During the summer of 1918, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, the poetess, went to France to write and also to help entertain the soldiers with talks and recitations. While at one of the large camps in Southern France, the important work of the colored stevedore came to her notice and she was moved to write a poem which follows:
THE STEVEDORES
We are the Army Stevedores, lusty and virile and strong.
We are given the hardest work of the war, and the hours are long.
We handle the heavy boxes and shovel the dirty coal;
While soldiers and sailors work in the light, we burrow below like a mole.
But somebody has to do this work or the soldiers could not fight!
And whatever work is given a man is good if he does it right.
We are the Army Stevedores, and we are volunteers.
We did not wait for the draft to come, and put aside our fears.
We flung them away to the winds of fate at the very first call of our land.
And each of us offered a willing heart, and the strength of a brawny hand.
We are the Army Stevedores, and work we must and may,
The cross of honor will never be ours to proudly wear and sway.
But the men at the front could not be there, and the battles could not be won.
If the stevedores stopped in their dull routine and left their work undone.
Somebody has to do this work; be glad that it isn't you.
We are the Army Stevedores—give us our due.
CHAPTER XXVI.
UNSELFISH WORKERS IN THE VINEYARD.
MITIGATED THE HORRORS OF WAR—AT THE FRONT, BEHIND THE LINES, AT HOME—CIRCLE FOR NEGRO WAR RELIEF—ADDRESSED AND PRAISED BY ROOSEVELT—A NOTABLE GATHERING—COLORED Y.M.C.A. WORK—UNSULLIED RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT—HOW THE "Y" CONDUCTED BUSINESS—SECRETARIES ALL SPECIALISTS—NEGRO WOMEN IN "Y" WORK—VALOR OF A NON-COMBATANT.
Negroes in America are justly proud of their contributions to war relief agencies and to the financial and moral side of the war. The millions of dollars worth of Liberty Bonds and War Savings stamps which they purchased were not only a great aid to the government in prosecuting the war, but have been of distinct benefit to the race in the establishing of savings funds among many who never were thrifty before. Thousands have been started on the road to prosperity by the business ideas inculcated in that manner. Their donations to the Red Cross, the Y.M.C.A. and kindred groups were exceptionally generous.
An organization which did an immense amount of good and which was conducted almost entirely by Negro patriots, although they had a number of white people as officers and advisers, was the "Circle for Negro War Relief," which had its headquarters in New York City.
At a great meeting at Carnegie Hall, November 2, 1918, the Circle was addressed by the late Theodore Roosevelt. On the platform also as speakers were Emmett J. Scott, Irvin Cobb, Marcel Knecht, French High Commissioner to the United States; Dr. George E. Haynes, Director of Negro Economics, Department of Labor; Mrs. Adah B. Thorns, Superintendent of Nurses at Lincoln hospital, and Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois, who presided.
Mr. Roosevelt reminded his hearers that when he divided the Nobel Peace Prize money among the war charities he had awarded to the Circle for Negro War Relief a sum equal to those assigned to the Y.M.C.A., the Knights of Columbus, and like organizations.