Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1917-09-12
WHERE tine BOYS
WILL Be TRAINED
Conditions at Camp0o Who're
kandIyohI's 140 Recruits
viii SO.

Especial Correspondence to Willmar
Tribune.l .s e
Division Headquarters, Thirteenth
Divisional Cantonment, Camp Dodge,
Sept. 4. -
Camp Dodge and Des Moines are
ready and waiting for the 45,712 con-
script. soldiers who will be trained
here for the First National Overseas
army. United States Expeditionary
forces.
For ten days, Maj Gen. Edward H.
Plummer, commandante of the can
Torment, and his aides have been en-
the ground, organizing the $500 off,
GERS who recently won their shoulder
straps at Fort Smelling and other
training camps, to take charge of the
civilian mob" and whip it into a mill
tary organization lover night"
Barracks are ready for the CON-
plete housing of the first increment
of $500, the vanguard of the main
force. These first $500 will form the
skeleton of the division to be trained
here. They will be in camp and Eat
it" by September 10. The second IN
crement of forty per cent will follow
on September 10. Another forty per
cent will follow soon after the first CT
October and the remainder as soon
thereafter as possible.
Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and North
Dakota are not sending their conscript
soldiers to forced communion with
the COWS and chickens in Iowas pas
toral fields, to be isolated from the
warmth of the city. Neither will they
be set down in the middle of tempta-
tons that usually becken in the<city.
Camp Dodge, their home for the
winter, is just ten miles from the
city of Des Moines with its population
of 10000. 1t is thirty minutes ride
on the interurban and j. the soldiers
will be given fifteen minute service
if they require it.
Des Moines is exceedingly "dry." 1t
went dry" three years ago by the
voluntary vote Of the city council.
Councilmen, for the first time in a
city of any size in the country, came
to the conclusion that the people
didn't want saloons any more So
they closed them all-and only the
saloon men complained.
Bootlegging is at minimum.
Booze" will be at a greater premium
when the two companies of 300 con-
script soldiers go on duty patrolling
not only the city but the roads and
avenues leading to the cantonment.
Des Moines abolished her redlight
district six years ago. She wiped it
out clean. She also bars cabarets but
she has no objection to Sunday the.
aires and amusements. And to see
that vice conditions do not deterior-
ate with the arrival of the soldiers,
Mayor John MacVicar has created
special "vice squad" whose single
duty is to keep on the lid.
Des Moines has made great prepar-
ations to treat her soldier boys right.
There are seventeen committees al
work all the time, each assigned to a
special task directed toward the care
and comfort of the conscripts.
One of the committees was assign.
ed to transportation. Its first accom-.
plishment was to secure a reduction
In 1nterurban fare of from twenty TO
ten cents for soldiers. Civilians will
continue to pay twenty cents. Anoth-
err committee has opened two large
soldiers clubs in the down town dis
trfct where thousands of books will be
available for the enlisted men. An
other committee, composed of the
leading business men Of the town,
stands ready to see that prices re-
main the same, both to the soldier and
the civilian. Another committee is
listing every available hotel room and
apartment house and will maintain
public bureau to find quarters for the
relatives and friends who come to Wis.
it the soldiers.
The cantonment is situated in the
Valley of the Des M0ines river.
stretching over 1000 acres of Iowa's
prize farm land One thousand acres
OF growing corn was destroyed In the
building. Starting at the fashionable
Hyperion golf club, the cantonment
|'extends three miles up the valley
which Major Abadie, chief supervis-
ing quartermaster of the war depart.
ment, said furnished the, best canton
ment site in the United States. The
great wooden barracks for the sold
iers, two. stories high and built to
house ESQ men each, stretch in rows
of four for two miles.
There are 1874 of the soldier bar
racks and when the entire camp is
completed, more than 1000 wooden
buildings, stretching out farther than
the eye can see, will stand in the val
ley. -......
Camp Dodge has been awarded a re-
mount station where 5000 horses and
mules will be cared for.
The physical welfare of the soldiers
will be more carefully safeguarqed
than at any other cantonment. The
government is constructing a huge
base hospital at the cantonment to
care for 1,50O patients. In addition,
1t has turned Fort Des Moines, the
regimental army post near Des
Moines, into general hospital where
some Of the leading surgeons and
physicians of the United States will
serve their country. @a
Troops will be furnished as follows
by the various states: ~.
Minnooo&o