CAMP WELFARE COMMITTEE
army, adding an urgent plea that something be done at once to supply literature, practitioners and, if possible, an assembly room for them. Mothers of boys who had entered the service wrote asking what provision was being made for the spiritual welfare of their sons who would soon be far from the home influence and surrounded by new and strange conditions. Interested friends and relatives added their voices to the growing appeal that steps be taken at once to make Christian Science available to the men in service.
A new note was introduced when groups of churches and societies in the neighborhood of some of the northern camps wrote asking sanction for plans they were considering for establishing and maintaining a purely local activity and this was emphasized when, from the Northwest, came a telegram one day asking approval for a plan to build a Welfare house at Camp Lewis for which several thousand dollars had already been pledged. In fact, in some instances, the demand had seemingly required the taking of steps in advance of any general plan, and both in Northern and Southern California, in San Francisco and San Diego, well-appointed rooms for the exclusive use of soldiers and sailors were in operation, the expense being borne by the churches and societies of the towns and cities adjacent to these centers. Somewhat similar action had been taken by the Scientists of Greater New York and a well-defined local scheme was virtually ready to be put into operation when that of The Mother Church was submitted. Needless to say the New York churches immediately adopted the larger plan, endorsing it enthusiastically at a State Conference of Churches and Societies early in December, 1917. The
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