488 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



"How appreciative and responsive these soldiers are. 

 After every service they crowd around to express their 

 gratitude and to discuss and ask questions, but it takes 

 the farewell service when I leave for other posts to truly 

 learn their feeling. After having worked among them 

 for a month and shared their temptations and hardships, 

 their happiness and friendship, it has often been difficult 

 to keep back the tears as I have tried in a final prayer to 

 sum up our gratitude and needs to the Heavenly Father 

 who watches over us and has come very near to us in 

 these days. Traveling among the men in this way I 

 serve to keep the different units of the regiment in touch 

 with one another while we are thus separated, and in- 

 formed of each other's efforts. Many is the personal 

 greeting I carry from one man to another. I am also 

 the traveling news bureau. On my trips I have the 

 opportunity of seeing the American army progress in all 

 its phases, as well as in getting many personal accounts 

 from the Allied soldiers of the war. Our camps are 

 always near small towns and the news being scarce, no 

 visit of the chaplain is complete without one talk on 

 general observations and experiences. You may well 

 envy the army chaplain his opportunity as preacher, 

 lecturer, educator, athletic promoter, entertainer, buyer, 

 traveler, reporter, regimental historian, but most of all 

 as friend. All one's capacities count, but I think the 

 personal contact perhaps does most. When men have 

 come as individuals in their need and with their difficult 

 problems, then have I had my greatest opportunity, as 

 well as my keenest sense of dependence to Him who is 

 the source of all strength. 



"The American army is surely setting a standard 

 here in its care and regard for the men's morals. Our 

 leaders in every way are seeking the highest moral tone. 

 The temptations here are mighty and ever-present, but 

 those in command have co-operated in every way with 

 outside organizations seeking to help our men, and have 

 issued information and orders as would tend to promote 



highest standards. We have plenty of black sheep in 

 our midst as in civil life ; some men are falling, but many 

 are climbing upward living stronger and more unselfish 

 lives than in the States. 'Booze' is our greatest enemy. 

 Practically every court-martial case, every difficulty 

 with men in the company administration is due to this 

 evil. It was never so apparent to me what an offender 

 liquor is. This is the verdict of many of our officers 

 and men. Here, again, the army in every way is en- 

 deavoring to deal wisely with the situation. 



"Most of our regiment are very anxious to get to the 

 front and in the thick of it. Just when our turn shall 

 come -we cannot tell, but when it does come we shall 

 be ready to do our part there. In the meantime these 

 engineers plod away at a task which is somewhat 

 monotonous and in the doing of which there is not much 

 glory, but all the same rejoicing to do what their coun- 

 try calls them to do, realizing that the harder they work 

 the more will their brothers at the front have to assist 

 them in their great task. 



"The Y. M. C. A. and Red Cross have helped us 

 greatly in camp and hospital, the former having secre- 

 taries in three of our camps. Friends of the regiment have 

 made me the treasurer of a Welfare Fund, the money 

 donated to be used in any way for the pleasure and con- 

 tentment of the soldiers. Thus in every way those with 



-- the spirit of the Master of men are making our lives 

 here more happy and useful. All working and fighting 

 together we shall soon have the forces that are incar- 

 nated in the Kaiser on the run, victory will be ours, and 

 then the old red flag of war will come down and the 

 white flag of peace shall go up. When that day comes 



) it will be a grand and glorious feeling when General 

 Pershing marches down the line of the victorious hosts 

 and says, 'Army dismissed!' Until that day can come 

 in honor you just watch these men here in France, 

 representing the best land in all the world, giving every- 

 thing they have to make the world safe." 



TREES FOR THE HOLY LAND 



AN Associated Press dispatch says : "Two principal 

 recommendations which the civilian Commission 

 now in Palestine will make relative to the recon- 

 struction of that country will be a scheme for beginning 

 afforestation, and a proposal for the conservation of 

 water supply by storage and by opening up old springs. 



"The greatest of all Palestine's needs is afforestation. 

 For centuries the land has been denuded of its trees, with 

 most disastrous consequences, for 'the heavy rains at 

 certain seasons, instead of benefitting the soil, over more 

 than four-fifths of the area carry away in rushing tor- 

 rents much of the little soil that remains on the high 

 lands.and valley slopes. 



"Palestine has not always been treeless. The Roman 

 Emperors had valuable forests in the country, and 

 Absalom, riding, was caught by the hair among the 

 trees, but today one might gallop from Dan to Beer- 

 sheba without having to duck one's head to avoid a 

 branch." 



A LETTER FROM THE FRONT 



Tj^ROM Mr. Frank A. Cutting, a prominent lumberman 

 of Boston, and one of our members, we have re- 

 ceived the following letter. His boy is with the 20th 

 Engineers and the letter shows that his contingent has 

 been in action since the 4th of June. 



SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE, 



June 7, 1918. 

 Dear Father: 



Would have written before, but these are busy times, 

 and when I have had the time had nothing to write with. 



We have been in the drive for the last three days went 

 in about 10 o'clock Tuesday night, and have been right on 

 the job ever since, and have made quite an advance and 

 we are holding our line at all points. It looks as if the 

 whole German front will have to drop back. 



We have had about every kind of an attack that there 

 is, but have not lost a man from my command. I lost both 

 of my horses, one was gassed, and the other shot. The gas 

 is very bad, as it goes right through the clothing, causing 

 trouble, which often results in death. Now that we are 

 getting an army over here, I look to see a big drive, and 

 then the Germans will find out what war really is. 



Am well, and send love to all. 



SPENCER. 

 Lieut. Spencer A. Cutting, 

 Co. A, 9th Bn., 20th Engineers, 



U. S. M. P. O. 731, France. 



