Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1918-02-28
SMEDLEY DECLARES HE WHO SAYS SOLDIER
CANNOT BE A CHRISTIAN IN THE ARMY IS
WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT HE SPEAKS
By r. c. SMEDLEY,
(Former Secretary Rock Island 7. NJ

By r. c. SMEDLE1,
Tormer Secretary Rock Island 7. N.
C. A.
Camp Hancock. Augusta, Ca, Feb.
att takes clean man to make a
good soldier"
When a man high in authority In
military affairs publicly makes
statement like that, 1t means some
thing to me. And that is exactly what
was said by the chief of staff, ColoneI
King, in a talk to a group which he
was addressing one day this week
here in Camp Hancock. Next to Cen
eral Blair. commander Of the Nty-
sixth division, the chief Of staf is
the highest authority. He made
| the statement to make clear one
OF the reasons why the military au,
thorities are so willing to welcome
and cooperate with the Young Mems
Christian association in it's work for
the soldiers.
Another officer. this one being Major
Weldon. adjutant of the Fifty-sixth
brigade, part Of which Is served by
our building, spoke as follows in a
speech made In our building the other
night:
"A. soldier doesn't often say nice
things, but in a case like this It is
we'll worth while for us to give ex-
preston to the tireless, devoted Y.
NJ. c. A. men who are giving their
time and doing their bit, just as we
are trying to do our bit. think
that we owe a great deal to the Y. M.
C. A. organization, out more especial
ly to the Y NJ. C. A. organization at
tached to this division. 1 am always
impressed by the fact that the Y. M.
C. A. hut means to us-home. Every
time 1 see the Y. M. C. A. with the
boys gathered in the building / think
about home and realize that back
home, our wives, our mothers and our
sweethearts are there waiting for u.s.
I l quote these remarks by officers
merely to indicate one Of the reasons
why the military men welcome US and
our work, and give us cooperation at
r every point possible. We have nc
hindrances to overcome in that direc.
ton. And 1t Is somewhat for the en-.
couragsment of the home folks that
:. quote Colonel Kings statement about
> needing clean men to make good sol,
/, diers. There may have been time
4 when soldier had to be a tough, but
that time Is passed, and the clean, ef-
ficient, intelligent man, who knows
how to fight with his brains as vel
i as with his body, is the man wanted
for modern warfare. The man who
y says that a man can't be Christian
b in the army does not know what he is
talking about, in my experience.
Camp Full of Schools.
I Camp Hancock, like every other
q training camp, is a great big schoo
:, these days-a~ sort Of war college. ii
:. which there are as many courses as
at a university. There are more thar
twenty schools of various kinds ir
progress in the camp, and these
schools offer different courses tending
to specialization, quite in university
style. There is hardly an officer or ar
enlisted man in the whole camp who
e is not taking instruction in at least
$ one Of the schools.
The largest in the camp, naturally
y is the infantry school, Here, every
: infantryman is receiving instruction
!. from the commissioned officers, whit
; are taught ny tue uleu OIL tue bTll1SI
+ and French military missions, or b,
the ''non-coms," who are getting thei
s training direct from the officers. Thu
: infantry school is divided into sever
? departments: Small arms, machine
. guns, engineers, mortars and cannon
n gas defense, scouting observation ant
y signalling, physical training, and pla
+ toons in attack and defense Each o
s these departments has many courses
/ For example, in the small arms de
s. partment, there are courses in gren
AIDES. both hand and rifle; bayonets
Il musketry, rifle and pistol; and tn
o automatic rifle. This example ma
y suffice to show that we do have an ed
. ucational system, more complicate'
u than the average high school or small
y college in its curriculum. And at
tendance is compulsory. The men II
i. our section have been on the riff
range this week, many Of them, shoot
ing for records, or in other words
i, taking a final examination. Those VIII
, fail to make a passing grade, or score
simply have to keep on at the worl
b, until they do have the score, even a
If il they were in high school.
d Another important school is the ar