518 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



being done by the regiment itself through men at- 

 tached to headquarters. The Chaplain, assisted by 

 Private Knowles Ryerson, who had specialized in ru- 

 ral social organization in California, will help to pro- 

 vide recreation, reading matter, and other comforts 

 and conveniences. He took along a phonograph for 

 each company, and was busily looking before he left 

 for an angel to donate a motion picture projector. Six 

 dozen talking machine records will help to introduce 

 American ragtime to sylvan communities in France, 

 and after they have been played out others will fol- 

 low over. The Forest Service will help to supply the 

 regiment with reading matter, and with various other 

 necessary luxuries, under a systematic plan; and the 

 American Forestry Association will see that they are 

 supplied with tobacco and other comforts. If some 

 of the fellows wear all the olive-drab knitted sweaters 

 and mufflers that have been promised them they will 

 be so swaddled up that they cannot move to do any 

 work! 



The last days at the camp were full of seeming 

 confusion, but every activity was bent toward hasten- 

 ing the final get-away. Some of the last-minute hustle 

 was due to the effort on the part of many of the newer 

 arrivals in camp to make sure that they would be in- 

 cluded in the first contingent, in case somebody, for 

 any reason, might be unable to go at the last minute. 

 No one wanted to remain as part of the nucleus of the 

 following battalions. But everyone was cheerful and 

 everyone was busy. Here was a group checking up 

 the service records of the men who were going; there 

 was another squad stencilling labels on boxes that 

 were standing on every hand, while others with black 

 paint and brushes were marking some of the boxes 

 for use on the boat going over and some to go into the 

 holds of the ship. 



Major Dubois was omnipresent, gathering up the 

 loose ends, and, as he expressed it, "busy like a bee." 

 Major Chapman, with a most unpractised hand, was 

 endeavoring to sew indelible name labels on his blan- 

 kets and articles of apparel, while Major Benedict in- 

 terrupted his own work of making a will to cast as- 

 persions on Chapman's sewing, telling the latter to 

 use white thread instead of black, to take shorter 

 stitches and more of them, and finally to stop sewing 

 said Chapman's name on his, Benedict's, blankets. 

 There is no telling how much seriousness was cloaked 

 under the raillery; possibly there was nothing but a 

 boyish gladness at the prospect of their early depar- 

 ture. Captain Mason, at an Atlantic seaport to use 

 the phraseology of the "Official Bulletin" was look- 

 ing after the procurement and stowage of supplies; 

 Eldredge was busy with equipment; Colonel Wood- 

 ruff, in his office in the headquarters building, was the 

 guiding center of all, to and from whom a succession of 

 officers came and went on many errands. Every one 

 was busy, clear down to the last private doing a fare- 

 well clothes-washing before he had to learn the meth- 

 ods of French laundering. 



And now they have gone, sooner than most per- 

 sons thought they would get away; sooner than 

 seemed possible when the very barracks were begun 

 only in late July ; sooner, indeed, than they themselves 

 had dared to hope. 



A second regiment is already forming, with a good 

 start in the later arrivals who came in for the first 

 regiment, which was overmanned from an abundance 

 of volunteers before the time came to go. The next 

 regiment is to have ten battalions of lumbermen and 



woods workers, the first two battalions to be raised 

 at once, with the help of the Forest Service ; the other 

 eight are to follow in a short time. In addition, nine 

 labor battalions to be used in connection with the 

 forest regiments are to be recruited, two of these to 

 be made ready just as soon as possible. 



Both the officers and the rank-and-file have been 

 rapidly gathered for the following contingents, and 

 the activities at the engineers' camp at American 

 University have not been greatly slackened by the 

 departure of the first twelve-hundred. It is hoped 

 that the next unit will be ready in as short a time as 

 that taken by the first regiment, and that they can 

 quickly be put to work for the triumph of democracy 

 in overseas service. More men are wanted, between 

 the ages of 18 and 40, and preferably with skill in 

 woods work. Lumberjacks, portable-mill operators, 

 tie-cutters, logging teamsters, camp cooks, millwrights 

 and charcoal burners are among the types of men de- 

 sired. 



Majors Graves and Greeley, already on the other 

 side before the first contingent started, saw the great 

 possibilities of usefulness for many more men than 

 went at first. The British authorities first called at- 

 tention to the need of the foresters: now General 

 Pershing's army needs the aid of forest engineers quite 

 as much as do the English and French. 



The regiments which follow promise to be equal 

 to the earlier one in everything except possibly in 

 youthfulness and "pep." They already show a prob- 

 ability of being ahead of it in maturity of personnel 

 and seriousness of purpose. A spirit of adventure un- 

 doubtedly allured many of those who went over with 

 the Tenth; sober judgment and a deep realization of 

 duty are calling the others. Even at that, it seems 

 that many a forestry college will give of its under- 

 graduates for the forces now gathering, provided they 

 can get in by passing the required tests of physique 

 and experience. Last year the professors were urging 

 their students to stay in school and complete their 

 courses; this year all are more strongly imbued with 

 the idea that every one who can go over should do so, 

 and in the capacity for which he is best fitted. Young 

 men in the forestry schools ought to make good in the 

 forestry regiments, and they will undoubtedly gain 

 invaluable experience. The facts that some forestry 

 students were among the first to go, and that the call 

 for all able-bodied men to get into action is so clear 

 and insistent, are incentives for an increased number 

 of applicants from this type a type which can be very 

 useful, especially among the lower grades of non- 

 commissioned officers. Preference is being given, 

 however, to men who have had actual woods experi- 

 ence. 



The first of the "goodlie companie" of foresters 

 has gone. Others will follow soon. It is a good thing 

 for the profession of forestry, and it is a good thing 

 for the business of lumbering that both classes are 

 working shoulder to shoulder in the forests of France. 

 It was ,in these same forests of France, some four 

 hundred odd years ago, that two classes knights and 

 yeomen fought side by side and learned the begin- 

 nings of democracy, and the dependence of one upon 

 the other. American foresters and lumbermen have 

 been learning this interdependence to some extent 

 already; there will be a hastening of the process in 

 the solidarity which is bound to spring up from a com- 

 mon experience on the same ground in a far greater 

 struggle. 



