THE OGDEN STANDARD-EXAMINER - 1
I Army Schools Draw From All the World pBS 1
r Forty-seen National- fr """"""" : . ; . i;-I J&T I J - 1
ities Represented at m'WZ, "i feri jff jf j'B '
Camp Upton, First ; V. -f 'e. -fNf
! J J' J
S; r1 1 jf classroom ' ' ' '- -xr"" " , vj 1
"tll A, ff-r- T CAMP UPTON .., -..-- . T "3 1 MD JOSEPH JOHNSON BORN IN
W lllillM ' - Ahr-' - ' ' : " 12. ' ICELAND, a,-o: TOM ftlZYO,
-.,;'srJy F1" u ts "$. JV; i :'"? 5- J . fH(it''-''!rA js,. -vf The school at CMnp Upton .it prwent In-
Sl 5kI' ' " ,r. i. gggT-vX- X3, ' v ' 5pi. , 7 t el .. l...nt l :(" r. omits. A staff of thlrtv 'cli ,
y!l 'sfes ") j ,' V 'i " '' ' - ', . civilian Instructors under the direction ot
SV ; .: , 5. .,' - ' v - , ,x ' j ? ' .vO-l": ;K- if Myers B Horner works in cooperatn with
aJKRS-JS '' T s S i 1 :r commlsslonc.l personnel assisnf .l for
ttnQmSljiLr;; X"'! "-;'-:"i1 'i t ' j ; ' V--? "y -V ! L ... military Instruction of the two battalions.
k?TXb&4 1-- L -t ' - -J ' ; -, :-t ; '. f&$- j. l-'ort -?. n nationalities are represented
(. .1 . - ..' tr. ' - ' " ' -T . tawfvi. - '' ' : i . " ' .11 "i-i i- i- ii '.,-.h more than a
sSS H . V' ''Mr . j A . a - '"'" ' VJ ' ' k hundred each, and a half dozen other ooun-
WMjEKEfi$ tfyVP W&fy' - ' "' ' V 5"J .'' A' . --" '' . ' ffD 7 -- tn.-s .r. h with more than twenty. Aratu
BBC? j J7 -j "1 f ' -v ."-r.-r-'v ' rrnlributes two. Iceland has two. Malta . nr.,
Vf ' fe IT ; J; L, "hL '"j-"" f '-, "'WJ C(iirJWv i ' A. jX"T xjirf'if ? i !'." o four and Turkey adds eighteen.
j'--,- Onn 'Ifltllli'lfflln ' :- ' ,i-r'i'.vi ")- i'-73iBPv -r -.'iy.U ' V '":. illiterate citizens come from thlrty-seen
mtt'l l':J, (;'IV-' ' I53 V' 3 j '''k "is flBk . '?4PW. r, 'J'V '- 1 Stales Georcla tops the list with 165 closely
JS t- . . .?a8 '$JrjBm '"SMLill Sil ; 'w', . V followed by North Carolina Kentucky Ten-
jPM -i' jjlBBW '-SSp v" ' " ' -"-J .S? .-l n V, i kers to pair off with the
i ;' ' Turks ..-fn ;"nm Mas :aohnsr-tts. two frr.m
I j ' V'K'C ' - Ari..na (olor.ul.-.. N'.-v. Jersey. ' Okla-
I MuSf f r . V y. - JCfc. ' Al ' " homa. Vermont and Wisconsin
f GELO QUKGLI Y " X NN '&" 1K Frenchman Hold, Speed Record.
! FORJvlE&Ly IN T7e ITALIAN MR. A ' W v -' Cr.arles Kilch. who came to this country
! SERVICE, AH fvCE. HAVING 1 A, . HK i 1 ri-r,n Prance, holds a record for speedy ad-
nii-r rwir r-i jvirrs v' f - V g, ' CTrTl - ' on Into the armv. He eidlsted twa
EIGMT ENEMY PLANES IfSfW -KL 'r'$L MJM-M' ' r af,-r 1'"'-'n- '--nsiish and
Hlo CrcEU) I I "-sa yfi I At. S'-'w s ,:, .' V TTv -V(1 completed the course Tt (amp l pton In
sjs Ct vJ .'.V'-AOR IMtSt '"'h-'T' tX.r9 V T Lir-fr ' fi 1 r months -,v,.l ,, mllfieH for I hantiiinm
I By BELA W. NORTON.
T TNCLE SAM has undertaken the role
J of schoolmaster With the versa -
S Ullty so popularly and accurately
ascribed to that elderly gentleman who never
grows old, he has tacklrri his new problem
with such characteristic energy that we may
say he has achieved success. If it meets
with your approval, let's address him in his
new title. Uncle Sam. M A the degree sig
nlflng "Maker of Americans''
He s not precisely the president of a great
new university, althouch the size of his un
dertaking might justify such honors titles
, end emoluments ns accompany that position.
He Is not "professor" In a new school of cor
respondence although one may puesa that
his "paper work" Is even more voluminous
and intricate than that of any such provider
of study and success. He is not the super
Inter, dent of a great city school system nor
the headmaster of an exclusive and cultured
private school He has not reverted to 'he
country schoolmaster who "hoarded "round"
and maintained the dlnlt of his position in
the 'little red schoolhouse by the proper ad
ministration of birch and willow and com
mon sense. He Is not precisely any one of
these. From each one he seems to have ac
cepted contributions as he turned to the tark
of education which confronted him.
That task he found In the new army which
he Is raising and he 's carrying the atmos
phere of books, of school days, of school
rooms, of education and of citizenship to the
quiet cantonments Which are now- garrisoned
by the recruits and Regulars of our military
establishment.
Illiteracy Revealed in. Draft Record.
Call It education, reconstruction, home
missionary service, uplift work, or what you
v. 111. the fnct remains that It Is one of the
moat timely plans cf Americanization which
has functioned successfully, while many
ethers creaked and groaned under the
weight of words or never passed beyond
the oratorical stage. The Recruit Educa
tional Centre at Camp Upton one year ago
was the experiment. It Is now a perma
nent institution recognized in the budget
rd staff of the War Department Similar
schools havo been established this summer
In Camps Jackson, Pike, Trals, 3rant and
Lewis to meet the lmperatic need of ele
mentary education for the masses of native
Americans and Immigrants between the
ages of 18 and 35 who arc entering the
army.
Illiteracy was one of the sober revelations
ci the late war disclosed to army offlce c In
the records of our selective service mcr. in
the National Army During the war they
weren't concerned so much about the supply
of man power as with the speed In con
verting that power Into fighting units
With the termination of hostilities and iub
aequent demobilization of the fighting
forces there came the problem of recruiting
the ranks with new regulars to maintain
the permanent establishment
Recruiting for voluntary enlistments re
vealed other things. Uncle Sam could not
U compete with the great industries as far as
wages were concerned. He could not out
bid his competitors for the man power
which he wanted. What could ne do and
what did he do? The first Recruit Educa
tional Centre at Camp Upton was a partial
solution of the problem.
Draft records of men between the- age
Of 21 and 31 showed that 24 9 per cent were
Illiterate and therefore Incapable of full
military service. In general they were
either uneducated native Americans com
inc from unprogressho rural, mining and
THIRTY NATIONALITIES
REPRESENTED IN THIS
&ROUP op SOLDIER,
STUDENTS
mountain sections, or Illiterate immigrants
who had been unable or disinclined to take
advantage of opportunities to learn our
language anel customs and become clllzcns
Tens of thousands of both classes were
swept Into the armj when the draft ma
chinery commenced functioning Somp. both
apt and eager, grasped the new life readily,
availed themselves of liberal naturalization
privileges, and saw service everseas The
casualty lists and a famous Liberty Loan
poster are grim reminders of their loyalty.
Vastly greater numbors spent most of their
army daws In those heterogeneous organiza
tlonn called "development battalions.'1 which
were- left at camp? when units embarked for
the great adventure.
Rehabilitation, reclassification for less ar
duous forms of military service and educa
tlcna, proprnmmes were tasks of these sal
vaging organizations The permanently In
capacitated were discharged on surgeons'
certificates of disability, conscientious ob
jectors were given service compatible with
their religious beliefs, battalion schools for
Instruction In English and rudimentary sub
jects were started and special courses In
physical, and military training were given
with the idea of fitting the rejected soldier
for some place In the vast machine when
th- need came for men of his type. There
were slackers who bluffed their way into
development hattallons. and there were able
bodied men of foreign birth who wanted to
be real soldiers but couldn't because they
knew no English and in some cases could
not even write their names.
Out of the mlgnty store of this latter form
of man power the mass of unsKilled Im
migrant laborers, eager to learn the funda
mentals of American citizenship, is belnp
dipwn a surprisingly large number of re
cruits for our standing army The appeal
seems gre-at?t to them. Without education
of sonic kind they can never rise The army
offers more than It ever offered before.
They have responded and are responding.
News of the army plan of education has
Slread) spread to parts of Europe and nnnv
prospective Immigrants are known to be
planning to servo at least three years in the
United States Arm In order to learn Eng
lish and perfect themselves In skilled trades.
Uncle Sam was alert enough to see that
a part of his Job in making soldiers of these
recruits would have to lc Instruction In the
fundamentals of the English language He
has not only giver, thern English, but he h.as
also poured out a stream of simple, concen
trated and easily assimilated mental nutri
ment, which Includes bits of history and
civics, so he will be glad to give them nat
uralization papers when they havo com
pleted an enlistment of three years. Not
more than six months of this time Is spent
in one of his Recruit Educational Centres.
In the Melting Pot.
The Recruit Educational Centre at Camp
Upton was established May 1. 1019 Until
July 20. 1920, It was the only organir-atlon
of Its kind In the country It is not simply
' a melting pot It is a melting pot filled with
fusablc human material. The "heat," or
energy If vou prefer, is provided by the sim-
1 pie determination to produce good soldiers,
and, most of all, good Americans,
1 Capt Bernard Lontz of the general staff,
1 credited with evolving the plan of Instruc
tion, has described the purpose of the school
1 as follows:
"The primary object of the Recruit Educa,.
I tlonal Centre Is to give the men a thorough
sj j
TEA
A TURkl, ONE; -
MONTH IN
UNITED STATES .
e-ourse in elements r English, coupled with
instruction in tho fundametal duties of a
soldier. The Illiterate or non-English speak
ing recruit enters the service with an im
pediment, viz.: lack of knowledge of suf
ficient English to enable him to carry on
properly as a soldier. It Is to the Interest of
the soldier anrl it certainly makes for effi
ciency In the army to have this impediment
removed ns soon as possible. This the Re
cruit Eelucatlonal Centre aims to do.
"Authority to enlist Illiterate and non
English .speaking recruits is extended to In
clude the whole country whether enlisted for
general or special assignment. All men In
the aforesaid classes will be sent to a Re
cruit Educational Centre as soon as enlisted.
Men for general assignment will be assigned
upon completion of the course. The men
given a special assignment will join their
organizations as soon as they complete their
school work at the recruit cen're
Twenty-five Per Cent. Illiterate.
"The War Department's arguments for
opening enlistments to the illiterate and
ron-Engllsh speaking are briefly these-
"The draft showed about 25 per cent
illiterate or almost Illiterate In the English
language. By permitting these men to en
l.st tho army opens a heretofore untouched
field amounting to almost 25 per ce;it. of
the grown up population of the United
States. By enlisting these men for three
years tho War Department can afford to
combine a course In English with recruit
instruction, covering four or even six
months, for at the end of this period these
men will serve two and one-half years In
their permanent organisations nnd will, eco
nomically speaking, be. from two to three
times as valuable as men enlisting for one
year.
"The army has special inducements -to
offer these men. They are assured u thor
ough course in English as soon sis enlisted,
for tho Recruit Educational Centre schools
never close; they go on tho year round.
There Is the additional advantage for non
citizens, namely, full citizenship at Uie end
of their three year enlistment. If the llllt-e-atcs
and the non-English .speaking were
good enough to fight for the country in all
Jnstlce they are entitled to the peace time
educational privileges thr.t tho army may
offer. Last and most significant, no doubt,
h the argument that this educational and
Amcrlcnnlza'.'.on work will help 10 convince
the people that the army. In addition to be
ing an insurance- against war. is also a real
peace time asset"
School Compriet Six Grades.
The school comprises six arbitrarily des
ignated grades, which, in turn, are divided
Into four sections A. B, C and D Knowl
edge of the Encllsh language determines the
grade, intelligence rating as shown In tho
standard Beta test determines the section
ol the -rade which the recruit enters. For
rurprses of instruction the sections are kept
relatKely of the same size It Is significant
that A men cover the prescribed work four
times as readily as C men and almost twice
an fast as men of the B section. A man
r n-.ilns in the same section of each grado
throughout the course. Ninety per cent of
the A men learn the grado work in about
ttvo weeks and graduate at the semi
monthly promotions.
But how arc Antonio. Ottc. Pedro. Olaf.
Abraham. Nicholas. CaMmir. George. Luko
and the hundreels of other representatives
of the forty -seven nationalities at Camp
Upton Initiated Into such a polyglot organiza
tion for military and civic training" Pos
sessed with little save tho desire to earn
whU i learning and physical qualifications to
pass preliminary recruiting test3. recruits
are pent to camp and put In a casual de
tachment for an Isolation period of fifteen
doys. During this tlmo they are clothed,
taught to salute and are given tests by the
school psychologist to determine their grade
an 1 section In the school, All men who can
not read enter the flrxt grade, section D.
About 90 per cent, of fhc recruits at Camp
Upton have started from this point.
After the period of isolation the recruit
attends school. Military training and the
school frogrammc ore closely coordinated so
that everyday except Saturday r and Sundi-. s
and during the summer Wednesday after
noons the recruit spends two and a half
7
hour.- In each of the two activities He Is
reileed from company details and fatigue
duilng the first month. The work of each
grade is designed to bo covered in two weeks.
Bums men In the lower sections of the first
grade cannot grasp the work, simple as it
Is. In that time and move upward very
slowly In cases of extremely low Intellect
where there Is no prospect of Improvement, a
board of review may investigate and recom
mend either discharge or assignment to such
branches of the service as can use such men
In some capacity.
Bookj Appeal to Studewt' Pride.
The text book for each grade Is a volume
of ten lessons comprising twenty -four pages
Illustrated with engravings, cartoons and
caricatures. Tho first three grade lead up
I 1 -.vrltlng letters home and develop for such
letters suggestions which are full of interest
to a man in the army and his new relations
10 family and friends Books for the fifth
and sixth grades are of biographical nature.
Lessons In the former are designed to ap
peal to the pride of the non-English speaking
man and at tho same time point out to the
English speaking man tho fact that his com
redes represent nationalities which cherish
the memorv or heroes relatively as great as
the heroes of America.
The sixth grade emphasizes the lives of
euch Americans as Washington, Jefferson.
J .1 ncoi ii . r raimuii, urum "'"- iwu.m
supplementary reader containing humorous
soldier stories adds a humanizing touch
Elements of American history, rudimen
tary civics and geographv are taught in the
higher grades. Short recruiting speeches are
sometimes required as a means of develop
ing relf-expresslon, arousing imagination
and impressing the public with the value of
the new life In the army Group singing Is
taught by the c-amp song leader when tho
companies asscmblo at tho camp theatre
each week.
The "cadence system" of close order drill
developed by Capt Lontz carries the In
struction in English and cultivation In co
ordination to such a prosaic thing as tho
first flf'y piges of Infantry Drill Regula
tions, the croundwork of all mihtarv dis
cipline and training Tho recruits learn not
onlv the execution of squad and platoon
movements but also cadence and English
words as they count "by the numbers" and
repeat In unison the commands they aro
executing
On the Chautauqua Circuit.
The twenty-eight men of tho 'Americans
All" de tachment who toured the country last
fall under the command of Major Samuel T.
Stewart demonstrated the results of the
early months of the Upton school. Plve
reiuads of similar graduates of tho school
this summer are attracting favorable atten
tion in their appearances under tho auspices
of a Chautauqua circuit. They drill, sing
popular army ongs and toll of their experi
ences at the Recruit Educational Centre.
A typical Chautauqua squad, upon Inquiry,
was found to contain only on American
The other seven included an Italian, an Aus
trian, a Greek, a Russian, a l'olo and a
Spaniard. Each had to bo asked his nation
ality because none of tho number seemed to
hao bothered about digging up the origin
of the members, of the squad. They could
drill, however and they had learned to sing
and speak English well enough to appear
before a Chautauqua crowd. Tho Chau
tauqua assignment Incidentally Is no small
Incentive to tho man In the ranks who Is
Struggling to master his drill, the manual
of arms and fundamentals of the English
language within a few months.
gt'.-up. He had had some military training B
In his native land
A recruit In this countrv five months had (Bit'
spent two of those In the army and was fBic1
learning to read and explain such sentence vEk
as "I am looking for a Job," "the soldier wtis
walked down the street," when tho writer Wlui
saw him in the school at Camp Upton An-
other recruit of the same nationality, six tKs
venrs in this country, had been In s.-hool
three weeks and was in the same Class Hfj
reading similar simple sentences. A ranv
Southerner with an unmistakable drawl read EKf
without hesitation the text book letter to
'Dear Nellie," which his sixth grado was JbtI
slueivlng. He Is from Birmingham Ala . and mB
had nine months schooling before he ?n- B(R
These are but random cases Jotted down HR
in the course of recent observation of tho
barracks school rooms. Dozens of others
might be cited, but they would differ mainly H3
In the length of time In this country and ffiff
tho length of service In the army Every WH
one seems eager to learn the extremely slm- HIk
pie things taught In Uncie Sum's new W
schools. The spint of the men is excellent. Im
Ii Is no child's play for young men who in
have reached their mijorttv to settle down Xi-i
to learn what could have been learned la
the first four grades of public schools They IfiH
arc there to learn and most of them arc do- Qta
ing it in creditable fashion. After complet- tSul
ing the six rudimentary grades they may VSm
continue in some branch of vocational
training if they expressed a desire 'o Im- 08
prove their knowledge in a given trads BB
v.hen the enlisted. HI,
When these recruits have servej the years Bl
they are willing to devote to their country's B8
military establishment they will return to
civil life no only soldiers but citizens No
other country has undertaken such an cdu- tM
catlonal programme In training men for Rlv
military service I nele Sam Is teaching the Hn
snap and cadence of the military step, but 1J&
best of all he is preparing to graduate men H
from his army to good cit'zenshlp with Kfi
hearts anq minds attuned to the cadencn of f&L
genuine American life Bses
Crowning a Pagoda
A CURIOUS festival was held not lop M?
ago In Mandalay. the chief town of 1 I
Burma. new pagoda dedicated to nfgi
tne Buddhist religion was to be completed ftffi
b ine placing of a huge crown or thl upon
its summit, more than 300 feet above the
ground.
To witness the ceremony ram? Buddhists H
from Indo-Chir.a from the Himalayas, from I
I ao and Chan and Siam. Warriors from VJ
Katschin, sorcerers from Mot and people H
from other places mad- a medley of iun- W
guagSS like that at Babel B
On a street corner would he seen a barher I
pulling a customer's tooth. On another cor- I
nor a Mohammedan bird dealer sold caged
paroquets to Buddhists who piously sot them
free At very modern booths one could buy
Ice cream, soda or tea Mandalay was a P
gorgeous 'pectacle and the new pagoda waa M
the centre of it.
Every pagoda has at Its summit a thl or
cap. the placing of which Is often a hercu
lean task Th(? nno ncm tQ rais(vj weighed r
several hundred pounds and consisted of a
gilded ball and crown and a great spindle
above it - n
v TKeCt U t0p " JncIind plane of
bamboo scaffolding like a huge toboggan
Sl de had been built, and was decorated with
silk flags and Umbrellas. Up the inclined 1
Plane the heavy cap was slowly pulrd
Six days wore required for the ascent and
a seventh to fasten it in place.
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