Bennett Champ Clark letter to Champ Clark - January, 27 1918
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SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS [January 27, 1918] Dear Little Things: Well here’s another week gone. We’re now almost a third through with this course and I’ll be glad when we are all through and I get back with my own men again. I think I have made very good grades in everything except topography and Field Fortification in both of which subjects we have an incompetent young cub just out of West Point who don’t know how to teach, nobody has done any good under him. I have been watching
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with much interest the developments in Washington during the past week as between Baker and Chamberlain I said “Go it husband, go it bear” although I think Chamberlain has the best of the argument on the facts. But he has always been so subservient to the regular Army that I had it in for him on that score. The letter that he read which created such a sensation was evidently from a man whose boy died at Camp Doniphan [Oklahoma]. But, please note , no National Guard officer had anything
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to do with that base hospital. Thats the same base hospital that you protested about in November. And I know of some other things that happened there too. This school is going to be a big thing in the long run for the Guard. The regulars overplayed their hands. Its got us all acquainted, and I have been talking to the boys with an idea of organizing them into an association before we leave here. I’m glad you have been keeping out of the rumpus down there and letting
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the rest of them fight it out. I’m glad to see them fighting but there is at present no necessity for your to mix in. Just let them go. Baker is already discredited and McAdoo badly damaged. As soon as they turn their guns on Mac he’ll go too. I enclose an editorial from the San Antonio Light which I think will please and amuse you. What the dickens does Jim want to be getting into the Army for? If he wants to do war work he’d a great deal better do it in
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a civilian capacity than in one of the noncombatant arms of the service. I wouldn’t want to wear a uniform without the crossed arms of a fighting branch on the collar. I feel as well as I ever did in my life except that I’m beginning to get heavy again because I don’t lead as active a life as I did in camp. However I feel fine, sleep well, and have a grand appetite. This war is going to peter out shortly. I thought so sometime ago and now I’m certain of it. All hands are
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making big talk now to try to bluff the other fellow but peace is a matter of a few months. I hope you are all well and happy. I’d like very much to see you all and be with you. Take good care of yourselves, dear Little Things With lots of love, I am your devoted son, Bennett
Details
Title | Bennett Champ Clark letter to Champ Clark - January, 27 1918 |
Creator | Clark, Bennett Champ |
Source | Clark, Bennett Champ. Letter to Champ Clark. 27 January 1918. Clark, Champ (1850-1921) and Bennett Champ (1890-1954), Papers, 1853-1973. C0666. The State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, MO. |
Description | In this January 27, 1918 letter to his father Champ Clark, Bennett Clark discussed Officer training school in San Antonio, Texas and the political climate in Washington. Champ Clark, a long-time resident of Bowling Green, Missouri, was a politician in the Democratic Party. He served as a representative of Missouri from 1893 to 1895 and from 1897 to 1921. From 1911 to 1919 he served as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Bennett Clark served as a Colonel during World War I and was Missouri State Senator from 1933 to 1945. |
Subject LCSH | Clark, Champ, 1850-1921; World War, 1914-1918--Political aspects--United States; Clark, Bennett Champ, 1890-1954; Missouri. National Guard; United States. Army--Physical training |
Subject Local | WWI; World War I |
Site Accession Number | C0666 |
Contributing Institution | The State Historical Society of Missouri |
Copy Request | Transmission or reproduction of items on these pages beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the State Historical Society of Missouri: 1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, Missouri, 65201-7298. (573) 882-7083. |
Rights | The text and images contained in this collection are intended for research and educational use only. Duplication of any of these images for commercial use without express written consent is expressly prohibited. |
Date Original | January 27, 1918 |
Language | English |