Woodrow Wilson to Newton D. Baker
Title
Woodrow Wilson to Newton D. Baker
Creator
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
Identifier
WWP25137
Date
1918 August 27
Description
YMCA volunteers are kept from service in Europe because of the complications of giving them security clearance.
Source
Library of Congress, Woodrow Wilson Papers
Publisher
Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum
Subject
World War, 1914-1918--United States
Young Men's Christian associations
Contributor
Danna Faulds
Relation
WWP25136
WWP25138
Language
English
Provenance
Document scan was taken from Library of Congress microfilm reel of the Wilson Papers. WWPL volunteers transcribed the text.
Text
My dear Baker:
As the enclosed letter recites, the Young Men’s Christian Association is short of the men and women it absolutely needs on the other side of the water, not because they have not the men and women ready to go, but because of a duplication of authority in the matter of looking into the antecedents and loyalty and what not of the people they want to send. The YMCA authorities themselves look into these matters very carefully and scrupulously, and then it seems the Intelligence Department of the Army, and perhaps the Navy also, look into them. This tangle of threads ought surely to be cut, and the people waiting to go ought to be allowed to go if the YMCA authorities confidently vouch for them, and you will note that there is a particular opportunity for a lot of them to go next Monday who might not be able to go for a long time afterwards. Won’t you give instructions which will cut the threads and, if necessary, put those to whom you give the instructions in touch with the Navy and with the Department of State?
Cordially and faithfully yours,
[Woodrow Wilson]
Hon. Newton D. Baker,
Secretary of War.
Enclosure.
As the enclosed letter recites, the Young Men’s Christian Association is short of the men and women it absolutely needs on the other side of the water, not because they have not the men and women ready to go, but because of a duplication of authority in the matter of looking into the antecedents and loyalty and what not of the people they want to send. The YMCA authorities themselves look into these matters very carefully and scrupulously, and then it seems the Intelligence Department of the Army, and perhaps the Navy also, look into them. This tangle of threads ought surely to be cut, and the people waiting to go ought to be allowed to go if the YMCA authorities confidently vouch for them, and you will note that there is a particular opportunity for a lot of them to go next Monday who might not be able to go for a long time afterwards. Won’t you give instructions which will cut the threads and, if necessary, put those to whom you give the instructions in touch with the Navy and with the Department of State?
Cordially and faithfully yours,
[Woodrow Wilson]
Hon. Newton D. Baker,
Secretary of War.
Enclosure.
Original Format
Letter
To
Baker, Newton Diehl, 1871-1937
Files
Collection
Citation
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924, “Woodrow Wilson to Newton D. Baker,” 1918 August 27, WWP25137, World War I Letters, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.