Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-02-09
FARMER IS NOT A
BETTER SOLDIER
/ THAN A CITY MAN
vord From Camp Dodge is That
There is No Best Fighter Dis
closed in Training.
REFERENCES NOW DISAPPEAR
,,,es oi pemarkation Between Two
Typcs OF Men Gradually Erased
in War Instruction.
tSnecial 10 The Argus.)


Camp Dodge. Iowa. Feb. 9.-Have
uunois' farmer boys made good as
.o,d;ers in Uncle Sans army?
There's an answer to this question
a, the Three Hundred Forty-ninth in
s,n,ry regiment. It's a part of the
riehty-eighth division and the organ.-
,stion 10 which the large majority OF I
Van selected for service from Hill
ros were assigned when they re-
ported for service.
The question which arose before the |
daft as to whether the city man or
tho country man would make the best |
soldier. has been settled.
There is no best soldier now. In
art officers say, there never has been
az far as national army is concerned.
Both Show Well.
Ask Colonel Girard l. Sturtevant,
commanding the Illinois regiment
about the men who were farmers be-
fore being called to the colors and
he'll say.
"The farmer is just as good SOL
der as the city man and the city man
il lust as good as the farmer"
In fact Colonel Sturtevant is OF the
oninion that they're all the best SOL
diers the world has ever seen.
II there was a fundamental differ
snce between the men from the coun-
try and those from the city before they
we're called to the colors it has long
since disappeared.
There we're a few differences of in
terest which made themselves evident
during the course Of training which
has been given. The man from the
farm was found to be more suscept-
ible to contagious diseases such as
humps, measles. chicken pox and
scarlet fever or what medical officers
term kid" diseases. This is said t1
be due to the fact that the majority
OF the men from the farms had not
lived in close contact with others or
in communities where such diseases
spread most rapidly.
On the other hand the man from
the city was found to be immune
against these diseases because of hi;
having had them while still child.
The matter of physique has made
Illinois national army men. In mos
cases it was found the man from tn
country was stronger and handler II
some ways than his city cousin. u
the other hand many men from tn
4 city were found to be more proper
tionately developed.
Military training has as its prfncipa
rim the building up of the entire body
tie filling out of the weak places an
TIE strengthening of the physica
structure as a whole.
Flaws Disappear.
II is impossible to tell today whic
soldier came from the country an
which from the city. Little eccentrl
cities of movement or peculiar man
ner which before his military trainin
distinguished one man from anothe
have entirely disappeared.
Gradually the entire division. ever
enlisted man and officer, - Delng az
yeloped into one of the cOgs in Uncl
Sans fighting machine which will &
down in history as the greatest OF
ganization of it's kind the world he
ever seen.
W0eU IDe UleH tdhc thCii PioSSS
the battle front in France to p'
world democracy on the map as
permanent institution for ever there
be no way of telling which man can
from the country and which from II
city.
Relatives and friends Of Rock lslaI
soldiers in the Eighty-eighth nation
army division here can send telegram
to the soldiers now with assuran
that they will be promptly delivered
In orders issued at division hea
quarters. company commanders OF t
organizations to which the recipe
Of the telegram is assigned are order
TO receipt for the message and attel
10 its prompt delivery no matt
where the soldier is or what he M
be doing.
Considerable complaint has cor
to the attention of the military auf
critics because Of the failure OF 81
die-s to receive messages.
Company commanders or those
charge in their absence are order
10 report hack by telephone to
telegraph office in the event they a
Unable to locate the soldier for wh(
the MESSAGE is intended.