The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1918-02-02
The Kid Brother in Camp
How Uncle Sam Has Organized the Training Camp
Activities to Provide Heabhful Outlets for the SOLDIER Energy
By James H. Collins
By James H. Collins

the army surgeons have seen to that.
When he reached his National army
cantonment Uncle Sam Immediately be-
gan to put more energy into him. He
will live outdoors IS hours a day, and
get scientific physical training to tune
up every muscle in his body and make
it available for endurance and hard
work. War is the most energetic ac-
tivity of mankind. They will fill the
kid brother full of the energy of the
athlete and give him the enjoyment
of properly trained muscles that comes
to the acrobat. They will do this and
then multiply him by 100000, and the
sum total of him will be 100000 Ameri-
can boys with more energy and better
ideas of how to use it than have ever
been possessed by an equal number.
This energy is being generated to
fight the Germans. But before it can
be applied on the western front there
is a problem even more serious than
fighting Germans to be solved. I'm
less you give that much energy an am
pie outlet it is going to wreck SOME
thing. If it n find anything else
to wreck it will wreck itself.
About a year ago in a little town on
the Mexican border there were 5000
kid brothers in our National Guard
camp near a town which had not even
a pool room, much less a moving pic
ture theater. The one organized out
let for energy there was a well
equipped, efficiently run redlight dis
trict. Many of those 5000 soldiers
did the logical thing-proceeded to
wreck themselves. They were so sue
cesSful that the war department hur-
riedly sent trained social workers to
see what could be lone to stop the
damage, and one of these social work.
ers who is 10Y in charge in the train
ing camp activities of the National
army resolved as he stood in the DESC
late streets of Douglas, Ariz., that if he
ever got a chance to provide healthful
outlets for soldiers energy he would
certainly do the best job that he knew
how. Today this man, Raymond b.
Fosdick, has charge of the training
camp activities of our new National
army, and what sort of a job he is do
ing you may judge for yourselves.
May Think Time Lost.
The kid brother knows that when
he goes to camp Uncle Sam will have
provided for him a uniform, a rifle, a
place to live and sleep, and proper in
struction in the soldiers discipline and
duties. He has probably seen some
figures of the food that he is to eat,
the millions of pounds of beef, and
beans, and jam the trainloads of po-
tatoes and onions and cabbage. He
is willing to do this patriotic service
as q soldier. Yet he may also feel
that his period of sOldiery, whether it
last one year or five, may be so much
time dropped out of his life, spent in
a sort of Jail far from the people and
the things that he likes. If he has
heard anything at all about training
camp activities it is probably about
only that part of it which relates to
booze and vice. SO much has been said
about safeguarding his morals that he
may have good reason to think that he
is going to have a pretty dull, sissified
sort of a time.
Suppose the kid brother comes from
some country town where good shows
are seldom seen. If he got a chance
to see a real Broadway success under
the management of a man like Marc
Klaw he would not let it get by. Well,
he is going to a place where there will
be a theater under the management
of Marc Klaw, and will have a chance
-. 80 z..z r IT,. 81 D.o,1r,,v e,,a
cesses. Booze and vice have received
altogether too much publicity in con-
nection with the soldiers training, Mr..
Fosdick says-they are negative actfV-
tiles in his job and also the least i'm
portant and most uninteresting. Despite
Il great public curiosity in this phase
of the work there has been little
difficulty in making the surround
ings clean. The army has enlist
ed local police officials in every train
ing camp territory, and these terri
tories have been cleaned up, and vice
and booze are giving little trouble, and
that is about all there is to say of
them.
Show Every Night.
II dNllNC WOlh 10 hioNl lloIV AllCA
esting. This is divided into work in
side the camp and outside in adjoining
cities and towns. Each c~antonment
will have it's own theater, seating $500
people, and In these theaters every.
night there will be shows given by pro-
fesSional actors and actresses travelling
on regular circuits, far above the ay-i
prao 90 theatrical amuSamantc avaiIabJa
to rs per cent of the boys in their
home towns. Two weeks every month
will be given up to legitimate drama,
goods plays, and musical shows, cur
rent successes from the big towns.
One week will be given up to moving
pictures and vaudeville, and the fourth
week to lectures, concerts, and anna
teur stuff.
Hundreds of our leading actors and