Trench and camp. ([Admiral, Md.) 1917-1919, 1918-10-03

- ~~A4 VWS tu0 mSkCAu& POI Wk AMG&~
A0 admfxture Of races d being
poured q new American soldier
NAN who, wearing the khaki and
covered with the dust OF the parade
GT09nd, Is stepping forth into the
AmMs-Ale upon file OF him-t0
@ake the world safe for Democracy,
70 tear the bloody hand Of the Hun
from the throat Of civilization.
He In the mon English-speakiMg
poldier who. along with his Ameri-
ean-Dorn brothers, has been selected
ghrough the draft to drive the over
seas barbarians back into their lair.
!. AND the wonder Of il all 10 that
put scant three months ago it
&semed that from this melting pot
could be poured only q conglomerate
mass or humanity. confused by ba-
PEI or tongues and dishgured by the
al bat shapeless mold into which II
had been poured.
Yet now the mold is molding
smoothly. symmetrically. Soldier
otter soldier ia being turned out at
20 night for Liberty under the Stars
end Stripes. mindful of the traditions
OF his race and the land Of HIS ma
ttvtty and conscious OF the principles
Tor which he is fighting.
A Wonder Story
And It has all been brought about
BY what Is known in army circles as
Fthe Camp Gordon plan"-whereby
hangs Q twentieth century story; a
story to make the pulse quicken in
these days when every mite con-
I. tributed toward the winning Of this
@0rtd-war 10 an occasion for rej0ic-
Ing; . story to gladden. and reassure
the anxious hearts Of the foreign
born within our gates who have seen
their sons taken by Uncle Sam and
who In agony Of soul have been won-
dering what he would do with them.
Above all. the story of welding
Of diverse nationalities into q COM
posite American type such as the So
called melting pot" failed to pour
forth in time of peace.
When the operations of the selec-
tive draft law began to turn its
chosen men into the big Army camps.
hundreds and then thousands Of for
eign-born males who came within its
scope were found in the long lines
admitted. Italians. Poles. Russians.
Russian Jews. Lithuanians and
Greeks marched side by side with the
Matlve-born sons of America. Ar
menians, Albanians, Syrians. Czecho-
Slovaks, Jugo-Slavs, Scandinavians,
Firms, and even Turks, answered this
peremptory call to the colors. And
not more than one in q hundred OF
them knew the English language well
enough to understand the instruc-
tons necessary to make them first
class fighting men.
So, naturally, in the imperative
haste OF getting an army to France
OF the earliest possible date, these
men Of stalwart frame, Of flashing
eye and sealed lips were pushed
aside. separated from the English
speaking draftees and placed to-
gether, q conglomerate mass, in a
single section of each camp in what
have since been designated as De-
velopment Battalions.
And there, perfOfce, they were left
to themselves for while-nOt by
choice OF those in authority, but sim
ply because they presented problem
for which the answer could not be
found ON the spur OF the moment.
They were not neglected; on the con-
trary, they were well-housed, we'll
fed, well taken care of. But they
were not Immediately subjected to
the soldier-making process to which
the AmeFican-born draftees were in
tr0duced.
There we're officers who could talk
20 some of them in their own tongues
but the officers were few, the
tongues many and the men them
selves thousands upon thousands.
What to do with them, how to train
them. how even to make them under
stand the few simple rules that any
body of men living together must OBJ
serve for the sake of mere cleanliness
and good health-these were only q
few of the salient points of the great
problem faced by the military.
Here. let us say, was an Italian
Onicer with some five hundred men
under his command; he could make
the italians understand his orders,
but the remainder of the five hundred
were perhaps Of as many as forty-one
different nationalities! And there,
again, was a Polish officer who could
speak with the Poles and the Rus
SLAMS, but his instructions were worse
than Greek" to the Italians, the
Syrians and the rest Of the men in his
command. And. remember. army of
1cers who speak even one OF these
strange European tongues were SO
few that they were absolutely lost in
the vast hordeS pouring into the