Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1941-02-06
Camp For Army
Directors Slated
In Forest Reserve
Man Exempted Through
Religious Beliefs To Build
Roads And Dams

A camp for conscientious objec.
tors to military service under the
Selective Service Act is being es-
tablished in the Patapsco Forest
Reserve in Baltimore and Howard
counties, it was announced this
week. The men, who are members
of the Society of Friends and other
religious groups whose members
refuse to do army duty, will be as
signed to the building of roads,
dams and bridges in the forest re-
serve, and will serve without pay.
Plans are in the making for es-
Enlistment of a public park for
Baltimore and Washington along
the Patapsco river, with the con-
scientious DIRECTORS furnishing the
labor.
Barracks are being built to ac-
comodate about 200 men, who will
work eight hours per day, getting
up at $50 a. M, one hour before
rising time for selectees at Fort
George G. Meade. Breakfast will
be at six, with the work day start
ing at seven o'clock. Clearing
brush, building of stone fireplaces
and recreation houses will be
among their first jobs. There will
be evening classes in technical and
manual arts, reforestation, health
and other forms of adult education.
The men will cook their own meals,
wash the dishes and do all their
own laundry.
Seven such Civilian public SER
vice" camps will be established in
various parts Of the country by the
Central Committee for Religious
Conscientious Directors, working
in cooperation with the Federal
Council of Churches of Christ in
America.
The Maryland camp will be
under the direction of the Ameri-
can Friends (Quaker) Service
Committee. Thomas E. Jones,
president of Fisk University, Nash
vile, Tenn, is director of civilian
public service for the Friends
committee.
The Patapsco site, covering be-
tween two and three hundred acres,
has been leased to the church
groups by the Government.
Not only members of the Society
of Friends, but persons from other
churches, and even those without
church connections who are accept
ed as conscientious DIRECTORS by
the Selective Service Board will be
sent there.
Major Ernest M. Culligan, public
relations officer at national selec-
tive service headquarters in Wash
ington, said this week that the
churches have agreed to pay the
amount of money the conscientious
directors normally gave to their
families, and also to give the OBJ
jectors a reasonable amount" of
spending money if their families
could not send them any.
Directors, assistant directors and
staff members of the Patapsco
camp met yesterday in executive
session at the Friends Meeting
House, on Park avenue, to estab'
fish policy for the camp. DR.. Jones
outlined its aims and detectives.
The peace churches, including
the Friends, the Seventh Day Ad
ventists and Mennonites, the Fed
eral Council of Churches of Christ
in America, are working in coop
Grafton with DR.. Clarence A
Dykstra, director of selective serv
ice, in handling the problem of the
conscientious objector.
Other camps will be opened Al
Harrisonville, Va, and Colorado
Springs, Colo, under the Memo
mites; at San Dirnas, CAL, ane
Richmond, Ind, under the Friends
and at Largo, Ind, and in thu
Mamstree State Forest in Michi
gan under the Adventists.