D 570 
.36 
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Copy 1 



The 
Call of 
Commumty 
Service 



V.^r\«nr,<y--^ r- 



''yr 



A 



S the third edition of this booklet goes to press, it is grati- 
fying to note that the idlest dreams Americans had ven- 
tured concerning the date the war would he won materialized 
with the virtual surrender of Germany on Monday^ 
November 11,1918. 

The need for War Camp Community Service will not 
end so long as it is necessary for the United States to 
maintain her armed military and naval forces. The 
Playground and Recreation Association of America plans 
to continue this Red Circle Service as long as it is needed. 

And as the army and navy are diminished to peace 
time dimensions, this organization will become available 
for increased service directly to civilian conimunities. 

It is hoped, therefore, that the change in title on the cover 
of this edition and the added paragraphs on page ^7 will 
lead the reader to make his own inferences regarding itie 
value of the Red Circle Service in the peace time develop- 
ment of the recreational life of American communities. 



Cover design through the courtesy of Hoggson Magazine 
Photograph by Arthur D. Chapman 



War Camp Community 
Service Calls 

By Robert Bertrand Brown 



With Illustrations 

By Phillip^s Ward 



War Camp Community Service 

One Madison Avenue 

New York 

1919 



Form No. 19A~3-200M. 



USTO ' 
Officers ,2iT 

Honorary President 

Theodore Roosevelt 

President 

Joseph Lee 

Second Vice-President Third Vice-President 

William Kent Robert Garrett 

Treasurer Secretary 

Gustavus T. Kirby H. S. Braucher 

Budget Committee 
Horace E. Andrews Myron T. Herrick 
Clarence M. Clark Joseph Lee 
Henry W. De Forest Charles D. Norton 



War Camp Community Service is Conducted 
for the War and Navy Departments Com- 
missions on Training Camp Activities 

[2] 



?x 



Table of Contents 

I The Origin of War Camp Community 

Service 5 

II The Problem of War Camp Com- 
munity Service 9 

III The Work of War Camp Community 

Service 13 

Community Service 
Community Hospitality 
Community Recreation 
Community Organization 
Community Betterment 

IV The Call of War Camp Community 

Service 47 



[3] 



® 



F helping the fighter make wholesome use of his leisure f 
by putting before him in the communities where his 
duty calls him adequate substitutes for those necessities 
and comforts of life of whi^h he is depriving himself and 
of which he is being deprived — in a word, by serving him 
through War Camp Community Service, the civilian is 
armoring him with contentment, confidence, and conse^ 
oration to the common cause — that trio of essentials to a 
triumphant morale, lacking which empire after empire 
has been wiped from the pages of human history. 

War Camp Community Sbrvicb Calls ! 



ui 



The Origin of War Camp 
Community Service 

Chapter One 

IN the summer of 1916, Secretary Baker 
sent Raymond B. Fosdick as a special 
agent of the War Department to study 
the environment of our troops stationed 
on the Mexican border. Mr. Fosdick found 
five thousand soldiers encamped at Columbus, 
New Mexico, with "absolutely nothing in the 
town that could in any way amuse them. 
There were no moving picture shows; no 
places where they could write letters; no 
library facilities of any kind; no home to 
which they could go — absolutely nothing at 
all except a very well-run red-light district, 
and a few saloons." 

This investigation officially convinced the 
Government that there was a war camp com- 
munity problem. 

When the United States launched her war 
program against Germany, War Canip Coin-- 
munity Service became the official answer to 
that problem. 

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WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

The War Department Commission on Train- 
ing Camp Activities was appointed by Secretary- 
Newton D. Baker in April, 191 7. The Navy 
Department Commission on Training Camp 
Activities was estabhshed by Secretary Josephus 
Daniels three months later. Raymond B. 
Fosdick became Chairman of both. 

These Commissions called on the Playground 
and Recreation Association of America to carry 
on their work in the communities outside and 
adjoining the camps under the official name of 
War Camp Community Service. 

War Camp Community Service was asked to 
coordinate into a definite and ordered program 
the resources of the war camp community, to 
supplement these resources with others from 
the folks back home, and to temper the whole 
into a wholesome nation-wide movement for 
hospitality, keyed to harmonize with the 
training camp program of the War and Navy 
Departments. 

The Playground and Recreation Association 
of America, through years of experience, had 
been helping civilian communities do just this 
sort of thing for themselves. This organization 
was ready for service. It had only to get these 

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W^AR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



communities — together with those designated 
by military and naval necessity — to do those 
things for the soldiers and sailors which they 
were .doing for themselves. It sent its own 
trained community organizers into these war 
camp communities. 

Within a month, it had the United States 
covered with a network of local committees, 
each in the vicinity of a military or naval 
training station. 

By the end of May, 1917, War Camp Com- 
munity Service was a vital organism. 
That it is not better known is due 
to the unostentatious method it chose 
for making the civilian popula- 
tion of America responsive and 
responsible to its opportunity. 




a 



NCOORDINATED, the best intended expressions of pop- 
ular welcome to the soldier and sailor lose themselves in 
a maze of conflicting ends. Community effort must be 
organized to be effective. The task is national. It is 
quasi-governmental. It calls for military and naval direc- 
tion of the nation*s mobilized hospitality resources^ not 
adjacent to one concentration camp or to a dozen, but 
extended to the furthest foot of American soil, where sol- 
diers and sailors are likely to seek relaxation and service. 



[8] 



The Problem of War Camp 
Community Service 

Chapter Two 

OVER two hundred camps, cantonments 
I and training stations are maintained 
f to prepare the men entering the mili- 
tary and naval service of the United 
States to bear their part in the nation's defense 
at home and abroad. These stations are 
equipped to train thousands of men at one time. 
Military and naval policy permits enlisted 
men to leave camp now and then in order that 
they may ease the strain and relax from the 
rigors of military routine and discipline. It 
recognizes the desirability of permitting friends 
and relatives to visit these men, when adequate 
facilities are available for their accommodation 
in near-camp communities. 

On leave, the fighter seeks contact with the 
human side of life. He goes to town. Whether 
his visits are an asset or a liability in his train- 
ing depends largely on what he does while 
there. And what he does is limited by what 
there is to do. 

The Government's hurried establishment of 

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WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



army camps and 
naval training sta- 
tions over the coun- 
try, threw many 
American com- 
munities into tur- 
moil. Some towns 
saw their transient 
populations in 
crease as much as 
i,ooo per cent, 
over night. Fre- 
quently they 
lacked the power 
of controlling unde- 
sirable conditions 
and the means to provide enough desirable 
ones. Low-grade entertainment and open vice 
lost no time gaining a foothold where communi- 
ties were unorganized and inattentive. Many 
towns had no public rest rooms or information 
bureaus, comfort stations or drinking fountains. 
The street comer provided the only place 
where a lonesome soldier could meet a com- 
panion. 

Some localities faced critical problems of sani- 
tation, of transportation and of feeding and hous- 
ing their greatly increased floating populations. 

. [lo] 




ill 



WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



And funds were not sufficient to remedy these 
conditions. Boom towns in the West passed 
through these stages and eventually patched out 
their economic and social salvation. But they 
took years in doing it. There were no years 
ahead of these war camp communities. The 
Allies were waiting for America ! Military neces- 
sity dictated that these conditions be made 
adequate immediately. 

War Camp Community Service went to the 
assistance of these towns. -..=r^-=:r^ 

This service is now extended 
to some six hun- 



^^„ CO, 5 - iTr-yrt:i; 



dred communi- 
ties adjacent to 
training camps 
and stations, ex- 
pressing their 
hospitality to a 
transient popu- 
lation of soldiers, 
sailors, marines, 
and visiting 
civilians, the to- 
tal of which 
would run well 
into the millions. 




HAT WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE means 
war camp community betterment, is a reiteration, A 
town cannot attempt to became a good home town to a 
large crowd of transients from all manner of places with- 
out bringing into its own environment the best features 
existent in these visitors* home communities. 



["1 



The Work of War Camp 
Community Service 

Chapter Three 

WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERV- 
ICE attacks the problem of serving 
the soldier and sailor and their guests 
from five angles. It gives to the aim 
divulged in its title, namely, community service, 
the widest possible interpretation. First, it 
extends community service in the strict sense of 
the word. Further, it fosters community hospi- 
tality and community recreation. Its adminis- 
trative tool is community organization^ and its 
certain by-product, community betterment. 

Community Service 

It is doubtful whether Any-Camp-Town will 
ever revert to its small town ways of answering 
the thousand and one questions of the traveUng 
public. Not even if the camp were moved or 
abolished. And there is no immediate Ukeli- 
hood of this. 

In the average town of fifteen thousand, each 
citizen constitutes himself an information secre- 
tary, and finds his store of hearsay knowledge 
adequate to any ordinary demand. The annual 

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WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

visit of Sells Floto's Greatest 
Shows on Earth or of the Dream- 
land Street Carnival heralds in 
new sets of incidents and un- 
anticipated queries which may 
stump him. Instead of the 
familiar: "Which way is it to 
the Commercial House?'* he is 
likely to be confronted with 
"What time is the fellow going 
to make the high dive?'* And 
it is humiliating to the average 
citizen of a small town to be 
uninformed regarding even such 
minor happenings within his own commu- 
nity. On an occasional circus day, or during 
a five-day carnival stand, he may bluff it 
through or make a full confession of his 
ignorance, but not so when every* sunrise is the 
harbinger of a Fourth of July. 

For that is just what it is — now, in the camp 
towns! Military bands, scores of them! Pa- 
rades, daily and sometimes twice and thrice 
daily. All the more exciting, because unan- 
nounced! Horses, wagons, cannon, machine 
guns, armored automobiles, flying flags, pitched 
tents, rows after rows of barracks, and all 
manned by men in uniform. 

Is it any wonder that a town (whose thorough- 
fares are always crowded by the visit of a circus) 

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vV-AI CAMP COMMUNITY SERV?^CE CALLS 



SI idenly becomes the mecca for thousands upon 
thousands of visitors, when train after train 
ushers in fresh troops to encamp for training 
in the National Army — each with its separate 
bands, and each with its separate sets of equip- 
ment ? That John Doe, the circus visitor, brings 
a different self — a sightseeing, business, patri- 
otic or, perchance, son-admiring self — to see the 
camp, does not matter. The point is, John 
comes! He is confronted by an entirely new 
situation in his own and in the community's life. 
To him, the routine surrounding the camp is 
complex, as it is to many a civilian and soldier 
Hving in the community and in the camp. He 
is at sea, until he consults someone who knows. 

And Mr. Average Citizen, thanks to the 
War Camp Community Serv- 
ice of Any-C amp-Town, can 
now refer him to 
someone who knows . 

There are in the 
railway stations, in 
churches and schools, 
in the corridors of 
public buildings, and 
in booths along the 
sidewalks of Any- 
C amp-Town, in- 
formation secre- 
taries, whose duties 




WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



are to make themselves useful to anyone — 
soldier, sailor, marine or civilian — ^who presents 
himself or herself at the desk. From early- 
morning until late night, these versatile com- 
munity intelligence dispensers consult, inform 

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WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

and advise; consult, inform, and advise; con- 
sult, inform and advise. 

An observation of one of them in action 
shows the versatility of their opportunities for 
service. 

"I am Lieutenant Thorley. I am expecting my mother 
to call me from Dayton at 9 o'clock. I must leave for 
Columbus on this train. Will you please take this dollar 
and pzy for the call and tell mother I will meet her at 
the tJnion Station in Columbus tomorrow morning at 



11:40 



?» 



'Certainly," repHes the information secretary, refunding 
the change for the soldier's anticipated telephone bill. 
**War Camp Community Service will attend to that." 



"Is this the train to Washington?" asks an elderly 
woman struggling beneath a hat-box, a hand-bag, a huge 
basket and a bouquet of wild flowers. 

"I came through here to see my son 
at camp, and found he was transferred 
yesterday. I want to 
be sure I don't miss 
the train to Washing- 
ton. I am going up to 
see my daughter. She 
has been married seven 
months, and I haven't 
seen her since." 

"Do you wish to go 
toWashington,D.C.?" 
interrupts the informa- 
tion secretary. 

"Oh, no, to Washing- 
ton Court House." 

"Well, you have 
about seven hours to 




WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

wait. Your train does not leave until half-past four this 
afternoon. Take that rocker over there, and make your- 
self at home. Have you seen the morning paper?" 



Through the telephone: "Yes, I have it. Mr. Smith's 
son is very ill at the Base Hospital. You want Mr. 
Smith there immediately.** 

"Lady, can you tell us where we can get a room?" 
interrupts an impatient inquirer who stands before the 
desk. 

*T shall try to locate him,'* says the secretary, hanging 
up the receiver. 

"Mr. Jackson, will you please try to Ipcate Mr. Smith 
in the crowd off the incoming train, and direct him here. 
His son is very low at the hospital.*' 

A smile on the military policeman's face conveys his 
willingness to cooperate. 

"Now! About your room. If you will take this card 
up to the Court House, the information secretary in the 
corridor there will be glad to help you find a room. The 
service is free of charge." 

"This is not your train, mother,*' she hastens to inform 
the elderly lady with the hat-box and the bouquet, who 
had rushed pell-mell from her seat as a train pulls into 
the station. 

"You have over six hours to wait yet.*' 



Through the telephone: "It is very hard to hear. A 
train is just leaving the station. You want me to locate 
Private Murray here, and tell him that his father and 
mother are there; that they came by automobile instead 
of on the train as he expected ?" 

"All right, I'll do the best I can." 



A middle-aged man and his wife appear at the desk. 
They had been waiting for an opportune moment. 

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WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

"Can you get anyone at camp by telephone?" the 
woman queries. 

"We have been out to see our boy. He is to be sent 
away very soon. I could not bear to tell him good-bye 
a while ago, for fear I would break down. So I told 
him we would see him again. But we must go home. 
I thought if I could tell him good-bye over the phone, 
he would never know how badly I feel." 

Any-Camp is called. The father and mother each have 
a farewell talk with the son. 

"You can never know what it meant to hear his voice 
say 'Good-bye, mother.' I shall always remember your 
kindness." The woman's countenance had suddenly be- 
come radiant with the courage of sacrifice. 

An incoming train changes the scene. Another crowd 
scurries forth into the various channels of Any-Camp- 
Town Hfe. New faces appear at the desk. 



If War Camp Community Service did nothing 
else but act as an information bureau for soldiers 
and sailors and their civilian friends, it would be 
performing a worth-while task. But this is 
only where its work begins. 

War Camp Community Service has issued a 
million or more booklets describing the worth- 
while places near America's military and naval 
training stations. These bulletins are designed 
to tell where Any-C amp-Town is, and to out- 
line its claims to fame. They list the clubs for 
enlisted men, throw in a few words about local 
entertainments and dances, catalogue the 
churches and the hotels, and contain a para- 
graph or two about lodging facilities. In short, 

[19] 



WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



they tell the en- 
listed man just 
what he wants to 
know ahout Any- 
Camp-Town and 
tell him right 
away. 

War Camp 
Community Serv- 
ice has opened 
hotels and lodg- 
ing houses in 
many American 
communities. In 
some instances 
hotels already in 
operation have been 
taken over, modernized 
and opened under the management of this or- 
ganization. In other instances, hotel manage- 
ments have cut their rates for the men in the 
service. For example, a large hostelry in a 
California coast town provides a room and 
bath to men in uniform for fifty cents a night. 
It serves them food in the grill at cost, and wel- 
comes them to its swimming pool at twelve 
cents a plunge. Social functions are held at 
the hotel for enlisted men under the supervision 
of the local War Camp Community Service. 
For these, the hotel provides music gratis. 

[20] 




WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



The New York War Camp Community Serv- 
ice operates hotels exclusively for enlisted men. 
One provides eight hundred beds with bath at 
twenty-five cents a night. Its reception room 
and reading, writing, billiard and pool rooms 
are used to the utmost. One point of particular 
interest about this hotel is that much of the 
furniture in its main corridors was confiscated 
by the Government from German ocean liners 
interned in the New York harbor at the out- 
break of the war. 

Where the need has created the demand, War 
Camp Community Service has opened dormi- 
tories and cafeterias in connection with its clubs . 
for soldiers and sailors. Here comfortable beds 
with bath are provided to enlisted men at prices 
ranging from twenty-five to fifty cents a night. 

The club cafeterias serve good food to en- 
listed men at under-the-market prices. Con- 
sider, for example, the chocolate-covered soup- 
dishful of homemade ice cream served at seven 
cents a helping to men in uniform in the cafe- 
teria of the Kansas City War Camp Community 
Service Club. It is a veritable Vesuvius of 
delight as compared 
with the win-the-war- 
for-fifteen-cents size now 
traditional among civil- 
ian confectioners! 

In towns whose hotel 



[21] 




WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 




and lodging 
house accom- 
modations are 
over-taxed, 
War Camp 
Community 
Service man- 
ages agencies 
for placing 
transients in 
spare roonis. 
When an en- 
listed man de- 
sires accommo- 
dations for his visiting friends and relatives 
he finds the door of War Camp Community- 
Service an entrance into the best homes in the 
community. 

"What's the charge for this service?*' is the 
frequent inquiry. 

"No charge at all" is the invariable response. 
When the enlisted man and his civilian friends 
first went to camp, transportation in some of the 
adjoining towns was offered in anything on 
wheels and at whatever figure the elasticity of 
the driver's conscience and the willingness 
of the rider's purse perrhitted. The street 
hawking rivaled that at Coney Island on a 
lucrative Saturday night. Panicky traffic was 
the result. 



[22] 



WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

By securing the cooperation of the military 
police and of the local city officials, War Camp 
Community Service changed this condition 
over night. One middle western camp town 
decided to limit its issue of taxicab licenses to 
seven-passenger cars. It set the cab fare at 
twenty-five cents from town to camp, and es- 
tablished a ten-cent bus line. The loading and 
starting of cars was placed in entire charge of 
the military police. 

Community HospitaUty 

A Colonel in command of fifteen hundred 
deserters at Fort Leavenworth decided recently 
to learn the reasons his prisoners would give for 
fool-heartedly risking their military reputations 
for the sake of a few hours' leave. 

He commissioned five men to conduct the 
inquiry. 

"Are you ready to make your report on the 
cause for desertions?'' the Colonel asked the 
spokesman, on his return. 

"Yes sir," he replied. 

"Your first reason," questioned the Col- 
onel. 

"We find, sir, that the main reason for de- 
sertion in the army is homesickness.'* 

"Your other reasons," anticipated the officer. 

"The other reasons are unimportant, sir." 

"Do you mean to say that the reason the 

[23] 



WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



men desert from the army 
is because they get home- 
sick?" 

**Yes, sir," replied the 
soldier, "it is the longing 
for home, and for home 
comforts and companion- 
ships that causes xle- 
sertion." 

To make Any-Camp- 

Town *'just like home" to 

soldiers, sailors and marines 

is the job of War Camp Community 

Service. 

'Die most obvious way to make the 
enlisted man feel at home in the camp 
community is to invite him into the homes erf 
its citizens. This War Camp Community Serv- 
ice does. And the doors of America's homes 
are swinging wide! Throu^out the country, 
new extensions to dinner tables, extra places 
and extra portions are preparing the way for 
guests in khaki and blue. 

Soldiers and sailors in groups lose their indi- 
viduality. Seated in the home of Mr. Burton, 
leading retail grocer of Any-Camp-Town, they 
become Mr. Craig, former district sales man- 
ager of the Osier Safe Company; Mr. Yates, 
formerly of the team of Tucker and Yates, 
comedians on the Western Vaudeville Circuit; 




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WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

and Mr. Bonney, son of the president of one of 
Chicago's largest banking firms. 

Mr. Yates, as a private in the National Army, 
is just a "young soldier, away from home, whom 
it would be nice to have to dinner." But Mr. 
Yates as a comedian who is known by a thou- 
sand audiences scattered to the four winds, is 
the most interesting guest who has ever honored 
the home of Any-Camp-Town's grocer with his 
presence. 

It takes a visionary to see a modem club, 
equipped with game rooms, writing rooms, a 




WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 




combination 
dance floor and 
auditorium, a bar- 
ber shop and cafe- 
teria standing 
where stands a 
musty old saloon 
building; to see 
a spacious loung- 
ing room sub- 
stituted for a 
grease-stained 
dining room, and an immaculate billiard parlor, 
for a beer-Soured barroom. 

But these are the days for visionaries! 
The war with its exigencies has started "it- 
can't-be-done" towards the dictionary of obso- 
lete terms. The representative of Any-Camp- 
Town War Camp Community Service has 
put the soUd foundation of fact under this 
dream! 

From coast to coast. War Camp Community 
Service has stretched a chain of clubs for sol- 
diers, sailors and marines. Dark staircases, 
which for decades had creaked out the bi- 
monthly meetings of lodges, have given way to 
light and airy corridors leading to inviting enter- 
tainment rooms. Curtained windows, replacing 
panes opaque with rain-spattered dust, have 
transformed lofts, store buildings, unused resi- 

[26] 



WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

dences, hotels, and churches into hospitable 
quarters for enUsted men. 

Forty-one clubs are affiUated with the 
New York city organization. They are open 
every day until midnight. They provide, not 
only reading, writing, game, and loafing rooms, 
but dormitories, canteens, and facilities for their 
guests to clean and press their uniforms. One 
club features Sunday-night community sings; 
and another, Tuesday-afternoon French classes. 
Thousands of fighters enjoy their hospitality. 

Many men had never had the advantages of 
membership in a club before going to the 
war camp communities. That their uniform is 
their pass was not at first readily understood. 
There were frequent inquiries regarding mem- 
bership dues. 

"Ain't they gonna charge us nothin'.?" was 
followed more than once with a surprised: 
"Well, what d'you know about that?" 

War Camp Community Service is at its best 
perhaps in the near camp community house. 
So unique is this institution that it is difficult to 
keep it from a conspicuous place in the fore- 
ground of any picture of this 
organization's activities. And 
no such attempt has been made 
in this summary. 

War Camp Community 
Service has helped to build 

[27] 




WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



six community houses. It is proud of them. 
It cherishes plans for building more. It hopes 
to see them stand as lasting monuments to 
America's war-bom esprit de corps of neighbor- 
liness, which is this organization's existence. 

The Camp Sherman Community House 
at Chillicothe, Ohio, will serve as an ex- 
ample. 

The spirit of the people behind the Camp 
Sherman Community House is evidenced by the 
direct and efficient way they went about its 
realization. The five million people of the state 
of Ohio put their shoulders to the wheel and 
heaped up a large fund. Each community was 
asked to give ten dollars for each of its repre- 
sentatives among the soldiers at the camp. At 
one time when the building committee was con- 
fronted untimely with bills for thirty thousand 
dollars, a special appeal was sent to one com- 
munity, and the amount 
in full was forwarded to 
Chillicothe in less than 
twenty- four 
hours. 
N When the plans 

^ for erecting the 

structure were 
nearing comple- 
tion, General E. 
F. Glenn, in 




[28] 



WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

charge of the men in training at the camp, took 
a prominent Ohio furniture dealer to see the 
prospective site. 

"See that com field over there ?" remarked the 
General . 

"In twenty-one days one of the finest soldiers' 
cluhs in the United States will be standing in 
that field. All we will need to make it ready 
for the men and their guests will be equip- 
ment. Will you see that we have it by that 
date?" 

"I'll shoulder the responsibility of getting 
the furnishings here, but your building won't be 
ready. Not with material and labor as scarce as 
it is today." 

"If you'll have the equipment, we'll have the 
building," was the General's challenge. 

Chi the morning of the twenty-first day, six 
truck-loads of furniture and decorative equip- 
ment drove around a driveway leading to a 
colossal club building, characterized by a strong 
odor of fresh paint . The furniture was installed . 
Odds and ends were arranged. Amber shades of 
silk were placed on the lights. Logs were fired in 
the hearths. Linens were spread on cozy dining- 
room tables. Rugs were laid. Nooks and cor- 
ners were banked with palms. The bird cages 
were hung. The lid to the great concert grand 
piano was lifted. There was a pause for admira- 
tion. The keys of the instrument were touched. 

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WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 




And thus was ushered onto 
the pages of history, the 
Camp Sherman Community- 
House — literally, a fantastic 
dream come true. 

Entering its inviting door- 
way, the observer finds an 
expansive enclosure shaped 
like a Maltese cross stretching 
before him in dreamy proportions. 
Here seems to have been executed 
by craftsmen, religiously confident that they were 
producing a masterpiece, a fraternal shrine for a 
democratic Utopia of the future. It is com- 
munal , yet well suppHed with nooks and corners 
offering seclusion. It is gorgeous but modest, 
and elegant but inexpensive. To Theodore 
Roosevelt, its scenic effect was "Stupendous! 
Stupendous! stupendous!" The Colonel said 
he had no idea such a thing existed in America. 
Nor have millions of his fellow citizens living 
outside the state of Ohio. 

It is a work of art — an expression of the emo- 
tion of a great people, stirred by a great and 
world-wide cause. 

The framework of the building is of hard pine. 
Wrought-iron plates, nuts, bolts,- and screws 
have been used uniformly in making joints. 
The gables are supported by huge rafters of 
rough, unpainted wood. Their plainness pre- 

[30] 



WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



sents the impression that they were determined 
to fit into the beauty of the structure's interior, 
regardless of their rugged, unfinished appear- 
ance. The builders must have left them 
unpainted with a purpose, for they seem 
to set the color scheme for the entire com- 
munity. 

A rich blue stage curtain of deep velvet, hang- 
ing at the end of the auditorium wing of the 
clubhouse, offers perhaps the widest contrast to 
the quieter tones of brown and gray used almost 
uniformly elsewhere. 

Tucked behind an open staircase, which leads 
from the southwest wing of the room, stands a 
mission fireplace of brick, stone and rough-hewn 
wood. This hearth looks out upon a vast 
lounging lobby, containing no fewer than 
twenty-two huge davenports, upholstered in 
brown leather and in tapestries of tones so sub- 
dued that they 
would pass un- 
noticed were one 
not trying to 
understand 
thetechnique 
used by the 
artist in 
creating a 
room so in- 
viting, so 




WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 




restful and so 
homelike. 
Brown-stained 
wicker has 
been used to 
vary the mo- 
notony, and 
there are one 
or two sets 
of parlor 
pieces in a 
colonial de- 
sign of dark 
walnut. The 
rugs are of oriental patterns. Here and there, 
a small Navajo has found its way under a table 
lamp. 

The Camp Sherman Community House would 
be too expensive for most of its guests if it were 
operated for profit and at a place where it does 
not present such a contrast to its surrondings, 
say off the board-walk at Atlantic City. Hotels 
similarly equipped, and with such elaborate 
resources for entertaining their patrons, can 
usually be patronized only by persons of con- 
siderable means. 

Folks who spend only seventy-five cents 
a day for a room and less than that for a 
dinner are not customarily entertained by an 
orchestra during meals, and by concerts and 

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WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



dances nightly — at any rate, not gratis with the 
seventy-five. 

The guests of the Camp Sherman community, 
as of Any-Camp community, are selected. The 
Government selected them when it went into 
every home in the country and called into the 
same camp and company men who never before 
had been associated with each other or each 
other's kind. 

For this reason, the camp community house 
has an atmosphere which is unique. It is digni- 
fied enough to make the most absent-minded 
visitor unconsciously throw back his shoulders 
and straighten his spine before he is twenty 
paces within. But it is not *'stifF or cold." It is 
homelike and warm. There is a place for every 
soldier and his friends and relatives, whether 
they come from a fashionable residential district 
of a large city or from a cabin in a gully back in 
the Ohio moun- 
tains. 

Could the 
guests of a 
year pass in 
review upon 
these pages, 
the spectacle 
would be amaz- 
i n g . They 
would be wear- 




WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



ing all manner of garments, made 
in all manner of ways, and in 
manifold places and times. They 
would be carrying all 
sizes of pocket-books. 
There would be D.Ds., 
Ph.Ds., LL.Ds., high 
school freshmen, and 
folks who six months 
previously had never 
heard there was a war 
in Europe. There would 
be simple country folk, 
prosperous Ford-owning 
farmers, presidents of 
banks in towns of less 
than a thousand popu- 
lation, persons whose 
names appear on the 
social registers of the largest cities, and 
millionaire manufacturers. There would be 
those who had never before made a trip pn 
a train, and those whose business took them 
frequently around the world. There would 
be commissioned and non-commissioned officers 
from the armies and navies of America and 
of her allies. There would be privates and 
seamen. There would be preachers, masons, 
postmasters, insurance agents, baggagemen, 
ticket sellers, cooks, policemen, and stock 




[34] 



WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



raisers. There would be former presidents of 
the United States, blacksmiths, bartenders, and 
writers of best sellers. There would be fathers 
and mothers, come to bid a last farewell to an 
only son about to depart on the Great Adven- 
ture. And there would be — by actual observa- 
tion — a little yellow dog in the arms of a wisp 
of a golden-haired sister exuberantly wagging 
its tail in the presence of its master, lately 
evolved into a heroic suit of khaki! 

Such are the visitors who follow America's 
defenders to Any-Camp . Timidity and trans- 
portation cost may keep some of them away, 
but never all of them. 

It is no uncommon thing to see an officer in 
high command at Camp Sherman dancing along- 
side a private who has been recruited into the 
service within a fortnight. This in- 
timacy of contact is notable in the 
restaurant, in the 



smoking rooms, at the 
concerts, in the li- 
brary, and beside the 
fireplaces. 

Nor have, nor will 
the selects at Camp 
Sherman mutiny! 
This democratic con- 
tact between officers 
and men is only a part 



[35] 




WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 




of General Glenn's scheme of 
inspiring discipline in his 
ranks by teaching the respect 
rather than the fear of au- 
thority. 

"We are maintaining the 
democratic ideals of our common 
community life in the midst of a 
military system that is contrary to 
those democratic ideals, showing 
that it is possible for men to mingle 
socially without loss of military 
discipline or respect," claims the 
War Camp Community Service 
representative who is on the committee charged 
with the management of the Camp Sherman 
Community House. And no one qualified to 
judge of the matter is likely to contradict him. 

Community Recreation 

When the representatives of War Camp Com- 
munity Service first arrived in Any-Camp- 
Town, the commercial amusement house was 
usually the chief place of entertainment open 
to the enlisted man. Before the camp came, 
the average citizen patronized these amuse- 
ments only occasionally. He found his recreation 
in attending lodge meetings, church socia- 
bles, neighborhood parties, and family gather- 
ings. He had not given much thought to the 



[36I 



WA R CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

question of entertaining the transient — the 
person who could not at once become a part of 
the social life of his town. He had thought of 
the problem in the large perhaps once in his 
life — as a member of the entertainment com- 
mittee of a Labor Day celebration — ^when, over 
his printed name, he had committed the com- 
munity to sixteen hours of unrestrained hospi- 
tality to any and all out-of-town guests who 
would succumb to the lure of his alliterative ap- 
peal. He remembered with discomfort how the 
ingenuity of the community had been taxed to 
provide entertainment enough to keep four 
hundred people amused from the time the 
eight-twenty arrived in the morning until the 
eleven-fifty-six pulled out at night. For the 
other three hundred and sixty-odd days of the 
year, the average citizen had left the transient 
to the mercy of the commercial amusement 
manager. 

When the Government revealed its plan to 
estabUsh miUtary and naval training stations 
throughout the country, there was a hurried 
influx into many camp towns of cheap and 
vulgar amusements. The problem of providing 
recreation to twenty thousand or more transient 
visitors was larger than most towns were able 
to solve alone. They had neither the powers to 
control undesirable attractions, nor facilities 
to provide adequate entertainment. A street 

[37I 




WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

carnival, which came to one southern 
camp town, featured gambhng de- 
vices, a hoochi-koochi show, a 
*'peep" tent, and a coarse imitation 
of a Barbary Coast dance hall. 
This particular aggregation was 
practically a transient group of 
prostitutes and traffickers in pros- 
titution, parading as professional ; 
entertainers. 

When War Camp Community 
Service went into the camp towns, 
these attractions left! For them 
were substituted athletics of all sorts, 
diversified entertainments, pageants, 
festivals, parties, dances, automobile rides, 
sight-seeing excursions, picnics, concerts, and 
wholesome commercial amusements at reduced 
prices . 

America's outdoor sports require an abun- 
dance of space and air. Given these, the aver- 
age American-reared man can amuse himself 
at baseball, football, basketball, tennis, and 
their kindred outlets for energy. 

Through War Camp Community Service, 
American towns were quick to place their recrea- 
tional faciUties at the disposal of the soldier, 
the sailor, and the marine. Playgrounds, swim- 
ming pools, bathhouses, athletic fields, stad- 
iums, gymnasia, amusement parks, skating- 

[38] 



WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



rinks, dancing - pavilions, and auditoriums 
throughout the country are now open to these 
men. Atlanta's mayor has placed ten baseball 
diamonds at the service of men in the military 
and naval service. Enlisted men are daily 
guests in San Diego's world-renowned recreation 
building. This city operates a three-game- a- 
week baseball league, stages wrestUng and box- 
ing matches, and conducts track and field 
meets. Seattle's entertainment program fea-i 
tures water and ice carnivals. 

In the opinion of Major-General Wood, "it 
is just as essential that soldiers know how to 
sing as it is that they carry rifles and know how 
to use them." Boisterous when opportune and 
stilled when inopportune, song offers an invalu- 
able outlet to the moods and emotions of men 
Qn battlefields. Fighters must sing! 

A distinct branch of the War and Navy De- 
partments Commissions on 
Training Camp Activities is 
charged with providing this vital 
part of the soldier's and 
sailor's fighting equip- 
ment inside their training 
camps and stations. 

War Camp Commu- 
nity Service keeps them 
singing outside the camps. 
It conducts community 

[39I 




WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 




sings and festivals for mixed 
audiences of enlisted men 
and civilians. Such an oc- 
casion given at Norfolk, 
Virginia, was attended by 
some four thousand people. 
One sing in Des Moines 
was accompanied by three 
military bands, and com- 
bined the voices of twelve 
thousand civilians and en- 
listed men, white and colored. 
Every Saturday night the 
camps go a-dancing! Perhaps 
more than any other form of 
recreation offered by communities, dances have 
been the fighter^s key to the social life of the 
camp towns. War Camp Community Service 
provides the time, the place, and the girl. Usu- 
ally the time is Friday or Saturday night; the 
place, in the city's opera house, lodge room, 
church social room, community house, or neigh- 
borhood club; and the girl, the very flower of 
Any-Camp-Town. This last feature has become 
so universally apparent that a recent editorial 
in the New York Evening Sun advocated the or- 
ganization of the S. P. M. U. M. A. P. G. S. N. 
— the Society to Prevent Men in Uniform from 
Monopolizing All the Pretty Girls on Saturday 
Nights. 



[40 



WAR CAMP COMMUNITY wSERVICE CALLS 



The men who attend these functions are 
sponsored. That is the way it would be done 
back home. And the-way-it-would-be-done- 
at-home is the War Camp Community Serv- 



ice way 



During one week — -and it was a small week at 
that — ^War Camp Community Service issued 
twelve hundred and ten dance and entertain- 
ment invitations to enlisted men visiting in 
New York. During the same week, seven hun- 
dred and seventy-eight theater, skating and 
sight-seeing tickets were distributed. 

"When we took a chance on the War Camp 
Community Service Club and met the people in 
charge, things happened," states a private. 

"We were welcomed. (And nobody appre- 
ciates a welcome more than a soldier.) 
But that wasn't all. 

"We were introduced to the best 
people in Any -Camp -Town. 
First thing we knew we were 
out on a real automobile ride, in 
ai real car, with real folks. We 
were treated like a pair of 
officers! 

"That led to supper with a 
family whose son is in the serv- 
ice; and a long series of tennis 
games in the evening. 

"Maybe this wouldn't sound 

I 41] 




WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



at all surprising to an outsider, 
but it took our breath away. 
We had known such things to 
happen, mind you, by accident, 
to some lucky devil who adven- 
tured into a stuffy church, looked 
good to some philanthropic pil- 
lar thereof, and was invited out 
to dinner. But that isn't a 
splash in the ocean of a big 
camp. 

"Here, to our astonishment, 
we found that such entertain- 
ment was freely and eagerly 
waiting for every man in camp. 
We learned of dancing parties. 

-^it^'^ We learned of citizens who own 

canoes on Any-Camp-Town 

river. That's something I used to enjoy at 

home — and have never come near to, before, 

in the army." 

Community Organization 

Before War Camp Community Service went 
into the camp towns, there were from time to 
time spasmodic and unorganized attempts on 
the part of civilians allied with local organiza- 
tions to entertain enlisted men. But uncoor- 
dinated, the best intended expressions of popular 
welcome often lost themselves in a maze of 




[42 



WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



conflicting ends. Community effort had to be 
organized to be eflPective. The task was na- 
tional. It was quasi-Governmental. It called 
for military and naval direction of the nation's 
mobilized hospitality resources, not adjacent 
to one concentration camp or to a dozen, but 
extended to the furthest foot of American 
soil, where soldiers and sailors were likely to 
seek relaxation and service. 

For this task War Camp Community Service 
was established. 

War Camp Community Service is as broad as 
the community. It coordinates the war camp 
towns' social, religious, and political life, and 
by so doing, compounds the service of each to 
the enlisted man. It knows neither race nor 
creed. 

The list of organizations which are cooperat- 
ing with War Camp Community Serv- 
ice would be long. It would include 
the Red Cross, the Young Men's 
and the Young Women's Christian 
Associations, the 
Knights of Columbus, 
the Jewish Welfare 
Board, the Interna- 
tional Association of 
Rotary Clubs, the 
Young Men's Hebrew 
Association, the Ameri- 

[43] 




WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

can Library Association, the Trav- 
elers' Aid Society, the Salvation 
Army, the National Council of De- 
fense, the National League for Wo- 
. men's Service; chambers of com- 
merce, boards of trade, business men's 
associations, and countless other 
national and local business, fraternal, 
social, and religious organizations. 
Under the Girls' Division of War 
Camp Community Service, the girl- 
hood of America's camp towns is 
being organized for patriotic and 
community service. This division 
bands together girls in a common 
endeavor to raise their standards of 
personal efficiency in contributing to 
the promotion of the war. 

They help heap the mercy kits of the 
Red Cross to capacity. They make baby 
kits for French and Belgian mothers. They 
collect tin-foil, old clothes, and other waste 
materials and turn them into patriotic chan- 
nels. They sell War Savings Stamps and 
Liberty Loan bonds. They boost community 
sings, rallies, and patriotic meetings. They 
sew for the camps and take flowers to the 
hospitals. 

In one town, the girls took their allegiance 
to the war's cause so seriously that they adopted 

[44] 




WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 



the middy blouse as an "officiaF* uniform. 
Some of them conferred and agreed that georg- 
ette crepe waists, fancy dresses, silk hosiery 
and the many extras that fill the wardrobe of 
the average peace-time girl, were not a war-time 
necessity. 

The result was a "Middy Blouse Meeting,'* 
at which a resolution for the adoption of 
this simple garment carried by an astounding 
margin. 

In Columbus, Ohio, they are fifteen thousand 
strong. Groups have been organized there in 
the high and grade schools and among the 
sororities, clubs, and literary societies of Ohio 
State University. Practically every organized 
agency in Columbus has an active unit among 
the membership of the Patriotic League, under 
which the girls are organized in that city. Out 
of the shops, factories, offices, homes, schools, 
and churches has been built up what is perhaps 
the strongest democratic organization of girls 
in the Buckeye state. At their first mass meet- 
ing over eight 
hundred were 
present. They 
launched a cam- 
paign which en- 
veloped five 
thousand mem- 
bers within ten 




J ■ ■■ 

WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

days. Their enthusiasm for constructive war 
work became so tense that they swamped 
the Red Cross with demands for working 
materials. 

Through participation in such activities, girls 
are becofriing conscious citizens of the war camp 
community. The high school girl is being 
taught how to use her leisure. The factory 
girl is being provided with new social and 
cultural opportunities. Both are becoming less 
introspective, less cliquish, more responsive, 
and more socially conscious. But they don't 
know it! They are helping win the war and 
having a lot of fun in the process. 

Community Betterment. 

That War Camp Community Service means 
war camp community betterment is a reitera- 
tion. A town cannot attempt to become a good 
home town to a large crowd of transients from 
all manner of places without bringing into its 
own environment the best features existent in 
these visitors' home communities. 

And that is just what War Camp Community 
Service is trying to do — duplicate conditions ex- | 
isting in the best home towns. And it is suc- 
ceeding. For in an outburst of appreciation 
an enlisted man frequently makes the con- i 
fession: "There's nothing like this where I 
came from." 

[46I 



WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

(It is hard just here to keep from hazarding 
a guess about the future of American commun- 
ities, when the fighters of today become the 
spokesmen of tomorrow— but that is not now 
to the point.) 



{The foregoing paragraphs were written in August^ 
1918. The signing of the armistice on November 11th 
brought the question here raised to the point. 

Within the next two years, most of the men who 
have been schooled in the camps and training stations 
will have been mustered back into civilian life to become 
leaders of public opinion and action. And they will 
know from experience that it pays a community to 
make it somebody's business to develop its recrea- 
tional facilities and to see that out-of-towners are well 
met and well treated. 

The Playground and Recreation Association of 
America, which is conducting War Camp Community 
Service, plans to maintain its resources for the organi- 
zation of community recreation and service in any 
American community requiring it. It will be of 
especial value to industrial communities, which be- 
cause of their rapid growth have neglected to organize 
adequate programs of recreation. It will continue to 
promote nationally its program for the physical welfare 
of the youth of America^ 



(47l 



^ HE spirit our fighters have left in their home commu- 
nities is not purchasable with money. It has been fos- 
tered through years of intimate associations. It is the 
spirit of neighborliness. 

But wherever soil has been consecrated by blood, spilled 
for liberty— wherever hearts hope for the righteous end 
of all wars, there exists, for it, a substitute. A substi- 
tute born of pride, gratitude, and admiration, which at 
times leaps to devotioni 

You may call it what you will. War Camp Commu- 
nity Service calls it hospitality. 

It is spontaneous in America — a hundred millionfoldl 
For its expression, it needs only organization and equip- 
ment. These, War Camp Community Service exists to 
supply. 



[48I 



The Call of War Camp Community 
Service 

Chapter Four 

NO patriot desires to allow any phase of 
America's near camp environment to 
be less stimulating and worthy than 
the home environments he, through 
his Government, has asked the soldier, the 
sailor, and the marine to leave. These men 
have a right to expect that wherever they go 
upon this side of the ocean their country will 
be one vast hospitable neighborhood. 

Germany's super-self-centered war machine 
is obsessed with the inhumane philosophy that 
might makes right. The fighters of America and 
her allies have terminated their home ties to 
stop at the bayonet's end the further barbarous 
flaunting of this idea on the frontiers of decency. 
(And feeble is any service the average citizen 
can render them in return!) 

The spirit these fighters have left in their 
home communities is not purchasable with 
money. It has been fostered through years of 

1 49] 



WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

intimate associations. It is the spirit of neigh- 
borliness. 

But wherever soil has been consecrated by 
blood, spilled for Hberty — ^wherever hearts hope 
for the righteous end of all wars, there exists, 
for it, a substitute. A substitute bom of pride, 
gratitude, and admiration, which at times leaps 
to devotion! 

You may call it what you will. War Camp 
Community Service calls it hospitality. 

It is spontaneous in America — a hundred mil- 
lionfold! For its expression, it needs only or- 
ganization and equipment. These, War Camp 
Community Service exists to supply. 

Through this organization, the United States 
Government places upon its citizens the respon- 
sibiUty of helping to fit America's champions of 
humanity for their crusade. The responsibility 
is unique. History records none similar. 

To the average citizen it is an opportunity 
rather than an obligation. 

By helping the fighter make wholesome use of 
his leisure, by putting before him in the com- 
munities where his duty calls him adequate sub- 
stitutes for those necessities and comforts of life 
of which he is depriving himself and of which he 

[sol 



WAR CAMP COMMUNITY SERVICE CALLS 

is being deprived — in a word, by serving him 
through War Camp Community Service, the 
civilian is armoring him with contentment, con- 
fidence, and consecration to the common cause 
— that trio of essentials to a triumphant morale, 
lacking which empire after empire has been 
wiped from the pages of human history. 

War Camp Community Service Calls! 



I SI] 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 

HH 

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