AMERICA'S NEW SOLDIER CITIES 



The Geographical and Historical Environment of the 



National Army Cantonments and National 



Guard Camps 



By William Joseph Showalter 



A FTER the Congress had decided on 

 l\ raising a vast army of citizen- 

 XjL soldiers, and had formulated 

 plans for calling that army to the colors, 

 the Quartermaster General was con- 

 fronted with the problem of housing the 

 army adequately during the long process 

 of converting it from an unorganized 

 multitude of individuals into a highly de- 

 veloped fighting machine. 



Colonel I. W. Littell, since promoted 

 to a brigadier generalship, an assistant of 

 General Sharpe, the Quartermaster Gen- 

 eral, was in charge of that branch of the 

 Quartermaster General's Office known as 

 the Construction and Repair Division, 

 and it therefore fell to the lot of Colonel 

 Littell to take charge of this great task. 

 For years Colonel Littell had gone about 

 his work just as a hundred other colonels 

 had done, and his appointment to the 

 heavy task of housing all the new mili- 

 tary forces was his first introduction to 

 the world at large, even as the appoint- 

 ment of Colonel Goethals as builder of 

 the Panama Canal brought a new national 

 figure upon the*stage. 



There is no record of what Uncle Sam 

 said to the builder of his soldier cities, 

 but the facts in the case would have war- 

 ranted his giving these instructions : 



"I have placed in the Treasury of the 

 United States, subject to your order, a 

 sum of money which is equal to all the 

 gold produced by all the mines of the 

 world during the past year. With this 

 money I want you to house my armies 

 while I get them into shape. In the first 

 place, I want you to build 16 great mili- 

 tary cities in as many sections of the 

 country. These 16 cities must be capable 

 of housing a population equal to the com- 

 bined population of Arizona and New 

 Mexico. There must also be stable room 

 to care for as many horses as there are in 

 the State of Oregon. 



"Furthermore, you must establish hos- 

 pitals to take care of as many sick and 

 wounded people as are to be found in all 

 the hospitals west of the Mississippi 

 River in normal times. 



"Nor is that all. You are to provide 

 all of the mess halls and other general 

 buildings for all of the 16 National Guard 

 mobilization camps. And while you arc 

 doing that you will not forget your reg- 

 ular work of expanding and keeping in 

 repair the housing facilities of the Regu- 

 lar Army posts. 



"Nor will you overlook the fact that as 

 soon as all that work is under way you 

 will be expected to undertake the con- 

 struction of the two big concentration 

 camps from which the American army 

 will embark for France and through 

 which its supplies will reach the front. 



"Yes, I know it is a large order — in 

 fact, a tremendous proposition — but these 

 are tremendous times, and I'll have to 

 ask you to execute it within four months. 

 Of course, I realize that you will, in its 

 execution, spend the money three times 

 as fast as the world mines its gold, but 

 at the same time I expect you to render 

 an account which will show that every 

 penny has borne an honest burden." 



A NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENT IN THE 

 HISTORY OF BUIEDING 



Such was the order. It has been exe- 

 cuted as the American Army always has 

 executed its orders — to the letter ! 



The story of the 16 National Army can- 

 tonments surpasses anything else in the 

 history of building. Such, indeed, has 

 been the transformation wrought at these 

 cantonments that the world might well 

 have believed it all magic had it not 

 heard the rhythmic blows of 25,000 ham- 

 mers driving home 1,200 miles of nails 

 a day ; had it not seen enough lumber go 

 from the country's mills to these camps 



439 



