The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1917-07-31
SIXTEEN MAGIC CITIES
RISING FROM FIELDS
LAUNDERING AGAINST TIME IN
ERECTION OF CANToNMENTS
OF 1000 BUILDINGS EACH.
BATTALLIONS OF WORKMEN
ENGAGED in GREAT TASK
Barracks Must Be Completed For
Great Conscript Army. Snorting
Machines Dig bitches and Mash
Down Earth to Form Streets,

Machines Dig bitches and Mash
Down Earth to Form Streets.
Batteries of workmen at 16 Amer
lean camp sites are fiinging together
whole cities out of innumerable car
loads of raw material. The cities are
the environments that will house the
great American draft army. These
camps will be completed when the
army is called Sept. 1, according to
army officers who are on the Job
and are watching the thousands of
buildings rise from the earth.
Snorting machines of many types
are rumbling over the ground, some
ripping up long trenches, others
MASKING down certain routes that
soon will be streets. Automatic well
diggers are boring down into the
earth and unique contrivances are
doing scores of jobs once done by
hand. Besides these machines are
bevy of workmen, scrambling over
half-completed buildings or hurrying
along newly-built streets.
Buildings Sprung Up in Day.
When the workmen arrived on the
sites during the last week of June
there were mammoth piles of lumber
scattered over the wheat and corn
fields and meadows. At noon on the
same day huge circus ten had been
erected at each camp and a meal was
awaiting the workers. At night from
five to ten temporary buildings had
been erected for workmen's quarters.
bearing large signs, Plumbers lane"
carpenters row." or some similar
designation.
Within week the preliminary
work had been completed. All of the
Workmen's homes were finished and
connected with sewers and water.
Railroad switches had been spread out
to the various distributing points of
each cantonment. Telegraph offices,
where cattle once grazed, were tick
ing their demands to the world. Tele-
phone exchanges were sending out
their messages from points that once
were grain fields.
Work Begins In Earnest.
With their own quarters finished,
workmen began in earnest the con-
struction of the environments. ONLY
nine weeks left in which to build 16
cities, each of more than 10000 in
habltants. With this gigantic task
before them the workmen went at
their labor with the same energy dis
played in erecting thir own quarters.
Now every phase of the work is
systematiZed. Daily shipments of
lumber arrive at each camp and are
dropped into chutes that lead to new
ly-built saw-mills. Almost Immediate
ly they are shot out of the sawimlls
in the form Of lumber most badly
needed. Men and trucks are waiting
there to hurry it to the points for
which it is intended.
Mounted Timekeepers Handy Men
Throughout each camp are mount
ed timekeepers hurrying from one
point to another. A foreman tells his
immediate needs to rider and a few
minutes later truck arrives at his
building with the desired lumber.
nails, tools or other material that he
may have ordered.
In the long rows of buildings the
speed of construction and the differ
ent phases of the work are clearly
shown: At the nearest end electri-
clans and plumbers are finishing up
the job. On the next building car
penters are putting on the roofing
and so on down the line are buildings
in lesser stages of completion.