Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1921-07-06
TRAINING CAMPS.
A Rare Opportunity for Young Men
of Hancock County.
Bar Harbor, Me-, June 2S, 1921

10 the EdltOr Oh tue Amer ioah.
In behalf of the Military Training
Camps association of the United
States. may / have the privilege OF
your columns to bring to the atten-
ton of your readers the facts con-
corning the civilian military train
ing camps, one of which will be held
in each of the nine army corps areas
of the United States this summer.
These camps will be held by the
war departmen under an approprla-
ton by Congress from which all ex-
penses of attendants will be paid;
including transportation to and from
camp. food, uniforms, washing, ETC.
Each camp will last for thirty days
In other words, Uncle Sam proposes
to give to young men between the
ages of sixteen and thirty-five the
finest and healthiest kind of free
vacation.
No military obligation of any KIND
arises from attendance at any OF
these camps. No one, directly or in
directly, obligates himself in any way
to become a soldier in the United
States army, or in the national guard
of any state, or in the organized re-
serves; he does, however, by attend
ing one of these camps, greatly bene-
fit his health, and in case OF national
emergency, he has partly prepared
himself to perform some OF the
military duties of every American
citizen. No educational test is re-
quired.
The success of the training camps
depends largely upon the willingness
of employers, in the case of young
men who are working, to give thirty
days vacation with pay and without
prejudice to the advancement of the
employee in the business. That
seems little enough to ask OF patrl-
otto American employer!
These camps have been enthusiast
cally approved by President Harding,
who, in a recent statement, has ex
pressly requested every young man,
who is physically able to do so, to
attend. The President has also eX
pressed the hope that at least 10O,-
900 young men will go to these
camps in every year to come.
Civilian training camps are the very
opposite of militaristic system, for,
by means of such progressive train
ing, the maintenance and expense of
large standing army can be
avoided, and young men can be given
rudimentary military instruction at
minimum cost.
These camps are a revival of the
famous Plattsburg camps of 1915,
1916 and 1917. New England, be-
ing in the first corps area, young
men from Maine will be trained at
Camp Devens, beginning August Z.
Much more attention in this years
camps will be devoted to organized
sports and recreation than in the
previous camps during the war,
where, necessarily, more time was
given to military training and drill.
In this summers camps there will be
but little drill after MONDAY mess,
the afternoon being principally de-
voted to various kinds of sports,
games and target practice, including
track athletics, baseball games,
swimming under skillful instruc-
ton, when the camps are near water,
and other kinds of healthful exercise.
Nor will there be the tiresome five or
six days hike or long march,
which was the concluding feature of
the training in the earlier Platts-
burg camps. Instead, there will be
two or three short practice marches,
ending with single march of about
eight miles out from camp, spending
the night under canvas, and return
ing the next day.
Special attention will be given to
the care training and moral sur
roundings of the younger attendants,
namely, youths of sixteen and seven
teen years of age. Naturally, these
young men cannot stand as much
drill or carry as heavy packs as men
several years older; furthermore,
their parents may naturally have
some anxiety as to their coming in
contact with much older and more
experienced men. 1t has therefore
been decided that these younger men
will be allotted to companies with
other men of their own age, and that
their camp life will be subject to
more careful and thorough regula-
tion than that of older men.
The training, drill and general
conduct of the camps will be under
the exclusive command and control
of officers of the United States army
in active service, who will be assisted
by carefully selected officers of the
reserve corps. All of these officers,
both those of the regular service and
those in civilian life holding reserve
commissions, have had previous ex-
perience in training camps, and are
thoroughly familiar with the training
and supervision of young men
One of the most interesting results
of such camp training is the revela-
tion to parents of the value of such
an experience to their sons. Their
boys are taught lessons of personal
cleanliness, neatness in their sur
roundings, tents and barracks, such
as they never do or could learn at
home. Cleanliness and neatness of
person, as well as Of company streets
and living quarters, are strictly re-
quired and enforced by frequent in
spections. Boys are taught to obey
first, and ask why" afterwards; a
lesson the learning of which most pa
rents will concede is a great relief.
The health of the boys and care
for their religious and moral sur
roundings are closely safeguarded.
l. x, I