Regiment of Woodsmem m Oer Forces Abroad Lumbermen of the United States Are Or ganized Into a Unique Force for Work Behind the Firing - Lines—Skilled Woodsmen to Prepare Timbers for Military- Railways, Trenches, Mines, Etc.—Character of the French Wood lands—The United States Forest Service and What it Plans to Accomplish Abroad. Special Correspondence WAPHIW'OJt D. C.. ' ' " ' 1017. ' /?/? V~i nj EHi me," quoth a curious OO II correspondent, "what is the II newest thing: you have in the way of regiments?" And the TVar Department answered: "The United States Foresters." Then there were more questions, more an swers, and W. B. Greeley, assistant forester of the Vnlted States forest service, operating under the Depart ment of Agriculture, told "the story of the regiment." This was one after noon about the middle of July. He said: "We expect the Forest Regiment to be among the first to carry the Stars and Stripes into France. Recruiting by Army officers began on July 9 and will continue until the ranks are filled. This will be accomplished before August 1, we think. "The demand for lumber in England has been very keen since the war started. Tou know there are very few forests there and few skilled timber workers. Recently the New Kngland states took this up as a private en terprise to raise and equip ten porta ble sawmills to send to the British Isles. Horses, mules and a sufficient number of men were also sent for op eration of the mills. This organiza tion is to work in England and Scot land, but it is not a military organi zation like ours, and has no connection whatever with the Army. * * * "Our purpose is -wholly unconnected with the New Englanders - . It orig inated when Gen. Bridges came - here with the British commission, it was an especial request of his, made to the War Department, that a regiment of foresters and lumbermen be organized for the purpose of going to northern France to work there for the British army /n getting out railroad ftes, ma terial for tunnels, etc. Trenches are lined with timbers, you know, and great quantities of lumber are con sumed for this alone. "In fact, the whole military opera tion consumes enormous amounts of wood. Every mile of railroad, fdr in stance, takes 2,000 ties, and railroads are being extended and intersected to such a degree that one of the most immediate needs of our allies is sci entifically cut lumber. The demand is pressing "The forest service has been asked to undertake the Job and Lieut. Col. \V oodruff is designated as commanding officer. I am going with him as major. Amusements Will Be Provided for Our Soldiers in Training; Camps Special Correspondence I rational oi, an ,„ * m ... ... . A Special Correspondence WASHINGTON, D. G. 1917, I went into a publlc-'oute to get a pint o' beer. The publican > up an* sez. We serve no red coats here.* SO far "Sammy's" experience will be akin to "Tommy's," with this important distinction, that "Tom my" was excluded from getting his pint by social ostracism, while "Sam my" won't be served because his govern ment respects his uniform too much to wish him to face the temptation of not stopping at a pint. I wnt to the theater as aober I" roaid be, They gaTe a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me; They aent me to .the gallery or 'round the music 'ails. There's where "Sammy" will have the edge on "Tommy." for about a million Sammies, members of the new National Army, regulars and national guardsmen will have theaters all their own, and theirs will be the orchestra seats. To civilians will go the gallery seats. If there are any left, and if "Sammy" In vites them. v * * Young America's workaday life in the sixteen National Armj cantonments and in the sixteen National Guard mobiliza tion .camps will be a strenuous and ardu ous one, and his leisure hours will hold forth not only theatrical entertainments for him, but boxing *ind swimming matches, hand ball and basket ball games, libraries and writing rooms, dances and social diversions of all sorts. He will be so busy that he won't have time for the saloon or resorts are morally worse. All of which is the Idea Secretary of War Baker had In.mind when he obtained an appropriation of $500,000 for this un precedented thing, that of providing rec reation for soldiers, and appointed the commission on training camp activities, with Raymond B. Fosdick as Its chair man. to work out plans for the recrea tion of the army which will fight to make the world safe for democracy. The principle behind this departure In army building is as new to warfare as are many of the means by which it will be applied. Two great theatrical circuits, presenting the latest Broadway successes, with casts made up of the country's most notable actors and actresses, playing atniy camps to S. R. O. signs, at nothing per orchestra seat, will be no moro of a nov elty than the reason for them. In view of his training and public career, it Is not surprising that it re mained for Newton D. Baker to get the conception that an army is a social or ganism as well a-s a fighting machine. He became mayor of Cleveland because he conceived that a city, after all, is a collec tion of human beings as well as a sort of civic automaton. When he concluded his second term as mayor of Cleveland some one wrote of him, "His ideal was a city of modern schools and colleges and trade training, a good place for boys and girls to grow up in. a community which cared for its children as a family does, in which every citizen felt toward all children as a father does toward his own." One might paraphrase that and come pretty close to the truth by saying, "His ideal of a na tional army is an army of modern train ing in warfare and modem provision for recreation, a good place for boys and girls ('or girls have, a place In this rec FOREST RANGERS IN CAMP IN A NATIONAL FOREST, ARIZONA. | for the regimental staff. The War De | partment sends Beverly C. Dunn, cap • tain of engineers, as adjutant. The I rest of the officers are from the forest I service, and the men come from the ranks of the lumbermen. "We are organizing a force of ten | complete sawmills, a whole fleet of auto trucks, tractors and trailers— | those large lumber wagons which may be hooked on in strings behind the tractors —450 horses and mules, to act as a floating squadron of lumber camps. The idea is to have a mobile service of lumber camps and sawmills to go wherever required and get out material needed from the forests of France. I "What is the character of the French ; woodlands? Well, take southwestern France, between Marseille anii Bor- Ideaux, and forests there are very much like those of Florida. The region is hot and rather dry. In the central and northern parts of France, oalc, beech, hornbeam and other hardwoods are i most prevalent. It is these we shall ! work with most. In the mountains, the I foothills of the Alps, are coniferous I forests. : "Our work In northern France will j largely be ir. co-operation with Brit ish and American forces, and may lie frequently within the danger zone. On j the other hand, our labors may lie one ■ or two hundred miles away, wherever timber is to be had and wherever best j located for transportation. Such an or ganization for military purposes is I something entirely new in the Cnited States. * * "When Bent behind the battle lines our men will convert the timbec of the sprout forests there Into railroad ties. trench timbers, mine props, bridge timbers and the cord wood needed in the military operations of the British reational scheme for soldiers, as will be shown) to grow up in, In which the gov ernment cares for its young men as a family does." Back in June, Mr. Baker said to Ihe Playgrounds aftd Recreation Association of America: "There are only two ways to prevent unwhole some and unhealthful recreation in a city. One is to have none, the other Is to provide a fine, wholesome sub stitute for the bad that springs up." • * * l"p until now the way of armies, In respect to recreation, has been to have none. Wherefore there came about drunkenness and disease born of vice. Wherefore, as expressed both by Sec retary Baker and by Raymond Fosdick, * iffi RAYMOND 11. FOSDICK. Chairman of rommlaxlnn on training camp (ctlvMea, x (Photo copyright by Ranii & Ewlng.) the purposes of providing clean, whole some and acceptable recrleatin are two-fold: Preventive. For by so doing the temptation to abnormal forms of so called amusement that follow upon the abnormal conditions of camp life will be removed. Constructive. For, -as Dr. Thomas W. Salmon, neurologist and psychologist! who has just returned from a study of men on the battlefields of Europe, puts it, "Diversion is as important for mental hygiene as sanitation is for physical hygiene." To carry out these principles the commission on war activities is charged with a three-fold duty: First, it is Responsible for keeping the Secretary of War informed of the conditions in tralnihg camps and in the zones about them, with especial ref£r- army. There is some pine In this dis trict. and all the wood, pine or not, Is small in comparison with American timber. Tne greater part of It is no larger than a foot in diiuneter, and much of it is around elgftt Inches. These northern French forests suggest the wood lots of Massachusetts, Vir ginia, Maryland and Connecticut, and the most careful operation and use of the timber is necessitated. "For many years the woodlands of our sister republic have been pre served and utilized with superlative skill, and if .we are to accomplish good in the opinion of M. Poincalre's people we shall have to exercise much thought as well as labor. One of our important tasks will be to cut these forests to the requirements of French forestry. The French, notwithstand ing the requtation of the Germans in this line, are the best foresters of Eu rope. They are just as intensive. They get the best maximum growth of wood possible. To respond to their methods in our efforts to aid them we must have trained foresters directing our regiment. Future production of wood must be considered. "The War t Department designates our regiment as the 10th Keserve En gineers (forest). There are. with the two Regular Army officers, fifteen for esters from tlio service and two from the forest branch of British Columbia. One lumberman from the. Indian for est service is singled out for member ship, and there are thirteen foresters and lumbermen taken from private or | institutional labors. There are three captains taken from chairs in univerl ties, on account of their wide expe rience in practical woods work. These are David T. Mason, professor of for estry at the University of California; Dorr Skeels, logging engineer and professor of forestry at the University of Montana, and W. N. Millar, pro fessor of forestry In the University of Toronto, Cafiada. Supervisors from the Florida national forest, the Cocomlmo ence to their freedom from moral hazards. Second, it is responsible for provid ing all forms of recreational activities in the camps. Third, it is to act as an agency by which the volunteer effort of com munities In the vicinities of camps may be organized and utilized to best ad vantage of the young men who are the community's neighbors and guests. In this work, especially in that phase or it dealing with activities within the camps, the commission has two powerful allies, the Young Men's Christian As sociation and the Knights of Columbus. The former started out to raise $3,000,- 000 for its part of the work, and raised $4,000,000, while the latter hds raised $1,000,000 for Its efforts, and will raise more if needed. By of physical equipment for the camp activities each cantonment will have an auditorium, seating 5,000, un tier the direction of the commission, while the Y. M. C. A. and the Knights of Columbus will each have audi toriums of their own for their special work along educational, religious and entertainment lines, and both these or ganizations will erect many smaller buildings, such as libraries, reading rooms, writing rooms and club rooms. * * * Joseph E. Raycroft,-athletic director at Princeton University, a member of the commislon, is organizing the ath letics within the camps, and he is as sisted by another commission member, Malcolm L. Mcßride, erstwhile gridiron star of Yale. Dr. Raycroft's organiza tion wil comprise a post exchange of ficer in each cantonment and camp, who will be the athletic director of that unit, In much the same way as a col legiate athletic director acts for his In stitution. Boxing and swimming will be the two principal sports in each cantonment and camp, and there will be plenty of competitive sport, suet as Intercom pany, interegiment and interbrigade base ball, hand ball, basket ball con tests and interregiment bayonet drills The competitive element in all sports, and even in the training work, will be stressed, in view of young America's desire to excel. Theatrical producers have offered their services to form two touring stock companies, and the commission has been deluged with letters from ac tors and actresses, and "movie" stars, who want to do their part in helping entertain the young soldiers. Lee F. Manmer of the commission, formerly of the recreation division of the Russell Sage Foundation, is organizing the the atrical programs of the camps. He not only will seek to make the best use of the volunteer professional talent, dra matic, vaudeville and musical, but he will seek to use the amateur talent In the camps to beat advantage. At some of the officers' reserve camps, which also come within the scope of the com mission's work, like Plattsburg, for ex ample, there are enough actors in training to put on a creditable enter tainment of their own. To Joseph L,ee, president of the Play ground and Recreation Association of America, has fallen the tremendous task of organizing the recreational activities in communities in the vicinity of the camps. To do .this forty-five trained A FRENCH FOREST GUARD. \ forerst. the Sawtooth, In Idaho, and the Idaho national forest are enroll ed as officers, either as captains or first lieutenants. From the Caribou organizers from the asosciation of which he is head already have gone into communities adjacent to .the camp sites, and they have sought to aid 1 churches, societies, clubs, fraternities and all other groups which plan to help entertain and make life pleasant for their soldier guests. As an example of what communities may do, take the big placard bulletin of activities of the war recreation board of San Antonio, a volunteer organiza tion affiiated with the commision, which scheduled the following events: ' June 28—Rase ball, 4 p.m., San Antouio vs. Pallas, Texas League Park. Musical concert, 8 p.m., first ltnptist Church. Swimming and danc ing, free at Hot Wells Hotel and bathhouse. June 29—1-awn party, H p.m., Prospect Hill Buptist Church; bring your musical instrument*. COL. I. H. CALLAHAN, Chairman Knlghtn of Columbus com mittee, co-operating wltll commission on trntnlng camp activities. Pawn, 8:30 p.m.; men of Camp Kelly Invited to attend an invitation dance at Meager Hotel, liasc ball. 4 p.m., Sail Antonio vs. ltallas. June 30 —Base ball, San Antonio vs. Pallas, Texas I/cagU'' Park. Dance, 8:30, invitational to Camp Wilson men, under the auspices of Catholic Women's Association. July 1 (Sunday)— Church services, all denionl nations. "Take a Soldier Home to Pinner." I'anl concert. 4:30, Brarkcuridgo Park, near beacli. Base ha11,<3:30 p.m., double-header. General recreation for entire week—Swimming, Braekeprldge Park Peach, the Salado river, near Camp Wilson: Hot Wells bathhouse. West i'.nd I .like. Sports. Brackeqrldge Park, golf, r.Oe range, tennis, base trail, bathing, zoological gardens. Soldiers' chihrooms—Y. M. C. A. extends use of Its facilities to men in khaki. Knights of Columbus Hall extends use of its clubrooms to members and friends of the order. St. Mark s Church extends use of gymnasium and reading room to soldiers. Dinner served to soldiers at tending church, inks' t lull extends us.- of club rooms to members and suns, odd Fellows ex tend use of dubrooms to members and sons. Knights of Pythias Hall extollds use of club rooms to soldiers. That is the provision of a small com munity for a week's entertainment of soldiers, and similar programs of larger A FOREST RANKER ON FIRE PATROL DUTY MAKING OBSERVATIONS. I national forest, in Idaho, the deputy • | supervisor is being: sent to join the • | regiment. i I "With only 2,000 men required from | cities, near which soldiers already are encamped, include theatrical and "movie" invitation exhibittonrf, tea dances, community choral festivals, roof garden socials and other forms of recreation. San Diego, Cal., raised $7,500 to de velop a playground center on Its old exposition grounds, near Jefferson bar racks, at St. Louis, a swimming pool is being built for the men in khaki, and Junction City, near Fort Riley, Kan., has subscribed $7,000 for an auditorium for soldiers' entertainmejits. Every regimeait has its band, for the psychology of music on the soldier has long been recognized, but the commis sion has contributed an additional musical element to the young soldiers' life in its efforts to stimulate group singing. For the first time in history young men will go into battle humming the songs taught them' by trained choral leaders, four of whom already have been named, and will gather in camp to be led in song by these same leaders. Other members of the commission are Thomas J. Howells of Pittsburgh, Charles I*. Neill, former commissioner of labor; Maj. P. E. Pierce, U. S. A., and John It. Mott, general secretary 01/ the international committee of the Y. A. C. A. Maj. Pierce passes upon the com mission's plans with an eye to their relation to the real business of train ing young men for' active service. Mr. Mott correlated the broad worls'the Y. M. C. A. is undertaking in Conjunction with the commission, and when he is temporarily out of the country, as at present, John S. Tichenor, associate general secretary, who has directed much of the work already done in officers' and guardsmen's training camps, represents him. * * Acting in a similar capacity for the !l<fiights of Columbus, though not mem bers of the commission, are Col. P. M. Callahan, chairman of the Knights' committee on war , activities; Rev. Lewis J. O'Hern, C. 8. P., and A. G. Bagler. Raymond B. Fosdick, chairman of the commission, is a lawyer by vocation, a student of community organization and social problems, an organizer and a human dynamo when it comes to work. Under Mayor Gaynor he made a notable record as commissioner of accounts for New York city. Later he went to Eu rope to study police organizations un der the auspices of the bureau of so cial hygiene. He has studied conditions of camp life on the Mexican border, and he was responsible for a cleaning up of bad moral conditions in the neigh borhood of several encampments there. More recently he has t>een hi Canada to find out how the Canadians provide Tor the relaxation of their men in training. Down in a little office in the old land office building, also known as the old post office, at Bth and E streets. Washington, he works day and night, facing-new problems of organization concerned with safeguarding the mor als and developing the morale of a mil lion men. It is a gigantic task. It has been compared with providing, almost over night. the recreation facilities of an entire city of a million souls. But that comparison breaks down, for here are nearly fifty small cities, populated, by young men whose demand for recre ation is particularly keen and whose the large numbers of woods workers In the United States, active enlisting is a surety. The right type of men must be secured and a group of forestry offi cials has been selected to procure and consider applications from woodsmen in their various vicinities over the country. "There will be servants of various kinds, corporals, cooks, first and second class privates, buglers, saddlers, wag oners, stablemen, horseslioers and oth ers recruited, and the salaries monthly while in training or active service will run from S3O to ssl while in America, and fiom $36 to $61.20 when in foreign service. * * * "The Canadians have organized forest units and sent them to France. Our head forester, llenry S. Graves, has gone into the same districts there to size up the situation as to the number of regiments needed, where they should work, the scope of the equipment re quired. etc. With him is Capt. Barring ton Moore, a trained forester. Word from them indicates that the demand is very great'for the kind of help we hope to render. "There will be about 1,200 men in this first regiment. One battalion will be in Washington at the university training camp and one at the engineer ing camp at Fort Leavenworth. Kan., Qbout the Ist of August. By the end of August the second battalion will be brought to Washington, and from here wili go abroad. "Organized, trained and equipped for their prospective duties, the forest reg iment will consist of six companies of 464 men. the battalion and regimental staffs, the commissioned officers and the necessary number of drivers. Re cruits must be under forty years of age and unusually well fitted physi cally. No youth under eighteen is ac cepted. And all enlistment covers life habit has been uprooted, throwing them into a new environment. * * * There is one point which Mr. Fosdick and his associates insist cannot be em phasized too strongly. They are not trying to make mollycoddles out of America's young men. They do not seek to substitute one form of ab normality" for another. Look back on the list of San Antonio community activities and you will note a Sunday base ball game advertised. A newspaper conceived the idea that •4 fund for tobacco for the new Na tional Army would be a happy contribution, and it wrote Sec retary Baker accordingly. He referred the letter to Fosdick. When the edi jm v JsX jib JOHN It. MOTT, (irnerui aecretary International com mittee, Y. M. C. A., representing; the association on commifialon on train ing eamp activities. tor heard that he was fearful. He had no cause for worry, Fosdick wrote back: "The committee with which I am as sociated has already given some thought to this matter (supplying men with tobacco), and we are very glad to indorse your movement. I know of no single factor of greater importance to the morale and spirit of the troops than an ample supply of tobacco. There should be plenty of it and of the right kind." . And the last sentence epitomizes the commission's mottorabout all sorts of snort, fun, amusement and recreation; "There should bo, plenty of It and of the right kind." For further example, the commission knows that nine-tenths of the tempta tion afforded by the woman camp fol lowers accrues because of the normal desire of young men for feminine as sociation. This desire for companion ship of the other sex is especially keen when men are thrown together, re merely the duration of the war. The organization is conducted purely alongf military lines, and every woodsman en rolling therein will be uniformed and armed, just as other units of 'Sammies.' "The first duty of both officers and men will be to acquire the sense of discipline, the necessity for perfectly liartnonious team-work, and as much of this as is possible will be inculcated In the regiment in rigid drills at the traijiing camps here and in Kansas. Pay will begin oil the day of enlisting, and all traveling expenses will bo fur nished by the government from the point of enlistment to the training camp designated by the officers. "The Interesting feature to me in this newest idea for a regiment is the in dication thus the more directly point ed out that this war is taking 'on an Industrial aspect. The scope of present-day military operations is al most past comprehension. For ex ample, they are sending nine regi ments of men just to build and operate railroads in Kranc * and now the regi ment of lumbermen and foresters." Girls and Soldiers. Tf OVB and war go together," said a well known novelist. "No young man out of uniform need expect much attention from the girls for the next year or two to come. "An aviator from the Escadrllle La fayette met a French girl In Paris. "'Have you killed any boches?' she asked him, eagerly. • 'Yes,' he answered; 'with this good right hand I've settled three.' "She snatched his hand in both hers— she was a very pretty girl—and printed warm kisses on it. said the J' ou ne aviator, 'why didn t 1 teU you I'd bitten 'em to death? " moved from the influences of women in home an'd their own social circles. Therefore a keynote of the community endeavor is to afford the young: soldiers the opportunity they want, and the young women of those communities want, of meeting girls of tho right sort at the right sort, of social functions. Hence the tea dances, balls and socials abound in every prospective list of com munity entertainment. It is a hard thing to call upon a mil lion or so men to leave their homes to serve their country, and that is why this commission is seeking to bring the very best substitute it can for home to these young men. The War Garden. fjjl TPn EPRESENTATIVE MASON of 1111- nols said In Chicago the u(her day: "One way to keep down prices is for every family to set uptlts own vegetable garden, but the trouble is that most of us are as ignorant of gardening as the chap who wrote to the seedsman: As . l wlsh to to do my bit for the allies by growing my own provisions on a strip of rocli ground back of my l>ouse, please send me, f. o. b.. one dozen potato seeds, one bee with hive complete, one dozen fruit seeds assorted, ten square yards of grass, one path, six feet of wall flowers with wall and one dozen flour plants. 1 am especially particular about the grass, which should be green, and not the brown kind I see in so many gardens. John D.'s Charities. W TTOIfN D. ROCKEFELLER, congratu <* lated on his recent $5,000,000 gift to the Red Cross, said In New York: "Thank you for your congratulations. So many people, you know, take my giv ing as a matter of course. It rather puts me in the position of the divine. "This divine was very charitable, and a lady said one day to one of his aged pensioners: Wasn't it kind of Dr. Fifthy, on hear ing you were ill, to walk six miles to your cottage In all this heat with a big basket of fruit and port wine and chicken and coffee?' prise 16 OW lady frowned ln Puzzled sur " "Kindr she said. Why, what's he ror Going the Rounds. ALFRED NOYES, of "making poetry pay" fame, sat in the Players' Club in New York, when a waiter brought him a long, suspicious-looking en velope. Mr. Noyes opened the envelope. A printed Hllp fluttered to the floor The poet heaveil a sigh. "Yet, after all," he said, "I'm not sur- * lfcispfl to get this poem back." \No?" said a critic. •'No," said Mr. Noyes. "You see, It's the thirteenth time I've sent It out "
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