The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1918-01-31
Invisible ArmOr.

Secretary of War, at National Con-
ference on War-Camp Community
Recreation, Washington, D. C.
No army ever before assembled in
the history of the world has had so
much thought given and so much la
Dor performed in the interest of its
social organization. 1t is no re-
Election on anybody to say that the
ancient method of assembling an
army wah first to have some sort of
inspiring music marched through the
street, to have local oratorical out
burst on the subject of the particular
cause for which the army was desi--
ed, to have young men follow the
music and then be taken off to make
their own conditions, and then to bo
sent to the battlefront with that
much training.
But the United States is civilized
country. Nobody realized how
civilized it was until we assembled
this army, for instantly there came
from all parts of the country a de.
mand that this army should not be
raised as armies hitherto had been.
that it should not be environed az
armies hitherto had been. but that
'ch arrangements should be mad
as would insure that these soldiers
"hen actually organized into an armv.
would represent and carry out tho
very highest deals of our civilization
For great many years in Americ,
we have been struggling almost dee
pondently with the problem of tho
large cities. We knew that the LARGE
city was economically and industri
ally more efficient. We knew that
by getting people close to the place
where they were to work, knittinr
them in large groups We multiplied
the industrial output of the individual
We knew that by getting people into
large cities we were able to extend
over a wider surface the so-called con-
veniences of modern civilization: that
people could live in better houses.
that they could have better sani-
tatlon; that they could have better
medical care; that they could have
1reer access to public Libraries and
opportunities for culture; that thew
could have better schools. But we
realized that we paid price for the
city, and that price consisted in the
tempestuous and heated temptations
or city life, and every man who has
had any opportunity to study city
life has had his mind more or less held
IN a state of balance between its ad-
vantages and it's disadvantages.
1t used to be said that a family
ran out in three generations livino.
IN city, and that it was necessary
to replenish the vitality of citv-
dwelling people by constant drafts
upon the unspoiled people of tho
countrtyside; and that was. W.
learned, because of the vices which
grew up in cities, and because Az
OF those restraints of neiehborhood
opinion were gone. A bow in tho
country was known to everybody of
his neighborhood. His misconduct
was marked. The boy in the city
could be saint in the first ward
where he lived, and scapegrace in
the tenth ward. without anybody in
TIE first ward discovering it. Their
was an absence of that pressure o.
neighborhood opinion, that opportur
lty to cultivate the good opinion oe
old neighbors, which was evident j.
the countryside where conduct wa
more obvious.
Now, for a long time we tried =
perfectly wrongheaded process about
the city; we tried to pass laws and
TO enforce them by policemen. which
would cure all these ills 7 do NO
mean that we ought not to have scma
policemen, but we imagined that opr
sole salvation lay in the PASSAGE o.
laws and in the employment of polio,
men. And / can remember when
was mayor of middle-western citv
that every now and then some move
ment would get its start to have
curfew law passed in that city. to
make everybody 90 to bed at. nov.
tIcular time. Some laws of that kirI
were passed, and some supreme cou,,,
held they were unconstitutional aal
some held they were constitional, but
no court had any right to pass on the
real fact involved, which was that
they were ineffective.
And then all of sudden the dis
coVery was made that the way 20
overcome the tenn Mt q tionn .al