The Colorado statesman., 1921-08-13

| NtSl, III tile Nluult Nthtt ~ wv SS"'h
and In the East. Four OF the great
quartering grounds may be used for
divisions of the American army, but
what of the rest2 At Chillicothe, o.
for instance, there is Camp sherman.
Ii is not likely that this army camp
will be kept in the service, although,
of course, there Is n possibility that
II may be. About year ago the writer
Of this was Mt Chllllcothe, and he
asked the commanding officer what his
chief duties were. His answer was,
Excepting n lookout for fire.
1t is said that the ChIllicothe camp,
which Is fair sample of the other
camps, cost the government about Soo'-
000,0O0 If the material used for the
buildings, now more or less decrepit'
is to be sold. how much money VIII
Uncle Sam get for 1t? Ask the same
question about other cantonments, and
you have the multiplied problem now
confronting the War department Tor
solution.
Some May Be Used for Reserves.
At nearly all the cantonments there
are some buildings which were built
with a view to permanent. or at any
rate to semi-permanent, use. These
buildings may be saved, and 1t Is pos
sible that many of the environments
may be used for the purposes OF train
ing the reserves, or for the annual en-
campments of the National Guard out
fits, or for service schools of some kind
vet to be determined. OF course not
all the cantonments so can be used.
Some of them must be dismantled and
sold.
Army authorities are approaching
the problem with misgivings. why! Be
cause there is not cantonment In the
United States apparently which the
people of the immediate vicinity Wish
to see given over to the auction block.
Efforts are being made by the resi-
dents of various sections of the coun-
try to secure the retention of their
particular pet cantOnment. Senators
and representatives are busy in TINS
matter.
The United States is to have an
army of only 100000, just about
enough to look after our non-contigu-
Gus possessions in a half defensive
way with remainder of troops suiii-
/ cient to do some police duty in the
United States and, of course, to give
our coast batteries enough men to do
little something toward managing
the guns.
This cutting down is n good policy
from the point of view of people who
think that there are to be no more
wars nor even rumors of wars, but
from the point of view of the other
great body of American citizens who
believe in certain amount of prepar-
edness the cutting down of the army
is something rather far from justihaDle.
Girl Scouts Study Birds.
In. the course of one of their week
end outings on the navy yacht May
flower. the President and Mrs. Hard
ing showed an active interest i'll the
girl scout movement of America by a
visit to one of the girls summer camps
ON the headwaters of Chesapeake nay
at the mouth of the Gunpowder river
Mrs. Harding is an official, or at any
rate an honorary official of the girl
scouts. Her interest in the work Is
keen and therefore, as is usually the
case In American domestic lie, the
husbands interest is also keen.
On Maryland peninsula, one side OIL
which is washed by the Gunpowder
river, the government maintains ils
great chemical warfare service plant.
The place is known as Edgewood ar
senal The work is under the dlrec-
tion of Brig Gen. Amos Fries, chlef
of the chemical warfare service, whose
Headquarters are In Washington while
the First Gas regiment, stationed Ut
Edgewood, is under the command OIL
Mai. L. j. Atkisson, who was the COL
onel of tile First Gas regiment in
! France when his present chief was
of the chemical warfare service.
General Fries turned over to the
| girls scouts fine camping site De-
tween the woods and the beach on the
elevation of the peninsula close to the
mouth of the Gunpowder river. MIS-.
Fries is closely associated with the
work of the girl scouts, and one oil
her daughters is member OF the
present camping party.
To get right into the middle or
things, | was asked to go to the camp
of the Washington girl scouts to leau
a class of them into the fields ana
woods for the purpose of bird studys
never had been near girl scouts
camp before. 1 have seen one now
at close range, and know the interest
the children take in woodcraft and In
nature and the helpfulness which Is
inculcated, and l know the thing Is
good.
l took about dozen of the girls
on tramp along the edges of the
woods and along the country roads,
| bordered by the tangled thickets which
buttressed the fences. Somebody must
| have heen doing good mature work,