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—

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{{c|{{xx-larger|This Side the Trenches<br />with the<br />American Red Cross}}{{dhr|3}}By [[Author:Karl de Schweinitz|Karl de Schweinitz]]}}

—

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{{ph|class=chapter title|Foreword}}

{{sc|This}} book is addressed chiefly to the members of the young peoples' societies of the churches, and has been written at the request of their representatives. It is designed to present the purposes and ideals of Home Service, which the American Red Cross is extending to the families of thousands of our soldiers and sailors.

Home Service is national in scope. In some parts of the country it has been so thoroughly developed that for them the pages that follow are a record of accomplishment. In other places where the work is new or still in process of organization, This Side the Trenches' is rather a statement of ideals to be achieved.

Although Home Service is conducted almost entirely by volunteers, its direction requires a more special training and preparation than other activities of the Red Cross. Its success depends upon the devotion of men and women who are willing to equip themselves through instruction or to work under trained supervision. Home Service is a distinctive enterprise, not duplicating but co-operating with other established agencies./begin/

The writing of this book has been made possible by the generous interest of. The Charity Organization Society of the City of New York, which contributed the services of the author.

{{right|offset=2em|{{sc|[[Author:W. Frank Persons|W. Frank Persons]],}}}}
{{right|{{fine|''Director General of Civilian Relief''}}}}
{{right|offset=2em|{{fine|''American Red Cross''}}}}

—2

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{{ph|class=chapter num|Chapter I}}
{{ph|class=chapter title|This Side the Trenches|level=2}}

From camp, from battleline, from shipboard the soldiers and sailors of the United States are sending a message to the people on this side the trenches. It is a message that is variously expressed. Sometimes it is to be read between the lines of a letter such as this:
{{dhr}}
{{right|offset=3em|Camp................,}}
{{right|offset=2em|December 10, 1917}}

"To the American Red Cross:

"I wish to extend my sincere thanks to you for going to aid my wife and child whom I asked you to help last week. My wife wrote me that you came to see her. I highly appreciate this. ''I can soldier better now.''

{{right|offset=6em|"Yours sincerely,}}
{{right|offset=4em|"............"}}
{{dhr}}
Sometimes a sentence or two may carry it. Thus another man in the service writes:

"I have heard how wonderfully the Red Cross has taken care of my family. That alone is enough to spur one on to use the best that's in him."

Again this message from the men in the army and navy is told without words. What letter could convey it more clearly than the act of the sailor who gave to the

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Red Cross a medal struck off by the Germans in anticipation of their triumphal entry into Paris? He had procured it upon one of his voyages and presented it as the best means of showing how much the friendship and help supplied by the Red Cross to his family had meant to him.

Most vivid of all was the way one of the United States engineers, who subsequently was captured by the Germans in the battle of Cambrai, expressed it:

"Be sure to buy a Red Cross badge for me, yourself, and one for each of the children," he wrote to his wife. "Wear them all the time." The Red Cross had helped his family through legal and financial difficulties and had made it possible for his oldest daughter to extend her education.

Surely this message from the soldiers and sailors of the United States to the people on this side the trenches must be plain to everybody. Certainly he who has followed the history of the great world struggle need not be told it.

This message is that, despite the huge quantities of machinery and munitions, despite the billions of dollars, despite the millions of tons of ships that are being poured into this terrible venture, the real factor in deciding the war will be something that cannot be manufactured, something that cannot be measured, something that cannot even be seen. More vital than aeroplanes, more important than machine guns, tanks, submarine chasers, or high explosives is the quality of the spirit of the men in the trenches and on the ocean. When the French and British were retreating to the Marne in the first weeks of the war, when the French

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were deluged with the terrific rain of steel that accompanied the German drive toward Verdun, when the British and the Canadians underwent the tortures of the first gas attacks at Ypres, the issue was not how many miles of territory would be yielded or held, but whether the courage and confidence of the troops would endure. The real defeat of the Germans lay in their inability to break the spirit of the defenders of France and Belgium.

Military men call this spirit morale. It has been defined as "the moral pulse of armies," and it is said that since before the days of Julius Cæsar the skill of every great commander has depended chiefly upon his ability to feel and appreciate this intangible thing. It is morale that enables men to endure hardships, hunger, and pain, to face death again and again, and yet to keep on fighting. It springs from the spirit of the individual soldier and sailor. As long as he continues to be cheerful and to feel confident of himself and his officers, so long does the morale of the army and the navy continue to be strong. Let but one man become discouraged, let but one man worry and he will become a drain upon the vitality of all those who are fighting near him. That is why the soldier with a buoyancy of spirit is more valuable to a regiment than a squad of sharpshooters. That, moreover, is why the Red Cross is one of the most important factors in the winning of the war, for it is the knowledge that all is well this side the trenches, in the United States, that will encourage a man to fight with the best that isin him. Failing that knowledge he will know only anxiety, and will lose the spirit of victory. The most vulnerable part of the army or the navy,

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therefore, is thousands of miles from the submarine zone or the trenches. It is in the homes of our soldiers and sailors.

Only if all is well with the mother, the wife, the children, the sisters, and brothers, can the man in the service go forward with the fullest assurance. "I can soldier better now," said the recruit whose letter is quoted at the beginning of this chapter. With his family under the care of the Red Cross he could devote undivided energy to the task before him.

This also, was the thought of the man who while on his way to camp stopped at the office of the Red Cross in an eastern city. "I want to tell you," he said, "what it means to me to know that if my mother should be lonely, or sick, or if anything should happen to her you will be there to stand by her and set things right." Again, it was the desire to have this same assurance that caused a soldier whose wife was to be operated upon the day after he left for the front to ask the Red Cross to visit her in the hospital and to do for her the many things that he would have liked to do himself.

Relief from anxiety was what was wanted by the private on whose behalf an officer in charge of a camp in the southwest sent a message not long ago to a town in Pennsylvania. The officer asked the Red Cross to reassure the man who, the telegram said, was "worried about the folks at home."

What's happening to the folks at home is indeed the most important thing in the world to the member of the family who is in the army or navy. And things do happen to the folks at home. Things happen to everybody. It is one of the ways by which life is measured{{peh|—}}

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for the families of soldiers and sailors as well as for the family of anybody else.

Here, for example, are some of the things which have happened to these families during the absence of their men at the front, in camp, or on the ocean. A few weeks after a certain soldier enlisted, a moving van drew up before the door of his home in order to take from it the furniture he had been buying upon the installment plan. The mother of a man in the ambulance corps found after he had gone to the front that what she had thought to be indigestion was cancer. The sister of another developed tuberculosis. The national guardsman who had expected to be with his wife when their first baby was born was in camp hundreds of miles away at the time that the new mother needed him most. A widow, who had said good-bye to her son apparently cheerfully enough, worried so much about him that her health was endangered. The wife of a sailor who before the days of his enlistment had been chiefly responsible for the family discipline found it so difficult to manage her three young sons that in despair she considered sending them to an institution, One of two young men who had been managing the farm of their aged parents was drafted; two weeks after his departure the remaining son died, just at harvest time. The relatives in whose charge a soldier had left his wife proved to be unscrupulous; they made her a household drudge and forced her to give them all the money her husband sent her.

Things do indeed happen to the folks at home. The soldier or the sailor recognizes that this is inevitable. His real anxiety is not so much that things may happen as that when they do happen he cannot be there to help

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and advise. It is the thought of how his absence in these emergencies handicaps his family that undermines his morale.

This, moreover, is something that affects the whole army and navy for there is scarcely a recruit or a veteran in either branch of the service who is without 'folks'. "There is no man who does not have dependents," said an army officer. "It is only a question of how many dependents he has and how dependent they are." Few are the persons we know who are not vitally interested in the welfare and happiness of at least one other individual.

The morale of the forces of the United States will, therefore, be determined largely by the manner in which the folks at home are fortified against the things which may happen to them. If the soldier or the sailor is to do his best he must have the assurance that, come what may, his family will have the counsel and the help that, were he at home, he himself would try to provide. And this assurance the men of the army and navy have. It is an assurance that is the more effective because it is given by the same agency which comes to them with relief and healing when they are sick and wounded, the same agency whose emblem they see at the dressing stations on the battlefield, on the ambulances, and at the base hospitals. It is the assurance that is offered to them by the American Red Cross.

The Red Cross has found a way of doing, for the families of soldiers and sailors when trouble or misfortune comes to them, what the men themselves would like to do were they at home instead of at the front or on the sea.
{{nop}}

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This activity of the Red Cross is called Home Service. Because of it, thousands of men are able to's oldier better now'. It has been, and is, one of the great factors in maintaining the morale of the army and navy. No more important piece of war work is to be found this side the trenches.

{{fb|
{{c|{{uc|Review of Chapter I}}}}

1. Define morale.

2. Why is it an important factor in deciding the war?

3. Upon what does the morale of the army and navy depend?

What is usually the chief concern of the soldier and the sailor?

5. Give an illustration showing how much assurance of the welfare of the folks at home helps the man at the front or on shipboard to do his duty.

6. What are some of the things which may happen at home to the families of the men in the service?

7. Is there anyone of your own acquaintance who has not at least one other individual in whose welfare he is interested?

8. What does the soldier or the sailor need if he is to do his best?

9. Why is assurance of personal help particularly effective when given by the Red Cross to the men in the army or the navy?

10. What activity of the Red Cross reaches the families of the men in the service?
}}

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{{ph|class=chapter num|Chapter II}}
{{ph|class=chapter title|Home Service|level=2}}

Every soldier and sailor would like to leave four things with his family when he enters the service of the country.

The first of these four things is morale, the very same grit and cheerfulness which the man himself needs when he is at the front or on shipboard, the pluck, the courage, the ability to do for oneself, the initiative, the self-reliance that people have in mind when they say that this or that person, this or that family, is made of the right stuff.

Morale is a spiritual quality. It is not a thing to be given in a moment and at will to the folks at home, either by the man himself or by anybody else. It comes down through the generations, is born with the souls of those who have it, and is then nourished and strengthened by a wholesome family life. It exists in nearly everybody, in some in such small degree as scarcely to be recognizable; in others in such abundance that no crisis seems to be great enough to daunt them.

The morale of an individual or a household can be strengthened and protected just as the morale of the army and navy is safeguarded by the Home Service of the Red Cross. Whatever association the Red Cross has with families is influenced by the desire to foster this spirit in them.
{{nop}}

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The three other things which the soldier or the sailor would like to leave with his family—and which many men are able to leave—are friends, credit, and money. Friends in such number and variety that no matter in what perplexity the family may find itself there will be someone who can supply just the right sort of advice, friends in every profession and business, friends with every kind of ability and skill, friends with unlimited resources. Credit not merely at the grocery store or with the coal dealer, but credit as it has been defined by a great financier, the credit of character, of a good name, of standing in the neighborhood and in the town. Money enough to meet emergencies and to assure the household that it will lack none of the necessities of life. The man, who, confident of the morale of those at home, can also leave with them such friends, such credit, and money, can indeed go to camp with the assurance that his family is prepared to meet whatever fortune may bring. It is such friends, such credit, and money that the Home Service of the Red Cross aims to provide.

Friends were what the woman about to become a mother wanted (See [[This Side the Trenches/Chapter 1|Chapter I]]), what the lonely widow wanted, what the wife who was mistreated by her relatives wanted. The aged parents whose remaining son died just at harvest time needed both credit and friends. It is difficult enough for a wealthy and able-bodied farmer to arrange for the harvesting of his crops without both; how much more so for an aged man and woman. The Red Cross supplied these as it supplied the friends which the mother, the widow, and the wife required. It supplied also a friend who could advise and

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help the wife of the sailor who in his absence was finding difficult the management of three unruly boys.

The woman who after her son's departure learned that she had cancer (See [[This Side the Trenches/Chapter 1|Chapter I]]), was too far advanced both in years and in her disease to hope for a cure. Her need was for that kind of care which during her remaining days would spare her as much pain and inconvenience as possible. The young woman with tuberculosis might expect to recover if she could go away toasanatorium. But what sanatorium, and how could she get there, and how should she prepare herself to go, and what about the household arrangements while she was gone? Surely these two women needed friends not only with medical training, but also with ability to suggest ways of adjusting things at home. These friends the Home Service of the Red Cross provided.

Money or credit was the immediate need of the household before whose door the moving van arrived to claim the furniture upon which several installments were overdue. The Red Cross supplied both. It also gave friendly advice which helped the family so to arrange its affairs that it could meet future demands for payment.

The chief financial responsibility for the families of the men in the service rests upon the government. It pays monthly allowances to them, insures the soldiers and sailors against death, and compensates them on their return to civil life if they are disabled by sickness, wounds, or other injury incurred in the service. In doing this, however, the government is necessarily guided by certain definite rules and regulations. It

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cannot meet sudden emergencies. It cannot distinguish between the needs of families except in an arbitrary way, as, for example, according to the number of children. Yet we know that sickness, habits of life, place of residence, and a great variety of other things cause families to differ from each other in their financial needs.

Here, then, is where the financial phase of Home Service begins. When the unforeseen happens, when there is delay in the payment of the monthly allowance, or when the allowance needs to be supplemented, the Red Cross is ready to help.

Credit, the credit that goes with a good name and the confidence of the public, this also the Red Cross has without limit. Shortly after the declaration of war with Germany, President Wilson in an official proclamation designated the Red Cross as the one agency with which the government would cooperate in helping the families of soldiers and sailors. It has also the credit that comes from a membership of more than twenty million persons. There is no hamlet so small or so remote that the Red Cross pin is not to be seen there. Nearly every county in every state in the Union has its Red Cross Chapter. Excepting perhaps the postal service, there is no agency in the United States that is so widely organized. The credit of the Red Cross is second only to the credit of the government.

The Red Cross offers the families of men in the service the assurance of friends. Wherever households are found to be in need of help, whether in city, town, or country, there a Home Service Section has been formed as part of the local Red Cross Chapter. The Home

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Service Section is a committee of men and women representing, when fully organized, every profession, interest, and calling in the county or town which it serves. The lawyer, the doctor, the nurse, the social worker, the teacher, the clergyman, the business man, the business woman, the housekeeper, the woman with an interest in civic affairs, Jew, Catholic, Protestant, rich, and poor, are welcomed to membership. It is made up, especially in the larger towns, of such a variety of people that no matter what happens to a family, no matter what the nature of the difficulty which confronts it, some member of the committee will have the knowledge, the experience, and the acquaintanceship needed for the solution of the problem.

The Red Cross offers to one or more women in each Home Service Section special training for the work of helping the families of soldiers and sailors out of the troubles that may perplex them. This instruction is provided through Home Service Institutes which the Red Cross has established in connection with universities and schools for social work in twenty-five different cities of the United States and through courses in Home Service conducted by many of the Red Cross Chapters. These Institutes and Chapter Courses are under the direction of experienced persons. Those who take this training become the Home Service workers who make available to the families of soldiers and sailors the money, credit, and friends of the Red Cross.

Friends, credit, and money might be called the tools of Home Service. The art of using these tools so as to help families out of trouble, giving them opportunity for self-improvement, and enabling them to advance their

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ideals and their moral and physical welfare, is the essence of Home Service. Home Service applies to the families of men in all branches of the service, the regular army as well as the national guard and the national army, sailors, marines, men of the aviation corps, engineers, and the families of men and women attached to hospital units as nurses, doctors, orderlies, ambulance drivers. It has to do also with the families of soldiers of any of the allied forces living in this country, and with the families of civilians who have been wounded or killed as the direct result of war activities as, for example, through the torpedoing of a merchant vessel by a submarine.

A majority of these families will be able to live through the anxiety and stress of war times without the assistance of the Home Service of the Red Cross. But, on the other hand, the power of self-helpfulness of a large minority will be strained to the breaking point because of lack of opportunity, ill-health, misfortune, or sudden changes in living conditions brought about by the war.

Home Service is constructive. Its assurance to the men at the front or on the high seas is the greater because its purpose is to enable their families to better themselves. While all the world is turning its energy to the work of destruction or to repairing wounds that more destruction may be accomplished, the Red Cross through its Home Service is trying to build better homes and better people.

This work, moreover, differs from all the other activities of the Red Cross in one respect. Thus, the great enterprise of the Red Cross in restoring the homes which

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have been devastated by the actual passage of war is necessarily conducted across the ocean in Belgium, Serbia, and France. Again, the making of sweaters and wearing apparel for the soldiers and sailors, the rolling of bandages, the manufacture of hospital material, the mobilizing of doctors, nurses, and supplies, is all intended for, and directed to, the actual battlefront. Home Service, however, whose intimate effect upon the result of the war is shown by its influence upon the morale of the troops, is the one activity of the Red Cross that is concentrated in the United States and that works primarily for the people on this side the trenches.

{{fb|
{{c|{{uc|Review of Chapter II}}}}

1. What are the four things which every soldier and sailor would like to leave with his family?

2. Which is the first and most important of these? Which three does Home Service provide?

3. (''a'') In what sense is 'friends' here used? (''b'') In what sense is 'credit' used?

4. What is the basis of the credit of the Red Cross?

5. How does the Red Cross provide friends for the families of soldiers and sailors?

6. Whose is the chief financial responsibility, after that of the men in the service themselves, for the families of soldiers and sailors?

7. Where does the financial phase of Home Service begin?

8. (''a'') Define Home Service. (''b'') Describe the membership of a Home Service Section. (''c'') Is there a Home Service Section in your town? Where is its headquarters?

9. To what families does Home Service apply?

10. How does Home Service differ from the other activities of the Red Cross?
}}

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{{ph|class=chapter num|Chapter III}}
{{ph|class=chapter title|Mothers and Wives|level=2}}

The very first thing that happens to the folks at home is the going of the man to war. The fact that he is no longer with them is, perhaps, the hardest thing they have to bear.

The members of most families, living together so long and so intimately, having the same blood and the same household traditions, become as much a part of one another as do the various members of the human body. Each one means something to the rest. Thus, the man in the service may have been the business manager and the financier of the home. He may have been the family musician or the artistic member of the household. To him the rest may have looked for the organization of their picnics, parties, and other good times, or he may have been the one who saw the funny side of things and who could be depended upon to bring home the latest jokes or the tales of those amusing adventures that seemingly happen often to some people and seldom or not at all to others.

It is this relationship existing between person and person, between friend and friend, that people have in mind when they say of somebody, "I feel quite lost without him." Would it indeed not be surprising if, on the other hand, the soldier or the sailor did not often wonder, "how are they getting along without me?"
{{nop}}

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When a man becomes blind his sense of touch and his sense of hearing are said to develop abnormally as if to compensate for his lost sight. The cripple usually is exceptionally dexterous in the use of his other limbs. Precisely this sort of adaptation must take place in the family of the man who has gone to war. Each member must do his or her best to make up to the others the loss that they have all sustained.

Each member by reason of the absence of the man has, therefore, a more difficult rôle to play. It is the work of the Red Cross through its Home Service to try to understand the peculiar difficulties which this involves for each person in the household, and to help that person to meet them.

The heaviest burdens fall almost invariably upon the mother or the wife.

"It is not merely the work that I have to do, it is not merely that I have to be alone responsible for the care of the children, but there is no one who comes home at night." A woman whose husband had recently died thus expressed what perhaps is the hardest of all that the wives and mothers of the men in the service must undergo. Again and again the Home Service worker is called upon to help some lonely woman struggle against her home-sickness for the absent man.

The only son of a widow was drafted. Until then every act of the mother's life had centered about the boy. His health and well-being had been her one concern, while he, giving up all recreation outside the home, had devoted himself to her. His absence seemed to take all purpose from the mother and leave

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only anxiety. She began to lose her health. She was distraught with worry.

The Home Service worker discovered that the widow did not know how to knit; so she taught her how to make socks, sweaters, and other articles for her son, then to make things for boys who had no mothers to do this for them. At the same time the woman was helped to see how important encouraging letters were in stimulating her son to be successful as a soldier. With this as a beginning, the Home Service worker gradually gave her new opportunities for service and new interests. It became possible for the widow to meet her anxieties with cheerfulness, and ultimately she regained her health.

This same trouble of loneliness brought a young woman to the office of the Red Cross in a certain city. She and her husband had been married only a few months when he enlisted, and she had been unable to endure the empty, friendless hours in the little flat which they had rented.

The Home Service worker introduced her to a pleasant, motherly woman who, she happened to know, wanted a boarder. Home Service involves being acquainted with the right opportunity at the right time! This woman, having been told about the loneliness of the soldier's wife, took her to church with her. A class of girls in the Sunday school was without a teacher, and the young woman was asked if she would fill the vacancy. It was just what she needed. She accepted the responsibility and with a friend at home and work which she enjoys she has begun to feel that she belongs somewhere and to somebody. While the war lasts it

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cannot be hoped that she will cease to worry, but because of Home Service she has become better able to bear the absence of her husband.

Many of the women who seek through the Red Cross an escape from loneliness have never lived long enough in any one neighborhood to make friends. They have no one whom they have known for years and to whom they can turn for comfort. This is true largely because people in the United States are constantly moving about from place to place. In many parts of the country it is unusual to find a family which has lived in the same locality for a generation. In a study of thirteen-year-old boys in the city schools of seventy-eight American cities of between 25,000 and 200,000 inhabitants, it was found that only one in six of the fathers of these boys was living in the city of his birth, and that among the boys themselves only a few more than half were living where they were born.<ref>''[[Some Conditions Affecting Problems of Industrial Education in Seventy-eight American School Systems]],'' by [[Author:Leonard P. Ayres|Leonard P. Ayres]]</ref>

The feeling of loneliness and helplessness which comes to many women after the departure of the man is increased by the very complexity and vastness of the war and the many different departments and branches of the service. The mother knows that her son has become part of the army or the navy; she believes that he is in camp, or somewhere in France, or somewhere on the Atlantic. But it is all vague. She does not understand how to obtain word about him when, perhaps, no letter has come to her for several months. It is through the Home Service Section of the Red Cross that she learns how she can communicate with her son,

/foot//
{{smallrefs}}
//foot/

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and how, if he is reported sick or wounded, she can obtain particulars about his condition.

Here also she learns about the government allowance to which she may be entitled. She is advised to write to her son and to urge him to insure himself with the government and she is informed about the compensation to which her boy is entitled in case of wounds, sickness, or injury. When there is delay in the payment of the allowance or any other difficulty of this kind, the Red Cross acts as her agent and makes the necessary adjustments.

This and other matters of business furnish some of the most perplexing problems which the mother or the wife has to solve. Hitherto the overhead expenditures of the household—the payment of rent and insurance, the purchase of furniture, and so forth—have been attended to by the husband or, perhaps, by the oldest son. Now when the mortgage falls due—and this has happened frequently—the woman turns to the Red Cross for advice. Shall she renew the mortgage? Is the property worth holding? Can she meet future interest charges? To such questions the Home Service worker must help her to find the answer.

One woman sought the assistance of the Red Cross because her husband, before going to the front, had borrowed $100 from a loan shark giving as security the furniture which was worth many times this amount. The loan shark demanded interest at thirty-six per cent. With the assistance of the Red Cross the woman was able to secure release from this extortioner, to return the principal to him immediately, and to obtain the money her needs demanded.
{{nop}}

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When the going of the man to war has meant a smaller income for the family, the Red Cross has frequently helped the woman to plan her economies so as not to deprive the home of things essential to its well-being.

Shortly before enlisting, a man had undertaken to purchase by installments a victrola costing $150. Thirty dollars had been invested in this way when he entered the army. His wife had not enough money to support herself and continue the payments. Yet to have given up the victrola would have meant a great loss to her. She needed the music. For her it was a refuge from worry. It cheered her when she was depressed.

The Home Service worker solved the difficulty by persuading the dealer to exchange the machine for one costing $50, and to consider the $30 which had been paid toward the purchase of the victrola as part of the price of the smaller phonograph.

On the other hand, there are women who now have larger incomes than they had before their men enlisted. Often they need the help of the Red Cross even more than those whose incomes have been reduced.

There was one woman who in the words of a Home Service worker "went all to pieces when her husband went away." He was an officer. The oldest son was also in the army leaving the mother with four children, two of whom were working and were receiving larger wages because of the war. The woman had now what to her seemed more money than she could use. She began buying all sorts of things upon the installment plan, a piano, a sewing machine, a graphophone. Some acquaintances whom hitherto she had barely known now became close friends. Their good times were not

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complete without alcohol, and the soldier's wife soon learned to drink. Her old friends began to neglect her, and her husband, learning of her misconduct, said that he wanted never to see her again.

The Red Cross appealed successfully to the woman's love for her husband and her children. She wanted to do better and the Home Service worker helped her in her resolution. First of all, the family was advised to move to a new neighborhood where the mother would not be under the influence of her undesirable friends. The oldest son was appointed treasurer for the household and a Home Service visitor called upon the woman almost every day to show her how to manage and to strengthen her in her determination to stop drinking. When summer came the mother was sent to spend a few weeks with friends in a distant town who did not know about her trouble. She came back with a still firmer hold upon herself, and when, after much persuasion by the Red Cross, the husband returned from camp on a furlough and found his home as it had been before, he forgave and forgot the weakness which his wife had overcome.

The Home Service of the Red Cross is indeed needed in many instances not only to help women manage with a reduced income but also to give them guidance and counsel when they suddenly find themselves with more money than they have ever had before.

No wife or mother of a soldier or sailor needs to seek employment if, in order to take care of the children or for other reasons, she should be at home. When, because of unusual expenses the government allowance and the payments by the man are not enough to sup-

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port the family, the Red Cross is ready to help. The Red Cross believes that, particularly in time of war, it is important that the mother should stay at home so as to have opportunity to devote her full energies to the rearing and education of her children. Some women, however, are happier when they are employed outside of the home. Such women the Home Service worker helps to obtain jobs; she tries to see that they are paid fair wages and that their work is done in healthful surroundings.

Sometimes a woman is not proficient in the very kind of employment in which her skill is usually taken for granted. She may not know how to select and prepare the daily meals. To a Home Service worker the parents and four brothers and sisters of a boy who enlisted seemed to be in poor health. A doctor whose advice she sought said after an examination that the whole family was suffering from lack of nourishment. The real trouble was discovered to be that the mother did not know how to cook or what kind of food to buy. As soon as she was taught these first essentials of housekeeping the health of the family began to improve.

Of all the women, however, who need the Home Service of the Red Cross she who is about to become a mother needs it most of all. Thus a young wife came to the Red Cross office and told the worker there how frightened she was at the thought of what she was about to experience.

"If only Jack were here," she sobbed.

"You must meet Mrs. Smith," suggested the Home Service worker. "Her husband and her only boy are both in France. I'm sure that if you should like her

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she'd be glad to come and live with you for a few months."

The young woman and Mrs. Smith became friends at once and, as the older woman had been a trained nurse, the coming of the baby that has since arrived was converted into a source of eagerly anticipated joy.

At such times and, indeed, whenever there is sickness, the Home Service worker arranges for the presence of a doctor and a nurse, or secures admission to a hospital for the woman, if that is desirable. She sees also that the young mother becomes acquainted with those who can give her instruction about the care of the baby and herself.

No one, of course, can fill the place which the husband or the son has left—neither the Red Cross nor the other members of the family—but Home Service offers to women the kind of counsel and advice which their men would like to obtain for them, and, by helping them out of perplexity, by saving them from loneliness and friendlessness, gives to the men in the trenches or on shipboard that feeling of security about the folks at home which enables them to fight with unimpaired morale.

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{{c|{{uc|Review of Chapter III}}}}

1. What is the first and hardest thing that the family of the man in the service has to bear?

2. What binds the members of a family together?

3. What must the family do in order to lessen as much as possible the handicap caused by the absence of the man?

4. Give an illustration showing how Home Service helped a soldier's mother to overcome her loneliness.
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5. What evidence can you give to show that many families are likely to be newcomers to the neighborhood in which they live?

6. What kind of information can the families of men in the service obtain from the Home Service Sections?

7. Show by illustration how Home Service has helped women in the financial mangement of the home: (''a'') When there has been a decrease in income. (''b'') When there has been an increase in income.

8. Is it ever desirable for a woman with children to obtain employment outside of her home?

9. In what phase of housekeeping does Home Service often find that women are unskilled?

10. How does Home Service help the sick?
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{{ph|class=chapter num|Chapter IV}}
{{ph|class=chapter title|The Children|level=2}}

This war is being fought for the children of the world. The men who are now in the trenches will reap few of the benefits that will come from the conclusion of a permanent peace. The nations that are losing their best manhood, that are spending billions of dollars, that are undergoing countless privations will derive little immediate material gain from all their sacrifices. Small in comparison with the investment will be the present profit of the United States at the conclusion of its great venture.

The thought of everybody, from the least important soldier or sailor to President Wilson himself, has been the generations of the future. It is that the people of the United States and of the world of tomorrow may be a better people, that the people of the United States and of the world of today are at war with autocracy.

But the people of tomorrow are the children of today. They are the boys and girls who were born last year, the boys and girls who are in kindergarten now, who are in grammar school, in high school, who are working in their first jobs. That these children may have greater opportunity, the men on the battlefront are risking their lives. Is it not important, then, that the boys and girls of the United States should be fitted to make the most of the opportunities that the world of tomorrow

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holds for them? And of all children, should not the sons and daughters of the soldiers and sailors be given the benefit of the best preparation available?

It is infinitely harder for children to develop properly in a time of war than it is in a time of peace. In Great Britain, for example, there has been a great increase in juvenile delinquency. The number of children arrested and brought before the courts for breaking the law is larger by forty per cent. than before the war. This is partly because of the absence of the fathers from home, partly because in the first throes of mobilization many of the schools were closed, the buildings being used by the military, and partly because boys and girls by the thousands went to work in munitions factories and other war enterprises at an age when they ought still to have been living a sheltered life.

The lesson which this should teach the people of the United States is that children must continue in school as long as possible. Moreover, according to a study made by the Massachusetts Commission on Industrial and Technical Education, ninety-eight per cent. of the boys and girls in that state who go to work between the ages of fourteen and fifteen engage in unskilled or low grade industries. Thus they have little opportunity for training or advancement. This is corroborated by a report issued by the United States Bureau of Education which shows that a high school graduate earns on the average $1,000 a year as against $500 earned by a poorly educated workman. The National Child Labor Committee has published statistics indicating that a trained worker, eighteen years of age, earns ten dollars a week as compared with seven dollars a week received by an

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untrained worker of the same age. At twenty-five years the difference is much greater—being thirty-one dollars weekly for the trained worker as against fourteen dollars for the untrained worker.

Despite this and similar evidence of how education pays, many parents are tempted to allow their children to stop school even when the money which might be added to the family income in this way is not needed. A girl was kept at home to do housework in order that her mother, whose husband had gone to war, might add to the family income by taking a job. The Home Service worker learned that there was an older daughter, twenty years old, who, because she had been lazy, had been earning only four dollars a week in a factory. When, through a talk with the Red Cross worker, the young woman realized that her lack of industry had caused her mother to take her younger sister from school, she became more zealous and is now receiving triple her former wage. The little girl is continuing her education.

Sometimes a child wants to stop going to school because he has fallen behind in his classes. For the help of such children there are attached to many Home Service Sections men and women who act as tutors and who help these children with their lessons. Often backwardness in studies is caused by ill-health or by some physical defect. A Home Service worker noticed a strained look upon the face of a boy who had stopped going to school because he had been at the foot of his class. It occurred to her to ask the mother whether the child had ever had measles. When she learned that he had had this disease she took him to a doctor and dis-

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covered that, as frequently happens after measles, his eyes had become so weak that they required glasses. Now that the boy is no longer suffering from defective vision he is making excellent marks in school.

Frequently a child does not advance in his studies because they do not interest him. The daughter of a soldier failed to do well at a trade school where she was taking lessons in sewing. The Home Service worker found the girl one afternoon leading her brothers and sisters in calisthenics. Finding that the child's interests were in this direction she persuaded the mother to allow her daughter to enter a physical culture school where she is now fitting herself to be a gymnasium instructor.

When the time comes for the boy to start work it means much to his success in life that he enter an occupation which offers him a future and one in which he is fitted by inclination and ability to engage. In the larger cities there are men ahd women who specialize in giving advice to young people about the kind of employment they ought to seek. This is called vocational guidance. It depends largely upon a knowledge of the ability, education, and inclination of the child, and about the occupations which are open to him. When specialists in vocational guidance are available, Home Service obtains their help for the boys and girls of soldiers and sailors. In towns where they are not to be found, such advice is supplied as effectively as possible by the Home Service workers themselves.

Equally important with education is health. The Red Cross not only obtains treatment for the families of soldiers and sailors when there is sickness, but it also

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uses every opportunity to help them to improve their physical condition.

Many people from birth to old age are content with being only half well because they have never known anything better. The eleven-year-old brother of a man in the service had walked on crutches all his life until one morning in the spring of 1917 he broke them. The family did not have enough money to replace them and asked the Red Cross for assistance. The Home Service worker took the boy to a physician. The doctor recommended an operation, which was performed, and now the little fellow is able to run about like other children and needs no crutches.

"She plays too hard," the mother of a girl who constantly complained of tired feet told the Home Service worker. The young woman from the Red Cross, however, took the child to a specialist in diseases of the joints and discovered that a certain kind of shoe would correct the trouble. This shoe was obtained and now the child plays all day without becoming tired.

The Home Service worker makes constant use of physicians and nurses. When, for example, she thinks that any member of a family may have tuberculosis she immediately arranges for an examination by a doctor or at a tuberculosis dispensary if there is one in town. She helps the patient to obtain admission to a sanatorium, or, if that is not possible, she tries to arrange to have a nurse visit the home regularly and supervise the treatment for this disease—a treatment which, as everybody knows, consists of rest, fresh air, good food, and, for the protection of others, the careful destruction of all discharges from the patient's nose and throat.

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It is through these discharges that the disease is chiefly spread.

The moral welfare of the children is often as much a concern of the Red Cross as their physical welfare. The wife of a sailor asked a Home Service worker for advice about the management of her three sons. They were under fifteen years of age, and, in the absence of their father, had become most unruly. The Home Service worker who was the mother of boys herself gave the perplexed woman some practical advice about discipline. Then she told the boys that she would have to send their mother away for a rest. The thought of separation, and the idea that this separation was necessary largely because of their behavior, had an immediate influence upon the children. They promised to be more considerate of their mother, and in the end, the whole family was sent away for a vacation by the Red Cross. When the mother and the boys returned, the Home Service worker planned various expeditions and excursions which used up some of the children's energy. Her advice to the mother has been so helpful that now the children have become an aid and a comfort instead of a hindrance and a perplexity.

Recreation is almost as important to children as food. It can be made a means of education and a moral safeguard. Yet there are thousands of boys and girls in the United States who have never known any other playground than the street in front of their homes; who have never been on picnics; who have never been able to play games without interruption by the policeman or passing automobiles and wagons. There are families whose members have never attended an entertainment or a

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concert. The incomes of thousands of households are so small that they cannot afford to go to a moving picture show. Five cents for the movies means five cents less for bread. Many families, indeed, stay away from church for the lack of a nickel to put into the collection box, or from inability to make a subscription, if hey were to become members.

The oldest son of a widow, whose life had been lived in just this meagre way, enlisted. The family now was obliged to economize still more. There was nothing left after the meals and the rent were paid for, and the mother became sickly more through weariness of the monotony of the struggle to make ends meet, than through actual lack of food or clothing. One of the first things that the Red Cross did after making the acquaintance of this woman was to arrange to have the oldest of her three children take her to a moving picture show and treat her to ice cream afterwards. The experience was so unusual that the woman and her son talked about it for days. The Red Cross now sees to it that this family has some kind of recreation every few weeks. There has, as a result, been a remarkable improvement in the health of the household.

Where do the children play? what friends have they? These are questions which the Home Service worker frequently asks of the mother. Whenever opportunity offers she encourages the children to become Boy Scouts or Camp Fire Girls and to join the Junior Red Cross and such organizations as the agricultural and home-making clubs conducted by the United States Department of Agriculture. She interests the older girls in entering sewing and reading circles and the boys in

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becoming members of debating societies and athletic clubs.

Through the church, the Red Cross worker strives to enrich the spiritual life of the family. The Home Service worker soon, of course, learns to what denomination the members of the household belong, and then if they have not been active in attendance at services she urges them to renew their connections with the church; she sees that the children are invited to attend the Sunday school, or to join church societies and clubs. Here the ideal of the Red Cross is that of a social worker now connected with a Home Service Section, who wrote to a woman grown careless about attendance at church, "whatever one's religion is one ought to observe it." The woman was a Catholic; the social worker was in the service of a non-sectarian organization and was herself a Protestant. She recognized, as all true Home Service workers do, how important it is that no opportunity for the development of spiritual life be lost.

The ideal of Home Service is, therefore, to open to families ways of physical, mental, and spiritual development. Its desire for the children of these families is that they be enabled to follow the example of a certain Boy who lived two thousand years ago and of whom it is said that He increased "in wisdom, and in stature, and in favor with God and man."

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{{c|{{uc|Review of Chapter IV}}}}

1. Whose will be the greatest benefit from the war?

2. What evidence can you cite to show that war times may bring handicaps to children?

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3. What facts indicate that to take children from school in order that they may work is poor economy?

4. Give two reasons why children sometimes want to stop school.

5. Give an illustration showing how Home Service works to keep children in school.

6. Why does the Red Cross seek to improve the physical condition of children?

7. (''a'') What is the treatment for tuberculosis? (''b'') How is this disease chiefly spread?

8. (''a'') Have all children equal opportunity for recreation? (''b'') Do you know of children in your town who have no place to play? (''c'') Why is recreation a necessity?

9. What kinds of recreation, aside from physical exercises, help to develop children?

10. (''a'') How does Home Service try to advance the spiritual life of the family? (''b'') What is its attitude toward religious observance?
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{{ph|class=chapter num|Chapter V}}
{{ph|class=chapter title|The Family|level=2}}

Service in the American army and navy is for many men an educational opportunity. All the ingenuity of modern science is focused upon the battlefront. There is not a form of technical skill that is not useful there. The man in uniform is not merely a soldier or a sailor; he may be also an electrician; a telegrapher; a wireless operator; an aeronautical expert; a mathematician; and so on through all the trades, professions, and businesses in the world.

Men who before the war were unskilled laborers are now apprenticed in occupations requiring knowledge and experience. They will leave the army and the navy as trained artisans. At the great camps where the soldiers are receiving military instruction, and at the naval reserve stations, classes are being conducted in everything from arithmetic to English and French. Entertainments of various kinds are being held and the men are being educated even through their recreation. Then there is the trip to Europe and the many things which, aside from the life in the trenches, the men are seeing and experiencing. Before the war, travel abroad was the privilege only of those who were wealthy enough, or were willing to make sacrifices enough, to obtain the money needed for such a journey. Now this is the opportunity of more than a million American men. Let

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no one, however, consider all this as a justification for war. Compared with the wreck and havoc that is being wrought to character, life, and property, the educational advantages of the conflict amount to nothing. Nevertheless, many of the soldiers and sailors will, indeed, return to civil life with a wider experience and a far better education than before. Their standards of orderliness and of sanitation, as well as of culture and technical knowledge, will be greatly advanced.

But what of the folks at home? Will the families of these men have fallen so far behind them as to be uncongenial? This question is with the Home Service workers whenever they visit the household of an enlisted man.

One Red Cross worker happened to learn that the husband of a woman whom she was helping had been made a sergeant. The news caused her to realize the difference between his opportunities and those of his wife. He was learning to lead other men; he was taking advantage of the education which the camp was giving him. She, on the other hand, could not speak or write English; the family lived in an undesirable neighborhood; the children were allowed to be irregular in their school attendance; the housekeeping was poor. If the man were to return to such a family he might become discouraged and lose all he had gained. His home life might be a failure.

The Red Cross worker helped the family to move to another neighborhood; she began teaching the mother better standards of housekeeping, and arranged that she should receive lessons in the English language; she saw to it that the children went to school regularly. If

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the family responds to the efforts of the Red Cross the sergeant will find a congenial household when he returns.

This awakening of the family to wider opportunities is especially important in the homes of people who have come to America from other countries. These newer citizens frequently need to be helped to adapt themselves to American ways of living in order that they may get the best that the United States has to offer, and that the United States may in turn receive the best that they have to give.

In the spring of 1912 Jacques Armot<ref>The name is, of course, fictitious.</ref> arrived in one of the great cities of the United States. He had left France with the same hope of improving himself that inspired the men who came to America in the days of Captain John Smith and the Pilgrim fathers. He soon discovered, however, that starting a career was not easy in a great metropolis where he had no friends. Making a living in America is no longer the simple matter it was in the days of the first settlers when anyone who could cultivate a plot of ground and handle firearms could make a home for himself and his family. Armot was obliged to take the first kind of work that offered itself—and that was manual labor.

His wages were so low and the cost of living was so high that existence was more difficult for him than it had been in France. The neighborhood in which he could find a home within his means did not have the sort of people who were socially congenial to his wife and to him. Consequently, they withdrew within themselves and remained apart from the life about them.
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The children, however, went to school. They learned the English language and they learned American ways. When the two oldest boys reached working age they were able by reason of their greater knowledge of things American to earn almost as much as their father. More and more they saw the difference between the foreign atmosphere of their home and the American tone of the rest of the city. They began to feel superior to their father and mother, and dissatisfied with the family life. When the United States entered the war they enlisted, partly as a means of escape from their home.

Without the wages of the boys the family found it difficult to live. The man sought the advice of the Red Cross. The Home Service worker recognized immediately that the trouble lay largely in the failure of the parents to adapt themselves to the life about them. The man looked very much the foreigner. His hair was long, his moustache trailed down over the corners of his mouth—even the color and cut of his clothes stamped him as being an outlander. The first Home Service remedy was the barber and the clothing store. Then there were talks with the man about his ambitions. He was made to feel that he had the backing of the Red Cross. The Home Service worker learned of a position in a bank. Armot was sent to apply for it. With the new feeling of confidence which the Red Cross had given him, and the consciousness that he was groomed in American style, he obtained the job. He has proved himself to be a valuable worker and is earning twenty-five dollars a week.

In the mearitime, several members of the Home Service Section had called to see Mrs. Armot. She

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began to feel that at last she had found friends in America and when, after a time, one of her visitors suggested that she study English she readily accepted the suggestion. She began, also, to make excursions about the city in order that she might select a house in a more congenial neighborhood, which her husband's increased salary now made possible. Through the Red Cross the boys learned about the changes that had taken place at home. They began writing to their parents. When they return from the war they will find a family ready to give them the environment they desire.

People welcome the opportunities which the Red Cross offers them to become acquainted with American ways of life. "So many things I want to learn; maybe she teach me more than writing," said one woman for whom a Home Service worker had obtained an instructor in English.

Families of soldiers and sailors need the strengthening influences of the Red Cross in still other ways, for all the men in the service will not have progressed because of their war experiences; some households will have to prepare against a deterioration in the quality of the men who return to them.

The separation, long in time and in distance which the trip to France involves, is a severe strain upon family ties. In the Civil War the soldiers were seldom more than a few days' journey from home. They could usually visit their families during comparatively brief furloughs. This, also, is true of the French and the English soldiers. The Americans, however, will probably be abroad for the duration of the war. Unless the bonds

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of the home are kept strong, many a soldier and sailor will be likely to drift away from his family.

When, therefore, there is any danger of a household breaking up and its members separating, the Red Cross does its best to hold the family together, for nothing could be more demoralizing to a soldier or a sailor than to return from the front and find no place to call his own.

The home of a certain soldier had almost ceased to exist because of this separation of the members of the family. One of his brothers and one of his sisters were living in one part of town, another brother was living with an aunt, and a sister was staying in still another section of the city.

The Home Service worker helped the oldest daughter to find a flat where the children could live together. There, under the leadership of their sister, they are making a home for themselves and for their brother when he returns. This family will be stronger after the war, because it has been reunited.

The life in the trenches, with all its stretches of monotony, is so different from the routine of business; it is so much more exciting; it relieves a man so completely of the necessity of supporting himself and his family, that when the soldier returns to civil life he is tempted, as the experience of our Allies has shown, not to engage in any form of steady employment. The weak man is likely to yield to this temptation unless he finds at home a bracing atmosphere of industry and ambition.

The Red Cross cannot, of course, make a family industrious and ambitious. All the Home Service worker can hope to do is to give the family opportunities to improve itself and to encourage it to take advantage of

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these opportunities. Everything depends ultimately upon what, at the beginning of [[This Side the Trenches/Chapter 2|Chapter II]], was called the morale of the family. Only if the family is made of the right stuff, only if it has the spirit of self-reliance and self-help, can it hope to succeed.

There is no royal road to success any more than hare is a royal road to learning. One cannot give a household a sound, stimulating family life any more than one can give a man an education. One can only confirm a family in its ideals or show it new ones; one can only see that its desire to do things for itself, the desire of its members to do things for each other, is not weakened by an invitation to depend upon outsiders instead of upon itself. One can only give encouragement in discouragement, opportunity where there is no opportunity, hope where otherwise there might be despair.

This is what the Home Service of the Red Cross tries to do for the families of soldiers and sailors. But after all, could there be found anywhere a more helpful or a more difficult work?

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{{c|{{uc|Review of Chapter V}}}}

1. What unusual educational opportunities have American soldiers and sailors?

2. How did Home Service help one family to prepare itself for the return of the man?

3. What should be our purpose in helping the new citizens of America, ''i. e.,'' immigrants, to adapt themselves to American ways of living?

4. What is the lesson of the story of Jacques Armot?

5. Why is it that there is danger of lack of sympathy between immigrant parents and their children?

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6. What is there in the conditions under which the present war is fought that tends to be a strain upon family ties?

7. Why did the Red Cross unite a soldier's family which had become separated?

8. Does the maintenance of family life seem to you to be important? Why?

9. What is there in the life of the soldier or the sailor which makes it hard for him to return to everyday life and work?

10. What is the only way in which people are really helped?
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{{ph|class=chapter num|Chapter VI}}
{{ph|class=chapter title|The House|level=2}}

What clothes are to the body, that the house is to the family. Just as clothes show the taste of their wearer, so the house expresses the character of those who live within it.

Is the family hospitable, or are there never guests at the table or for the night? Has the family an appreciation of things that are beautiful? Is it orderly? Are any of its members fond of reading? Is it a family that knows how to enjoy itself at home or is it one which is dependent upon others for recreation and relaxation? Do its members have a good time being together or are they usually to be found away from home, each busy about his own interests?

These and many other questions are answered by the house. The house is indeed far more than a shelter in which to sleep and dress and eat. It is a place where character is formed. Therefore its physical condition is of great importance to the welfare of the enlisted man's family.

The army and navy have been recruited from every rank in society, from rich and poor alike. While some have left luxurious homes to enter the service, others have enlisted from houses miserable in surroundings and construction. Thus, indeed, Home Service workers, in the course of their visits to families of soldiers

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and sailors, have discovered one or-more of the four principal housing evils that are to be found in cities and villages throughout the country:

{{fb|
''A.'' Lack of suitable water supply—failure to have running water in the house where this is possible.

''B.'' Lack of proper sanitation, lack of proper ventilation and of sanitary toilets.

''C.'' Lack of privacy because of not enough rooms.

''D.'' Structural defects, ''i. e.,'' leaky roofs, damp walls, cellars flooded with water, thin board walls that do not keep out the cold.
}}

In larger cities there is, in addition, the lack of space about the houses, no yards, and buildings erected so close to one another that the dwellings have not enough light and air. Moreover, despite all the improvements that have been made in city housing, there are still to be found thousands of rooms which have no outside windows and which obtain their light and air either through a door or a window cut into another room.

When a Home Service worker finds a family living under any of the conditions that have just been described, she immediately urges them to move into better surroundings. She tells the members of the family to require three things of the house in which they desire to make their home—cheerfulness, sanitation, privacy.

This means that every house should have fresh air and sunlight, that it should be in good repair, that the plumbing should be of such kind and in such condition that waste matter moves quickly into sewers. It means that there should, of course, be running water in the dwelling. When scrubbing the floor or taking a bath

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involves carrying a bucket from a hydrant in the yard or from a faucet in the basement or in the hall of a tenement, cleanliness becomes so difficult as frequently to be neglected.

Particularly important to the moral welfare of the family is privacy. What sort of home life is possible when parents and children can never be alone together? What sort of morals is it possible to maintain when, as frequently happens, four or five, sometimes as many as eight or nine, people sleep in the same room?

To be sure, it is not often that the families of soldiers and sailors are to be found living under such conditions, but these things exist; and the Home Service worker who desires to protect the children of the men in the army and navy must have a knowledge of what she may meet in the course of her work.

The lodger comes as an additional problem to many families. In a desire to add to the income which is received from the government allowance, the mother or the wife is often tempted to rent one of her rooms. The inducement to do this is especially strong in towns where unusually large numbers of men are engaged in the manufacture of munitions or in shipbuilding or in the production of other war materials. For some women the taking of lodgers may be a desirable thing. None the less, there are dangers involved. Keeping a lodger may mean overwork for a woman who is already as busy as she ought to be. It may mean overcrowding a home that already has as many occupants as it ought to have. Usually the lodger arrives from the family knows not where. He becomes an intimate acquaintance of the household when perhaps if his

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character were known he would not be permitted to pass the door. The Home Service worker having particularly in mind the welfare of the daughters of the family, encourages the mother to talk about her plans before she decides to take a lodger. In this way much harm has been avoided.

Sanitation and cheerfulness cannot be secured simply by selecting the proper kind of house. These things depend also upon the way in which the house is kept. Where there is a yard it should be cleared of litter. The garbage cans should be covered, refuse should not be allowed to collect in the cellar, and the rooms and halls should be clean and orderly.

All this may seem to be simple and something to be taken for granted, yet there are families where the home life is unsuccessful because of lack of proper housekeeping. From the clutter of unwashed dishes on the kitchen table to the unmade beds, everything in the house makes a disagreeable impression.

This failure of the housekeeper is particularly noticeable in many of the larger cities of the country. Although people living in the crowded streets know their neighbors better than is generally supposed, they do not exchange visits with so great a variety of people as does the person living in a small town. Here the woman, inexperienced in housekeeping, sees frequently the homes of women of greater experience and better taste. In the city the housekeeping methods of a whole neighborhood may be so similar that a woman has little incentive to improve her work.

This is also true of families living in the colonies which immigrants form in towns and villages in every

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part of the United States. When these people have poorly kept homes it is only because they do not know any better. They have never been taught the art of housekeeping. They do not know that it is an art. They do not know that there is any better way of living than the way to which they have been accustomed. Their only hope of advancement lies in having someone show them what the care of the house means, and what pleasure and comfort, what a wholesome family life can be had from a home in which the art of housekeeping has been practised.

The Home Service workers have a great opportunity to raise the ideals of many women about the care of their homes. Whenever the family of a soldier or a sailor is suffering for lack of a knowledge of housekeeping, the Red Cross tries to introduce to it someone who can show the mother, the wife, or the daughter how to do her work better, not only the housework but also the cooking and the buying of food and clothes. Whenever possible, this person is a domestic science teacher in the public schools or one of the home demonstration agents who are at work in the counties of many states. Home Service Sections which have not been able to obtain the services of these specialists have depended upon housekeepers of experience who have been willing to volunteer their time for this work. Through these women the Red Cross has been able to help spread the rules, instructions, and requests of the Food Administration. Families have been reminded of the wheatless and meatless days and about conserving sugar and fats. They have also been encouraged

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to start war gardens when there has been space for them to do this.

Families which have been reached with this form of Home Service have learned to take a pride in the appearance of their houses and yards. They have cultivated the art of home-making with greater interest and in so doing have strengthened their whole family life, for, as indicated at the beginning of the chapter, the house is primarily to be regarded as a place where character is formed. The house which is selected and maintained from this point of view can, indeed, become a fortress because of which the man in the trenches or on the high seas may feel certain that his family is secure.

{{fb|
{{c|{{uc|Review of Chapter VI}}}}

1. How do dwellings show the characteristics of those who live within them?

2. Why is the house an important place?

3. Mention four of the prevalent evils of housing to be found throughout the country.

4. What are some other housing evils found, especially in cities?

5. What are the three things which the Home Service worker desires the members of the family to require of the house in which they live?

6. What does each of these three things involve?

7. Why is the taking of a lodger into the family a matter for serious consideration?

8. Why are many of the homes in large cities, or in colonies formed by immigrants, poorly kept?

9. How do the Home Service workers try to improve these homes?

10. How is Home Service helping the Food Administration?
}}

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{{ph|class=chapter num|Chapter VII}}
{{ph|class=chapter title|The Town<ref>The problems described in this chapter, while of interest to all who are concerned with the welfare of their fellows, are presented chiefly from the point of view of the larger towns and cities.</ref>|level=2}}

The house was a ramshackle, rickety affair. The steps wobbled so dangerously as the Home Service worker climbed them that she feared that they would break under her. Certainly it was not the sort of place in which the family of a man in the service of his country ought to be obliged to stay. The Home Service worker immediately arranged to move the family to other and more cheerful quarters.

But what about the next family that might move into the house? There ought to be no next family or at least not until the building could be repaired. The Home Service worker knew the law regulating the condition of houses. She was, therefore, able to make a beginning of remedying the trouble by reporting what she had seen to a city official whose business it was to act upon such complaints.

In another town the family of a sailor had been buying a house upon a partial payment plan. The dwelling was not connected with the city sewer. The Home Service workers learned that the municipality was compelled by law to make such connections allowing the householder to reimburse it by installments for the

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expenditure. Accordingly, they saw to it that the local authorities did their duty.

By enforcing the housing regulations in these two instances the Home Service workers helped to make it more certain that in the future the law would be observed. Thus the interest of the Red Cross in the welfare of the families of the men in the service leads it from the home to the town, so that ieraately its work affects the welfare of everybody.

When an evil condition is found to exist in a city or a state, the first thing that people think of is the passage of a bill by the Legislature. Thereupon, everybody is satisfied and the public is likely to imagine that what was wrong will thereafter be right. Unless, however, someone makes it his or her business to see that the law is enforced, the city or the state is no better off than it was before.

Here, then, is an additional service which fi Red Cross is performing. In the course of its work with families it comes into touch with every phase of city government and also with the many institutions and organizations which, with the support of private funds, are engaged in public work. Each time that the Home Service worker takes a child from a factory or a workshop and sees that he returns to school, she helps to make the laws prohibiting child labor effective—and, as was indicated in [[This Side the Trenches/Chapter 3|Chapter III]], this returning of children to school is constantly being done by the Red Cross. The need for such action exists particularly, according to the National Child Labor Committee, in several states where there has been a relaxing of the enforcement of the Child Labor Laws.
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When the sons or the younger brothers of the men in the service, being no different from other boys, get into trouble by knocking baseballs through neighbors' windows or by exerting their energy in some way that results in a violation of the law, the Red Cross worker finds herself taking an interest in the operation of the court. And because of this interest, the local magistrate or justice of the peace cannot help but be influenced to be considerate and thoughtful in his work so that here again all children are benefited by reason of the activity of the Red Cross. Similarly, it is not unlikely that during or after the war many towns will develop additional playgrounds because the Home Service workers have found through their acquaintance with the children of soldiers and sailors that more playgrounds are needed.

There are in every city things of this sort which are everybody's business. Home Service, however, touches the lives of so many people in so many different ways that there is scarcely any part of the life of the town with which the Red Cross workers do not become acquainted.

Is the Board of Health capable? After the Home Service Section has arranged for the treatment of sickness in the families of soldiers and sailors it begins to feel able to answer this question. There are scores of similar questions with which the Red Cross workers as a result of their experience in helping the households of the men in the army and navy soon find themselves to be asking.

Does the town protect its milk and water supply? Is there any system of inspection for this purpose and

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are the inspectors efficient? What is being done to prevent tuberculosis? Is there a dispensary for the treatment of this disease? Is a nurse employed to visit and to discover persons suffering from consumption? What efforts are being made to reduce infant mortality? Is there any place in town where a mother can receive instruction about the care of her baby? Is there a hospital in the neighborhood? Is it well conducted? What facilities does the town offer for the care of aged men and women who have no relatives or friends to help them?

What opportunities are there for children to obtain recreation? Are there clubs which they can join? Do they belong to the Junior Red Cross? Is there a troop of Boy Scouts or an organization of Camp Fire Girls in town? Is there vacant land that could be turned into playgrounds? Must children who have broken the law be brought before the same court in which criminals appear or is there a juvenile court? Where do children stay when they are placed under arrest? Is there a special detention home or must they be taken to the jail with older offenders who may teach them bad habits and start them in criminal ways? Must every child who has done wrong be sent to an institution or does the magistrate obtain a promise of better behavior from the child, and is there attached to the court a probation officer who will help the child keep his promise?

What sort of factories are there in the neighborhood? Are they healthful and sanitary places in which to work? What is the state law regulating the hours of labor of women and children? Are women being over-

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worked? What industries give families piece-work to do in their own homes? What is the rate of pay for such home work?

Is there a part of the town in which immigrants live? How do their homes compare in sanitation and general healthfulness with the other houses of the town? Are there churches for these people? What is being done to introduce the immigrants to American life? Are there classes for the teaching of English? Are these prospective citizens becoming naturalized? What part are they taking in the affairs of the town? In politics?

These and many other questions the Home Service workers soon find themselves asking.<ref>A pamphlet which will suggest many other questions of this sort is ''[[What Social Workers Should Know About Their Own Communities]],'' by [[Author:Margaret F. Byington|Margaret F. Byington]], Russell Sage Foundation, 130 East 22d Street, New York City. Price, ten cents.</ref> In trying to solve the problems about which the families of soldiers and sailors seek their advice, the representatives of the Red Cross come into touch with the things which affect the welfare of all the people. And when an intelligent group of citizens begin to be interested in the way in which the courts, the hospitals, the schools, the institutions of the city are conducted, improvement is sure to follow. Thus the Home Service of the Red Cross may perform a service to the whole town. In helping the families of soldiers and sailors it indirectly helps everybody.

{{fb|
{{c|{{uc|Review of Chapter VII}}}}

This is a chapter of many questions. How many of them can you answer?
}}

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{{ph|class=chapter num|Chapter VIII}}
{{ph|class=chapter title|The Ultimate Victory|level=2}}

To the soldier or the sailor Home Service is insurance against things which may happen to the folks at home. Because of the Red Cross he can feel secure about his family. He can 'soldier better' with the knowledge that should sickness enter his household, should loneliness oppress the wife or the mother, should the members of the family be unable to manage their affairs in his absence, should any accident of fortune or misfortune come, the Red Cross is ready to supply money when that is needed, credit when that is needed, and friends who are needed most of all. Knowing this, the men in the service can, as one of them said, "go forward with a clear mind." They can do their duty with a feeling of assurance that enables them to bear their own hardships and dangers with cheerfulness and courage. Because of the Red Cross, the morale of the army and navy—that thing of the spirit which is more important than ships or munitions and without which victory is impossible—continues to be strong. Such is the part which Home Service is playing in the war that is now being fought.

But the war will not be decided when the peace terms are signed. "The true victory," as Sir Baden-Powell has said, "lies not so much in the actual tactical gains on the battlefield today as in the quality of the men who have to carry on the work of the country after the war."
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It is this thought which underlies all of the Home Service of the Red Cross. Home Service is looking to the future. Of what sort of people is the next generation to be. Only if the men and women of tomorrow are strong in body, in mind, and in spirit will the United States have come successfully through the great struggle in which it is now engaged.

Of the men examined in the first draft 23.7 per cent. were found to be physically unfit for service in the national army. If such a test were to be taken thirty years from now, would this percentage be greater or less? Only 28 per cent. of the grammar school graduates in the United States enter high school.<ref>[[1916 Report of United States Commission of Education]].</ref> Will the number be larger or smaller thirty years from now? President Wilson's spiritual leadership has been possible only because the American people are ready to understand and to accept the ideals which he has set forth. Will the American people be as ready to rise to new ideals a generation hence? Will the families of what President Wilson calls "plain people everywhere," the family of the neighbor across the way, the family living in the next block, the Brown family, the Smith family, just the everyday family that is neither millionaire nor pauper, the family which has furnished the men who are fighting this war, will this family be as sturdy, as self-reliant, as devout, will it have in it as much of the right stuff thirty years from now as it has today?

The answer to these questions will decide whether or not the United States has been truly victorious in the great war. But if we desire to make that answer "Yes" we must not risk allowing any sign of weakness or

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strain in any household to go without attention. No family must, for lack of help, become disorganized and less able to do its work in the world. And what families are under greater strain now than the families of the soldiers and sailors? To what families does the country owe more? What group of people, moreover, represents so large a part of the population? For the sake of the future of the nation as well as for the sake of the morale of the soldier and the sailor the Home Service of the Red Cross is of vital importance. It is not only an insurance to the men of the army and navy, it is an insurance to the whole country.

When the household is invaded by sickness, when things begin to go wrong, when loneliness and despair begin to show themselves, then, indeed, the Red Cross must be quick to act. It must be quick to act, but more than that, it must be long continuing in action; for Home Service is not something that is completed in a few moments or days as the passage of an ordinance by a town council. Home Service is not a wholesale process. It does not deal with the families of soldiers and sailors in the mass. It is not to be compared with a law enacted by Congress which affects everybody alike. Home Service does not involve the same thing for any two families. To each family it tries to mean what that family needs.

A neighbor comes to the office of the Home Service Section with word that a certain family is having a hard time of it. A mother writes to say that she is in such distress that she cannot continue struggling alone, Some member of a family applies to the Red Cross for information about the man at the front and soon shows

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that a great deal more than this information is needed. In these and in a hundred other ways the Home Service Section learns about the difficulties besetting the folks at home.

Its workers begin their Home Service with the realization that no two families are alike, that each family has its own hopes, its own ambitions, its own problems, its own strengths. Because she appreciates the sacredness of each family's life, each worker helps each family only as she feels that she understands it. It is upon this appreciation and this understanding of the individual family that the things described in the preceding chapters have been accomplished. But here what was said in [[This Side the Trenches/Chapter 5|Chapter V]] must be remembered. One does not really accomplish anything for a family. Whatever is accomplished is accomplished by the family itself. One cannot give a family health, education, or spiritual life. One can only offer it opportunity and encouragement. The rest remains with the family. It must work out its own salvation. Every man must be his own success.

Home Service, moreover, is not infallible. Its workers are only human beings. They have been hurriedly brought together by the emergency of war. They have no such miraculous abilities that merely to wish is to succeed. Many of them, indeed, are still learning the art of helping people. With it all, as the stories in this book show, much is being achieved.

This is true largely because Home Service is not a sudden discovery of the Red Cross. Like the art of healing, it has been slowly developing over many years. It started with the friendly aid which since all time neighbor has always given to neighbor. It has been fostered

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by the church. Half a century ago this gospel of neighborliness became the beginnings of that art of helping people out of trouble which is known everywhere as social work. Through hundreds of organizations in every part of the country men and women have been putting this art into practice. Thus it is that the United States has been better prepared to help the families of its soldiers and sailors than any other nation in the world, for in the years before the war there were in no country so many citizens engaged voluntarily in activities to improve standards of wages, of work, and of living, and in similar efforts to enable their fellows to take full advantage of the opportunities that democracy offers.

When war was declared the nation suddenly appreciated the fact that social work was essential to victory. It realized that the only real progress is progress made by everybody. No one must be allowed to fall by the wayside for lack of a chance to go forward. Home Service is an expression of the quickened ideals of the nation. The American Red Cross with an organization that reaches into every town and city in the United States tells the American people that democracy fails unless each individual is able to use the opportunities which democracy offers.

True victory in this war will not be achieved until, in the democracy for which we hope to make the world safe, each family can develop to the fullest physical, mental, and spiritual life of which it is capable. The real victory will, indeed, be decided in the next generation, This is the victory that the American Red Cross is

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working to achieve through its Home Service with the families of soldiers and sailors this side the trenches.

{{fb|
{{c|{{uc|Review of Chapter VIII}}}}

1. What does Home Service mean to the soldier and the sailor?

2. What is the purpose that underlies all of Home Service?

3. (''a'') What percentage of men in the first draft were found to be physically unfit for service? (''b'') What percentage of the grammar school graduates in the United States enter high school?

4. Why is it that, if the children of the United States have better opportunity to obtain an education, the country will have better citizens in the next generation?

5. (''a'') When is it desirable to attempt to improve conditions by legislation? (''b'') When is a better result attained by helping people to help themselves?

6. How does the Home Service Section learn that fami lies need its help?

7. What kind of help cannot one give to a family and what can one give?

8. Out of what ideals and experience has Home Service developed?

9. What is the only real kind of national progress?

10. What is the ultimate victory?
}}

—61

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{{c|{{asc|[[Author:Douglas C. McMurtrie|Douglas C. McMurtrie]]<br />New York}}}}/last/

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