Omaha daily bee., 1919-01-11
Camps of Disappointment,
william .. Brook in the outlook.

The day the armistce was signed the camps
was a wild place. Ii would have been strange if
It had not been, for America was a wild land
that day and given to excessive mirth. We
were simply following the fashion of the ages
in an hour Of great relief And the camp, be-
ing essentially part of us, did just as the rest
Of US did in every city and village throughout
the broad land
Then came the reaction. 1t manifested it.
self first in sense of intense and bitter disap-
pointment. These men had left their homes and
their carea<s at the cogntry's mandate to per-
form certain task. II was a task for which
none Of them had been specially fitted task
wholly apart from the things they had planned
to do when they began to think for themselves.
Some of them had turned to it regretfully. But
. the most amazing thing that ever took place in
America happened after they got into the
camps and had begun to prepare for the task.
have lived among soldiers during the entire
period of the war. / have talked to thousands
of them about their personal opinions of the
conflict, and | can most gratefully record the
fact that the number of them who did not want
to go overseas and take their full part in the
struggle was so few as to be negligible. And
they had not been changed by the infection of
mob passion, either but by sober realization
that the thing they were doing was so high and
holy that beside it mans life counted as moth
ing This had nerved them to high endeavor,
had enabled them to go through daily the weary
monotony OF training to endure the discomforts
of camp life and the separation from the things
they loved. The armstce meant that they
would never be able to do the thing they wanted
to do, the thing for which they had endured so
much. And the realization of it fell like cloud
over them. There was at once slump in
morale. They became careless in the perform
ance Of the routine. And some-perhaps the
ones who would have shown up most brilliantly
in the day of battle--went little further than
being careless. They had not had the chance,
for which they had longed with such devotion,
to strike blow at the hated thing They were
keenly and bitterly disappointed.
The second stage of the reaction manifested
itself IN desire to get home and resume the life
that had been laid aside to enter the army. 1t
was the most natural thing in the world that
they should feel that way The American has
proved in this war his right to place among
the best soldiers in the world. But he is not
naturally a soldier. He loathes some things in
the camps. have seen men, who but a few
weeks before had directed large affairs, cheer
fully peeng potatoes for the mess, or picking
up scraps of paper in the company Streets along
with comrades whose view of life's horizons
were limited an equal time before to the top of
the ditch shoves were making. And, rain
soaked or sweat-stained, they had hiked many
mile, singing as they went They didn't like it;
the other things, the things they did before,
were the things they wanted to do; but they
did these army things because the necessity was
laid upon them, and they did them with a grin.
OiiC OHly Tau " yen dl any SOuipdlly VI
under any circumstances, "Are you down
hearted% to get the laundering answer, mo"
But just as soon as the necessity was lifted they
were unit in their desire to get away from it |
and back to the old place and the old job The |
machinery of rehabilitation moves entirely too |
slowly for them, and they swear at it with all
the fervid Impotence they use to manifest
when the overseas orders were long while |
coming.
And while they wait their discharge they are
manifesting quickened interest in home prob
lens. They instinctively sense the fact that |
they are going to be the leaders of the coming |
years, just as the men who wore the blue were
the leaders of the generation after the 60s They |
have strangely matured, many of them, during |
the months in camp. They are holding bigger !
idea of country and its place in a mans iife. |
Once they lived for the village or the city which
was their home. They will live not less for that |
but more for America, the land to which they |
once surrended their lives. They have come in |
contact with men from widely removed sections, |
and each has given the other the vision of the |
whole. l am thinking that the paroehial con- /
gresham who views his duty to his country as
done when his two hands grab all that they can i
for his district is going to have hard time |
rendering to these men an account OF his stew
ardship. But other things have entered into |
this maturing process than what they have /
taught each other The results of the campaign /
for idealism which has been conducted since
the camps opened are showing themselves The /
men who have gone from camp to camp repeatE
ing the insistent message that we had country
worth dying for, and showing why it was worth
dying for, have sown seed whose harvest is now
apparent. If it was WORTH dying for it is also
worth living for And the men are quick in
responding to the call for service in every way
when they go back home. Last night there oc-
Cured typical incident. A lecture was to be
given at o'clock in the Recreation Hall on
1.-THE Tasks Remaining for the MenS of
America" late train delayed the lecturer,
and a seven7reel movie was put on for the thou
sand men who had assembled. It was nearly 9
O'Clock when the show was over, but not man
left his seat when the lecturer went on at that
late hour 10 challenge them to civic tasks when
they got home again. Can any one imagine
such thing two years ago? Many Of the men
who cheered that lecturer would then have said,
"Oh helll what's the old guy talking abouts'
and gone home. They are not the same men.
Their cheers proved it.
The camps and the westering ships are
sending back to tho country a race OF new IDEAL
lists. They would lau1l at you-if they did not
swear at yog-;f you told them So But they
are ready to make the country greater in peace
than they did in war.
81 II