Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1920-03-18

after day the new army studies and drills
In the buildings and on the parade
grounds II has inherited from the recent
old army. And each day the barracks OF
1917. 1918 and 1919 are one day nearer DISCO
luton. The problem of what is going to
become of them is puzzling Congress and
all who study our national problems.
While there has been a deadlock of pub
lie and legislative opinion in the United
states over the future military policy OF
the nation. Uncle Sam, who became In
wartime history's biggest town builder
and real estate operator. has been decid-
ing what he would do with the 80 army
cities he built In the summer OF III to take
care of the 100000 nephews in khaki who
won the war for him.
He had been forced to acquire 531 ,S55
acres in "a states for his environments and
camps. and after he had sent his 100000
nephews back to their homes with his
blessing and a $50 bonus, he began to think
about those half million acres. The old
gentleman is rather well-heeled, but he
had put a heavy mortgage on the national
homestead when he got mixed up in the
international wrangle, so he set out to
economic. A farmer who holds more
land than he can proitaby use may be-
come land poor, and Uncle sam Iouno
himself loaded up with 100000 acres, most
of which had become useless and was
making big holes in his bank account for
rentals and upkeep.
Within two months after the armis-
tice he had decided TO get out from under
the burden of his wartime camp expense
But, being canny, he decided ne would
save as much as he could in the process
Together the 16 environments for the ma
q N
national guard had set him back about
s265 600. 600 for construction costs He had
put up more than $4,000 buildings in a
shorter time than II takes to build an
ordinary suburban dwelling, and in so
doing had spent seven-tenths as much
money as the construction cost of the
Panama canal-but it had taken him 10
years to build the canal.
The problem he faces in dealing with the
environments and camps left on his hands,
therefore, was to save as much money as
possible in disposing of those he no long
err needed.
His first decision was to keep all the
national army cantonments and to dis
pose of practically all the national guard
camps. He had spent much more money
in building the national army canton
ments. for the selective service men were
required to live in them comparatively a
long time. In addition. he had built most
Of them in northern States where the char
acter of construction had to meet winter
climatic conditions.
The national guard camps. on the other
hand, were intended to give training to
State troops who needed shorter training
and were to go overseas after "A relative
ly short stay in the camps. So the ma
| 80 Is
South. and tents provided most of the
shelter Both types of camps had been
laid out by town-planning experts and
| both had many permanent improvements
such as sewerage and waterworks sys.
TENS, roads and sidewalks, but the loss
in abandoning the guard camps was far
| less than it would have been to sell the
cantonments.
| In addition, there was-and still is-the
| question of the future military policy OF
| the United States. One outstanding les
| son of the war is that "A modern army must
have facilities for the assembling of large
groups of men in one place. No matter
| what kind Of a peace-time army the Uni
ted States will have. it must now keep that
army in working order by maneuvcrs
| The old policy of regiment here and a
| company there. the whole army scattered
| over a hundred cities and small camps
| must now give way to a system that will
permit divisions and corps being assem-
| bled for army maneuvers. And the ma
tional army cantonmcnts have been judged
as fulfilling this requirement.
Last Septemb the final steps, towart
| acquiring permanent titles TO all the can
| tonments were being taken. To-day al
| I6 are owned by the government. In add.
| ton. two national guard camps. Doniphar
in Oklahoma and Mcclellan in Alabama
| have been retained because of specia
needs, and Camp Kearny in California
another national guard camp, is being re
tanned temporarily. The cantonments &C
ouired, with descriptive details of each
are shown in the following table:
| Build Capac-
| ings. ity. Acres