Excerpt from For the Men Who Are Rebuilding Europe Although in November, 1919, the welfare work for the United States army was taken over by the War Department, the Asso ciation was requested to continue in Germany and at a few other points until the army welfare service should be well established. While the work at the other points was later taken over by the army welfare board, that at Coblenz, at the request of the officers, has been left in the hands of the Association. The Cooperation of the army was constant and complete. Whenever suitable quarters could be found, buildings were requisitioned for the Association. It was always notified ahead of the movements of units, that the huts might be ready when the men reached new quarters. The Association could always purchase commissary supplies; its property was protected; its personnel moved on army orders; transportation on the railroad was free of charge; and gasoline and oil were furnished. By order of the commanding officer the welfare work in the area was carefully divided. The Salvation Army had three points near Coblenz and the work at the disciplinary barracks. The Red Cross had a hut at the hospital. The A L A continued to administrate its great library. All other welfare work for the soldiers was placed in the hands of the Association. The area held by our troops was described by a radius of thirty kilometers with Coblenz as a center and with one point, Kreuzberg, some sixty kilometers from Coblenz. About eighteen huts, with roll ing canteen service to outlying detachments, were required to serve the area, including a center in the army base at Antwerp, a small hut at the docks, and, for a Short time, a but at Romagne for the Graves Registration Service. One aim of the Association and the desire of the officers was to give these young soldiers as much as possible of American lifeand to this end it became necessary to carry on a large business plant, providing equipment that could not be purchased in a foreign country nor brought from America except at delay and great ex pense. It thus came about that the Association manufactured for itself all manner of supplies, ranging from layer cakes to piston pins, and became business manager of an ice-cream plant, two bakeries, a machine shop, and carpentry, painting, and upholstery establishments. The definite educational work for the soldiers is now in the hands of the army, but the Association still found opportunity for service of this nature, through the library, lec tures, entertainments, and the bulletin boards. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.