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Show Tvimerica Doffs Hat to Enaineer Who Built Sixteen Cities in Five Months JOME was not built In a day; but V your Uru-le Sam lias on his payroll ' ' a uniformed patriot, a sort of supercon-tractor, supercon-tractor, who In five months has built sixteen little Romes in the United States of America, a feat that takes its place in the annals of American hls-, hls-, jr tory as one of the most remarkable achievements of the world's greatest re- ! public, . an engineerfng enterprise of modern times rivaling In every way the work of General Goethals in building ' the Panama Canal. This man who has built towns over night is Colonel Isaac W. Littell, quartermaster quar-termaster corps. War Department, in charge of the construction of the cantonment can-tonment camps for the training of the selective army now going into camp. To ret a comprehensive idea of the wonderful work under the direction of Colonel Littell, acting as the representative representa-tive of the Secretary of War, one has , but to make a few comparisons with f cities of corresponding size in the States where the cantonments have been lo- "V Little Cities The cantonment at Wrightstown, N. J , houses a population almost equal t to the entire resident population of Atlantic At-lantic City. The 40,000 men under roof at Columbia, S. C, are more than two-' two-' thirds the population of Charleston, S. ,p C. Two cantonments the size of Camp Meade at Annapolis Junction, Md., ' would make a second city of Wilming-! Wilming-! ton. Del., home of the powder kings of America. The new camp at Fort Riley, Kansas, mobilizes at that point a new city as big'as Topeka in point of popu- vtt - lation. Texas's camp at Fort Sam Houston is greater than the city of El Paso, while Massachusetts's camp at Ayer is larger than Fitchburg, Plttsfield or Taunton and almost as big as Haverhill Haver-hill or Salem. v ' 1 ' Henry W. Longfellow, in his poem, "The Builders," reminds us that: All are architects of fate Working In these walls of time. Some with massive deeds and great, Some with ornaments and rhyme. The "massive deeds and great" of V I . t 1 Colonel Isaac Littell In the work done this summer have been to take sixteen chosen spots In the open spaces of "My country, 'tis of thee," most of them waving fields of grain, stake them out in streets and avenues, supervise the assembly of raw materials from the far corners of the Country and then direct t the construction of these wonderful new cities for the National Army that stand - out today a collection of monuments to the prowess of American engineering genius. It all begun one day back in April, Just five months ago, after the United States had thrown down the gauntlet to Germany and declared for war upon Prussian militarism as the one and only road to permanent world peace. From his office in the "War Department Colonel Col-onel Littell was summoned to a conference confer-ence with the Secretary of War and various high Government officials. Colonel Colo-nel LittelPs force at that time consisted of himself, Captain Richard Marshall, Jr., and three clerks. In the presence of the Secretary of War the quartermaster chief heard unfolded un-folded the plana to build forthwith the proposed cantonments, it being then known that the Government proposed to resort to the selective draft to bring up the increments of recruits for a force of 687,000 men. Just the exact words addressed to Colonel Littell by the Secretary of War have not been revealed; they may be preserved In some stenographic reports that In years to come may be regarded as important Government documents; but at any rate it ran along something like this: "Colonel Littell, here are the plans and specifications. "We want you to go ahead through your department jusc I This map marks ott' the sites of the encampments as quickly as possible to the fulfillment of these plans. You have carte blanche to go ahead as you see fit, and I need not say that the Government stands back of you, ready to take orders from vou." Thus "The Builder" was introduced tc : his gigantic task. The only assets he had in hand were the blue prints repre- i senting the proposed barracks, the willingness will-ingness of the Secretary of War to aid ' in every way possible and his owa Yankee initiative and training as an army officer in the quartermaster's; department. de-partment. And being a good soldier, Colonel Littell stopped for no ifs" or "buts," but plunged forthwith into his new assignment with characteristic American verve and energy. Rivalry for Sites The first thing was to dispatch boards of army officers throughout the country to find available sites and make arrangements ar-rangements for the Government to take them over. Quiet little towns that had slumbered along, in their bucolic environment, en-vironment, with visits from "city folks" extraordinary affairs on their prosaic calendars, were surprised at the arrival of trim, business-looking motorcars laden with equally trim, business-looking army officers in khaki. These gentlemen gentle-men asked various questions about water supply, drainage, food and mil facilities and various other questions as to the resources of the various districts-visited. districts-visited. Surveyors, with rod and level got busy and wound up their preliminary prelimi-nary work with neatly drawn topographical topo-graphical charts that, when forwarded to Washington, sketched out in detail the plan of the proposed new "army city" that was to be built. In the meanwhile, at Washington, r i -eA"wtii ; : : "nrrr-7 : i i p 7 V X""" Iff'X i ; H" -S jL"tK - ' I N I r"4sj MASS. ;' f -V -I . ,c-.S.- XZ.Jkr N-J- r . h . : f'0W ' W r , . i , - h. ( I f " I'.i'---- VA 1 SELECTIVE. ! j L-l i tw Z t- " , j I ' f n CANTONMENTS. TEXAS L..v -A J i Colonel Littell gave himself over to the task of examining the blue prints of the proposed cantonments. He found that they called for one-story buildings. He was of the impression that the plans could be improved by building two-story cantonments. After a few conferences the changes were O. K.'d and new plans immediately prepared. . Submitted to the medical corps ot the army, they merited the unqualified approval of Major General Gorgas and his staff on the ground that the additional cubic space permitted under the revised plans would make for better health of the citizen cohorts. From these prints grew up quickly, as though by magic, the outlines of the new cities, including as they did provision pro-vision for churches, schools, moving-picture moving-picture theatres, clubs, laundries, stores a modern city. City planners and architects, in and out of the army, gave their best thought to the project. Roads were plotted on th. maps, sewerasre and water plants provided pro-vided for and no detail omitted, even to the arrangements for fire and police departments. And then, as the sites for the cantonments canton-ments were made public, came the first "fly in the ointment." Stirred by the pictures of fabulous wealth conjured in their minds at the prospect of new cities being built on such an elaborate scale, with all the attendant activities that were sure to grow up as a consequence of the mobilisation of thousands of embryo em-bryo soldiers in unfrequented communities, communi-ties, a small army of politicians moved upon Washington. Jealous over some of the selections made they battled to have other sites chosen sites that would better suit the pocketbooks of the constituents of those Congressmen and Senators whose ,home districts had been "slighted." The battle was ot shorter duration than Dewey's memorable memora-ble brush in the harbor of Manila, ilay 1, 1898. Secretary Baker turned back the flank movement, leaving Colonel came to the bat and delivered a solid hit that won the game right there for Colonel Littell. Arriving in his office one morning shortly after making the request Colonel Littell found a complete list of just the caliber of men he wanted. From this list "The Builder" made a selection of 250 and forthwith organized his staff. Now the work began in earnest. Starting April 1 with an office staff consisting of one assistant and two clerks. Colonel Littell found himself on May 1 the director of a complete enci n spring. construction, transportation and executive force numbering hundreds. hun-dreds. From a small room in tiie War Off.ce the (Voi'T.cl found himself transferred trans-ferred to a whole- bu!M;r,L: on F strpt in the national capital. And now the "Lit; job" was on in earnest. V i . , ! f V -MA s - ' . . n . r ! ' - v. , : ' ire i'-VK -. v y . . v x s N s " i , .:. . : . , f -e , , ; : 1 f , . . v ' 1 " - - L 1 Out of the wooden cities now erectetl will emerge shortly the new , National Army of America Littell to move forward to his colossal attack with an army of a million workmen, work-men, armed with saws, hammers, shovels shov-els and plumhjfng kits. At this juncture Colonel Littell re. ceived efficient re-enforcements from the Council of Ivitional Defense. That democratic dem-ocratic organization was asked to pro.-vide pro.-vide civilian chieftains familiar with building conditions throughout' the country, their cost and source of supply; sup-ply; he wanted men in the various committees com-mittees who knew -the contractors and construction firms, manufacturers and transportation leaders. And just to prove that the United States, when it set itself to the task of war, despite all the years of slothful indifference to preparedness, pre-paredness, could make good in the v jinch. the Council of National Defense f in June" the preliminary work of organization, or-ganization, order of materials and other preparation incidental to the proposition of getting under way was officially com--pleted and the directors of the vast enterprise en-terprise were ready to get right down to brass tacks, or rather, iron nails and lumber. At fivst Colonel 'Littell was in favor of. giving ' the contracts to .the lowest bidder, but abandoned this for a plan whereby he would put them out on a percentage basis. This was done on a sliding scale of 10 per cent on smaller contracts, down to 6 per cent as the contracts increased in size. Tt was stipulated that the maximum profit any contractor could get out of the can. tonments was 5250.000. It was just a way on the part of Colonel Littell and his staff to keep the whole project on -.. ,JMMM , -L T . .-. - .. '..": - , TT''V. . 4Ji iriBiwmfTiti'lii mi iih ill Hi ii mwgmnmrlTnrlV!-rM'l ''"'''' -TrrmwMmini Headquarters executive building at Camp Dix, U'rightstown, N. J. a merit basis without favoritism or graft. The Government found itself face to face with a new problem. Building materials ma-terials were higher than at any previous time In the history of the American building trades. Labor was high. In some places carpenters could be gotten for $4 a day, in other places they wanted $5.50. The only thing to do was to m;ike the specifications of each cantonment can-tonment contract suit the prevailing conditions of labor and materials. With the assistance of the Council r. National Na-tional Defence the big lumber, steel and supply kings were called into council and asked to put patriotism above petty profit. They responded, too. as did the mcriran Federation of Labor, the latter lat-ter in sidetracking strikes and handling the "floaters" who were out to get rich ii.iXiC-e of the Government. ruoiograpn dj noma iX r-winj Colonel Isaac W. Littell, the man in charge of the construction construc-tion of the sixteen army cantonments can-tonments Another difficulty had to be overcome. Transportation facilities were not of the best because of the scarcity of cars and the rush of food shipments to seaboard. A conference with the railroad heads was followed by the organization of a division on transportation, and presto! the needed supplies were on their way to the cantonment sites. Since the start of the war in Europe we have been regaled re-galed with the marvelous tales of German Ger-man efficiency, and particularly with the manner in which the railways of the Hohenzollern empire are linked up with the Government in the quick handling of troops and supplies. But surely there is no enterprise or efficiency that outrivals out-rivals the dispatch and thoroughness with which American railways have rallied ral-lied to the common cause in the last six months. With the work of actual construction under way the next step way the appointment ap-pointment of inspectors to keep tabs on the contractors, the quality of work they were, doing and the kind of material mate-rial supplied. There have been some little squabbles between the contractors and Government agents, it Is true; but they have been ironed out smoothly under the direction of the master builder in his F street office in Washington. There have been tales of graft, too, but they have been found to be false. As a matter of fact, this stupendous program pro-gram lias been carried through without a breath of scandal attaching to the enterprise en-terprise or to any individual part of it. Look at the wonders accomplished! Louisville's camp was completed in sixty days. It represents the banner camp in point of quick construction. The Yaphunk camp on Long Island, represents the opposite extreme. Work there was delayed first of all on account of the freight congestion centering about the metropolis of the western hemisphere. Labor troubles, too, had their part in delaying the work at Yap-hank. Yap-hank. But Yaphank is ready and will take care of its 40.000 or more recruits along with the other cantonments. From an economic standpoint the most remarkable featvro of the construction con-struction of these- sixteen cantonments is the fact that they have been built at an approximate cost complete of 51 3S for every man going into camp. Under the prevailing conditions of the labor and building material markets this is considered an extraordinary achievement. achieve-ment. Just what work was entailed ia shown in the case of Camp Devens, at Ayer. Mass. This was a $6,000,000 contract con-tract and required a working force of 9000 men whose weekly payroll amounted to $400,000. Here is what they did at Camp Devens: Dev-ens: Every day fifty carloads of materials ma-terials were unloaded and 30,000.000 feet of lumber were used in the buildings. build-ings. One building was finished every forty minutes during the two months. According to contract, G22 buildings were to be completed by September 1. Not only were they done on scheduled time, but 324 other buildings completed by that date. A complete water system was laid down with twenty miles of pipe and a drainage system with twenty more miles of pipe. And Camp Dev-ens's Dev-ens's accomplishments are being duplicated dupli-cated or have already been duplicated in fifteen other "little Romes" that have sprung up almost over night with a mushroom persistence that outrivals the building of the Eldorado cities of the West and Northwest in the California Cali-fornia and Klondike furies. Their Future Use What about the cantonments after the war? They will hardly be abandoned. aban-doned. They hHve not been put up Aim-sily Aim-sily out of cheap-rate materials that aro apt to rot away in a short time. Instead, In-stead, they have been constructed in such a way that they will last long after the European conflict is abated. It may be that universal military training will be adopted in this country as a safeguard safe-guard for future peace, and in that event the cantonments will serve for many years as the rendezvous of the youth of the nation. But whether tho cantonments endure for five or fifty years the name of Colonel Col-onel Isaac Littell will endure permanently permanent-ly as the "master builder" who in a great emergency answered the call of his nation and "put across" the most marvelous building enterprise that tho world has yet known. Had you ever heard of him before this summer? Likely not, for he was just ' an obscure army officer in the ranks, doing his bit an an honest matter-of-fact citizen-soldier. Rut now hy tho circumstances that led him into his real place in life he has been lifted out of the ranks and t tikes his place with other great Americans who have "made good." |