re being spent for destruction, must we not
at least invest an infinitesimal fraction of one per cent of our
expenditure, in construction, in that which is the greatest asset of
any nation--its moral manhood? Can we not provide a home away from
home for our own sons and the other boys with them whose parents may be
too poor to do so?

Here is a unique contribution which America can also make to her hard
pressed allies who have been exhausted by three terrible years of
fighting. Britain has already set us a wonderful example and will not
need our help. But there is France to which we owe so much and whose
war weary soldiers sorely need just such centers for recreation and
rebuilding. General Petain, the Commander in Chief, and the French
authorities have asked for the help of our Movement in their camps.
General Pershing, after surveying the field, has declared that the
greatest service which America can _immediately_ render France, even
before our own men can reach the trenches in large numbers, is to
extend the welfare work of the Y M C A to the entire French Army. Can
we do less than this for the nation that gave all that Washington asked
in our own hour of crisis? Then there is Italy, with all her deep need
and great possibilities. What can we do to minister to the wants of
her great army?

But let us turn to Russia, which represents the deepest need of
all--the nation which has undergone the greatest suffering, both within
and without its borders, of any of the belligerents. Think of its vast
area, greater than all North America, or one seventh of the land area
of the entire globe. Think of its population, almost twice our own,
and more than one tenth of the entire world. Think of these people,
who have the greatest capacity for suffering of any nation on earth,
suddenly released, like their own prisoners, with steps unsteady and
eyes unaccustomed to the blinding light of freedom. Think of what such
a movement of hope and cheer and re-creation may mean to troops hard
pressed or demoralized, facing another winter in the trenches.

Add to all these the suffering prisoners of war, and we have over
24,000,000 men who deeply need the ministry of this Movement, and need
it now. Here are millions who have already suffered or who are going
forward ready to make the great sacrifice for us. What sacrifice shall
we make for them?

[1] See World Almanac 1916, p. 488.

[2] The cost of the war has been calcul