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Do you think that there is but one
side to this war game? That the
actual fighting is all that is importan
in the trenches? Not so. There are
two parte of equal importance. The
first is the drill, the training, the
technical education, the knowledge
that is necessary and the second is the
spirit, the morale of the troops. It is
th spirit of the men that determines
the successfulness of their training—■
that distinguishes between victorious
and beaten troops.
And who builds this spirit in the sol
dier? The mother, the wife, the sis
ter, the sweetheart back home —the
women, the officers and the non-com
missioned officers in charge of the
unit —his leaders. They are respon
sible for the way in which he re
sponds to his task and the manner in
which he helps to unify the spirit of
his unit and make sure the accom
plishment of its mission. Upon one
phrase centers the success of the ar
mies of today. The colonel says to
the captain, “Are you ready?” The
captain says to you “are you ready?”
and you say to your men, “are you
ready?” Your men may be drilled,
they may have tli’e training and the
knowledge for the task at hand but
they must be ready with the spirit to
carry out that job; and your ability
to lead them will show itself in the
morale with which they respond to
your leadership.
There are certain fundamentals ma
terially true of all armies. In . the
first place, some of your men will
have the blues. You must know wHy
that is. Sometimes it will be a letter
A letter from home with bad news,
perhaps; or a pessimistic one; or one
which makes the soldier homesick—
from his sweetheart perhaps; or a
business letter which makes him ■worry
about his affairs. Sometimes it will
be because he has no letter, or it will
be something else. Yom- mail ser
geant should know and should tell his
lieutenant when a man has been with
out mail for several days, and there is
a job for the officer. In my unit I
would be going to that man as soon as
I knew about that, and he would be
coming to me at the same time, for he
would know that he could talk over his
troubles with me and find advice and
sympathy. I would know something
of the condition of his affairs at home,
how many children he had or some
thing of his physical description of his
sweetheart, including the color of her
hair. I would say, “What’s the trou
ble, Jac, is your little boy sick at
home?” or something to show that I
was thinking of his affairs and ready
to sympathize with him. That all
sounds soft, perhaps. As someone
remarked to me not long ago, “Is it
no‘t sissifylng the job?” No, not at all.
You must know your men and they
must know you. A hard job is done
better when all pull together, and
kindly Interest will make your men
more ready to work the harder for
you.v
In the French army a great deal
more attention is paid to the salute
than in the American army. The
French soldier is more careful and ex
act in his saluting. He salutes.sharp
ly and he. stands strictly at attention'
when he is talking to an officer. That
is as it should be for that is discip
line and makes for stronger morale.
But when I have returned the salute of
one of my men, if I put my hand he
will shake it, for we are comrades. It
helps him to know that I am ready
to shake his hand and he feels free
to bring his problems or his troubles
to me.
There is another thing: It is not ne
cessary to be a German paid agent to
spread German propaganda. . There is
German propaganda being spread ev
erywhere in our armies, everywhere
here in this country. It is not neces
sary for the German paid agents to be
everywhere, to be here in this army.
I do not think that they are. But
there are always fools to spread that
German “stuff” and to spread pessi
mistic thoughts.
You must catch such men when you
have them in your unit. You must
find them out and stop the spread of
that stuff so that it does not under
mine the spirit of your men- You can
stop it by your own optimism. Ido
not mean the kind of optimism which
says, "Cheer up, there is nothing to
worry about, the war will be over in
three months.” That is no good. But
instil in that man-a knowledge of our
own righteousness. Make him feel
that we do not care how long the war
lasts so long as the right is success
ful. Make him care simply that we
do all we can do. If we know that we
are right we cannot be beaten and we
must feel that we are doing every
thing in our power for the success of
the right. Thereis not such a thing
as ‘doing one’s bit,” but it must be
“doing one’s full share” and that must
be done by giving all that we are, by
doing all that we can. Everybody
must do that.
Now if you cannt do anything for
the man ’Who is spreading German
propaganda or pessimism, carry him to
the Young Men’s Christian Associa
tion secretary. Find the men with
the bad ideas and turn them over to
him. He is able to look after the
conscientious objector, the propagand
ist, the man with foolish ideas, or the
ignorant man. The Y. M. C. A. man
M. PICARD’S ADDRESS
To Officers’ Training Camp
trench and camp
knows how to work with these. The
educational secretary has something
for the ignorant man, and so on. The
Y. M. C. A. man will be with you ev
erywhere and he will help you in many
things.
Also—read the newspapers, but do
not believe all the things you read.
Judge what you read by this: Think
about it and think whether, if it was
printed in a German newspaper in a
German city, the German people would
be pleased. If they would —do not
believe it; nine times out of ten it is
German stuff. When you read that
strikes are causing great internal trou
bles or that the German women-' are
crying for peace, don’t believe it.
That is German stuff.- Think of
those things the other way round. I
picked up a German newspaper and
read with my own eyes that war pre
parations were being greatly delayed
in America by strikes and by the wo
men who wanted peace. We are go
ing ahead just the same. There is
only one way for peace and that is by
shells—and more shells —and more
shells.
Now the Y. M. C. A. is good for
many other things also. And when
you are near a building, learn Frenah,
and yet your non-commissioned offi
cers to learn French. Let them vol
unteer for their classes- but once they
have signed, up, make the attendance
of the men compulsory. Otherwise you
will have a hundred for the first class
and fifty for the second and five for
the third. There are two reasons why
you should learn French. First, you
will find many and books
and papers of military and technical
value which are written in French and
which you should read. And second,
you will spend about sixty per cent of
your time in the trenches and about
forty per cent in the rear. Most of
that time in the rear will be spent in
sleeping and eating, and you will eat
just as well as you know the lan
guage and you will sleep just about
as well as you know the longuage.
Your unit will come to a village for
billet and sometimes a non-comiis
sioned Officer, but more often the sec
ond lieutenant, will have to get out
and arrange for the billets. Imagine
for yourself if an officer is making
arrangements for a billet and doing his
talking in French and another is try
ing to make his arrangements in Eng-
Ish, which one is going to get the best
accommodations? If you try to ask in
English in a French village, the war
will be over before you get it.
Now some of the well-meaning but
oier-zealous would-be protectors of
the soldiers are crying out, warning
against the dangers to which they are
exposed in their camps in France. It
would appear that vice reigned in
these camps and that all a soldier did
in his spare time was to sit around and
get drunk. The truth is that the men
are not so much exposed to vice, li
quor, etc., in France as they are here
in America. There is too much fight
ing to think of, to waste time in these
things. Moreover, prostitution is now
forbidden by law in France and there
will be no. trouble from this source to
mention, If the commanding officers
enforce the law. It is up to them and
to the military police, and all officers,
including the second lieutenants must
help in the enforcement. But there
is another problem to be met in the
villages where the troops are billeted.
You cannot billet them in barracks or
tent camps as you do here, for it would
take the Germans about one hour to
find that kind cf a carfip and another
hour to blow it up. You cannot
Change the aspect of the ground. As
an example of the necessity f(-
screening your activities, I recall a
certain German ammunition depot,
which was so well camouflaged that
it could not be discerned by the avia
tors who were on the lookout for it.
But as they observed the territory in
that vicinity that day, they noticed a
narrow yellow thread which grew
wider each day. Soon they could see
that it was a much traveled road and
reasoning that there must be some
thing of importance at the end of it,
they shelled the place where the yel
low ribbon ended. It blew up. It
was the German ammunition dump.
The Germans had camouflaged their
depot very carefully but they had for
gotten to conceal their steps.
So you must be in a town for yout
billet. There will not be many
Frenchmen there for they are in the
trenches. Remember that one out of
every six men in France is in the,
trenches. If America were to raise an
army in like proportion she would
have a force of ten milloin men. There
will be girls in that town and of
course they will be Interested in the
soldiers. And there may be some
foolish one who will be tempted and
fall. Then in three or four days the
soldier goes back to the trenches and
more soldiers come in to billet. Either
one of two things happens. The girl
may go back to closer care by her
mother and everything will pass over,
or she may not. In that case, she will
meet another soldier and another and
three or four more, and so it goes. You
know that inevitably disease will come
and as more soldiers come into that
village, it will spread to them. You
cannot treat that little French girl as
a professional prostitute for she is not
that; she is simply unfortunate. But
The Lenwood
‘ RIGHT AT CAMP HANCOCK
American and European Plan.
Special Rates for the
Families of the Army
Club Breakfast
Table de Hote Lunch, SI.OO
Dinner, $1.50
—or A la Carte.
Music 6:30 to 8 P. M.
Special Rates for Overnight for
Room with or without
Private Bath.
Sunday Evening Concerts.
BEAUTIFUL BALL ROOM.
Just the place to hold Balls, Social
Affairs, etc.
THE PATRONAGE OF THE
ARMY SOLICITED.
you must watch for the danger to your
men in disease and you must guard
against it. And you will do well to
remember that “good petticoats pre
vent the danger of bad ones." In
these French towns will be American
women, assisting in the canteen work
of the Y. M. C. A., and like duties.
You will find them to be “mothers by
proxy,” as it were, to your boys and
you will find that they do a great work
in such things as these.
The greatest trouble with the Amer
ican soldier is that he has too much
money. You must teach your men to
save their money and not to spend it
foolishly. Our French soldiers are al
lowed to drink the light wines and the
light beers of France because they
know how to drink them and they are
moderate If the American soldiers
can do likewise. they may be allowed
to drink these too. But if they can
not, then it must be for them “bone
dry.” And I am very afraid that it
will have to be bone dry. For the
American soldier spends his money too
freely and he does not know how to be
moderate. The French soldier gets a
dollar and a half a month —five cents
a day—and he has enough for his own
wants. Until the Americans came the
English soldier was the rich man. He
gets about five dollars a month, and
he was considered a millionaire. Just
remember that ten dollars sent from
home to a soldier means exactly ten
dollars worth of trouble, and the trou
ble won’t be over until it is all spent.
Write to the mother who sends money
to her boy and tell her that he will land
in the guard house for a length of time
in direct proportion to the money he
receives, for that is exactly what will
happen. Tell her that he doesn’t need
Kit, that he has mpre than he needs
anyway and that he will be much
better off if .he saves part of what he
has and doesn’t have any more from
her.
As an officer, you will get many let-
Irs from mothers of your men. Some
of them you will perhaps answer
yourself. Do so if you can, always.
But if you can’t do it yourself, turn
these letters over to the Y. M. C. A.
secretary or to some of the American
women who are helping in the work
for the soldiers- It will give them a
point of contact with the men, and the
fact that someone is interested in an
swering those letters shows thos
mothers at horns that their boys are
being taken care of and looked after
and helps them not to worrk. You
will do well to remember in t T these
things that the Y. M. <!. A. will help
you much in the looking after your
men. It is doing a big work with the
French armies and it is preparing to
do likewise with the American armies.
With all the races and classes of men
now in France, the American secre
taries are w -rking and helping. In
the English army ,the English gov
ernment uses the Y. M. C. A. and Eng
lishmen look after it but with all the
others, the American Y. M. C. A. is
doing the work. At present there is
a large force of Chinese laborers now
working in France, and the Y. M. C. A.
is there with them. That is perhaps
the most recent addition to the nation
alities represented on French soil.
Now here is another important thing
for you, as an officer, to remember.
Always see that your men are well
fed. Make it a point to see, not only
that your kitchens are clean and the
food well prepared, but that it is
bought well and that there is system to
the buying and to the preparation of
the menus. Your men will not be long
in finding out that their rations are
better than those of another company
and they will know the reason why,
and that will be another help in tho
matter of the relationship between you
and your unit. A soldier’s food is one
.of the most important things that have
to do with his welfare. The better
the food and the better its prepara
tion, the better service he can give,
and is willing to give.
All these things have to do with the
discipline and the spirit of your men.
The morale of your troops is most im
portant, it cannot be over emphasiz
ed. It is one of the strongest points
of the enemy. Do not think that this i
war began in 1917 when America en
tered it. It began long before that.
It began long before the start of hos
tilities in 1914 whe nthe Germans in
vaded Belgium. It began away back
in 1865 when Bismarck came. It is a
drama, if you please, in many acts.
Prussia against Denmark in 1864,
for Schleswig-Holstein. The Kiel
Canal and the North Sea —the first
act- Prussia against Austria in 1866
for Silesia and the Iron Mines, for im
plements for more war —the second
act. Germany against France in 1870
for Alsace-Lorraine—and more iron
for more wars —the third act.
Pan-Germanism! The control of Eu
rope and then the Bagdad
route and the control of Asia. The
Kiel Canal and the harbors that
brought; and then, but for that stand
at the border of Belgium in August
and September, 1914. Paris! Havre!
and the ports of the Atlantic coast.
Havre a German port! What then
Continued on page fifteen
Feb. 20.
