446 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



holds a similar volume. From these 

 tanks the water is conveyed to more 

 than 10,000 faucets, sinks, shower-heads, 

 water-closets, and fire-hydrants by 28 

 miles of pipes. And these figures are 

 exclusive of the remount station and the 

 base hospital water systems. 



It was originally planned that the main 

 pipe line should be of California redwood 

 stave pipe, so as to spare iron for more 

 warlike purposes, but the wood did not 

 arrive fast enough and iron mains had 

 to be requisitioned. Redwood pipe was 

 used at as many of the camps as traffic 

 conditions would allow, for not only does 

 water flow through wooden pipe with 

 less friction, and therefore in greater 

 quantity for a given diameter of pipe, but 

 it keeps cooler in summer and is less 

 liable to freeze in winter. Redwood pipe 

 has been known to be serviceable even 

 after half a century of use. The staves 

 are held together by heavy galvanized 

 wire wrapped at a tension of 7,000 

 pounds. Before being laid, the pipe is 

 coated with asphaltum. 



Despite the utmost precautions taken 

 to insure the purity of the water supply 

 and the elimination of the menace of con- 

 tamination from sewage, and in spite of 

 all that is done to hold contagion in check 

 by vaccination and isolation, men in the 

 army still need hospitals. There is no 

 place for home nursing in company bar- 

 racks or officers' quarters. 



THREE HOSPITAL BEDS FOR EVERY 

 HUNDRED MEN 



Each cantonment has at least 1,000 

 hospital beds, and some have 1,600. It 

 is estimated that, with adequate provision 

 for emergencies of training-camp life, 

 three beds will suffice for each 100 men. 



Eternal vigilance is the price of health 

 in the army, and each hospital is equipped 

 with the most modern of laboratories, 

 where water specialists, food specialists, 

 meningitis specialists, typhoid special- 

 ists — in fact, every kind of specialists — 

 labor who can aid, with argus-eyed mi- 

 croscopes, in the great work of detecting 

 anything and everything that might 

 threaten the health of the men. Above 

 all things, Uncle Sam is determined that 

 the men he has called to the colors shall 

 have but one enemy to fisdit. and that 



disease shall not be permitted to play the 

 role of ally to the foe. 



WHAT AN AROUSED DEMOCRACY CAN DO 



The building of the military cities to 

 house American armies while on the 

 home soil was an unprecedented task, 

 executed in the face of unheard-of diffi- 

 culties, with unrivaled speed and in an 

 unparalleled spirit. It is America's an- 

 swer to the world that has mistaken her 

 natural love of peace for an unwilling- 

 ness to go to war, even for its preser- 

 vation. It shows what a democracy, 

 aroused to necessities of the hour, can 

 do. It shows that the genius of organi- 

 zation, which is the secret of twentieth 

 century success in war, dwells under 

 American skies, and that the spirit of '76 

 never dies, but only lies dormant in the 

 years of peace. 



THE NATIONAL ARMY CANTON- 

 MENTS 



CAMP DEVENS 



The cantonment at Ayer, Massachu- 

 setts, known as Camp Devens, houses the 

 forces of the National Army drawn from 

 New England. It lies to the north of the 

 town of Ayer, on a site that was largely 

 occupied by second-growth scrub timber. 

 The ground is open and porous, as well 

 as rolling, thus insuring good drainage. 

 The site was selected with an eye to hav- 

 ing a force quartered near Boston, which 

 is only 30 miles away, to defend that city 

 in the event of any military emergency. 



The town of Ayer has an unusual his- 

 tory, as the history of New England towns 

 goes. It is one of the most youthful of 

 all the municipalities east of the Hudson 

 River, having acquired a corporate ex- 

 istence and a name in 1871. The rail- 

 roads of northern Massachusetts found 

 convenient crossing points in that neigh- 

 borhood. First there came a signal tower, 

 then a village, and then a community, 

 which tired of being called "The Junc- 

 tion" and wanted a real town name. 



This camp has the lowest average tem- 

 perature of any of the cantonments. On 

 the other hand, it has more cloudless 

 days than any other with the single ex- 

 ception of Deming, New Mexico, which 

 is in the "sunshine belt" of the South- 



