THE ROMANCE OF FINANCE
This work has been admirably done both at home and
at the Front. Its spiritual and material value to
the men lies beyond all reckoning, and the
services of its personnel are deeply appreciated
by the men themselves.--THE RIGHT HON. A. J.
BALFOUR, O.M., M.P.
ON August 4, 1914, our plan for war work was ready, but the 'sinews of
war' were lacking. Little could be done without money. In our extremity
we laid the whole position before one of our most generous leaders and
supporters, and told him of the opportunity we saw facing the Y.M.C.A.
'If we are to seize the opportunity,' we said, 'it is absolutely
necessary we should secure immediately twenty-five thousand pounds!' He
looked up and smiled indulgently--'Twenty-five thousand pounds!' he
cried; 'you couldn't possibly raise three thousand pounds at a time like
this; the thing's impossible!' 'Impossible or not,' was the reply, 'it
must be done. We mustn't even stop to think of the future of the
Y.M.C.A. Everything is at stake, and even if we have to sell every
building and every stick of furniture we possess we must go forward
now!' That very day a large number of telegrams and letters were sent
out from Headquarters to friends all over the country--the first war
emergency appeal of the Red Triangle--and within a few days the whole of
the twenty-five thousand pounds had been raised, and we were appealing
for another fifty thousand pounds, until at the time of writing, in
August 1918, the war fund has reached the total of nearly two and a half
millions sterling. That is a small sum compared with the amounts raised
for Y.M.C.A. war work in the United States. Their first appeal brought
in five million pounds, the second more than twelve millions, and their
appeal a year later, in October 1918, is for twenty millions sterling.
Our American friends gave us a hundred thousand pounds from the amount
raised by their second war work appeal, a generous and much appreciated
gift. People who know little of the facts are sometimes inclined to
criticise what they regard as the huge war expenditure of the British
Y.M.C.A.'s, but a moment's reflection will make it clear that it has
been little short of a miracle of finance to carry out such an enormous
programme of work at a total cost of only about one-third of the cost to
Britain alone of a single day of war. We have always been short of
money, have always had a big overdraft at the bank, and that largely
because we have had to finance a huge business concern without capital.
Our war fund has been secured partly as a result of skilful
advertising, partly through personal solicitation and in response to
postal appeals. Flag Days and Hut Weeks also proved valuable agencies
for raising money. The full-page Y.M.C.A. advertisements in _The Times_
and other papers were something quite new in religious and social work
advertising, though the method has since been widely adopted by other
organisations.
Many touching stories are told concerning gifts to the war fund, gifts,
many of which have not been secured as a result of cleverly drawn
advertisements, but because the contributors have been touched directly
or indirectly by the work itself. A boy wrote home from Flanders, 'Tell
Dad if he has any money to spare to give it to the Y.M.C.A. as a
thankoffering for what they are doing for us chaps out here.' One of our
centres had been nearly destroyed by a Zeppelin bomb. It was rebuilt
and the day came for the reopening. A lady was present and expressed
herself thus: 'I wanted to be here to-day, if only to thank you for what
your Association has done for my boy. When the war broke out,' said she,
'he went to the Crystal Palace for his training, and found the Y.M.C.A.
there an inestimable boon. He was sent to Blandford to complete his
training, and the Y.M.C.A. was there. He was drafted out to Gallipoli,
and to his amazement he found the Y.M.C.A. on the Peninsula. He was
wounded and sent to Suez, where once more the Y.M.C.A. was a great help
to him, and yesterday,' she continued, 'I received a letter from him
from Alexandria saying he was convalescent, and spending the whole of
his spare time in the central building of the Association.' It is that
personal touch that has made the appeal of the Red Triangle one of the
most popular appeals of the war.
A lady called one day with a novel suggestion. She had been reading a
statement attributed to the Kaiser, in which the All Highest is alleged
to have said that if the worst came to the worst every dog and cat in
Germany would be armed in defence of the Fatherland. 'If the dogs and
cats of Germany are going to do that for their country,' she said, 'why
shouldn't the dogs and cats of England pay for one of your huts?' Quite
frankly there did not appear to be much money in the scheme, but it
could do no harm, so we encouraged it! Imagine our surprise when a few
days later the same lady walked in with a cheque for four hundred and
fifty pounds. There was one gift of five pounds, all the rest had been
given in smaller amounts, and altogether upwards of two thousand dogs
and cats--or their masters and mistresses--had contributed. A few weeks
later the fund was closed, at just over one thousand pounds, and there
has been no more useful centre of Y.M.C.A. war work than the 'Dogs and
Cats Hut' at Rouen, paid for entirely by this fund.
The Boys and Girls fund has reached upwards of twenty thousand pounds.
We had been speaking to the boys at Harrow School, and the suggestion
had been thrown out that it would be a good plan to have a 'Harrow' Hut
at the Front. At the close of the meeting the headmaster, supporting the
suggestion, said he would give the collection in chapel the following
Sunday to the fund. The head boy approached him afterwards and said, 'I
think, Sir, it would be a mistake to make a collection for the Y.M.C.A.
on Sunday. If you do the boys will think they have done their bit, and
won't bother any further. Won't you let us make a whip up round the
houses and see what we can do?' Thus it was agreed, and the five hundred
pounds, which in those days was the cost of a hut, was raised in less
than a week. We have seen that hut in France, and know how much it was
appreciated. During the German advance in Picardy it had to be
temporarily abandoned, but fortunately was speedily occupied again.
In the early days of the Euston hut, the vicar of a neighbouring parish
was keenly interested, and told the children in his day school what he
had seen in the hut. At the close of his address a deputation of the
older children waited on him and told him they were interested in what
he told them, and would much like to help the Y.M.C.A. in its work for
the soldiers. 'You help?' queried the vicar; 'how can you help?' He knew
how poor they were. To his surprise they had their scheme ready, and
their plans cut and dried. 'This time every year,' said the spokesman,
'we put by our pennies and our ha'pennies for our annual treat. We don't
feel like having a treat this year when all this terrible fighting is
taking place. We would rather give the money to the Y.M.C.A. to spend on
the soldiers and sailors.' A few days later, the leader of the Euston
hut was sitting at a table in the central hall when his attention was
attracted by a group of ragged children, standing round the entrance.
Curiously they would peer inside and then step back, until two or three
bolder than the others walked right in as if the whole place belonged to
them. That was too much for the leader. He went up to them and cried,
'You must run away; this place isn't for boys and girls, it's for
soldiers and sailors.' Looking up into his face a little ragged
youngster retorted, 'Please, sir, we've given our money towards this
show, and we want to see how it's run!' On inquiry, it was ascertained
that the children belonged to one of the poorest of the schools in the
north of London, and out of their poverty they had given no less than
thirty shillings, nearly the whole of it in pennies and farthings. Many
memorial gifts have been received, and a hut that will be an inspiration
and help to tens of thousands, is surely one of the most suitable of
memorials.
[Illustration: A REFUGE FOR THE REFUGEES]
Business firms and merchant princes have given their thousands; others,
with equal generosity, have contributed shillings. In the Channel
Islands, there was a fish-hawker, named Richards, who eked out a slender
livelihood by selling fish on the streets of Jersey. The coming of the
war hit him so hard that he was compelled to leave for France to seek
other employment. He got a job under the contractors who were building
the hutments in the Harfleur Valley. He did well, and eventually
returned home to Jersey. The Sunday after his return, his minister was
taking up special collections for the hut fund. Richards had found the
Red Triangle huts at Havre a great boon, and on entering the church at
the evening service, handed his minister a little paper packet
containing coins. The padre fingered the parcel and said to himself, 'He
has given six pennies, a generous gift, too, under the circumstances!'
Imagine his surprise on opening the packet to find there six
half-crowns. He said, 'You ought not to give so much; you can't possibly
afford it.' 'When I remember all the Y.M.C.A. did for me when a stranger
in France and homeless,' was his reply, 'I can't possibly do less, and
wish I could give more.'
[Illustration: Y.M.C.A. MARQUEE IN THE SHELL-SWEPT SOMME AREA]
A flower-seller at a popular seaside holiday resort for many months has
given to the local Y.M.C.A. hut a shillingsworth of flowers each week,
as a thankoffering for what the Association has done for her husband and
son.
At Taunton a farm labourer called at the back door of the house of the
president of the local Y.M.C.A., and said he wanted to help the war
fund. It was the only thing he could do to help the men at the Front. He
had tried to enlist several times, but they would not have him. He laid
on the table fifty one-pound notes, and went back to his work on the
farm. Inquiries elicited the fact that he had given practically the
whole of his savings, and had done it in spite of his employer's urgent
advice to the contrary.
At the close of a meeting held by one of our workers, an elderly lady
came to him and said if he would go to her house she would give him a
sovereign. He went, and she gave him the coin, and then closing the
door of her private room, said, 'And now I am going to give you the most
precious possession I have in the world.' Her voice choked with emotion
as she proceeded, 'Years, many years ago, I was to have been married.
The arrangements were made, the day fixed, and the ring bought,
and--_then he died_!' And she sobbed as she spoke. Going to a bureau she
took out a little box and, handing it to him, said, 'The wedding ring is
in there. I have kept it all these years, but I promised the Lord I
would only keep it until He showed me what He would have me do with it,
and He told me while you were speaking. I give it to you for the
Y.M.C.A. and for the boys,' and she turned away utterly broken up.
Thousands of incidents could be related of equal interest to the
foregoing, did space permit, and all these incidents combine to give a
personal interest to the fund. We can only add that the greatest
possible care has been taken to administer the fund wisely and so avoid
waste, or anything that savours of extravagance. Of course, Y.M.C.A.
finance has come in for criticism. Certain people who have visited the
huts, and have seen the enormous business there transacted have come to
the conclusion that either very large profits are being made, or that
the business methods of the Association leave much to be desired. The
question has frequently been asked, 'What is done with the profits?' and
the fiction has got abroad that the Y.M.C.A. publishes no accounts and
is amassing huge sums of money. The real position is easily stated:--
The Y.M.C.A. does not do trading for trading's
sake, but because through its trading department
it is the better enabled to meet the needs of the
troops, and also because profits on trading mean
further extension. So rapid has been the
development of the war work of the Y.M.C.A., that
not only has every penny of profit been spent on
the maintenance and development of this work for
soldiers and sailors, but it has been necessary to
raise large sums of money in subscriptions to meet
the ever-increasing demand for extension. Every
new centre means, or may mean, an additional
burden on the central fund or on the divisional
funds for which the National Council is ultimately
responsible. First, there is the cost of the hut,
which may mean £750 or may run into thousands--it
all depends upon size and site. The initial cost
may be defrayed by an individual gift to the
central war fund, but usually to make the hut
large enough for its purpose, additional money has
to be spent, whilst the furnishing will probably
cost from one to three hundred pounds, or more.
Also, it must carry stock to the value of a
hundred pounds or possibly much more if it is a
big camp. A very big turnover in a Triangle hut
may represent a very small profit, _e.g._ there
are enormous sales of stamps and postal orders,
and all these are sold for actual cost, and, what
is more, the Association has to bear the loss of
shortages. Then there are the things the Y.M.C.A.
does free of any charges whatever, _e.g._ there
are no club fees and no charges for admission to
concerts, lectures, or entertainments in the
ordinary hut. Free writing paper and envelopes are
at the present time costing more than £90,000 a
year. Thousands of pounds are spent on cricket and
football outfits, games generally, books,
pictures, and literature for free distribution.
Hot drinks and refreshments are given free to the
walking wounded on a very large scale, and
practically every one of the two thousand war
Y.M.C.A.'s keeps 'open house' at Christmas. The
work of the Y.M.C.A. for the relatives of wounded
is very costly, especially in France, many hostels
being maintained for that purpose. Motor transport
is an expensive item for which there is no return,
and very large sums of money are spent on lectures
and educational work. It is estimated that the
Y.M.C.A. educational programme in France alone may
ultimately cost the Association fifty thousand
pounds a year. When the request has come to open a
new centre, the determining factor has been, 'Is
it needed?' not 'Will it pay?' Indeed many huts in
isolated centres cannot possibly be made to pay,
and yet they mean everything to the men who use
them. The spending department of the Association
has been built up with the greatest care. A body
of well-known business men meets for hours every
week and watches expenditure as a cat watches a
mouse. The Acting Treasurer of the War Emergency
Fund is a partner in a big firm of Indian
Merchants, and devotes himself with untiring
energy and conspicuous ability to the supervision
of accounts and to the expenditure. The accounts
are audited by a leading firm of chartered
accountants, and the audited statement of receipts
and expenditure together with a balance sheet, is
published in _The Times_ and other papers every
six months. In the canteens it is a matter of
principle to give full value for money spent, but
towards the war services the profits made have
been equal to a sum of ten shillings for every
pound contributed by the public. Owing chiefly to
the enormous stores that have to be maintained in
France and Overseas generally, the Bank overdraft
of the war fund has often reached four and five
hundred thousand pounds. It is thus not difficult
to see what is done with the profits. The Y.M.C.A.
might, had it so chosen, have feathered its nest
during the war, but with a sublime, though by no
means a reckless disregard of the future it
stepped right into the breach, and went straight
forward to meet the national need.
As a Y.M.C.A. we pride ourselves on the business management of our work.
We insist on business methods being adopted, and we do not mix our
business with philanthropy--the Association hut is not a charity as far
as its business side is concerned. The average hut in a large camp is
expected to pay its way, so that subscriptions from the general public
can be applied to the extension of the work and to the maintenance of
centres that cannot be self-supporting.
The War Office, in the early stages of the war, asked us to pay a rebate
of 10 per cent. on the gross takings of the refreshment department.
After full consideration, we came to the conclusion that we could only
do this by extracting the money from the pockets of the men, who for the
most part are miserably paid, by paying it out of subscriptions given by
the public, or by limiting the extension of the work. Neither
alternative seemed desirable or in the interests of the men, and after
many conferences with the Quartermaster-General's department at the War
Office, it was agreed, by mutual consent and at the suggestion of the
War Office, to refer the matter for decision to the Secretary of State
for War. It was at the time Lord Kitchener was in Gallipoli, and Mr.
Asquith was personally in charge. At a conference at Downing Street the
representatives of the Board of Control Regimental Institutes stated
their case, and we had the opportunity of replying. Mr. Asquith took
several weeks to consider the question in all its bearings, and
ultimately gave the decision entirely in our favour, and decided for the
duration of the war we should not be asked to pay the rebate. Later on,
the matter was reopened by Lord Derby, and eventually it was found
necessary for the Y.M.C.A. to pay 6 per cent. on their gross takings in
huts on Military ground, to regimental funds, and this is a great tax on
its resources. Most of the huts are loaned free to the Military for
church parades and military lectures.
The figures of the Red Triangle are colossal, and yet figures by
themselves fail to give an adequate idea of the magnitude of the work,
and for obvious reasons it is impossible to make those statistics
complete. On a given date it was ascertained that upwards of forty-five
thousand workers were giving regular service to the war work of the
Y.M.C.A. By August 31, 1918, 929,590,430 pieces of stationery had been
sent out from Y.M.C.A. Headquarters in London for distribution amongst
the men of His Majesty's Forces. The stationery bill by the summer of
1918 had risen to the rate of upwards of £90,000 per annum.
In two months one hundred and five tents were sent out to replace the
huts and tents lost in Picardy and Flanders.
In eighteen months, Triangle House, London, the Headquarters of our
Trading Department, sent out to the Y.M.C.A. overseas:--
875 Gramophones and 8386 Records.
322 Pianos and Organs.
572 Billiard and Bagatelle Tables.
1,341 Sets of Boxing Gloves.
108 Optical Lanterns.
10,188 Sets of Draughts.
1,335 Sets of Chess.
3,140 Sets of Dominoes.
4,263 Footballs.
1,080 Sets of Quoits.
657 Sets of Cricket.
4,992 Extra Balls.
1,540 Extra Bats.
1,798 Hockey Sticks.
520 Balls.
426 Golf Balls.
100 Tennis Sets.
330 Tennis Racquets.
2,364 Tennis Balls.
61 Sets Bowls.
358 Badminton Sets.
50 Baseball Sets.
It will be noted that the items in this list are not trading goods to be
sold at a profit, but excepting in the case of some of the billiard
tables, are non-remunerative, and provided absolutely free for the use
of the men serving overseas.