Letter to General Enoch H. Crowder - July 16, 1918

Transcript

Camp Funston, Kansas. July 16th, 1918. Personal Dear General: Your letter of July 13th received. It is like the first shower after a long drouth and I am delighted to note the frank and cordial way in which you meet a statement of fact. If this spirit had been general I feel that we should be much stronger in our preparation today. Only too often when one states facts, comes back a labored effort at rebuttal. Heaven knows we are all Americans and want to win the war, and what I desired to bring to the attention of the Department was the real condition of the negro coming in. We lost the agricultural work in the region they come from. They would at least do something there, but to bring them here at considerable expense, clothe, pay and feed them, in other words, take care of them in every way, overhead charges probably equalling their pay; and 30% of them are fit for no kind of service for a long time. It seems expensive and a more or less useless procedure. We can, of course, give them medical attention and render them harmless to the general public through general treatment, but that is hardly the purpose of our cantonments. I understand very fully the conditions you are meeting. Of course, the whole thing is due to an ineffective, and I am afraid, careless medical examination. Many of these men are syphilitics. Many are old chronic gonorrhea cases. A detailed medical examination may be a little difficult and slow, but I believe that through such examination alone, will you be able to reduce the proportion of these cases. That was the Idea I had in suggesting holding the men locally until the surgeons could go over them and make the necessary tests. I handle them without undue difficulty here because I have two detention camps, one with a capacity of about 7,000 and the other with a capacity of 3,000. We send practically all new men (all negroes) to these camps for observation, general classification, inoculation and remedial treatment. Yours very truly, [signature illegible] Major General E. H. Crowder, Provost Marshal General, Washington, D.C. P.S. you must hire a [m.s. illegible: 1 wd] and couple medical examinations of [m.s. illegible: 1 wd] of men