Page:This side the trenches, with the American Red cross (IA thissidetrenches00desc).pdf/41

 no one, however, consider all this as a justification for war. Compared with the wreck and havoc that is being wrought to character, life, and property, the educational advantages of the conflict amount to nothing. Nevertheless, many of the soldiers and sailors will, indeed, return to civil life with a wider experience and a far better education than before. Their standards of orderliness and of sanitation, as well as of culture and technical knowledge, will be greatly advanced.

But what of the folks at home? Will the families of these men have fallen so far behind them as to be uncongenial? This question is with the Home Service workers whenever they visit the household of an enlisted man.

One Red Cross worker happened to learn that the husband of a woman whom she was helping had been made a sergeant. The news caused her to realize the difference between his opportunities and those of his wife. He was learning to lead other men; he was taking advantage of the education which the camp was giving him. She, on the other hand, could not speak or write English; the family lived in an undesirable neighborhood; the children were allowed to be irregular in their school attendance; the housekeeping was poor. If the man were to return to such a family he might become discouraged and lose all he had gained. His home life might be a failure.

The Red Cross worker helped the family to move to another neighborhood; she began teaching the mother better standards of housekeeping, and arranged that she should receive lessons in the English language; she saw to it that the children went to school regularly. If