Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1917-05-12
GENERAL MORTON CHAIRMAN
BOARD SELECT CAMP SITES
Leaves Today For
San Antonio To
Aid in Placing
Great Army

commander Of the First Provisional brigade
of the First Provisional division. will be
chairman of the board of United States ar
my officers appointed to consider and Sc
lect sites for the training camps for 1885,
600 soldiers who are 10 be trained in six
camp sites in the Southern department.
General Morton was notified last night
of his appointment to the board and he ex-
pected to leave at 4 :05 O'clock this after
noon for San Antonio. The other members
Of the board are officers now stationed ut
Fort Sam Houston. Ii is understood that
the boards work il 10 start at once, as no
time is TO be lost in preparing the camps
fo the men.
The possibility. if not probability, that
the Mexican border because of camp sites
prepared last summer for the mobilization
of the national guard. will see the biggest
mobilization of the biggest army the
United States has ever put into the
! field has created no little interest in
Brownsville and other towns of the
Valley. Army officers in the city to-
day predicted that at least one of the
division camps, about 27,000 men will be
placed at some point on the lower border.
and II was not considered n improbable
that two would be placed in this district.
The excellent health and weather condi-
tions that prevailed during the STAY Of the
national guard in this section will. it j.
believed, be factor i'm the selection of
sites for the training camps. There j. also
taken into consideration the fact that the
normally mild winter temperatures will
permit training Of the men to be pushed
ahead without interference OH account of
weather conditions.
About 10000 troops were mobilized on
that section Of the border between Browns
vile and Mission last summer, the larger
camps being stationed at Brownsville, San
Benito. Pharr McAllen, Mission and Llano
Grande.
| Announcement has already been made
from Washington that political pull will
have absolutely nothing to do with the To-
cation OF the training camps. the army Of
ficers being given "A free hand in this con-
nection Ii was even intimated that any at
tempt to pull the strings" would be
frowned upon, given no encouragement
whatever. A a result of that announce
ment il i expected that the Southern de-
partment headquarters mt Fort Sam Hous-
ton, the scene of the boards deliberations,
will not be bothered by delegations from
towns or communities making offers of
camp sites. Among other things that will,
of course, he given consideration will ba
camp sites offering the most favorable
money considerations.
A committee composed Of ". s. West,
John Gregg, A. Wayne Wood. d. l.. Spero
and Joseph X. Wells this morning called
on General Morton. but whether the visit
was in connection with the proposed train
ing camps was not announced
Five Of the divisions will consist Of ma
tional guardSmen, a. follows: Eleventh
division. Michigan and Wisconsin: Twelfth
division, Illinois; Thirteenth division. Min
ne>ota, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Iowa and Nebraska Fourteenth. Kansas
and Missouri; Fifteenth Texas and Okla
homa. The Sixth division will consist
~ hi'h " tiit 'blpI~ HllutE the con
scripiion bill and each division will have "a
war strength of 10000 men, making an
army Of 100000 to be- trained in camps u
be located in Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona
and New Mexico. One division will be
stationed at Camp Wilson. San Antonio.
One board of army officers to select
sites in the department from the Pccos
river east J. To be headed by Brigndier
General Charles q. Morton and will recon-
mend one site in Oklahoma and three in
Texas. Other members of this board are
Lieutenant Colonel M,rrittc W. Ireland,
Lieutenant Colonel W. J. Barden. Major
Howard l.. Laubach and Captain NJ. Il.
llilgard.
The other board to work from the Pecos
river west to Yuma il headed by Brigadier
General Henry a. Greene and j. To rec
ommend one site in Arizona, one in New
Mexico and one in Texas. The other mem
bers on this board are Lieutenant Colonel
Nj. l.. Walker, Lieutenant Colonel James NJ.
Kennedy, Lieutenant Colonel William III.
Bertsch and Major II. G. Whitehead
The states from which the national
guard divisions are to come will form new
units to bring their guard up TO war
strength and new staffs will reformed to
officer them. Under this "~ranoern~t y
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