Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-10-14
ROTARY CLUBS Join
/ ARMY CAMP WORK
Recognize the Necessity of
! Providing Soldiers With
! Wholesome Recreation.
ban EVILS OF OTHER WARS

ban EVILS OF OTHER WARS
Rotary clubs in all parts of the coun-
1kry are giving aid 10 tee movement TO
provide wholesome recreation for men
an training camps. Reports Of these
activities are being received by the ma
xfonal headquarters of the war camp
Scommunity recreation service
Many other organize tions are lining
Np th,ir forces to help entertain the
4 men OF the new National Army while
fhey are In training.
Charles Fl. Perry. secretary Of the
international Association of Rotary
Clubs. has sent n letter to members of
She organization in which he says, in
<part:
Letters to Rotarians.
Rotary is the club that knows how
ITO have a ripsnortiag. bully good time
without booze or smut.
''Rotarians and the sons of RotariaHs
thousands OF them-are in the Amer
lean Army and Navy.
The new social conscience that calls
for the preservation Of the character
Integrity Of the flower Of Americas
young manhood is only another mani
fary spirit and rotary ideals.
When the War and Navy depart
1nents created their commissions
training camp activities. to establish
and maintain war camp community rec
feation work, 1t was inevitable that
the Rotarians should exert all their
influence TO make that work pro-
,0ounced success
6ives let every rotarian take an active
part in the attack on the pocketbooks
and help the Chamber of Commerce nut
1t over Your war service commission
has promised that in every city where
there is Rotary club the allotment of
smoney will be raised in one day
Tells of Visit TO Camps.
Charles W. Dawson OF Muskoeee. Okla.
. governor of the eleventh district OF the
international Association Of Rotary Clubs.
who has been in The field visitins. = num-
Der OF training camps. in 4 report to the
rational headquarters here of the war
camp community recreation service.
speaks most strongly and wildly of the
: need OF proper environment around the
camps, as follows:
For the first time in history. a definite
! and sustained effort is to be made to
treat the soldier as a human being. rath-
er than part of machine. Every war
IN history has resulted in more deaths
and disability through disease than
through loss by battle. and every war IN
history has been accompanied bv a
scourge. of disease which has not only
ruined the lives of multitude of soldiers
hut has passed from them through gener-
auons OF men and women. bringing in
sanity, blindness and thousand other
Ills in its train.
. The President and the Secretary Of
war OF the United States were so con-
WINGED of the needlessness and crirli-
naiity of this terrible waste of man
hood that they determined that United
States soldiers should be given every
possible protection while serving their
country.
Shame of All Nations.
TT Is the shame OF every nation. and
ours no less than the older countries.
that heretofore the common soldier has
! had no amusement open to him except
the saloon. the gambling house, the
0neap dance hall and the brothei
German statistics show that in the
Hrst 129 battles of the war the loss
IN killed, wounded and missing amount
I'd TO practically seventy-five men per
thousand. Fully one-third OF the men
at the front have lost time through
easily preventable diseases. The same
proportion held true in some of our
own camps in former years. but in one
OF the camps on the Mexican border
where the new regulations were en-
forced and wholesome recreation was
0nered IN place of commercialized vice
the loss reached as low as 2 per cent
in the month of August. at one of our
concentration car1pS. where thA~e were
$4,000 soldiers. there We're only seven
teen cases
One of the most interesting. as well
as important. efforts being made by
the Playground and Recreation Assoc
clifton workers who are lining up the
social forces in the communities around
the camps is the establishment OF
those ties which were broken by the sol
der when he left home. They strive to
IND out TO what church. lodge or other
society each man belongs and to have
corresponding local organization get
IN touch with him and invite him to
ats activities. They encourage the boy
to write to home and friends. They
help to organize church sociais. to hold
dances and other social functions, and
to encourage the people of the COM
immunity to invite groups OF boys to
. their homes"
Long for Home Folks.
Mr.. Dawson declares that the great
desire of the men IN camps lis to get
TO town in order that they may see
and talk with people who look like
their fathers and their mothers, their
sisters and brothers
ct havn IN, 80