Making the Camps Safe for the Army

Abstract

Activities.&dquo;I am determined that our new training camps, as well as the surrounding zones within an effective radius, shall not be places of temptation and peril.&dquo; Into these words, written six weeks after America's entry into the world conflict, the Secretary of War condensed a policy not only strikingly new in American preparations, but also in the military history of the world. They were included in a letter written on May 26 to the governors of all the states. Essentially they only gave expression to the conviction which had been previously incorporated in the legislation known as sections 12 and 13 of the Selective Draft Act. The sentence gave notice to the nation and the world that the new American Army, so far as the efforts of the War Department could be made effective, was to be in every sense morally fit for the high cause in which the United States had just enlisted. Secretary Baker further had expressed the policy in these words:Our responsibility in this matter is not open to question. We can not allow these young men, most of whom will have been drafted to service, to be surrounded by a vicious and demoralizing environment, nor can we leave anything undone which will protect them from unhealthy influences and crude forms of temptation. Not only have we an inescapable responsibility in this matter to the families and communities from which these young men are selected, but, from the standpoint of our duty and our determination to create an efficient army, we are bound, as a military necessity, to do everything in our power to promote the health and conserve the vitality of the men in the training camps.The policy had not been chosen at random in the first place: as with so many other factors involved in our entry into the war, we had the benefit and the experience of our Allies and of our foes as well. Publicity has been given to the bitter lesson of one of the allied armies, which, during the first eighteen months of the war, saw more of its men out of action through the ravages of venereal disease than from all other physical causes combined. A Vienna specialist has estimated that at one time and another an equivalent of sixty Austrian divisions have been on the non-effective list for at Yale University Library on July 1, 2015 ann.sagepub.com Downloaded from

Body and Soul: The Selective Draft Law Cases and World War I

“…It was, as Army Lieutenant George Anderson boasted, "a united and coherent front … for the drastic suppression of the offence." 20 Arguing on behalf of Carrie Buck before the Supreme Court in May 1927, attorney I.P. Whitehead urged the Court to recognize that the Virginia law "violates her When John T. Neufeld, a Mennonite, claimed conscientious objector status, he was sentenced to fifteen years hard labor in the military prison at Leavenworth.…”

Body and Soul: The Selective Draft Law Cases and World War I

“…It was, as Army Lieutenant George Anderson boasted, "a united and coherent front … for the drastic suppression of the offence. "19 Arguing on behalf of Carrie Buck before the Supreme Court in May 1927, attorney I.P.…”