100 years ago in The Saratogian
Tuesday, Dec. 18, 1917
Efforts to bring Saratoga County’s draftees home from Massachusetts for Christmas hit another snag tonight when the U.S. military limits the number of troops who can go on holiday furloughs.
Soldiers at Camp Devens in Ayer, along with friends and family, have been clamoring for a Christmas furlough with paid transportation since arrangements were made earlier this month to transport 3,600 Boston draftees home for the holiday on the Boston & Maine railroad.
While the troops theoretically have a four-day furlough, that means little to soldiers from New York State unless they can secure train transportation from Ayer. Unfortunately, the federal War Department sees holiday transportation as a waste of trains that can be used for more strategic purposes during the war against Germany.
The last hope for holiday reunions seems to be snuffed out tonight. A directive from Washington slashes the number of troops eligible for holiday furloughs from 80% of each regiment to only 5%.
“The reason given for the order is that the leaving of a large number of men upsets camp discipline and causes congestion of the railroads,” The Saratogian reports.
Saratoga County’s draftees have been assigned to companies H and L of the 303rd U.S. Infantry. Under the latest orders, no more than seven men from each company may go home for Christmas, presuming that they can secure transportation.
“Gloom prevails in camp tonight,” an Ayer correspondent writes.
“The people of the nation will bear this privation, I know, in the same fine spirit which has characterized every previous response, when it is understood the relieving of the railroads from this burden will enable them by so much to concentrate our energies and capacities for the transportation of our resources to the seabord and to the battle front in France,” Secretary of War Newton D. Baker says earlier today.
People’s forum
In today’s letter column, Arthur I. Bumstead warns the government not to go too far in restricting church services this holiday season for the sake of fuel preservation.
“The church is always ready, as it always has been, to do its bit,” Bumstead writes, “Let us not forget, however, that the support of a church and a part in its activity are one of the ways to be patriotic.
“Save fuel? Fine! But why the church first? Wouldn’t it be more consistent if the church organizations were the last to slow up on any of their activities ?... There are places of amusement. There are social clubs. Then there are the places of vice and corruption. Should not all of these slow up on their coal consumption first?”