eight months' service there, and 42 buildings and 6 tents were provided as social centres. The estimated attendance at enter- tainments during that period was 2,851,316, and free stationery for over 5,0x30,000 letters was furnished.
The Y.M.C.A. began its work in Europe immediately after the outbreak of the World War in 1914. It helped the French and British troops in Europe and the Near East and the Russians. Arrangements were made with the belligerents, both Allied and Teutonic, for assisting prisoners of war. Huts were erected in the various prison camps, secretaries detailed, and recreation provided for large groups of restless men. In conjunction with the Red Cross, kitchens were built and attendance provided for the sick. During the first 17 months of the war $300,000 was raised in America by the Y.M.C.A. for this work. Before America entered the World War in 1917 the Association had expended in Europe more than $1,500,- ooo. Immediately after the breaking of relations between the United States and Germany the Y.M.C.A. offered its services to the U.S. Government and the offer was accepted. A week later the War Work Council of the Association was organized, and to it was given the task of adapting the usual Association programme of recreation, education, and religious work to the needs of the na- tional army. This Council was composed of some 200 well-known business and professional men, with some members of the Associa- tion. Considerable experience in work with soldiers had already been gained by the Association, as noted above. Its activities had made the organization known to military authorities in all countries, and had given it a body of men trained for the new task.
The local Associations in the United States at once opened their buildings and offered their advantages to all men in the U.S. service, an arrangement that continued till three months after demobiliza- tion. The raising of funds was put in charge of men prominent in their communities. The first drive was made during one week in April and May, and the second in Nov., the two raising over $58,- 000,000. The final drive was that of the United War Work Campaign the Association's share of which was $100,760,000. Committees, corresponding to the military departments into which the United States were divided, were formed to secure men and women for the work at home and abroad, the headquarters at New York having special oversight of those going overseas. When the nature of the overseas work and the need of large numbers of secretaries became clear, each candidate was required to take a week's course of prepara- tion, that for the women being held at Barnard, that for the men first at Princeton and later at Columbia University.
Within a month after the declaration of war huts were equipped in the permanent camps already opened in the United States. During the two years following 1,200 of these stations were carried on for the men in training; 952 of them were huts built by the Association, most of them being ready on the arrival of the men. Huts were opened also in the munition and shipbuilding and other govern- ment plants, as well as in the internment camps, and work was continued with the troops on the Mexican border, at Panama and in the Philippines. Workers were on more than 5,000 troop trains, and also on the transports, where they showed motion pictures and supplied games, reading matter and such small conveniences as the men lacked. Over 12,000 men and women were on the regular staff, carrying on the varied duties of the hut and transportation service, and besides these were hundreds who gave part time.
The type of building used in the home camps and overseas had been adopted by the Association during service on the Mexican border. It was a wide, low structure, of upright boarding, easily transported in sections. One large room served in the smaller camps as lounge, writing and reading room, library, gymnasium, theatre, church and restaurant, while in the larger camps smaller rooms opening from this main room separated the different activities. The plan of tpe Association was to provide the men with attractive meeting places, conveniences for letter writing, books, papers, athletics, entertainments, classes and religious services. Lecturers, musicians and actors were on circuit among the huts, and motion pictures, carefully selected by the Community Motion Picture Bureau, were given at most paints twice a week.
The work for the American Expeditionary Force in Great Britain, France, Italy, and Siberia, although of shorter duration than that in the United States and reaching fewer men, attracted more at- tention both because it was carried on under greater difficulties and because it developed features entirely new to welfare work among soldiers and sailors. In Great Britain Eagle Hut in the Strand, London, was the first of the 1,500 " huts " or stations, ranging from hotels and large buildings at sources of supplies to dugouts in the Argonne, which within 14 months were established overseas. More than 8,000 Y.M.C.A. men and women worked overseas with the A.E.F. between July 1917 and Dec. 1919.
The acceptance by the Y.M.C.A. of the army post canteen service, at the request of Gen. Pershing, which set free for military duty many hundreds of officers and soldiers, added greatly to the task of the Association, and being a business foreign to its programme and new to its personnel was handled with much difficulty. In connexion with this work the Y.M.C.A. met with much criticism, Borne of it probably warranted, much of it hardly fair under the
circumstances. Under Gen. Pershing's orders the Association was to obtain the goods, purchasing in the open market, and to sell at prices covering the cost and the transportation charges. The first cargo of supplies was torpedoed. As the sending over of troops in- creased it became more difficult to secure transportation for the Y.M.C.A. supplies. The Association was therefore early forced to open factories in France, 42 in all, and to manufacture for itself huge quantities of chocolate, cocoa, biscuit, candy and jam, just as it had to manufacture paper in Spain to supply its stationery. This meant high cost and therefore high prices for the commodities and a dissatisfaction among the men purchasing them. Initially the prices charged by the Y.M.C.A. were higher than those charged by the quartermaster's department of the army, and this led to a suspicion, unfounded though very prevalent, that the Y.M.C.A. was seeking to make a profit at the expense of .the fighting men. Resentment on this score was increased because of the belief that the people of the United States had contributed huge sums to the Y.M.C.A. for the purpose of giving free supplies to the soldiers. But the Y.M.C.A. haa expressly decided at the outset not to give away supplies except at the front lines, and it never solicited funds for this purpose. The prices charged in the canteens were later reduced, and for the most part goods were sold at a loss. At the request of the Association the canteen service was taken back by the army after the Armistice, when officers and men could be spared for this work. Had not the Governments of the United States and France decided to remit transportation charges to all the welfare organizations, the Association would have lost about 81,500,000 on its post canteen service. With the remission of these charges, however, it found itself with a balance of $500,000, which was handed over to the American Legion.
Secretaries were attached to each division of the A.E.F., but whether they should go forward \v\th the troops, or how many should go, was decided by the individual commander. The work at the front consisted of the free distribution of cigarettes and what- ever other supplies could be brought up, the serving of hot chocolate to the passing troops and work in the field hospitals and dressing stations, the front being the one place where the Association was allowed to work for the wounded. Over 700 Y.M.C.A. men and women were under fire, at Soissons, at Chateau-Thierry, in the St. Mihiel drive, and in the battle of the Argonne. Fourteen lost their lives and 133 were wounded or gassed in the battle zone, while 67 died from accidents or other causes. The Croix de Guerre was awarded to 41 and the Distinguished Service Cross to four. The entire personnel attached to 12 of the divisions was officially com- mended for front line service. Two hundred and fifty secretaries, both men and women, were either decorated or received special mention for their services.
Religious work, always a part of the Association programme, con- tinued overseas as in the home camps. The huts were open for ser- vices of all faiths. There was always one service on Sunday, some- times two, and sometimes another during the week. In many of the leave areas there were services daily. Most huts also had classes for Bible study. A special collection of hymns was prepared for use in the huts; much religious literature and many Testaments and portions of the Bible were distributed. A number of well-known clergymen, who had proved their strength with soldier audiences, made a circuit of the army, song leaders often going with them. Direct effort in the line of social purity was made by the Associa- tion, both in its practical work with the Hospitality League, on the streets of Liverpool, London and Paris, and in lectures in the huts by men specially fitted for this work.
The entertainment work in England and on the continent began in the fall of 1917 with a few musicians and speakers. Under j E. H. Sothern and Winthrop Ames the Over There Theatre League | was formed, and under its care singers, actors, magicians, pro- fessional entertainers of all sorts, were enlisted for the entertain- ment of soldiers both in the United States and overseas. The En- tertainment Department of the Association and the League to- gether recruited over 1,400 entertainers, many of whom, after the Armistice, became trainers of the 15,000 soldier actors and musicians who made up the soldier shows of the A.E.F. For this department the Association provided instruments, music, costumes, and finally really entered the dramatic profession as owner of four " play factories," which were the centres of training and equipment for the soldier shows. Motion pictures were supplied regularly to all I the huts, and were often given in the French village streets where there was no adequate building, and on the roadside, as with the troops on the march into Germany. Films were supplied to U.S. troops in Great Britain, Italy, and Siberia, to the French foyers and the Italian case, to the Chinese labour battalions, the Portuguese and Russian troops in France, and the prisoners of war. Besides this the Association furnished films to all the other American welfare organizations overseas.
The question of what to do with the American soldiers on leave began to concern both French officials and American officers almost before any men had reached France. The Association proposed that it should take over certain regions, chosen by the French Govern- ment and run them as pleasure grounds for soldiers' holidays. The first opened was at Aix-les-Bains which was followed by 35 others the largest being those on the Riviera. Here some of the
