Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-10-12
How Shift of Troops
Is Viewed at Gordon
by WARD MoREHoUSE.

BY WARD nh0REHoUSE.
ATLANTA JOURNAL BUREAU.
Camp Gordon, Ca, Oct. 10.-Shake-uu
or no shake-up. Camp Goroon was built
for 10000 soldiers, and she will have
that number.
Like the robins, the eastern soldiers
yearn for the south in the winter and
Il will be these fasteners who will fill
the yellow barracks building on this
reservation.
In a nutshell, the contemplated change
by the war department means simply
this: Every white man now at Camp
Gordon will probably be moved.
One little telegram turned the whole
trick.
Major B. +. Thompson, division ad-
jutant. left Camp Gordon Wednesday
for Washington, where he goes on busi-
ness with reference to the transfer of
the troops It became known Wednes-
day that Major Norman r. Pease had
also gone to Washington. The nature of
his. business was not disclosed.
Camp Gordon was working day and
night. toling and striving in an effort
TO comfort and train and care for the
men she had; she was making prepara-
tons for the weeks to come and looking
wisely into the future. and then the
telegraph instrument begins to click
and off comes an order from the war
department. and the whole thing is shot
to pieces
Don't worry, Atlanta. you will have
your camp and you will have your for
ty thousand, even If they do come from
Camp Devens. Mass. Camp Upton. N. Y.
Camp Dix. n. j., Camp Meade. Mr.. and
Camp Lee, Va
NATIONAL GUARD NEEDS MEN.
The national guard organizations are
crying for men. If the skeleton divisions
of national guardsmen are not to be
consolidated. they must be filled up, the
gaps must be plugged, and Camp Cor
don will have to do her bit. She will
be aided by Camp Pike, at Little Rock
Arkansas, and Camp Jackson, at Column
bia, S. @. in filling up the Thirtieth
and Thirty-first and Thirty-ninth ma
tional guard divisions, but 1t will take
everything Camp Gordon has to bring
the Thirty-first division at Mocan up To
The required strength. THERE WILL
BE no SURPLUS TO SEND TO CAMP
JACKSON, the concentration point,
where a young rainbow will be form
ed.
Every man a. Camp Gordon will
be directly affected the
rs shut, which Is not altogether uneX-
DCcted. The fasteners couldn't do mucn
training in Massachusetts during the
winter, and the national guard divisions
had TO be filed, and there you are:
There are now at Camp Gordon over
90 900 men. including the enlisted men
from the regular army attached to diff
ferent organizations.
Alabama has contributed 1657 select
men; Georgia has sent $500, and Ten
neSsee. which has he'd the lead from
he beginning. has produced 1912. The
war department plans won't affect the
S46 men who have been discharged from
tie camp for physical unfitness and the
tfty-tive men who were sent home be-
cause they were granted exemption after
reaching the cantonment. There are a.
proxima tely 5000 men at the camp yet
TO take their physical examinations, an.
these examinations are being held now.
# Camp Gordon Is to be stripped of her
Georgians. Tennesseeans and Alabamians
ne idea 81 to send these soldiers It.
other cities In good shape. and eliminate
Ell the men who have physical dlsa bilI |
ties.
1t will be about as difficult to trans
FER tho Gordontes to Macon as Il wouiG |
be to send them to France, and 1t VIII
TtqutTe about as mucn work. The !
amount of paper work which WI be nec, |
essary is positively almost unthinkaola, |
and 1t will mean that the staff officers. |
the division adiutant. and the regimenlli
will work all day and all night |
from now until he time the shift as
made.
Transferring 10000 men is a JOB
The war department plan affects the |
white man and the negro alike. 1t means |
that when The negroes from this sec- |
lion go to France they will go in one |
division. and the secretary of war has |
directed that Camp Jackson will get tn- |
south Carolina colored troops, which |
will be . 900; Camp Gordon the Georgia |
@oiored, which wi. be 5000, and Camp |
pike, The Louisiana and Arkansas co.. |
pI,d which will be $500.
There will never be- a greater number
This is an ABSOLUTE certainty. and the
number of negroes at tile camp will be /
constantly depleted.
Yes, BIZ Jones had better prepare 90
tell his Buckhead girl and his Cham |
blee sweetheart goodbye. The war |
company at Camp Gordon was booked
for a long run, but the management
suddenly decided to take il off the
boa rds, and put another attraction IN
its place. While the new show will have |
a cast composed of strange and I'M
familiar faces, 1t will be just as big, |
Just as good--if such Is possible-aad /
= will make friends easily. But At
lanta regards the Eighty-second divl-
sion as her own, She reSaeds the ~
Ulcers OF this division as her officers.
and Il will be with the greatest re-
sTet THAI she will see them go TO other
amps.
Lo-:ncident with :he sweeping troop
transfer there came the order to I'm
msdiately put AL unassigned officers