Welfare Work During World War I

During World War I, branches of the Red Cross, YMCA & YWCA, and Salvation Army from across the U.S. collaborated with the Army and Navy to provide aid to service members. The work of Minnesotan volunteers not only maintained morale at the front but also provided a bridge of support between those overseas and their loved ones back home.

Welfare agencies played a vital part in supporting the American war effort both at home and abroad. Lacking sufficient resources of their own, the military relied upon welfare workers to sustain troop morale throughout all stages of the conflict by offering relief, comfort, and recreational activities. The three groups with the greatest impact were the American Red Cross, the Young Men’s and Women’s Christian Association (YMCA & YWCA), and the Salvation Army.

As soon as the U.S. joined the war in 1917, the Red Cross provided support. It recruited volunteers from all walks of life and all parts of Minnesota. They signed up as clerical workers, business administrators, warehouse workers, nurses, social workers, canteen workers, drivers, and entertainers. The military looked to the Red Cross to provide extra supplies, equipment, and personnel.

On the Minnesota home front, Red Cross volunteers assisted displaced persons after the Cloquet, Duluth, and Moose Lake Fires of 1918. Lawrence Clark, a University of Minnesota student turned Red Cross volunteer, worked as a driver, delivering clothing and supplies to fire victims left homeless. Arriving in Moose Lake in late October, Clark sensed a “general air…of depression, devastation, and isolation.” He spent the following day as the lead procession driver for several funerals. By 1919, 6,728 residents of the state had sought assistance from the Red Cross.

Commonly called the Y, the Young Men’s (and Women’s) Christian Association went to war confident it could deliver the same level of service it had provided during America’s previous conflicts. A Minneapolis Tribune report celebrated the Y’s success in supporting General John Pershing’s Punitive Expedition (also called the Pancho Villa Expedition) along the U.S.–Mexican border in 1916. The article heralded the planned construction of YMCA facilities near military training areas within the metro area, including one at Fort Snelling.

Recruiters seeking experienced volunteers for the Y sometimes competed with other welfare groups. In other instances, volunteers moved between organizations. Minneapolis resident Gladys Eloise Vaughan worked for the Red Cross in her home town before traveling to France to be a canteen worker for the Y. She rejoined the Red Cross five months later when they discovered her training in biology. They sent her to Poland, where she worked as a bacteriologist.

Volunteers like Vaughan were among the first women in American history to be actively recruited to provide wartime support. The women’s branch of the Y also played a vital role in supporting the needs of women in uniform serving overseas. It provided designated “huts” for women to relax and recuperate. In addition to offering recreational, vocational, and entertainment activities, the Y managed the military’s Post Exchange (commonly referred to as the Canteen) at the request of General John J. Pershing.

Reverend William Rosecrans Palmer, a Methodist pastor from Jackson, Minnesota, reported in September 1917 to Fort Snelling, where he worked as a building secretary. In May 1918, the Y sent him overseas to France, where he served in both the 77th and 37th divisions. Over a period of twenty months, he served as a religious work director. On one occasion in July, he assisted medics with loading the wounded into ambulances.

The Y promoted Benjamin Nathan Murrell, an African American pastor from St. Paul’s Pilgrim Baptist Church, through its ranks multiple times. By June 1919, he had worked as a religious secretary on the front lines with the 369th Infantry Regiment (Harlem Hell-Fighters) and as a regional secretary at various points near the western front. In his last position, Murrell directed the operations of 4,000 African American volunteers charged with burying all deceased Americans who had been involved in the war, both black and white, in national cemeteries.

Like Murrell’s unit and the U.S. Army in general, most welfare organizations during World War I were segregated by race. The Y designated some huts “whites only” and prevented African Americans from entering. Discrimination also affected women of all races. Many welfare groups blocked them from leadership roles, though they made up the majority of the groups’ membership.

Alice Swenson, an eventual resident of Delhi, Minnesota, traveled to Brest, France, during her term of service with the Y. When she arrived, however, she and other volunteers struggled to find accommodations. In response, Swenson and other Y staff arranged stays in “hostess houses”—homes that took in female welfare workers who could not find rooms in local hotels and homes. May Schultz, an Army Nurse from Minneapolis, and 200 of her coworkers also struggled to find housing after arriving in Brest and worked without toilet facilities. Conditions improved after they reached Alsace–Lorraine by train.

Acknowledging the Y’s shortcomings, Y volunteer C. Arthur Carlson, a teacher from Minneapolis, observed after the war that too many welfare agencies were connected to the army. He argued that one well-organized body should be placed in charge. These observations proved to be prophetic. By 1941, the United Service Organization (USO) had incorporated the various welfare organizations into one body that would see to the needs of military staff and their families.

The agency with the smallest footprint and the greatest impact was the Salvation Army. The organization adhered to the basics of providing aid and comfort. Paperwork and bureaucracy took a back seat to addressing needs and delivering service. Volunteers provided soldiers’ urgent needs first; spiritual counseling followed only if the soldier made an inquiry.

In 1919, after the war had ended, Adjutant Charles Nelson and his wife, Anna, organized the Salvation Army Hostel in St. Paul. The two Scandinavian Americans attended to discharged servicemen seeking housing and counseling. Anna personally lobbied the state on behalf of veterans, requesting that they receive military bonuses for their efforts.

Duluth resident and Salvation Army worker Anna Swenson followed the Army’s First Division to Cantigny and to subsequent actions at Chateau-Thierry, St. Mihiel, and the Meuse-Argonne. At first, she served doughnuts to the soldiers near the clearing stations. As fighting intensified, she was pressed into service providing first-aid.

In April 1918, five months after the end of the war, a Minnesota War Records Commission convened to gather evidence of Minnesotans’ experience in the conflict. With the Minnesota Historical Society, the commission collected the wartime recollections of the former volunteers of various welfare agencies.