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Brewer Eddy, traveling secretary for the Y. M. C. A., addressed the Freshmen in the Smith Hall Common Room last evening with a vivid talk on war conditions in Europe. He was introduced by A. Beane '11, who characterized the speaker as one of the ablest men "to stir an audience on a war topic" he had ever heard.
Mr. Eddy began by impressing on his hearers the grave situation of the Allied cause at present. "We are now at our lowest ebb," he said. "With Russia out of it, Italy's latest catastrophe is most serious. Our own American troops in France are a mere handful; we must get our million men across next spring."
After a brief description of personal experiences in London where he saw the first Zeppelin brought to earth "white hot and bigger than an ocean liner," and in the training camps of England and France, where men told him of "periods of thirty days they had spent soaked to the skin in rain and mud," Mr. Eddy went on to a description of the Y. M. C. A. hut work.
"Our soldiers have all the comforts we can give them. In fact, it is figured that we spend more in the equipment and up-keep of one man than Germany does for 14. Abroad we have one man in charge of each Y. M. C. A. hut, aided by several volunteer workers, while here we have five men in charge of each one. This winter the heating of our Y. M. C. A. huts alone will cost $700,000, but they will furnish the only warm spot for the men in the trenches, the only dry, lighted spot where the soldier can read or write, and where everyone is welcome. Above all the Y. M. C. A. is the greatest single influence for safe-guarding the morals of our troops.
"This is a new day for individual responsibility," he said in conclusion: "When Europe has given 5,000,000 men, can we say that we have gone the limit when we have given only to the edge of our incomes? This is above all the time for devotion and commitment of self to every true cause."
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