OCR Text |
Show FINE MORALE OF j AMERICAN ARMY Soldiers in France a Credit to Finest Traditions of the American Arms. LON'bov March (Correspond - en e of the Associated Press.) "Then weeks spent in the war zone convinces i me that the morale and morals of the I American soldier in France are in full 1 accord with the finest traditions of American arras and a credit to the social so-cial and reliplous standards of Ameri-cab Ameri-cab society," said Dr. Daniel A. Poling I of Boston, associate president of the j 1'nlted Society of Christian Endeavor.' in nn Interview with the Associated Press on his arrival In London on his way to America. "My Investigations." he said, "car-i "car-i ried me into every American landing port In France; into rest camps and training camps, and for ten days I was practically in our Iront line, including two nights and three days in a frontline front-line dugout. I was right with our men all the time. I messed with them, slept with them and experienced two bar- j rages with them. Men Amazingly Efficient "My whole experience convinced me that the administration of our war ac-j uvitie in France is amazingly effic- lent. Our railroads, our camps, our food, our water supply, and our rapid-ly rapid-ly increasing military equipment are miracles of swift and thorough achievement. "In the business of keeping our sol - I diers physically and morally fit. the I program of our military authorities is! the most comprehensive and agjrrea-1 ever laid out by a nation at war.1 The stories of wholesale drunkennus , and vice circulated In some quarters at home concerning the American expeditionary ex-peditionary force were false. While 1 ; some men and groups of men have j committed grave excesses and shamed their uniforms, the small number of those in proportion to the total num-I ber under arms is a source of gratlfl- I cation and pride to every' citizen, who i believes In the moral soundness of) Amrrican society My own lnvestlga-tlons lnvestlga-tlons substantiate the figures already Bade public by the army medical de- J panmrnt, which prove that the Ameri -j can soldier In France is living on a I higher moral plan- than the moral' j plane of American civilian life. General j I Pershing and his associates deserve i not a resolution of Inquiry and cen -I sure but a vote of confidence and ih assurance or the nation's wholehearted cooperation and support. "The work or the Young Men's Christian association in Ihe American army ?one cannot rail to receive the enthusiastic commendation of every Visitor. The organization's many sided sid-ed work makes it the mightiest constructive con-structive agency of ILs kind in Europe." |