USA > Iowa > Scott County > History of the war activities of Scott County Iowa, 1917-1918 > Part 9
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In the various drives for finances for "Y" war work Davenport and Scott county have always been at the front. The first drive was for $2,500, which, looked at from this distance, seems a small and insig- nificant sum. The second drive was for $3,500. It is interesting to note that the second amount, while much larger than the first amount, was raised with much less trouble and worry. In the third drive it took the nature of a United War Work Campaign. Davenport again took its place as one of the leading associations of the state. Altogether for Army Y. M. C. A. work Davenport and Scott county raised practically $220,000.
While the financial side as cared for by the Davenport Young Men's Christian Association was very important, another equally important matter was cared for by the association as the center. The keynote of the war work was personnel. Davenport contributed through the assistance of the local association, as the recruiting agency, twenty-nine men and women for the Red Triangle service.
Miss Marion Crandall, of St. Katharine's School, died on the field of action, while several of the other workers suffered severely from gas and exposure to weather in France.
Following are the names of those who so actively served in the Red Triangle:
Arthur C. Hall, A. E. F.
Herbert Eldridge.
Frank Cole, A. E. F.
Clifford Nickle.
L. W. Mckown.
W. A. McCulloch, A. E. F.
O. E. Johnson.
Francis M. Leaman.
Louis Wunschel.
Mott R. Sawyers.
Chas. Elliott, A. E. F.
Chas. Huber, A. E. F.
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M. B. Cobb, A. E. F. W. P. Dodge, A. E. F. Geo. W. Cannon, A. E. F.
Burton James Gardner, A. E. F.
Frederick Mason, A. E. F.
E. S. Kindley.
Arthur W. Van Houten, A. E. F.
Herman Pieper.
Fred J. Walker, A. E. F.
U. S. Screechfield, A. E. F.
Chas. Wilber Daly, A. E. F.
Miss Pearl Hood, A. E. F.
R. D. Brown. .
Miss Helen Vincent, A. E. F.
D. F. Scribner, A. E. F.
E. T. Heald, A. E. F.
L. N. Gansworth, A. E. F.
Miss Marion Crandall, A. E. F.
The letters A. E. F. denote those who are serving with the American Expiditionary Forces.
The Davenport Y. M. C. A. played a prominent part in the establish- ment of the Y. M. C. A. Hut on the Government Island. Working in close co-operation with the secretary there we were priviledged to assist in equipping the building and furnishing the names of those who served on the committees for the Arsenal Y. M. C. A. work.
Not only did the Y. M. C. A. endeavor to do its full share for the men in khaki and blue, but it also endeavored to look after the interests and welfare of the men in industries. Through the assistance of the National War Work Council it was possible to extend the association activities to the men of Rock Island Arsenal. A constructive program was carried through with the assistance of the War Work Council.
The American soldier boy was practically never without the Y. M. C. A. The secretarial staff of the Davenport association were called on to accompany every troop train that left the city. Important service was rendered in helping the men to while away the otherwise tedious hours while enroute to the camps.
The Davenport Service Flag displays 350 stars. Its members were in all branches of the service. Some lie buried in the poppy fields of Flanders, others were in German prison camps, still others in the ice- bound plains of Russia. One member of the association in the uniform of the army secretary, has risked the terrors of Bolshevikism in Russia to serve from Petrograd to Vladivostok the fighting heroes of the Czecho-Slavs.
And with the soldiers coming home the association stands ready to welcome them. To every returning soldier and sailor registering at the building we are giving a three month's service membership, which entitles him to the full privileges of the organization.
The Knights of Columbus
BY E. M. SHARON
Loras Council of the Knights of Columbus includes in its member- ship Bishop Davis, all of the priests of the city, and has at the present time 900 members, about sixty of whom joined the Council in 1918, and 181 since the first of January, this year. About two-thirds of the Council are associate members; the insurance members includes the younger men of service age. One hundred and fifty of the members entered the military or naval service of the United States. A large proportion went with the Davenport Batteries or enlisted before the selective draft went into effect. The local Council furnished seven doctors-McCarthy, Foley, Glynn, Barton, Martin, R. R. Kulp, and Murphy-and six chaplains-Fathers Barry, J. A. Donahoe, O'Donnell, Nugent, Wm. Lawlor, and Ryan.
A number of members received commissions outside of the doctors and chaplains. Some of them did not get over to the battle front in Europe, but all of them performed the duty that the government asked of them. These members of the Council are the ones who gave the real service. They made the sacrifice of leaving home, breaking family ties, giving all they had and all that was in them for their country, God, and humanity. They shared with the millions who got there first, the dauntless spirit, enthusiasm, and bravery which ended the war before they got there.
Others who stayed at home did fairly well. On the first appeal of the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus for $1,000,000 for war welfare service, the 600 members of the local Council paid $1,200, on the second appeal for $3,000,000 they raised $7,500, and they were active and conspicuous in the United States War Fund Drive, as members of the executive committee, on the speaking program, and as contributors.
The Knights of Columbus have been enthusiastic supporters of the Red Cross. They were enrolled as members en masse. The Council and members contributed to the national and local organization. They take great pride in the noted and efficient service which Dr. D. J. Mc- Carthy was able to render under the auspices of the American Red Cross in Rumania and Serbia.
The Knights of Columbus members have assisted other organizations -the Salvation Army, Library Association, Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., Jewish Welfare, Community Service-and have stood behind our Council of Defense. They have been active on the exemption boards and in cheering the boys going to the training camps and welcoming them home.
Francis J. Mccullough made a very efficient Social Secretary with the Knights of Columbus Welfare Service at Camp Dodge, and he and other Knights of Columbus secretaries did much to entertain the boys before
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they went across and since they have come back. Later he was as- signed to overseas duty, and sailed for France.
On the Liberty Loan and the War Savings Stamps drives the Knights of Columbus have taken a conspicuous part. Besides furnishing cap- tains for five teams, they had many members working with them.
In 1918 Loras Council bought $3,000 of the 31% per cent bonds, and it is estimated by those who had to do with the drives, that the Knights of Columbus members have taken upward of $1,000,000 of the Liberty Loans, and they were among the heavy purchasers of War Savings Stamps. Loras Council must acknowledge the assistance, material and co-operative, given by Bishop Davis, the clergy, and Catholics of the city, and the Catholic Women's League for aid in local welfare work.
That they might be able to give to men returning home some of the service given by the Knights of Columbus Welfare Service in our train- ing camps and on the battle fronts, they raised by voluntary contribu- tions about $25,000 to purchase and equip the club house at Sixth and Main streets. This is open to all soldiers and sailors, whether mem- bers or not-service in the army or navy being the only badge needed to enjoy all the facilities of the club. The Council paid the dues and assessments of each of its members while in service and has organized committees to look after the employment of soldiers and sailors re- turning.
In complying with your request to give you something of the Knights of Columbus war activities what has struck me as the most distinctive phase is: the unconsciousness of the officers and members that they did anything as Knights of Columbus. Ask any member or officer what the Knights of Columbus have done during the war period and in most cases he will never have thought of it. He does not think of the boys who went to the front as fellow members of the Knights of Columbus. He does not think of the work done for the Red Cross and Liberty Loan and the Welfare Service from the standpoint of his order.
I have had the hardest kind of work getting the incomplete data here given. I could find no official record of Knights of Columbus activities. No credit marks were given for the work of any member of the Council, no matter how conspicuous. And the men who did the work, carried the Red Cross into the devastation of Rumania and Serbia, who fought overseas, or headed the Liberty Loan drives did not think that they were Knights of Columbus. The thing which I ask for the Knights of Columbus and their war time service is that you give them credit for the higher vision that saw only the flag, the purpose of their country, the wounds of humanity, and the duties of American citizens, a cause vastly higher and broader and greater than their order or their city.
The Lend-a- Hand Club
BY MISS JEANETTE MCFARQUHAR, Executive Secretary
When the United States entered the war there was no organization which felt its obligation more keenly than the Lend-a-Hand Club, an organization of almost 2,000 employed girls and women. Whereas be- fore it had been busy taking care of the girls of Davenport, it now turned its efforts towards helping every war cause that was launched in the city, and contributed to varicus war projects more than $25,000 in money.
On its own responsibility the club put over a number of drives which resulted in their raising funds for a Red Cross ambulance and a collec- tion of $15,000 worth of good clothes for the Belgians.
In the first a house-to-house canvass was made for old jewelry, iron, brass, and metals of all sorts which sold for $1,085, and made possible an ambulance for the French field, a gift of the girls of Davenport.
This drive was followed by a city-wide campaign which brought into the receiving station three full car loads of good clothing, valued at $15,000. This consignment was shipped to Belgium for the suffering people of that country.
The club supplied a corps of workers for two Red Cross campaigns- one for membership and another for funds-their efforts realizing more than $3,000. It also assumed the responsibility of reaching the women of the city in the Y. M. C. A. drive, and secured in the neighborhood of $2,500. It presented a vaudeville as a part of the Red Cross County Fair, the receipts amounting to $135. The organization was also rep- resented in the Salvation Army drive, while its Marine Scouts, girls of school age, sold $893 worth of War Savings Stamps, the club incidentally winning a prize of $10.00 for the most attractive patriotic booth.
Looking to the training of women and girls who might be called into service as drivers of commercial cars or overseas ambulances, the club conducted a course in auto-mechanics which attracted forty women, including the entire motor corps. A class in first aid was one of the most popular classes conducted.
Covering a period of several months, the Lend-a-Hand girls worked regularly on Tuesday evenings for the Red Cross, making bandages, pneumonia jackets, drains, and other hospital supplies, while a large number of them enrolled in the patriotic chorus and did their share in "keeping the home fires burning" till the boys would come home.
The High school girls were organized under the direction of the Lend-a-Hand Club for the making of scrap books for convalescent soldiers, and eighteen patriotic floats were contributed to the Fourth of July parade.
The Lend-a-Hand girls took upon themselves the decoration and furnishing of the Y. M. C. A. hut library at Rock Island Arsenal,
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provided flowers for their flower beds, hung pretty curtains at the windows, secured attractive pictures for the library through the cour- tesy of the Art League, furnished cots, a large clock, and several pieces of furniture for various rooms, and assembled furnishings for the office of the religious secretary. They also provided teachers for the soldiers' classes, the instructors being conveyed each evening to the hut by the Davenport Motor Corps. A series of dances was also given in honor of the boys at the Arsenal.
In order to help the rooming situation, the club opened a rooming house for war and other workers, operating it at the smallest possible cost to the guests.
Practically every girl bought Liberty Bonds from each issue, and almost everyone knitted, sewed, and did all they could to conform to the demands of the hour. The club sent some of its members overseas, to France, England, Italy, and Serbia. It also presented the 126th Over- seas Regimental Band to an audience of 12,000 people, and launched a second door-to-door canvass for the Red Cross, amounting to one full carload of clothing and shoes. Five thousand dollars of its money was invested in Victory Bonds, and to round up the good work it is about to celebrate peace by investing $1,000, earned from the sale of junk, in some sort of reconstruction work.
The Y. W. C. A.
BY MRS. HENRY W. VON MAUR, District Chairman
The Young Women's Christian Association, with a membership of patriotic women and girls was always ready to do its part in the win- ning of the great war.
In each Red Cross drive the girls formed teams, and in the 1918 drive the teams headed by a Y. W. C. A. girl brought in the largest amount, $1,360.
In the National Y. W. C. A. War Drive in 1917 and in the United War Work Drive in 1918, the Y. W. C. A. did its full share in taking the quota over the top. Mrs. Henry W. Von Maur, President of the local associa- tion, was District Chairman of the Woman's Division, and Miss Dotha S. Varker, General Secretary, was District Chairman of the Victory Girls, the girls' division of the United War Drive.
In the Armenian drive in the spring of 1919, the Y. W. C. A. had four teams, and the largest amount brought in by any one team in the drive was brought by a Y. W. C. A. girl. The girls and women rallied heroically in each Liberty Loan drive. In order to create interest the girls had a booth, the only one in the city, in the Davenport Hotel for the fourth loan and sold $3,600 in bonds. They also furnished speakers at times.
The Y. W. C. A. organized the first Patriotic League in the city of Davenport. Twenty-two young women met January 28, 1918, at the boarding home, 611 Brady street, and after hearing the purpose of the league as originally worked out by the Junior War Work Council of the National Board in New York, the girls voted to organize, and the mem- bership soon grew to 478. The league met at the rooms, 611 Brady street, each Monday night until April 29th, and made muslin bandages, layettes, shot bags, hospital garments, kits for soldiers, and knit socks and sweaters. After April 29th they met at the Red Cross rooms, and 12,279 gauze bandages, pads, and tampons were made. An average of seventy-five girls attended each meeting. In addition to this, many girls worked on Thursday evenings. Often on Monday evening instruc- tive lectures and talks were given by prominent men and women of the city, keeping the girls in touch with the most urgent needs at that par- ticular time. In 1918 the league adopted two French orphans, and in April, 1919, a permanent organization was formed, the purpose of which is to continue to help the French children.
The league girls gave several parties for the soldiers stationed at the Arsenal; they also made a beautiful float, the Liberty Bell and Goddess of Liberty, and had 150 girls in a patriotic parade on July 4th. They secured books and magazines for the boys at the Arsenal, and when the Red Cross put on their County Fair, the league girls featured a program of patriotic living pictures: Betsy Ross making the first Stars and
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Stripes, the Spirit of '76, the Sinking of the Maine, Joan of Arc, and Columbia. This netted the Red Cross $148.
Uncle Sam had two armies in the war, one made up of men and one of girls and women. Many readjustments were necessary when the girl entered definite war work. She was the girl behind the man behind the gun, and her needs were many. The Y. W. C. A. saw this need in Davenport. The boarding home at 611 Brady street was re-arranged to accommodate forty-five girls instead of twenty-five housed in normal times, and in September, 1918, they affiliated with the National Associa- tion and established club and recreation rooms at 10412 West Second street. These rooms were opened for all the girls of the city with a large, well equipped gymnasium; a lavatory with a tub and shower bath; a rest room with five comfortable cots; a living room furnished with comfortable chairs, books, magazines, and daily papers, a small writing desk where paper is furnished for "home letter" writing; two cozy club rooms and a kitchenette. All this was made possible by the War Work Council, at a cost of $9,000.
The association conducted various educational classes for stimulat- ing patriotism, and always the Y. W. C. A. girl could be depended upon for her best whenever her country called.
War Camp Community Service
BY WM. C. KNOELCK, Executive Secretary
War Camp Community Service was organized by the Commissions on Training Camp Activities operating under the War and Navy De- partments for the purpose of doing in communities adjacent to camps what the governmentally established morale-sustaining agencies did for the boys within the camps. The job of the Tri-City War Camp Com- munity Service was to do this work for our boys in Davenport, Rock Island, and Moline.
Davenport was chosen as one of the links in the Tri-City activities because it was visited extensively by the soldiers stationed on the Arse- nal Island. In December, 1917, the ground was carefully looked over with a view to determining the need for War Camp Community Service aid. A secretary was sent and he opened his office on the mezzanine floor of the Blackhawk Hotel. All the religious, social, and recreational facilities were asked to join in a co-operative way to systematize the work. The readiness of the response and the continued co-operation of the various institutions marked Davenport as one of the hospitable cities in the generous West.
To give a statistical idea of the tremendous benefit of the work it may be added that there were given to the soldiers 118 dances, 45 play parties; 51 entertainments, most of them of a musical character; 17 baseball games; one big smoker; two boxing bouts; 12 football games; 20 Sunday auto parties; 10 large lawn parties, and over 2,000 Sunday dinners.
Later one of the offices in the Putnam Building was made the local headquarters of the War Camp Community Service. With this change came a wider sphere of activities. It was found that in order to win the war the morale of men employed in production centers-and especially at arsenals-had to be raised and maintained just as in the case of soldiers. With this basic proposition in view, the Davenport Arsenal Workers Club was organized. Fifty per cent of the 15,000 Arsenal workers lived in Davenport, and hence it was felt that Davenport was peculiarly fitted for such work. A lease was secured on the Armory building in Davenport and the use of the property was granted for the sum of $1.00 per year. The city of Davenport put the Armory in good physical condition, and it became the duty of the War Camp Community Service to equip the club with furniture, pool tables, card tables, and other necessary furnishings for a comfortable club. The club member- ship increased to about 900 within a very short time, each man paying $1.00 initiation fee and 50 cents a month for dues. Programs and en- tertainments, and good talks and lectures put a larger "win the war" spirit into these men and created a feeling of friendliness that helped materially in increasing production. The labor turn-over on the Island
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was appreciably lessened as the war program became more definitely inaugurated, and the clubs should be given their just share of credit for this result.
With a vision of greater usefulness and realizing that the "morn of victory is more perilous than its eve," the membership of the Daven- port club was induced to extend its sphere of activities by admitting workers from other than Arsenal industries. Wishing to promote the welfare and happiness of its members and their families and par- ticularly to stimulate the devotion of all its members to community welfare-so the constitution recites-the club is one of the big factors in building up the civic pride of Davenport.
Another large piece of work laid out for the War Camp Community Service was the organization of the girls into patriotic leagues. This work really had its start through the activity of the social committees in finding girls for soldier dances, but the organized work began on April 8, 1918. The idea of the league was to mobilize the scattered energies of the girls of the towns into a centralized effort to help in winning the war. It was to dignify for the girl her stay-at-home job, and it was to furnish normal recreation and social opportunity that the abnormal condition caused by the war might be minimized.
The work developed along three lines, service, recreation, and edu- cation. The service work was of various kinds, embracing work for the community as well as war activities. Nights for Red Cross work were regularly established; Belgian relief was part of these activities, as was also adopting French orphans, entertaining soldiers at dances, dinners, parties, etc. The girls took an active part in all war drives. One group sold $1,400 War Savings Stamps in two days; they made $315 for the United War Drive, and $120 for city playgrounds. A little paper was published by one factory group. The sheet was full of home news for the boys on that group's service flag. The community work embraced such things as taking care of poor families, providing Christ- mas baskets, aiding girls needing help, social service in parks, and furnishing the library at the "Y" hut.
The girls formed a military drill company and had at one time 400 girls drilling. A large dancing class of 200 members was formed.
The widespread and excellent support given War Camp Community Service can be appreciated only by the long list of names and institu- tions that loyally co-operated in the service. There is space here to give only the chairmen and officers: Colonel G. W. Burr, Colonel L. T. Hillman, Colonel H. B. Jordan, Alfred C. Mueller, William Butterworth, F. C. Denkman, Charles Grilk. A. F. Dawson did excellent service as Treasurer. William Padget, sent to the Tri-Cities as Executive Secre- tary from headquarters, carried on the work until succeeded by William C. Knoelk, early in 1919.
The big service of the War Camp Community Service lay not in in- dividual details of action, but in the sum total of all those little acts of self-sacrifice and self-determination which make for that social ad- vance which typifies true democracy.
The Boy Scouts
BY V. V. ALLEN, Scout Executive
At the time of a declaration of a state of war, a plan of mobilization orders had already been issued to call the Boy Scouts to march to the City Hall and to formally offer the services of the Boy Scout organiza- tion of Davenport to the Mayor of the city.
With the news of the declaration of war, the Boy Scouts were out in full force and marched to the City Hall. Their offer of service was smilingly accepted-no one at that time dreamed of the splendid service that the Boy Scouts were to render.
The first call for service came with the slogan: "Every Scout to feed a soldier." The Boy Scouts of Davenport responded to the suggestion that every Scout should have his own garden and to urge ten other people to put in gardens. We all know the result. The Boy Scouts helped to bring home to the citizens of Davenport a sense of the value of backyard gardens.
With the coming of spring there was a general demand for a bigger service than the individual gardens. As a result arrangements were made whereby the Scouts took over the tract of ground belonging to the Arsenal Holding Corporation. This tract of ground consisted of eight acres. Under the direction of Scout Commissioner John W. Cooper committees were appointed to take care of plowing and planting the ground. The crop was put in and gotten well under way before sum- mer camping time.
The Boy Scout camp that year was the best in the history of the organization. Following the summer camp, the next activity to be taken up was the harvesting of the potato crop. The Scouts harvested over 400 bushels from the field.
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