By Franklin F. Holbrook and Livia Appel
At the close of the second Liberty Loan campaign, Camp Cody was found to head all national guard and national army camps both in its total subscriptions, amounting to $2,003,800, and in its per capita average of $96.50. The men and officers of the 68th Infantry Brigade claimed the best record, as they subscribed $61,600, or more than thirty per cent of the total. The 136th Infantry held the lead in per capita subscriptions until near the close of the drive, but that honor was finally carried off by the headquarters of the 59th Depot Brigade. In the third loan the 136th Infantry stood highest among the regiments, with a subscription Of $18,300. The totals in this drive were much smaller than in the second, since so much of the income of both men and officers had already been committed. At the conclusion of the war risk insurance drive, at midnight of February 12, 1918, applications had been received for over $242,000,000 worth of insurance. All but 142 men in camp responded, of whom 63 were conscientious objectors.
One wishes it were possible to relate the thousand and one incidents of camp life, some humorous and some sad, that reveal a military organization, not as a great impersonal machine, but as an aggregation of human beings. It is remarkable how quickly men in any situation adjust themselves to their surroundings and take anything that comes as a matter of course. It must be confessed that the average soldier was probably more concerned with the problem ‘of making his tent comfortable and homelike than he was with the fulfillment of any obligation to country or mankind.
If any one trait of human nature may be said to flourish more than another in an army camp, it is that of imagination. The reason is that the life of the soldier, whether lie be officer or enlisted man, is a passive one in so far as his own destiny is concerned. He rarely can make decisions affecting his own future, but must do as he is ordered. This, however, does not prevent his speculating, both with regard to his own destiny and with regard to developments in general. Now the line between speculation and imagination is difficult to draw and the result is the famous army institution known as the ” camp rumor,” which will perhaps be recalled by the initiated under a more colloquial designation. Most frequently it centered about the probable time of departure of the division. One night in December, 1917, the 67th Infantry Brigade was ordered out on a night “hike” to the polo grounds south of Deming. Immediately speculation arose as to the real meaning of this mysterious military move. One school of opinion held that Villa had crossed the border and that the brigade had been ordered to Columbus to protect the village from another raid. Another view was that overseas orders bad been received and that the men were to entrain for the port of embarkation before dawn. – Published by the Minnesota Historical Society – Saint Paul, 1928
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