Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1919-11-06
SICK SOLDIERS
BLUE WITH COLD
Startling Disclosures Made in
Camp Sherman Base Hos
pital Inquiry

Camp sherman, Ohio. Nov. 3.-Charges
that wlful negligence on the part of
steam filters employed in the construction
of the base hospital at Camp Sherman
resulted in exposure for weeks to the
zero weather prevalent in late October
and all of November. 1917, of sick SOL
diers confined there, were among the
startling disclosures made before the
congressional subcommittee by Joseph
Poole. Chllicothe contractor. late to-day.
The evidence given by Poole will be fol-
lowed up to fix the responsibility for the
suffering of the men, according to Chair
man John c. Mckenzie and Chief Exam
liner Roscoe G. McCulloch of the COM
mittee.
While sick soldiers were pinched and
actually blue to their finger tips with the
bitter cold steam filters supposedly equip
ping the hospital wards with steam heat
were gambling and warming themselves
over their gasoline torches. Poole told
the committee. He asserted that the
weather was so cold that nurses wore
their furs when they tended the sick and
the doctors wore their sheepskin lined
coats and the patients had no heat what
ever.
Poole, who was employed by the A.
Bentley II Sons company, of Toledo
as "A carpenter foreman at the base
hospital, characterized the attitude of
the steam filters as disloyal and as
the worst he had even seen"
Games of chance were worked
among the men. the witness declared.
Two or three days every week some-
body would come around and have the
men buy chances on automobiles, wrist
watches and other things he said
RI cd nv
body" he declared.
Other witnesses corroborating
Poole's testimony as to the idling of
the men and the wastage of material
and money agreed that the work could
have been done more satisfactorily
and in quicker time by from two
thirds to one-half the number of men
on a given job. Taylor Thornburg of
Chillicothe, laborer, told the commit
tee that his foreman told his gang to
hide in the corn field and that from
II TO 90 of them spent from "A week
TO 10 days in the corn. He said he
drew pay from the Y. NJ. c. A. and from
the government for the same week
and that he did not dare say anything
about it because they weren't allow
ed to-"
You might Az we'll have some OF
the extra time the other men are get
ting" was the statement Jesse Bran
don testified foreman made to him
ON the following pay day he said
his pay envelope contained S13 extra
When he spoke OF it to the paymas-
ter he declared the latter told him
he couldn't count" On another oc-
casion he said there was So extra in
his pay. He said he was hired ito
watch gravel wagons" and that as a
rule not more than three wagons ap-
peared where he was on a given day
and sometimes he said there was only
s51.6O weekly.
When the men could not get any,
thing else to do, they chiseled pieces
out of the floor so that they would
have to cut and fit new pieces was
the assertion made by r. n. Ferguson,
Chillcothe carpenter. He told of a man
spending three days at the pay
window to collect 80 cents he was
short in his pay, all the while draw
ing his regular pay of sixty cents
an hour as n carpenter. Other wit
nesscs related how men hired as car
penters were utilized TO carry water.
That a collection was made to buy
mantel piece for Major General T..
T. Glenn's Chillicothc home. was the
statement made by Poole He said he
knew Of about $1,000 that had been
collected and that if the rest of the
workmen had contributed proportion =
ately fund of from $1,000 to $4,000
must have been available. He de-
clared that the men never heard any
thing more of the mantel.