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■ THE CADUCEUS
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The Caduceus
“DEDICATED TO THE CAUSE OF
WORLD WIDE JUSTICE”
AFTER THE WAR.
WE TELL THEM
Published every Saturday by the En
listed Personnel of the Base Hospital,
Camp Greene, Charlotte, N. C.
Business Office ‘.’Phone 1530
Editorial Office—Building C-1, Base
Hospital.
Five Cents the Copy.
Editor & Mgr. ..Sgt. Verlin J. Harrold
Associated Editor Avery Toohey
Associated Business Mgr..Ivan H. Law
Business Assistants—
Theodorio Neal, ■
Roy A. Evans,
Dudley M. Sarfaty.
On the chevron discussion I would
like to impose the prophetic words of
Secretary Baker, who has the follow
ing to say:
“Ten years from now the army of
the United States will consist of two
classes of people, those who served in
this war and those who did not. Men
who have nothing on their sleeves
will be those who have joined the
service after the armistice, and men
who were in service during the war,
either abroad or at home, will wear
the appropriate chevron. It will des
ignate those who were in the forces
during the war from those who were
not.”
A. SILVER BEARER.
SPIRIT WILL ENDURE
Camp Greene is passing. The government orde rto clear .the former
training ground is being carried out with dispatch. The ranks of every unit
stationed in the camp have been depleted and several organizations, which
flourished there a week ago, have been wiped out entirely.
The hand of the wrecker has already set upon the buildings. Hill sides
of the great ravine, which splits the camp site, are being cleared of the tent
bases that were once the floors and four walls of dwellings in the city of
canvas, where thousands of the strong men of the nation were being
schooled for battle.
If we are in a retrospective mood as we watch the work of pulling down
the rude structures we can see among the unpainted buildings, now being
tortured by axe and bar, the forms of that busy host which peopled the camp
a year ago. We can feel the blood tingle of the hour when the Forty-first
division, that army of stalwarts from the rugged west, was active in its
preparation for meeting the war trained Death Hussars.
We can remember when the camp surged with life and resounded with
the call of shouted orders; how motors hummed and hammers rang, as the
drab clad men carried on their myriad processes of feeding, clothing, drill
ing and housing G0,000 soldiers.
We recall the regulars of the Third and Fourth divisions, from New
York and Pennsylvania, and the men of the Maine heavy artiilery. We
recollect that gathering of 21,000 horses in the corrals of the remount
station and can see again the bales of hay, heaped mountain high, in the
clearing.
With early spring came the movement of combatant units and the ebb
of life at Camp Greene. It was an outgoing tide that never returned. While
the pioneers of tlie camp made glorious history along the battle front their
former trainin.g site stood as a cluster of vacant buildings, but sparsely
peopled by that procession of mechanaics, ground aviators and camou-
fleurs, who were later brought here to give a touch of life.
As we watch the razing of the timber shells of Camp Greene there is a
touch of emotion for those of u.s who knew the hum of-busy days along the
company streets in the hey da.y of that training center. The feeling is not
one of sadness because we are too glad that the red struggle for which
these men prtpared is passed. But the ground is hallowed to us in that it
was trod by our here comrades who displayed a spirit, when they met the
steel of German hate, that gives the memory of our association with them
a toTich of reverence.
It is not the buildings, which fall today that we cherish; it is the work
of the men who have moved among them, just common Americans, who
smiled in the face of death and in their smiling set the engines of destruc
tion to route. It is not the wiping out of the camp that creates the tender
feeling in our hearts; it is the fact that this was the army city which held
men that we must always admire; men of steel; men of unshakable faith;
men who know no fear as they met the war-bred subjects of autocracy;
men worthy of the glor.v which has come to the American name.
And at this time we express an ambition. We hope that in the years
when the camp and our U S. Army Base Hospital, Camp Greene, are but
parts of fruitful acres or the sites of quiet homes, that the Mecklenburg
citizen who never fails to point out to visitors the places where the first
Declaration of Independence was drawn up, where Washington tarried,
where King’s Mountain was fought, where Jackson lived, and who relates
with pride about “The Hornet’s Nest”, will refer to the camp land as “the
training ground of heroes,” and pointing towards the ground where the
hospital now stands, will b-e justified in adding, “Over there the Medical
forces fought their battles against the epidemics which swept the camp.
They won their lights by skill and courage that we must always admire and
to the last day of the hospital’s standing we looked upon it' as the seat of
thorough anad untiring service.”
How has the removal of Camp
Greene units affected Caduceus adver
tising?
It has a direct bearing on the na
ture of the business announcements
we seek and carry. There is no use
advertising to 40,000 doughboys of
Camp Greene when they are gone.
There is a marked value in presenting
any article which should be brought
before the ppople of this section of
North Carolina, however, for The Ca-
duceus continues to go into thou
sands of homes of this region every
Saturday.
We are making our advertising ap
peal to merchants who want to send
a message into the homes of Char
lotte and other cities of the Piedmont
area and our best talk is to ask those
we call upon to look upon the streets
on Saturday at the hundreds of blue-
covered copies of The Caduceus that
pass their door and which are going
straight to the library tables of homes
they wish to reach.
LET’S EASE UP.
There was a well-beloved chaplain
in the American Army in France who
has been quoted as saying: “If swear
ing will win the war. I’m for swear
ing.” The war having been won, the
Stars and Stripes, the official organ
of our fighting men across the water,
suggests that the time has come for
a readjustment of the profanity out
put. The official organ does not ad
vocate breaking off all at once, after
the fashion of the usual New Year
resolution, but suggests a gradual re
turn to normal verbal conditions.
That our army, like that earlier
army described by Uncle Toby, swore
terribly in Flanders is quite possible.
That there has been a lavish wartime
use of what a noted magazine writer
calls “the sizzling stuff,” we all know.
It was not confined to the army, how
ever. It was an evidence everywhere
—a result of the war tension, of over
wrought nerves, of resentment against
detested conditions. Now that those
conditions have been abated the prac
tice of profanity might well be cut
down. When used too often it not only
weakens the mother tongue, it weak
ens itself. It becomes, as the poet
said, flat and stale and unprofitable.
It may, as a supply train driver feel
ingly urged, be an essential to the
guidance of army mules, but there is
no doubt that peace can be safely
adjusted and prolonged without it.
The Stars and Stripes appears to have
started a highly commendable demob
ilization.—Cleveland Plain-Dealer.
THAT’S ME MABLE, ALL OVER.
Sergeant—“Now suppose you found
a lighted bomb on your post and you
knew it was about to explode. What
would you do?”
Rookie—“Turn it over to the cap
tain of my company, sir.”
—Bombproof.