The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-12-22
rv.,vbody In Iowa and Elsewhere is
Talking About Keokuk's Bring
ing Her Soldiers
Home.
BARR TELLS OF TRIP
there Were Plenty Of Obstacles to
Surmount, But keokuk En-
ergy Did the I'M
possible.
IBy G. Walter Barrl

The virtue of Keokuk is it's w re-
ward in the bringing home for Christ
mas of the Keokuk soldiers at Camp
Dodge.
Nothing since the building of the
water power has done Keokuk so
much good, or made it so much talked
about. :.
.Keokuk is a good town." said
many men with a o n of conviction,
and one man now doing a large bust
ness three hundred miles away told
me he is going to move here within a
year. as all he ever heard of Keokuk
was to it's advantage.
The action of the city Of keOkuk
for its soldiers made a real sensation
in Des Moines and in that other city
OF about 5000 inhabitants called Camp
Dodge. From the camp city the news
spread in the mails to about every
place west Of the Mississippi river
and as far east as Indiana.
While Keokuk is very modest, Of
course, about such things, there is no
reason why such a thing should be
censored, if somebody wants to fea-
ture it, you know. The Des Moines
papers featured it first rate.
And everybody around the hotels
and in the stores talked about 1t.
Most important of all, he army Off
GERS of high rank seemed to think 1t
a good thing and took a real interest
in it.
Some Needles in Hay Stack.
was started in a big hurry with a
list of sixty-one men who had gone to
Camp Dodge and we're supposed to be
there yet. The list contained only
their names. The first thing was to
discover the whereabouts Of these
men in that city Of 10000 more or
less, where all are newcomers and no.
body knows anybody else. Literally,
it would take a trained investigator
ten days at least to see the sixty-one
lmen there without knowledge of mill
1tary matters and help in high quar-
tiers.
I went straight to the top, division
headquarters of General Getty, and
past orderlies and staff men to the
adjutant of the division. This is Ma
jor f. S. Hayes, a Connecticut Yankee
Of fine record in the regular army,
here and over seas. Any man of mill
tary experience knows how much for
succes in our mission depended on
the size Of his heart. The surgeon gen
eral ought to retire him for enlarged
heart. / modestly and simply asked
him to make that Keokuk plan a part
of the war movements in orders from
the general commanding.
Major Hayes is All Right.
For the rest Of that day, Keokuk di-
vided with France the attention OF the
Eighty-eighth division of the national
army, for Major Hayes did all
wished, gave a lot of good advice and
suggestions, selected the best place in
camp for the Keokuk mems rendez-
vous, and kept a man busy at a type
writer writing orders he dictated, put
ting forty or fifty other officers to
work to get the Keokuk soldiers home
for Christmas.
KeoklIk must always remember Ma
1or e. S. Hayes-he will be a general
some day-aS a man to whom she
owes her affection always.
For one thing, he sen my list of sol.
diers to Col. w. M. Newman. mastering
officer, with a memorandum asking
that after each name be noted the
company and regiment, or other place
of the man in the division. Colonel
Newman might easily have taken sew.
eral days to do this. He is a fine, low
voiced, very polite, fatherly man. re.
Winding one forcibly of a popular col.
lege professor, except for his army
officer decision exuding from him all
the time. He read the document from
division headquarters, heard silently
my condensed statement of the Keo'
kuk plan-and instantly put three Off