| Show WILL ORGANIZE NATION BY UNITS TO AID IN WAR prominent men and women start movement whereby everyone may help TO EXTEND COMMUNITY IDEA works out with great success in new york plans to coordinate co ordinate and direct on nonmilitary side patriotic efforts of all citizens by DAYTON STODDART new york prominent men and women here have started a movement whereby every man woman and child in the united states may aid their government to win the world war it has been under way but a short time yet assistance of great value was given to both the liberty loan find and red cross campaigns the next goal set is such operation cooperation co with hoover of belgium Gol glum as to make waste in the kitchen find and on the table a problem of the past the new organization Is called the patriotic service league it was conceived by prof ellery 0 stowell expert on international affairs and member of the columbia university faculty the leagues purpose Is to weld the nation together with nith the community idea extended to include the whole people impossible you may remark it cant be done community spirit Is very fine for a small place or for a section where folks of similar interests and tastes live but it work out in a big place not a bit works in new ork fork but it has worked out in new york sad and that in a section where live both reformers of the purely theoretical type and insurgent workingmen in a board strip running across new york city the political designation of which Is the nineteenth congressional district it includes the homes of some of the richest and the poorest families of the metropolis in new york of all places the community idea of nationalism has worked out and very successfully too As the terms community spirit may seem rather indefinite to td some the exact significance of what mr stowell means when he uses the term may best be set forth by himself several mouths months ago when the necessity of rousing the country to the fact that every resource of the united states should be available for or mr stowell thought of the old town meetings in new england if lie he asked himself this plan worked to weld together a town or village why could not the same principle be applied to the entire nation intensive thought on the question con confirmed his idea that it could ue ile selected the congressional district as the best geographical division for a unit of the league ne ile chose the nineteenth congressional district to try out his big plans ile he had as coworkers other members of the columbia university faculty and women who volunteered their services canvas house to house friends of those working directly with mr stowell were obtained and a cowin committee attee was made up with at least one representative from each election district these in turn canvassed apartment houses and dwellings in every one of the districts the surprising part about the beginning of the movement was that the pioneers found no hostility only welcome in the houses they visited this in spite of the fact that although they may have lived tor for years adjacent to a family neither had spoken it was a means never before offered for everybody in the district getting to know almost everybody else when the district ba hat been canvassed a meeting was called temporary officers of the small unit of the league were chosen all it was necessary to do to become a member of the tha league was to pay GO 60 cents initiation tec fee tills this Is the only co contribution 11 t r lb y tio a paid to the league proper other contributions depend solely on the expenses find and alms aims of the organization in each congressional district or in id each election district suppose that your own meeting aft er it had been organized decided that it would be a mighty good food plan to adopt one or more orphans orp lians across the sea such a plan was actually put in operation in one of the precincts of the nineteenth congressional district two french orphans were adopted I a little boy and a litt little le girl and the monthly cost of 7 Is being raised by leaving a tin box out at every meeta meeting in which contributions may be dropped in the nineteenth district one of the first steps taken was the enrollment of every woman by woman workers every woman was asked what line of work she was best fitted for and the list was made up election district by election district so that mr stowell as chairman of the entire nineteenth district knew exactly how bow many stenographers cooks clerical workers members of any calling were in his territory tho actual good this does Is that it allows every chairman to know the home strength of his district ue ile on can tell you after consulting his lists lust just how many cooks nurses and other workers are in his district that lioN however Never la is not the object so much as the power of being in personal touch with people mr stowell emphasized this when he be received a call for cooks to go with the rod red cross he sent out the notice to lenders leaders in the election districts and shortly afterward they had obtained a score or more of the men desired one district leader himself liim self persuaded two men luen to enlist it Is this neighborhood hood touch this knowing everybody in tile the apartment house or city block or county township where you live that makes the possibilities of the plan so great according to mr air stowell purposes of the league we are organizing that we may serve the government of the united states said mr stowell and assist to the full in this great fight tor for the alie things which we have always carried nearest our hearts for democracy for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments for the rights and liberties of small nations for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall tiring bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free the patriotic service league alms to form in every congressional district an organization to arouses arouse col co ordinate dinato or and direct on the non mill mili tary side the patriotic efforts of all citizens of both sexes and of every age so that an early and successful termination of the war may result there are other war organizations in existence but not on local geographic lines for an organization such as the patriotic service league which Is formed upon geographic lines there Is real need these societies with avith their particular objects will find contact through this local unit of neighbors with the individual men and women in every household by whose loyal service the nations task will be accomplished we are not competing we desire to operate cooperate co it Is at this time obviously impossible to name all of the activities in which the organization may become engaged but it Is wise to state some present specific duties help get recruits tile the government has called for volunteers to fill the ranks of our existing military forces we should see that those recruits are obtained due attention being paid to exemptions cases of need in the families of soldiers will occur we should find them and operate cooperate co with the red ked cross in aid we must have a bureau of employment for those who have lost their jobs and for far those who must now beet employment wives and sisters preparing surgical dressings and all the other activities of the military end of tho the red ilca cross will demand time and effort lot let us all see we do our share we must make sure we do not have such juvenile delinquency as has occurred in england and in germany the boy scouts the junior navy league and the junior pollee police must use part of the boy power of the community the farmers of the state need laborers food will be scarce we must find how to use it to the full and we must make known to till all the methods of this conservation only by intelligent efforts for ourselves shall we be able effectively to stand back off of those younger than we who light fight finally the patriot service league realizing it Is more difficult in a democracy than in an autocracy for the government to ini initiate t late autocrat an and to get things done will bring home to every citizen through speakers and literature the necessity and tho the opportunity for universal service in this fight for democracy prominent men enlist george IV wickersham former attorney general alton B parker once democratic candidate for the presidency oscar S straus former am cassador bas to turkey these are but a few of the men who are working to extend the patriotic service league the league has now been organized in the seventeenth congressional district adjoining the nineteenth here and has been successfully inaugurated in boston the plans tor for extension throughout the country have been formulated said mr stowell so that it may be possible to marshal marchl the combined force of all loyal citizens behind the president the spread of the league will save an immense amount of duplication in each community the loyal officers will know their own people they will for example easily secure cooks and attendants for departing hospital units they will find needed mechanics they will direct their appeals for funds to all those who are willing to contribute the patriotic service league furnishes the machinery by which the wisdom of hoover can be brought with emphasis to every kitchen in the land the citizen leaguers constitute the third line of defense mr stowell said that the term citizens was used in its new dew accepted meaning to include women in the fullest sense ile he pointed out that the success of the he project in the nineteenth district was due in great ex es tent to the energy of women prominent among whom was mrs nicholas murray gutler butler wife of the president of columbia university another of the women was mrs mra james N taylor who Is devot devoting ln most of her spare time to the league |
