CHAPTER VI
THE “Y” AND OTHER WELFARE ORGANIZATIONS
No organization ever employed a greater number of workers to serve men without cost than did the Young Men’s Christian Association during the Great War. Millions of dollars given by the American people were spent in carrying out its program of service. Wherever there were American soldiers, in the camps at home, at the base ports, on the battle front, in leave areas, or behind the lines in France, there they were followed and served by the Y. M. C. A. Some of the workers even followed the troops “over the top,” sacrificing life itself in their endeavor to give comfort and cheer to the men.
Negro soldiers shared in the “Y” service both at home and in France. At first they were somewhat overlooked, but through the efforts of Dr. Jesse E. Moorland and his associates provision was made for them. In the National Army cantonments large “Y” huts with six secretaries were maintained,—building, business, religious, educational, physical, and social secretaries,—each of whom developed his particular line of work. Sometimes a second building or tent was used. The secretaries met in the general Y. M. C. A. conferences held weekly with the camp secretary, who usually co-operated in every possible way.
The effectiveness of the work depended largely upon the efficiency and ability of the building secretary to co-operate with his staff and the camp officials. Often these secretaries not only effectively supervised the work in their buildings, but they also watched the morale of the soldiers and held conferences with commanding officers for the purpose of improving unsatisfactory conditions. The business secretary conducted the stamp and money order business. This alone in some camps amounted to sums ranging from $150 to $200 a day. Lectures were given to the men on the value of saving and they often bore fruit. At Camp Dodge $10,000 was sent home by the soldiers in one month. The educational secretary worked mainly to reach the men who could not read or write. In Camp Dodge, where perhaps the most successful work was done, 2300 Negro soldiers learned to read and write and to do simple work in arithmetic and drawing, using implements of warfare as models. A business course and instruction in French were offered to those men who had sufficient education.
Colonel Bush, who was in charge of the educational work at Camp Dodge, ordered all illiterate men to attend school, and the rule made by many company commanders that every man must sign his name before drawing his pay, served as a great incentive to study. This school for Negro soldiers in the 366th Regiment was well organized, with the educational secretary, George H. Fortner, as superintendent. Each company represented a part of the school, with a lieutenant as head, and non-commissioned officers, who did the teaching, as assistants. For every fourteen men a teacher was furnished, and there were ample materials. Educational lectures in the different camps were also appreciated, as well as the circulation of books. Naturally the success of all such work as this depended primarily on the initiative of the secretary and his co-operation with the camp authorities.
The physical secretary’s work was to promote athletics, chiefly games, boxing and wrestling. In camps where there were combatant units the athletic officers and the physical secretaries co-operated, and there the best organizations were found. In non-combatant units effective athletic work was seldom found, partly because of the nature of their organization. However, in some of these, teams were organized, and the secretaries were able at times to get outside agencies to provide equipment. The women of Cuthbert, Ga., gave basket ball equipment for two teams and a shooting gallery costing $44. As a result there was organized a team which played Morehouse College and the Columbus Y. M. C. A.
The work of the social secretary was of great importance. He it was who furnished relaxation and entertainment after the arduous tasks of the day. Moving pictures, given from two to five times a week; programs, consisting of singing, dancing, stunts, and recitations, by talent in cantonment cities or by company entertainers; concerts, by bands or great singers; and addresses by famous speakers, filled the “Y,” even the windows and rafters, with men at night. Of such service no group was more appreciative than the Negro soldiers. Members of the race in cantonment cities co-operated splendidly, and schools sometimes sent quartets or orchestras. Sometimes there were Christmas trees hung with presents ranging from tooth brushes to wrist watches, and with each present was a bag of popcorn and a personal letter. On one occasion when more than a hundred white soldiers were present at such a festivity, they also received presents. Many of the entertainers on the “Y” circuit were also enjoyed by the men, though too often in some camps their programs happened to be given in every building except the one attended by the Negro soldiers.
The religious secretaries were usually ministers of considerable experience. Negro soldiers had high regard for things religious. Bible classes were conducted every Sunday morning, and were followed by preaching, sometimes by local ministers. Weekly Bible classes or prayer meetings were also held, and sometimes “sings” or testimonial meetings. At these meetings the soldiers often took a stand for Christ, and in such cases the secretary wrote personal letters to their families, informing them of the fact and asking them to write letters of encouragement. The many personal interviews which these secretaries had with the soldiers gave them some of the best opportunities of rendering service.
In the smaller camps things were not always as well appointed as in the larger ones. No big program could be carried out, though religious and sometimes educational work was conducted. In the South, moreover, the colored secretaries most frequently did not attend the general “Y” conferences. In spite of all discouraging circumstances, however, the development of the work was rapid. What was done at Camp Hill, Newport News, Va., shows what was possible after an unpromising beginning. In October, 1917, two Hampton students, W. D. Elam and E. M. Mitchell, went to serve 4500 men, using an army tent for the work. The tent was destroyed in a storm and was replaced by a smaller one, 16 by 16, in which three men lived and where there were, in addition, a stove, a victrola, and a piano. Stamps and stationery were handled, and small meetings held. This was the extent of the facilities in one of the coldest winters Virginians had ever seen. In the early spring, however, a barrack was secured through the aid of the officers, and in April a large “Y” building was dedicated with a full staff of secretaries and all necessary equipment. Here, as elsewhere, the soldiers were served in numberless ways; and when the time came to go to France, there was chocolate or lemonade, with sandwiches, and the secretaries accompanied the men to the port of embarkation, where they separated from each with a touching farewell and a most fervent “God bless you.”
As one traveled among the soldiers in France he saw in almost every camp the Y. M. C. A. hut or tent. There were 7850 “Y” workers overseas, 1350 of whom were women. Of this large number 87 were Negroes and 19, women of the race. Only three of these Negro women were in France during the actual fighting, and not until the spring of 1919 did others sail. At the head of the colored secretaries was Dr. John Hope, president of Morehouse College, Atlanta, Ga., who was stationed at the “Y” headquarters in Paris, where he helped to solve many problems regarding the work. Traveling over France, he visited many units of troops, saw their needs, and tried to meet them. There were hardly ever more than 75 Negro secretaries in France at one time, and these were scattered among nearly 200,000 Negro soldiers. They served with the fighting units, with the troops in the service of supplies, and in the leave areas. The fighting units of Negro soldiers were the 92nd and 93rd Divisions, the latter comprising four regiments brigaded with the French. It was in these units that the secretaries won deserved praise for their service and courage. Airplane raids, bombardments, and bursting gas shells did not slacken their ardor to follow the men wherever they went.
H. E. Caldwell, with the 369th Regiment, was under shell fire longer than any other Negro secretary. Matthew W. Bullock and Dr. B. N. Murrell followed the 369th into the thickest of the fight and were with it when it led the allied armies to the banks of the Rhine, a position of honor accorded it because of its excellent service in the trenches. Of Mr. Bullock it was said that when the fight was hardest and the soldiers were wounded and dying, he was ever with his men encouraging them to press forward to victory. Of Dr. Murrell we shall speak again. T. C. Cook, of the 371st Regiment, was cited in orders for his bravery in rescuing two wounded soldiers exposed in pouring rain and shell fire. He succeeded in moving them to a narrow dug-out that was soon afterwards filled with poisonous gas. In attempting to escape, he left the dug-out only to fall unconscious in the open. On that morning of the battle officers and men had entrusted to his care $35,000 of their savings, which he carried on his back as he helped the wounded. When he regained consciousness in a hospital behind the lines, he found that the money had disappeared, but his anxiety was relieved when he was informed that the colored sergeant-major of the regiment, whom he had requested to guard the money in case of accident to himself, had forwarded it to the Paris office of the Y. M. C. A. and that every cent had been safely delivered. Of Secretary James G. Wiley of the 92nd Division Lt. Col. A. E. Deitsch wrote: “During the occupancy of the Marbache sector, he established an Association in the town of Atton which was bombarded daily. Even when the German bombardment tore the roof from the building and all civilians had left the vicinity, only the soldiers necessary for the relaying of supplies and ammunition to the front lines remaining, this man held on and served the soldiers faithfully.”
Sometimes the Negro secretary served not only the men in one camp but in several, even covering an area containing as many as 50,000 soldiers. Such a worker was J. E. Saddler, who was engaged in the Chaumont region. The labor battalions which he served worked on the roads, at bakeries, rail heads and ammunition dumps, often working both day and night, one man doing two men’s work. At first Mr. Saddler went on foot, walking 30 kilometers a day, carrying all the supplies he could, and distributing them to groups of men doing road work. Then he secured a motorcycle, and when that was completely used up he obtained a Ford, with the aid of which he could reach more men. Sometimes he organized schools, offering prizes to induce the men to learn to write. Occasionally he conducted spelling bees, taking the words from the Stars and Stripes. He was not a preacher, but some Sundays he held as many as seven services. Dr. Murrell served in the Verdun region where thousands of men were engaged in salvaging and in burying the American dead. He, like Mr. Saddler, traveled about in a truck with supplies. At Romagne, the site of the Argonne cemetery, he and his staff did excellent work. Two huts were constructed from sheet iron taken from German dug-outs. At night these were so crowded that one could hardly move about in them. The men wrote letters, played games, or gathered around the piano; they also had daily shows, athletic contests, and the canteen was excellent. All such service was of great value in building up the morale of the men and in relieving them from the depressing effects of the grewsome work they were called on to perform. At Liffol-le-Grand, M. R. Atwell had a hut which was attractively whitewashed and painted inside. Pictures of Negro officers and nurses were on the walls, and generally the work ranked with the most efficient in France.
After the Armistice a splendid piece of work was done for the soldiers at Issurtille by W. W. Waitneight, a white secretary, who in the beginning was opposed to working with colored men. In the early days of the camp these soldiers were not permitted to visit the “Y” buildings, and no other place of recreation was provided for them. Finally a captain, moved by the situation, asked for volunteers to help erect a building. The “Y” furnished the lumber, some of the engineer regiments supplied foremen, and the soldiers, including forty mechanics, undertook to do the work. The site selected was in a bottom where the entire camp drained, and at times the water was six inches deep on the floor. In such an environment there was little enthusiasm on the part of white secretaries to undertake the work; but the one who did found the greater joy in the hearty appreciation of the men. Two thousand were in nightly attendance, and from three thousand to thirty-five hundred were served daily in the “Y” and in the wet canteen. The work developed until it became the most popular in the camp, and the secretary who at first doubted, learned to love the men and to work untiringly for them. At Gierve, a white Baptist minister, Mr. Rankin, served Negro soldiers in a spacious and well equipped hut, and he also endeared himself to the men.
At the biggest base ports in France—Bordeaux, St. Nazaire, and Brest—the Y. M. C. A. did a wonderful work. For months there were 20,000 Negro soldiers at Bordeaux alone, doing stevedore work. Some of the first colored secretaries sent to France went to this city during the period of active fighting. They and the army officers did not work harmoniously together, and after some stormy days they were ordered to Paris with recommendations to Y. M. C. A. headquarters that they be sent to America. After investigation, however, they were sent to other fields of labor, but meanwhile Negro secretaries in New York, about to sail for France, were detained for months. The situation was finally adjusted and two other men, B. F. Seldon and A. W. Shockley, who went to Bordeaux, successfully co-operated with the officers and worked among the white as well as the colored soldiers. At St. Sulpice Mr. Seldon had charge of a hut that was well equipped, and Mr. Shockley conducted a canteen that was said to be one of the cleanest in France. Thomas Clayton, another secretary in the Bordeaux area, conducted schools for 600 illiterate men. Twenty-seven men were sent from the section to the universities in France, and thirty were sent to the agricultural department at Bonn. At Anconia, also in this area, a big hut was in charge of J. M. Price, a white secretary who served with colored troops from the beginning. This hut had an auditorium seating 2000, a spacious sitting-room, a good library, and a large room for games. Two shows daily were given the 10,000 men. They were encouraged to save, and in one month $22,000 was sent to the States. Mr. Price was a Southern man, but he was so much admired by the men and he made such a favorable impression on the commanding officers that, when the troops sailed for America, he was, against the rules of the Y. M. C. A., allowed to sail with the men he had served.
The “Y” at St. Nazaire did one of the biggest pieces of work seen anywhere in France. There were at times more than 50,000 Negro soldiers at this base. The first colored secretary sent to France, Franklin W. Nichols, worked here and had the honor of building the first hut erected for Negro stevedores. Other pioneers were Rev. Leroy Ferguson, J. O. Wright, William Stevenson, James H. Robinson, R. E. Williams, and the three canteen workers who reached France before the Armistice, Mrs. Helen Curtis, Mrs. Addie W. Hunton, and Miss Kathryn Johnson. These workers left splendid records of achievement. During the last months at St. Nazaire, Negro soldiers were served in four Y. M. C. A. buildings operated by Negro secretaries and also in some conducted by white secretaries. The huts of the former were located at Camps Dodge, Guthrie, Montoir, Lusitania, and Camp I. That at Lusitania was the largest; it had an auditorium seating 1800. The commanding officers co-operated gladly, and the divisional secretaries in the area, especially M. B. Wallace, showed fine spirit in helping to make the work a success.
During the days of fighting and immediately after the Armistice, Negro soldiers at Brest related stories of discrimination by the “Y” and of its refusal to serve them. In the spring of 1919, however, the camp commander and the divisional secretary declared that the men should have a “fifty-fifty” deal. The organization conducted altogether fifteen huts in Camp Pontenazen, one in Camp President Lincoln, and a small room at the sorting yard. “Soldiers’ Rest” at Camp Pontenazen was especially set aside for the Negro soldiers, though all soldiers were served there. In March, 1919, B. F. Lee was sent to work in this hut. He later became general secretary for the building, and four canteen workers helped in the last days. In all the other huts at Pontenazen Negro soldiers were also served. While some canteen women were not enthusiastic about assisting them, the divisional secretary, a Tennesseean, tried to give all men equal service, and one secretary who refused to serve the Negroes was sent back to America. At Camp President Lincoln Secretaries Fritz Cansler and Nelson were stationed and did some very effective educational work. After prayer meetings movies were advertised and these always meant a full house. At the sorting yard, located on the docks at Brest, a group of Negro soldiers ran a kitchen where embarking soldiers were fed and where stevedores working on the docks got one meal to prevent the necessity of returning to camp; they also had a secretary. In the city of Brest Negro soldiers were served at both the Y. M. C. A. restaurant and the big cafeteria, and generally the improvement in the conditions at this base accounted for a more favorable impression than that borne away from some other places.
There were many other instances of devoted service. “Y” work was by no means easy. Many army officers looked upon any secretary with disfavor. On the other hand, the secretaries themselves were not always infallible, nor were their words and actions unerringly discreet.
Hundreds of entertainers who went overseas visited the soldiers in all branches of the service. Among these there were no theatrical people of color, nor any of the leading singers of the race. However, during the last months there was a religious entertaining unit composed of Rev. H. H. Proctor, who spoke, J. E. Blanton, song leader, and Miss Helen Hagan, a noted pianist. These helpers carried cheer wherever they went.
The few Negro women who went to France as canteen workers exerted a great influence for good. While many officers and secretaries were opposed to having women serve the men, their presence was like the calming of a great storm. They built up the morale instantly, as was noted in every camp to which they were sent. Once or twice, as when Mrs. Hunton first appeared at St. Nazaire, some of the men cried for joy. The men loved, protected, and honored these workers for what they represented, and one of them said that she had to go to France to be truly proud of the fact that she was a Negro woman.
The work of the canteen women received probably the greatest praise in the leave areas. This work was conducted in the Department of Savoie, among beautiful mountains and lakes conducive to rest and relaxation; and Chambéry, Challes les Eaux, and Aix les Bains were the leading cities. Aix les Bains is noted for its baths, used by the Romans and visited by tourists from all over the world. Chambéry, used as headquarters, is an educational center with colleges and art museums. On the outskirts of the city overlooking the valley below is the home of Jean Jacques Rousseau; and from there one might view also the cross of Nivolet and a chain of snow-capped Alps. Seven miles away is the famous Pass where Hannibal with his army crossed the Alps. To this day the road said to have been built by him is in perfect condition. To such an environment the Negro soldiers came, and they were welcomed by the citizens as men who had helped to save their country. They stood in the Pass, viewed Lake Bourget below, and the Italian Alps in the distance. Here also it was that the secretaries, under the direction of William Stevenson and Mrs. Curtis, did some of the best work in France.
Other places of interest visited by the soldiers were the St. Bernard’s Pass, Mt. Revard, and the Church of the Black Madonna. The last place was the most interesting of all because of its unusual sight. Inside the church is a small figure of the Madonna with a black child in her arms. The robes are of gold studded with diamonds, and pictures, crutches, canes and other tokens of thanks have been left here by people who have been blessed and healed. Once when the town was destroyed by a mountain slide, only the church stood, and the presence of the Madonna was thought by the people to be responsible for the miraculous escape. Here the Negro soldiers were more than welcome and the keepers felt honored by their visits.
Altogether more than twenty thousand soldiers visited this leave area, coming from all parts of France. They were selected from the various organizations in the A. E. F. and sent for periods of from seven to fourteen days. Before they arrived some unpleasant propaganda was spread about them, but they made a highly favorable impression. The “Y” headquarters was a spacious building, splendidly equipped. There were band concerts, and on Sunday afternoons there were refreshments in the beautiful garden, with representative people of the vicinity assisting in the serving. Because of the good conduct of the men and the success of the secretaries in establishing such fine relations between citizens and soldiers, the Governor of Savoie gave a farewell reception, including a public meeting in a theatre and an entertainment in his own home afterwards; and letters were written by the mayors of all three towns and by leading citizens to praise the work and to express regret at its closing.
While thousands of soldiers visited the leave areas, tens of thousands went to see Paris the Beautiful. Naturally officers and welfare workers as well as the men in the ranks desired especially to see this great city before returning to America. Ordinarily three-day leaves were granted, and each day in the spring of 1919 brought hundreds of soldiers to the city. In order that the limited time might mean as much as possible to the men, the Y. M. C. A. organized wonderful sight-seeing programs, including all the famous places of historic interest. With every party there were efficient guides, and the Negro soldiers, like all the others, appreciated fully and thoroughly enjoyed the never-to-be-forgotten experience.
The work of the Y. M. C. A. in American camps was so conducted that it met with comparatively little criticism. Headquarters could be easily reached for the adjustment of any question arising over the Negro, and during the war public sentiment was more decidedly against discrimination than in peace time. Such matters as arose generally grew out of the attitude or action of individual wearers of the red triangle. At Camp Greene, Charlotte, N. C., for instance, there were 10,000 Negro soldiers. Five “Y” buildings in the camp were located in areas allotted to these men, but in no case were they allowed to use the buildings except possibly for stamps and paper. A sign over one read “This building is for white men only,” and the secretary placed outside the building a table that colored men might use in writing letters. In Camp Lee, Petersburg, Va., a prayer meeting was conducted in an area where Negro soldiers were located, but a soldier with a rifle on his shoulder was doing guard duty, pacing in a circle around the group to see that no Negroes attended. The comments made by the Negro soldiers under the circumstances were interesting. In some camps the soldiers of both races used the same building, playing games together, attending the same picture shows, sometimes playing in the same orchestra, and even writing letters for one another. Such friendly contact was looked upon with disfavor by some secretaries, and they introduced discriminatory measures, which naturally led to friction.
It was from overseas, however, that the severest criticism of the organization came. During the spring of 1919, in every shipment of soldiers that landed on American shores there were those who denounced the “Y” for something it had or had not done. The Negro soldiers did their share of the criticising in spite of the fact that the organization had done much to help them. Why, then, did they criticise it?
First of all, the “Y” appeared to have no definite policy regarding Negro soldiers in France. Endeavor was left mainly in the hands of divisional or regional directors, and these men inaugurated such policies as they thought best, and a most careful investigation indicates that some secretaries resorted to discrimination and segregation more than the men in any other organization and even more than the army with its military caste. Sometimes such an attitude was assumed even by ministers of the gospel. The general situation was described, very accurately, by one regional secretary as follows: “About 25 per cent of the white secretaries served the colored soldiers gladly, about 25 per cent served them half-heartedly, and about 50 per cent either refused to serve them or made them feel they were not wanted.” When soldiers were building the Pershing Stadium for the allied games, the “Y” served for months all the men in the order in which they appeared for service. One day a young Southern woman was sent out as a canteen worker. The soldiers lined up as formerly. All went well until a colored soldier in the line was reached. The young woman asked him to get out of the line. He said he was an American soldier and would not get out of the line. Thereupon she closed the canteen. A noted divine from Atlanta, Ga., was for a time in charge of one of the three-day conferences for new secretaries in France. At the close of one of the sessions a colored canteen worker told him she had enjoyed the discussion. “I am glad you enjoyed it,” he said, “but we don’t mix in the States and you must not expect to here.” All such incidents could be multiplied hundreds of times, and because of them there grew up in the hearts of the Negro soldiers a contempt for the general organization that made such things possible.
An interesting sidelight was afforded by the fate of what was known as the “Honey Bee Club.” A Negro soldier who was sentenced to death, just a few days before his execution asked a “Y” secretary at Brest to come and pray with him. After four days of struggle with the soldier and himself, the secretary felt that he too was changed and should work in some large way for the good of the Negro men. He began with prayer meetings among small groups that had been somewhat neglected, and at one such meeting he told the story of the Honey Bee that was busy and successful and another about birds that preyed on the undesirable things of the world. Using with telling effect the lesson drawn from the experience of the soldier who paid with his life for the undesirable, he asked, “How many of you would like to be the Honey Bee?” All responded with raised hands. Soon afterwards he was given permission by the Paris office to devote all his time to the organization of Honey Bee clubs. When it became known, however, that membership was to be limited to Negro soldiers, opposition developed. The colored men felt that if the club was capable of doing so much for them, white soldiers in France should not be denied a share in its blessings. The original idea was undoubtedly to help the Negro soldier in France, but the method by which the idea was developed did not meet with approval, and accordingly, in most cases, it was either opposed or treated with indifference.
In spite of all the criticism, however, the fact remains that the Young Men’s Christian Association did more for the recreation, entertainment, and educational development of Negro soldiers than any other welfare organization in the course of the war. Through its agency thousands of men learned to read and write. Moreover, it is to be remembered that it was the “Y” that sent Negro welfare workers to France, including nineteen women for canteen work, while other organizations faltered. Such effort did not materialize without hard work on the part of the Negro people and their friends. However, it did materialize, and the Negro workers were a credit both to the organization and to their race. In a talk to a number of them at a banquet in Paris, E. C. Carter, head of the Y. M. C. A. overseas, said in summing up their work: “No group of secretaries has been more successful, nor has any work been on a higher level. I have been impressed most by your spirit. Sometimes you have met with difficulties and have been insulted by workers with the red triangle on their arms, but through it all you have shown the spirit of true greatness as did the Master.”
During the World War not only the Y. M. C. A. but other leading religious and social organizations in America aided the War Department in providing for the welfare of the soldiers, both inside and outside the camps. We may now consider briefly the Salvation Army, the Knights of Columbus, the large agencies within the army itself, passing on to War Camp Community Service, the Red Cross, and also to some consideration of what was done by the Negro Church and the Federal Council of Churches.
The Salvation Army did little or no work for Negro soldiers in American camps, but when the men returned from France they spoke about the service the organization had rendered with an appreciation akin to reverence. This agency did not have great buildings and hundreds of workers distributed throughout the camps, but it did have here and there faithful representatives imbued with the spirit of service. One of its largest huts was at St. Nazaire, and here the relation between men of different races was of the most cordial sort. The Salvation Army workers stated that on no occasion had there been any trouble, and this example well illustrates their spirit and it explains the deep appreciation that the Negro soldiers had for their organization.
The Knights of Columbus erected their first building for Negro soldiers at Camp Funston, Kan. This was opened on December 1, 1917, with Clarence Guillot as executive secretary and two assistants. Religious services were conducted every Sunday for the four hundred Catholics in the camp, with communion every Sunday morning. One of the two chaplains was always available for consultation, there were excellent library facilities, and also special effort for recreation. In Camps Taylor, Dodge, Meade, and Beauregard (at Alexandria, La.) buildings were also provided. At Camps Dodge and Beauregard white secretaries were in charge, while at Taylor and Meade Negro secretaries conducted the work. The building at Dodge was visited by both white and colored soldiers, and the kindliest feeling was maintained. At Beauregard a mess hall was renovated and