THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



239 



ranged from $6,700,000 to $11,000,000, with much dispatch and the object in 



as follows : view was well served. 



Camp Travis $6,700,000 JUST COMPLAINT AT DELAY IN TRAINING 



Camp Dodge 6,800,000 _ . 



Camp Taylor 7,000,000 - 1 - he complaint in the camps, from per- 



Camp Gordon 7,400,000 sons competent to make just complaint, 



Camp Grant 8,500,000 was the delay in the proper training of 



Camp Dix 8,500,000 the troops — due, first, to the severe winter, 



r£Z ilT" 8,700,000 which prevented any satisfactory drill in 



Camp J ackson 8,700,000 .1 • .* J . t J , 



Camp Funston 8,700,000 \ he °P en ln the northern camps, so that 



Camp Pike 9,000^000 th ? re was P° real opportunity to do any- 



Camp Sherman 9,600,000 thing outside, except hikes through the 



Camp Devens 9,700,000 snow, to keep the men in good condition. 



Camp Meade 10,500,000 The second reason for the deficiency 



Cam P Le t0n 11,100,000 ' m the training of the men, or its delay, 



11,300,000 has been in the absence of tools. It took 



Of course, the National Guard camps a long time before the needed rifles were 



use tentage, and the buildings there range furnished, and everywhere was lacking a 



from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 for a camp, supply of machine-guns. The manage- 



The reported high commissions earned ment of machine-guns, entrusted to sepa- 

 on these costs have not been understood. rate companies in every regiment, is a 

 They were called "cost plus 10 per cent technical matter that needs much train- 

 contracts," but this percentage decreased ing, and there were neither Lewis guns 

 from 10 to 6 per cent when a certain cost nor other guns with which this training 

 was reached, and in no case could the could be had. A third great defect was 

 commission exceed $250,000. The per- the absence of field-guns. There were 

 centage which was earned by the con- a few on hand, but wholly inadequate in 

 tractors varied from 2 to 3 per cent. number for proper training of artillery 



There were two circumstances which units, 

 added to the cost above the estimate, in I think it would have been wiser if all 

 addition. One was that the Surgeon the camps in the northern States had 

 General, after the estimates were made, been placed in southern States. Even to 

 insisted upon 500 cubic feet of inside a layman visiting camps, the greater op- 

 space per man instead of 365, as had been portunity for drill was apparent in the 

 estimated for. The other was that in marching of the men. A review of 25,- 

 August General Pershing's change in the 000 men, which I was permitted to see 

 tactical organization to what are called at Camp Travis, in San Antonio, showed 

 Pershing divisions necessitated an addi- a degree of drill that could not have been 

 tion to the barracks, which added a very equalled, I think, in any other camp, 

 large sum. There I witnessed, too, bayonet drill, 



The result was that the National bayonet charges over trenches, a sham 



Army cantonments cost, complete, about battle over trenches, with hand grenades, 



$141,000,000; the National Guard camps, and everything but a barrage of artillery. 



$38,000,000; the embarkation camps, The difference in progress between that 



$14,000,000; the quartermasters' training command and those in the far north could 



camps, $3,700,000 ; the machine-shop not escape the observer. 



units, $531,000; and the School of Artil- _ 



lery Fire, at Fort Sill, $680,000, or a total HKALTH conditions better in 



of nearly $200,000,000. northern camps 



There was admittedly a good deal of It is true that the health of the troops 



waste in this expenditure, due to change in the northern camps was better than it 



of plans; but after reading the evidence was in the South. The camps which suf- 



on the subject, I cannot find that there fered most from pneumonia were Camp 



is real ground for criticism, considering Travis, at San Antonio ; Camp Pike, at 



all the circumstances. Little Rock, and Camp Funston, near 



The task was a great one. It was done Junction City, in Kansas, where, while 



