The work in the United States varied with the different camps. Sometimes it was the handling of supplies or ammunition. Then again it was grading, ditching, digging stumps, cleaning up new ground for building purposes, or draining camps. The men did every form of fatigue work and sometimes built roads along with civilians who received $3.50 or $4.00 a day. Those who remained in the United States did not, as a rule, experience as hard a life as their comrades in France. Living conditions in the cantonments were usually very good, even in the tent camps after the necessary improvements had been made. Sometimes it happened that the stevedore was neglected in the beginning, especially if he was placed in a camp apart from the other soldiers. Such was the case at Camp Hill, Newport News, in the winter of 1917-18. In the coldest weather experienced in this part of the country in a quarter of a century, the stevedores lived in tents without floors or stoves. Most of them could get only one blanket and some could not secure even that. Twenty to thirty occupied one tent 16 feet square. Often men reaching the camp in zero weather were compelled to stand around a fire outside all night or sleep under trees for partial shelter from the wind, rain, and snow. For four months no bathing facilities or changes of clothing were provided. Food was served outdoors and often froze before it could be eaten. After inspectors and other investigators constantly reported these conditions they were changed. Comfortable barracks and mess halls were built, a Y. M. C. A. building and a hostess house erected, and the name of the camp was changed from Hill to Alexander in honor of one of the three Negro lieutenants who had been graduated from West Point. Not only in this camp, but in every other where unsatisfactory conditions prevailed, improvements were gradually made until, at the end of the war, most of the stevedores in American camps were living in comfortable surroundings.