The result was that the salvage of abandoned army camps brought back to the Government only a small fraction of the money put into them. Actually in scores of instances it would have been cheaper for the Government to abandon the improvements to the landowners in return for quit-claims for the property damage. Public policy, however, prohibited such a short-cut method. Some of the leased sites had been donated to the Government before the armistice at the nominal rental of $1.00 a year or some other slight sum; but afterwards the chambers of commerce and other civic agencies which had made these concessions, for the sake of securing camps near their communities, refused to renew the arrangements, and the War Department was forced to pay regular rentals. Here was a consideration to force the sale of the camps on any terms possible. The chief lesson learned from the war construction enterprise was that the Government should buy and not lease a site when the value of the improvements is to exceed the value of the site itself. Only by holding such property for permanent use or gradual sale can the Government get value received for its investment. In general, the salvage recovery from camps and other installations sold after the armistice amounted to about 15 per cent of the money invested in the original building materials. All labor values were lost. All wastage of materials in construction and demolition was loss. Many materials such as cement and concrete, road material, roofing, wood-stave piping, sewer piping, and so on, were a complete loss. The attention of the reader is invited to some typical shrinkages in value. +----------------------------------------------------+ | _Project_ _Original Cost_ _Salvage Recovery_| +----------------------------------------------------+ |Camp Beauregard $4,300,000 $ 43,000 | |Camp Bowie 3,400,000 110,000 | |Camp Hancock 6,000,000 75,000 | |Camp Logan 3,300,000 137,000 | |Camp Wadsworth 4,000,000 95,000 | |Camp Wheeler 3,200,000 144,000 | +----------------------------------------------------+ Note, however, that in disposing of these camps, the Government retained practically all the storage and hospital facilities. During the year following the armistice the Construction Division disposed of fourteen national guard camps, three embarkation camps, sixteen special and regular training camps, four flying fields, four hospitals, and many small groups of buildings. For these the Government received about $4,215,000. In addition, parts of many other camps were sold; also construction materials of practically every sort.