Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 133, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 June 1916 — CITIZENS WILL SPEND MILLIONS TO LEARN WAR [ARTICLE]

CITIZENS WILL SPEND MILLIONS TO LEARN WAR

50,000 Are Expected to Attend Various Training Camps This Summer. TWO DIVISIONS FOR JUNIORS Plattsburg Alone Will Have 20,000 Recruits—Applications for Seven Posts In Other Parts of the Country Total a Like Number—May Win Commissions.

New York. —Business and professional men of the country are planning to spend more than $3,000,000 out of their own pockets and a month or longer away from their offices so that they and their sons may learn something about military affairs and be ready to serve the United States In the event of warr More than 50,000 American business and professional men and their sons will attend the military training camps this summer under the direction of the war department at their own expense, showing they are so much in favor of preparedness that they are willing to make great personal sacrifices. Each course at the various camps covers a period of about a month. “ To most of them it means they will have to give up vacations which might be spent at a mountain or seashore resort and put in four weeks at hard, Intensive work studying military science instead of loafing and getting a rest. None of the military camps will be a place for a man looking for a rest, and the officers in charge have made this known to all applicants. 20,000 Expected at Plattsburg. But this has in no way dampened the enthusiasm of the prospective student soldiers. About 20,000 applicants for the seven camps to be held under

Registration for the Piatwnurg camp, where five sessions will be held, has reached 8,000, and the committee is confident the number of recruits will be in the neighborhood of 20,000. The Plattsburg camp will be conducted by the department of the East, U. S. A., which also has charge of the work at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. The camp will be open until August 8, tlinee sessions being held. There are dents taking courses in the present session, and the total enrollment for the three is estimated at more than 3,000. The western department will have charge of three camps. They will be aj Monterey, Cal.; Salt Lake City, Utah, and American Lake, Wash. One session will be held at each of these camps, the dates being set as follows: Monterey, July 10 to August 5; Salt Lake City, August 21 to September 16; American Lake, August 14 to September 9. It is estimated that 11,000 men will attend the three camps. At Salt Lake City 2,000 students have been receiving instructions from regular army officers for more than a month.

Camps in Middle and Southwest. The central department will conduct a camp at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, Ind., and the southern department one at San Antonio, Tex. Three sessions will be held at Fort Benjamin Harrison, from July 6 to October v 5. The middle West is now taking great Interest in the camps. Business men in Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis and other cities are working with the committees in charge of enlistment, and from present indications about 8,000 men will attend the sessions at Fort Harrison. In view of present conditions along the border, the southwest is also taking much interest in the training camp at San Antonio. One session, running from June 12 to July 8, will be held there. It is predicted that at least 3,000 will enroll, with the likelihood of the number reaching 5,000. Plattsburg, the original training camp, will be kept open until October 5. So great is the interest taken in the Plattsburg camp that many big business houses and corporations are allowing their employees to take a month off with full pay if they enroll. The same offer is being made by corporations In most of the big cities of the country. Men from every state in the Union will attend the sessions at Plattsburg. Every student who attends a training camp will have to deposit S3O upon his arrival. Of this $5 is a deposit on government equipment to guard the United States against damage which may be done to its property. The other $25 is to pay for the recruit’s board and lodging. The only other expense the recruit will have will be $ll.BO for his uniform, exclusive of shoes, which will bring the cost of his outfit to a little more than sls. Men May Win Commissions.

Transportation expenses will also have to be paid by the recruit. These, with a few minor charges, will make the cost of a month in the opem approximately S6O per man. The majority of the men enrolling for work in the training camps are college gradiktes or students, and army officers map out the courses of Instruction so as to prepare the students for commissions in a volunteer army in the event of war. . So successful was the intensive method of study at Plattsburg last year that many army men hold the opinion that those who took the course are fairly well equipped soldiers now. The first training camps frere held in 1913 and were started by undergraduates of the colleges. The movement gradually grew until last year the business and professional men’s camp at Plattsburg was attended by 1,800 men. College men, professional

men, bankers, merchants, and city, state and national officials rubbed elbows with men who work for a daily wage. Two Camps for Juniors. One of ‘the camps at Plattsburg will be for juniors, youths from eighteen to twenty-one. But the demand for admittance to the junior camp by those not yet eighteen has been so great that a subjunior camp Is to be opened for those between fifteen and eighteen years. This camp is a subdivision of the Plattsburg camps and will be run on exactly similar lines under the supervision of regular army officers. It is to be held at Fort Terry, on Plum island, near Greenport, Long Island, which is a government coast artillery post. Here an opportunity will be given to learn the workings of the heavy coast artillery, an opportunity obviously not available at Plattsburg. Although this Fort Terry camp is a recent development, already enrollments have been received from the following high schools: Montclair, Glen Ridge, New Rochelle, Yonkers, Englewood, Erasmus, Manual Training, Regis, Hartford, Dalton, Hughes, and Mount Vernon and from such private schools as Lawrenceville, Virginia Military academy, St. Paul’s, Andover, Newark academy, Polytechnic and Worcester academy. Apart from the military work there will be plenty of time at Fort Terry for recreation, and the facilities for baseball, swimming and other sports are excellent.

Expense to Juniors. The expense at the junior and subjunior camps, exclusive of transportation and the uniform, will be $22.50. This sum covers board, camp expenses and ammunition. The government loans tents, cots, pillows, mattresses, pouches, sweaters and ordnance as at the senior camps. About 2,000 boys are expected to be at Fort Terry. The course will extend from July 6 to August 10. Another camp for schoolboys will also be held in this state. It will be located at the Infantry School of Application at Peekskill and will be conducted by National Guard officers. High school boys are eligible to attend. The camp will be open from August 9 to September 9, and boys can spend the entire four weeks there or take a two weeks’ course. Board will be fifty cents a day per boy. About 2,000 boys will attend, it is expected.