Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 153, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 July 1919 — LIEUTENATN SPITLER IN NEW YORK—HOME SOON. [ARTICLE]

LIEUTENATN SPITLER IN NEW YORK—HOME SOON.

Mrs. Woodhull Spitler, of this city, received a telephone message from New York City Monday evening from her husband, Lieut. Spitler, who had just arrived from Russia on the Von Steuben with the 339th infantry, with which he left Oatmp Custer, Mich., early in 1918. Morning papers carried an account of the arrival of the 339th, and Mrs. Spitler was greatly relieved to learn of his arrival, having begun to fear that he had 'been detained in Europe when no word came from him during the day. Lieutenant Spitler spent many months in Russia fighting the Bolsheviki and perhaps had the most varied career of any soldier who left Jasper county. Recently he was decorated with the Croix de Guerre for bravery shown in action. He stated to Mrs. Spitler that he would arrive in Camp Custer July 4th and that he expected to be discharged atf that cantonment within a very short time following his arrival. . , The following extract is taken from a New York dispatch telling of the arrival of the 339th: Most of the British soldiers who were in Russia before the armistice were unfit for front Ijne duty. They were either wounded veterans or limited service men. The result was that the lone regiment of Yanks had to bear the brunt of the fighting whale the majority of the British, Russians and French were in the rear. To make matters worse, according to the men, they were underfed. Major Nichols said the food was sufficient to maintain health, but that the men were hungry most of the time. The rations were up to the British standards, but far under American. The .British daily rations as supplied consisted of one pound can of a mixture of vegetables and meat, or a can of “bully beef,” six hard tack cakes, one-half ounce of tea, two ounces of rice or meal, four ounces of salt pork and a thimbleful of lime juice. There were no fresh meats or vegetables, and the men assert that dried vegetables were often spoiled and the rice and the meal moldy. They brought back samples of the canned meat and hardtack. The latter looked like crumbled stones in ruined French villages. It was tasteless and impossible to masticate until soaked. The canned meat was far inferior to American varieties. The same ration was issued to the British soldiers, but the company quartermasters in. the English regiments had a fund for foraging the surrounding country and they Purchased chickens and game. The British also received a daily ration of rum and ale. Americans weren’t allowed liquor because of the order against taking intoxicating drinks into any American army camp. With the temperature half a century below zero, combined with the long rides in unseated boxcars from billets to the front lines, the soldiers felt a little grog would not have hurt them. Oh, yes, these imen who came ibalck are going to have a lot more things to say whdn they get back into civvies. In the meantime, the night is dragging while they wait for dawn,- deck and the soil of God s country again. Ever since .September 5, 191», they had been fighting in Russia against .the Reds. T>vo hundred of their pals are burned under the snow and swatnps; hundreds of others were wounded or suffered the agonies of frozen hands and feet. The temperature was often 50 below

Sixty per cent of the men who won’t come? 'back were killed after the armistice was signed. Every one of the returning men seemed to feel that he had been used to pull British chestnuts out of the fire. - . . . .j They didn’t have the faintest idea what they were fighting for. (Neither did Maj. J. Brooks Nichols, Detroit millionaire, who returned in command of the detachment on the Von Steuben. Apparently Col. Stewart didn’t know, either, for he wasn’t able to the reason when the trotops prottesti ed weeks ago against being sent back into the line again. Scores who crowded around announced that they ask Senator Hiram Johnson, who has championed their cause, to demand a full investigation of the entire Russian situation. Hundreds of the men who came back tonight are victims of trench feet, and will never be the men they were when they wept overseas to fight Germans, as they thought.