d
for all offenses--including as it does those punished for infractions of
rules, insubordination and the like--and passed the enlarged figures on
to you as representing the number of men locked up for drunkenness
alone! No wonder you were scared--as they probably intended you should
be.

Just to refute them again, here is a quotation from the report of a
Protestant chaplain on active service with these same maligned troops
from the "north-eastern States." Bear in mind, too, that this particular
chaplain has been in the army but a short time, and therefore brings a
fresh and impartial judgment to bear on the problems. This is what he
says:

"In performing my priestly functions it has been my privilege to travel
considerably among the troops, and it pleases me immensely to be able to
state that I find moral conditions most satisfactory. The military
authorities are vigilant in removing temptation. We have a clean army;
and I am honestly convinced that the men in France are in less danger
morally than they would be in service in their own country."

"The men in France are in less danger morally than they would be in
service in their own country." That last clause is worth repetition.
Ponder on that, dear people at home.

Here's something more. The Catholic chaplains attached to these same
slandered troops declare that, out of thousands of men admitted to the
confessional, only three have confessed to sins of any magnitude. A
correspondent of an internationally-known daily newspaper, whose
business it is to get facts and to report them accurately, adds this:

"I was in the only town of any size in the whole area occupied by the
troops referred to on the night when they were first paid off in France.
The majority of these men received from two to three months' pay,
totalling in many cases $100 or more. The streets were crowded with
soldiers buying up everything in sight, from candy and chocolate to
clothing, but--it's the absolute truth--I did not see a single drunken
soldier; while the provost guard records show the smallest number of
arrests. Since then I have seen a good deal of the troops referred to as
'North-Eastern,' as a result of which I can unhesitatingly state that if
the troops training in the United States conduct themselves as well,
they're doing nobly."

Finally, the commanding officer of this same body of men--and our
commanding officers are our severest critics and also our only really
competent one