CHAPTER VII

REAR-LINE TRENCHES

Back of the firing-lines of battle are other lines which must be held by the fighting nations, if a war is to be won. These lines, which may be called the rear-line trenches of conflict, are the means of supply by which the armies at the front are fed and clothed, and given ammunition, and cared for in every way that will make them better soldiers. It is on these lines that the civilian population of a nation gives help to the fighting men. It is in these trenches that the men, and women, and children of a country may do their part for the soldiers and sailors who have to go into the actual battles.

Because the United States is a democracy, fighting in a great struggle for the principles of democracy, it follows that our country has enlisted the service of every American to win the war. There is no one in the nation who may not help, since every one may do something to give actual, immediate, necessary aid to the men at the front, and those who are on their way to the front.

This aid has been given, and is being given, in many ways. Through food conservation, Liberty Loans, War Thrift and Savings Stamps and Certificates, the Red Cross, the Young Men’s Christian Association, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, the Knights of Columbus, the Young Women’s Christian Association, and various other organizations which are working for the welfare of the soldiers, sailors, and marines, almost every person in the United States old enough to understand that the country is at war has helped toward the winning of the war.

Some of these methods, such as food conservation, and the raising of money through Liberty Loans and the sale of War Thrift Stamps, have been used directly by the government. Others have been semi-private enterprises with governmental sanction. All of them have been for the purpose of helping the men who have been doing the actual fighting, so that every one in the nation who has done what he could for these causes has been fighting his country’s battles in the trenches back of the front.

FOOD CONSERVATION

Napoleon, the one-time Emperor of the French and the greatest general of modern warfare, said that “an army travelled on its stomach.” He meant that no army could go faster than its food-supply. Although the method of warfare has changed since the century ago when he fought, the truth of his statement remains. No army can win battles unless it is properly fed.

When the United States went into the great war the government of our country knew that a vast amount of certain kinds of food must be shipped abroad to feed those soldiers whom we would send across and those soldiers of the nations on whose side we were to fight against Germany. France and Belgium, devastated by the invading armies of the Germans, could not raise food enough for their own populations, to say nothing of the defending armies. England, with her men fighting abroad, and with only a comparatively small area of farming land, could not do much more. Canada was sending millions of bushels of wheat and thousands of tons of other food-supplies monthly to the Allies, but the need was infinitely greater than the supply. It therefore became the first duty of our country to send to those nations which were fighting in the same cause all the food which we could possibly spare, in order that their soldiers, and our soldiers when they came, would be properly fed.

Although the United States produces great quantities of food products every year, only certain kinds of food could be sent abroad. It was necessary to send the kind of food that would take up the least space in shipment and have the greatest nourishment. The greatest demand was for wheat, and even our country could not--without saving at home--send to Europe as much as was required. In order that the people of the United States might be taught how to save wheat and other foods needed for our troops and the Allies, the government established a food administration for the double purpose of taking over this instruction and of devising other methods of food saving. The success of both branches of service has been due to the intelligent co-operation of the American people with the officers of the food administration; but it has been in the actual savings by individual Americans that the sum of sacrifice has been attained.

It may not seem a soldier’s duty to refrain from eating white bread on certain days designated by the government. It may not seem a patriot’s duty to keep from eating sugar or pork on other days; but it is none the less a duty as certain as that one which his commanding officer assigns to the soldier in the ranks, and one which should be as carefully followed. The following of it has enabled the United States to ship abroad wheat, pork, sugar, and other foodstuff in quantities sufficient to keep fed the people who are actually fighting the enemy. The man, woman, or child who has saved at home the kind of food that the government has needed to send abroad, and who has used the substitutes, has done a patriotic duty and his share of keeping the rear-line trench where he is placed.

FUEL CONSERVATION

Coal is one of the essential means of making war. Without coal ships cannot cross the seas, bearing soldiers. Without coal the great factories where guns and bullets, powder and cannon, uniforms and equipment are made for our army and navy could not run. Because of many reasons there was during 1917 a shortage of 50,000,000 tons of coal. The government therefore appointed a fuel administrator for the purpose of finding ways to make up this shortage so that ships would not be delayed nor factories stopped where munitions for our soldiers and sailors were being made.

The fuel administrator ordered the shutting down of the use of electric lights where these were not absolutely needed, and also, when the shortage was most acute, the shutting down of all factories not employed in munitions-making for a certain period of time. This was why there were so-called “lightless” nights and “coalless” days. The people were also asked to save fuel in their homes as much as possible. The result was a saving of fuel that was used for war purpose directly.

WAR FINANCE

In the old days, when Kings hired men of other nations to help their own armies fight their wars, it used to be said that the victory went to that side which had the most money. Some wars where countries with practically no money fought against rich nations and defeated them, because of superior valor and courage of their men, proved that it was not money, but men, which won wars. The fact remains, however, that money is absolutely necessary for any country to carry a war to success. Soldiers must be fed and clothed, and given guns and bullets and cannon, as well as proper care. All this takes money.

A government has two ways of raising money. One of these ways, the older way, is by taxation. The government says to the citizen: “You have property worth so much money. We shall require you to give us a certain percentage of that money. You have an income of so many dollars. We shall take from you part of it, according to your wealth.” Or the government may put a tax on tea, or coffee, or clothes, or any other article which people use. All this is perfectly right and legal as a means of raising money for the prosecution of a war in which the government must direct the people, to win.

The other method of raising money by the government is the sale of bonds. Bonds are really promises made by a corporation to pay at a certain stated time, with interest, the amount which the purchaser gives for them. For instance, when a railroad company wants to get money enough to make some necessary improvements, it issues bonds at a certain rate of interest, payable at a certain time. If the improvements help the railroad, and the company makes money by having done this, the person who buys the bond usually finds that his purchase has increased in value because of the certainty of the interest payments. It is this certainty of payment, both principal and interest, which has always made United States bonds such good investments. It is not hard for a man who has good property to secure a mortgage upon it.

The United States is the richest country in the world. The government of the United States has at its command the greatest resources of any nation. Therefore, the government could raise more money than any other agency.

When the war came to our country, the government had the choice of raising money by taxation or by the sale of bonds. In order to make the task as easy on the people as possible the government, through its officers, decided to combine the systems. Through the Internal Revenue Bureau of the Treasury of the United States the government set about the collection of taxes imposed by Congress, and designed to raise money for the winning of the war. And the secretary of the treasury announced the opening of the first Liberty Loan.

The Liberty Loans are really bond sales. Through them the government sells to the people bonds, which are promises to pay the money which the government borrows. These bonds are promises to pay the purchasers at the end of a certain number of years the amount which they pay for them. In the meantime they pay semi-annual interest. These bonds are investments. Buying them is not making a gift to the government. It is, rather, letting the government make a gift to you.

In order to have money enough to purchase bonds, however, hundreds of thousands of people have had to make sacrifices during the course of the Liberty Loans; and it is only when they have made sacrifice, when they have given up clothes they wanted, or vacations they thought they needed, or pleasure they would have sought, that they are really doing something for the country. But so many millions of men and women and children have bought Liberty Bonds and are continuing to buy Liberty Bonds that their purchase has become one of the great patriotic movements of our country in this war.

In the War of the Revolution, Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, loaned money to General Washington’s army. History has made famous his name because he had faith enough in his country and love enough for his country to loan money to her in the hour of her need. In this great war every man, every woman, every boy, every girl in the United States has the opportunity of becoming a Robert Morris.

For, although the lowest denomination of a Liberty Bond is fifty dollars, the government has devised a method by which every one who has any money at all can help in the war. The treasury has issued War Thrift Stamps and War Savings Certificates so that any one who has money at all--no matter how little--may do his share. The stamps may be bought almost everywhere for twenty-five cents. In January, 1918, a certificate cost $4.12. In every month which followed it cost one cent more. But it will bring back to the holder of it in 1923 five dollars. The stamps may be exchanged for certificates, as soon as the saver has enough of them, with the odd amount added, to make the purchase.

Since every one in the nation who has twenty-five cents may buy a Thrift Stamp, it is almost certain that every one in the United States can help the government win the war by making the purchase. And it is by the individual efforts that the money will be raised, and the war won.

[Illustration: Children selling Thrift Stamps

The Treasury has issued War Thrift Stamps and War Savings Certificates so that any one who has money at all--no matter how little--may do his share]

THE RED CROSS

From an auxiliary branch of a great organization the American Red Cross has become one of the great agencies of the war. Before the United States entered the conflict, the American Red Cross had been the great relief agency among the peoples of the stricken districts of western Europe. Food, clothing, a new chance at life had been given the stricken. Back of the battle-fields the soldiers, wounded in the struggles, were cared for. Even in Germany the American Red Cross had made easier the lot of the prisoners of war. With our entrance into the war the organization became one of the great factors in our country’s means of caring for the welfare of our fighters.

The American Red Cross, of which the President of the United States is honorary chairman, is the means through which volunteer aid is given to the sick and wounded men of the army and navy, to sufferers in the war zones, and to the families of men in the service.

There are two classes of Red Cross service, civilian and military. The civilian relief includes the care and education of destitute children in the war zone, the care of mutilated soldiers, the care of sick and wounded soldiers, the relief of the devastated districts of France and Belgium, aid for prisoners of war and civilians sent back from bondage in Germany to France and Belgium, and the prevention of tuberculosis. It also includes care for the families of soldiers and sailors beyond the aid given by the government. Military relief establishes and maintains hospitals for sick and wounded soldiers in the American army in France, and canteens, rest-houses, recreation-huts for American soldiers and also for the soldiers of the other nations at war with Germany.

In the equipment of the hospitals and in the other relief work done by the Red Cross a very great number of special articles, such as bandages, garments, and other articles requiring skill in the making were needed. Almost every woman and child in the United States has been at work since the beginning of the war in making something for the Red Cross, so that this semi-governmental activity has become one of the most wide-spread forces in providing comforts and necessaries for our army and navy, as well as for the relief of conditions in the war zone.

WELFARE WORK

Both in the camps at home and in the trenches abroad the soldier needs something besides the routine life provided for him by the government. In order to give him recreation and pleasures, so that his life may be normal even when he is away from home, several organizations have been at work since the beginning of the war. The Commission on Training-Camp Activities, the Young Men’s Christian Association, with its attendant Young Men’s Hebrew Association, the Knights of Columbus, and the Jewish Welfare Board have been among the many who have been working to make the fighting men happier. These organizations have built rest-houses and recreation-huts for the men. They have given entertainments for them. They have supplied them with comforts, and have kept up a high morality among them. The United Service Clubs have also been busy in providing good lodgings for soldiers and sailors when they have been out of the camps on leave. The Young Women’s Christian Association has also done splendid work both for the men in the camps and for their visiting relatives.

In addition to the large organizations smaller ones are busy all over the country in aiding the soldiers. Almost every town has some group of people who are giving service to the men in the camps. In every city and town through which the troop-trains have passed on their way from the camps to the harbors where the soldiers would be placed on board the transports, women have fixed food for the men, and children have aided them in carrying this food to the stations. Large sums have been raised to carry on the recreation service in the camps, both here and in France, and the response of the American people to any request for the soldiers and sailors has been speedy and inspiring.

The Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts of the United States have been noteworthy in their work for our country. Three hundred and twenty thousand Boy Scouts aided in the work of selling the bonds of the Third Liberty Loan and of the sale of War Thrift Stamps. The Girl Scouts have done all sorts of clerical and special work for the same cause, as well as for various others. The children of every public school and almost every private school in the United States have worked in some cause or another for the winning of the war. With the men and women of the country they have earned their place on the patriots’ roll.