What America did : $b A record of achievement in the prosecution of the warKelly, Florence Finch
History
What America did : $b A record of achievement in the prosecution of the war
Kelly, Florence Finch
World War, 1914-1918 -- United States
Educational work of such varied sort was constantly carried on as part
of the program of the Training Camp Committee as to give to much of the
leisure time of every camp almost an academic atmosphere. The machinery
of the university extension work and of the educational department of
the Y. M. C. A. was utilized to provide for those wishing to take them
a wide variety of college and commercial school courses. English was
taught to those of little education and to those of foreign birth.
Every camp had its classes in French. There was instruction in subjects
which would prepare men to transfer from one branch of the service to
another. And always and everywhere there were schools or classes or
courses of study for intensive training in one or another phase of
military affairs--training for those who would have to undertake these
specific and varied duties, training for those who would instruct
others in them, training for officers. Every camp and cantonment
buzzed with these activities by which the men of a nation unused to
military affairs and hating war zealously trained themselves for battle
and schooled themselves in new methods of warfare.
The Commission on Training Camp Activities went vigorously into the
work of education in social hygiene and the enforcement of law in
order to make and keep the camp environment, the camps and the men
themselves morally wholesome, to the end that the army should be of
the best fighting material and that the men who composed it should
return to their homes as fine and clean as when they left. A determined
and unceasing effort was made to keep alcohol and the prostitute away
from the cantonments. Wide zones in which the sale or gift of alcohol
to soldiers was forbidden surrounded each training area. One section
of the Commission dealt directly with the problem of woman and girl
camp followers and sought to lessen this evil by work among the women
themselves, by securing better enforcement of local police regulations
and by educational and reformatory work in camp communities. A
great educational program was carried on by the Government by which
instruction in sex hygiene was given in the training camps. During
the first six months of cantonment training more than a million men
were reached in this way, and the work was continued with equal energy
throughout the war period.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account