Page:The history and achievements of the Fort Sheridan officers' training camps.djvu/32

 30 THE FORT SHERIDAN ASSOCIATION

personal correspondence with people throughout this country and France gave us large opportunities for varied service, including legal, medical, military and business advice, as well as constantly giving encouragement to men at the front and w^omen at home.

The spirit of our office, both in Chicago and elsew^here, has alw^ays been to deal very directly and considerately w^ith every opportunity that has come to us. We have tried to keep the personal relationship, believing that men and women w^ho have been in trouble because of the emergency of the Great War deserve the greatest amount of personal consideration and that it is the aggregate of such personal service that actually makes up the test of the Association's value.

In connection with our Home Service Department we organized a Women's Auxiliary in the City of Chicago first and afterwards extended branches throughout our whole district. The plan w^as to have occasional meetings of the mothers and wives of the men, at which time prominent speakers w^ould appear. The women v/ould have an opportunity to make acquaintance w^ith each other, to secure information about their husbands and sons in the service, and to get better acquainted w^ith the officers of the Association. No more inspiring sight was witnessed at home than the meet- ings held by the Women's Auxiliary of the Fort Sheridan Association. As many as a thousand were together at one time, and every speaker and visitor was struck by the appearance of courage, kindliness and hopefulness sho\VTi, and the mothers, wives and sisters of our men took a great deal of pride in the fact that they belonged to this membership. It will be one of the big, helpful memories of the war that they had so much in common and made so many real friends on occasions like this. Mrs. MacChesney and the Executive Manager both traveled throughout the State, as well as into Michigan, Wis- consin, Missouri, Colorado and Kansas on this work, and saw a large propor- tion of these auxiliaries in action.

It was discovered early in 1918 that a great injustice was being done officers with families who were in the field service. A ruling of the War Department provided that the allowances technically known as commutation of quarters, heat and light would be withheld wherever the Government fur- nishes tents or similar accommodations. The effect of this ruling was to put a premium on service at a station such as Washington, at the expense of the men serving in the field.

The Association, early in March, began a campaign of enlightenment through the entire national press. Senator Chamberlain introduced a bill providing

"that during the present emergency every commissioned officer of the Army of the United States, on duty in the field, or on active duty without the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, who maintains a place of abode for a wife, child or dependent parent, shall be furnished at the place where he maintains such place of abode, without regard to per- sonal quarters furnished him elsewhere, the number of rooms prescribed by the Act of March 2, 1907, to be occupied by, and only so long as occupied by, said wife, chUd or dependent parent; and in case such

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