PAGE TWO
THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
The United War Work Campaign
An Obligation And An Opportunity
AN EDITORIAL
By Leo M. Franklin
THIS time, when the Huns are on their knees
A T begging
for mercy, and when the victory of our
arms is painly in sight, it is well that we should
rejoice at the prospect of the new day that is about
to dawn for humanity; but it is also right that we
should consider at what cost of blood and treasure
our triumph has been bought.
Proud and happy, as we have a right to be, that
America has played and is playing so noble a part
in the winning of the war and in the saving of
civilization, we should not fail to remember that
they who have contributed the most to the glorious
victory that shall be ours are the boys in our camps
and cantonments here and overseas, who have been
ready to lay down their lives that the processes of
civilization might go on.
Yet it is not enough that we should prate of the
bravery of our boys and wreathe their heads with
laurel. It is not enough that upon their departure
for the camps we should bid them hearty God-speed
and extend to them the assurance of our welcome
when, crowned with victory, they return. The time
has passed for the patriotism that manifests itself
chiefly in brave words, in the waving of flags and in
the lighting of bonfires. The patriotism for which
these times call must express itself in terms of serv-
ice and of sacrifice. It is the merest mockery for
men who call themselves Americans to be willing to
pay no higher tribute to the boys who have laid their
all upon the altar of their country than that which
consists in laudatory words and pleasant phrases.
What our boys over there have endured has been
made easy for them only by virtue of the fact that
they felt themselves from the beginning to be under
the consecration of a high and holy cause. Because
of the end they never ceased to have in view, they
have dared to laugh at difficulties that would have
overwhelmed a body of men morally and physically
less stalwart than our boys. They who had been
used to the comforts and the luxuries of American
homes have lived hi their dugouts and their trenches
without complaining. It was all part of the game
that they were playing. They have endured disease
in varied forms without whimpering and whining.
They have faced without fear, but with a mighty
courage , the most crafty, the most cruel and the
most unscrupulous foe against whom a civilized
nation has ever found itself arrayed.
.
With a courage born of the conviction that their
cause was right, these boys were not to be affrighted
by the terrific onslaughts of the demon forces
arrayed against them, but with a heroism that has
brought new honor to the American name in the
eyes of all nations they went over the top time and
time again and planted the Stars and Stripes—sym-
bol of freedom and justice—where, but for them and
their companions in arms, the most abject servitude
and the most cruel. injustice might have been the
portion of future generations.
Into the life of the soldier, marked by hardship,
by privation, and by willing sacrifice, there has.
come one high and sustaining influence. It has been
the assurance that the unexampled heroism and
devotion of the boys in khaki and in blue were not
without their full measure of appreciation at the
hands of those who for good reason had remained
at home. Though separated by vast distances from
those they love, the boys have had the constant
assurance that their achievements were the glory
and their well-being the concern of their families.
their friends and their compatriots.
That assurance found its embodiment particu-
larly in the great welfare agencies that like so many
messengers of mercy became a connecting link be-
tween the boy in the trench and his loved ones at
home. It is not to exaggerate the truth to say that
but for the kindly ministry of the Young Men's
Christian Association, the Knights of Columbus.
the Jewish Welfare Board, and those other agencies
that stand united in their struggle and consecrated
purpose to maintain the morale of the boys, many
a youth who has done deeds of daring in his coun-
try's cause, would have lacked the courage to do
what America has a right to expect of her noblest
sons. Home-sickness ; loneliness, the absence of
friends and acquaintances would have depressed
him so utterly that his courage would have been at
a low ebb.
and of gratitude. Indeed, each and every one of the
seven organizations of the United War Work Cam-
paign is doing its own great task in a great and
noble way.
But with these Welfare organizations to buoy
him up in his hour of weakness and to take the place
of the friend for whom his soul so earnestly longed,
he found the courage to go on and to do his loyal
duty. Much has been said and written about the
part that these Welfare agencies have played in
maintaining the morale of our boys here and abroad.
Even in this country, one cannot visit any of our
great camps or cantonments without being immedi-
ately impressed with the efficient as well as with
the sympathetic spirit with which these different
societies organized for Welfare work in the Army
and Navy approach their task. The huts which
they have builded in the different cantonments are
'veritable beehives of busy activity. To them, the
boys turn for their entertainment and diversion.
Thither they go almost instinctively when they
need advice and counsel in regard to matters that
touch the deepest things in their lives. No man
need feel himself alone in a camp where there is a
representative of the Y. M. C. A., the K. of C., the
J. W. B., the Salvation Army, or of the other agen-
cies that are banded together in the United War
Drive Campaign.
Not the least cause that we have for gratitude
and appreciation is the fact that these seven organ-
izations are working together unselfishly and in
closest co-operation for a great and common cause.
None is jealous for credit for the good it does but
all alike are only eager to serve. Within the group
of seven there are organizations that are by conno-
tation affiliated with one or the other of the great
religious denominations. Just because of that tact
they are all necessary and indispensable. Still they
work together without thought of credal or re-
ligious differences in the name and for the sake of
a common humanity.
A thousand interesting and pathetic tales might
be told of the boys who through the kindly guid-
ance of the representatives of these organizations
have found themselves ,Some one has said recently
that many a lad leaving his home for the new and
hard life of the army might lose all his ideals were
there not back of him the sustaining and inspiring
influence of these great organizations. Without
undue patronage, without insulting the dignity of
each man's manhood, without interfering with his
religious rights and convictions, these agencies
stand ready to be the friend to every man and to
he,'p each one according to his needs.
In view of the tremendously important work that
these organizations are doing, the Fosdick Commis-
sion under authority, and, indeed, at the behest of
President Wilson, is undertaking the stupendous
task of raising the vast sum of $250,000,000 to carry
on the work of the Welfare organizations in the
United States Army and Navy. The organizations
represented in the United War Work Campaign
which in Michigan will be carried on under the
auspices of the Michigan Patriotic Fund, are the
following:
Young Men's Christian Asso-
ciation War Fund
Knights of Columbus
Jewish Welfare Board
Young Women's Christian
Association War Fund
War Camp Community Serv-
ice
Salvation Army
American Library Associa-
tion
It will be seen that these organizations include
among their number, not only those that are work-
ing in the camps here and overseas, but as well
those that like the War Camp Community Service
are doing a very necessary work for the soldiers
and the sailors in the great cities of our country,
where large numbers of our boys may be perma-
nently or temporarily stationed. Anyone who is
at all acquainted with the situation in which the
soldier finds himself in our great cities, must realize
the tremendous moral responsibility that rests upon
communities to reach out to the boys in their midst
the hand of hospitality. This work in its many and
varied forms is fostered by the War Camp Com-
munity Service.
The work of the American Library Association
which aims to equip every camp with an adequate
library plays an important part in the maintenance
of the morale of the boys. A book is oftentimes a
man's best friend. Nor let the work of the Salva-
tion Army in behalf of the soldier be underesti-
mated. If there have been those who heretofore
have held that organization in light esteem, let
them but hear what stories the boys returned from
the trenches have to tell of the work of the Salva-
tion Army over there and they will never again
speak of that organization save in terms of honor
This is as it should be. The boys who are fight-
ing our battles today are not primarily Protestant
or Catholic or Jew. They.are first of all Americans,
and any appeal in their behalf must primarily ad-
dress itself to the conscience of Americans. It
would be unworthy, therefore, of any group within
the confines of our state or country, to limit its in-
terest or its gifts to Welfare work of which only
members of its own group would be the benefici-
aries. If the war has taught us one thing more
clearly than another, it is that humanity is a larger
and a more worth-while unit than is connoted by
any sect or denomination.
Now, just because of this, it behooves our co-
religionists to whom especially we address our-
selves in these columns to realize that in giving to
the United War Work Fund, they give to the main-
tenance of the morale of the American soldier and
sailor among whom we are proud to know are to be
counted goodly numbers of our own Jewish boys.
Many of these boys have through acts of daring and
devotion won high recognition at the hands of our
government. Some of our boys, too, have laid down
their lives upon our country's altar and few are our
service flags in which one or more golden stars do
not gleam amid the stars of blue.
And yet, it is not for our Jewish boys, as such,
that we appeal. They would be first to resent such
action on our part. They have entered the lists as
Americans, proud of the privilege of fighting under
the Stars and Stripes. And what is true of them is
true of all the boys of every faith who are fighting
this battle of humanity. The cause of the Jew in
oppression like that of the Be;gian whose land has
been outraged and of the Armenian who has been
plundered and despoiled and of all the others who
have borne the yoke of servitude has become the
THREE—JEWISH CHRONICLE , .Beltz
common cause. The cause of each has become the
concern of all, and the civilized nations have come
to recognize that until all are saved, none shall be
safe.
Accordingly, we are asking the citizens of Jewish
faith in this state to do their full share in making it
possible in this great United Drive, for Michigan to
go over the top as on so many previous occasions it
has already done. We want the Jews of Michigan
to give not merely in proportion to what their Jew-
ish organization shall take out of this Fund for its
own particular purposes, but more—much more—
and in accordance with the greater needs of the
seven organizations that together are lifting the life
of the American soldier and sailor to that high
plane on which fighting men must live if they are
to continue fighting in that same magnificent spirit
and with such brilliant success as they have up to
this time.
The war is almost won. We verily believe that
the day of Freedom and of Justice is about to dawn
very soon. Our victory has been wrought at high
cost but the price has not been too high. Soon, pray
God, our boys will be coming back to us crowned
with their well won triumph. May we not hope
that when they come, each man among us may be
able to look them squarely in the eye unashamed,
because in the measure of our lesser opportunity,
we, like them, have brought to the altar of our coun-
try's cause our service and our sacrifice.
1