New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1917-07-25
The Open Forum
AT FORT, SMELLING
Editor of The Review:

T. EQlCOT VI i ue .It6VleW. *. h. Z. !. -:.
A tax payer who lives not more than
a hundred miles from New Ulm had an
opportunity last Friday afternoon to
inspect the military camp between Fort
Smelling and Minnehaha Falls. He
i spent three hours at the camp in ques-
ton The first regiment that he saw
was evidently the First Minnesota be-
cause Of the fact that there was sign
there bearing this Information. What
other regiments there were he could not
say but he thot there were several other
! regiments in addition to the First
Minnesota. He says also that he saw
some cavalry troops and some artillery
| in the same camp.
What impressed him most was the
evident lack of discipline and orderliness
which was manifest everywhere. It
! seemed as tho the camp was taking care
of itself. The drilling as far as be was
| able to find out was beng done under
the commands of privates and nom
commissioned officers During the
whole time that he was there he saw
| no commissioned officer but is willing
to admit he might not be sufficiently
familiar with the officers uniforms and
insignia of rank to recognize them, but
this he knows to be an absolute fact,
that during the whole time that he spent
! in the camp he did not see one enlisted
| man salute superior officer.
| In the guard-house he noticed men
who were evidently on duty playing
card games for money and one of the
men in the guard house, according to his
statement, was stark naked. Inquiry
among the men elected the information
that altho they were expected to be in
| camp after certain hour in the evening
there seemed to be no trouble whatso-
ever in sneaking out of camp after taps
and getting back in at almost any hour
during the night without being caught.
Another thing that impressed itself
on his mind was the apparent brutality
with which the mules and horses are
being treated. He said, in substance,
to the Review, that if private citizens
would treat dumb animals the way the
aforementioned horses and mules
are being treated at this particular
military camp they would be arrested for
cruel and inhuman treatment of dumb
animals and sent to jail. He noticed
two fences about block long each to
which hundreds of horses and mules
were tied. The fence is made by putting
posts into the ground with the top
sticking out about five feet above the
ground. Thru these posts a gas pipe
is run and to this gas pipe the horses and
mules are tied on each side. Here they
are kept during all kinds of weather, day
and night, during sunshine and rain and
during the hottest part of the day, when
only a half mile away are spacious barns
with nothing in them. The gentleman
in question stated further that some
horses and mules are dying fast.
What he is especially interested in is
to find out if this is the kind of discipline
that is maintained in the militia and
regular army of this country. He wants
to know because he has two sons who
may be drafted and he wants to satisfy
himself in his own mind whether it
would h, Io@tor for hic cope ~ M +b.,,
the demoralizing camp and military life,
as he saw it, or if he should advise them
to refuse to take the dual oath and 60 to
jail.
AS tax payer and American citizen
he also wants to know whether anything
can be done to better the conditions in
the camp which he visited.
CITIZEN.