"Father of Plattsburg"

To Manhattan last week came Governor General Leonard Wood of the Philippine Islands. From Manhattan last week went 1,200 U. S. citizens, bound for the Citizens' Military Training Camp at Plattsburg, N. Y. Had General Wood visited the station to watch their departure, these citizen-soldiers might well have saluted him. For he is the father of the Plattsburg Idea; it is the result of his work that 53 Plattsburg-like camps will this summer give military training to some 35,000 men.

It was in 1913, when General Wood was Chief of Staff, that he first conceived the training camp idea. At that time the world was at peace, the U. S. Regular Army had dropped to some 25,000 men. The first two camps (one at Monterey, Calif., the other at Gettysburg, had a combined enrollment of 222 men, all college students. In 1914 there were 667 enrollments in four camps; in 1915 the number reached 1,066. In 1915 General Wood opened the Plattsburg Camp and extended the idea to include not only college boys but also businessmen. Plattsburg quickly became the centre of the military training camp idea, had more than 27,000 enrollments in 1917 before the U. S. entered the World War. With the U. S. actually in the conflict, Plattsburg-type camps gave thousands of men the training that fitted them for their commissions.

It is estimated that two-thirds of the line officers in the U. S. World War forces received their training through the Plattsburg Idea.

In 1920 Congress reorganized the military training camp system as part of the National Defense Act. Enrollments for the seven years following were: YEAR ENROLLMENT

1921 10,681 1922 22,855 1923 25,244 1924 33,961 1925 33,681 1926 34,194 1927 35,000*

* Estimated attendance for 1927.