World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Young Men's Christian Associations
Oh, it is a wonderful sight to see men transformed by this inward moral
miracle, wrought by the touch of the living God. Here in the very
center of this venereal camp stands the Y M C A, endeavoring to meet
their every need, and even here the red triangle shines with the hope
of a new manhood for body, mind, and spirit. Every day at the hour of
opening there is a scurry of feet as the men rush in to the one center
in the whole camp where they can congregate. Martin Harvey has just
been here to cheer them up, and they were enthusiastic over a fine
lecture and recital last night on Chopin. The Colonel in command takes
particular pride in the Y M C A for his men, and states that crime
among them has been reduced ninety per cent since it started.
But even greater than the privilege which the Association has in
ministering to the fallen, is its work of prevention in the other
camps. Just up the road is a swearing old major in command of a unit
which has always had the worst record for immorality and disease of any
camp on the plain. He finally came in and demanded a Y M C A hut for
his men. A few weeks later he came to the Association headquarters and
said, in punctuated language which could not be printed, "For a year
and a half my camp has led all the rest as the worst in venereal
disease, with some twenty-five fresh cases every week. The first week
after the Y M C A was opened we had only ten cases, the next week six,
the third week only two, and it has not risen above that since. Your
Association is the ---- best cure for this evil."
Nothing less than reaching the whole man can meet this gigantic
problem. You must take physical precautions and build up a strong,
clean, athletic body. Better than all repressive rules and
regulations, you must provide healthy and happy occupation for the
minds of the men. But beyond the reach of medical and military
restrictions you have got to grip and strengthen their spiritual and
moral nature. Otherwise, in the artificial and unnatural conditions
consequent upon a vast concentration of men in a foreign land, away
from all home influences, and in the poisonous atmosphere of a land of
"regulated" immorality, where the government still regards it as a
"necessary evil," you must see your men fall in ranks before the
machine guns of commercialized vice, controlled by the vested
interests, or fall a prey to the harpies who walk the streets. In the
face of all this we must lay bold claim to the whole of manhood for God
and for the high ends for which it was created.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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