to such specialized activi-
ties with women, as the Y. W. G. A. has been
Carrying on, for example, or to a program of
hospitality outside the military reservations such
12
as the War Camp Community Service has been
conducting in the civil communities adjacent to
camps. But it certainly applies to all the work
which directly touches the troops within the
training areas or on active service in the field.
I am strongly of the opinion that the leisure
time program of the Army of the future can
best be carried on by the Army itself, whether
it be in posts or cantonments. The ‘successful
experience of the Army officers at home and in
France in handling complex entertainment and
educational programs fully justifies this belief.
There is no logical reason why all this work
which the societies have been conducting and
which is intimately related to the spirit and
morale of the troops should be left to the dis¬
cretion and ability of private agencies, collect¬
ing their funds from private sources. Morale
is as important as ammunition and is just as
legitimate a charge against the public treasury.
Moreover, there is reason to believe that rec¬
reational facilities, provided by the Army and
under Army management, will better satisfy the
troops than facilities furnished by private agen¬
cies. The soldier is instinctively interested in
the thing that he does himself. The experience
of the war shows that the clubs or huts that
were run by the troops were apt to be more, popu¬
lar than those managed by the societies, just as
the theatrical exhibitions staged by the soldiers
created a deeper and wider interest in the camps
than the plays of professional talent. To the
easily understood principle of psychology which
explains this situation must be added the further
reason that the soldier is keen to detect and
quick to resent any suggestion of condescension
or patronage on the part of those who serve him.
He is first of all an, American citizen and he
asks for no charity. Unfortunately, some of the
societies have not always been entirely free
from this unhappy method of approach to the
troops, and the effect has been heightened in
13
the soldier’s mind by the competitive publicity
attending the work of the agencies, as regards
what they have “done” for the soldier and what
they have “given” him.
I believe the time has come for the Army to
take over this whole activity from the field of
private enterprise. The experiments of the last
two years seem to point irresistibly to this con¬
clusion. Baseballs and books and all the other
factors that make for a rounded life are an essen¬
tial part of the nation’s direct responsibility
toward its troops.
It seems to me that the lesson of the war in
social work involves therefore perhaps three
points: The elimination of sectarian auspices,
reduction in the number of agencies employed,
and the transfer to the Government itself of
much of the activity hitherto left to private
initiative.
Raymond B. Fosdick.
War Department,
Washington, D. C.,
June 1, 1919.