The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1917-11-07
CLEANEST CAMP
IN MIDDLE west

Mai. Gen. Edward n. Plummer, Com
mander at Camp Dodge, Requests
Review Writer to Deny Reports
ARE NOT wALLowINe IN VICE
Government Investigator Reports to
Washington That Camp Dodge %
cjeanest One West Of Chicago.
DIVISION HEADQUARTERS Camp
Dodge, Nov. 6-Maj. Gen. Edward n.
Plummer. commander of the Eighty
eighth division of the national army
has requested the writer to deny
through the columns of the REVIEW
stories that seemed to have galneo
general circulation in some sectiohs
q, the thirteenth district that soldiers
at Camp Dodge are wa''o~"s "
vice" .,oso hovs
Il want the mothers OF these Ooys
and their families and 1rleh9s ~
know that such stories are absoiutely
without foundation" declared the
General. Il want them to know 1ul.
fher that Camp Dodge is the cieanest
camp in the middle west-for nave
It on the authority of the government .
own investigator. ~ O., ono
since the day the last OF the 23'ooo
soldiers now at the cantonmeht rea. ,,
Cd their barracks, there have peeh
wild stories of vice.
One story that caused Juror was
that two women of police reputatioh
were found dead just outside the
borders of the military reservatlon
and that on their persons were 1ouhu
large rolls of money.
Another was that three girls were
found brutally assaulted near the can,
tonment. A third said that scores U,
women of the underworld mad lhvaueu
Des Moines because of the presence
OF the soldiers. .;r,s
Numerous tales were told OF girls
in and about the camp. bootleggers
too, were said to be reaping a harves.
among the soldiers. In fact the wno,e
string of stories received such genel'
te,,ieent went out of Des Moines and
gave interviews telling one or more
of the tales as the truth.
Just how clean Camp Dodge ana
Des Moines really are Is told by hen
nv +. Burt, special investigator OF the
war department for training camp &C
tivities. who has just competed
ouiet but extensive Investigation.
He declared Camp Dodge and VI
cinity and Des Moines and vicinat,
the cleanest cantonment west OF Cnl
caRo and he has visited them all. nv
sent his agents out in taxicabs 10 trS
to find redlight houses and Dootlee
GERS. agents who had great success II
other cantonment cities, but they re
turned empty handed. He found M
houses he could turn into the poiic'
as suspicious. - ,;,
I'm fact your town is so clean, salt
Burt. "that have told the war depart
ment that have nothing to report ol
Camp Dodge, the first report OF ina
kind l have sent in. The men 40 no
seem to permit their minds to owe!
upon liquor and disorderly places:
every military camp in the unlte
States was IS clean as this one ther
would be no social vice problem.
The soldier boys are not sunerih
for entertainment. Many compahle
have "ja3z' bands or orchestras
martets of their own to while ava
the evening hours. When they com
to town they have soldiers club
20 to to play billiards, pool, othe
games and read. Dances will be hel
at the club frequently to which all me
in khaki are invited. Girls from IN
regiment OF Volunteer Aids Will u
there to dance with them.
There are plenty of visitors
camp. Only the other day a crowd
women banded themselves togethe
to 20 to Camp Dodge at intervals an
do all Of Sammys patching and dar
ing and mending. :,
In the daytime, Sammy works. Il
is working now six hours a day
hard drill Six hours may seem Ill
a short day. But that's the actu
drill he gets and doesn't count all II
other duties he has to perform.
has been announced that the II
schedule of training as mapped out
the war college at Washington W
not be started until the entire div
ion is in camp. That will be two
three weeks yet. In addition to the
six.mile hike daily, infantrymen
busy learning the first steps
bayOnet fighting.
American ingenuity is showing
self in the training Of the artllierym
at Camp Dodge. The men VINO
man the three inch field guns, the
inch barrage guns anu Inc Al
howitzers haven't anything that loo
like the sign of gun. But they ha
constructed according to their o.
plans and specifications. some exc
lent gun carriages and caissons. I'm
practice by hitching men up to I'M
for horses. Thep pull up into posltl'
.,. unlimber, go through all the motto
of sighting and firing, jump back
~. ann ond caissOn and continue on tn
way.
Fears that the soldiers at Doc
z would be sent south or to some otl
cantonment, or perhaps to France
fore spring, were set at rest by S
.cial dispatches from Washington t
week. A high war department oftit
was quoted as saying that the sixt'
weeks intensive training will not st
until oil men have reached camp