New Britain herald., 1918-05-30
CTS famed them vigorously with

sle where animal spirits have full play in addition to highly organized athletic activities in camp, all under the supervision of directors-now be ing commissioned as captains in mum bers of the army camps. Mir. Aller quotes Dr. Joseph F.. Raycroft, o1 Princeton, who is at the head of this branch of the missions work as showing that sports mean more than mere pastime in making and keeping our fighters fit.
 The sports in the camp curricu-
 lum, such as boxing, football,
 and other personal contact games
 have been selected primarily to
 prepare the men for the struggle
 to come, and the value of the
 athletic training they have re-
 ceived will be realized when they
 go lover the top"
 To illustrate:
 Boxing teaches the manly art
 of self-control as well as that of
 self-defense. It also makes better
 bayonet fighters. Nearly every
 blow and position has it's counter
 part in bayoneting. I have seen
 boxing lessons in camp given to
 one thousand men all at once, the
 class being directed by a man on
 a high stand. One thousand box
 ing lessons at the same time! I
 said to an officer standing by:
 How many of those men do
 you suppose have ever struck
 another man since they were
 boys?"
 0.En
 swered, and I think he was right.
 The boxing which these men did
 in their friendly bouts later
 taught them what personal con-
 f1ict was. One of these days the
 quickness and agressiveness de-
 veloped in this boxing will be the
 means of saving their lives.
 There is a place in camp where the soldier can spend his money. And Sammie comes nearer eating his cake and having it too than anyone else; because Sammie buys his cake at the Post Exchange, also post cards and chewing gum and shoe strings, pastry and peanuts and soda pop, at very lit tie above cost with the profits turned back to be spent again by his regi- ment. And there are profits. -..
 For each exchange does a busi-
 ness of nearly $1,00O a day, and
 when one remembers that there
 are from eleven to sixteen ex-
 changes in each cantonment, it is
 easy to realize that the trade of
 a year amounts up into the mill
 lions.
 As to what becomes of this aggre- gate of piled up nickels, dimes and quarters:
 In one cantonment at the sug-
 gestion of the commanding officer
 it has been decided to put aside
 the major part as a tobacco fund
 for smokes when the soldiers get
 lover there" one unit has . bought musical instruments for
 their band at the expenditure of
 $1,700.
 A million books are in circulation among the men in forty camps and training stations.
 have talked with pr. Herbery
 Putnam, librarian of congress,
 and general director of the
 library war service, and with
 other representatives of the
 American Library association, in-
 cluding camp librarians, and they
 are unanimous in their statement
 that the American soldier of to-
 day reads a higher class of books
 than the average American citi-
 zen.
 So says MT. Allan in the chapter What They Read--And Why" " There is a demand, he has found, for books on war strategy, and calculus and civil engineering, literary classics, and technical handbooks, but our sol dier is no highbrow, and there is a demand at the other end of the scale for Henty books and the like. Similarly, educational work covers 8 wide field in meeting the de- mands of men gathered in from all walks of life in the draft. They are and society men, and men from farms and mines and remote districts.
 . Some of them speak and write
 the Kings English; some alas,
 the Kaiser's German, but with
 strong American accent; and
 others anything from Russian
 Dialect to Chinese.
 English for English speaking foreigners is for the most part com In such sentences as "I am a soldier of America; I am fighting for democracy: democracy is the rule of the people," the new citizens learn both the language of the coun- try and the meaning of it's privileges. English for illiterates is strongly urged in camps where it is necessary. The men are appealed to through their love of home to learn to write letters. Intermediate courses are en- and college extension courses furnished wherever there is a demand for them. Then there is French. In some camps it is compul- sory, but in them all it is popular. At